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Does human capital contribute to economic growth in Mauritius?	[ "Human capital", "Mauritius", "Economic growth", "Composite human capital index", "Vector error correction modelling (VECM)" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The endogenous growth theory stipulates that the rate of technological progress and subsequently the long rate of economic growth can be influenced by economic factors. This is founded on the precinct that technological change takes place through innovations in the form of new processes, products and institutions. It is acknowledged that human capital is a strong enabler to such innovations, and empirical studies analyzing the impact of human capital on economic growth have mainly focused on education and health as proxies of human capital. From a theoretical perspective, human capital is, therefore, a key component in explaining economic growth, as it increases output through various channels. It increases the productivity of labour and the demand for labour, resulting in a rise in output (Bergheim, 2005). This in turn has a positive impact on incomes.\n2. Related literature: Human capital can be defined as a set of knowledge, abilities and skills, used in activities, processes and services that contribute to stimulate economic growth. In the economic literature, human capital is accounted for differently in the various theories of economic growth. Solow (1956) and Swan (1956) developed the neoclassical growth theory, whereby the output of an economy grows as a result of increasing input of capital and labour. Under such a scenario, the economy would suffer from the law of diminishing returns and the only way to dampen the effects of diminishing returns and grow such an economy was through an infusion of technological progress. It was assumed that the rate of technological progress was determined by a scientific process that is separate from and independent of economic forces. Neoclassical theory, thus, implies that economists can take the long-run growth rate as exogenously given from the economic system and ignores human capital (Awel, 2013).\n3. Methodology and analysis: This paper investigates the relationship between human capital and economic growth in Mauritius, with capital and labour as other control variables. We use annual data spanning the period 1970 to 2011 to build and use a multi-dimensional composite human capital index that allows health, education and nutrition to be aggregated and to be used to investigate the relationship among the various variables in a dynamic vector error correction modelling (VECM) framework. We attempt to verify whether the hypothesis that economic growth in Mauritius follows the endogenous growth model holds true.\n4. Research findings: Overall, the outcomes of this study show that the coefficients attached to the different inputs of the growth function have their theoretical signs and are significant. There is therefore a significant long-run relationship between output, capital stock, labour and human capital (Table I).\n5. Discussion: A reasonable stock of human capital is necessary to enable a country to reap the benefits of its innovation efforts. It has often been proclaimed and hypothesized that it is through high, consistent and equitable investment in social welfare and human capital development that Mauritius has been able to exploit international market opportunities and sustain its economic development. This paper quantitatively investigates the relationship between human capital and economic growth in Mauritius, within an endogenous growth framework with capital and labour as other control variables. We use annual data spanning the period 1970 to 2011 to build and use a composite human capital index including health, education and nutrition to investigate the nexus in a dynamic VECM framework.\n6. Conclusion: We attempted to fully investigate the human capital-economic growth nexus for Mauritius within a VECM framework. The main findings of this study are that human capital is key to the short- and long-run economic growth of Mauritius. In contrast to many of previous studies investigating the above nexus where human capital is typically treated as a homogeneous concept, we use an aggregate index of education, health and nutrition to proxy human capital. We found a bi-directional relationship between human capital and economic growth. From a policy perspective, the confirmation of the feedback hypothesis provides credence to increasing human capital formation and its subsequent positive impact on economic growth. Given its importance to the economy, any shock or sub-optimum development in the human capital stock could harm economic growth. It is thus suggested that Mauritius judiciously increases the individual constituents in the mix of variables constituting the human capital index to promote to economic growth ceteris paribus.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Real gross domestic product (GDP) growth for Mauritius has averaged more than 5 per cent since 1970 and GDP per capita has increased more than tenfold between 1970 and 2012, from less than $500 to more than $9,000. It has often been reported that human capital, along with other growth enablers, has played an important role in this development. The purpose of this paper is to study this nexus.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A human capital augmented Cobb-Douglas production function is used, where output is also a function of capital and labour. One of the innovations of the present paper is the use of a composite index to proxy human capital. The authors investigate the impact of human capital on economic growth in a dynamic vector error correction modelling (VECM) framework.\nFindings: The general results here show that stock, labour and human capital are all significant growth determinants, with human capital having a long-run output elasticity of 0.36. The VECM results generally validated the long-run output elasticity, although a relatively lower elasticity of 0.1 is obtained. Both sets of results tend to point to the fact that human capital has significantly contributed to economic growth in Mauritius.\nResearch limitations/implications: The current paper paves the way for future work, which can build on the composite HCI developed here and aggregate it with relevant variables representing tertiary education and training, to better analyze and further understand the role of human capital on economic growth in Mauritius.\nOriginality/value: Here, the authors posit that human capital is an aggregate of health, education and nutrition, and the authors use a composite index along with other contributing factors to study its impact on economic growth, within a VECM framework.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A survey on the Internet of Things security: State-of-art, architecture, issues and countermeasures	[ "Attacks", "Internet of things", "Security", "IoT layered architecture" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Since its introduction in the year 1999 by Kevin Ashton, IoT has turned out to be one of the most common buzzwords we come across in the research community these days. There is no standard definition as of now for the IoT because it is such an evolving field that we actually do not know what things will be covered under it in the near future. One of the most common definitions accepted widely for the Internet of Things (IoT) can be as: \"Collection of 'things' embedded with electronics, software, sensors and actuators and connected via the internet to collect and exchange data with each other\"(Yang et al., 2017). The IoT devices are equipped with sensors and processing power that enable them to be deployed in many environments. The impact of human role has been minimized in the IoT. IoT can possibly cover all the fields of research nowadays but we majorly focus on the areas of sensing, heterogeneous access, information processing, applications and services and additional components such as security and privacy. The IoT connects objects from different environments into a single large network based on the Internet Protocol and is the basis for the development of the so-called smart environments, such as smart houses, factories or even cities. The IoT can be envisioned as set of interconnected objects that allows people and things to be connected anytime, Anyplace, with Anything and Anyone, using Any path/network and Any service as shown in Figure 1 (Balte et al., 2015). The composition of IoT consists of various elements:\n2. Need for additional survey article: The survey paper - \"Survey on the Internet of Things Security: State-of-Art, Architecture, Issues and Countermeasures\" - is quite novel, comprehensive and detailed in its approach as compared to other survey articles published in the recent past because:\n3. Various challenges in iot development: The various challenges in the development of IoT are discussed as follows (Lee and Lee, 2015).\n4. Security architecture: Generally, the security architecture of IoT is divided into three layers as shown in Figure 2 (Zhao and Ge, 2013), (Suo et al., 2012). The various layers are discussed as follows.\n5. Security principles: The main security principles for IoT include the following (Leo et al., 2014).\n6. Security issues at each layer: IoT generally consists of three layers, namely, perception, network and an application layer that plays an important role in IoT. All of these layers are responsible for performing certain tasks and need to incorporate with each other for the proper working of IoT. As more and more devices get connected to IoT, there are possibly the greater chances of security threats and attacks at each layer. Taxonomy of security attacks in IoT has been developed by the researchers for better understanding of various security risks in IoT and for incorporating the better security countermeasures(Hossain et al., 2015), (Nawir et al., 2016), (Alaba et al., 2017). Table IV summarizes the different types of attacks that occur at different layers of IoT and their possible solutions to mitigate such types of attacks to make IoT more secure and reliable.\n7. Countermeasures to prevent the attacks: Lot of work has been done in the area of IoT security issues and countermeasures by the prominent authors in the recent past. It is possibly one of the hot research areas of the twenty-first century. Various security countermeasures were identified by reviewing the various journals and conferences. Table V summarizes various security countermeasures and their existing proposed scheme, including the advantages and disadvantages of these methods.\n8. Open questions, lessons learned and future research directions: 8.1 Open questions\n9. Conclusion: Research in the field of security in the IoT is still in the conceptual stage, which needs to be explored further to develop innovative, new security solutions and applications. In recent years, the research on this topic is very active, as the issue of security in IoT must be considered first during the development of IoT. In this survey paper, we presented an extensive and comprehensive survey on the current state of the art in the IoT security along with the layered security stack of IoT. In addition, the various types of attacks that occur at the three layers of IoT security protocol stack - perception, networking and application layers - are elicited and explained in detail along with the possible solutions that can be immediately applied at each layer. Futhermore, the countermeasures at each layer along with the prospective advantages and disadvantages are proposed so that the researchers can get a clue in implementing the particular strategy.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Internet of Things (IoT) is a challenging and promising system concept and requires new types of architectures and protocols compared to traditional networks. Security is an extremely critical issue for IoT that needs to be addressed efficiently. Heterogeneity being an inherent characteristic of IoT gives rise to many security issues that need to be addressed from the perspective of new architectures such as software defined networking, cryptographic algorithms, federated cloud and edge computing.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper analyzes the IoT security from three perspectives: three-layer security architecture, security issues at each layer and security countermeasures. The paper reviews the current state of the art, protocols and technologies used at each layer of security architecture. The paper focuses on various types of attacks that occur at each layer and provides the various approaches used to countermeasure such type of attacks.\nFindings: The data exchanged between the different devices or applications in the IoT environment are quite sensitive; thus, the security aspect plays a key role and needs to be addressed efficiently. This indicates the urgent needs of developing general security policy and standards for IoT products. The efficient security architecture needs to be imposed but not at the cost of efficiency and scalability. The paper provides empirical insights about how the different security threats at each layer can be mitigated.\nOriginality/value: The paper fulfills the need of having an extensive and elaborated survey in the field of IoT security, along with suggesting the countermeasures to mitigate the threats occurring at each level of IoT protocol stack.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Equilibrium liquidity premia of private equity funds	[ "Liquidity premium", "Private equity funds", "G12", "G23", "G24" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: One of the cornerstones of traditional asset-pricing theory is the assumption that all assets are liquid and readily tradable by economic agents. In reality, however, many important classes of assets are not completely liquid, and investors often cannot buy and sell them immediately. An important example is private equity fund investment. Stakes in private equity funds are highly illiquid in the sense there is no organized and liquid market where funds can be traded at low costs. Investors who have private equity exposure and need immediate liquidity must sell their interests in private equity funds on the secondary private equity markets, which is typically only possible at large discounts to the funds' current net asset values (NAVs; Kleymenova et al., 2012). To compensate investors for the potentially large costs they have to incur in case they have to sell their positions, investors will require funds to earn a liquidity premium. Understanding the magnitude and determinants of this premium is still a largely unresolved issue in the private equity literature and is the main goal of this paper.\n1. The model: This section develops the model used to derive liquidity premia of private equity funds. For modeling convenience, the paper chooses to work in a continuous-time framework. It is assumed that all random variables introduced in the following are defined on a probability space (O,F,), and that all random variables indexed by t are measurable with respect to the filtration {F\n2. Equilibrium liquidity premium: This section derives liquidity premia of private equity funds in an equilibrium setting. The derivation starts with the definition of the equilibrium setting. After this, the derivation of the liquidity premia based on risk-neutral valuation techniques is presented.\n3. Numerical analysis: This section illustrates the model through a numerical example and discusses its implications. The analysis starts with the parameter calibration. Baseline parameters are chosen such that they correspond to an investment into a typical buyout fund.\n4. Summary and research implications: Liquidity is the single key characteristic that distinguishes private equity as an asset class from traditional traded stocks or bonds. A common feature of private equity funds is that the investment capital is committed for at least 10 years to the fund, with no or very limited possibilities to take the money out prematurely. The secondary market for private equity investments is small in size and discounts tend to be large. Taking into account these special features, the theoretical model developed in this paper predicts that mainly investors with long investment horizons and a low probability of facing liquidity shocks invest in private equity funds, i.e. there is a liquidity clientele effect in private equity. From a theoretical point of view, one could thus expect the illiquidity premium in private equity to be low or moderate despite the high illiquidity of the asset class. This theoretical prediction is also confirmed by the numerical analysis of the paper. Based on the calibrated model, the baseline liquidity premium of buyout fund is moderate and amounts to 0.91 per cent per annum. The practical implication of this result is that investors should not expect to earn large liquidity premia when investing into private equity funds.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel theory of the equilibrium liquidity premia of private equity funds and explore its asset-pricing implications.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The theory assumes that investors are exposed to the risk of facing surprise liquidity shocks, which upon arrival force them to liquidate their positions on the secondary private equity markets at some stochastic discount to the fund's current net asset value. Assuming a competitive market where fund managers capture all rents from managing the funds and investors just break even on their positions, liquidity premia are defined as the risk-adjusted excess returns that fund managers must generate to compensate investors for the costs of illiquidity. The model is calibrated to data of buyout funds and is illustrated by using numerical simulations.\nFindings: The model analysis generates a rich set of novel implications. These concern how fund characteristics affect liquidity premia, the role of the investors' propensities of liquidity shocks in determining liquidity premia and the impact of market conditions and cycles on liquidity premia.\nOriginality/value: This is the first paper that derives liquidity premia of private equity funds in an equilibrium setting in which investors are exposed to the risk of facing surprise liquidity shocks.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
QuikScan formatting as a means to improve text recall	[ "QuikScan", "Signalling devices", "Information design", "Literacy", "Text recall", "Summaries", "Reading", "Reading aids" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: At least as far back as the seventeenth century, readers have complained about the super-abundance of text (Robert Burton, Barnaby Rich, quoted in Carr, 2010). Francis Bacon (1625) went further and articulated a reading strategy to address this problem: While some books should be read thoroughly, others should be read lightly or only read in parts. More productive reading can also come about through better design, and indeed the history of literacy has been marked by a long succession of design innovations of text (Kilgour, 1998).What about the present and what about the future? There is an increasing concern that many readers - especially knowledge workers - experience information overload (Eppler and Mengis, 2004; Wurman, 1989) and do not have time to read everything they think necessary to keep up with their job duties and areas of expertise (Menzies and Newson, 2007). For these individuals, browsing texts - a combination of scanning, skimming, and pausing for nuggets of information - has become a professional survival skill (Liu, 2005; Nicholas et al., 2008).A related phenomenon is that online reading and the hypertextual nature of the web may reduce the willingness of readers to engage in the sustained reading of extended texts (Connolly, 2010; Nielsen, 2008). Moreover, persuasive arguments have been made that erosion of attention is reducing our collective ability to engage in deep reading (Carr, 2010; Connolly, 2010).One response to these changes in literacy is to create and publish a greater number of shorter texts. Indeed, publishers have been initiating publishing programs restricted to brief books (Amazon Singles, Springer Briefs, and Byliner.com). But assuming that many complex topics and issues continue to demand detailed textual exposition and that such texts must often be fully read and understood, we can perhaps look to innovative text design to counteract the resistance to sustained reading and, in so doing, to reduce the motivation on the part of publishers to ask authors to write shorter documents. Ideally we can encourage the use of longer documents by helping readers retain more for each hour of reading time they invest and by better supporting selective reading within a text.Innovations in text design\nExperiment 1: This study was conducted with a different audience and study text than the studies by Zhou (2008) and van der Meij and van der Meij (2011). In the present study all the participants were Indonesian students, and all experimental materials as well as the participants' responses were written in their native language, Bahasa. Just as in Zhou's (2008) study, the text came from a domain outside of the participants' field of study.The most important difference between the two earlier studies and this study is that the QuikScanned text has a more complex heading structure, an introductory overview, and three large graphics. In relation to the number of words in the text, there are substantially more headings in the Bahasa text than in the two previous studies. Because the Bahasa text has more headings and an introductory overview, it exhibits a more complex signaling environment. Because it has more headings, an overview, and graphics, it a more realistic text, more similar to typical texts that convey technical and professional information. A realistic study text is important because QuikScan is intended for use in professional settings.Experiment 1 consisted of two conditions. A control group read the non-QuikScanned text. An experimental group read the QuikScanned text. In both conditions the original abstract from the text was included. There are two research questions:* Question 1: Is there a difference between conditions on measures of text perception? It is an open question whether the QuikScan text yields more positive appraisals of text quality measures (i.e. comprehensibility, structure, and interest) than the non-QuikScan text. In Zhou's (2008) study the participants expressed favorable opinions about QuikScan, but only the experimental group was questioned. van der Meij and van der Meij (2011), who directly compared the non-QuikScan and QuikScan conditions, found no differences between participants in their appraisals of text quality.* Question 2: Is there a difference between conditions on measures of text recall? The prediction is tested that for the more realistic and complex document the QuikScan condition yields a higher score on text recall.Method\nExperiment 2: To further examine the claim that QuikScan enhances text recall, a second experiment was conducted. Experiment 2 employed the same two conditions: a non-QuikScan control group and a QuikScan group. Moreover, the same text was used with a similar audience.The main difference between the two experiments concerns the text recall measure. Experiment 1 assessed text recall through open-ended questions. In Experiment 2 participants were asked to write a summary. More so than answers to an experimenter's questions, such summaries measure topic structure representations. They measure how well participants remember the main themes in the text (e.g. Brooks et al., 1983; Hyona and Lorch, 2004; Lorch et al., 1993; Lorch et al., 2001; Sanchez et al., 2001). The participants were also asked to answer four open-ended questions from the recall test of Experiment 1. This measure was used to roughly compare the outcomes of the two studies, and to examine the relationship between the two measures of recall. Perceptions of text quality were no longer measured. The central research question in Experiment 2 is: Is there a difference between conditions on measures of text recall?Method\nGeneral discussion: This section consists of two parts. First we explain how a new and comprehensive theory of signaling called SARA (Lemarie et al., 2008) - Signaling that is Available, Relevant, and Accessible - can lead to more sophisticated empirical research on the functionality of QuikScan's signaling devices. Then we propose extending the study of QuikScan by through naturalistic studies that test all the goals that QuikScan was designed to achieve.QuikScan and SARA signaling theory\nConclusion: Even if new studies confirm the claims that QuikScan benefits reading in regard to text recall, navigation, and support for selective reading, there remains the large gap between successful innovation and adoption: Many beneficial innovations never take hold. Structured abstracts align closely with the familiar practice of employing abstracts at the beginning of journal articles and structured abstracts require only a small amount of extra effort and a very small increase in the size of the document. In contrast, QuikScan requires a much larger effort in regard to text summarization and document formatting and significantly increases document length. However, while QuikScan requires more extensive modifications to documents than structured abstracts, it offers a wider range of benefits. In addition to improving comprehension and recall, QuikScan supports selective reading of a document at a fine level of granularity.These benefits may not be sufficient to persuade the publishers of thousands of academic journals and similar documents to adopt QuikScan, but it might be sufficient to motivate a presentation of QuikScan documents in certain settings. For example, if a particular journal article was required reading in a medical school curriculum, the school might obtain the original word processing file (plus copyright permission) from the publisher of the journal, include QuikScan in the document, and make it available to students. A textbook publisher hoping to enter a lucrative but competitive niche in the education marketplace might do likewise (especially if it were an eTextbook) to provide a competitive advantage.Corporations and other organizations might employ editors to QuikScan high-value corporate documents. When QuikScan was initially envisioned, its main purpose was to improve the effectiveness of business meetings in which a document was the focus of discussion (Zhou and Farkas, 2006). Because attendees often fail to read or carefully read documents in advance of meetings, QuikScan was intended to allow these attendees to participate meaningfully in the discussion because they could both read the summaries and scan to the relevant sections of the full documents. This use of QuikScan, while never empirically tested, remains compelling.Finally, we should keep in mind that the key features of QuikScan might be carried into newer and better designs and that technology can potentially reduce the extra effort entailed in creating QuikScanned documents. Even now, very simple shortcut techniques in MS Word significantly ease the time spent in formatting the summaries. More could be done using MS Office's built-in programming language, Visual Basic for Applications. Furthermore, continuing advances in the computer science field of automated text summarization (a branch of computational linguistics) may greatly reduce the effort entailed in summarization. If societal changes are indeed reducing the time we have for reading and even our willingness to read extended texts and if we continue to assume that many societal issues demand detailed understanding, the benefits of QuikScan and other innovations that improve reading should be worth a significant amount of extra effort.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - QuikScan is an innovative text format that employs three prominent signaling devices - summaries, headings, and access cues - to make the reading of medium-to-long texts more productive. The experiments reported in this paper aim to examine the claim that QuikScan contributes to text recall.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In two consecutive experiments a QuikScanned text (experimental condition) was compared to a non-QuickScanned text (control condition). In Experiment one, 41 university students read the text and then answered ten open recall questions. In Experiment two, 58 university students read the text and then wrote a summary and answered four recall questions.\nFindings: - In Experiment one, a statistically significant overall effect on text recall favoring QuikScan was found. Detailed analyses revealed that QuikScan mainly affected the readers' responses to higher-order questions (d = 1.24). Experiment two showed that QuikScan led to significantly higher recall scores for the summaries. Just as in the first experiment, a strong effect on the higher-order questions was found (d = 1.27).\nResearch limitations/implications: - Further studies of QuikScan should include studies in naturalistic settings and should address selective reading and information navigation as well as text recall. SARA, a recent comprehensive theory of signaling, makes it possible to identify the individual functions of QuikScan's signaling devices and conduct revealing studies of QuikScan.\nPractical implications: - QuikScan and other innovations that improve the reading experience can potentially increase the willingness of readers to read longer documents.\nOriginality/value: - QuikScan provides a unique combination of signaling devices. It can facilitate access and enhance text comprehension.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A theory of planned behavior perspective on hiring Malaysians with disabilities	[ "Theory of planned behaviour", "Disabilities", "Hiring decisions", "Malaysians", "PLS" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Disability and poverty are dynamic, complex, and intricately linked phenomena (Mitra et al., 2011). Persons with disabilities (PWDs) are as such among the poorest of the poor in all societies. They constitute some 20 percent of the poorest people in Asia (United Nations, 2006). The appalling incidence of poverty among PWDs to date remains a long-standing global issue which could be closely linked to their exclusion from education, employment, and other economic and social opportunities. Kaye's (1998) study found that 38.7 percent of PWDs who do not work live in poverty compared to 15.1 percent of those who work at least some of the time. Clearly, employment can be an effective long-run measure to empower PWDs to be economically independent and eventually overcome poverty (Palmer-Mehta, 2013).\n2. PWDs and employment: There are over 650 million PWDs in the world, with about 400 million residing in the Asian and Pacific regions (United Nations, 2013). The exact number of PWDs in Malaysia is to date unknown. However, the official number for those who are registered with the Social Welfare Department of Malaysia is available and stands at 445,006 as of 2012. Given that the registration of PWDs in Malaysia is not mandatory but done on a voluntary basis, this figure is likely to be a conservative estimate of the number of PWDs in the country (Ang, 2012).\n3. The applicability of the TPB: The most widely researched models in consumer behavior are the theories of reasoned action (TRA) (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980; Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975) and TPB (Ajzen, 1985, 1991). The TPB is essentially an extension of the TRA. The latter was found to be inadequate in explaining behaviors that appeared to be not completely voluntary and not under control (Ajzen, 1991). Thus, a new variable known as perceived behavioral control was added to the model giving rise to the TPB.\n4. Hypotheses development: Within the TPB framework, this paper hypothesized that attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control may influence intention to hire PWDs. Ajzen (1991) and Kim and Hunter (1993) reported that attitude influences intention, while in turn, intention predicts behavior. Another study (e.g. Zanten, 2005) similarly established the strong correlation between attitude and intention. In the case of hiring decisions for Malaysians with disabilities, the employer must first have a favorable attitude toward hiring PWDs before this attitude can translate to intention to hire PWDs. Simply put, it is expected that having a favorable attitude toward hiring PWDs will increase an employer's intention to hire PWDs. Conversely, an unfavorable attitude toward hiring PWDs will decrease intention to hire a disabled person in the workplace. Thus, we advanced the following:\n5. Methodology: This section first discusses the profile of the respondents. Then, the measures employed in the survey instrument are presented. Finally, the data collection process is detailed.\n6. PLS data analysis and results: The research model was evaluated using PLS which is a variance-based approach to structural equation modeling (SEM) (Hair et al., 2014). Three aspects of PLS render it a fitting statistical tool for this study. First, PLS is well suited for analyzing predictive models with multiple-item constructs. Second, if appropriately applied, this method offers high efficiency in parameter estimation which is manifested in its greater statistical power than that of covariance-based SEM (Hair et al., 2014). It can also simultaneously test the measurement model and the structural model (Barclay et al., 1995; Hulland, 1999).\n7. Discussion: The current study led to several noteworthy findings. First, the data supported the relationships between subjective norm and perceived behavioral control with intention to hire PWDs. Interestingly, when compared to the other constructs (particularly perceived behavioral control) in the model, subjective norm made the strongest contribution to the variance in intention to hire Malaysians with disabilities. This finding is somewhat interesting as it runs contrary to previous findings on the TPB model. In reviewing 185 independent studies using the TPB, Armitage and Conner (2001) concluded that perceived behavioral control generally accounted for significant amounts of variance in intentions and behaviors. Whereas the subjective norm construct was said to be a weaker predictor of intention. Perhaps, in the case of making hiring decisions for PWDs in Malaysia, the collectivistic values of Malaysians are more likely to dictate intentions and behaviors when compared to other factors such as formal policies and guidelines on hiring PWDs. In other words, when Malaysians collectively believe that something needs to be done for PWDs, employers will tend to be more proactive in hiring disabled workers. But first, the non-disabled population must lay to rest their unfounded concerns about PWDs' ability to work and compete in the open market. Next, the maxim that employing PWDs is the way forward for the socio-economic development of the disabled population and ultimately that of the country should be generally subscribed to. Only then Malaysian companies are likely to hire PWDs. In this light, subjective norm concerning hiring PWDs can be regarded as a mechanism to drive the winds of change in the employment landscape for Malaysians with disabilities.\n8. Conclusion, limitations, and future research: Within the PLS-SEM framework, this paper endeavored to investigate the influence of attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control on managerial intention to hire Malaysians with disabilities. The data supported two of the three hypothesized linkages, suggesting that the TPB framework may require some modification in the context of hiring decisions for Malaysians with disabilities. At the practical level, enhanced knowledge in this area can help to develop public and organizational policies that can better promote and manage the careers of PWDs in Malaysia. Malaysians with disabilities who have jobs will no longer be perceived as a social burden but rather as active and equal participants in the economic development of the community and society at large.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The high unemployment rates among persons with disabilities (PWDs) is nothing new. Many people fail to recognize that the disabled population is a significant but largely untapped source of human resources. Prejudices and misconceptions about PWDs' ability to perform and compete in the open market are likely to be the cause. While the topic of PWDs' employment has been substantially studied, no known research has explored the applicability of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) in the context of hiring PWDs. In addressing the research gap, this paper details a preliminary study which examined the influence of attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control on managerial intention to hire Malaysians with disabilities. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were obtained via a survey on 200 employers representing private organizations in East Malaysia. To examine the hypothesized linkages within the TPB framework, the authors conducted PLS analysis. The authors also examined the measurement model using PLS.\nFindings: The results of the PLS analysis indicated that subjective norm and perceived behavioral control significantly predicted managerial intention to hire Malaysians with disabilities. Contrary to expectations, the data did not provide support for the influence of attitude toward hiring decisions for PWDs.\nResearch limitations/implications: Given the research approach, generalizing the findings must be done with caution. Longitudinal studies may provide further support to the results. Future studies can extend the TPB framework by examining other variables such as attributes of Malaysians with disabilities or those of hiring managers. Hiring behavior can also be included in the model to confirm if behavioral intention of hiring will evidently result in actual hiring of Malaysians with disabilities.\nPractical implications: This study found the TPB to have a predictive power in the area of hiring PWDs. Results obtained can serve as a basis for future works in this area. The study also offers implications for the development of public and organizational policies that can better promote and manage the careers of Malaysians with disabilities.\nSocial implications: An enhanced knowledge about the factors which can influence managerial intention to hire Malaysians with disabilities will help increase the employment of Malaysians with disabilities.\nOriginality/value: This study is a pioneering attempt to explore the applicability of the TPB within the domain of managerial intention to hire Malaysians with disabilities. The use of PLS in disability studies is also noteworthy.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
All that glitters is not gold: Maximizing the impact of executive assessment and development efforts	[ "Individual development", "Feedback", "Behaviour change", "Engagement", "Talent management", "Executive assessment" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Whether an organization's human capital strategy is focused on identifying high-potential talent among early career professionals, confirming the capabilities of mid-career leaders, or enhancing the readiness of executives at higher levels, it is clear that formal psychological and behavioral assessments have become standard practice today in organizations. Both popular practice texts (e.g. MacRae and Furnham, 2014; Paese et al., 2016; Scott and Reynolds, 2010; Silzer and Dowell, 2010; Stamoulis, 2009) and recent benchmark research and reviews of the field (e.g. Church and Rotolo, 2013; Church et al., 2015; Del Giudice et al., 2014; Silzer and Church, 2010; Sperry, 2013) have noted the increased importance of utilizing these tools. A 2015 study conducted with 80 top development organizations, for example, reported that 80 percent are actively using assessments today (Church et al., 2015). Of this group, 92 percent are assessing their senior executive populations, and 81 percent are doing the same with their high potentials lower in the organization. Moreover, the research noted a significant positive relationship between the use of formal assessments and the maturity level of the organizations' high-potential talent management programs. Those organizations with transparent or business-integrated processes were twice as likely (87 percent) to utilize multiple assessments compared with those in who were inconsistent or reactive (43 percent).\n1. Case background: Since 2010 PepsiCo has been successfully using a multi-trait multi-method (MTMM) assessment approach to identify and develop high potentials across multiple tiers in the organization (e.g. the LeAD program described in Church and Silzer, 2014; Church and Rotolo, 2016). The organization follows a strategic process for assessing and developing leaders derived from classic OD data-feedback methods (e.g. Burke, 1982, 2011; Nadler, 1977; Waclawski and Church, 2002) starting with the talent strategy and criteria required for success, followed by the core stages of: conducting assessments, delivering individual feedback, building custom development plans, and supporting and enabling individuals to take action against those plans. The intent of the process is improved leadership capability and behavior change that leads ultimately to enhanced performance and bench for future roles (Figure 1).\n2. Core program metrics and outcomes: With respect to program metrics and outcomes in this area, we examined several different variables including target participation rates, relationships between assessment scores and performance and potential ratings, and level of differentiation provided by the results on key talent management outcomes.\n3. Additional follow-up measures and data gathered: While these findings are important indicators of success of the program, they do not provide visibility into the mechanisms for individual development and change, i.e., answering the question why have leaders improved their performance? Identifying these more nuanced insights and learnings from SLDC are critical for informing other assessment and development programs within PepsiCo, and may be relevant for other organizations as well. Thus, part of the formal evaluation effort also included a multi-pronged approach focused on better understanding individual development and behavioral change, and the mechanisms involved in driving that change. This included the following measures:\n4. Key learnings for maximizing impact: In exploring the data further, some key learnings emerged. These are described below and align to the four stages described in the assessment and development process (i.e. assessment, feedback, development planning, and implementation) at the beginning of the paper.\n5. Limitations and future research: The following applied case study presents outcomes, key learnings, and insights identified from a multi-year senior executive assessment and development program implemented in a large global consumer products organization. There are relatively few examples of this nature in the literature that practitioners can use to support the efficacy of their programs, and as such we hope this paper will be helpful in this regard. It is important to recognize, however, the limitations inherent in the present case. These include the use of a single organizational setting, a targeted intervention aimed at a specific population and not the entire organization, and the use of internal practitioners to both lead and evaluate the process.\n6. Summary: In today's business environment, the war for talent is as important as ever. As companies increase the focus on developing their leadership pipelines they are adopting comprehensive and rigorous assessment and development efforts as a competitive advantage. These efforts are aimed at identifying future potential and closing key capability gaps needed to drive business growth. Although there is a significant body of knowledge regarding the design and implementation of such systems, there is limited data and case material available on the impact of these programs at senior levels in organizations. This paper contributes to the literature by demonstrating that such programs can be very effective, as well as suggesting some of the mechanisms by which they might work.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Formal assessment and development of executives have become standard practices in organizations. There is a need, however, to determine what levers are available to maximize the impact and return on investment of initiatives. The purpose of this paper is to present outcomes and learnings from a multi-method approach to evaluating behavior change following the implementation of PepsiCo's Senior Leader Development Center, a comprehensive process designed to accelerate capability at the executive level.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Learnings are presented based on analyses from three independent data sources collected throughout the 18-month program: behavioral change ratings from managers, direct reports, and peers via a 360 survey; attitudinal measures from participants' post-program completion; and third-party observations by an internal facilitator.\nFindings: Overall, findings indicate that while program rigor and content do matter as baseline components, principles of participant engagement and commitment emerged as most essential to delivering programs with sustained impact.\nResearch limitations/implications: This case is based on leaders in a high-touch multi-trait multi-method assessment and development program in one organization. Additional research is needed to explore in other settings.\nPractical implications: Results and implications are organized by each of the four key stages of the assessment and development process: conduct data-based assessments, deliver feedback and insights, build the development plan, and take action to implement the plan. Findings and recommendations for practice regarding each stage are discussed.\nOriginality/value: Few case studies or applied research exist that focus on the execution and outcomes associated with senior executive assessment and development programs in major corporations. This paper offers findings regarding the overall impact of such a program and key learnings from its sustained effort in a complex multi-national organization. The discussion and implications in this paper may directly influence how other organizations design and manage future talent management interventions with similar types of senior-level populations.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Evaluating coaching's effect: competencies, career mobility and retention	[ "Evaluation", "Competencies", "360 assessment", "Leadership coaching" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Leaders in the healthcare industry will need to develop interpersonal and emotional intelligence competencies in order to successfully operate increasingly complex organizations (Henochowicz and Hetherington, 2006). There is now widespread recognition that effective leadership by healthcare professionals is essential in modern healthcare settings. The major factor underpinning this is the drive to improve the quality of healthcare (Kumar, 2013). Challenges associated with leading a $1.7 trillion industry have created a need for strong leaders at all levels in healthcare organizations (McAlearney, 2006). In the last decade, executive coaching combined with 360 feedback has been one of the fastest growing executive development options within global companies (Goldsmith et al., 2000; Judge and Cowell, 1997).\nLeadership coaching: Coaching is the process of equipping people with the tools, knowledge, and opportunities they need to develop themselves and become more effective (Peterson and Hicks, 1996). Leadership coaching is a systematic process typically directed at fostering the ongoing self-directed learning and personal growth of the coachee (Stober and Grant, 2006). Kilburg (1996) defines coaching as a helping relationship formed between a client who has managerial authority and responsibility in an organization and a consultant who uses a wide variety of behavioral techniques and methods to help the client achieve a mutually identified set of goals. These goals most often are focussed on competencies related to communication, adaptive leadership styles, and relationship-oriented behaviors (Kilburg, 1996). In a study done by Manchester Incorporated, an almost 6:1 return on investment for executive coaching was demonstrated. Improvements in productivity, quality, organizational strength, retention, customer service, and bottom-line profitability were noted (McNally and Lukens, 2006). Supplementing these findings, Lewis-Duarte and Bligh (2012) indicated that the popularity of leadership coaching is primarily due to its perceived positive impact on workplace performance, leadership skills, change management, emotional intelligence, and work-life balance (Lewis-Duarte and Bligh, 2012). Furthermore, leadership coaching provides individuals with an opportunity to incorporate and apply feedback on workplace practices. Olivero et al. (1997) state that recipients of coaching, experience a safe and personalized environment in which practice and feedback can take place. A previous meta-analysis evaluated the effects of individual leadership coaching reporting individuals who received consultation from an executive coach improved more than their counterparts who were not engaged in leadership coaching (Smither et al., 2005). Outcomes of leadership coaching linked to the business, such as retention, have only been examined in 4 percent of studies to-date (Ely et al., 2010).\nCoaching program: \"Group coaching\" refers to the practice of a coach working with multiple individuals simultaneously, regardless of whether the participants are working toward individual or common goals. Members of the group take turns being the focal client, while other participants serve as resources of support (Collins et al., 2013). Group coaching goes beyond individual coaching by employing the theoretical principles of one-on-one coaching with numerous peers and other leaders in a common setting in addition to the consultant (Barrett, 2006). Leadership group coaching establishes a foundation of trust that allows for an environment open to constructive discussion and accountability from the leader along with linking professionals together (Kets de Vries, 2005). However, leadership coaching in a group setting has relatively little research examining its effectiveness in the field of leadership development, lacking extensive empirical evidence of the outcomes for the individual coached and for the organization where the leader is employed (Barrett, 2006).\nA systematic evaluation of a coaching program: Though previous research has made an initial attempt at understanding how competencies and associated behaviors are improved through coaching and 360 degree feedback (i.e. ratings from self, peers, direct reports, boss, and customers), research is lacking on the impact of competency changes in a quasi-experimental design (i.e. with a control and experimental group). Coaching has become an important managerial instrument of support without research demonstrating its effectiveness (Evers et al., 2006). Specifically, previous research has investigated the value of coaching without fully exploring if a significant change exists in a leader's competencies before and after the leadership coaching intervention. With exception, Smither et al. (2003) used a quasi-experimental design to study the impact of coaching on improvement in multisource ratings over a one year period, though solely focussed on individual coaching. The researchers found that managers who participated in traditional one-on-one coaching improved more than other managers in terms of direct report and supervisor ratings.\nMethod: Participants\nResults: Table I shows the means, standard deviations, and t-test differences among study variables collected at the two different points in time. To test H1, paired t-tests were conducted to examine whether there was a significant change between Time 1 and Time 2 leadership competencies for leaders as a result of time in job. Time 2 observers' ratings were significantly differently than ratings from Time 1 on all competency factors, fully supporting H1 (see Table I).\nDiscussion: Truly effective leaders are distinguished by having a high degree of emotional intelligence (Goleman, 2004). Specifically, they are those leaders who are aware of their own strengths and areas of opportunity along with taking active steps in sharpening their skills to further enhance their effectiveness. To enable leaders to increase their competencies and associated behaviors, and ultimately their effectiveness, leadership development has evolved to include a focus on leadership coaching. It is expected that leaders actively involved with coaching will have more developed leadership skills and abilities, which in turn will enhance their overall competence.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Leadership coaching has become an increasingly common method to maximize competency development and behaviors for organizational leaders as well as to improve retention and career mobility. Few empirical studies have tested its capacity to generate such outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of a coaching program within a healthcare organization, showing significant impact to the leaders' behaviors and retention, measured through non-self-report data.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In the present study, the behaviors associated with leadership competencies were evaluated using a quasi-experimental design to determine if significant gains have been achieved following a coaching intervention when compared to prior competency ratings. Retention and career movement of participating leaders were tracked to compare rates against a control group.\nFindings: In the present study, leadership coaching was evaluated. Results indicate that individuals who participated in the program, in comparison with those that did not, showed significantly improved leadership competencies and significantly higher retention rates one year post-program. Implications for leadership development programs are discussed.\nResearch limitations/implications: One possible limitation of this study is the program structure in the experimental condition received both individual and group coaching so the competency improvement cannot be parsed out to one type of coaching vs another. The authors suggest that this limitation is an opportunity for future research to explore differing effects by coaching type.\nOriginality/value: This study provides the healthcare organization with unique quantitative data regarding the positive implications of a leadership program that has not been reported previously. The findings will provide further justification to support leadership coaching programs.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Delta hedging a multi-fixed-income-securities portfolio under gamma and vega constraints	[ "Hedging", "Securities", "Servicing", "Interest rates" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: There is a multitude of securities whose value is a function of market rates, most, positively affected by decreases in rates, some, such as interest only, mortgage servicing rights (MSRs) or inverse floaters, negatively affected, at least over a certain range of interest rates.The complexity of these securities and their sensitivity to changes in yield requires a portfolio manager, whose goal is to hedge against interest rate risk, to choose the optimal hedge ratio of each security constituting this portfolio.Yu and Krasnopolskaya (2006) use a nonlinear programming problem in the space of two scalar parameters to approximate the problem of optimization of a fixed-income portfolio by the quantile duality criterion. They derive an explicit algebraic expression for the optimum of the target function in the nonlinear programming problem.Mato (2005) analyzes the relation among classic risk measures (Macaulay duration, convexity, and dispersion) and other more recent risk measures such as value-at-risk and conditional value-at-risk, as tools for the formation of an optimum investment portfolio. Mato discusses the design, methodology and approach of a portfolio of fixed-income securities, under the different risk measurements, and concludes that the results are different for each approach.Boudoukh et al. (1995) hedge MBS with T-notes future and derive a dynamical hedge ratio between an investor's MBS position and T-note futures. They compare the dynamical hedge ratio to a static hedge ratio obtained by regressing MBS returns on T-note futures on real data.Ortiz et al. (2008) develop a dynamical hedge ratio for portfolios of MSRs and US Treasury securities, such that it is re-adjusted for changes in market rates and prepayment rates. They develop a delta-hedge ratio rebalancing function for three different portfolios and compare the three dynamic hedge ratios, and rank them with respect to the gamma hedge ratio.In this paper, we develop a general model to obtain the optimal d hedge for a portfolio of m fixed-income-securities (a1,a2,a3, ... ,ai,...,am), each, a function of the market interest rate y, such that when the value of each of the individual securities changes up or down, because of changes in market rates y, the total value of the portfolio is unchanged. We develop the delta hedge under the constraint of a zero-gamma, in order to avoid costs related to the re-balancing of such portfolio.We have a portfolio of m securities (a1,a2,a3, ... ,ai, ... ,am). Each security's value is a function of the market interest rate y. We want to find the optimal share of each security in the portfolio such that: Equation 1 where ai is the weight of security ai and m is the total number of securities in the portfolio. In order for the value K of the portfolio, at a specific yield y to be hedged against any movements in interest rates, we need to find the optimal weight for each security in the portfolio, such that when there is a change in market rates, the sum of the change in value of each security times its corresponding weight in the portfolio is equal to zero.\n2 Setup and notation: The purpose of this section is to describe the mathematical set up of the problem we are interested in.Consider m functions ai(y), i=1, ... m and m coefficients ai, i=1, ... m. We want the following to hold: Equation 2 The intuition is that for every value of y the values of the functions ai(y) are given and we want to find the values of ai that will satisfy the previous equation, and other conditions of \"stability\" to be described in more precise detail later.NotationFor any function f(y) let us denote by f(n)(y) the n-th derivative of f.\n3 The optimization problem: In the original set up of the problem, when the ai's are assumed to be constant, the objective of the problem is to find for a fixed y0, hence for any given value of the ai(y0), values of the constants ai such that: Equation 3 Equation 4 where the second condition reflects the desire that the total sum of the aiai(y0) does not change for small increments in the value of y from y0.More generally, the optimization problem is the problem of finding the values of the ai for i=1... m such that when y changes a little from y0, the value of Si=1maiai(y) will change very little or not at all from the original value of Si=1maiai(y0)=K.Note that if m>2 then the above set of equations does not provide enough information to allow us to find the \"optimal values\" of ai, where by optimal we mean that for small changes in y0 the total sum of the aiai(y0) will not change. The reason is that there are too few equations (only two equations) and too many unknown values (m unknown values).We can attempt to fix this problem by adding extra \"flatness\" conditions to the expression Si=1maiai(y).Under the following assumption: for every i<=m, the functions ai(y) have derivatives up to the m-1 derivative at the point y0, we propose the following additional flatness conditions: Equation 5 The \"updated\" optimality problem in this set up is then the following system of equations: Equation 6 The intuition for this \"updated\" optimality problem is the realization that we are asking, for values of y close to y0, that Si=1maiai(y) is a very \"flat\" function because its first, second, ..., m-1 derivatives at y0 are all zero. More specifically, these flatness conditions imply that small changes in the value of y from y0 are not reflected in changes in Si=1maiai(y) from Si=1maiai(y0), nor in changes in (Si=1maiai(y))(1), from (Si=1maiai(y0))(1), ... , nor in changes in (Si=1maiai(y))(m-2) from (Si=1maiai(y0))(m-2).The main benefit of this \"updated\" optimization problem is that, for a fixed y0 we have a system of m linear equations with m unknowns (the unknowns are the values of the ai). We can write the system of equations as a product of matrices as follows: Equation 7 NoteTo simplify notation from this point on we will write ai(s) for ai(s)(y0), omitting then to place the value of y0 as the input of the function ai(s).From elementary linear algebra we know that such a system has an unique solution if and only if the matrix of the coefficients of the system is invertible, and this holds if and only if the determinant of the matrix of coefficients: Equation 8 is different from zero. In that case Cramer's rule tells us that there exists a formula (based on determinants) that gives us the solutions of the system, that is, the values of the ai. The formula is as follows: Equation 9 Equation 10 Equation 11 Equation 12 Let us see an example of a complete analysis of the possible solutions of an \"updated\" optimal problem with m=2.Analysis for m=2.Let us calculate the solutions for the particular case when m=2. In that case the determinant of the system is: Equation 13 Therefore, for a fixed y0 there exists a unique solution to the \"updated\" optimization problem if and only if: Equation 14 As expected, this condition depends only on the values of the functions a1,a2 and its derivatives at the point y0.In this case, the values of a1 and a2, according to the determinant formula, are: Equation 15 If the determinant of the system is equal to 0, that is, if: Equation 16 then we know from linear algebra that either there exists no solution, or the system is a degenerate system because there exists infinitely many solutions.It is easy for a system of dimension two with a determinant equal to zero to decide when there are no solutions or infinitely many solutions. Such methods can be generalized to a system of linear equations with dimension higher than two.In this case, under the assumption that the determinant of the system is equal to zero, we consider two cases.Case 1a1(1)(y0)=0. In that case the system of equations becomes: Equation 17 Since the determinant is 0 we have that: Equation 18 So either a1(y0)=0 or a2(1)(y0)=0.If a2(1)=0 then the system has infinitely many solutions for a1, a2 given by: Equation 19 If a1(y0)=0 then the system can be simplified to: Equation 20 that has a solution only if a2(1)(y0)=0 and a2(y0)[?]0.Case 2a11(y0)[?]0. In that case for the system of equations: Equation 21 we can solve for a1 in the second equation to obtain: Equation 22 replacing in the first equation we obtain: Equation 23 factoring a2 we obtain: Equation 24 since the determinant is equal to 0 by assumption we obtain the equation: Equation 25 that has solutions only if K=0.To summarize, we have completely analyzed the case when the determinant of the system is equal to 0 as follows:* If a1(1)(y0)=0 and a2(1)(y0)=0 (i.e. at y0 both a1(y) and a2(y) have critical points) then the system has an infinite number of solutions given by the only constraint that: Equation 26 * If a1(1)(y0)=0 and a1(y0)=0 then there are no solutions unless a2(1)(y0)=0 and a2(y0)[?]0, in which case a2=K/a2(y0) and a1 can be any value. This case corresponds to the case where both functions have critical points at y0 and a1(y0)=0 but a2(y0)[?]0.* If a1(1)(y0)[?]0 (i.e. y0 is not a critical point of a1) then there are no solutions unless K=0 in which case any value of a2 with corresponding value of a1=-a2(1)(y0)a2/a1(1)(y0) is a solution.In conclusion, an analysis such as the one above for the cases when the determinant are zero in higher dimensions can always be performed although the calculation of the determinants become progressively more complicated. It can also be systematized using the notions of basis of finitely dimensional vector spaces.Returning to the case when the determinant of the system is different from 0 and we are guaranteed the existence of a single solution, we note that in the case m = 3, 4, etc. one can get similar expressions for the final solutions of the system, but the calculation of the determinants, as mentioned above, becomes increasingly more difficult. To illustrate how quickly Cramer's method becomes complex let us look at the solutions, via Cramer's method, of the updated \"optimal\" problem when m=3.Analysis for m=3.In that case the determinant of the system is: Equation 27 and the values of a1, a2, a3 according to the determinant formula above are: Equation 28 Equation 29 Equation 30 As is evident from the above formulas, a complete analysis of the \"updated\" optimization problem for m=3 is still possible, but cumbersome since the number of special cases to consider is now much greater than in the case when m=2.We close this section with the remark that the process of deciding if the \"updated\" optimization problem for any (reasonable) m has a unique solution, as well as finding the explicit solutions of the system, can be systematized to a high degree using any of the many available mathematical software packages that include tools for matrix operations and solutions of linear equations.We note also that our choice of Cramer's Rule to solve the linear system of equations in the case of m=2 or m=3 is not the usual one. It is well known that Cramer's Rule is a theoretical tool, not a computational tool for solving linear equations. Cramer's Rule is much more inefficient, as a method for solving linear systems, than other algorithms such as Gaussian elimination. More specifically, to solve a system of mxm linear equations, it is well known that the number of multiplications and additions performed is of order m3 for the Gaussian elimination method, while for Cramer's Rule (when using the definition of determinant as a sum of signed products) the number of multiplications and additions performed is of order (m+1)!. We selected Cramer's Rule for the cases m=2 only because it allowed us to perform a complete analysis of the possible types of solutions of the \"updated\" optimization problems.\n4 Conclusion: We have developed an innovative model that helps create a portfolio of m-fixed-income securities, each with the optimal weight, in order for the portfolio to be delta- and gamma-hedged against small changes in interest rates. Re-balancing a portfolio on a periodic basis is necessary, but also very costly. Our model minimizes the necessity of rebalancing a portfolio, by choosing the optimal delta-hedge ratios when constructing the initial portfolio to be hedged against interest rate risk.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to present an innovative model that helps create a portfolio of m-fixed-income securities, each with the optimal weight, in order for the portfolio to be d- and g-hedged against small changes in interest rates. Re-balancing a portfolio on a periodic basis is necessary, but also very costly. The model presented in this paper minimizes the necessity of rebalancing a portfolio, by choosing the optimal d-hedge ratios when constructing the initial portfolio to be hedged against interest rate risk.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In this paper, a general model is developed to obtain the optimal d hedge for a portfolio of m-fixed-income-securities (a1, a2, a3,...; ai, ... , am), each, a function of the market interest rate y, such that when the value of each of the individual securities changes up or down, because of changes in market rates y, the total value of the portfolio is unchanged. The delta hedge is developed under the constraint of a zero-gamma, in order to avoid costs related to the re-balancing of such portfolio.\nFindings: - An innovative model is developed that helps create a portfolio of m-fixed-income securities, each with the optimal weight, in order for the portfolio to be d- and g-hedged against small changes in interest rates.\nPractical implications: - The model minimizes the necessity of rebalancing a portfolio, by choosing the optimal d-hedge ratios when constructing the initial portfolio to be hedged against interest rate risk.\nOriginality/value: - An innovative model has been developed that helps create a portfolio of m-fixed-income securities, each with the optimal weight, in order for the portfolio to be delta- and gamma-hedged against small changes in interest rates.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Authentic leadership, career self-efficacy and career success: a cross-sectional study	[ "Careers", "Leadership", "Organizational behaviour" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The recent wave of high profile corporate scandals has generated a significant amount of interest in positive leadership emphasising ethical and moral leader behaviour (Hoch et al., 2018). One such type of leadership, which has attracted the attention of both academics and practitioners, is authentic leadership (Dinh et al., 2014). Authentic leaders are seen as people who are hopeful, optimistic, resilient and transparent (Avolio and Gardner, 2005). Such leaders \"act in accordance with deep personal values and convictions, to build credibility and win the respect and trust of followers\" (Avolio et al., 2004, p. 806) and possess a strong desire to serve others through their leadership (George, 2003).\nLiterature review and hypotheses development: The concept of authentic leadership\nMethod: Sample and procedure\nResults: Descriptive statistics\nDiscussion: The central aim of this study was to examine the effects of authentic leadership on employees' objective (hierarchical status) and subjective (career satisfaction) career success. In addition, it sought to examine the mediating role of career self-efficacy in these relationships. Results showed that career self-efficacy fully mediated the relationship between authentic leadership and hierarchical status, while it partially mediated the effects of authentic leadership on career satisfaction. The practical and theoretical implications of these findings and the limitations of this research are discussed below.\nConclusion: This study highlights the importance of authentic leadership in enhancing employees' career success. Specifically, results showed that authentic leadership behaviours can positively contribute to employees' career satisfaction and their status within the organisation by amplifying their career self-efficacy. Thus, in order to ensure that employees fulfil their potential and achieve their career goals, it is imperative that organisations create an environment, which facilitates the development of authentic leaders.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of authentic leadership on employees' objective (hierarchical status) and subjective (career satisfaction) career success. In addition, this paper attempts to examine the mediating role of career self-efficacy in these relationships.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The sample for this cross-sectional study comprised of 162 Pakistani employees drawn from a leading food and beverage company. Structural equation modelling and the bootstrapping procedure were used to test the research hypotheses.\nFindings: Results showed that career self-efficacy fully mediated the relationship between authentic leadership and hierarchical status, while it partially mediated the effects of authentic leadership on career satisfaction.\nPractical implications: The findings of this study indicate that authentic leadership behaviours can have a positive impact on employees' career success. Thus, in order to ensure that employees accomplish their career goals and realise their full potential, it is vital that organisations devise strategies, which are geared towards promoting authentic leadership.\nOriginality/value: This paper provides a first examination of the relationship between authentic leadership and two indicators of career success: hierarchical status and career satisfaction. In addition, it identifies one possible pathway in the form of career self-efficacy through which authentic leadership relates to employees' career success.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Barriers to the use of integrated project delivery (IPD): a quantified model for Malaysia	[ "Integration", "Construction", "Supply chain" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The construction supply chain is highly fragmented (Saini et al., 2019), with the fallout being endemic adversarial relationships, defensive behaviour, and as a result, low performance levels (Pishdad-Bozorgi and Beliveau, 2016). In fact, these issues have resulted in the construction industry showing productivity growth rates less than one-half to that of non-agricultural sectors (Forbes and Ahmed, 2010). The average global value added per hour for the construction sector has grown only about a quarter to that of the manufacturing sector. No industry has performed worse since 1995 (The Economist, 2017). Integrated project delivery (IPD) is an attempt to address these issues (Kent and Becerik-Gerber, 2010; Ma et al., 2018).\nTraditional delivery methods: problems: Construction projects are typically delivered through traditional delivery methods: design-bid-build, design-build, or construction management (Mesa et al., 2016; Ma et al., 2018). These methods frequently do not yield client satisfaction as a consequence of extended project durations, cost overruns, low quality of completed works, as well as frequent occurrences of health and safety incidents (Lichtig, 2010; Mesa et al., 2016; Hamzeh et al., 2019). Frequent disputes, goal inconsistency, change orders, rework, adversarial relationships, arbitrations and litigations are among the reported problems with traditional construction procurement methods (Ma et al., 2017, 2018; Xie and Liu, 2017; Abdirad and Dossick, 2019). This is because the traditional supply chain in the construction industry displays a lack of integration of its processes; it is highly fragmented, segmented, affected by a silo effect and comprised of various small specialised firms (Briscoe and Dainty, 2005; Harper et al., 2016; Mignone et al., 2016; Papadonikolaki and Wamelink, 2017). Project team members and the firms involved work in isolation and are held responsible merely for their own portion of work within the entire project life cycle, and as such pursue their vested interests (Atkinson and Westall, 2010; Ghassemi and Becerik-Gerber, 2011; Kibert, 2016). This leads to cost overruns, longer project completion times and lower quality of constructed facilities, which leave stakeholders dissatisfied (Durdyev and Mbachu, 2011; Ghoddousi and Hosseini, 2012; Ma et al., 2017; Teng et al., 2019). Significant issues with traditional delivery methods have been documented: wasted effort resulting in upto 15 per cent of cost and time overruns; numerous variations accounting between 60 and 90 per cent of all variations, and inefficient communications ending up in an additional 5-10 per cent in cost and time overruns (Kraatz et al., 2014).\nIntegrated project delivery: In addressing the issues of traditional delivery methods, IPD has emerged with the objective of converting project delivery into a process in which all disciplines involved in a construction project work and treat each other as members of a single firm (Maskil-Leitan and Reychav, 2018). IPD, though a relatively new and still evolving concept, was first introduced to address these problems, in Australia, in the early 1990s. It was originally known as \"Alliancing\" (Bilbo et al., 2015), but it was later termed as IPD in the USA (Matthews and Howell, 2005). A simple and concise definition (Asmar et al., 2013) described IPD as \"a delivery system distinguished by a multiparty agreement and the very early involvement of key participants\". IPD puts particular emphasis on relationships, collaboration and the pursuit of mutual goals, where all parties become involved at the earliest stages of the project, adhering to a multiparty agreement while also sharing the risks and rewards (Teng et al., 2019). The hallmark of IPD is the promise of providing productivity gains while shortening project delivery times (Asmar et al., 2013; Kibert, 2016), that is IPD provides a systematic approach that tackles the insufficiencies of traditional construction methods (Forbes and Ahmed, 2010; Ghassemi and Becerik-Gerber, 2011). Furthermore, IPD has the potential for integration with innovative applications like BIM while enhancing collaboration and enabling the exploration of alternative solutions on projects (Kent and Becerik-Gerber, 2010; Rowlinson, 2017; Ma et al., 2018). As an innovative approach, IPD provides a collective environment for building professionals and maximising communication among project stakeholders (Asmar et al., 2013). IPD, therefore, improves project performance and productivity (Mesa et al., 2016), preserves project budget (AIA, 2007), increases the likelihood of success, and assists in constructing greener buildings - reducing waste and using less energy and water (AIA, 2007; Ghassemi and Becerik-Gerber, 2011; Ma et al., 2018).\nDrivers for IPD use: IPD is widely regarded as a modern delivery method of construction projects that can provide the most effective and efficient way of procuring built assets (Rowlinson, 2017). Thus, the promotion of IPD has received growing attention among researchers, professional bodies (Ghassemi and Becerik-Gerber, 2011; Kahvandi et al., 2017) and educators (Lee et al., 2014; Solnosky et al., 2014).\nBarriers to IPD use: Despite all the above-mentioned advantages, the number of projects using IPD remains small (Sommer et al., 2014; Pishdad-Bozorgi, 2017; Teng et al., 2019; Hamzeh et al., 2019). To explain this, Ghassemi and Becerik-Gerber (2011) and Sun et al. (2015) highlighted the negative influence of barriers that hinder widespread use of IPD.\nLinking IPD barriers and use: a conceptual model: A major proportion of identified barriers in the literature comes from studies based in developed countries (AIA, 2007; Atkinson and Westall, 2010; Kent and Becerik-Gerber, 2010). These barriers - identified in developed countries and emerging markets - along with those extracted from studies of developing countries, were collated to generate a pool of barriers. Table I provides a list and typology for the barriers culled from the extant literature, whose description is presented henceforth.\nResearch methods: Survey design\nFrom data to findings: Model assessments\nDiscussion of the findings: The nature of major barriers\nConclusion: The evidence shows that the implementation of IPD in construction projects remains slow. Significant attempts to investigate and quantify the major causes of such slow uptake in developing countries are scarce. Thus, this paper offers several contributions in terms of adding value to the literature on IPD, particularly with respect to Malaysia. First, an updated pool of barriers to IPD is curated from previous studies, and it is encapsulated in the form of a conceptual model that is adapted to the context of a developing country - Malaysia. Second, the paper provides a SEM for quantifying the list of barriers in developing countries, and it is as such one of the first quantitative evaluations of the relative importance of the existing barriers. The main contribution - the third - is calling for a shift of attention from the lack of knowledge on IPD, as claimed in previous findings, to lack of evidence of ROI for stakeholders, combined with the necessity of establishing a dose of collaboration culture within the corporate structure prior to any attempts towards IPD.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to quantify the barriers to the use of integrated project delivery (IPD), as assessed by 115 construction professionals in Malaysia.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Barriers recording highest citation amongst researchers worldwide were collated in the form of a conceptual model. This model was validated via a partial least squares structural equation modelling technique.\nFindings: Findings advance the body of knowledge on IPD by providing original insights into the nature of key barriers, quantifying the relative importance of each barrier.\nResearch limitations/implications: Despite the above-mentioned contributions, and before drawing any conclusion, it is prudent to acknowledge limitations, particularly the chosen research approach in focusing on the Malaysian context. Therefore, caution must be exercised in direct application of findings to other contexts; research findings should be seen through the lens of moderatum generalisations (see Payne and Williams, 2005).\nPractical implications: Apart from contributions to the body of knowledge, for the world of practice, conditions impacting a transition to IPD are discussed, with a recommendation for change management through a tested mechanism like the European Corporate Sustainability Framework.\nOriginality/value: Being the first empirical study undertaken to quantify the relationship among the identified barriers and IPD, the present study contributes to the field by addressing the gap in IPD research in Malaysia, as an exemplar of a developing country; it creates knowledge to inform further improvements in project performance through facilitating IPD use. The study also offers insight to construction stakeholders in other developing countries for tackling issues that hinder the adoption of an IPD approach, and it also points to major barriers such that resources for tackling barriers may be allocated properly.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Social attitudes and the gender pay gap in the USA in recent years	[ "United States of America", "Gender", "Social roles", "Income", "Women", "Labour market" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The twentieth century saw a dramatic increase in the labor force participation of women. In particular, the number of women who are in the labor force increased from 34 percent in 1950 to 61 percent in 1994 (Blau and Ehrenberg, 1997), and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that this number has continued to increase since then, reaching near-parity with male labor force participation rates among younger workers. By recording the labor participation rates of different birth cohorts of women, Hartmann (2001) finds that each successive cohort of women has worked more than the one before, worked more as they aged and were less likely to drop out of the workforce during the child-rearing years.However, despite the steady increase in labor force participation rates over the second half of the twentieth century, there is some evidence that the gender gap between the pay of men and women has not narrowed uniformly. A recent report from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (2006) shows that the women's earnings as a percentage of male earnings actually declined a little starting the early 1990s after a period of steady increase during the 1980s (Figure 1). This ratio has started to increase again since 2001, but has not appreciably increased over its value in 1992.This puzzling divergence between labor force participation rates and the gender wage gap has been noted in recent research (such as Blau and Kahn, 2004) though it has not received the attention it deserves. In one of the few studies, to explore this plateau of the gender wage gap in the 1990s in the USA, O'Neill (2003), finds that women may be opting for part-time employment in increasing numbers and this form part of the reason for the persistent gender wage gap in the USA, in keeping with the work-time allocation model of Becker (1985). She concludes that the gender wage gap is \"unlikely to change radically in the near future unless the roles of men and women in the home become more nearly identical.\" But there is an unobserved component in this analysis that still accounts for a large part of the gender wage gap. Moreover, the work-time allocation explanation does not explain why such an effect was seen in the USA only during the 1990s, nor does it attempt to place the decision of women to opt for part-time work in increasing numbers in a broader social context.Mainstream economics explanations for the gender wage gap usually concentrate on a human capital model where women are paid less because they have not accumulated sufficient job experience, but such an explanation have failed to explain a large part of the gender pay gap. Recent studies, such as Blau et al. (2001), note that as much as 38 percent of the gender wage gap cannot be explained by differences in human capital accumulation. This large unexplained difference is often attributed to employer discrimination, but discrimination alone does not explain the erratic widening and narrowing of the gender wage gap during the last three decades.This paper presents the hypothesis that a purely economic explanation does not work as well in explaining the gender wage gap and social change might be a major contributor to it. A key reason for the narrowing of the gender wage gap in the two decades preceding the 1990s is known to be a widespread change in social attitudes towards gender roles in the USA. As Firebaugh (1992) notes, changes in public opinion can come from two sources:1. changes in the public, i.e. changes in attitudes between cohorts; and2. changes in the opinions of the public, i.e. within-cohort changes of attitude.He also finds that changes in attitudes towards gender roles in the USA have steadily grown less traditional, whereas the within-cohort changes in opinion are more erratic. Also, Mason and Lu (1988) find that the large change in US public opinion towards more egalitarian gender roles primarily occurred through changes in within-cohort attitudes. Taken together, if this within-cohort change in the so-called \"baby boomer\" generation slowed or even reversed, we could reasonably expect it to affect labor market phenomena. Moreover, since the economic imperatives that increased female labor force participation are still operative, such a change in social attitudes might be reflected in reduced wages for women through mechanisms such as more women opting for part-time work.The difficulty in directly measuring the effects of such a change in social attitudes is the lack of a high-quality dataset that provides both information on social attitudes and labor market experiences. This paper takes advantage of a unique longitudinal mechanism made possible by the fact that a series of questions about attitudes toward women's employment were asked in the 2004 wave of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) survey, and an identical set of questions were asked during the 1987 wave of the same survey. This enables identification of respondents who have changed their opinions to become more traditional or more egalitarian in the intervening 17 years. These two different sub-populations of the NLSY79 can then be analyzed to find how their gender gap in earnings compares to the overall population. Thus, the hypothesis stated above regarding the effects of within-cohort change of attitudes towards gender roles within the \"baby boomer\" generation in the USA can be directly tested to see if it plays any part in the persistent gender wage gap observed during recent years.\nData: The NLSY is an ongoing survey that uses a nationally representative sample of 12,686 young men and women who have been surveyed annually every year from 1979 to 1994, and once every two years from 1994 to 2002. The NLSY respondents were aged 14-22 at the start of the survey and so form part of the \"baby boomer\" generation in the USA. Also, they were aged 22-30 in 1987 and 39-47 in 2004, making them excellent candidates for the purposes of our study, since they are in their early and mid-careers during both survey periods, enabling analysis of the relationship between the change in their attitudes and job-related information. The NLSY provides a rich set of job-related information, including the wages, occupation and industrial classification for each job the respondent holds at the time of the interview.The important responses for the purposes of our analysis are the following eight statements, which survey participants were asked to respond during both the 1987 and 2004 waves of the NLSY79 survey:Q1: \"A woman's place is in the home, not in the office or shop.\"Q2: \"A wife who carries out her full family responsibilities doesn't have time for outside employment.\"Q3: \"A working wife feels more useful than one who doesn't hold a job.\"Q4: \"The employment of wives leads to more juvenile delinquency.\"Q5: \"Employment of both parents is necessary to keep up with the high cost of living.\"Q6: \"It is much better for everyone concerned if the man is the achiever outside the home and the woman takes care of the home and family.\"Q7: \"Men should share the work around the house with women, such as doing dishes, cleaning, and so forth.\"Q8: \"Women are much happier if they stay at home and take care of their children.\"Respondents were asked to specify the level of their agreement with each of these questions on a four-point scale. The analysis that follows combines this information with the wealth of job information from the NLSY79 to study the effects of social attitude change on the gender wage gap.\nResults: Measuring social change\nConclusions: The results presented in the previous section are remarkable in the marked difference they show in the gender pay gap between the two groups of respondents who significantly changed their attitudes towards women's roles between 1987 and 2004. Given that all the members of the sample populations used in this study held jobs in both 1987 and 2004, the strong negative correlation between traditional social attitudes and women's wages suggests that social attitudes towards gender roles affect women's wages independently of women's labor force participation. This finding is in line with the hypothesis stated earlier, that a broad social change in gender role attitudes in the USA may explain the anomalous behavior of the gender wage gap in the 1990s better than an explanation purely based on human capital accumulation, or other mainstream economic theories. Such a conclusion is reinforced by the fact that the cohort whose change in attitudes are tracked by this study are of the baby boomer generation in the USA, were in mid-careers during the 1990s, and as such in a position to exert maximum influence on decisions about worker's wages and benefits.The reasons for the persistent gender wage gap in the USA, and its erratic behavior over the last few decades, have been a source of considerable debate and this study contributes an important factor that has not been addressed in the research so far. If social attitudes towards gender roles have indeed become more traditional towards the USA, this has important consequences for women in the workplace. Recent studies have shown that the gender wage gap in the USA is larger than in other developed countries, and if changing gender role attitudes are partly responsible for this, they may also be implicated in differences between the USA and other developed countries in other job benefits available to women.The fact that within-cohort longitudinal analysis of this sample population produces such a strong segmentation with respect to the wages of women also points to the importance of longitudinal analysis of the economic effects of social change which results from individuals changing their opinions, as opposed to inter-generational differences in attitudes. Further analysis is needed to establish whether such a broad-based social change is the underlying phenomenon linking many effects observed in recent years in the USA, such as more women opting for part-time jobs or restructuring their work-time allocation.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Although the labor force participation rates for women in the USA have steadily risen during the last three decades, the gender pay gap has not decreased significantly since 1992. In fact, there is evidence that it actually widened during the 1990s. This paper seeks to present a social economics explanation of this phenomenon. Mainstream economic explanations for the anomalous behavior of the gender pay gap in the USA in recent years usually involve increasing numbers of women opting for part-time jobs. Recognizing the importance of social change in explaining certain features of the labor market, this paper aims to explore whether a broad change in social attitudes towards women's roles may form the basis for such phenomena.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A unique set of questions from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth which asks the same respondents about their attitudes towards \"traditional\" roles for women in 1987 and again in 2004 allows measurement of the change in attitudes in individual respondents. The survey population is then partitioned into those whose attitudes towards women's roles became \"more traditional\" and \"less traditional,\" and the gender pay gap, as well as other characteristics, of each sub-population is analyzed.\nFindings: - Of respondents who reported a significant change in their attitude towards women's roles between 1987 and 2004, a larger number of respondents became more traditional in their views, agreeing with statements such as \"a woman's place is in the home.\" A majority of those with college or professional degrees became more traditional in their attitudes, whereas a majority of those with a high school education became less traditional. Being a woman was significant and negatively correlated with an increase in pay among respondents who became more traditional, whereas no significant correlation was observed among those who became less traditional in their social attitudes.\nOriginality/value: - The results indicate that social attitudes towards women's roles in the USA may have become more traditional during the 1990s, which is a new finding. The correlation found between social attitudes and women's pay provides an insight into why the gender pay gap persists despite the greatly increased labor force participation rates of women.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Preaching what we practice: experiences from implementing ISO 14001 at the University of Glamorgan	[ "Higher education", "International standards" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nAn overview of international developments: Sustainable education\nHow ISO 14001 was applied to the University of Glamorgan: The University of Glamorgan\nResults achieved: The University of Glamorgan is the only university in the UK to have the entire organisation accredited to ISO 14001 since, 2002. The only other UK universities to have similar accreditation are Leeds Metropolitan University (which had its Facilities Management and Purchasing Divisions certified during August 2003) and the University of Wales School of Medicine (Anon., 2004b, c).Even though the Toyne Report crystallised a glimmer of political enthusiasm for more environmentally-sustainable universities in the UK, transformation toward improved sustainability for most UK universities has failed to materialise and probably \"will only come about when a large number of people set-up different priorities in both the large and small arenas of the university, establishing new routines and structures despite local conflicts and set-backs\" (Sharp, 2002). This is something that has occurred in only three UK universities.Perhaps not the most eloquent of models, the way in which accreditation has been achieved at the University of Glamorgan is nevertheless a sign of the dedication to protecting the environment and the professionalism of those involved. It shows that with determination of only a small number (~3) internal \"Environmental champions\", and high-level management (University Directorate) commitment, the accreditation procedure can be successfully achieved. From this experience, there are five main categories of factors that have ensured successful accreditation at the University of Glamorgan, viz.:1. Corporate commitment. From the outset, senior University management identified some environmental issues as important, e.g. cutting fuel bills, and as a result employed an Energy Warden. The Vice-Chancellor later showed his commitment to the EMS by signing the Environmental Policy Statement. Such senior management commitment is vital to allow significant leadership as well as adequate budgetary expenditure to occur.2. As several Universities that have developed an EMS have discovered, a clear environmental management organisational structure is important to keep environmental issues at the top of management agendas as well as enabling appropriate resource allocation.3. Resources, in terms of staff time and financial cost have been available, albeit in limited amounts.4. Environmental team enthusiasm. The enthusiasm of the staff, students and external organisations working on environmental issues within the University has helped to push efforts along.5. Specialist support and advice has been extremely useful in areas of work where experience and skills did not exist on campus, such as in developing the EMS.\nDiscussion and conclusions: UK government\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - To provide an overview of how environmental management systems (EMSs) are becoming sporadically employed within higher educational institutions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An overview of international developments in sustainable education and within UK universities. Focuses specifically on the University of Glamorgan, Wales.\nFindings: - EMSs have been historically perceived as of little importance within most of the UK higher educational sector. Documents how the University of Glamorgan, Wales became the first university in the UK to have all of its operations accredited to ISO 14001.\nOriginality/value: - Provides a summary of a higher education institution's path to ISO 14001 accreditation.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Selected dimensions of service gender: a study of perceptions of Generation Y	[ "Gender", "Services", "Generation Y", "Sex roles", "Online services", "Service delivery", "High- and low-contact services" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Gender is arguably one of the most prominent and commonly used segmentation variables in the conception of the marketing mix and strategy for a variety of products and services. Targeted gender influences the promotion, distribution and product development process (Milner and Fodness, 1996). Gender is also one of the most basic drivers of consumption behavior (Patterson and Hogg, 2004). Numerous studies have examined how a consumer's gender influences their consumption behavior and processing of messages; for example, Suh (2012) is a meta-analysis of 34 studies of gender differences in response to advertising. Less attention has been paid to the actual gender-typing of products and services themselves, although multiple studies indicate that products and services do have gender identities (Iyer and Debevec, 1986a, 1986b, 1889; Milner and Fodness, 1996; Fugate and Phillips, 2010), and that congruence between a product/services' perceived gender and the consumer is an important consideration in the purchasing decision process (Iyer and Debevec, 1986b; Stern et al., 1993; Milner and Fodness, 1996; Fugate and Phillips, 2010), although the issue of gender-typing of products/services has been largely ignored in academic research in the past two decades.\nTheoretical background and hypotheses: Two substantial changes of the Past two decades may have drastically influenced services marketing and the way that gender is perceived by consumers. The first has been the emergence of the Internet and, concomitant with it, the emergence and expansion of self-service technologies. The second has been the emergence of Gen Y in the marketplace, a generation that identifies with the changing role of gender in both the family and workplace in the USA. These two trends may have adjusted perceived view of gender with regard to services.\nMethodology: As with most studies of gender identity, masculinity and femininity are not conceptualized as opposing points on a continuum, but rather as two distinct constructs (Milner and Fodness, 1996). Thus, respondents were provided a list of 16 services and asked to indicate their perception of the service on two scales - one regarding how masculine each service was (where 1 = very low and 5 = very high) and one regarding how feminine each service was. For the 16 services selected, we chose to look at a wide variety of services that were offered via a wide variety of delivery options. As such, we looked at services from numerous industry types (e.g. medical, travel, person), services that were offered via face-to-face and online formats and services that could be considered high-contact or low-contact services. Part of the rationale for this diverse selection of services was to broaden the limited types of services included in the past studies such as retail stores, banking, legal services, child care, hotels, airlines and photographers (Milner and Fodness, 1996; Stern et al., 1993).\nResults: The first research question of this study sought to determine whether Gen Y perceived services as gendered (i.e. masculine or feminine) or as not having a specific gender identity (undifferentiated or androgynous) as measured by past research in the area. In fact, all but one service listed in our study (airlines) demonstrated statistically significant differences between masculinity and femininity ratings; thus, our sample identified 15 of the 16 listed services as being gendered. This finding differs from past work in gendering of services, which found many services to be gender-neutral (Stern et al., 1993) or undifferentiated/androgynous (Milner and Fodness, 1996).\nDiscussion and implications: This research is important because it is one of the few studies of the past 20 years to look at gendering of the service industry, given the numerous changes that have occurred within that industry; this research is also the first to explore service gender perceptions of Gen Y. Our findings for RQ1 indicate that contrary to earlier studies in perceived service gender, and despite blurring distinctions between masculine and feminine roles among Gen Y, our sample consistently assigned gender identity to a variety of services. Furthermore, we found that Gen Y will rate services' gender based not solely upon typical consumers of a service (in partial support of H1 and past research), but that service gender will be consistent with the gender of the service provider (supporting H2) as well. Additionally, high-contact services have stronger gender identities than low-contact services (H4a, H4b), and males are particularly sensitive to gender congruence with the services that they select (supporting H5).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to investigate how changes in technology and gender roles have changed Generation Y's (Gen Y) perception of the gender of services from previous studies. Although the past 20 years have seen substantial changes in service delivery methods in addition to changes in the traditional roles of gender and households, in many ways, businesses continue to deliver products and services to their customers using traditional marketing techniques.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Survey data were collected using a sample of 190 responses.\nFindings: Results indicate that consumers will consistently identify services as having gender, that consumers will rate service gender consistent with the perceived typical consumer of a service and that consumers will rate service gender consistent with the gender of their front-line employee. Online/automated services are also gendered. High-contact services have stronger gender identity than low-contact services. Congruence of consumer and service gender is more important to men than women.\nPractical implications: This study suggests that managers must understand gender identity of their services as well as cues that suggest gender relating to consumers and front-line employees. Automated and online services also must be positioned to give correct gender cues, particularly to male markets.\nOriginality/value: This is one of the few studies to explore the gender identity of services and the first study to consider service gender in approximately two decades. Additionally, it is the first study to explore gender in automated delivery/online services as well as high/low-contact services, and the first study to gauge service gender perceptions of Gen Y.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Progress towards institutionalising field-wide water efficiency change	[ "Sustainability", "Institutional logics", "Water efficiency", "Theorization" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Issues of water scarcity become increasingly challenging as global populations continue to rise. Australia, the world's driest inhabited continent (Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology, 2012), endured acute drought conditions through the 1990s and into the late 2000s (Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology, 2007). Evidence of climate change also emerged at this time suggesting that lower than average rainfalls were likely to persist (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2007). Faced with declining dam levels, water authorities emphasised the management of water demand over the provision of new sources of supply (Egan, 2009). These circumstances avail an opportunity to investigate how water consuming organisations can develop a focus on water efficiency. Our specific goal here is to explore how a focus on water efficiency was motivated and promoted across a field of seven food and beverage producing organisations located in Sydney, Australia from 2008 to 2010. Research of this nature contributes to understanding how industrial objectives and goals can be aligned with issues of social concern (in this case, water scarcity).\nA Neo-institutionalist framework: Institutions and organisational fields\nMethodology: Our study explores water efficiency change across a field of organisations located in the Sydney basin (the basin). The basin has a small water catchment (approximately 16,000 square kilometres) and yet includes one of Australia's largest industrial and urban concentrations. A list was first compiled of all organisations operating within the basin that were both large water consumers, and financially large. The NSW Water Savings Order 2005 met our need for a listing of all \"large\" water consuming organisations, as it targeted all with operations in the basin that consumed more than 50 megalitres of water in the preceding year. The names of all 237 organisations captured by that Order were matched against the 2006 Business Review Weekly listing of Australian organisations whose total annual revenue exceeded AUD1 billion (\nFindings and discussion: The water efficiency practices developing across the field\nConclusions: This study has explored how four loosely coordinated, and in some cases weak factors, drove a range of water efficiency responses across a field of seven Sydney-based food and beverage producing organisations into the late 2000s. Those organisations concerned only with regulation and cost, were motivated to do little more than monitor water usage. Alpha and Beta were also driven by a sense of criticism and scrutiny from community groups and from water authorities. As a consequence, they were motivated to adopt a range of practices focused on improving water efficiencies. Through an NIT framework, this study has explored; how a water efficiency organisational field began to develop, the institutional logics developing within that nascent field, and whether those logics were continuing to institutionalise into 2010. Our study highlights the impact and influence of two distinct institutional logics; a traditional and dominant logic focused on cost efficiency and profitability, and the development of a new, but not yet pervasive, logic focused on maximising water efficiency. In so doing, three key contributions are made to understanding water efficiency change in this field.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how a heterogeneous range of water efficiency responses were driven across a field of seven water consuming organisations in Australia at a time of acute drought conditions into the late 2000s.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a range of individuals from 2008 to 2010.\nFindings: A loosely coordinated range of drivers motivated pervasive water efficiency responses in two of the seven case organisations. Would-be leaders sought to invoke a water efficiency field, and champion nascent logics and theorisation in order to gain some competitive advantage. There was little sense among others of any normative, mimetic or coercive pressure to adopt homogeneous practices. While the field lacked effective champions for change, an institutionalisation of novel water efficiency practices continued across the field into 2010.\nResearch limitations/implications: Further research could investigate how water efficiency responses continued to develop or decline into the 2010s, and how such practices integrate with the management of other sustainability issues (including carbon).\nPractical implications -: Global water resources are subject to increasing supply constraints. This paper responds by exploring how the institutionalisation of water efficiency change can be driven across a field of organisations.\nOriginality/value: Relatively little is understood about \"institutionalization\" as an unfinished process. This paper responds by contributing an understanding of how institutional logics developed, and how theorisation for water efficiency progressed in the context of water scarcity in Australia in the late 2000s.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Explaining inconsistencies in implicit and explicit attitudes towards domestic and foreign products	[ "Consumer ethnocentrism", "Domestic country bias", "Implicit attitude", "Product typicality" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Extant research indicates that many consumers around the world tend to favour (to varying degrees) domestic products over foreign products (Herche, 1992; Shimp and Sharma, 1987; Supphellen and Rittenburg, 2001). Scholars use different terms such as \"domestic country bias\" (DCB) (Balabanis and Diamantopoulos, 2004) or \"home country bias\" (Verlegh, 2007) to describe this phenomenon. DCB refers to the \"bias against foreign products and in favour of domestic ones\" (Balabanis and Diamantopoulos, 2004, p. 80), and it is assessed by comparing consumer attitudes towards domestic products with attitudes towards matching foreign products (Schooler, 1965).\nConceptual background and hypotheses: DCB inconsistencies and consumer ethnocentrism (CE)\nStudy 1: Data collection\nStudy 2: To examine the effectiveness of advertising containing ethnocentric cues, Study 2 was an experiment using another set of products from neighbouring China. While China shares similar cultural roots with Taiwan, prior studies (e.g. Pereira et al., 2002) have shown that the two diverge in terms of ethnocentrism, with Chinese consumers being more ethnocentric than Taiwanese consumers. According to these studies, recent political history and China's economic and military superpower status have rendered China more competitive and ethnocentric than Taiwan. Moreover, ideologically, the government frequently and actively promotes ethnocentrism and national pride to citizens, sometimes by encouraging insularity from outside media influences (for an extensive historical account of ethnocentric roots in both countries, see Lai, 2009). As such, China serves as an ideal basis for the purposes of Study 2.\nGeneral discussion and implications: Theoretical implications\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the inconsistency of explicit and implicit domestic country bias (DCB) across different types of products and in the context of two countries.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Two studies in two countries are conducted to examine the inconsistencies in implicit and explicit DCB. The first study collected data through mall intercept survey method in Taiwan and identified 189 valid respondents. The second study applied a mixed (within and between subjects) factorial experiment in China using 200 subjects.\nFindings: Results show that explicit and implicit attitudes are moderately related to each other. The results also confirm that ethnic product typicality can explain inconsistencies in both explicit and implicit DCB. For ethnically typical products, DCB is more pronounced in consumers' explicit attitudes than in consumers' implicit attitudes. On the contrary, for ethnically atypical goods, DCB makes itself present in both explicit and implicit attitudes.\nOriginality/value: The results shed new light on DCB and confirm that the bias could divaricate between explicit and implicit attitudes in the case of ethnically typical products.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Money for nothing	[ "Profit", "After sales service", "Warranties" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: I confess to sometimes listening to oldies stations on the satellite radio in my car. Last week, a gem popped up: Dire Straits' 1985 Grammy-winning chart-topper, \"Money for nothing.\" The song is written from the point of view of a working-class guy unloading boxes in the TV department of an appliance store. As the verses go by, it becomes clear that he is watching an MTV video of some over-the-top heavy metal band - rumored to be Motley Crue -and growling his disapproval:Look at them yo-yo's that's the way you do itYou play the guitar on the MTVThat ain't workin' that's the way you do itMoney for nothin' ... .\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Most business organizations put lots of thought and effort into how to sell and deliver to customers a product or service that meets their needs at a particular point in time. But they often neglect to think about what is important to the customer to get the most value from the product or service after the sale is complete. For example, customers may be concerned about product maintenance, ongoing monitoring, protection in the event of breakdowns or the need to fund overhaul or replacement of the product when it wears out. The author discusses case examples of companies that do a good job of anticipating and addressing these needs, which often leads to highly profitable recurring revenue streams for providers. The author proposes six key strategies for companies considering going down this path.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In this article, the author cites a number of case examples of businesses that have built recurring revenues from after-sales service offerings. Examples industries included in the article include the consumer home services and commercial capital equipment. The author then draws lessons that can be applied broadly by any company considering ways to build recurring service revenues from its customers.\nFindings: - The author proposes six strategies for building service plan businesses: create awareness of potential losses; lower the barriers to sign up; make it an easy add-on; incentivize front-line salespeople; make it self-renewing; and trade on your company's good name.\nOriginality/value: - This article sheds light on the economics and benefits of well-designed service plans. When done well, this can often transform a servicing cost center into a highly profitable business line that can help carry product businesses through lean periods of new product sales.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The impact of disability on guests' perceptions of service quality delivery in the hospitality industry	[ "Hospitality management", "Disability", "Service delivery", "Hotel", "Stereotyping", "Hospitality", "Disabled people", "Service quality delivery", "Hotel operations" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Diversity inclusion has been the focus of corporate social responsibility for companies, such as Marriott, Hyatt, Starwood, McDonalds and Sodexo, with a goal to employ people with diverse backgrounds serving guests of diverse backgrounds. Research has shown people with disabilities (PwDs) are twice as likely to be unemployed than people without disabilities (Kalargyrou and Volis, 2014), and the income of households containing PwDs is less than households which do not include them (Harkin, 2014). Meanwhile, consumers are more favorable toward companies that hire PwDs (Siperstein et al., 2006). Therefore, for hotels, hiring employees with disabilities is an initiative that not only helps build a positive image for the company, but also reduces PwDs' unemployment rate.\n2. Conceptual framework and hypotheses development: Studies are limited which examine consumer's attitudes toward hiring PwDs. However, a national study in the USA found that 92 per cent of the consumers felt more positive toward companies that employed them because it was assumed that these firms would care about their employees (Gonzalez and Fernandez, 2016).\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Study design\n4. Results: There were 262 respondents recruited from the MTurk survey. The mean age of the respondents was 35 years old with a low of 21 and high of 66. As reflected in Table II, 55 per cent were males, 45 per cent females; 49 per cent had an undergraduate degree, while 33 per cent did not have a college degree. Finally, 76 per cent of respondents were of Caucasian decent, 13 per cent Asian, 5 per cent Hispanic and remaining 6 per cent African American. The respondents did not have a strong overall practice of faith (M = 2.0, on a five-point scale).\n5. Discussion and implications: 5.1 Theoretical implications\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of employees' different disability types on lodging guests' perceptions of service quality delivery and stereotyping. The study also explores the influence of consumer characteristics (i.e. gender, education, religiosity, generational identity and relationship to a person with a disability) on service delivery quality perceptions and stereotyping.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using different types of disabilities, the study uses a controlled experiment, followed by a survey, to evaluate consumers' perception of service quality delivery of a hotel front office staff member.\nFindings: The results suggest that there are no significant differences in the perceptions of service quality delivery and stereotyping for service employees with disabilities with the exception of employees with a visual impairment. The study found that participants, who had a close friend or family member with a disability, expressed less stereotyping than those who did not have a close friend or family member with a disability.\nResearch limitations/implications: Real service encounters can be used where participants might be more involved in the service process than in a controlled experiment setting.\nPractical implications: The findings provide support to human resource management in strategically placing people with disabilities into front-line positions because they satisfactorily represent the image of the company and guests consider their service professional and reliable.\nSocial implications: The study's findings support that employers should tap into the under-utilized workforce of people with disabilities and avoid pre-existing stereotyping.\nOriginality/value: A major concern of hospitality companies making employment decisions about hiring people with disabilities is guests' attitude. This is the first study in hospitality that examines service quality delivery of employees with different types of disability serve guests.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Supply chain innovation and organizational performance in the healthcare industry	[ "South Korea", "Hospitals", "Supply chain management", "Organizational performance", "Health care", "SC innovation", "SC efficiency", "Supplier cooperation", "Quality management practice", "Structural equation modeling" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In recent years, health care has become a critical issue in the world, along with the increased concerns for medical errors, patient safety, and spiraling up medical costs (McFadden et al., 2006a, b; Olden and McCaughrin, 2007; Stock et al., 2007; Gowen et al., 2008). Also, in today's intensively competitive global market, effective supply chain management (SCM) plays a critical role in improving organisational performance and competitive advantage (Schneller and Smeltzer, 2006; White and Mohdzain, 2009). The competitive environment requires organisations to provide high quality products and services, deliver rapid service response, and develop dynamic capabilities that are congruent with the rapidly changing business environment (Fawcett and Magnan, 2001; Lin et al., 2005; Teece, 2009). Accordingly, organisations strive for efficient operations, such as value-added process improvement, reduction of delivery cost, and improved quality of products and services, while maintaining close cooperation with their suppliers.Many researchers have stressed the importance of effective SCM in the healthcare industry (Fawcett and Magnan, 2001; Chan et al., 2008; Kumar et al., 2008; Mustaffa and Potter, 2009; Shin et al., 2009; White and Mohdzain, 2009). Healthcare services involve comprehensive and complex systems that treat and prevent diseases, including medical consumables, laundry and cleaning, medical exercise equipment, home-care products, information systems, wheelchairs, vehicle fleet management, and general materials (Gattorna, 1998). One of the biggest challenges for SCM in the healthcare industry is managing costs while meeting customer demands (Hook, 2009). According to the Healthcare Financial Management Association (2008) SC survey, the healthcare industry is expected to invest as much as 55 percent of total hospital expenses on the implementation of SCM by 2011. For effective SCM, organisations need to first innovate their business processes, while considering their suppliers' processes.Innovation is an imperative tool for organisations to gain their competitive advantage and improve organisational performance (Porter, 1990). SC innovation refers to a complex process which deals with uncertainty in the environment, so as to provide solutions for customer needs and find new ways to better organisational processes using new technologies (Porter, 1990; Herzlinger, 2006). SC innovation helps organisations achieve SC efficiency for more effective customer value creation (efficient data management, speedy processing of patient care, medical error reduction, etc.), which is expected to result in a positive impact on organisational performance. Innovative applications of information technology (IT) lead to value creation for customers, increased efficiency and accuracy of care service delivery, and improved quality care (Anderson, 2002; Andre et al., 2008; Shih et al., 2009).This study proposes a research model to ascertain how SC innovation will improve organisational performance through SC efficiency, better cooperation with suppliers, and effective quality management (QM) practices. Data are collected from managers of SC or logistics departments in hospitals. Specifically, this research attempts to address the following questions:* Does SC innovation have an impact on SC process improvement?* Does SC process impact organisational performance?The rest of this paper is organized as follows: the second section presents a review of relevant previous studies; the third section proposes a research model and develops hypotheses; the fourth section provides the research methodology; the fifth section reports the results of data analysis; the sixth section presents discussion of the results; and the seventh section provides the conclusion and limitations of the study.\nReview of relevant literature: SCM in the healthcare industry\nResearch model and hypotheses: Figure 1 shows the proposed research model describing how SC innovation would affect supplier cooperation, SC efficiency and QM practice, which in turn affect organisational performance. SC innovation plays a key role in developing products and services that fulfill customers' needs and values (Kahn, 2000; Flint et al., 2005, 2008). On one hand, if an organisation focuses on value creation for customers, it can do so through customer acquisition, satisfaction, and loyalty (Kahn, 2000). On the other hand, if an organisation provides its products and services by a delivery system, it must improve its SC processes through innovation to continuously search for customers' needs and values (Flint et al., 2005, 2008).SC innovation and supplier cooperation\nResearch methodology: Data collection\nResults: SEM was used to test the hypotheses. AMOS 5.0 was chosen for this study by virtue of its powerful graphic representations and easy-to-use interfaces. This section presents the results of hypotheses tests, including the standardized coefficient of each path in the research model. The results of goodness-of-fit test for the model are summarized in Table VI. As a result of the goodness-of-fit test, the value of kh2 was 485.2, kh2/d.f. 2.54, GFI 0.899, CFI 0.917, RMR 0.052, RMSEA 0.067, and the p-value of 0.000. Compared to the recommended values for the goodness-of-fit tests, in this model the values of CFI (0.917), RMSEA (0.067), kh2 (485.2), and the p-value (0.000) were satisfactory, but GFI (0.899) and RMR (0.052) were not.The results of significance tests for paths of the model are shown in Table VII and Figure 3. Lines in Figure 3 indicate the significant paths among the latent variables. For H1, the standardized path coefficient between SC innovation and supplier cooperation was 0.415 and statistically significant at the 0.001 level. Thus, H1 was supported. When SC innovation is focused on improving value for the customer, supplier cooperation is an important idea to create innovation for providing better value to customers through the reduced cost and improved quality of products and services (Flint et al., 2008).For H2, the standardized path coefficients between SC innovation and SC efficiency was 0.170 and statistically significant at the 0.05 level. H2 was supported. SC innovation affects SC efficiency focused to provide efficient operation through SC processes. It means that SC innovation for SC efficiency helps improve operation and management, reduce waste, and effectively use networks with hospitals and suppliers. As Chen (1997) proposed concerning the effect of SC efficiency on SCM, H2 in the study showed a positive relationship between SC innovation and SC efficiency.For H3, the standardized path coefficients between SC innovation and QM practice was 0.966 and statistically significant at the 0.001 level. H3 was supported. QM is an important factor in the value-added process and delivery of products in SCM (Sila et al., 2006). SC innovation provides a reliable supply of consistent quality products, reduces lead time during the delivery to customers, and serves the guarantee of safety and environmental protection by delivered products (Stundza, 2009).For H4-H6, the standardized path coefficients among the supplier cooperation, SC efficiency, and QM practice and organisational performance were 0.161, 0.311, and 0.693, respectively, all statistically significant at the 0.01 level. H4-H6 were supported. The study has a similar result to previous studies on relationships between supplier cooperation and organisational performance (H4), SC efficiency and organisational performance (H5) (Chen, 1997; Li and O'Brien, 1999), as well as QM practice and organisational performance (H6) (Lin et al., 2005). One of the SC efficiency factors, an efficient information network, can provide real-time information within the organisation as well as in the network with suppliers, improve customer response time, and reduce delivery time from ordering.\nDiscussion: The results of the study provide important insights on how to improve organisational performance through supplier cooperation, SC efficiency, and QM practice. Innovative design of a SC has a significant impact on the selection of and cooperation with best suppliers, increase of SC efficiency, and enhancement of QM practice, which subsequently will improve organisational performance. The results imply that prior to implementing SCM, organisation leaders need to implement innovative ideas that can streamline their operational processes including those of suppliers. The healthcare system should focus on innovating and developing the overall business strategy (e.g. investigate the applicability of new technologies and resources in SCM) to enhance competitive advantage. The 2nd Annual Leadership Summit on Healthcare Supply Chain Management (2008) reported the importance of innovative SCM for eliminating unnecessary cost, accelerating financial returns, implementing IT, and streamlining SC processes in the healthcare industry.The study showed that organisational performance is associated with QM practice (0.693), SC efficiency (0.311), and supplier cooperation (0.161). The results also show that deliveries of materials and products are important to support critical activities and strategies of hospitals along with supplier cooperation (Lambert et al., 1997; Kannan and Haq, 2007; Chan et al., 2008) and QM practices (Flynn and Flynn, 2005; Lin et al., 2005; Sila et al., 2006). As suggested by Flynn and Flynn (2005), QM should drive cost reduction and improve organisational performance in SCM if both the organisation and suppliers try to have a positive relationship and devise approaches to collaboratively solve problems for improving quality. As a result, the collaborative strategy will provide competitive advantage to both organisations. To improve quality of care by SCM in hospitals, each organisation (e.g. hospital and supplier) should consider itself a partner to the other and develop tools or methods that can be used by both organisations.In addition, hospitals should categorize the SC activities to standardize needed materials to ensure a lean SC which can provide the highest quality of care at the lowest possible cost. It is important to ensure that medical staff participate in the material standardization efforts. Hospitals also need to analyze whether or not they are actually paying the contracted prices for materials, equipment and related care items because some hospitals have experienced overpaying their suppliers about 2-7 percent (Anderson, 2001).\nConclusions and limitations: SCM is designed to include best practices of the industry to streamline entire processes from the ordering to supply through delivery processes. These processes encompass efficient management and distribution for the flow of products/services for on time delivery of high-quality medical care.To identify factors that will improve organisational performance through SCM, this study proposed a research model involving the relationships among SC innovation, supplier cooperation, SC efficiency, and QM practice. Data were collected from logistics managers of 243 hospitals in South Korea to test six hypotheses in the model.This study contributes useful information to organisational leaders and managers in the healthcare industry, as the results suggest successful implementation of SCM is attained through continuous SC innovation with supplier cooperation, which in turn improves organisational performance. To achieve SC innovation, organisation leaders must nurture an excellent work environment, which includes providing right resources to support efficient operational processes for high quality of care and reduced medical errors at the lowest cost or highest level of efficiency (Byrnes, 2004; Herzlinger, 2006; Schneller and Smeltzer, 2006; Singh et al., 2006; Shih et al., 2009). Consequently, these goals would benefit the society at large through improved medical care for better quality of life.The healthcare organisation would benefit from understanding the importance of continuous quality improvement and SC efficiency, which need to be incorporated into SCM strategies. For example, healthcare providers that use limited technology in their work stations (administration, nursing, laboratory, surgery, etc.) will typically rely on standardized manual systems for ordering supplies. The manual process can result in data entry errors and inaccurate information for ordering. These problems create inefficiency and poor performance in SCM.The healthcare industry has been slow to modify and innovate its business models and adapt to the rapidly changing business environment when compared to other industries, especially ICT. The total investment in IT for all work processes, including SCM, in the healthcare industry amounted to 3.9 percent of revenue in 2003 (Warner, 2004). Healthcare organisations should investigate the potential benefits that can come from IT-enabled SCM, such as barcode technology, ERP and RFID that could improve SC efficiency by supporting supply replenishment and reduced operating cost.There are some limitations of the study. First, data were collected from relatively large hospitals with more than 100 beds. Considering that SCM is also important for hospitals with less than 100 beds and that SCM has been implemented in those hospitals and other settings such as outpatient clinics, which also utilize supplies and maintain relationships with suppliers. Generalisation of the results of this study may be limited. Second, even though South Korea is a world leader in ICT, and SCM has been deployed in many hospitals there, data collected from Korea might be a constraint when we consider the level of linkages and cooperation between upstream and downstream of SCM in the healthcare industry.Future research should consider, in addition to the limitations mentioned above, cross-cultural and longitudinal studies of organisational performance. Also, an analysis of the data will be used on some classification, such as the type of information systems for SCM, the type of hospitals, and the number of beds. Recently, many hospitals outsource some of their operations. Those that outsource their operations might differ from those that do not in terms of strategies and management involving the factors identified in our research: SC innovation, SC efficiency, supplier cooperation, and QM practice. Future research should also explore the differences and similarities of those factors between the two groups of hospitals.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine supply chain (SC) innovation for improving organisational performance in the healthcare industry.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A research model is proposed which describes the impact of SC innovation, supplier cooperation, SC efficiency, and quality management (QM) practices on organisational performance. The proposed research model and hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling based on data collected from 243 hospitals.\nFindings: - The results of the study support that organisational performance is positively associated with constructs of each SC innovation factor. Innovative design of SC has a significant impact on selection of and cooperation with excellent suppliers, improved SC efficiency, and encouragement of QM practices.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The data used in this study were collected from relatively large hospitals with more than 100 beds in South Korea. The generalization of the study results may be limited by the size of sample hospitals.\nOriginality/value: - This study provides useful planning information in the healthcare industry. The results suggest successful implementation of SC management is attained through continuous SC innovation with supplier cooperation, which in turn improves organisational performance.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A dream deferred: interdisciplinary accounting in the US	[ "Accounting research", "Accounting faculty development", "Disciplinary gatekeeping" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: American poet Langston Hughes (1902-1967) pondering race relations in the USA provides several possibilities for ideal states that are never accomplished in his poem \"A Dream Deferred.\"\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to set out to examine and critique the current state and future trajectory of interdisciplinary accounting research in the USA.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The analysis is based on the author's involvement in and research into accounting research and publication contexts, drivers and patterns in the accounting discipline.\nFindings: In all likelihood, research will continue established traditions that prevent the explorations of economics and finance from material broadening. This paper identifies how that which everyone believes to be such a good idea cannot bear fruit.\nResearch limitations/implications: Conventional economics-based accounting research has proliferated in volume but has largely exhausted its potential for significant contributions to knowledge. Failure to embrace broadened interdisciplinary perspectives risks a crisis of accounting research contribution to policy, practice, and society.\nOriginality/value: This critique reveals the serious weaknesses and serious risks to international accounting scholarship of the continuance and global mimicking of the North American pursuit of an exclusively economic accounting research perspective.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Developing pro-environmental behaviour: ecotourism fieldtrip and experiences	[ "Experiential learning", "Assessment", "Ecotourism", "Pro-environmental behaviour", "Guided learning" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The continuous deterioration of flora and fauna is a significant problem for many countries because of its irreversible effect if left unprotected. Lopez-Gamero et al. (2011) stipulated that the protection and conservation of nature are of fundamental strategic importance to environmental sustainability. Yet sustainability and social wellbeing of the ecosystem continues to be plagued by high failure rates and poor performances. Poor strategic decisions and inadequate understanding of how nature can be efficiently protected mark the cause of such unsatisfactory performances. Hence, managing pro-environmental behaviour (PEB) is crucial. To develop a PEB, it is important that an appropriate approach is used to ensure its success - instilling a lifelong PEB and knowledge (Leal Filho et al., 2015).\nExperiential learning: According to Savageau (2013), when environmental education is present, it is often too theoretical in nature, which can lead to widespread inertia. Alternatively, the opportunity to learn through participation has immense benefits. Recent research suggests that student participation and guided learning experiences provide opportunities to deliver a strong and positive educational message to individuals (Green and Farazmand, 2012). According to Bennett et al. (2011) and Sorensen and Jensen (2015), through experiences, individuals develop an ongoing interest in protecting and preserving things, and this exerts the strongest influences on attitude formation (Clements and Cord, 2013). Despite widespread support for education to foster PEB, empirical research offering an innovative synthesis between education and sustainability as solutions to environmental sustainability is scarce. Relatedly, many studies do not examine how participations and experiences can transcend to promote a greater appreciation and understanding of the environment and sustainability. Hence, this study attempts to address these concerns in a diligent and systematic manner, arguing for a synthesis between experience, education and sustainability of individuals, which offers new knowledge and solutions to better understand the significance of participation and experience in fostering behavioural enhancement.\nResearch context: Ecotourism is based principally upon natural and archaeological resources in its undisturbed natural environment. It is a non-consumptive aspect of nature that comprises educational, appreciation, conservation and sustainable components. When sustainability becomes the main concern, ecotourists must be offered genuine natural areas and take part to learn and appreciate the ecosystem in a balanced approach. Such exposure could reinforce participants' environmental knowledge and to display appropriate behaviours and activities (Savageau, 2013).\nTwo streams of pro-environmental behaviour: The literature on PEB consists of two major streams: one focused on social-psychological constructs and the other focused on socio-demographic variables (Dietz et al., 2002). In the first stream, Darner (2012) conceptualised four factors: environmental awareness, affective evaluation, self-determined motivation and perceived behavioural control. Considering these factors, Demirtas and Akdogan (2015) argued that there is a causal link between individual psychological predictors and environmental behaviour. When scholars and researchers refer to environmental behaviour, De Leeuw et al. (2015) claim that individuals who rate higher on pro-environmental predictors are more likely to demonstrate stronger PEB. All of these are in line with the model of altruistic behaviour by Schwartz (1977), who asserts that moral norms are analogous to behaviour; whereby PEB is a function of an individual's moral beliefs, alternatively defined as the belief in what is right or wrong.\nResearch framework and propositions: Ryan et al.(2010) found that attitudes towards behaviour are positively related to environmental awareness. In many circumstances, the types of information provided will directly shape attitudes towards performing a targeted behaviour. According to Emil and Cress (2014), experiential learning that emphasises self-discovery, participation and sensory involvement leads to greater environmental awareness. With this outcome, De Leeuw et al. (2015) noted that experiential learning subsequently promotes positive attitudes towards PEB. Therefore:\nMethod: Three time-phase studies (before, during, and after the fieldtrip) test the conjectures herein used via purposive sampling to examine the effect of participation and guided learning on behavioural change (i.e. PEB). The described outcome in each study acts as a sequential progress in behaviour developed through the experiential fieldtrip.\nResults: All participants, except two, went on an ecotourism tour before via a group package fieldtrip. Consistent with the survey analysis, some highlights on particularly insightful or representative focus group participants' statements drawn from the focus group interviews included:\nDiscussions and implications: From the findings in Study 1, it is clear that although participants claim they possess environmentally friendly behaviour, the findings showed the opposite. Though individuals might be aware of the effects of their behaviour, environmental awareness does not necessarily translate into positive behaviour (Busse and Menzel, 2014). The effectiveness of an assessment to promote PEB should be measured in the transformed PEB as well as how much the fieldtrip could increase knowledge and action, which was evidenced through Studies 2 and 3. Based on the sequences of the study phases, it is vivid that there is a clear transformation of behaviour, which is the core purpose of this study.\nLimitation: There were a few limitations in this study. During the fieldtrip, the participants stayed in resorts, instead of camps. This could take away the important direct exposure of living in an ecotourism-site. The second limitation is that there is no subsequent environmental subject that could be a follow-up to the existing experience. Furthermore, this study also did not examine in depth how value systems can build PEB. The fourth limitation was that there were no documentaries played to increase deeper understanding and appreciation, such as the documentaries on climate change within the twenty-first century, permaculture, self-resilience and sustainable practices, effects of pollution, etc.\nFuture research direction: Our findings suggest that future studies should focus on understanding and change PEB as well as the roles of values and culture, which can help motivate people to act upon their biospheric values. It is also important to examine the value orientations, self-determined motivational types on PEB, economic and social structure of the people. It is worthwhile to understand how the interaction with the environment, habit and upbringing could lead to PEB. Future studies should also investigate how habitual patterns that are likely to be repeated automatically are developed and controlled by deliberative reasoning processes. It is also important to investigate how the biospheric values influence PEB through the process of norm activation and moral values.\nConclusion: Ecotourism experiential learning is undeniably important in instilling PEB. Endeavours to create competitive students (not restricted to classroom learning alone) and to promote the adoption of an experiential learning setting, in which problems are prototypical and not idiosyncratic, will help learning become directly relevant to future problems, problems that students need to face and to begin learning how to solve with the use of alternative measures and strategic thinking. The experience and knowledge gained through the fieldtrip add value to PEB (Sorensen and Jensen, 2015) through performance accomplishments and instrumental support. This initial exploration of an experiential guided tour helps clarify increasing PEB towards sustainability.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study aims to assess the effectiveness of a student participatory approach and assessment to achieve an environmentally friendly behaviour and change strategy.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Three time-phase studies employed a participatory and experiential case in the form of ecotourism experiential learning and assessment using a sample of 100 higher education students.\nFindings: The findings suggest that students' participations through the development, implementation and maintenance of nature-based experiences, combined with professional guides in educating students about sustainable practices has significant and positive effects on pro-environmental behaviour (PEB). The study reveals that social-psychological constructs (except environmental awareness) and socio-demographic variables account for variances in PEB intentions and provides managerial implications for marketers on the use of student participation to enhance behaviour.\nPractical implications: Experiential and guided learning adds value to PEB through performance accomplishments and instrumental support.\nSocial implications: The guiding principles of moral norms and acting in favour of the community (general social pressure and the underlying normative beliefs) lead to a higher tendency to perform according to the ideal behaviour.\nOriginality/value: This study is the first to use student participation, guided learning, tour guides and experiences to transfer the knowledge of PEB to individuals.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
How the HR function can build the capability to change	[ "Organizational change", "Behaviour", "Organizational development" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Today's leaders continue to be faced with rapid changes in the business environment requiring quick responses to optimize returns or exploit new opportunities. The need for organizational change is an ever present consequence of today's global trends.Take a moment to reflect on your personal experiences. Over the last five years how many change initiatives have you been involved in or witnessed? How many were successful and why? And what lessons has your organization learnt from these initiatives?Evidence shows that the approaches to delivering successful change remain unreliable (Kotter, 2007) and there has been no great improvement in these figures over the last decade. But where successful and sustainable change has been achieved, it is through focus on addressing people's behaviors, and underlying values and beliefs.The future role of the HR function should focus on helping their organization to learn how to build a capability to change. Part of this future role will be to lead the process of linking the activities involved in delivering an organizational transition to those required in an individual's transition.Ultimately, any organizational change is achieved when a collection of new tasks and activities are conducted using a new set of behaviors. Helping to make the connections between \"what\" needs to happen and \"how\" people make it happen, is where the HR function should focus its efforts and can add great value.Addressing this challenge points to four areas where the HR Function can take a leading role in assuring a successful approach (see Figure 1). These areas build on the fundamental principles of the \"wheel of learning\" (Senge et al., 1994).Facilitate the corporate memory on change\nSummary: In conclusion, HR professionals have a significant role to play in helping organizations build their capability to change. Acting as the partner with the operational business to identify lessons from the past, diagnose the challenges in the transition ahead, shape relevant interventions for individuals and track improvements will earn them the right to be a genuine strategic partner to senior management.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The aim of the article is to determine the function of HR as a strategic partner to senior management and how it can be positioned to proactively build an organization's capability to change.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper is conceptualized based on the Peter Senge's \"fifth discipline\" in relation to the learning organization and its implications on organizational change. A conceptual framework has been proposed based on both the literature and management practice.\nFindings: - HR professionals need to change their role in helping organizations grow their change capability through drawing out the lessons from previous organizational change, planning a role in defining the behavioral challenges for each individual, creating a series of interventions that will support individuals in making the behavioral transition to the future, and deploying tools that link and track an individual's behavior change to the new results a team is delivering.\nOriginality/value: - Organizations still need to learn how to change their performance. The principles of the learning organization can help guide HR professionals increase their organizations' ability to deliver successful change as well as help them earn the right to be a strategic partner to the senior management team.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Reducing transportation emissions: Company intentions, barriers and discriminating factors	[ "Sustainability", "Survey", "Logistics", "Supply chain management", "Transport", "Emissions" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Due to growing public awareness of the effects of transportion on global warming and increasing pressure from legislation, companies need to become more environmentally sustainable. Transportation accounts for 15 per cent of the total greenhouse gas emissions globally (OECD, 2010), and the current trends clearly point in the direction of increased freight transport work (in terms of tonne-km) and reduced resource utilisation of road freight vehicles (European Commission, 2010). In a global perspective, transportation of goods is expected to continue increasing in step with the GDP. This trend contrasts sharply with the climate targets set by the EU, which require substantial reductions in emissions; by 2020 the EU should cut its emissions by 20 per cent, and by 2030 by 40 per cent below the 1990 levels (EU, 2011).\n2. Literature review: The literature review was carried out to identify and review potential logistical and technical actions and their barriers, and discriminating factors for reducing transportation emissions. To do this, we first clarified the relationship between the actors involved in generating freight transport emissions: logistics service providers (LSPs) and freight owners. We then identified six factors that describe the causes of transportation emissions on the macro level. Thereafter, we reviewed green transportation practices and linked these to four of the six macro-level factors to ensure that the wide spectra of potential causes of transportation emissions were covered in the logistical and technical actions. Finally, barriers and discriminating factors for green logistics practices were reviewed.\n3. Methodology: To examine the intention of companies to reduce transportation emissions by 2020, we used an exploratory survey of freight transportation-intensive industries in Sweden. The survey focused on the disposition of these industries to reduce CO2 emissions from freight transportation. The choice of research design was motivated by a lack of research on what is to be done from a company perspective to reduce transportation emissions in the near future, even though it is a contemporary and highly relevant topic. The choice was further motivated by a need for a broad overview of companies in different industries as emissions are generated from a variety of industries. The research design was considered to offer valuable insights into barriers and discriminating factors.\n4. Results: The results of the survey first present the average values of the perceived potentials, the intended reductions and the barriers for implementation. Then, the impact of the three discriminating factors on the intended implementation of actions are presented.\n5. Discussion: The discussion addresses the intention to implement logistical and technical actions for reducing transportation emissions by 2020, barriers that impede implementation and factors that discriminate between companies.\n6. Conclusions and future research: This study examined the intention of companies to reduce transportation emissions by 2020, which helps to understand whether the current trend of increased transportation emissions is likely to change in the coming years. The study also determined which barriers and discriminating factors affect the reduction, which can help companies finding ways to overcome them and policy makers to develop policy measures to support such approaches. The applied company perspective addressed calls for research regarding new knowledge in the area of greening transportation (Meixell and Norbis, 2008; Tacken et al., 2014). Most of the previous studies consider long-term actions on an aggregated macro level.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the intention of companies to reduce transportation emissions by 2020 and the barriers and the discriminating factors that affect the reduction.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A literature review identified potential logistical and technical actions and their barriers, and discriminating factors for reducing transportation emissions. A survey of freight transport-intensive industries in Sweden examined the effects of, intention for implementation of and barriers to 12 actions to reduce CO2 emissions from freight transportation. In total, 172 logistics managers responded, representing a response rate of 40.3 per cent.\nFindings: Logistics service providers (LSPs) and freight owners are likely to reduce a considerable amount of CO2 emissions from freight transportation by 2020 using a combination of actions. The lowest level of confidence was for reducing CO2 emissions by changing logistics structures, while there was greater confidence by means of operational changes. The actions have few barriers, but there is often a combination of barriers to overcome. Three discriminating factors influence the intention of a firm to reduce transportation emissions: perceived potential, company size and LSP/freight owner. The industrial sector of a freight owner has minor influence. Companies that are particularly likely to reduce emissions are LSPs, large companies, and those that perceive a large reduction potential.\nResearch limitations/implications: Logistical and technical barriers appear to hinder companies from implementing actions, while organisational barriers and external prerequisites do not. Barriers cannot be used to predict companies' intentions to reduce transportation emissions. The authors examined the impact of three discriminating factors on reduction of transportation emissions. The research is based on perceptions of well-informed managers and on companies in Sweden.\nPractical implications: The findings can be used by managers to identify firms for benchmarking initiatives and emissions-reducing strategies.\nOriginality/value: The study provides insights into intended CO2 reductions in transportation by 2020. It presents new knowledge regarding barriers and discriminating factors for implementing actions to reduce transportation emissions.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Religiosity and female labour market attainment in Canada: the Protestant exception	[ "Canada", "Religion", "Female labour supply", "Protestant" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This paper examines the relationship between religiosity and female labour market attainment (FLMA hereafter) in Canada, at both extensive and intensive margins. The study of FLMA is deemed having a foundational role in the creation of labour economics (Heckman and MaCurdy, 1980). Through these studies, FLMA has been found to be important for economic growth rate (Klasen and Lamanna, 2009; Diebolt and Perrin, 2013), level of development (Tzannatos, 1999; Bandiera and Natraj, 2013), and fiscal sustainability of the welfare state, especially in aging societies (Apps, 1991; Hirazawa et al., 2014). Despite such economic significance, FLMA cannot be regarded as a uniquely economic phenomenon. For the past several decades, it has been linked to a host of debates centering on societal and cultural changes around the world (Fernandez et al., 2004; Alesina et al., 2013). Past multidisciplinary scholarship has identified a list of socio-cultural and demographic factors that contribute to its within cohort determination (Fogli and Veldkamp, 2011; Bredemeier and Juessen, 2013; Grogan, 2013; Borck, 2014) and its evolution over-time (Coleman and Pencavel, 1993; Euwals et al., 2011; Fernandez, 2013). Surprisingly however, the linkage between religiosity and FLMA has been scantly studied, compared to ostensibly akin matters of culture (Reimers, 1985), ethnicity (Ghazal, 2010), and race (England et al., 2004; Glass and Jacobs, 2005). There are few cross-country studies of the relationship between female labour force participation (FLFP hereafter) and state religion (H'madoun, 2010; Bahrampourtehrani and Sylwester, 2013; Pastore and Tenaglia, 2013). Aside from them, the impact of religiosity on FLMA is extensively examined for the USA. This research investigates this relationship using Canadian data.\n2. Literature review: A burgeoning strand of research within the field of economics of religion empirically examines the interrelation between religiosity and labour market outcomes (Lehrer, 1995, 2009, 2011) and the contiguous issues of entrepreneurship (Carswell and Rolland, 2007; Audretsch et al., 2013) and wealth accumulation (Keister, 2011). A small subset of these studies considers the confluence of the three streams of religiosity, gender, and labour market attainment (Gee, 1991; Dilmaghani, 2015). Past theoretical research divides the impact of religiosity on female labour market performance into two categories of direct and indirect effects (Keister, 2011; Lehrer 2009). Religions usually endorse the subscription of believers to traditional gender roles and its ensuing distribution of household labour. The stand of religion towards females as \"keepers of the home\" (Sherkat, 2000) creates extra utility for religious women and directly influence their decision to commit to paid work outside households, and the amount of time they allocate to it. In parallel, it has been documented that females adhering more closely to traditional gender roles present themselves as more religious (Woodhead, 2007). Conversely, irreligious females are more likely to hold egalitarian views about gender-role and adhere more often to labour market (Vella, 1994).\n3. Data and methodology: The data set used in this study is the Ethnic Diversity Survey (EDS hereafter) of Statistics Canada, collected between April and August 2002. This data set is a survey of 41,695 male or female respondents, aged between 15 and 65 years old, who are legal residents of Canada. The subsample we use is limited to female respondents and contains 21,469 observations. The EDS surveys the respondents' labour market status, yearly labour earnings in Canadian dollars, as well as hours worked per week and weeks worked per year. The level of schooling and the highest degree earned are recorded for the respondent, her parents and, if applicable, her spouse. Moreover, the survey includes around 300 questions about the respondents' ethnic and religious background, along a wide array of socioeconomic behaviour. These features of the EDS make it the most comprehensive, and given the discontinuation of the survey, the most recent data set available for our purpose. The variables used in this paper are listed and defined in Table I, and the descriptive statistics are shown in Tables II and III. Only 193 observations (less than 0.90 per cent of the data set), containing missing variables, are excluded. All reported estimates are computed using survey weights, making them nationally representative.\n4. Results: Our results can be summarized as follows. Affiliation status is not a predictor of FLMA, in Canada. On the other hand, for the religiously affiliated, higher degrees of religiosity predicts lower labour market attainment. Among different dimensions of religiosity, private-worship has the strongest negative association with FLMA. When the sample is disaggregated by religious group, Protestants are the only group for whom commitment is consistently negatively associated with the outcome, regardless of the religiosity indicator employed. Our results also, interestingly, reveal that an interfaith marriage is a statistically significant and non-negligible predictor of higher FLMA. The details of the results are reported successively for our models of extensive and intensive margins[4].\n5. Conclusion: The relationship between religiosity and FLMA has been studied in some detail for the US labour market (Lehrer, 2011). However, for the Canadian context, no previous study existed expect for Gee (1991). Thus, this study fills a lacuna in the literature by providing a comprehensive set of stylized facts. Through a series of regressions, we find that when religiosity is accounted for as a binary variable, it is neither a predictor of FLFP nor the number of hours worked after entering the labour market, in Canada. However, when the degree of religiosity is taken into consideration, it negatively correlates with the probability of labour force participation, as well as the number of hours worked. Revisiting these questions on a by group basis, we find that the negative correlation uncovered is non-negligibly more pronounced for Protestant women.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The relationship between religiosity and female labour market attainment has been widely investigated for the USA; however, no comparable study has been undertaken for the Canadian context. The purpose of this paper is to redress this critical oversight of the literature by examining the impact of religiosity on Canadian female labour supply, both at extensive and intensive margins.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using data from the Canadian Ethnic Diversity Survey, the authors consider all the measurable dimensions of religiosity, for the pooled sample, as well as by religious group. A wide array of control variables is included in the regressions to insure the reliability of the estimates.\nFindings: The authors find that overall religiosity inversely relates to female labour supply in Canada. When the impact of religiosity is assessed on a by religion basis, it is revealed that Protestant females are penalized, by far the most.\nPractical implications: The result is comparable with the pattern uncovered in the USA for Conservative Protestant females. Unlike what can be expected, no statistically significant difference is detected between religious-nones and Catholics, suggesting a convergence of gender ideologies.\nOriginality/value: The investigation reveals interesting patterns that not only contribute to the current state of literature, but also motivate future research. Fairlie and Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition techniques are also used to further explore attainment gaps among the religious groups.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
How and why managers use conceptual devices in business-to-business research	[ "Managers", "Business", "Business-to-business marketing" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The limited literature about managerial relevance is characterized by the use of polarizing and sweeping rhetorical statements, and is directed either toward a critique or legitimization of a particular image of the relationship between scientific theorizing and managers and their activities. Moreover, the discussion is often based on implicit assumptions of how the topic of managerial relevance should be defined. As Jaworski (2011, p. 211) noted:\nExtant literature: Before discussing managers' use of scientific knowledge, we must address the question of how knowledge utilization is defined. As Menon and Varadarajan (1992) argued, there is a great diversity in the literature regarding how knowledge utilization is conceptualized. For example, John and Martin (1984, p. 173) defined knowledge use as the research output \"used directly to guide behavior and make decisions\" or the extent to which information can \"reduce uncertainty in decisions\" (Patton, 1978, p. 50). Larsen (1985, p. 143) emphasized that, when analyzing utilization, the focus should be on including \"organizational, socionomical and attituditional factors in addition to the information\". Emphasizing the process perspective of knowledge utilization, Rich (1997, p. 17) defined utilization as \"a process - a series of events, which may or may not lead to a specific action by a particular actor at a given point of time\".\nData collection: The data for this study were collected from three different organizations that have used the BM model. These organizations included a global information technology (IT) organization, a Swedish veterinary firm and a sales consultancy firm. Data were collected from >100 hours of participant observations in situations where the model was used either externally or internally within these organizations. In addition, five focus-group sessions were undertaken, each of which lasted for between three and eight hours. The purpose of these interactive sessions was to obtain additional information regarding the use of the model. Finally, 10 interviews, each of which lasted approximately one-two hours, were conducted with various members of the three organizations. All data collection was conducted between 2010 and 2013.\nA brief summary of the BM model: The original study argued that that previous \"linear\" models of the selling process, most of which are based on the so-called \"seven steps of selling\", (Moncrief and Marshall, 2005) are deficient in that they fail to capture the dynamic nature of contemporary B2B sales processes; in particular, linear models fail to recognize that several dimensions coexist simultaneously in contemporary selling processes. In contrast, the proposed model recognizes four concurrent dimensions:\nCase 1 - A global IT company: Background\nCase 2 - A veterinary firm: Background\nCase 3 - A global sales-consultancy firm: Background\nAnalysis: Each of the three cases described in this study have elements of all three models of the use of scientific research.\nDiscussion and implications: This study suggests that managers use conceptual devices in B2B research in an action-oriented, flexible and dynamic way. This conceptual or translational mode of use is characterized by managers' adoption of the research to the problem they are facing at that particular time. These findings have implications for both mangers and researchers in the B2B domain.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study aims to analyze how and why managers adopt and use business-to-business (B2B) research.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected through participant observations, focus groups and interviews in three organizations that had used a certain conceptual model from B2B research.\nFindings: The study suggests that managers use B2B research in an action-oriented, flexible and dynamic manner. Such conceptual or translational use is characterized by managers' creative translation of the research to match the problems they are facing at that particular time.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study suggests that researchers and managers are on equal footing, and can contribute to one another in an active and creative way.\nPractical implications: Through translating research into their specific context, managers can find a new spectrum of research usage in their organization, but can also contribute to research in an interactive and creative way.\nOriginality/value: This study gives empirical examples for how and why a certain piece of B2B research has been used by managers in three organizations. Moreover, this study contributes to existing models relating to marketing use by giving examples of the active translation process in which managers adopt the research to their specific challenges.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The relevance of socially responsible blue-collar human resource management: An experimental investigation in a Chinese factory	[ "China", "Ethics", "Emerging countries", "Employer attractiveness", "Blue-collar workers", "Employer prestige" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Following the market reforms in the late 1970s, China has established itself as one of the world's largest economies at an unprecedented pace and quickly earned the name of the \"world's factory.\" This success story has been driven by the readily available and virtually unlimited supply of cheap labor that has attracted Western companies in their search for low-cost production locations. Although China has created millions of higher qualified jobs over the past years, about one-third of its labor force is still comprised of blue-collar workers (Fleming and Soborg, 2014), which renders the country one of the world's largest markets for blue-collar jobs.\nResearch background and hypotheses development: As the majority of research in the HRM domain is centered on white-collar workers (Batt and Banerjee, 2012), HRM in the blue-collar domain remains an understudied topic (Chen et al., 2016; Sassi et al., 2015). In addition, HRM studies in emerging countries are rare relative to studies in the Western world (Horwitz, 2017; Yeganeh and Su, 2008). This is somewhat surprising given blue-collar workers' utmost importance for the economic development of emerging countries. Thus, it is valuable to devote more attention to the analysis of effective HRM for blue-collar workers outside of the Western world.\nMethod: Pre-testing and development of stimulus material\nResults: Preliminary analyses\nDiscussion: Summary\nLimitations, directions for further research and conclusion: As with all empirical investigations, the present study has some limitations. First, because the study was not carried out as a field experiment, its external validity and generalizability are naturally limited. The scenarios were fictitious and participants were not actually employed by or considering employment with the factory described in the study. In addition, to create the experimental conditions, it was necessary to break both SRBC-HRM and pay down to discrete conditions. However, the vignette study design generally has the advantage of enhancing internal and external validity (Aguinis and Bradley, 2014). In addition, the randomized assignment of workers to the four experimental groups erases possible confounding effects of other potentially relevant variables by equally distributing them among different groups (Campbell and Stanley, 1963).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how Chinese factories can attract and retain blue-collar workers. While higher wages are typically considered to be an effective HR instrument in this regard, this paper argues for the relevance of ethics in the HR domain. To this end, the paper develops and tests the concept of socially responsible blue-collar human resource management (SRBC-HRM).\nDesign/methodology/approach: In a scenario-based experiment, 296 blue-collar employees from a Chinese garment factory responded to questionnaires measuring their job choice determinants regarding a fictitious employer. In the scenarios, pay level (average vs above average) and SRBC-HRM (good vs poor) were manipulated.\nFindings: The results revealed significantly positive relationships between SRBC-HRM and Chinese blue-collar workers' job choice determinants (employer attractiveness, employer prestige and recommendation intentions), which were moderated by workers' perceived importance of employer prestige. However, there was no significant effect of above-average pay on the three job choice determinants. Moreover, average pay in combination with good SRBC-HRM had stronger effects on job choice determinants than above-average pay in combination with poor SRBC-HRM.\nPractical implications: The study highlights the economic relevance of the ethical treatment of employees in the manufacturing sector. In addition, the findings challenge the predominant managerial view that monetary rewards are the most important factor for instilling productive employee attitudes and intentions.\nSocial implications: Poor labor practices are still widespread in factories in emerging countries. By indicating that SRBC-HRM improves factories' bottom line, the study provides a powerful rationale for factory managers to improve working conditions.\nOriginality/value: The present paper introduces the concept of SRBC-HRM specifically tailored to the context of blue-collar workers in emerging countries, who have received little attention in the literature. In addition, the findings demonstrate the economic relevance of SRBC-HRM.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Understanding customers' compliance behaviour to frontline employees' fuzzy requests	[ "Service encounter", "Compliance behaviour", "Fuzzy request" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In service encounters, behaviours of frontline employees (FLEs) can considerably influence customers' perceptions of service quality and their loyalty (Beatty et al., 2016; Kumar and Pansari, 2016). Service providers attempt to use service scripts to standardize customer - firm (customer-FLE in particular) interaction; however, it is difficult to prescribe exactly how FLEs should behave in the service context due to the variable nature of service encounters. In other words, the interaction between FLEs and customers in the service delivery process is somewhat uncertain and discretionary (Blancero and Johnson, 2001; Wang et al., 2012; Beatty et al., 2016). Such interaction, acting as responses to given requests from either FLEs or customers, might fall outside the service provider's script (i.e. above or below the benchmark of service policy and provision).\n2. Theoretical background and hypotheses: 2.1 Fuzzy requests\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Data collection\n4. Results: 4.1 Measurement model\n5. Discussion and conclusion: 5.1 Key findings\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Due to interactive fluctuations during service encounters, fuzzy requests frequently occur from either frontline employees or customers. While such requests from customers have been drawn wide attention, there exists a lack of research on frontline employees' fuzzy requests and possible outcomes (e.g. compliance or refusal). The purpose of this study is thus to identify the underlying mechanism and enacting variables that influence customers' compliance behaviour (i.e. positive outcome) to fuzzy requests.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected from a sample of ten express service companies in southeast China. The proposed model was empirically tested among 309 customers and further analysed through structural equation modelling.\nFindings: The results indicated that expected technical quality, perceived reasonableness and perceived convenience are positively associated with compliance behaviour, whereas the effects of inertia and negative emotional response on compliance behaviour are significantly negative. The findings also demonstrated that negative emotional response partially mediates the impacts of expected technical quality, perceived reasonableness and inertia on compliance behaviour.\nOriginality/value: This study investigates an under-researched phenomenon, namely, frontline employees' fuzzy requests in the service context. The underlying mechanism of customers' compliance behaviours to fuzzy requests is articulated through an integration of three beliefs with emotional response. As an early exploration of employees' fuzzy requests, this study provides important theoretical and managerial implications.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Performance measurement of AMT: a cross-regional study	[ "Advanced manufacturing technologies", "Performance measures", "North America", "Central America" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Current global economic conditions are bringing great challenges to firms, which can affect corporate strategic directions and alter business and manufacturing strategies (Gordon and Wiseman, 1995; Ferdows, 1997; Sambasivarao and Deshmukh, 1995). In an effort to survive under such conditions, companies are giving a more strategic role to manufacturing, from simply supporting marketing strategies to playing a major role in strengthening a company's market position (Wheelwright and Hayes, 1985). This change is due in part to the advancement in the automation of manufacturing technologies. Those technologies are known as advanced manufacturing technologies (AMT), and Youssef (1992) defined them as a group of integrated hardware and software-based technologies, which if properly implemented, monitored and evaluated, can provide greater improvements in efficiency and effectiveness to a firm. In fact, many companies invest on AMT mainly because they believe it will provide them simultaneous benefits of faster speed, greater product variety and increased productivity (Nemetz and Fry, 1988). However, implementation of AMT has been found to be one of the most lengthy, expensive and complex tasks a firm can undertake (Sambasivarao and Deshmukh, 1995).The increasing sophistication of AMTs and the growing importance of having world-class suppliers are causing more multinational firms to place less emphasis on low wages when selecting manufacturing sites. Leading manufacturers recognize that aspects such as labor skills, infrastructure, among others, allows them to be more competitive on a global basis (Ferdows, 1997).Understanding the role of AMT and how performance is achieved in different regions of the world is a paramount. Responding to this need, the current study tries to enhance the research on AMT by comparing two of the regions in America: an Anglo-Saxon region, composed by the United States and Canada, and a Hispanic region, composed by Mexico and Costa Rica. We investigate empirically whether AMT investment, and AMT planning and implementation activities have an impact on performance.\nLiterature review and research objective: Manufacturing literature have emphasized for decades the need to consider the importance of manufacturing in the strategic decision-making process (Wheelwright, 1984; Wheelwright and Hayes, 1985; Swamidass and Kotha, 1998; Swamidass and Newell, 1987). Since the early 1980s, firms have applied these concepts and have realized that competitive capabilities are built upon both structural (e.g. technologies, processes) and infrastructural aspects (e.g. management, human, training, etc.) (Small and Yasin, 1997a). In this review, we will discuss relevant structural and infrastructural aspects of AMT. We begin our discussion by describing different AMT typologies found in the literature. We then describe and discuss strategic planning and implementation activities, important to a successful attainment of AMT benefits. Finally, we describe AMT performance measures.AMT typologies\nMethodology: Measurement instrument\nResults and discussion: To explore the relationship between performance and the level of AMT investments and planning and implementation activities in the two regions, we use multiple linear regression analysis. We use two dependent variables OPEP and ORGP, and regress them on the independent variables of AMT investments factors (DMT, IMT, AIET, and APT) and AMT planning and implementation factors (TBA, IPA, and EPA). Additionally, we use an indicator variable to represent the region (0 - Anglo-Saxon and 1 - Hispanic). The multiple regression model is as follows: Equation 1 Table VI shows the results of the multiple regression analysis. Firstly, the indicator variable is found to be significant, implying that the relationship between performance and the independent variables is different for the two regions. Secondly, we can see that both operational and ORGP of AMT are reasonably predicted by the level of AMT investment and AMT planning and implementation factors (R2 values varying from 26 to 39 percent). This confirms our hypothesis that performance is positively related to AMT Investments and planning and implementation activities. We have also shown that performance varies by the region.There are interesting findings noteworthy mentioning. The analysis indicates positive relationships between DMT and IMT on ORGP. With OPEP considered as the dependent variable, IPA and TBA emerged as significant predictors. These findings are somewhat unexpected with respect to previous research (Swamidass and Kotha, 1998; Udo and Ehie, 1996; Zammuto and O'Connor, 1992).\nConclusions: The present international study explored the relationship between AMT investment, implementation and planning, and performance in two regions of America. It is hoped that the results of this study will add to the growing body of knowledge on AMT in different ways. First, this is one of the first studies on AMT in developing countries; and as such, it should encourage more research in these countries to analyze in greater detail implementation, and performance measurement issues in less developed countries. Second, we validated some research constructs that might be used in future international research. Third, we found empirical evidence that predictors of performance vary according to the region.Although our study has brought out some interesting findings, there are some limitations common to survey studies. The results are based on the subjective perception of the respondents; therefore, generalization of results should be done carefully (Udo and Ehie, 1996). There might also be some bias by having the same respondent reporting on both predictor and outcome variables, hence; our findings should be interpreted within these limitations. As stated by Ramamurthy (1995), using a questionnaire-based field survey may not have adequately capture the complex dynamics that usually accompany a major strategic decision such as an adoption and implementation of AMT.Finally, although literature suggests positive relationships between AMT use and OPEP (Swamidass and Kotha, 1998), and planning and implementation activities and ORGP (Udo and Ehie, 1996; Zammuto and O'Connor, 1992), our results indicated just the opposite. It is possible that there are confounding effects, interactions effects, and other complex relationships among the variables leading to the current results. This needs to be addressed in future work through the use of more sophisticated statistical tools such as structural equation modeling.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - To examine the relationship of performance in advanced manufacturing technologies (AMT) to the levels of AMT investments and planning and implementation activities in two regions of America: Anglo-Saxon (USA and Canada) and Hispanic (Mexico and Costa Rica).\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Survey methodology was employed to collect data. The instrument was translated into Spanish for administration in the Hispanic region. Exploratory factor analysis was used to establish discriminant validity of the constructs under investigation. Through multiple regression analysis, predictors for two types of performance (organizational and operational) were examined.\nFindings: - Both types of performance are reasonably predicted by the AMT investment and planning and implementation factors. Performance predictors are different between the two regions.\nResearch limitations/implications: - There are limitations common to survey research (e.g. subjective perceptions and respondent bias). Also, results depart from the literature in terms of the predictors for operational and organizational performance. This can be due to other complex relationships among the variables not identifiable by regression analysis. Future work should address this by using more sophisticated statistical tools such as structural equation modeling.\nOriginality/value: - The study can help managers understand the factors leading to a successful AMT implementation. This is one of the first studies on AMT in developing countries; and as such, it should encourage more research in these countries.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Does experience matter? Differences in relationship benefits, satisfaction, trust, commitment and loyalty for novice and experienced service users	[ "Services marketing", "Customer loyalty", "Customer satisfaction", "Trust", "Buyer‐seller relationships" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Customer relationships are increasingly studied in the literature (Palmatier et al., 2006). This is primarily because acquiring new customers can be more costly than keeping existing ones (Reichheld and Sasser, 1990) and longer-term relationships are often more profitable than shorter-term associations (Reichheld and Sasser, 1990). As a result, the customer-provider relationship has emerged as an important strategic focus for firms (Palmatier et al., 2006; Shemwell and Cronin, 1995). This is clearly exemplified by the millions of dollars spent annually on customer relationship management programs (Mitchell, 2002) and the prominence placed on developing customer lifetime value (Cooil et al., 2007).\nRelationship dynamics: Our study responds to a call for the development of dynamic models of exchange relationships (Bell et al., 2005; Mittal and Katrichis, 2000). Understanding how customer preferences change over the duration of the relationship is necessary for building strong customer relationships (Bell et al., 2005; Mittal and Katrichis, 2000). We specifically propose that as experience increases, customers gain the information needed to evaluate the relationship experience including the benefits and outcomes associated with the relationship.Underpinning these effects is attribute evaluability theory (Alba and Hutchinson, 1987; Hsee, 1996) which suggests that experts possess more highly developed conceptual structures and are better equipped to understand the meaning of product/service information (as well as benefits derived) than novice consumers (Alba and Hutchinson, 1987). Even when novice and experts base perceptions on the same set of product/service attributes it is likely that they will weight them differently (Alba and Hutchinson, 1987; Hsee, 1996).As novices are less able to understand the importance and implications of information, they are more likely to weight heavily those service attributes that are easily understood, that are familiar from service experiences in other categories, and/or that have been made salient through marketing communications (Alba and Hutchinson, 1987). What this means is that the attributes that are important to novice customers might not be the same as those that are important to more experienced customers, and the impact of these attributes on global service perceptions (such as satisfaction and loyalty) is likely to change as the relationship unfolds (Mittal and Katrichis, 2000).Associated with the concept of evaluability is the notion that over the duration of the relationship, customers update their perceptions and gain experience. This experience then provides knowledge about service attributes. Many studies have considered the time-dependent effect of relational constructs from a social psychology and/or marketing perspective (Doney and Cannon, 1997; Swann and Gill, 1997; Verhoef et al., 2002). Social psychology research shows that individuals in long-term relationships have more opportunities to gather information about one another, more motivation to acquire information (Berscheid et al., 1976), and more motivation to integrate that information into coherent representations (Murray and Holmes, 1993).Marketing studies similarly show that long-term relationships are more stable than younger relationships (Anderson and Weitz, 1989) because as relationship partners gain experience unsatisfactory relationships are terminated, and adjustments are made to surviving relationships so that a higher degree of relational fit can be achieved (Anderson and Weitz, 1989). As relationship experience grows, both parties are also better able to predict behaviour, as the outcome of previous episodes provides a framework for subsequent experiences (Doney and Cannon, 1997; Nicholson et al., 2001).We propose that the benefits customers derive from engaging in a service relationship will have a differential impact on satisfaction, trust and commitment depending on the customers' experience in service usage. Indeed, it is not difficult to conceive of a situation where the relationship benefits sought by a novice consumer will differ from those sought by an experienced consumer, and that consequentially these benefits will differentially effect perceptions of satisfaction, trust and commitment. We further propose that perceptions of satisfaction, trust and commitment will differentially impact on loyalty depending on a customer's level of experience as a service user. Again, it is not difficult to imagine that trust and commitment may be stronger predictors of loyalty for experienced customers who have had the opportunity to build strong relationships.Understanding this effect is important to firms because successful relationship building efforts are linked to the recuperation of customer acquisition costs, cross- and up-selling products and services, and the dissemination of positive word of mouth Danaher et al., 2008Hennig-Thurau et al., 2002). Given that firms are willing to spend millions of dollars annually on relationship management schemes (Johnson and Selnes, 2004; Mitchell, 2002) research examining the effect of experience on relationship formation is critical. The ability to segment customers on the basis of experience and to customise relationship building efforts for these segments is important because such activities should enhance relationship strength. Given that strong relationships are associated with higher sales, market share, and profits (Crosby et al., 1990; Morgan and Hunt, 1994), and that prior research has not examined these effects, this study makes a valuable contribution to the relationship marketing literature, and to firms practising relationship-building activities.Table I provides a summary of the literature on which we build our research model and hypotheses, while Figure 1 presents our conceptual model and provides a visual summary of the key issues addressed in this study. We broadly discuss these issues and the central constructs in our research model next.Confidence, social and special treatment benefits\nHypothesis development: The central premise of our study is that the salience of the links in our research model (Figure 1) differs between novice and experienced customers. We believe that the effect of relationship benefits on satisfaction, trust and commitment will differ depending on whether a customer is a novice, an inexperienced service user, or a very experienced service user. Similarly, we believe that the impact of these constructs on customer loyalty will also differ depending on experience levels. In the following sections we present the research hypotheses guiding our study.Relationship benefits and satisfaction, trust and commitment\nMethodology: Research design\nResults: To test equality across cohorts, we conducted a multi-group analysis of structural invariance (Byrne, 2004; Deng et al., 2005; Dagger and Sweeney, 2007). We chose this method because multigroup SEM is a powerful and versatile approach to testing invariance (Steenkamp and Baumgartner, 1998). First, the unconstrained baseline model was examined (kh(df)2=879.52(348), CFI=0.93, IFI =0.93, RMSEA =0.07) and demonstrated good fit. We then tested for invariance in structural weights between the novice and experienced customer cohorts. The findings are shown in Table IV.As can be seen, the first column of Table IV presents the hypothesised relationships in the structural model, the second and third column present the b weights for (c1) novice and (c2) experienced customer cohorts and their significance levels. The second last column presents the kh2 and degrees of freedom for each constrained model, and the final column presents the difference in kh2 and degrees of freedom between each constrained model and the baseline model (Deng et al., 2005). This difference is used to assess whether a parameter shifted significantly between cohorts. The analysis indicated substantial differences in path weights between the two cohorts. These differences are discussed next.Relationship benefits and satisfaction, trust and commitment\nDiscussion: Theoretical implications\nLimitations and future research: This study utilised a cross sectional design, comprised of two cohorts in order to extend our understanding of service relationships. It would be interesting to track the same group of consumers from their first service encounter through to more developed relationship stages and identify how loyalty formation occurs during this dynamic process. Although we used a cross-sectional design, the study is no different in this respect from other studies examining evaluations at different time points using a cross-sectional design (e.g. Dagger and Sweeney, 2007; Mittal and Katrichis, 2000; Mittal et al., 2001).The research model did not consider the interrelationship of satisfaction, trust and commitment. A worthy direction for future research would be to address these interrelationships. Similarly, we did not study the influence of constructs such as service quality, perceived value, relationship management, and market orientation on satisfaction, trust and commitment or loyalty for reasons of parsimony. However, we recognise that other constructs may contribute to loyalty and encourage researchers to examine the role of additional constructs in the model.While, in the present study we examined our research hypotheses across nine different service industries, future research may benefit from an examination of the differences between service types. Bowen (1990), for example, offers a classification typology in which services can be grouped as high-contact, customised services (travel agents, hairdressers and family doctors), moderate-contact, semi-customised services (photo printing service, general banking and pest control), and moderate-contact, standardised services (cinemas, airlines and fast food outlets). Examining whether our research model differs across these service groups would be of interest to researchers and service firms. Services that are high contact and highly customised may better facilitate relationship development than services characterised by low contact, standardised service offerings.Finally, as did this research, future research could examine other moderation effects on the association between important relationship constructs. The effect of customer demographics such as age, gender, and income, relationship characteristics such as the duration, strength and intensity of the relationship, and service type effects such as those noted above may also provide interesting results. Studying these effects is an important direction for theory, as we need to know how different moderators change the association between constructs, and for improving our understanding of customer heterogeneity as it applies to service firms trying to achieve retention through developing customer relationships.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Although customer relationships transpire through a process of time, encounters and experience, few studies have examined the dynamics of service relationships. This paper aims to address this issue by examining the effect of experience on the association between relational benefits and relationship quality, and between relationship quality and loyalty.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Using a national sample of 376 service consumers and nine service industries, the study examines whether the impact of relationship benefits on perceptions of satisfaction, trust and commitment, and ultimately customer loyalty, differs significantly between novice and experienced customer cohorts.\nFindings: - The results indicate significant differences between novice and experienced cohorts. Specifically, the impact of confidence, social and special treatment benefits on perceptions of satisfaction, trust and commitment, and ultimately customer loyalty, differ significantly based on a customer's level of relationship experience.\nPractical implications: - The findings of this study have tactical and strategic implications for service firms, including effective customer asset management, resource allocation, and relationship strategy.\nOriginality/value: - This study makes a significant new contribution to theory and practice.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The library as heterotopia: Michel Foucault and the experience of library space	[ "Space", "Place", "Heterotopia", "Michel Foucault", "Umberto Eco", "Library" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction - the library as place: A library in the middle of a community is a cross between an emergency exit, a life raft, and a festival. They are cathedrals of the mind; hospitals of the soul; theme parks of the imagination (Moran, 2012, p. 92).\nOf other spaces: Although delivered in 1967, the text of Foucault's lecture on heterotopia was not released into the public arena until shortly before his death in 1984 (Genocchio, 1995). It was published in English with the title of \"Of Other Spaces\" in 1986, where it sparked the interest primarily of scholars interested in postmodern approaches to urban planning and geography (see Boyer, 2008; Crampton and Elden, 2007; DeCauter and Dehaene, 2008; Faubion, 2008; Foucault, 1986a; Heynen, 2008; Knaller-Vlay and Ritter, 1998; Sohn, 2008; Teyssot, 2000) and, in particular, Edward Soja's (1989)\nThe library as heterotopia: Authors, playwrights, and scholars have written about the ways in which the space embodied by the physical building plays a significant role in the way libraries are experienced, of what it feels like to be \"in the library.\" Kohli (2012) argues that \"to reduce a library to simple architecture, bricks and mortar, is a mistake. Similarly, to suggest a library is defined by the books on the shelf is erroneous\" (p. 20). On the contrary, the library building, its architecture and its design, constitute \"part of a 'semiotically loaded' communicative moment\" (Thomas, 1996, p. 27). For example, the childhood recollections of British playwright Alan Bennett (2012) of his local public library in Leeds, UK, are dominated by descriptions of the library space and architecture, in contrast to the library books themselves, of which he claims to remember little:\nThe (anti)library and serendipitous encounters: Do not ask who I am and do not ask me to remain the same (Foucault, 1972, p. 17).\nConclusion: Using Foucault's (1986a) notion of heterotopia, a view of the library as space has been presented that is intended to challenge prevailing views of the library experience. It is clear that the library is much more than a space where certain things happen: reading, checking out materials, research, and so on. That is the very least of it. Soja (1995) remarked that the library as heterotopia has much more in common with \"fleeting, transitory, precarious spaces of time, such as festival sites, fairgrounds, and vacation and leisure villages\" (p. 16). Both the theme park and the library can be understood as \"compressed, packaged environments that seem to both abolish and preserve time and culture, that appear somehow to be both temporary and permanent\" (Soja, 1995, p. 16) such the Westinghouse and Futurama exhibits at the 1939-1940 World's fair in New York City as discussed by Wood (2003). Both the library and the theme park are spaces \"whose existence sets up unsettling juxtapositions of incommensurate 'objects' which challenge the way we think, especially the way our thinking is ordered\" (Hetherington, 1997, p. 42). Further, according to Hetherington: \"It is the juxtaposition of things not usually found together, and the confusion that such representations create, that marks out heterotopias and gives them their significance\" (Hetherington, 1997, p. 42).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Using Michel Foucault's notion of heterotopia as a guide, the purpose of this paper is to explore the implications of considering the library as place, and specifically as a place that has the \"curious property of being in relation with all the other sites, but in such a way as to suspect, neutralize, or invent the set of relations that they happen to designate, mirror, or reflect\" (Foucault, 1986a, p. 24).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper draws upon a range of literary examples and from biographical accounts of authors such as Alan Bennett, Michel Foucault, and Umberto Eco to show how the library space operates as a heterotopia.\nFindings: The paper finds that drawing together the constructs of heterotopia and serendipity can enrich the understanding of how libraries are experienced as sites of play, creativity, and adventure.\nOriginality/value: Foucault's concept of heterotopia is offered as an original and useful frame that can account for the range of experiences and associations uniquely attached to the library.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Spin-off performance in the start-up phase - a conceptual framework	[ "Relationships", "Spin-off", "Network", "New venture", "Entrepreneurial innovation", "Inherited knowledge" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Newly formed enterprises that join the market may belong to two broad categories (Helfat and Lieberman, 2002): parent-company ventures established under the initiative of existing enterprises and de novo ventures, in which there is no proprietary connection between the new firm and any already existing businesses. Each of these two categories includes more specific entry modes. For instance, parent-company ventures include parent or corporate spin-offs, i.e. new ventures born from the initiative of a parent company that maintains a proprietary relationship in the new firm. Also de novo ventures includes spin-offs (that Helfat and Lieberman call \"entrepreneurial\" to distinguish it from the previous type), i.e. firms set up by ex-employees in the same sector of the firm where they used to work. Spin-offs founded by ex-employees and competing in the same industry of the parent firm are the object of the present paper[1].\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 Spin-offs and inherited knowledge\n3. A relational view of spin-off performance: In this section we develop a conceptual model that describes how networking during the pre-entry phases affects spin-off performance, conceptualized as the spin-off's chances of survival and early growth.\n4. Conclusion: This paper proposes a model that shows how the FE's networking during the pre-entry phases (i.e. the incubation and emergence phases) affects a spin-off's survival and early growth (or spin-off performance).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Literature on spin-offs still lacks a thorough understanding of the forces governing spin-off performance. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap by taking a network perspective.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper combines the literature on spin-offs with the network approach to new ventures to proposing a model showing how networking in the pre-entry phases affects a spin-off's survival and early growth.\nFindings: The intensity and variety of interactions between the future entrepreneur (FE) and other individual actors has a positive impact on spin-off performance in both the incubation and the emergence phases. The degree of overlap between the network of the incubation phase and the network of the emergence phase also reinforces the effects of the intensity and variety of these interactions on performance during the emergence phase. Finally, entrepreneurial innovativeness is an antecedent of spin-off performance in that it requires different degrees of overlap between the network of the incubation phase and the network of the emergence phase.\nResearch limitations/implications: Being a conceptual paper, the study needs the support of empirical research. For example, samples of spin-offs achieving a high and low performance could be compared in relation to their FE's networking activity.\nOriginality/value: The paper creates a bridge between the inherited knowledge approach to spin-offs and the network approach to new ventures to provide a framework for explaining spin-off performance.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Predicting online game loyalty based on need gratification and experiential motives	[ "Online gaming", "Uses and gratifications", "Flow theory", "Computer games", "Customer loyalty" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: As various Internet-based applications spread into human society on a broad scale, they create numerous business opportunities and enrich everyday consumer activities. One of the most prevalent online activities is gaming. According to the survey by DFC Intelligence in 2010, the total revenue of worldwide online game market for the PC is predicted to soar to more than US$20 billion in 2015. Gaming is undoubtedly a highly profitable online industry that warrants research on the exploration of its acceptance factors. In effect, many types of online games exist, usually characterized by anonymity, media richness, real-time interaction, and lack of boundary. Particularly, massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) attract a growing number of participants as MMORPGs permit individuals to interact with each other concurrently within a science fiction world full of genre-based fantasy. Popular MMORPGs include Prius online, World of Warcraft, Lineage and many others. While these games vary in their specific features, they are all based around the idea of allowing participants to communicate online, make friends, assume roles, and conduct transactions involving real or virtual assets. These games turn into spaces of both play and community (Steinkuehler and Williams, 2006).Judging from the above features online games possess, diverse reasons should exist that motivate consumers to participate in the games. Researchers from various disciplines conclude a number of predictors, ranging from technological elements to psychological factors (e.g. Hsu and Lu, 2007). The prevalence of the use of information system (IS), however, points to the need to shift more focus toward the non-technological aspects and adopt a multi-disciplinary approach while based on theoretical parsimony in online gaming research. In addressing this deficiency in the literature, the present study aims to draw on both uses and gratifications (U&G) and online flow research to investigate online game usage. Specifically, the current study expects to explain what drives MMORPG participant's loyalty based on these research paradigms (Figure 1).By unifying these two theories in predicting online gamer's loyalty, the study provides value for researchers, game designers, as well as participants. First, online researchers can clarify whether the need-gratifying factors overshadow experiential components or vice versa when generating game loyalty. Second, the present research unveils how online game designers might go about eliciting consumer's loyalty toward their games. The findings help game producers craft cyberspaces and systems that attract players. Finally, online gamers benefit from the results by being more conscious about those non-technological factors shaping their participating behaviors.\nTheoretical background and development: Theoretical background\nMethod: Data collection and sample\nAnalysis and results: The study followed Kline's (2011) two-step approach (i.e. a measurement model and a subsequent structural mode) and used AMOS (Version 7) to analyze the data. The multiple-item scales of constructs in Figure 1 were subjected to a confirmatory factor analysis to determine whether the manifest variables reflected the hypothesized latent variables. The adequacy of the individual items was assessed by convergent validity, composite reliability, and discriminant validity. Once the measures were validated, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the validity of the proposed model.The study first conducted a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with a maximum likelihood estimation to estimate the measurement model by verifying the underlying structure of constructs. To examine convergent validity, it is satisfied in that all confirmatory factor loadings exceeded 0.70 (Hair et al., 2006), except one item measuring challenge, and were significant at the level of 0.05 (Hibbard et al., 2001). This item with low factor loading, possibly due to a confusing statement, was removed in the factor analysis and subsequent analyses (see Appendix). As Table III depicts, the level of internal consistency in each construct was acceptable, with Cronbach's alpha estimates ranging from 0.83 to 0.92 (Hair et al., 2006). All of the composite reliabilities of the constructs were over the value of 0.83 ensuring adequate internal consistency of multiple items for each construct (Hair et al., 2006). In addition, the average variance extracted (AVE) of all constructs surpassed the minimum criterion of 0.50, indicating a large portion of the variance being explained by these constructs (Hair et al., 2006). Furthermore, Table IV shows that the correlations between constructs are ranging from 0.44 to 0.65 and less than 0.90, as suggested by Hair et al. (2006). Indeed, the square root of AVE of each construct is larger than the construct's correlations with other constructs, which also indicates good convergent and discriminant validity (Sanchez-Franco and Roldan, 2005). Despite the kh2 value of 428.64 with 237 degrees of freedom (p < 0.05) in the measurement model, several widely used goodness-of-fit indices demonstrated that the confirmatory factor model fits the data well (NFI=0.90, CFI=0.95, IFI=0.95, and RMSEA=0.06).As in the next step, the proposed structural model was estimated (Figure 2). The estimation produced the following model fit statistics: kh2=681.79, df=335, p < 0.05, NFI=0.91, CFI=0.92, IFI=0.92, and RMSEA=0.06. Overall, the model's fit as indicated by these indices was deemed satisfactory; thus, it provides a good basis for testing the hypothesized paths.As Figure 2 depicts, three paths were significant (entertainment-loyalty, challenge-loyalty, and control-loyalty), whereas two paths were insignificant (sociality-loyalty and interactivity-loyalty) in the structural model. Examining the above significant paths reveals that the path (control-loyalty) has the highest path coefficient, followed in order by the path (entertainment-loyalty), and the path (challenge-loyalty). Pairwise comparisons among these path coefficients, however, indicate that only the effect of control is significantly stronger than that of challenge (t=2.23, p < 0.05). Particularly, the proposed model accounts for 55 percent of the variation in predicting online game loyalty. The study summarizes and discusses these results in the following section.\nDiscussion and conclusions: Considering the flourishing development of online gaming and its business potential, abundant research investigates its predictors for various behavioral outcomes. Nonetheless, extant online gaming research needs further update in exploring its acceptance factors from the non-technological aspects in view of the high penetration of computer and Internet usage. The study presents a framework based on U&G and flow theories to predict consumer's loyalty toward online gaming. Theoretically, the study is contributive by substantiating that the gratification of various humanistic needs and fulfillment of different online flow experiences are crucial to the continuance of online gaming. The findings help broaden the conceptual definition of motives for continuing online gaming, highlighting the multi-dimensional and multi-disciplinary complexion of motives from both the need-satisfying and process-experiencing aspects. Furthermore, the present study contributes to the existing literature by advancing understanding of the broader issue of the mechanisms whereby online gamers are loyal to a game. Particularly, the present study identifies the sense of control, perceived entertainment, and challenge as the key factors affecting player's loyalty toward an online game. The results concur with the view that a gamer's sense of control over the virtual environment and actions has a direct influence on game playing (Wang and Wang, 2008). Consistent with prior research findings, online gamers in this study also find those games gratifying their entertainment needs leading to their loyalty (e.g. Yee, 2006). Finally, an appropriate level of challenge keeps the online gamer continuously motivated and engaged in the game as flow researchers suggest (Kiili, 2005; Hoffman and Novak, 2009).Unexpectedly, sociality and interactivity produce negligible effects on loyalty. The study thus conducts follow-up interviews with several informants and online game designers to elucidate these findings.The interview results uncover the following possible explanations. First, there exists a number of online social network services (SNSs) such as MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, etc. dedicated for various social purposes available with easy access in addition to online games that can fulfill the need for social gratifications. Indeed, when prompted by socially related motives, consumers consider online games as lower priority in that typical online games do not serve as major \"social centers\". Although online game participants may interact with other people online, people mostly reckon the relationships as virtual, and not gratifying real-world social needs. As such, online games mainly provide sources of entertainment and filling time via interactions with others, apparently gratifying participants' \"entertainment\" needs (Peters et al., 2007).Second, the present study measures interactivity from the aspect of speed; this measure is indicative but potentially incomprehensive. As aforementioned, the term interactivity is a complex yet multi-dimensional concept. In effect, interactivity may also refer to the mapping of interaction (i.e. how natural and intuitive the interaction is perceived to be by the participant) or the range of interaction (i.e. the number of possibilities for action at a particular point of time) (Downes and McMillan, 2000). Since a majority of the respondents do not report lagging response and/or frequent application freezes during gaming, bandwidth/speed is not a concern when participating in online games. Interactivity appears not to affect their participating behaviors.Managerial implications\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to explore the factors affecting consumers' loyalty toward online games based on the uses and gratifications theory and the flow theory.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The research employed two approaches to collect data: personal interview and online survey. Each data collection approach consists of two phases to overcome method bias. This study adopted structural equation modeling to analyze the data.\nFindings: - The results focusing on popular massively multiplayer online role-playing games reveal that players' sense of control, perceived entertainment, and challenge affect their loyalty toward an online game. Conversely, sociality and interactivity produce negligible effects on loyalty.\nPractical implications: - First, game designers may strengthen gamers' sense of control and challenge by adding more status information, gaming options, or through the designed system of goals and achievements. Second, the entertaining nature of online gaming suggests greater demand for content design, and points to the direction of mobile gaming. Third, considering the recent growth of online social network services, consumers regard online games as lower priority when prompted by socially related motives. Additionally, people mostly reckon online relationships as virtual and not gratifying real-world social needs.\nOriginality/value: - In view of the prevalence of computer and Internet usage, online gaming research should shift more focus toward the non-technological aspects of gaming. This paper is one of the few studies that examine online game loyalty from the non-technological aspects while adopting a multi-disciplinary approach based on theoretical parsimony.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Diversity and value in Africa's real estate: Challenges facing property development in South Africa	[ "Real estate", "Property", "South Africa", "Investment", "Government" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nHistorical perspective of property development in South Africa: The development structure presently discernable in South Africa is correspondingly the result of a socio-cultural and economic history and a reflection on a particular political thought pattern. Physical developmental study necessarily reflects on the historical in order to develop a perspective regarding the problems and challenges of the time, specifically relevant to Southern Africa. The historical course of development in South Africa passed through clearly discernable phases. These phases may be summarised as follows:1. Colonialism. The influence of English, French, Dutch and German immigrants is clearly visible in a variety of fields and in buildings in particular. The British heritage towards the developmental history is important. Colonialism, however, also set the stage for the fight for freedom towards the nineteenth century, the Republic of South Africa in 1960 and the democracy of 1994 (Hartdegen, 1988).2. Apartheid, isolation and culture grouping. After government take-over in 1948 a clear tendency towards isolation between the groupings supporting and opposing the established government body existed. The heritage of the government during the period 1948 to 1994 will be recognised by the upliftment of the \"poor white\", the nationalisation of the Afrikaner and the Afrikaans language, and the physical structuring of the policy of separateness which lead to the \"struggle\" from 1960 to 1993 (Hartdegen, 1988).3. Internal unrest. Unrest usually developed from the isolated ranks and was encouraged by a nationalistic force. As specific groupings gained support and later gained majority support, increasing opposition to the established order developed, sometimes changing into violent resistance, which contributed to unrest and influenced the stability of the country, the region as well as long term business and investment confidence (Hartdegen, 1988).4. Democracy, take-over of power, change, reform and development stimulation. Where groupings gained majority support, a take-over of power often occurred accompanied by stagnation in mental attitude regarding the underlying problems among the group in power. After the take-over a clear phase of reform and stimulation of development followed. The process occurred repeatedly. Each of these phases took place over several decades, and still currently taking place under the democratic government. Each phase also has a clearly discernable heritage in the physical developmental structure, which, as a whole, reflects the culture of a period. The cultural heritage of the early tribes, Dutch, French, German and English immigrants are clearly visible in a variety of fields and in buildings in particular (Bizzell, 2002).\nSouth African Government control in real estate: The degree of government participation in property varies according to the chosen political ideology of a country. Schedule 3 of the constitution of the Republic of South Africa (108 of 1996) makes provision for a multi-party democratic dispensation with regular free elections, to which members are appointed on a proportional basis of a national vote between parties. The constitution also makes provision for a tri-level government dispensation, divided into a central, regional or provincial, and local authority.For the first time in the history of South Africa, the present constitution provides a franchise for all population groups and therefore a democratic dispensation. In addition, government moved away from the centralised dispensations to a greater degree of federalism with extensive powers transferred to the second and third levels of government. Where the previous constitutions were characterised by the exclusion of certain population groups on the basis of race, South Africa may now, for the first time in its history, boast a true democracy with the advantage that more people are active in the property market.Surveying and mapping\nProperty development in South Africa: Property development and planning\nChallenges in the housing sector: The country has experienced a 30 percent increase in the absolute number of households, caused by the drop in average household size from 4.5 people per household in 1996 to 3.8 in 2001. Further, an average population growth of 4.2 million people between 1996 and 2001 contributed towards a bigger demand for housing. Many low-income urban dwellers are not currently enjoying a healthy environment or a reasonable quality of life. This generates a negative attitude towards health, education and social welfare, and cannot be tolerated if a sustainable urban habitat is to be achieved (Oranje, 2004, p. 3). Housing implies services and the supply of electricity, water and sanitation to poor households in South Africa. The astonishing facts regarding the serious lack of access to water and sanitation were presented to the nation in 1994. Millions of people had no ready access to water. Therefore, provision of water services is well on the way to solution within the foreseeable future (Oranje, 2004, p. 3). Sanitation is inextricably linked to the provision of water. Too many South Africans have inadequate or no sanitation services. These people use bushes to sit behind, or poorly made pit latrines. It is inevitable, under these circumstances, that human waste will leach into natural water sources, causing water-borne diseases to flourish and put community health in jeopardy (Bizzell, 2002, p. 108).Housing as growth areas\nConclusion: Diversity in property development opportunities is evident. Diversity of opportunities relates to various areas in respect of urban, rural and cultural developments, and types, in respect of housing and commercial developments where growth and return potential may be achieved. Tax incentives could help domestic investors to perform.It however remains important to acknowledge the diversity in respect of South African society and the redress of its past:* Corridors exist (with many opportunities) between traditional white areas and black areas;* Cultural differences must be accounted for; and* Differences in character of various areas like Cape Town, Johannesburg, rural cities and towns.Political attitudes are positive about private enterprise, investment and growth, taking into account that Africa has a record of not always remaining friendly towards private initiatives, however with a strong government in South Africa, negative government interference seems unlikely. Rural areas also have potential of a different kind. However, it needs to be realised that economic upliftment, to enable sustainability on all levels, remains important. Creating work opportunities while developing projects seems to be an important way to approach investment in rural areas. Developments in cities afford investment alternatives with potential, but the problem areas (education, squatting, poverty, health and crime) should be considered, while the growth of affordability in black communities with the corresponding potential needs attention.Housing problems not only relate to the number of households that require shelter, but the problem is much more complex than was originally anticipated. Housing solutions should include planning around the following aspects:* economic realities and a total development concept integrating sustainability and housing needs;* attracting private, domestic and international investors by introducing more tax relief and other benefits to the community; and* encouraging and assisting private initiative in respect of a new dynamic housing delivery system.South Africa's potential is evident in the strengthening of its economy, business confidence, improving interest rates, incentives to developers and the re-evaluation of its cultural heritage as contributing factors.Development opportunities in real estate in South Africa are evident and are supported by the statistics shown in this paper, however, a holistic view of the South African landscape is necessary to firmly establish the property development potential.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the diversity of property investment in South Africa.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper addresses how diversity and such factors as the country's history, government, different cultures, housing needs, vast rural areas, fast developing cities, black empowerment and international interests, influence property potential.\nFindings: - The challenges faced in South Africa are, in many respects, a consequence of the dramatic political changes that have taken place during the last ten to 15 years.\nOriginality/value: - The paper highlights the influence of the transformation of the South African landscape on real estate and presents current and future opportunities related to property.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Brand tribalism and self-expressive brands: social influences and brand outcomes	[ "Word-of-mouth", "Brand loyalty", "Brand tribalism", "Self-expressive brands", "Social network influence", "Susceptibility to interpersonal influence" ]	[ { "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: Drawing on a sample of 675 Generation Y consumers, we explore the social influences and outcomes of self-expressive brands and brand tribalism. We consider two forms of influence: consumers' susceptibility to interpersonal influence (SUSCEP) and social network influence (SNI). We then examine whether self-expressive brand consumption and tribalism influence brand loyalty and word-of-mouth (WOM) outcomes.\nLiterature review: The role of the brand for the self\nMethod: The population of interest to this study is Generation Y. Generation Y refers to those people born between 1977 and 1994 (Noble et al., 2009). The Generation Y age cohort is of particular interest to marketers due to its vast size and spending power (Kim et al., 2010). In the USA alone, it was estimated that Generation Y would comprise over 50 per cent of the population by 2014 (Bolton et al., 2013). These consumers are brand conscious and actively seek self-expressive brands (Bartlett, 2004; Grotts and Johnson, 2013) and specifically aim to express and define themselves through choosing certain brands (Grotts and Johnson, 2013). Extant literature suggests that the consumption of brands among Generation Y consumers is strongly motivated by their need to gain social acceptance and to allow self-expression (Grotts and Johnson, 2013; Martin and Turley, 2004). Generation Y consumers are \"digital natives\" who have grown up with computers and mastered the use of technology for many aspects of their lives (Bolton et al., 2013). These consumers also use the Internet for self-expression and to gain the acceptance of their peers (Ruane and Wallace, 2013). Therefore, Generation Y consumers are particularly informative in a study exploring SNI.\nMeasures: Scales used were drawn from the extant literature. Self-expressive brand was measured using scales from Carroll and Ahuvia (2006). Consistent with the existing literature, five-point Likert scales were used (1 = \"strongly disagree\"; 5 = \"strongly agree\"). Four measures of inner self-expression and four measures of social self-expression were included. An example of an inner self-expression item is \"This brand is an extension of my inner self\". An example of a social self-expression item is \"This brand has a positive impact on what others think of me\". Brand tribalism was measured using the scale developed by Veloutsou and Moutinho (2009). In the literature, measures of tribalism incorporate five components (Veloutsou and Moutinho, 2009). These components are:\nScale validation: The variables included in this study were evaluated using exploratory techniques to provide reassurance of the reliability and dimensionality of the measures, using SPSS 20 (Hair et al., 2006). This was followed by confirmatory factor analysis using AMOS 20.\nResults of hypotheses tests: Structural equation modeling using the maximum-likelihood estimation method was used to test the hypotheses, with AMOS 20. The model fit indices show the model provided a good fit to the data (kh2/df = 2.399; p = 0.000; RMSEA = 0.046; CFI = 0.962; NNFI = 0.957; IFI = 0.962). Table IV presents the results of the hypotheses tests.\nDiscussion: This study offers a number of contributions to the literature. We explored SUSCEP and SNI as antecedents of self-expressive brands and brand tribalism. SUSCEP considers consumers' use of brands to enhance one's image with others, to conform to group brand choices or to learn about products by observing others (Bearden et al., 1989). As expected, we found that consumers who are more influenced by others' brand choices are likely to choose more self-expressive brands. This finding enhances our understanding of the self-expressive brand concept (Carroll and Ahuvia, 2006), as, in our study, consumers' use of self-expressive brands is influenced by either a need for group acceptance or for individualism. This is reinforced by the positive relationship between the perceived influence of others and tribalism, as we show that SUSCEP drives tribal membership. Consumers may join tribes because they are influenced by, and wish to impress others, by adopting the same rituals and values. Within the context of fashion brands, such values may be expressed through clothing.\nLimitations and directions for future research: As with all studies, there are limitations to this research. First, this research was conducted solely in Ireland and with Irish consumers. Although Generation Y consumers have been found to carry similar characteristics cross-culturally (Erdogmus and Budeyri\nManagerial implications: The study offers a number of implications for managers. We identify SUSCEP and SNI as antecedents of self-expressive brand consumption and brand tribalism. Managers of self-expressive brands (such as fashion brands) should consider the influence of other consumers on an individual's purchase decisions. For example, managers should be aware that consumers would be motivated to consume their brand if it allows them to express themselves and engage with others on the social network. Social media campaigns with messages about impressing others, or sharing with others, may be effective in encouraging consumption for such brands. Further, managers of self-expressive brands should encourage consumers' \"likes\" and \"shares\" to enhance social identity expressiveness on the network, as this may also enhance offline consumption.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study aims to examine the relationship between social influence and consumers' self-expression through brands. It considers susceptibility to interpersonal influence and social network influence on self-expressive brands and brand tribalism. The study examines whether self-expressive brands and brand tribalism influence brand loyalty and word of mouth (WOM).\nDesign/methodology/approach: A cross-sectional online survey was carried out with members of Generation Y in Ireland. Data from 675 complete responses were analysed using SPSS 20 and AMOS 20. A structural model tested nine hypothesised relationships.\nFindings: Findings indicate that both online social network influence and susceptibility to interpersonal influence are antecedents of tribalism and self-expressive brands. Consumers of self-expressive brands are loyal and offer positive WOM. By contrast, those who seek tribal membership have less brand loyalty and offer less WOM than other consumers. Findings suggest that consumers may be loyal to tribes, rather than to brands. This informs our understanding of the role of tribes for consumers and brand outcomes.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study is limited to Generation Y consumers within Ireland.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study to explore the effect of consumers' perceptions about online social network influence on brand tribalism. In addition, their views about the influence of the social network on self-expressive brand consumption, and brand outcomes, are identified. This paper highlights consumers' susceptibility to interpersonal influence on their brand choices and brand tribalism. In addition, it is shown that brand loyalty and WOM are not always a consequence of tribal membership. By contrast, self-expressive brand consumption enhances brand WOM and brand loyalty.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
An exploratory study on executive management education through technology mediated distance learning in India	[ "Online education", "Distance learning", "Management education and development", "India" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Use of the internet to deliver executive management education has increased dramatically, with literally thousands of courses being offered by educational institutes. Executive education programmes are undergoing a gradual shift, whereby they are no longer looked on as simply a reward for high-performing executives or an opportunity to get new knowledge; they are increasingly harnessed as opportunities to recast the worldviews of executive teams and to align organizations to new directions (Conger and Xin, 2000). Increased demands on employees to self-manage careers (Arthur and Rousseau, 1996; Arnold, 1997; Sullivan et al., 1998) have brought about a new demographic profile of employees to the classrooms who are eager to update their knowledge and skills while pursuing their jobs. At the same time, advances in information technology have allowed colleges and universities to offer satellite or internet-based courses as a way to meet the ever-increasing demand for higher and continuing education. With only about 150,000 places available at the 2,000 business schools in India, the options for Indian executives are to either go abroad or enrol in an online management education program (Global MBA Report Limited, 2012). Executive online education is becoming one of the major markets for education in India. According to one estimate, the online education market in India generated about $200m in revenues in 2008, and is expected to reach $1bn by the end of the decade (Lakshman, 2008).\nTechnology-mediated distance learning: \"Distance learning is defined as receiving education through web-based remote sources and can include both synchronous and asynchronous learning\" (Hollenbeck et al., 2005, p. 39). Technology mediated learning refers \"to an environment in which the learner's interactions with learning materials, peers, and/or instructors are mediated through advanced information technologies\" (Alavi and Leidner, 2001, p. 2). In this paper, we have used the terms online education, online learning, technology mediated distance learning interchangeably to denote executive management education provided in an interactive distance learning mode. Hence technology mediated distance learning could include a combination of several remote methods of communication and education and could deploy video and audio technologies, email and other types of internet interaction.Demand for executive management education programs in Asia generally and India in particular is set to grow enormously as the economies are liberalised and there is a need for indigenous professional managers. It is expected that the working age population in India is set to peak around 2020 when about 64 per cent of the country's total population will belong to this group, amounting to a working age population almost 830 million strong (Ramachandran, 2006). However the quality of this group leaves much to be desired. While India's promised demographic dividend is widely proclaimed, it would fail to reap benefits if the workforce lacks knowledge, skills and creativity in handling jobs in a globalised and a diverse work environment. Most of the new jobs would be created in service sectors such as IT and IT-enabled services, retail, health and pharmaceuticals, electronics and IT Hardware, and travel and tourism. Eighty percent of the jobs would require basic business communication, etiquette and strong inter-personal skills (National Skills Development Corporation, n.d.). While colleges churn out graduates by the millions, it is estimated that more than 17 percent of the graduates are not employable. Efforts have been made by the government to upgrade the skill levels, one such being the National Skills Development Corporation, incorporated through public private partnership. Top-tier management institutes have also tried to address this gap by having their own regular executive education programs. As a process of expansion, many have extended executive management education over the web, as they cater to a more diverse audience than the traditional residential executive education program (Desanctis and Sheppard, 1999). Web-based distance learning unfettered by many of the constraints facing traditional education has the potential to change the practices and image of management education. The flexibility of web-based courses could also attract competent students with wide variety of experiences who would otherwise not partake in graduate management education.The motivations for pursuing such a programme for working executives could be quite diverse. Time tends to be a key constraint for students in online executive education programmes; students typically have to balance work, family and studies. Web-based courses could provide learning opportunities while continuing with work and offers flexibility to balance personal and professional life. Furthermore to this flexibility, studies have indicated that online environments could be on a par with, if not better than, traditional education by supporting higher-order learning by encouraging students to engage in a dialogue, think and reflect on their answers (Arbaugh, 2008; Ivancevich et al., 2009), signifying that this is a viable medium for course delivery. However, the concerns of students regarding distance learning encompass two underlying elements - one is personal time management and the second is about contact with faculty (Hollenbeck et al., 2005). Because of the need to balance work, family and studies, the requirement of the instructor to be flexible to the course demands are higher, while at the same time personal interaction becomes more difficult as contrasted to on-site education. Three levels of interaction - i.e. instructor-student, student-student and student-content - have been identified as significant design parameters affecting perceived learning and satisfaction in previous research (Marks et al., 2005; Eom et al., 2006). While each of these is individually important, student-instructor interaction has significantly more influence on the perceived learning than student-student or student-content interaction (Marks et al., 2005).Though research in online education has been primarily concentrated on the North American context, as management education becomes more globally dispersed, the generalisability of research findings to other regions of the world should receive increasing scrutiny (Arbaugh et al., 2010). As a number of institutes seek to offer management education over the internet and try to cater to a global audience, research based on different cultural contexts becomes increasingly relevant. Learning style preferences could vary on an individual's cultural values (Anupam et al., 2002; Holtbrugge and Mohr, 2010). While students in low power distance contexts such as the USA would seek instructors who treat them as equals and as providers of tools for learning, in contrast, students from a high power distance society such as India could look up to the instructor for specific instructions and learning (Anupam et al., 2002). This cultural influence on learning could have implications in the design and delivery of the programme. Further, Indians are socialised through strong family and extended family ties and they are more likely to develop stronger affiliative tendencies. This means that job related decisions are more influenced by interpersonal considerations than by task demands (Mendonca and Kanungo, 1994). In the context of executive education this could mean that the very reason of undertaking education while continuing with work could be influenced by the work group and organization. It was also observed in a programme offered by a leading management institute in India that there were a number of participants belonging to the same company and in some cases enrolled as cohorts where the company either fully or partially sponsored the cost of the education. We wanted to explore this link as well.Hence we wanted to explore the following issues:* motivation to do an executive management education programme;* reasons to do it over the web rather than face-to-face;* expectations after completing the programme;* contributors to learning effectiveness of the programme; and* reasons for organizational support to online executive education programme.While online learning is found to be an effective medium for the delivery of management education (Arbaugh et al., 2010), there appears to be variations across management disciplines in the student perceptions of learning outcomes and satisfaction (Arbaugh et al., 2010). While disciplines such as strategy, organizational behaviour, human resources appear to be more conducive to the medium, operations management appears to be less so. This study's sample includes students from multiple courses. This has the methodological benefits that it controls for instructor-specific characteristics that could affect outcomes in discipline specific research. Further, we follow a qualitative approach through structured interviews to research this emerging area. There has been a disproportionate stress on studies on online education through quantitative research methods and these are attributed partially to the predominant research occurring in North American contexts (Arbaugh et al., 2010). Qualitative research would be helpful for identifying unique contextual characteristics and focusing on process level concerns.\nMethodology: There were 17 student respondents. All the students were course participants in a one-year management certification programme provided through interactive synchronous distance learning mode by a leading institute of management in India. The institute offers its education programme in a blended learning format, where a major part of the course is delivered online, supplemented by in-campus face-to-face interactions. The respondents' ages ranged from 28 to 47; 16 were male and one was female. Eleven respondents had an engineering/technology background, two each were postgraduates in management and computer applications, while two were graduates. They covered industries such as glass manufacturing, retail, IT products and IT services. They covered different functional areas such as engineering, project management, sales, quality and human resources. Their experience ranged from a minimum of five years to 25 years. All of them participated in an open-ended questionnaire interview. Structured interviews are well suited for accessing people's personal worlds and points of view and to understand people's experiences, attitudes and reactions, all of which are difficult to capture through quantitative methodologies. Respondents were given the same set of open ended questions in a structured interview questionnaire format addressing the study's research questions. Participants were assured of confidentiality of all information provided. Following the procedure advocated by Krippendorff (2004), all applicable comments for each area covered by the research questions were selected and grouped into \"themes\" that reflected the statement's underlying meaning. The data presented are an extract from the qualitative part of a larger study. We chose to do a qualitative study before conducting any quantitative examinations of learning effectiveness in online education in India, as there is no substantial body of research upon which to rely.\nFindings and discussions: Reasons for undertaking executive management education program\nConclusions and limitations of the research: While abundant research exists on web based education in the Western context, the reasons for undertaking web based executive education programs, the contributors to learning effectiveness of such a program, the individual and organizational expectation for undertaking or supporting such a program are still not well understood in the Indian context. Our research probed into these factors and we found that there are some unique results in the Indian web-based executive education context, especially on the contributors to learning effectiveness. A methodological limitation relates to the use of structured questionnaire responses. We used a structured questionnaire to which responses were sought. There was no further probe on the answers got. It is possible that there could have been greater clarity on some of the statements made if there was an interactive interview. Future research could possibly do a more detailed empirical research to explore these links further.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Online education is becoming a major mode of learning, especially for working executives. An assessment of this learning mode is important to evaluate the quality of learning and may provide useful directions to effective management of online learning. This paper aims to focus on these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A qualitative research methodology was adopted to explore such issues as the reasons for undertaking web-based executive management education programs, the contributors to the learning effectiveness of such a program, and the individual and organizational expectations for undertaking or supporting such a program.\nFindings: - It was found that there are some unique results in the Indian web-based executive education context, especially on the contributors to learning effectiveness. The most commonly mentioned reasons for undertaking an executive management education program are to gain knowledge/skills and to better handle present or future roles, while the most commonly expected outcome after completion refers to personal development/satisfaction and improved performance in the present job. The most important factors contributing to learning effectiveness relate to pedagogical factors and course design factors.\nOriginality/value: - While abundant research exists on web based management education in the Western context, the reasons for undertaking web-based executive management education programs, the contributors to learning effectiveness of such a program, and the expectations for undertaking such a program are still not well understood in the Indian context. This study provides useful pointers to these questions.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Right Speech as a basis for management training	[ "Training", "Creativity", "Ethics", "Mindfulness", "Negotiation", "Buddhism" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: What is practical wisdom? Can it be useful in business life? If so, how to develop it? Can engagement with Buddhist tradition help? How?\nPractical wisdom and management education: The expression \"practical wisdom\" corresponds to Greek phronesis and Latin prudentia. It describes an ability to interact skilfully so as to make things happen in social and economic life; it also implies the assumptions, attitudes and habits that underpin such skilful interaction (which are seen as culturally embedded, hence identifiable in terms of religious/philosophic traditions).\nBuddhist tradition: Tradition\nManagement: Fieldwork report\nRight Speech training: Routines and heuristics\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present a process, grounded in Buddhist practical wisdom, which trains managers to negotiate effectively.\nDesign/methodology/approach: After comparing Western notions of phronesis/prudentia with insights from Buddhist tradition, it reports on the author's 20+years' work in cross-cultural communication-skills training and examines sample training exercises.\nFindings: Even experienced business-people rarely register the detail of what happens in their meetings. Simple behavioural routines, using checklists, can help here. The self-image of a problem-solver, reinforced by corporate culture, produces an urge to prove oneself right. So people get locked in to abstract, analytical thinking, and interpersonal relations are inhibited. A good way to overcome this constraint is to practise applying certain heuristics, or rules-of-thumb, for addressing contentious points in a negotiation.\nPractical implications: An impractical ideology of analytical perfection dominates much of corporate cultures; much management education suffers from a hypertrophy of theory. A different, more practical approach seems overdue. A good way to catalyse a paradigm shift is indirectly, by focusing on specific behaviours. There are some important goals which we cannot attain by an instrumental process.\nSocial implications: Unethical business behaviour, which is also ineffective, is often rooted in mistrust of direct experience. To improve ethics and effectiveness, businesses and managers need to recognise non-instrumental goals. Important as they are, efficiency and profitability are subordinate to the need for people to stay sane, to continue learning and to grow as humans, in the course of doing business.\nOriginality/value: Buddhist speech ethics and the culture of skill-in-means have much to offer management education.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Latent segmentation using store-level scanner data	[ "Consumers", "Market segmentation", "Supermarkets" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The understanding and prediction of market response to marketing stimuli is a key issue that contributes to reducing uncertainty in the development of marketing strategies. The proliferation of new information technology resources as well as the availability of massive amounts of information on consumer data has encouraged the development of several methodologies in order to make this objective easier. In particular, the scanner data registered at the point of sale constitute a potential source of information for understanding market structure and competition dynamics, and for assisting manufacturers and retailers in marketing management. The challenge to researchers is to develop analytic models for decision-making using this type of information.Explanatory models aimed at understanding market response use both longitudinal information, that is, along time, and cross-sectional information, that is, through consumers and markets. The latter dimension requires the consideration of consumer heterogeneity. The explicit analysis of consumer heterogeneity contributes not only to improve the predictive performance of the models but also provides key information for strategic marketing decision-making. It is noteworthy that the concept of segmentation is the key to marketing strategy.A relatively new approach for incorporating consumer heterogeneity into market response models assumes the existence of consumer segments latent to the observed consumer behavior in the market (Kamakura and Russell, 1989; Chintagunta et al., 1991). This approach makes it possible to infer response patterns as well as the size of the latent segments underlying market response. Some recent studies have also tested this methodology in the Spanish context (Cavero and Cebollada, 2000; Gonzalez-Benito and Santos Requejo, 2002; Gonzalez-Benito, 2004).The application of models with latent heterogeneity has focused primarily on discrete choice models estimated with disaggregated consumer/household panel data. However, this research approach presents some difficulties when using scanner data aggregated at the store level. The availability of consumer panel data is only possible when consumers use loyalty cards as well as other devices valid for identifying their purchase histories. Data processing can be cumbersome and, in addition, the available consumer sets may not be representative of all store customers. For that reason, some researchers have worked on the adaptation of models with latent segmentation to aggregated data (Zenor and Srivastava, 1993; Besanko et al., 2003; Bodapati and Gupta, 2004). In this context, there is only one variance source: the time dimension.This article applies this kind of methodology to the Spanish context. That is, our main interest is the identification of latent structures in market response to a product category using aggregated scanner data registered by supermarkets. Specifically, we attempt to identify latent consumer segments with diverse preferences towards brands and different responses to marketing stimuli from data consisting of daily marketing actions (i.e. price, promotions, advertising, etc.) and sales of competing brands. This latent segmentation improves model reliability through a more complete modeling of market response and allows manufacturers and retailers to infer how the response to their marketing actions in a product category differs across consumers.It is interesting to highlight two interesting contributions of this work. First, although most current studies in the relevant literature use weekly data, we use daily data instead. The reason for this is that with daily data larger samples can be obtained, such that we can build and run models for a single store with data from a shorter period of time. Additionally, by using daily data instead of weekly data it is possible to avoid potential ambiguities with measures of price. Specifically, it allows us to avoid possible measurement errors in weekly data caused by midweek changes in price. Hence, it is not necessary to align marketing instruments with the observation frequency.Despite the previously mentioned advantages, only a few studies in the relevant literature have used daily scanner data. For example, Kondo and Kitagawa (2000) modeled category sales for a single store. They separated category sales into a trend, a day-of-the-week effects, and an irregular component. A few years later, the authors of the present paper also used daily data to assess promotional effects. More precisely, Martinez-Ruiz et al. (2006a), using scanner-store daily-sales data, evaluated several temporary price promotion effects with standard semiparametric regression. In addition, Martinez-Ruiz et al. (2006b) evaluated the efficacy of promotional prices during each day of the promotional period using semiparametric regression based on Support Vector Machines (SVM) methodology.Secondly, most studies in the relevant literature have deeply analyzed price and promotional consumer response patterns in fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) markets using data from US markets. Thus, only a few studies have used data from outside the United States. Since it has been largely demonstrated that consumers in different segments may exhibit diverse response behavior to price and promotions (e.g. Sivakumar, 2003) and that the market structure (e.g. number and type of competitors, degree of competition, etc.) can be different according to the market in question, a priori one can also expect that the consumer response to price and temporary price discounts may also be different depending on the country considered. It is therefore also interesting to use data from markets outside the US market in order to detect differences in consumer behavior patterns across countries.Despite the importance of detecting different consumer response behavior across countries, only a few studies have used data from markets different from the United States. With this regard it is interesting to outline the works of Van Heerde et al. (2001) and Van Heerde et al. (2002), who investigated promotional effects using grocery scanner data bases from The Netherlands and The United States. Martinez-Ruiz (2006a, b) also studied several promotional effects using scanner data from the Spanish market. The development of studies in this research stream is of key relevance for grocery retailers, who have to make price adjustments in response to several aspects such as changing consumer demand. In this regard, Dhyne et al. (2006) studied the average frequency and size of price changes made by retailers in the euro area and its member countries - except Ireland and Greece - and compared it with available US results. Their findings showed the existence of different price adjustment patterns by retailers depending on the country in question.The following contents are dived into three sections. First, the modeling approach and the estimation procedure are described. The comparison between the disaggregated approach and the aggregated approach allows us to appreciate the peculiarities of the latter. Second, the usefulness of the proposal is exemplified through an application using scanner data. Finally, the main conclusions are provided.\nLatent segmentation: disaggregated data vs aggregated data: The interest of this study lies in the identification of consumer segments latent to market response using scanner data aggregated at the store level. In this section we present a detailed description of both the analytic model and the estimation procedure. In order to illustrate the singularities of the aggregated approach, the usual procedure for aggregated data is formulated.Model for disaggregated data\nEmpirical application: In order to exemplify the proposal, below we present an application to scanner data registered in a supermarket. First, the study context and the data are described, and then the analysis and the results obtained are shown.Data and study context\nConclusions: This paper has focused on the explicit incorporation of consumer heterogeneity into the explanatory market share models from a latent segmentation perspective, using store-level scanner data on a daily basis. Specifically, the main goal of this work was the identification of latent segments with different preferences and benefits sought of a category product from the aggregated daily sales registered in a supermarket. In order to achieve this objective, a research methodology based on the literature review was presented and exemplified through an empirical application to a coffee category with a package size of 250 grams. The data were provided by a Spanish supermarket, which contributes to expand our knowledge about the phenomenon studied to non-US countries.The empirical findings have highlighted the potential of the proposal. First, the existence of different latent segments with different preferences and response patterns to marketing stimuli were detected. In particular, the fit of the statistical analysis for the different model possibilities allowed us to identify four market segments. Second, it was detected that the intrinsic brand attractiveness as a measure of consumer brand preference is different from some segments to others. Finally, the price sensitivity is also different from some segments to others. Although the price sensitivity presents a negative sign for all latent segments, its intensity differs substantially across segments. Consequently, the impact of temporary price discounts will be different depending on the targeted segment.This work contributes to deepen our knowledge of the identification and selection of latent market structures, specifically latent segments with different purchase patterns and behaviors. The possibility of developing the analysis with aggregated data increases the potential utility for marketing managers. In particular, it provides an alternative way to exploit aggregated scanner data without splitting them into household panel data. The latter type of data not only requires complex data but also may not be representative.Aside from the managerial contributions of this work, some limitations can be mentioned. The time cost necessary to obtain the parameter estimates is too high, which is usual in the models estimated with iterative EM algorithms. Furthermore, the time required to calculate the models can increase exponentially with the number of brands and/or segments included. In addition, as pointed out by Bodapati and Gupta (2004), parameter estimates from store data can be far from their true values. The only information about heterogeneity lies in discrepancies in aggregate share changes relating to the changes in shares the model would predict if there were no heterogeneity. Therefore, the bias diminishes as long as there are strong discrepancies, larger sample sizes, more complete and flexible configurations of the market response model, and fewer latent segments.The benefits of this research methodology can be increased through the inclusion of information relating to more marketing stimuli (e.g. feature advertising, displays, etc.) as well as to other category products (e.g. perishable category products, non-food category products, etc.). Another natural extension of the work is the characterization of latent segments identified in order to make it easier to develop promotional strategies targeted directly to each segment. The efforts made in this line have focused on a disaggregated perspective (Gupta and Chintagunta, 1994; Kamakura et al., 1994; Gonzalez-Benito and Santos Requejo, 2002). When consumer purchase history is available, Bayesian inference methods could be used to compute the probability of a consumer belonging to each latent segment (Rossi and Allenby, 2003). These probabilities can be related to geodemographic and socio-economic variables in order to obtain a profile of latent segments. Finally, an interesting issue is the spatial mapping of the competitive position of brands, for instance, including a factorial decomposition of intrinsic brand attractiveness across segments. This approach has also been explored from a disaggregated perspective (Elrod, 1988; Chintagunta, 1994; Elrod and Keane, 1995).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to incorporate explicitly consumer heterogeneity into market response models estimated with store-level scanner-data.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Latent structures in market response to a product category using aggregated scanner data registered by a supermarket are identified. Specifically, latent consumer segments with diverse preferences towards brands and different responses to marketing stimuli from data consisting of daily marketing actions (i.e. price, promotions, advertising, etc.) and sales of competing brands are identified.\nFindings: - The existence of different latent segments with diverse preferences and response patterns to marketing stimuli were detected. More specifically, the fit of the statistical analysis for the different model possibilities made it possible to identify four market segments. It was also found that the intrinsic brand attractiveness as a measure of consumer brand preference is different between segments. Finally, the price sensitivity is also different between segments.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The time cost necessary to obtain the parameter estimates is too high, which is usual in the models estimated with iterative EM algorithms.\nPractical implications: - This work deepens one's knowledge of the identification and selection of latent market structures, specifically latent segments with different purchase patterns and behaviours. The possibility of developing the analysis with aggregated data at the store level increases the potential utility for academics and marketing managers.\nOriginality/value: - Although most applications use weekly data, this proposal models daily fluctuations in sales - as a result, making it possible to obtain consumer segments based on daily changes.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Transformational leadership and work engagement: The mediating effect of meaning in work	[ "Transformational leadership", "Work engagement", "Meaning in work", "Mediation", "Australia" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Transformational leadership is one of the most dominant paradigms in the contemporary leadership literature (Judge and Piccolo, 2004). It is linked with several employee outcomes, such as well-being (Nielsen et al., 2009), creativity (Shin and Zhou, 2003) and task performance (Piccolo and Colquitt, 2006). The transformational leadership style has been defined as \"the process through which leaders and followers help each other to advance to a higher level of morality and motivation\" (Burns, 1979, p. 21). Thus a transformational leader is a morally mature leader who motivates followers' behaviours and attitudes to generate higher levels of moral reasoning in followers (Burns, 1979). However, transformational managers do not influence subordinates' attitudes and behaviours in a simple way. While evidence suggest numerous mediation mechanisms through which transformational leadership affect subordinates (Sivanathan et al., 2004), Avolio et al. (2009) found that the process of influence (or the mechanism) through which transformational managers motivate subordinates needed further investigation.Recently, the relationship between transformational leadership and employee engagement at work has attracted much scholarly attention (Zhu et al., 2009; Salanova et al., 2011). Specifically, Schaufeli and Bakker (2004) refers to engagement as a \"positive, fulfilling, work related state of mind that is characterised by vigour, dedication and absorption\" (p. 295). The empirical findings from studies on the relationship between transformational leadership and work engagement suggest that the mechanism of influence has not been adequately studied (Zhu et al., 2009). These researchers claim that this area should be further explored by using \"other unmeasured variables that could directly or indirectly influence feelings of work engagement\" (Zhu et al., 2009, p. 612).One of the more recent conceptual articles in the engagement literature (Bakker et al., 2011) argues that the direct relationship between transformational leadership and engagement has different intensities under different conditions. They claim that such direct influence is not simple, and can result from helping employees to construe meaningfulness in work (p. 14). Meaning in work (or meaningfulness in work, as per Rosso et al., 2010) has been conceptualised widely in the literature. According to Arnold et al. (2007), meaningful work is all about \"finding a purpose in work that is greater than the extrinsic outcome of the work\" (p. 195). It has been stated in the literature that individuals' primary aim is to be motivated to look for work that is meaningful, personally fulfilling and motivating (Hackman and Oldham, 1976; Chalofsky, 2003). Indeed, this perspective is evident in some of the previous work on motivational theories. For instance, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs indicates that once the lower survival needs which involves psychological, safety and social needs are met, individuals seek to address their higher order needs, which involves progressing from \"belonging\" to \"esteem\" to \"self-actualisation\". Experiencing personal meaning in work has been shown to relate closely to satisfying these higher order needs. According to Chalofsky (2003), once these needs are met, individuals will seek a job that is more meaningful and which fulfils their life purpose. Thus, individuals seek to experience meaningful work that maximises their sense of motivation. Hackman and Oldham (1976) established the interconnection of meaningful work and personal motivation, and found that meaningful work - in addition to feedback and autonomy - maximises the possibility of intrinsic motivation.Our study aims to test the role of meaning in work as a mediator between transformational leadership and employee engagement, an aspect also highlighted by Bakker et al. (2011) as not having enough empirical scrutiny.By examining the mediating role of perceptions of meaning in work, we hope to contribute to the literature both theoretically and practically. Theoretically, this study responds to calls by Roberts and Davenport (2002) and Shuck et al. (2011) for engagement researchers to focus on the situational drivers of engagement that can be changed over a period of time, such as the behaviours of managers and work structure. First, our findings on transformational leadership reveal that the perceptions of meaning in work promote employee feelings of work engagement differently. Second, our study also enriches the work engagement literature that transformational leadership is related to followers' perceptions of meaning in work to affect the levels of work engagement.Industry reports show that only one-fifth of employees were engaged in their work, and that the engagement levels were steadily declining and costing countries greatly in lost productivity (e.g. US$300 billions annually in USA, approximately US$94.5-103.4 billions annually in UK, and over US$232 billions annually in Japan) (Gallup, 2009). In Australia, the situation is worse. Recent estimates show that disengagement among employees has increased to more than 82 per cent, costing the Australian economy between US$37.5-47.2 billions annually in productivity losses (Gallup, 2009). Therefore, organisations constantly need to look for fresh ways to create and then sustain higher engagement levels. Findings of our proposed relationship should help address some of these concerns by providing practitioners with guidelines for designing work contexts to promote employee engagement.\n2. Literature review and hypotheses development: 2.1 Work engagement: stability and definition\n3. Methods: 3.1 Sample and procedures for data collection\n4. Analysis of results and hypotheses testing: 4.1 Descriptive statistics and correlation test\n5. Discussion: As predicted, the direct relationship between transformational leadership and work engagement in H1 was supported. First, the findings demonstrate that employees who have transforming managers are more likely to be energetic, dedicated and absorbed in work. The results of this hypothesis among Australian employees is in line with previous studies conducted in South Africa (Zhu et al., 2009), the Netherlands (Tims et al., 2011) and Portugal (Salanova et al., 2011). Second, this study identified that transformational leadership creates meaning in work that followers do (as hypothesised in H2a) and that meaning in work also predicts work engagement (as expected in H2b). Finally, the results of H3 lend support to a partial mediation of meaning in work between transformational leadership and work engagement. These results address Bakker et al.'s (2011) conceptual claims that meaning in work might mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and work engagement. In this regard, we extend previous research findings in meaning in work to explain the indirect portion of the influence from transformational leadership on work engagement.5.1 Implications for practice\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper reports the findings of a study examining the relationship between transformational leadership and work engagement through the mediating role of meaning in work.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Transformational leadership, work engagement and perceptions of meaning in work were assessed in an empirical study based on a sample of 530 full-time employees working in Australia.\nFindings: - The results from structural equation modelling reveal that the transformational leadership style influences followers' attributes of work engagement. The direct relationship between transformational leadership and work engagement was found to be partially mediated by employees' perceptions of meaning in work.\nPractical implications: - Industry reports show that globally, the number of unengaged employees have increased, costing nations billions in productivity losses. We present a model that could help reduce these losses by providing human resource managers with new insights into developing training programmes that could improve transformational leadership behaviours in the workplace. These programmes could help re-design the context of work to make work more meaningful.\nOriginality/value: - The relationship between transformational leadership style, perceptions of meaning in work and work engagement were explored theoretically and tested empirically in an Australian context.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
OD, change management, and the a priori: introducing parrhesia	[ "Change management", "Organizational diagnosis", "Organizational duress", "Parrhesia" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: There is substantial literature on engagement across managerial disciplines in discussions of change management (Waddell and Sohal, 1998; Pearce and Sims, 2002; Detwiller and Petillion, 2014). In organizational development, engagement is seen as \"the\" key to improvement (Solomon and Sridevi, 2010), cynicism is the enemy (Cartwright and Holmes, 2006), and an implicit or sometimes explicit demand for democratic engagement processes (Denhardt and Campbell, 2006) to guide them. This requirement for engagement both prior to and during interventions has been associated, at least in practice, with an a priori need for a Habermasian (1984, 1987) style of egalitarian communication for both processes and outcomes.\nOverview: The observance of parrhesiastic communication offers two valuable insights to change agents. The first is the act of frank truth telling, which can expedite inquiries into organizational duress, and the second is the notion of a threat or danger. Parrhesia, according to Foucault represents speech by someone in the face of a power disparity. Parrhesia would not occur in an \"ideal speech situation\" (Habermasian, 1984) since the speakers would be in an agora type of setting where \"free speech\" is understood as the norm. Instead, parrhesia happens in spite of chances for personal or professional harm, offering potential insights into organizations.\nValues: traps and speech: Certain values and a priori assumptions underlie the practices of both organizational development and change management. When we train our students, we reinforce the \"norm\" of unworkable Habermasian style a priori assumptions that fail to prepare new organizational development or change management professionals for the realities of practice. As stated earlier, idealized, democratic, and open processes are desirable - yet few OD practitioners and change agents will experience such conditions upon entry into an organization. In the precious few cases where a priori assumptions are met, practitioners might separate from their clients, leaving them with a rough approximation of an idealized agora. More frequently, under the best of circumstances, disparate communication, and power relationships are somewhat mitigated in some cases by interventions from OD practitioners and change agents.\nA remedy: Consider the possibility of re-grounding practices through a genealogical critique, not in the work of Habermas, but instead with the work of Foucault (1985, 2001a) and others including Barratt (2003, 2008) and Sementelli (2009) who reflect upon power disparities as part of organizational processes. Re-grounding practices using Foucault (1985, 2001a) represents a shift of assumptions away from striving for ideal speech situations (Habermasian, 1987) to recognizing fearless speech (Foucault, 1985, 2001a) or \"frank talk\" (Barratt, 2008). Fearless speech, or parrhesia, could serve the theory and practices of both OD and change management by placing the issues of power disparities, impeded speech, and professional danger at the forefront in organizational diagnosis. Moreover, practitioners who identify parrhesiastic activity in organizations can use incidences of parrhesia as a tool for diagnosis to reveal a willingness to change among minority participants. Parrhesia can also identify organizational duress, and allow us to consider alternatives from critical management studies like microemancipation (Alvesson and Willmott, 1992b) as a possible path to resolution.\nJustifying parrhesia: In organizational traps, readers can almost feel the frustration radiating from Argyris (2012) as a rallying call to action. Argyris (2012) in this case was particularly concerned with issues that include victimization, both self-imposed and by management, dissonance, and disengagement. Many of Argyris' (2012) espoused organizational issues require change agents to actively engage communicative structures that have specific barriers among individuals, groups, and departments. Employing the ideal speech situation imagined by Habermasian (1984, 1987) with its a priori assumptions of authenticity, egalitarianism, and democratic speech would likely result in an impasse in the diagnostic process. However, identifying parrhesia, and engaging the change agent or OD professional to help \"unstick\" the diagnostic process fits within a more mainstream approach. Recall that parrhesia (2001) is a Greek concept that not only enables, but requires people to speak truth to power, to speak boldly, or fearlessly (Barratt, 2008; Sementelli, 2009; Stivers, 2004, p. 21) in the face of some danger. In this sense, parrhesia is beyond simply being practical \"troublemaking\" (Barratt, 2008, p. 528) and has the potential to trigger for change as well as cause further duress. The dual nature of parrhesia enhances the value of parrhesiastic activity during diagnosis because it provides diagnostic information to the trained change agent.\nEngagement: As stated above, there is a desire to create egalitarian if not democratic processes that remains implicit in many OD practice narratives, training texts, and other materials as mechanisms to improve engagement and quality of intervention processes. There is an underlying utopian desire to create organizational situations with minimal dysfunction, most often interpreted as a lack of dissent, critique, or conflict, often taking on a mythic quality. OD literature in particular, points to the need for healthy dissent, critique, and conflict which undermines utopian goals for a harmonious workplace. In general, it illustrates how these mythic qualities are both unattainable undesirable especially when faced with rapidly changing environments and other unplanned changes. Moving away from such utopian a priori assumptions is a point of particular importance. In multiple historic cases, a lack of dissent, critique, and conflict often identifies severe instances of a particular form of organization dysfunction (Allison, 1971; Janis, 1982). This particular dysfunction has been linked to \"organizational ossification\" (Veblen, 1967) and is a generally understood term among institutional economists.\nIs all organizational speech parrhesia?: Not all speech that looks like parrhesia is a parrhesiastic act. There are a number of situations that might present as parrhesia. The most common is the contrarian organizational member, known as the \"practical trouble maker\" (Barratt, 2008). Such a person may appear to be speaking truth to power, but are more likely to be reflecting personal perceptions, experiences, and beliefs about an otherwise normal or adequately functioning organization. The trick of course, becomes how to distinguish among those speaking truth to power from those simply being contrarian. Regardless of which you are dealing with, parrhesia or a contrarian employee, the diagnostic process benefits. This is not to say one should abandon other diagnostic tools. There are a number of other diagnostic tools available to both OD professionals and change managers, and triangulation is always a safer strategy than relying on any single technique or idea.\nWhy this matters to OD and change management: Many cleave to the ideals of democracy, participation, and informed judgment in both OD and change management. This set of utopian assumptions remains central to our principles of practice and textbooks as explicit goals. The assumptions further can skew choices made about interventions. Utopias are nice to daydream about, but they remain philosophically unachievable. Unreflective daydreaming warrants carful reflection on the genealogy of the profession (Barratt, 2008) alongside the under considered a priori assumptions. Particularly in practice, it is important to recognize that the ideals of democracy, participation, and informed judgment, are inherently utopian. Though important to consider, a utopian a priori must not be assumed to be an achievable goal.\nConcluding remarks: This piece sought to illuminate the organizational traps created by a lack of reflection upon the conceptual, the idealized, and the practical decisions we make regarding change management and organizational development. Specifically, the paper focused on challenging the Habermasian a priori assumptions, which tend to mirror the indoctrinated belief in collaboration among some change managers and OD practitioners. Moreover the often espoused values of democracy, authenticity, and social justice, though consistent with Habermas' ideas, are rarely if ever met at the onset of an intervention. In certain situations, adherence to ritualized democratic processes can serve to undermine OD and change management interventions.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce a Foucauldian concept into the theory and practice of OD and change management. The piece challenges Habermasian a priori assumptions about organizational diagnosis and intervention.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This is a conceptual paper.\nFindings: Literature points to the benefit of considering the possibility of parrhesiastic behavior in change management and organization development as part of a broader set of diagnostic tools.\nResearch limitations/implications: Future research should engage in practice driven test cases, interview practicing change managers, and refine the concept for use as a diagnostic tool.\nPractical implications: Including discussions of parrhesia in change management and OD study and practices can better prepare change professionals for the realities of contemporary organizational practices.\nOriginality/value: To date, the links developed in this manuscript have not been made in the management literature, though it builds upon emerging literature in critical management studies and human resource management. It has the potential to influence both theory and practices of both OD and change management.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Finding the movement: the geographies of social movement scenes	[ "Sweden", "Social movements", "Urban development", "Gentrification", "Social movement scenes" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Contemporary social movements are deeply rooted in place. In 2011, Cairo's Tahrir Square became synonymous with freedom and resistance. In the same year, Occupy Wall Street activists occupied Zuccotti Park in New York City, spawning other urban land occupations throughout the USA. The town of Ferguson, Missouri remains synonymous with the Black Lives Matter movement, despite the movement's proliferation to other cities and countries. In 2014, four days of rioting broke out in Barcelona after city authorities ordered the eviction of squatters from Can Vies, a 17-year-old social center housed in an abandoned transportation building. In response to the riots, authorities backed down. Given these clear examples of the ways in which place matters to social movements, it is surprising that relatively few sociological studies of social movement culture engage with questions of geography or spatiality. Many sociologists favor studying social movement places in terms of what they do for movements. For example, a social center like Can Vies provides easy access to a social movement by virtue of being a public, long-standing place. This approach separates movement and culture, locating possibilities for change in the movement while culture plays a supporting role by helping the movement achieve its goals.\nLiterature review: Social movement scenes\nMethods: Sample and data collection\nCase selection: Sweden\nThe fragile scene: Stockholm: \"Stockholm is ruined\"\nThe strong scene: Malmo: \"Mollevangen is changing\"\nConclusion: In conclusion, this paper offers propositions on the conditions under which strong social movement scenes thrive, followed by some potential avenues for future research. First, access to space is paramount, though how social movements accomplish this is changing. Historically, \"legal environments that favor squatters' rights\" have been an important condition for the emergence of strong social movement scenes (Leach and Haunss, 2009, p. 269). However, that seems to be a less available option as authorities in Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Spain, and England crack down on squatters, reversing squatters' rights and evicting autonomous movements from places that have existed for decades. In these new urban environments, activists that continue to rely on squatting as a means of gaining access to space will face significant challenges. Instead, autonomous movements will have to adapt new tactics to challenge urban environments. Activists in Malmo are an instructive example of how movements can engage in direct action that challenges the gentrification process and creates greater participation among local residents.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: A social movement scene is \"a network of people who share a set of subcultural or countercultural beliefs, values, norms, and convictions as well as a network of physical spaces where members of that group are known to congregate\" (Leach and Haunss 2009, p. 260, emphasis in the original). The purpose of this paper is to further develop theories of social movement scenes by examining the spatial dimensions of proximity, centrality, visibility, and accessibility, arguing that different scene configurations are shaped by gentrification processes.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This is an ethnographic study based on research conducted in Sweden over a five year period (2007-2012), including several summer research trips and a sustained fieldwork period of 14 months. Using snowball sampling, the author conducted semi-structured interviews with 38 activists involved in autonomous movement scenes. The author interviewed both men (n=26) and women (n=12) who ranged in age from 18 to 37, with most interviewees in their late 20s and early 30s.\nFindings: Findings suggest that neighborhoods in the early stages of gentrification are most conducive to strong scenes. The author's findings suggest that, while some of these conditions are locally specific, there were common structural conditions in each city, such as changes in the commercial landscape and housing tenure.\nOriginality/value: This paper contributes to the specificity of the concept of a social movement scene by presenting three spatial dimensions of scenes: centrality (relative to the Central Business District), concentration (clustering of scene places in one area of the city), and visibility (a visible presence communicated by signs and symbols). A second contribution of this paper is to offer a set of hypotheses about the urban conditions under which social movement scenes thrive (or fizzle).\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Can internal factors improve innovation performance via innovation culture in SMEs?	[ "Social capital", "Innovation performance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Malaysia encountered headwinds from multiple global economic slowdowns as the global financial landscape is increasingly challenging. Therefore, the Eleventh Malaysia Plan (11MP), 2016-2020, marks a momentous milestone in Malaysia's history. Since 1991, Malaysia has carried out a lot of initiatives to transform the nation into a developed country as stipulated by the Vision 2020 (11MP, 2016). In this manner, to prevent Malaysia from being stagnant and remain as a middle-income nation, the Economic Transformation Programme was introduced in the year 2010 to ensure the transformation of Malaysia into a high-income nation. Therefore, the strategy is to focus on productivity and innovation, which are the important pillars of 11MP (2016).\n2. Theoretical background: The resource-based view (RBV) is one of the most influential theories in explaining an organisation's sustainable competitive advantage. The basic idea is that an organisation can attain competitive advantage when it possesses and controls valuable, rare, inimitable and non- substitutable resources (Wernerfelt, 1984). RBV posits that resources are the primary determinants of competitive advantage, which include innovativeness of the firms. Barney (1991) categorizes resources into several specific typologies, including human, physical, capital, information, knowledge and others, which are controlled by the firm. These elements enable the firm to conceive and implement strategies that improve its efficiency and effectiveness. Thus, the resources of the organisation must be firm, specific and not tradable (Wang et al., 2016). In the context of this study, specific human capital and social capital are viewed as an organisation's resources that ensure continuous improvement. Here, it will subsequently be reflected through the innovation performance. Human capital, in the form of such talent, is a valuable resource for the organisation. Further indication that human resource is valuable to organisations' success is when it may be attributable to \"people-embodied skills\", thus suggesting that skilled employees are valuable assets in the attainment of higher than average returns for organisations. Besides, social capital becomes a resource that has the potential to contribute to the competitive advantage of organisation. This study is supported by Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1998), who suggest that organisations high in social capital are significantly more likely to be more successful than competitors with relatively lower levels of social capital. This is because social capital is one organisational attribute that is not easily formed and difficult to imitate. Its presence will likely give organisations a sustainable edge over their competitors (Hernandez-Carrion et al., 2017).\n3. Literature review: 3.1 Bumiputera SMEs in Malaysia\n4. Hypotheses development: Five main hypotheses have been developed to test the relationships between specific human capital, social capital, innovation culture and innovation performance. First, this research investigates the direct relationship of specific human capital and social capital, and innovation culture. Second, the direct effect of innovation culture on innovation performance will be examined. Third, innovation culture will be tested as a mediator between specific human capital, social capital and innovation performance. These hypotheses were derived to achieve the research objectives of this study.\n5. Methodology: 5.1 Research design\n6. Data analysis and results: To analyse the research model, we used the partial least squares (PLS) analysis using the Smart-PLS 3.0 software (Ringle et al., 2015). Following the recommended two-stage analytical procedures by Anderson and Gerbing (1988), we tested the measurement model (validity and reliability of the measures) followed by an examination of the structural model (testing the hypothesized relationship) (see Hair et al., 2014). To test the significance of the path coefficients and the loadings, a bootstrapping method (500 resamples) was used (Hair et al., 2014).\n7. Discussion: The present study proposed a framework of how to enhance innovation performance in Bumiputera SMEs. The framework suggests that internal factors (specific human capital and social capital) are essential in helping Bumiputera SMEs to improve innovation culture among employees. By suggesting this framework, it is envisioned that this could enhance Bumiputera SMEs in accepting innovation and finding a new method in their business process. With this, Bumiputera SMEs may benefit from the innovation culture in their competitive environment. Thus, this study carried out a cross-sectional survey with structured questionnaires to achieve the research objectives. However, the study revealed mixed results which are perhaps very interesting and worthwhile for the innovation performance-related theories, and also for the practitioners.\n8. Conclusion, limitation and future direction: As with other studies, this study is not without its limitations. First, as this study is restricted to a specific national and industrial context (Bumiputera SMEs), the external validity and generalizability of the study may be hindered. This is compounded by the fact that even though some Bumiputera SMEs were listed in the TERAS 2018 database as active operating businesses, they were found to be of inactive operation or uncooperative. Secondly, it is related to the cross-sectional design, i.e. the measurement of a sample member obtained at a single point in time. To determine the generalizability of innovation performance via innovation culture, it might be interesting to collect data from employees and owner/manager of the organisation to verify and validate the results. Third, to enhance both theoretical and practical significance of the research, the mixed method of research might also be utilized since this study only applied quantitative approach. The future studies might want to improve the model by incorporating other relevant variables to test the changes validity and its effect on innovation issues such as innovation speed and innovation quality.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Innovation performance is an issue that has a profound effect not only on Malaysian large companies but also among small and medium enterprises (SMEs) especially Bumiputera SMEs. The purpose of this paper is to explore the theoretical review of innovation culture pertaining to innovation performance by conducting a literature review on SME studies. The previous reference on innovation performance in Malaysian SMEs is still scarce, even though it is the key benchmark to measure firm performance. It has been demonstrated by the literature that innovation culture is significantly associated with innovation performance. Nonetheless, its effect on Bumiputera SMEs is still underexplored. Thus, this study examines the importance of internal factors (specific human capital and social capital) to innovation culture in driving innovation performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A questionnaire-based survey was conducted to gather data from Bumiputera SMEs. A total of 140 responses were obtained and analyses were carried out using Smart-PLS software to produce interesting findings.\nFindings: The findings indicate that social capital (relational capital and social network) has a significant impact on innovation culture and indirectly impacts innovation performance. The findings also reveal that specific human capital does not have significant impact on innovation culture and innovation performance. This paper shows the importance of social capital and how it directly influences Bumiputera SMEs and innovation performance. This result will be encouraging to firms in other developing countries.\nPractical implications: Although SMEs play an important role in economic development, their contribution to innovation is small and marginal. This study makes an important contribution by providing information to the Malaysian SMEs, especially those that are of Bumiputera status on the factors that could enhance innovation performance and nurture innovation culture in their organisations. Thus, it is hoped that this study will generate interest among researchers to attain more conclusive evidence about the practice of innovation culture among Malaysian SMEs.\nOriginality/value: This paper is one of the first to address the mediating effect of innovation culture on specific human capital, social capital and innovation performance.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Dimensions of brand knowledge: Turkish university students' consumption of international fashion brands	[ "Brand awareness", "Students", "Fashion", "International marketing", "Turkey" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Fashion generally refers to clothing and it is described as \"a process which determines particular design, products or social behaviours for a specific period of time and replaces them regularly with new ones\" (Saviolo, 2002, p. 4). It has three components: style, acceptance and timing (Frings, 1982; Packard et al., 1983; Wolfe, 2003). However, fashion is a sector presenting a dream world to consumers, for which brand is essential. Therefore, it should be considered as a fourth component. One of the factors leading international fashion products to success is to have a strong brand, which is achieved through a greater level of brand knowledge (Guedes and da Costa Soares, 2005).Brand awareness and brand image are two components of brand knowledge, which are the consumer sides of the brand, therefore they could be controlled by the company (Rajh, 2002) so that all over the world international brands present the same image of fashion supported by franchising chains and marketing communication activities. On the other hand, it is necessary to clarify the impact of personal or environmental determinants on brand knowledge that consumers' characteristics might affect their brand knowledge. Previous research showed the influence of consumer personality on brand knowledge. However, there are other factors that could affect brand knowledge: gender, field of education and having consumed a brand. The purpose of this paper is to ascertain these possible effects by comparing the brand knowledge of Turkish students. The paper starts by reviewing the related literature on brand knowledge and its measurement. It is followed by methodology, findings, and conclusion sections.\n2. Brand knowledge: Brand helps to differentiate products or services from the others (Kotler and Keller, 2009) and \"embodies every undertaking of the company and represents it to the world as a hologram, plays a part in the formation of relationships, and expresses and contributes group affiliation\" (Sherry, 2005, p. 46). Brands are markers of offerings for companies, and a sign of quality, and an indicator of risk or trust for consumers (Keller and Lehmann, 2005). An overall value of a brand demonstrates its equity (Kaplan, 2007). Brand equity is \"a set of brand assets and liabilities linked to a brand, its name, and its symbol that add to or subtract from the value provided by a product or a service to a firm and/or to that firm's customers\" (Aaker, 1991, p. 15). Brand equity is studied regarding two aspects. The first one is financial that \"estimates the value of a brand for accounting purposes\" (Keller, 1993, p. 1), and the second is customer oriented that evaluates \"consumer perceptions of the brand\" (Elliot and Percy, 2007, p. 82). Customer-oriented approach is called the customer-based brand equity and described as \"the differential effect of brand knowledge on consumer response to the marketing of the brand\" (Keller, 1993, p. 2).Brand knowledge is defined by descriptive and evaluative brand-related information that it is individualistic inference about a brand stored in consumer memory. It comprises brand related notions, brand awareness, and brand image that correlating diverse information such as awareness, attributes, benefits, images, thoughts, feelings, attitudes and experiences to a brand constitutes brand knowledge and directly affect consumer responses (Keller, 1993, 2003). It is also indicated that brand knowledge is based on a constant communication with consumers that elicits real comprehension of the product or service (Richards et al., 1998).Therefore brand knowledge could comprehend both explicit and tacit knowledge. Explicit knowledge is objective and theoretical and can be asserted through many forms of media - documents, audiovisual equipment, computerised records, etc. - while implicit knowledge is mostly subjective, practical, and personal (Sharif, 2004). Brand knowledge is found to have a positive and direct effect on internet retailing by lowering the level of perceived risk (Chen and He, 2003) and brand extensions (Pitta and Katsanis, 1995).2.1 Brand awareness\n3. Measuring brand knowledge: brand image and brand awareness: Brand awareness is evaluated in two ways that are brand recognition and brand recall. Brand recognition is assessed through requesting consumers to distinguish the brand: whether it has been previously seen or heard, or not. Brand recall, on the other hand, is asking consumers to retrieve brands in a given product category (Keller, 2008). Since brand image is perceptions of brand associations held in the consumers' minds are called as brand image (Keller, 2003), it is measured by evaluating these brand associations. There are several ways to measure brand image as applying or adapting an existing list of brand associations, e.g. the brand personality list of Aaker, or developing a new scale by revealing brand associations and then measuring the strength of brand associations (Chandon, 2003).Brand image, which is enrooted in both tangible and intangible associations linked to the attributes of the product, is assessed through various approaches (Kaplan, 2007). These approaches could be divided into two main categories: scaling and sorting (Joyce, 1963 cited in Driesener and Romaniuk, 2006, p. 681). Whether a brand and attribute are related or not and the strength of an existent relationship are determined through scaling techniques whereas only corporeity of attribute is detected through sorting techniques (Driesener and Romaniuk, 2006). In addition, scaling and ranking measures enable to distinguish brands, as pick-any measure asks for yes or no for each brand (Driesener and Romaniuk, 2001). Several scholars pointed the distinct patterns in brand image data while applying pick-any technique (Barnard and Ehrenberg, 1990). Comparison of three brand image measurement techniques, sorting - a pick-any -, scaling - Likert rating -, and ranking, showed that all these three techniques equivalent results.\n4. Methodology: 4.1 Objective\n5. Findings: 5.1 Profile of the respondents\n6. Conclusion: Consumer demands are rapidly changing and getting similar to each other not only in a single country but also internationally. In order to be successful internationally, it is important to have a strong brand. In this study, brand knowledge, which consists of brand awareness and brand image, of nine international fashion brands was evaluated among the Turkish university students. This study contributes to the findings of previous studies held on customer based brand equity that consumer characteristics of gender, field of education, and having consumed the brand have an influence on brand knowledge. Females, Fashion Design and Fashion Business departments' students, and those who had already consumed a product of the brands listed, had more knowledge on these nine international fashion brands.The students, who were studying in Fashion Design and Fashion Business departments, had a little more knowledge of these brands than the others. This slight difference could be as a result of advertising and communication activities. Not only people in the fashion business, but also others get some information about fashion brands willingly or not through promotions. Magazines, shopping centres and other consumers around could also provide such knowledge. This could also be an explanation for the knowledge about GAP, which recently entered into the Turkish market that had almost the same values as the other brands. The students might have accumulated information about GAP via television, magazines, travels and so on. Hung (2008) found that positive PR perceptions have a positive effect on brand image that would influence consumer loyalty. Also the results of our study points out the importance of marketing communication activities such as PR and advertising. Therefore, it is important to consider these factors while creating a successful fashion brand or entering into a new market.Comparison of the brand knowledge among genders revealed that the female students had more knowledge of the listed brands than the males. As mentioned previously, Gocek et al. (2007) claimed that there was no difference in brand image perception according to gender. However, the results of our study show that brand image perception could differ due to gender. Furthermore, having consumed a brand leads to a significant effect on brand knowledge. Moreover, the brands Lacoste, Tommy Hilfiger, Diesel and Guess, which are positioned as luxury items in Turkey and conspicuously consumed by students, were more likely to be described on a negative way, e.g. unnecessary, for middle-age and low quality, by non-users and positively, such as high quality and comfortable by users.The study presents interesting outcomes regarding the perceptions of university students from different departments. The fashion brands targeting young consumers should consider the impacts of brand knowledge on their target segments. In a globalised world where local preferences are also playing an important role, brands act effectively in the development of the market demand. Brand knowledge is a key to evaluate in reaching the consumers and this study has proved the importance of empirical studies in this respect.6.1 Limitations and further research\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Previous research has suggested that brand knowledge could be affected by companies and consumer characteristics such as consumer personality. The purpose of this study is to analyse the impacts of gender, field of education, and having consumed the brand, on consumers' brand knowledge.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An exploratory study is designed to reveal the impacts of gender, field of education, and usage of a brand by evaluating Turkish university students' knowledge of nine international fashion brands. The survey is conducted by using convenience sampling method to reach a heterogeneous group of different departments, gender, and usage frequencies that would reveal whether these variables have an effect on brand knowledge or not. The students are also asked to describe each brand by two or three words.\nFindings: - Significant differences are found with respect to usage, gender, and departments. Students belonging to the departments more related to fashion and female students have more knowledge about these nine brands. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate that consumption of a brand increases both brand awareness and brand image.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Future studies could analyse brands by grouping them in accordance with their target segments and product types in order to compare them more strictly. It is also purposeful to compare the brand knowledge of the same brands in different samples and different countries.\nPractical implications: - Since brand associations are used in positioning, the results of the open-ended questions advise firms operating marketing activities whether to strengthen or to alter these associations.\nOriginality/value: - The study could be beneficial for academicians and business practitioners, since it reveals the effects of gender, field of education, and usage on brand knowledge.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Predicting school innovation: The role of collective efficacy and academic press mediated by faculty trust	[ "Academic optimism", "Academic press", "Collective teacher efficacy", "School innovation", "Teachers’ trust" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In a rapidly changing world, the model of education that schools have followed must change to prepare students to be conscious citizens and critical consumers. For schools to make the necessary changes, they must be open to innovation. And yet, we know little about the conditions that foster a spirit of innovation. School innovation, as used in this study, refers to the educational organization's tendency to engage in and support new ideas, experimentation, novelty and creative processes that may result in change initiatives such as new programs, services or technological processes (Garcia and Calantone, 2002; Serdyukov, 2017; Subramanian and Nilakanta, 1996).\nLiterature review: The extent to which an organization (here, a school) can be perceived as innovative is circumscribed by its culture (Dobni, 2008). Organizational culture refers to a group's overt and covert shared norms and beliefs and the unwritten rules for getting along in the organization (Schein, 2010); thus, we hypothesized that teachers' perceptions of collective efficacy, academic press, and faculty trust in clients would be positively related to school innovation.\nMethod: This study made the use of a quantitative survey design, with schools as the unit of analysis. The participants, data collection procedures, measures, and data analysis techniques used in this study are described below.\nResults: Aggregation analysis\nDiscussion: This study had two purposes: first, to examine the direct role of collective teacher efficacy, academic press, and faculty trust in predicting school innovation. Secondly, to examine the extent to which faculty trust mediates the association between collective teacher efficacy and academic press with school innovation. The core of the study was to propose a model that would describe the association between these four constructs. Our hypotheses, for the most part, were confirmed. The study results provide evidence for the importance of the components of AO in predicting school innovation, and the role of trust in mediating innovation.\nTheoretical implications: Our study results expand our understanding and knowledge of the role of the components of AO in school innovation. It expands previous research that examined the composite measures of AO, and it shows that these components are important predictors of innovation. The results demonstrate that a collective climate of trust in role partners is a beneficial resource for school innovation (Bidault and Castello, 2010; Molina-Morales et al., 2011). Thus, there are important theoretical implications for researchers who wish to explore the contextual factors that contribute to a school climate conducive to innovation.\nPractical implications: Our study suggests three important preconditions for school innovation, including collective teacher efficacy, academic press, and faculty trust. These results have significant practical implications for school leaders. As school leaders are challenged to foster innovative new practices in their schools, they need to know how to create the right cognitive, emotional and academic climate to support school innovation.\nLimitations and future research: There are a number of limitations that should be taken into account when analyzing these results and that suggest directions for future research. For example, this study made use of a simple mediation analysis, examining the relationships between the components of AO: collective efficacy, trust and academic press in relation to innovation. Future research might explore the possible moderating role of schools' compositions (e.g. school ethnicity, school sector, school size, school type and school socioeconomic status) in the relationship between the components of AO and school innovation.\nConclusion: This study broke new ground in examining the role that the components of AO play in predicting school innovation. By using a robust number of schools and respondents, we were able to examine our proposed model with respect of the factors that influence school innovation. Innovation has been studied in the past from a technological perspective in schools, and from a leadership perspective, but not from the trio of school climate constructs that make up AO. Following the results of this study, we may conclude that a climate of AO is important to fostering school innovation. Our findings suggest that collective teacher efficacy, academic press, and trust work in concert to create school conditions conducive to innovation. In a rapidly changing world, school leaders need to foster collective efficacy, academic press and trust in order to achieve the innovation needed to prepare students for the future that is emerging.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of collective teacher efficacy, academic press and faculty trust, all of which are components of academic optimism (AO), in predicting school innovation. In addition, the authors explored the extent to which faculty trust mediates the association between collective teacher efficacy and academic press with school innovation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In all, 1,009 teachers from 79 schools in Northern Israel completed anonymous questionnaires about AO and innovation. Aggregation, descriptive statistics, bivariate correlation analyses and mediation analysis were performed to analyze the data.\nFindings: Results showed that the components of AO, i.e., collective teacher efficacy, academic press and trust, were positively correlated to school innovation, and that trust mediated the relationship between collective teacher efficacy and school innovation. The study results confirmed that AO holds a significant predictive value in school innovation and highlights the importance of trust in supporting innovation.\nPractical implications: As school leaders are challenged to foster innovative new practices in their schools, the findings suggest that they will need to know how to cultivate collective teacher efficacy, academic press and faculty trust.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study to examine the role of the components of AO in predicting innovation. By using a robust sample, the authors were able to examine the proposed school-level model with respect to the factors that affect school innovation. Originality also lies in the organizational approach to educational innovation in relation to faculty's beliefs and behaviors.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Applications of business governance and the Unified BPM Cycle in public credit recovery activities	[ "BPM", "Implementation", "Public sector", "Activity governance", "Operational activities", "Process management cycle" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Studies aimed at improving the performance of the public machine and adopting innovative practices, which are partly based on the transfer of principles and techniques from the private sector to the public sector, have been motivated by the increased demand for better and less expensive public services, concern about government dysfunction and belief in efficiency, effectiveness and economic rationality as solutions to such dysfunction (European Commission, 2007; Bryson et al., 2014; Buick et al., 2015; Rinaldi et al., 2015).\n2. Theoretical reference: 2.1 Governance and operational activities\n3. Research methodology: The methodological challenges imposed by the application of several techniques and tools required a \"multi-method\" approach, with a qualitative predominance, in order to allow the reflection on the theory in the various moments of research development and the incorporation of new constructs (Freitas et al., 2000; Bryman, 2005; Coghlan, 2007; Miguel, 2010; Thiollent, 2011).\n4. Findings and discussion: 4.1 Phase 01 - corporate governance structure\n5. Conclusions: A contribution of this paper, both in theoretical and practical fields, is to present a governance structure for activities and processes applicable to public organizations, which orchestrates the various actions required, from the identification of the organization's complete scope of delivery, through delivery dysfunctions, structure of activities and how these activities should be managed. The current literature does not contain a complete and applicable structure for the public service that can be widely used, such as the one presented.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The performance of the state machine has been the subject of research and innovative practices, which seek to explore its sources of knowledge and improve its internal processes. Business governance and business process management (BPM) occupy a prominent position in these studies. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the full implementation of the Unified BPM Cycle in operational activities to recover federal public credit, from the implementation of the corporate governance structure to the audit of the processes implemented.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The case was developed in a federal public advocacy body and used a predominantly qualitative multi-method approach. The phases were organized using the research project matrix, and the predominant research procedure was action research. The information was obtained through questionnaires, observation and focus groups.\nFindings: A corporate governance structure was designed for the activities surveyed. Papers and responsibilities were defined. Processes were prioritized, improved and documented, and as a result of the implemented control, personal and organizational results gained greater visibility.\nResearch limitations/implications: Because this is a single case study, it would be advisable to apply the method used in similar organizations to enrich the analysis presented in this study and compare the results.\nPractical implications: This paper contributes to the consolidation of the knowledge about the practical application of the researched subjects and foments the applied research to the public management.\nOriginality/value: This paper describes an empirical case study about the integrated application of activity governance and the Unified BPM Cycle in operational activities and studies all phases of implementation, providing a broader perspective of their impact on these activities. The road map used can serve as a reference for future research in the area of public credit recovery.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Urban, regional, national and global knowledge capital	[ "Knowledge management", "Universities" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The collection of papers included in the 2010 annual special issue on Knowledge Based Development (KBD) constitute a good sample of the multiple levels of analysis and multiple disciplines involved in the field. As we move from the individual through the organizational to the social, from the physical dimensions of proximity to social dimensions such as culture and trust, from geography to anthropology, we begin to gain a composite perspective of development. Thus, rather than a series of unrelated studies, we end up with a mosaic of the research and practices that are shaping KBD as a discipline of its own, and providing analysts and decision makers with new conceptual and methodological tools to develop appropriate frameworks and policies. Let us begin from the micro level, at the edge of the inter-organizational events defining KBD, moving on to the cluster, regional and national level, through the more conceptual and global scope of knowledge-intensive capital flows.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to introduce the JKM 2010 annual special issue on knowledge based development (KBD) with reference to the multi-level analysis characteristic of the field.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A description of the knowledge management approach at ESOC (European Space Operations Centre of the European Space Agency) is provided first. At the core of this approach is the breakdown of knowledge in individual technical domains followed by coverage analysis and criticality assessment. Such a framework becomes the reference for best knowledge acquisition, transfer and storage locus identification and subsequent knowledge management practices and guidelines.\nFindings: - KBD provides an integrated framework to account for multidisciplinary analyses and multilevel practices in knowledge capital generation, distribution and utilization.\nOriginality/value: - The collection of papers included in the annual special issue on KBD provides a representative, composite view of the research topics and applications concerns in the field. Involving a number of disciplines and levels of analysis, issues ranging from the technological gatekeeper to global knowledge flows show the interdependence of KBD concepts and tools.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Evaluating channel partner's performance: impact of task environments on the relevance of measurement metrics	[ "Performance evaluation", "Task environment", "Measurement metrics", "Channel partner‘s performance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Understanding and managing channel partners' performance is fundamental to governing channel relationships and distribution networks. Accordingly, firms regularly spend huge amounts of time and resources on evaluating the performance of their channel partners to understand which channel relationships are valuable and to identify the inputs required by other relationships to make them valuable. Substantial research in the distribution channel domain has proposed multiple dimensions of channel partner performance and frameworks to better understand its nature (Barringer and Harrison, 2000; Das and Teng, 2000; Kang et al., 2018). However, much of this literature promotes homogeneous performance metrics for evaluating channel partners across the network, implying that different performance dimensions will be similarly relevant for evaluating all channel partners, independent of their external task environment conditions and other individual differences. More recent research has instead suggested the importance of channel partners' task environments as a means of understanding their performance levels, such that certain performance metrics might be more relevant for performance evaluation in some task environments than in others (Flaherty et al., 2007; Goll and Rasheed, 2004; Kabadayi, et al., 2007). This concept is particularly important for firms operating large distribution networks, wherein channel partners are scattered across distinct markets and exposed to different task environment conditions (Mitrega, 2012).\n2. Theory and hypotheses: We first review the construct of channel partners' performance and its specific dimensions; then, we summarize the literature on channel partners' task environments and their characteristics. Drawing on these two main concepts and using the channel relationship principles, we conceptualize a theoretical framework for the effective evaluation of channel partners' performance based on their task environment states.\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Sample and data collection\n4. Results: 4.1 Measurement model\n5. Discussion and conclusions: Supplier firms rely on a network of channel partners to distribute their products and services. Often, these channel partners are spread across diverse markets and operate within widely different task environment conditions. In this research, we argued against the use of one-size-fits-all approach toward the choice of performance metrics while evaluating distinct channel partners. Recognizing the influence of channel partners' task environments, we develop and empirically test a theoretical framework for the relevance of performance measurement metrics in channel relationships. Specifically, we study the relative relevance of three metrics of channel partner's performance - i.e. activity, output, capability - when channel partners' task environments are characterized by high and low levels of munificence, dynamism and complexity. Using an LCS model with matched survey data collected from 252 channel partner-manager dyads in India's automotive industry, we capture the relative relevance of three performance metrics (output, activity and capability) in effectively evaluating channel partner's performance and associate them with real, account-level task environment states of channel partners (munificence, dynamism and complexity).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a nuanced framework for evaluating a channel partner's performance in distribution channel relationships. Given a channel partner's task environment characteristics (high/low munificence, dynamism and complexity), the study examines which performance metrics (output, activity or capability) are most relevant for evaluating its performance levels effectively.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study adopts self-administered cross-sectional survey-based research design. Matched data were collected from 252 channel partners - manager relationship dyads. The latent change score (LCS) model within SEM framework provides mean paired-differences of the relevance ratings for each metrics. This was used to assess the empirical validity of the hypothesized relationships.\nFindings: The study demonstrates the importance of calibrating performance evaluation metrics to a channel partner's task environment state, made possible by its holistic approach to performance evaluation. Based on an extensive analysis, it shows that no single metric is relevant within all environmental states; rather, it could be dysfunctional, a result that differs from vast majority of the literature.\nResearch limitations/implications: Investigates individual linkages between task environment dimensions and performance metrics to provide a fuller understanding of these relationships. Also provides a theoretical framework to support further research on the topic.\nPractical implications: The study provides managerial guidelines (and extensive graphical analysis) for nuanced and dynamic evaluation of channel partners' performance that can enable firms to identify and promote their most valuable channel partners and prevent the deterioration of others.\nOriginality/value: First one to develop and empirically validate a nuanced framework for evaluating performance of exchange partners that operate under diverse task environment states.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Improving service quality: Examining the drivers and outcomes of TQM internalization in organizations	[ "TQM", "Financial benefits", "Internal motives", "External motives", "Internal benefits" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The globalized economy has defined the new landscape of business competitiveness (Metaxas and Koulouriotis, 2014) and is changing the way firms compete. As competition between firms intensifies, and customers' demands are constantly changing, quality awareness is a primary target for every manager to achieve (Chatzoglou et al., 2015). Therefore, to remain competitive, the implementation of quality management programs is considered the key to ensuring future success (Mann, Adebanjo and Tickle, 2011). Quality standards such as ISO 9000 are applied in organizations to improve quality, and there is a plethora of research supporting the ubiquitous implementation of various quality management programs (particularly the ISO 9000) in different countries (Castka et al., 2015; Prajogo, 2011; Psomas et al., 2010).\nResearch background: TQM internalization: A quality award model can be a powerful tool through which organizations can improve their organizational performance and enhance their business efficiency by bringing together all of the people, processes, strategies and technologies required to produce outstanding results (Lee et al., 2003). An analysis of these findings shows that in a number of cases, applying for national quality awards (NQA) and the systematic application of continuous improvements indirectly shows positive effects on financial and non-financial results among companies participating in NQA. Zairi and Alsughayir (2011) suggest that appropriate leadership style, innovative culture, long-term strategic perspective, clarity of focus, and receptivity to employee participation and empowerment are some of the factors for success demonstrated in NQA-winning organizations.\nPhase 1: exploratory study: A qualitative approach using an open-ended survey was adopted in this phase as the goal was to determine the key TQM implementation factors, their drivers and outcomes, from the perspective of professional quality managers. The sampling frame was randomly drawn from a list of professional quality managers in Dubai Quality Award-winning organizations. To better understand this topic, eight interviews with quality professionals were conducted to identify the most important implementation factors for quality award adoption. The interviews lasted from 30 to 60 min and the interviews were audio-recorded (with permission) and transcribed. Table I provides the characteristics of the participants.\nHypotheses development: Drivers of TQM internalization\nPhase 2: quantitative study: Sampling, questionnaire development and data collection\nDiscussion: The primary aim of our research study was to examine the interrelationship between the internal and external motives of TQM internalization for both the internal and financial benefits of award-winning organizations in the Arab region. To achieve this research objective, we adopted a two-phase methodological approach wherein we first explored the motives and outcomes of implementing TQM standards via interviews. A conceptual framework was validated based on a qualitative pilot study and then quantitatively tested in the second phase. Among other findings, the qualitative study revealed the key components of TQM implementation factors, namely top management commitment, middle management commitment, audits, training and employee commitment.\nConclusion: Since the main drivers to implement award models are of an internal nature (so as to improve service quality within the organization), this suggests that quality award models can be used as a holistic approach to drive organizational competitiveness. Therefore, quality award models must focus on tailoring their criteria to suit small to large organizations that are, in fact, key to national competitiveness. The true value of the award can be realized by participating organizations, and in turn improve their organizational performance. To be successful, award models need to be implemented with the goal of improving organizational internal benefits, rather than catering to external factors. Our study proposed a nomological network model that examined vital issues concerning the internalization of the TQM approach through award models, thus providing valuable outcomes for decision makers and academics. Moreover, we believe that the results of this study may be generalizable to other developed and developing countries that have established NQA models and seek to improve their national competitiveness by improving their service quality.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating role of total quality management (TQM) internalization factors on the relationship between the proposed drivers (internal/external motives) and outcomes (external benefits and financial results).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a sample of quality managers, this study adopts a two-step methodological approach to explore the key components of TQM internalization via an initial exploratory study followed up with a quantitative study to examine the relationships between the proposed drivers using structural equation modeling.\nFindings: The qualitative study revealed the key components of TQM implementation factors, namely top management commitment, middle management commitment and audits, training and employees' commitment. The quantitative results show that a positive relationship between external motives and TQM internalization was not supported; yet, the results supported the influence of internal motives on TQM internalization. Further, the results revealed a significant relationship between TQM internalization and internal benefits but not financial benefits. Finally, a strong positive link between internal and financial benefits emerged.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study findings are only based on the perceptions of quality managers and future research could test the proposed model using other units of analysis in order to fully capture the role of TQM internalization.\nPractical implications: The findings show that award model adoption is a significant tool for quality improvement in organizations, a procedure that drives both internal and financial benefits. Further, the study points out areas that companies should emphasize in order to successfully implement a quality award model and therefore harvest its potential benefits.\nOriginality/value: The paper proposes an empirically tested conceptual framework that examines vital issues concerning the internalization of the TQM approach through award models, thus providing valuable outcomes for decision makers to improve service quality.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The displacement effect in cargo theft	[ "Supply chain management", "Theft", "Risk management", "Transportation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Recently, there is a significant problem with the theft of cargo worldwide. It is estimated that theft represents losses of at least US$10 billion per year in the USA and US$30 billion worldwide (Barth and White, 1998). The theft of cargo value for the EU-area is estimated to be EUR8.2 billion each year, which allocated on all transports, gives an average value of EUR6.72 per trip (EP, 2007). Gathering accurate numbers for cargo theft losses is difficult, and, in many cases, impossible, due to limited reporting by the transport industry and the lack of a national law enforcement system requiring reporting and tracking uniformity (CEMT, 2001). Despite these figures, cargo theft generally has had a low-priority status in most countries and is often perceived largely as the cost of doing business (EC, 2003).1.1 Background\n2 Frame of reference: 2.1 Supply chain and transport networks\n3 Method: 3.1 Study outline\n4 Empirical findings: The result is presented in four steps. First are the official statistics presented and then the interviews and the survey.4.1 Official crime statistics, macro-level\n5 Analysis: 5.1 Macro- and micro-level analysis\n6 Conclusions: Where there is a logistics flow there is always a risk for having the goods stolen. If this risk source to disturbance in the supply chain is not taken seriously it will increase, in the long-term, the cost for the supply chain. The theft risk arises from different theft opportunities that will always be present in a transport network. These opportunities can be reduced by the usage of situation crime prevention methods. Correct countermeasures alter the potential perpetrators' decision process in a way that simply can be described as the perpetrator seeking the weakest point within their capability to continue stealing.The theory of crime displacement in the transport network states that within the potential perpetrators' capability, they will change their criminal pattern in response to countermeasures implemented by the business. Of the six displacement types, the change in place and modus operandi are easiest to both measure and establish. There has been a lesser change in the type of products that are stolen from the transport network. This correlates with the fact that it is not the thieves but the buyers of stolen products that govern the choice of target, while it is the potential perpetrators that decide where and how to acquire the products. The crime displacement effect may be one likely explanation for this development.The common-sense feeling about the crime displacement theory that exists in the logistics business needs to be modified. Owing to the total displacement and partial displacement, these are different things and the usage of common sense is attracted to the idea of total crime displacement. For the practical theft prevention in the transport network, the total displacement idea seems useful, but in reality, it is more useful for the locals to understand and know about modus operandi, perpetrators' motivations, etc. in order to introduce the right theft prevention features. This paper has demonstrated that the causality in crime displacement is difficult to establish. The same conclusion has been presented in several other papers regarding the validity of the crime displacement theory.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The aim of this paper is to analyze and explain why cargo theft continues to occur in the transport network despite all implemented countermeasures.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The research is based on a logical deductive hypothesis using theories from several scientific fields. This hypothesis is then tested empirically. Credibility is substantiated with the use of several independent official statistical sources and verified with both open-ended qualitative interviews and a quantitative, comparative, geographically controlled survey.\nFindings: - Theft risk arises from different theft opportunities that will always be present in the transport network. The theory of crime displacement provides one likely explanation as to why the absolute reduction, instead of a theft pattern alteration, is very difficult to achieve. The result in this paper substantiates research results in criminology that indicate that causality in crime displacement is hard to establish.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This research is limited by the lack of reliable information sources about criminal activities against logistics business. Secondary sources, like official crime statistics, are at best untrustworthy but more likely filled with large parts of hidden statistics.\nPractical implications: - The common-sense feeling about the crime displacement theory that exists in the logistics business needs to be modified. This paper maintains that the understanding of the relationship between potential perpetrators and theft preventing measures is a key issue to reduce theft problems within the transport network.\nOriginality/value: - This paper is a step towards bringing theories from criminology into the scientific field of logistics and supply chain risk management.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Structural equation modeling in social science research: Issues of validity and reliability in the research process	[ "Structural equation modeling", "Reliability", "Validity", "Research process", "Social science", "Sciences", "Research" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Structural equation modeling (SEM) in some form has been around for a long time (Wright, 1921; Joreskog, 1970; Joreskog and Sorbom, 1976) and has in recent years gained a place as one of the most widely used statistical tools in some areas of social science research. In particular, its usage has increased even more since the 1990s (Hershberger, 2003) due to the diffusion and accessibility of various user-friendly software packages (e.g. AMOS) and scholarly literature providing easy to follow guides for usage (Hair et al., 2006). Another reason is that SEM combines the simultaneous performance of different multivariate techniques (e.g. factor and regression analyses), which provides different angles and opportunities of analysis in social science research. Moreover, SEM provides an intuitively pleasing way to assess how well a researcher's theory fits the real world. In this sense, true full information SEM provides a unique advantage.SEM is a multivariate technique that considers and estimates the linear and/or causal relationships between multiple exogenous (independent) and endogenous (dependent) constructs through a simultaneous, multiple equation estimation process. Undoubtedly, the methodological benefits and potentials of SEM in social science research are appealing (though challenging) as it may contribute to moving theory to new levels of understanding and explanations of human perceptions, behaviours and phenomena. There are also downsides that may hide behind the scene of glory and they need to be acknowledged and seriously considered rather than underestimated or ignored.SEM is an advanced statistical tool. However, SEM applications cannot make up for mistakes made or inherent flaws in research design or implementation (e.g. in measurement and structural models). In other words, a successful SEM application is dependent upon properly implemented and performed previous steps in the research process (here called \"antecedents\"). Likewise, mistakes made and inherent flaws in applying SEM applications influence what follows afterwards in the research process (here called \"postcedents\"). The underlying measurement and structural models of SEM become of particular interest in examining these antecedents and postcedents of the research process. Our view on the generic context of SEM in the research process is shown in Figure 1.SEM has become an important statistical tool and ingredient in the theory testing and its development in some social science disciplines - not as a tool for discovery, but as a tool which allows measurement and structural models to be thoroughly tested. Despite the advantages offered by SEM, it is also looked upon by some with reluctance and scepticism. Whether one stresses the benefits or doubts of the tool depends largely upon the perspective undertaken. For example, from a theoretical point of view, benefits of SEM may be brought forward in terms of the analysis of multiple and complex patterns of correlational and/or causal relationships between exogenous and endogenous (latent) constructs and their indicators (manifest). On the other hand, from a practical point of view doubts may be raised, such as concerns regarding the validity and reliability of SEM and its findings across contexts - some of which do not lend themselves well to a covariance based analysis. Additionally, some researchers may be able to produce results because of easy to use software despite a thorough understanding of what has been tested and/or whether the procedure is appropriate in a given setting. SEM is therefore worthy of attention and debate due to the (potential mis)usage of and (over)belief in it.We contend that it is not appropriate to isolate the application of SEM from its context in the research process of human perceptions, behaviours or phenomena, that is, the \"antecedents\" and \"postcedents\" must be part of a proper SEM application in social science research in order to achieve valid and reliable findings. Otherwise, the research in its entirety may result in misleading or inappropriate contributions to the discipline in focus. One should keep in mind that SEM is primarily theory-based approach rather than a more purely empirical approach. SEM allows a researcher to test measurement and structural theories against the real world captured by covariance matrices. Therefore, the objective is to describe and discuss a few principal and crucial steps of \"antecedents\" and \"postcedents\" in relation to SEM in social science research. In particular, we focus on a sequence of parallel and successive steps of validity and reliability anticipating and emerging in relation to the research processes where SEM is applied based upon predetermined measurement and structural models. Our approach is limited to human perceptions, behaviours and phenomena in marketing research, due we believe it is applicable to other disciplines of social sciences.The article is organised as follows:* a frame of reference is provided;* the research process of SEM in social science research is described and concerns issues of validity and reliability in the research process are raised; and finally* a few implications and concluding thoughts are provided.\nFrame of reference: Marketing research, like social science, relies heavily on survey research. Survey researchers provide a large number of different survey item structures and metric (or assumed metric) measures/scales in the relevant literature (Bruner and Hensel, 1993a, b; Bearden et al., 1993; Bearden and Netemeyer, 1999). These item structures and metric measures usually correspond to a construct that refers to a specific human perception, behaviour or phenomenon. Historically, there have been two principal measurement approaches of human perception, behaviour or phenomenon in marketing research, namely:1. A single-item structure.2. A multi-item structure and metric measure approach.For clarity, we use the term variable to represent measured responses from respondents such as a response to a numerically scalable survey item. The term construct refers to a latent (i.e. directly unobservable) entity that is inferred from responses to multiple measured items.In fact, there has been a prevalent \"single-item structure and metric measure\" paradigm in marketing research until the late 1970s. Bruner and Hensel (1993a, b, p. 339) state:Two serious marketing measurement problems in the 1960s and 1970s were over the usage of single-item measures [...]Apparently, single-item structures and metric measures were mostly used at the time. Despite the fact that research articles and books recommend limited use of single-item measures, practitioners still employ them regularly. Other researchers criticise the usage of single-item structures and metric measures. For example, Jacoby (1978, p. 93) uses the expression: \"The Folly of Single Indicants\" and writes:Given the complexity of our subject, what makes us think that we can use responses to single items (or even two or three items) as measures of these concepts, then relate these scores to a host of other variables, and arrive at conclusions based upon such an investigation [...]In the 1980s, the \"multi-item structures and metric measures\" paradigm commenced to gain acceptance and acknowledgement among marketing scholars (Bruner and Hensel, 1993a, b). After this time, the reliability concept becomes a routine part of the results sections of marketing research articles. Prior to this time, most marketing research did not provide any evaluation of reliability or validity in different measurement approaches in the late 1970s. Ray (1979, p. 4) concludes that:[...] marketing research has been 'flirting' with true reliability and validity testing of marketing measures [...] the field may be ready to go beyond flirting [...]The year 1979 might be seen as the breakthrough from the paradigm of \"single-item structures and metric measures\" and the lack of reliability estimates of used constructs in marketing research to a change towards the use of \"multi-item structures and metric measures\" and reliability theory in marketing research of human perception, behaviour or phenomenon. Churchill (1979) writes about an emerging paradigm for developing improved multi-item structures and metric measures of marketing constructs, while Peter (1979) presents a reliability review of psychometric basics and marketing practices at that time. Churchill (1979, p. 66) sums up the topic:[...] marketers are much better served with multi-item structures and metric measures rather than single ones of their constructs, and they should take the time to develop them. This conclusion is particularly true for those investigating behavioral relationships from a fundamental as well as applied perspective, although it applies also to marketing practitioners [...]Ever since, there has been an increase in multi-item structures and metric measures (Bruner and Hensel, 1993a, b). Peter (1979, p. 6) states that:[...] behavioral measures are seldom if ever totally reliable and valid, but the degree of their validity and reliability must be assessed if research is to be truly scientific [...].In the 1980s and 1990s, the reliability and/or validity of many multi-item structures and metric measures developed in marketing research have been estimated. Bearden et al. (1993) and Bearden and Netemeyer (1999) provide extensive reviews of numerous multi-item structures and metric measures in marketing research literature that have considered the estimates of validity and/or reliability.Finn and Kayande (1997, p. 263) write about reliability as the degree to which a multi-item structure and metric measure instrument consistently scales a sample of people, and they express reliability as the true variation among respondents' mean score divided by the sum of true score variance and error variance. A scale measure produces and achieves highly reliable results when multiple assessments converge consistently on a matching score. On the one hand, the use of multi-item structures and metric measures in marketing research often strives to estimate characteristics of individuals. On the other hand, practitioners tend to use single-item structures and metric measures that most likely are less reliable and less valid to reflect a true human perception, behaviour or phenomenon. Sometimes, the multi-item structures and metric measures refer to the estimation of other objects, such as firms, advertisements, brands, competitors, and markets. A reliability evaluation of individuals is therefore limited. Multi-item structures and metric measures of other than individuals might require taking into consideration the characteristic of generalisation.The narrow approach of reliability theory might be managed by the generalizability theory. Cronbach et al. (1972) define a formula for the coefficient of generalizability as the true variance associated with any object divided by the sum of only those variance components that influence the estimation of the levels of the object of measurement. Others that discuss the basics and elements of generalizability theory are Brennan (1983), Rentz (1988) and Shavelson and Webb (1991). Finn and Kayande (1997) demonstrate the value of a method that can be used to control the quality and generalizing power of information produced in measurement applications. Their method is argued to be generalisable across concepts and measurement applications and contexts. Accordingly, the issues raised in current research literature on the use of multi-item structures and metric measures relate in part to the generality of the findings over time and across contexts.\nSEM in social science research - issues of validity and reliability: The study of human perceptions, behaviours and phenomena are generally complex and problematic in social sciences and specifically in marketing research. It becomes evident as SEM applications are dependent upon the predetermined measurement and structural models. We believe that a few areas of concerns may be raised due to a sequence of parallel and successive steps of validity and reliability in relation to the research process that are involved and influence theory testing and forthcoming replications. We have limited our approach to describe and discuss a sequence of validity and reliability steps involving SEM applications as follows (Figure 2):1. Item structure(s).2. Metric measure(s).3. SEM.4. Theory testing.5. Replication(s)/validation(s).6. Outcome and reconnection.Other aspects of interest in terms of SEM applications in social science research processes (e.g. such as sample selection, sample characteristics, research data, response rate, demographics and psychographics of respondents), are beyond the scope of our approach due to their explicit link to the empirical nature of research phenomena and their context in focus. Furthermore, they are not explicitly part of the validity and reliability estimates discussed in the use of SEM as a tool in the theory testing and replications/validations of social science research. We have, therefore, limited our approach to the steps shown in Figure 2. They are concisely described and a few areas of concerns on each step are raised in the following paragraphs.Step 1 - item structure(s)\nImplications and concluding thoughts: Based upon the previous steps of validity and reliability discussed in relation to predetermined measurement and structural models in SEM application, we provide some implications that may be worthwhile to highlight. For example, SEM is not science per se, but just a tool that is used to extract meaning from the previous steps of research processes in terms of a research phenomenon in focus. Maybe the meaning extracted may make a solid scientific contribution to the theory testing in social science, but maybe it does not. So, just using SEM does not elevate research to be science or make the researcher a scientist!Like many research tools, SEM can be misused by manipulating findings until they suit the researcher's purpose. Sometimes, researchers simply operate without fully understanding the implications of sloppy practices. This becomes particularly true in the search for good fit. The dilemma is that the researcher ends up deleting key relationships, latent constructs or measured variables based on unsatisfying empirical results. The practice can lead to changing the original theory just to be able to achieve some preconceived fit standard. Interestingly, no one fit standard exists that can be applied across all contexts and over time. Reviewers encourage such steps at times when they hold researchers to unrealistic fit standards. SEM tests theory. SEM does not create theory. Sometimes, showing that a theory is not supported (and thus produces poor fit) makes a contribution as meaningful as one showing that a theory does fit. Some common practices also have hidden consequences.Latent constructs operationalized by fewer than three items are under identified. If they are embedded in a larger model, the over-identification in other parts of the model may allow the model to converge to a solution. However, the meaning of the two items and the construct that they represent remains relatively suspect. In such cases, researchers need to be particularly vigilant for parameter instability.At times, SEM is regarded as it could solve all the problems, even the ones caused by poor or erroneous measurement and structural models. Researchers become more interested in the tool than in the subject matter. Or, they end up so excited when they get decent results with something that they forget to check and make sure that everything makes sense. For example, they may show two constructs with a very high regression coefficient between them. So, X causes Y! However, on closer inspection, one finds that the measures of X share the content of the measures of Y (i.e. collinearity), so the high correlation is really an indication of a lack of discriminant validity.For applications like SEM in social science research, the researcher can become too focused on being able to get results and in the process pay the price of diminished meaning in the results. For instance, now, we know that we can actually run SEM in some situations with smaller samples. So, you can get results. The truth is that one still has a small sample so one cannot generalize the meaning of the results as they are not worth very much. The predetermined measurement and structural models still require decent sample sizes to make meaningful theory testing and a solid contribution to social science theory.We raise a final area of concern for further debate, namely whether the widespread and variable applications of SEM in social science (in particular, marketing) research are all science? Or is it that the contemporary usage with inherent steps of deficient validity and reliability derived from and based upon the predetermined measurement and structural models converts SEM into quasi-science? We contend that the same concern may be raised in other subject disciplines where SEM is used and research is based upon human perceptions, behaviours and phenomena.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to describe and discuss a few principal and crucial steps of \"antecedents\" and \"postcedents\" in relation to structural equation modeling (SEM) in social science research.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper is based upon a conceptual and reflective discussion of SEM in social sciences research.\nFindings: - SEM is not science per se, but just a tool that is used to extract meaning from the previous steps of research processes in terms of a research phenomenon in focus.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Based upon the steps of validity and reliability discussed in relation to predetermined measurement and structural models in SEM, application implications are provided.\nPractical implications: - Like many statistical tools, SEM can be misused to manipulate findings and fit of measurement and structural models. Researchers may become more interested in the tool than in the subject matter.\nOriginality/value: - Using SEM does not elevate research to be science or make the researcher a scientist! An area of concern for further debate is whether the widespread and variable applications of SEM in social science (in particular, marketing) research are all science.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Coping style and gender effects on attitudinal responses to incivility	[ "Stress", "Gender differences", "Incivility" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Incivility is a form of workplace deviance widely impacting workers and organizations. Pearson and Porath (2009) found that 96 percent of surveyed employees indicated experiencing incivility at work, while 99 percent indicated witnessing incivility. Defined as \"low-intensity deviant behavior with ambiguous intent to harm the target, in violation of workplace norms for mutual respect (Andersson and Pearson, 1999, p. 457),\" workplace incivility can include failing to greet a coworker, excluding someone from an important meeting, or addressing someone unprofessionally. Because of its ambiguous intent, it may be unclear whether incivility results from an instigator's intent to be hurtful, or from simple oversight. Although incivility is subtle, it reduces job satisfaction (Lim et al., 2008) and feelings of connection at work (Caza and Cortina, 2007; Smith et al., 2010). These deleterious effects of incivility on workers' attitudes are costly to organizations, resulting in higher turnover intentions (Lim et al., 2008) and reduced work quality and effort (Pearson and Porath, 2009).\nIncivility and coping: In initial work examining coping profiles of incivility targets, Cortina and Magley (2009) found that employees turned to strategies such as avoidance, support-seeking and asserting oneself to the instigator as means of dealing with uncivil situations. While the authors provide insight into the types of coping responses used by targets of incivility, they did not examine how coping affected incivility's impact on employees. Therefore, further investigation is needed to determine the extent to which different coping mechanisms affect the negative impacts of incivility.\nMethod: Participants and procedure\nResults: We conducted confirmatory factor analysis to ensure the discriminant validity of our measures. We compared the fit of a single-factor model in which all items loaded onto one factor, a three-factor model (work attitudes/incivility/coping), a four-factor model (job satisfaction/sense of community/incivility/coping), a five-factor model (job satisfaction/sense of community/incivility/PFC/EFC), and the proposed seven-factor model (job satisfaction/sense of community/incivility/religious coping/support seeking/avoidance/PFC). While fit indices indicated poor fit of the first four models, the hypothesized seven-factor model fit the data well (see Table I). Descriptive statistics for variables are reported in Table II. All measures demonstrated acceptable reliability.\nDiscussion: Past work documents harmful consequences of workplace incivility for employees (Cortina et al., 2001; Lim et al., 2008). However, there is a need for better understanding of the attributes that enable employees to manage its negative impacts on work outcomes. We examined whether employees' preferences for PFC and EFC at work moderated the impact of incivility on two work attitudes (job satisfaction and sense of community) and whether these effects varied by gender. We explore our findings and their implications below.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine whether emotion- and problem-focussed employee coping styles affect the relationship between workplace incivility and job attitudes (job satisfaction, sense of community), and whether these effects vary by gender.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Survey methodology was used to obtain self-report data from a sample of 314 working adults (90 percent Hispanic, 62 percent female) enrolled in courses at a public university.\nFindings: Targets of workplace incivility experienced lower job satisfaction and sense of community at work. Employees who typically used problem-focussed coping (PFC) to respond to work stressors experienced greater negative outcomes associated with incivility. Mixed results were found for employees who typically engaged in emotion-focussed coping (EFC) at work: frequent use of avoidant coping and religious coping buffered against the impact of incivility, however, support seeking coping styles strengthened the negative outcomes associated with incivility. These effects varied by gender.\nPractical implications: The results highlight the benefits of two EFC styles (religious coping, avoidance coping) in the context of workplace incivility. The findings also indicate limitations of PFC and support seeking coping in the context of incivility. Accordingly, the authors make suggestions for managers to facilitate employees to overcome problems of incivility.\nOriginality/value: Few studies have investigated qualities that enable employees to effectively manage incivility. Further, the role of coping styles in relation to incivility is relatively unexplored. To address these gaps, the authors examined the extent to which PFC and EFC styles impact the relationship between incivility and work attitudes.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Promoting employee innovation performance: Examining the role of self-efficacy and growth need strength	[ "Self-efficacy", "Creativity", "Individual differences", "Personality" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Innovation is crucial for organizational success in an increasingly competitive business environment (Grawe et al., 2009; Ordanini and Parasuraman, 2011; Turro et al., 2014) particularly enabling service institutions to establish a competitive advantage over their rivals (Salanova et al., 2005; Tseng et al., 2008). Mostly, service institutions leverage employee-customer collaborations to generate innovations (Ordanini and Parasuraman, 2011) and hence rely on motivated employees, who are more likely to be actively engaged in planning and executing innovative programs (Tsai and Kao, 2004). Consequently, most successful corporations consider their employees as their key asset, recognizing their major contributions in helping their institutions establish a competitive advantage over their rivals (Rao, 2014).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Innovation performance\n3. Research method: 3.1 Research instrument\n4. Findings: Data pertaining to 354 usable responses were analyzed. The sample demographics comprised of 120 females (34 percent) and 234 males (66 percent). These respondents primarily had a Bachelor's degree (45.5 percent), followed by Master's degree (44.1 percent), with the rest holding either a diploma (7.3 percent) or a doctorate (3.1 percent).\n5. Discussion and implications: 5.1 Academic implications\n6. Limitations and directions for future research: One limitation of the study was that, due to practical constraints in developing a probabilistic sampling frame, the research design used purposive sampling. However, being aware of this limitation, great care was taken during sampling design to adopt a representative sample.\n7. Conclusion: The main aim of this research was to contribute toward building and testing theory that addressed the relationship between SE, GNS and IP. Using prescribed scientific approaches, this study identified three major factors, i.e. SE-effort, SE-persistence and GNS which were determined to independently affect IP. With standardized path loadings of 0.31 (p<0.01), SE-effort displayed the strongest effect on IP followed by SE-persistence, (g=0.22, p<0.01) and GNS (g=0.11, p<0.01). SE-initiative was not found to be a significant antecedent of IP. Hence, SE-effort, SE-persistence and GNS emerged as significant antecedents of IP, providing a useful tool for guiding the organizational efforts toward improved IP.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of individual differences particularly self-efficacy (SE) and growth need strength (GNS) as antecedents of employee innovation performance (IP).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a sample of 354 employees in the United Arab Emirates service sector, the study used exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling to test the model for IP. The predictors of IP were SE (conceptualized as a three-factor construct including initiative, effort and persistence) and GNS.\nFindings: SE-effort, SE-persistence and GNS had a significant direct effect on IP with SE-effort displaying strongest relationship, followed by SE-persistence and lastly GNS, while SE-initiative did not have a significant direct effect on IP.\nOriginality/value: The present study contributes to scant literature pertaining to the relationship of GNS with IP. It is the first study to examine both SE and GNS together in the same model for their impact on IP.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Come on out of the ghetto, please! - Building the future of entrepreneurship research	[ "Context", "Entrepreneurship research", "Entrepreneurship theory", "Women’s entrepreneurship" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nMoving toward the future of entrepreneurship research: We first wish to celebrate conceptions of the distinctive domain of entrepreneurship research that prioritize the nexus of enterprising individuals and lucrative opportunities while focusing narrowly on the generation of financial returns in the form of economic rents, and downplaying social structure, context and the remarkable heterogeneity of human desires (Shane and Venkataraman, 2000). As part of this celebration, we propose the creation of a new subfield of entrepreneurship, which we will call \"nexus studies.\" This subfield will focus on developing theory to explain the behavior of externally financed non-family, profit-focused growth ventures in developed economies, often started and run by educationally and economically privileged men with their eyes on the prize of a lucrative \"exit\" event. This work deserves its own conferences, its own journals and its rightful place as a rare special case within a more robust and general framework for building theory about entrepreneurship as it is practiced by most people, in most places and at most times.\nReframing and re-constructing entrepreneurship: With growing legitimization, in our view, entrepreneurship research has developed a narrowing (and decreasingly interesting) discourse. This jejune contraction, however, can be and has been usefully challenged by research from the ghettos of entrepreneurship discourse. In this section, we review a few themes that have emerged outside of \"the nexus,\" arguing that the lessons toward which they point us should be core to theory-building in entrepreneurship.\nDiscussion: Why we need research that is now the focus of ghettoized subfields to be at the core of entrepreneurship research\nConclusion: In this essay, we have discussed a few ideas regarding how subfields of entrepreneurship research can contribute to building the future of entrepreneurship research, drawing on themes from women's entrepreneurship research. We suggest that what we are seeing as contribution from the \"ghettos\" is the emergence of an approach that is both practical and critical. We find this deeply encouraging. Themes of practicality and criticality do not usually occur together in our field (or many others) because so-called \"practical\" research typically focuses on how to accomplish a goal, without calling into question the nature or the context of that goal. Correspondingly, critical research too often ignores questions about how to accomplish the practical changes and requisite tasks it implies. We as entrepreneurship scholars are well-positioned to take the lead in driving research beyond this impasse.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to make the argument that previously marginalized but now flourishing subfields of entrepreneurship research continue to provide insights that can form the basis for future entrepreneurship research that is more broadly practical and critical. What is currently core or \"mainstream\" in entrepreneurship research would then be seen as an important but rare special case.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The essay briefly explores a number of illustrative themes that have emerged and become important in women's entrepreneurship research (acknowledging that some similar themes have emerged in other subfields). These themes are used to suggest how broader application of such insights to theory-building about entrepreneurship in general - rather than \"just\" to \"women's entrepreneurship\" - might greatly enrich the field.\nFindings: The authors' arguments suggest that research focused on ghettoized subfields such as women's entrepreneurship challenge the assumptions of what entrepreneurship is and what it contributes. For example the richer perspective on motivations, goals, and outcomes and on the possibilities of emancipation that currently animate research on women's entrepreneurship can improve the understanding of all entrepreneurship.\nOriginality/value: Too much of current entrepreneurship research is both of limited practical value for \"practitioners\" and of little \"critical value\" for scholars interested in how things might work better. The authors argue that by broadening the set of goals, motivations, contexts and accomplishments that are taken as legitimate targets of study, entrepreneurship research can become both more practical and more critical and thus more broadly useful and legitimate.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Highly engaged but burned out: intra-individual profiles in the US workforce	[ "Burnout", "Configural frequency analysis", "Dark side of engagement", "Demands-resources model", "Intra-individual analyses", "Latent profiles" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Work engagement drives employees' productivity and well-being, and is therefore considered a desirable, optimal form of work motivation (e.g. Bakker and Demerouti, 2007; Gorgievski-Duijvesteijn and Bakker, 2010). Consistent findings of positive associations between work engagement, desirable employee characteristics, and work outcomes have lead to the conclusion that highly engaged employees were flourishing and thriving (Bakker and Sanz-Vergel, 2013).\n2. Methods: 2.1 Data collection procedures\n3. Analyses and results: To facilitate comparisons of mean scores across measures, all measures were brought to the same metric by transformation to a scale ranging from 0 to 1, using the proportion of maximum scaling method (see Little, 2013). Table II shows means, standard deviations, and internal consistencies for all applied measures.\n4. Discussion: This study investigated intra-individual profiles of work engagement and burnout, as well as profiles of demands and resources, in a representative sample of 1,085 US workers. Although engagement and burnout were negatively correlated across individuals (RQ1), they were also aligned (both high, moderate, or low) in more than half the sample (RQ2). Almost one out of five workers reported high levels of both engagement and burnout, and these engaged-exhausted workers also reported co-occurring high levels of positive and negative emotions, as well as strong turnover intentions combined with high skill acquisition (RQ3).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to use the job demands-resources model to investigate intra-individual engagement-burnout profiles, and demands-resources profiles.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A representative sample of the US workforce was surveyed online. Latent profile analysis (LPA) and configural frequency analysis examined intra-individual profiles and their inter-relations.\nFindings: A negative inter-individual correlation between engagement and burnout suggested that burnout tends to be lower when engagement is high, but intra-individual analyses identified both aligned engagement-burnout profiles (high, moderate, and low on both variables), and discrepant profiles (high engagement - low burnout; high burnout - low engagement). High engagement and burnout co-occurred in 18.8 percent of workers. These workers reported strong mixed (positive and negative) emotions and intended to leave their organization. Another LPA identified three demands-resources profiles: low demands - low resources, but moderate self-efficacy, low workload and bureaucracy demands but moderate information processing demands - high resources, and high demands - high resources. Workers with high engagement - high burnout profiles often reported high demands - high resources profiles. In contrast, workers with high engagement - low burnout profiles often reported profiles of high resources, moderate information processing demands, and low other demands.\nOriginality/value: This study examined the intersection of intra-individual engagement-burnout profiles and demands-resources profiles. Previous studies examined only one of these sides or relied on inter-individual analyses. Interestingly, many employees appear to be optimally engaged while they are burned-out and considering to leave their jobs. Demands and resources facets were distinguished in the LPA, revealing that some demands were associated with resources and engagement.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Whither the bully pulpit: leadership communications and corporate transformation	[ "Change management", "Authenticity", "Cascading", "Corporate transformation", "Leadership communications", "North Star", "Visible actions" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Recent geopolitical tensions around the world have shone a fresh light on the role of leadership communications in shaping the outcome of events. Much ink has been spilt criticizing President Obama's communication style (Stolberg, 2009) and applauding (or mocking) Vladimir Putin's taste for virile photo ops that involve playing with tigers (Kramer, 2012). Implicit in much of this commentary is the idea that a leader's communications style has a distinct impact on perception, whether in stiffening the resolve of one nation against another or giving a people in the midst of deep economic recession a hope to soldier on until better times return. President Theodore Roosevelt is probably the best known of American leaders who held this view when he described the successful leader as someone who spoke softly and carried a big stick (Goodwin, 2013) but the idea of the voice of the leader him or herself carrying a people forward, expressing fundamental principles, pointing to the future has had many transcendent expressions. President Franklin Roosevelt's fireside chats during the Depression (Roosevelt, 1933-1944) come to mind as does Ronald Reagan' s challenge to Mikhail Gorbachev \"to tear down that wall\" (Reagan, 1987).\nAuthenticity: Authenticity is, of course, a value that can only be judged from the perspective of the message recipient but it is a critical component to leadership messages that are attempting to get an entire organization's attention. Authenticity can be derived from many sources but one frequent element of the best messages is that they are in tension with the usually bland and soothing pronouncements that come from corporate leadership. An extreme and still shocking version of this strategy was the \"burning platform\" memo from Nokia chief executive officer (CEO) Stephen Elop leaked in February 2011(Wall Street Journal, 2011). Here is how it began:\nCascading communications: The commitment to continuous communications is all too often sadly lacking in leadership announcements and many large organizations have suffered the consequences. The dangers of a truncated communications process are all too real and organizations in which continuous communications fail to occur exhibit similar weaknesses. One very common problem emerges when the communications cascade is missing is that the new narrative is made to appear as if it is the personal agenda of the chief executive and is not embraced by the rest of the leadership. When the leaders of individual business units or regions do not themselves carry the communications forward employees in those businesses or regions get the message very quickly that they can safely ignore it and cling to the status quo.\nPersonal relevance: Equally important for successful leadership communication is for the transformation message to be clearly relevant to the day-to-day work experience of front-line employees and to be based on an understanding of what that daily experience is like. The leaders of a global shipping company who were trying to implement a strategic change initiative grew frustrated with the lack of response from front-line managers. As they probed for reasons, they eventually learned that the lack of communication between functions had resulted in these managers already having to perform three critical business processes in the same month, September - annual budget planning, a quarterly business update and annual performance reviews. Adding the demands of the change initiative to a month which was already a critically busy one in the shipping business was the straw that broke the camel's back. Smoothing out standard processes more evenly across the year eventually enabled them to put their initiative back on track.\nVisible action: Without eventual evidence of progress through visible action, neither charisma nor clarity can rescue a leadership strategy. It should go without saying that demonstrating progress requires that the original communication articulates what will change as a result of the initiative. It also means realism in assessing how quickly and how broadly visible change will come. The CEO of a leading pharmaceutical company announcing an enterprise transformation declared candidly that there would be two lean years before the initiative would show results. In the Starbuck's Schultz memo, the CEO was at pains to say \"there are no overnight fixes\".\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to look at some classic business leader communications to assess which ones succeed and which ones fail to meet that standard. From Teddy Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan, from Churchill to Lady Thatcher, we have grown used to the idea that the words of our leaders in times of crisis can change history. Is this also true of business leaders? Can their words transform companies?\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper looks at specific leadership communications examples from IBM, Nokia, Starbucks, as well as McKinsey research, to try to tease out the elements of successful leadership communications in company transformations.\nFindings: What we found is that successful leadership communications in culture transformations share four principal characteristics: they are authentic to the personality of the leader; they are not one-time communications, but the beginnings of a cascade; they are personally relevant to each individual employee; and they are quickly followed by visible actions springing from the strategic direction set by the leader's communications.\nResearch limitations/implications: As a subjective review of a limited number of cases, the elements selected are potentially vulnerable to counter-examples.\nPractical implications: The four characteristics of leadership communications isolated in the research can be applied by any corporate leader or communications team to create effective communications in the context of culture transformation.\nSocial implications: To the extent that corporate leaders adopt these principles, their communications will be more credible to external stakeholders and, by extension, enhance the reputation of business leaders as a whole.\nOriginality/value: While this subject has been studied by others, the four principles for successful leadership communications have not been articulated in this way before to the best of the author's knowledge.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Does the hierarchical position of the buyer make a difference? The influence of perceived adaptive selling on customer satisfaction and loyalty in a business-to-business context	[ "Satisfaction", "Loyalty", "Sales force", "Hierarchical position of the buyer", "Perceived adaptive selling" ]	[ { "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: Although business relationships are established between organizations, they are actually managed by individuals, and the salesperson is still the primary point of contact for the customer in industrial markets (Stock and Hoyer, 2005; Schwepker and Good, 2011). Academic and practitioner interest has long focused on understanding the adaptive nature of personal selling. Research stemming from the adaptive selling framework (Weitz et al., 1986) has paid a considerable amount of attention to study the influence of adaptive selling on sales performance (Boorom et al., 1998; Porter et al., 2003: Franke and Park, 2006; McFarland et al., 2006; Singh and Das, 2013). Results from the meta-analysis conducted by Franke and Park (2006) reveal that adaptive selling increases self-rated, manager-rated and objective measures of performance.\nResearch model: Salespeople exhibit a high level of adaptive selling behavior when they use different sales presentations across sales encounters and when they make adjustments during the encounter based on real-time feedback and perceived information about the nature of the selling situation (Weitz et al., 1986; Spiro and Weitz, 1990). Adaptive selling includes shaping the content and amount of information shared with different customers who have different needs, e.g. a repeat customer does not need the background information required by a new purchaser (Roman and Iacobucci, 2010). Salespeople also adapt their selling tactics to the buyer's communication style (Williams and Spiro 1985; McFarland et al., 2006).\nHypotheses development: Direct consequences of adaptive selling\nMethod: Most research on adaptive selling has been conducted from the salesperson's perspective. This study focuses on the relationship between a single buyer and a single seller from the buyer's perspective. The questionnaire was pre-tested in two stages. First, it was reviewed by six buyers through in-depth interviews. Each pretest subject in this stage was asked to evaluate the clarity, reveal any latent problems and offer suggestions for improvements. Several modifications were made (particularly in the adaptive selling measure) to fit the measures to the context of the study (i.e. the buyer's point of view). In the second pretest, 30 buyers were asked to first complete the survey, and then to note any problems found in the instrument. Two items from the adaptive selling measure were eliminated, as they were found to be redundant.\nResults: Direct and indirect effects\nDiscussion: In light of the paradigm shift that has moved the field's focus from transactional-based selling to one focused on developing and maintaining relationships with customers, this study represents an initial step into the analysis of the consequences of perceived adaptive selling on customer's satisfaction and loyalty in a business-to-business context. Only Evanschitzky et al. (2012) have analyzed the influence of adaptive selling on satisfaction with the company in industrial markets. Yet they measured adaptive selling through the evaluations of 18 salespeople from one single company and they did not control for the length of the buyer-seller relationship. They acknowledged that: \"our findings might not be generalizable to all business-to-business settings\" and encourage future research to control for the length of the buyer-seller relationship (Evanschitzky et al., 2012, p. 502). In particular, our findings from a random sample of 264 organizational buyers from a wide range of industries, reveal that adaptive selling has positive relational outcomes at two levels, namely, at the level of the individual salesperson (satisfaction with the salesperson) and at the level of the buyer-seller relationship (satisfaction and loyalty to the supplier) while controlling for length of the buyer-seller relationship.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The first purpose of this research is to analyze the influence of adaptive selling, as perceived by customers, on customer satisfaction - both with the salesperson and the company - and loyalty to the supplier. In addition, this study aims to examine to what extent the organizational position occupied by the buyer moderates the results obtained (i.e. satisfaction and loyalty) as a consequence of a salesperson's adaptive selling behavior.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data obtained from a survey of organizational buyers from a wide range of industries are analyzed through structural equation modeling.\nFindings: Findings from the study indicate that perceived adaptive selling significantly increases satisfaction with the salesperson, satisfaction with the supplier and loyalty to the supplier while controlling for length of the buyer-seller relationship. In addition, these effects are stronger when the contact person at the buying company is the general manager as opposed to the purchasing manager.\nOriginality/value: Despite today's emphasis on relationship selling, the research on the consequences of adaptive selling has employed primarily sales-related criteria (e.g. sales, quota). This is the first study to analyze the influence of adaptive selling on several customer relational outcomes in a business-to-business context and to analyze the moderating influence of the hierarchical position of the buyer.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Lifestyles management and community engagement in scoping a "health cafe"	[ "Behaviour", "Nutrition", "Community", "Health", "Eating", "Lifestyle" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nBackground: In the UK twenty-first century, health policies place increasing emphasis on promoting healthy behaviours and lifestyles (Department of Health (DoH), 2011) reflecting the concept of \"lifestyle choice\" to explain and influence health outcomes. For example, smoking tobacco, alcohol and drug abuse, unhealthy diets, insufficient physical exercise, high-risk sexual behaviour and poor money management may be seen as major factors in explaining the state of the nation's health with ever-rising incidence of obesity, Type 2 diabetes and circulatory diseases. While that \"lifestyle choices\" may highlight personal rather than public responsibility there is also increasing recognition that such choices will not be made in a vacuum, particularly in communities where lives and choices may be constrained by an environment conditioning a lack of education, employment and access to facilities. This paper examines how a public health initiative to promote healthier eating choices by setting up a \"health cafe\" had to change in scope and focus to plan instead for a \"health hub\" so as to take account of the needs and perspectives articulated by the community stakeholders engaged to help shape this initiative.\nMethods: Social marketing approach\nResults: Document review of Boston\nDiscussion: The findings and observations from this relatively short case study have wider relevance for understanding community engagement in terms of a range of issues which mediate health choices and an unequal society. Three are highlighted and discussed in detail below as they could have particular relevance for building research and practice connections in the context of a scoping study for the Boston community. The three are as follows: methodological issues, health outcomes in Boston and lessons for wider society on the relative role and utility of \"health cafes\" and health hubs.\nConclusion: community engagement - re-scoping the \"health cafe\" role as \"health hub\": While the Boston health cafe initiative had its origins in the previous government's (New Labour and arguably more left wing) health policy concerns to address specific health issues for low-income groups, the lessons learned in scoping its feasibility and acceptability have considerable significance for the UK's subsequent and current coalition (of arguably centre and right political parties) government's wishes to ensure local communities rather than central government should enable local actions and priorities. The publication of \"Public Health England\" (DoH, 2010) under the coalition government has encouraged health-appropriate \"choices\" such as more physical activity and healthier eating options (National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), 2006) and \"the Public Health Responsibility Deal with five networks on food, alcohol, physical activity, health at work and behaviour change\" (DoH, 2011, p. 7) is now widely acknowledged. This document highlights the intention to provide local government and communities with \"new resources, rights and powers to shape their environment and tackle local problems\" (DoH, 2011, p. 7). A foreword by the health minister to a 2011 White Paper on Healthy Lives called for \"a new approach that empowers individuals to make healthy choices and gives communities the tools to address their own, particular needs [...] We will end central control and give local government the freedom, responsibility and funding to innovate and develop their own ways of improving public health in their area\" (DoH, 2011, p. 2).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to underpin a scoping study commissioned by community leaders to assess the potential for creating a \"health cafe\" in the centre of Boston, in eastern England, UK, to facilitate healthier lifestyles.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A mixed methods and framework analytic approach was adopted, using documentary, focus group, interview and survey data. The paper drew on social marketing principles to enhance the community relevance of findings.\nFindings: Community stakeholders and public were generally supportive of a \"health cafe\" facility in the town centre. Accessibility and a welcoming environment were seen as key factors. A wide range of health-related services in addition to providing healthy foods were proposed. Key issues identified were: a wider role of the facility as a community \"health hub\"; appropriate marketing approaches; food provision issues and sustainability. All groups contacted saw the word \"health\" as off-putting.\nResearch limitations/implications: As with many commissioned scoping studies, the timetable for delivery was very short, just three months, significantly influencing the choices of methodological approaches taken up. This made it important to provide a multi-disciplinary multi-methods design to enhance triangulation and a research team with extensive community research experience including previous research in this region. It was also important to specify and locate any knowledge claims from the findings.\nPractical implications: The research helped engage community stakeholders to tap a diversity of views which could be adopted by community leaders into their ongoing health strategies and development plans for a \"health hub\" for Boston.\nOriginality/value: The paper provides important information for those embarking on community health education projects and particularly in how to tailor health research methods to real-world timescales and stakeholder perspectives. Insights are also provided into community attitudes, understandings and behaviours towards healthy living in a part of the UK with a well-documented history of poor health.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A classification scheme for representing the variation in business and supply chain performance in Indian manufacturing industry	[ "Cluster analysis", "Taxonomy", "Supply chain management", "K-means", "Ward’s agglomerative hierarchical clustering" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Supply chain management (SCM) is the management of a network of interconnected businesses involved in the ultimate provision of product and service packages required by end customers (Harland, 1996). In Drucker's new management paradigms, the concept of business relationships extends beyond traditional enterprise boundaries and seeks to organize entire business processes throughout a value chain of multiple companies. The same applies to SCM, which has been extensively researched in developed countries like USA, UK and in regions of Europe but considerable amount of research is still to be done in developing countries like India and China (Sachan and Datta, 2005; Soni and Kodali, 2011b, 2016; Sharma and Daniel, 2016). They pointed out in their review that most of the MNCs are targeting developing and underdeveloped countries either as new market for their products or for sourcing the raw material due to low cost but the amount of research in SCM in these countries is still scanty. SCM practices are prevalent in several industries like service industry, construction industry, third part logistics, etc., but not as abundant as in manufacturing industry (Soni and Kodali, 2011b; Sanjaykumar and Chavan, 2016). The manufacturing sector has remained one of the engines of economic growth since the start of 2005-2006 (Ghosh, 2012). However there are antecedents that suggest the Indian manufacturing sector is still not competitive enough especially when talking in terms of global scenario (Goldar, 2016; Nagabhushana and Shah, 1999). The important reasons for the Indian manufacturing sector not being competitive enough are (Goldar, 2016; Antony et al., 2016):\n2. Literature review: In business, conventional management practices are not enough to ensure the long-term success. A business organization needs to constantly upgrade its business practices to strive for excellence. Literature on business excellence can be found in the areas of total quality management (TQM), manufacturing excellence, sustainability, organizational behavior, innovation, health care and so on. Economic deregulation in India since early 1990s has enforced Indian business to compete in domestic as well as global markets. Such a business environment is bringing major changes in corporate structure and management culture (Aggarwal and Helfat, 2009). The implication of new management culture forces business organizations in India to introduce new approaches such as TQM, just in time, business process reengineering and SCM to enhance their performance and gain competitive advantage (Saad and Patel, 2006).\n3. Research methodology: The research methodology in this paper is based on results of an empirical study. This study had two components. One component aimed at assessing and measuring business performance as a whole and several other aspects related to the supply chain, to which the respondents company belonged. The details of this study can be found in Soni and Kodali (2011a, b). Other component was meant for evaluation of reliability and validity of SCM constructs to achieve SCM excellence in Indian manufacturing industry. The details of this study are available in Soni and Kodali (2015). A brief description of empirical study and its related aspects is given in subsequent sub-sections.\n4. Cluster development: A cluster analysis is performed based on survey responses for presenting a classification scheme for representing the variation in BPI and SCEI in Indian Manufacturing Industry. Cluster analysis is a statistical technique that groups objects according to characteristics that they possess, such that clusters exhibit high internal homogeneity and high external heterogeneity (Hair et al., 2006).\n5. Results and discussion: It is clear from the performed cluster analysis that H1 and H2 are not true, and that high or low BPI does not guarantee high or low SCEI, respectively and vice versa. These results are also supported by latest work of Chithambaranathan et al. (2015), stating that basic business performance indices going right or wrong does not guarantee that supply chain performance will be proportionate. A large explanation lies in the fact that the supply chain performance is largely dependent on integration of business functions and echelons, rather than on the end result of the business (Fabbe-Costes and Jahre, 2008). It necessarily does not mean that supply chain performance may be neglected, rather good supply chain performance leverages major business functions and overall enterprise (Sharma and Sachin Modgil, 2015). The key issue to take into account is that if supply chain strategy is not aligned with competitive strategy then there is always a lack of fit (Soni and Kodali, 2011a), which often leads to such observations where business performance is not in unison with supply chain performance. Consequently, the four identified clusters were interpreted by assigning a name or a label to each cluster according to its properties. Using methodology used by Cousins et al. (2006), the clusters were named. For cluster1, the values of BPI and SCEI were not very high (80.874 and 83.29, respectively) with dominant pillars being strategic management (ST) and marketing management (MK), hence it was named \"capable,\" whereas cluster2 exhibiting high performance in manufacturing management (MT) with lowest BPI (51.231) and a fairly good SCEI (85.146), hence it was named \"undeveloped.\" According to Shaw et al. (2010), companies which have marketing strategies in sync with strategic objectives are promising on the outbound side of supply chain. Such companies exhibit good capability toward developing a smooth supply chain despite average business performance (Chi, 2010). While, companies which lack modern manufacturing capabilities but have streamlined their supply chain struggle to achieve economy in production, mainly because of underdeveloped state of art of production (Antony et al., 2016). Such companies will be part of underdeveloped cluster as long as they do not become technologically advanced. These companies are mostly SMEs in nature (Goldar, 2016). Cluster3 was named \"strategic\" because of its dominance in IN, IT, SM and DM with high BPI (65.223) and highest SCEI (89.66). Supply chains which show high degree of integration in their business activities using IT as tool are generally progressive from business point of view and operationally sound (Sangari et al., 2015). These supply chains are characterized by upstream integration with suppliers and downstream integration with retailers and distributors which signify well-organized DM practices (Chi, 2010). Thus cluster3 does show such properties and hence is called \"strategic\" cluster. Finally cluster4 was named \"celebrity\" for highest BPI (66.272) and lowest SCEI (79.29) with a dominant performance in CM and a high overall business performance. This cluster peculiarly shows that even though performance of supply chain is not appreciable but it is doing fairly well on business indices. According to Goldar (2016), certain companies, mostly belonging to large scale industries are legendary in nature. Even though they may be lacking state of art management practices, still perform well on business front. Same is the observation with \"celebrity\" cluster, most of the respondents in celebrity cluster belong to such industry. If they could leverage their SCEI, it will definitely bolster their BPI as well even to greater height.\n6. Conclusion: The aim of this study is to present a classification scheme for representing the variation in BPI and SCEI in Indian manufacturing industry based on certain important parameters, i.e. BPI and SCEI are directly linked to performance of the supply chain. It follows study performed by Soni and Kodali (2015) to establish a framework of SCM excellence in Indian manufacturing industry. The study uses BPI and SCEI, based on the survey responses and subsequent factor analysis done on pillars of SCM excellence. It achieves the objective by performing cluster analysis of survey results leading to development of four clusters. After performing K-means cluster analysis and on the basis characteristics exhibited by each cluster, they were named as strategic, celebrity, capable and undeveloped cluster. Differences among the clusters lead to conclusion that as the BPI and SCEI of the supply chain grows, it tends to \"mature\" moving from undeveloped to capable to strategic or celebrity cluster. In the process of developing clusters, several facts about Indian manufacturing industry were also revealed such as independent behavior of BPI and SCEI, progress and shortfalls of supply chains in various areas of SCM. This study also highlights the generic characteristics of various supply chains of Indian manufacturing industry.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify a classification scheme which represents the variation in business and supply chain performance of supply chains in Indian manufacturing industry. Classification is done by presenting an empirical taxonomy of clusters representing supply chains in Indian manufacturing industry based on variation in supply chain excellence index (SCEI) and business performance index (BPI).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The clustering of supply chains in Indian manufacturing industry is done by considering BPI and SCEI as clustering variables, which were found by using survey responses and results of a prior empirical study which was carried out in Indian manufacturing industry. The cluster analysis is performed by using Ward's agglomerative hierarchical clustering followed by using K-means clustering algorithm to establish final set of clusters.\nFindings: It was found that supply chains in Indian manufacturing industries can be clustered in four major clusters which are named as strategic, celebrity, capable and undeveloped cluster. The characteristics of these clusters reveal some major characteristics of supply chains in Indian manufacturing industry.\nOriginality/value: The research work presented in this paper takes a novel way to introduce the clusters of supply chains in Indian manufacturing industry. The researchers who are seeking patterns in large data sets of manufacturing companies of Indian industry will be benefitted by using the proposed clusters. While practitioners who are seeking to move their supply chain one step ahead will also reap the benefits of the paper by seeking the characteristics of particular cluster.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Leadership, affect and outcomes: symmetrical and asymmetrical relationships	[ "Work engagement", "Leadership", "Intention to leave", "Affect", "Asymmetrical relationships", "Symmetrical relationships" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Leaders may evoke follower affect by many means, be it through the allocation of work activities, by making specific requests of followers, by providing feedback on task performance, or by displaying affects themselves (Dasborough, 2006). When doing this, leaders may perform either in a constructive or a destructive manner which may influence followers accordingly. However, research addressing the role of affect in leadership has mainly concentrated on leaders' affect, their emotional intelligence, and how affect may be used to influence employees (see Humphrey, 2013). Because employee behavior and productivity have been shown to be directly influenced by leaders' affective states (Ashkanasy and Daus, 2002), it is important to also consider employees' affective responses to leaders and their subsequent behavior in more detail (Dasborough, 2006; van Knippenberg and van Kleef, 2016).\nMethod: Sample\nResults: Table I portrays the means and standard deviations together with the polychorical correlations stemming from the output of Mplus when the measurement model is estimated.\nDiscussion: Studies simultaneously testing followers' exposure to different kinds of leader behavior, their various affective reactions, and related attitudinal outcomes are scarce. The present study addresses this gap in the literature by empirically examining in unison to what extent positive and negative affective experiences mediate the relationships between followers' perceptions of considerate as well as tyrannical leadership, and their work engagement and turnover intentions. The results of the present study show that considerate leadership is positively related to follower work engagement and negatively related to their intention to leave the organization. Tyrannical leadership, on the other hand, is associated with a decreased work engagement and an increased intent to leave among followers. These results are in line with previous studies (e.g. Schyns and Schilling, 2013) and substantiate the strong impact leadership behavior may have on followers' attitudes at work.\nStrengths and limitations: The strength of the present study is the simultaneous investigation of predictors and mediators in their relationships with the two outcomes, which gives us the opportunity to untangle the relative effect of the two contrasting leadership styles as well as the two contrasting types of affect. By doing so, an important discussion regarding why bad may be stronger than good and vice versa was evoked.\nImplications for research and practice: The pattern between positive and negative variables at work is still not clear. It is therefore important to ask under which circumstances bad might be stronger than good and vice versa. In this respect, several researchers highlight the importance of occupation and situation-specific approaches in order to develop meaningful knowledge about factors relating to the health and well-being of employees (Glaso et al., 2011). Hence, an occupation specific approach may be suitable, where positive and negative variables and relationships can be studied in more detail and in different contexts such as different industries, organizational cultures, climate, and country in which the organization operates. The notion that constructive leadership behaviors may have a greater impact on positive phenomena and/or phenomena associated with work-related relationships, while destructive leadership behaviors may have a greater impact on negative phenomena with a stronger personal meaning (Brandebo et al., 2016) seems to be a fruitful avenue for further contextual research.\nConclusion: The present study strongly substantiates that affect acts as a mediator in leader-follower relationships. By examining and testing the relative strength of the mediating effects, we found support of the predictions of AET, partly support of the outcome-specific hypothesis, whilst the results indicate that considerate leadership may outweigh tyrannical leadership regarding attitudinal follower outcomes such as work engagement and turnover intentions. Still, the pattern is far from clear, and future research should continue studying leader-follower relationships and the association between positive and negative variables simultaneously and longitudinally, and in more detail in different contexts. However, the current findings and knowledge generated from our study about the intimate and mutual dependency between different kinds of leadership behaviors, followers' emotional reactions and outcomes should be addressed in practical leadership training.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which emotional experiences mediate the relationships between employees' perception of considerate and/or tyrannical leadership behaviors and their work engagement and intention to leave the organization. The notion of symmetric and asymmetric relationships between specific kinds of leadership behavior, emotional reactions, and followers' attitudinal outcomes is also examined.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Employing a survey design, the variables were assessed in a cross-sectional sample of 312 employees.\nFindings: The study confirmed the notion of symmetric relationships between specific kinds of leadership behavior, emotional reactions, and followers' attitudinal outcomes. Contrary to the general notion that \"bad is stronger than good,\" the results indicated that positive emotions were equal or stronger mediators than the negative ones regarding the two outcomes measured in the present study.\nOriginality/value: The paper is, to the authors' knowledge, the first paper which examines simultaneously how constructive and destructive leadership styles, and positive and negative affects, are related to employee attitudes outcomes, and evokes a discussion when bad is stronger than good or vice versa regarding leadership outcomes.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Annual hours, workplace partnership and mutual gains: exploring the links	[ "Employee relations", "Collective bargaining", "Annual hours", "Mutual gains", "Workplace partnership" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Annual hours (AH) is a flexible work practice that has been associated with mutual gains and often accompanies workplace partnership (Arrowsmith, 2007; Bell and Hart, 2003; Gall and Allsop, 2007; White, 2010). While the relationship between workplace partnership and mutual gains has been widely debated in the literature (Ackers and Payne, 1998; Glover et al., 2013; Guest and Peccei, 2001; Haynes and Allen, 2001; Kelly, 1996, 2004; Kochan and Osterman, 1994), the link between AH and mutual gains has received much less attention from academics. In this paper, we examine the processes used to introduce AH and the outcomes of gains for workers and management in three Irish companies. Outcomes are assessed both in measurable, objective terms and in relation to perceptions of the key industrial relations actors and workers involved. We assess the extent to which these gains are perceived as a result of workplace partnership or AH. The first company is an \"exemplar\" case of workplace partnership; the second also introduced AH as part of a workplace partnership initiative and in the third company, partnership played no role. We find that workplace partnership is not a prerequisite for achieving mutual gains where AH are concerned. The research draws attention to the importance of a mechanism in creating the gains in the cases chosen, namely AH, but also that such gains can arise from different industrial relations processes. The paper begins by reviewing the literature on workplace partnership and mutual gains, identifying three key perspectives. Next, the links between AH, workplace partnership and mutual gains are developed. The paper then details the methodology used in the study and presents the three case studies. An analysis of the case studies follows which allows inferences to be drawn in relation to the prospects for mutual gains from both AH and workplace partnership and the interplay between these factors. The paper concludes by revisiting the three perspectives on workplace partnership and AH and discusses the findings from the case studies in light of these. Finally, we offer observations on the implications for practice and suggestions for future research.\nWorkplace partnership and mutual gains: Most studies of partnership agree that it is a somewhat amorphous concept to define and there are blurred lines between principles, processes and outcomes of partnership (Guest and Peccei, 2001; Martinez-Lucio and Stuart, 2004; Roche, 2009; Teague, 2005). We conceptualise workplace partnership as a process. Outcomes in terms of improved relationships may reinforce the legitimacy of this process and partnership as a \"way of doing business\". Partnership as a process closely reflects the concept of integrative bargaining (Roper, 2000) which advocates a move from adversarial towards collaborative relationships and emphasises the prospects of mutual gains for management and unions (Fisher and Ury, 1983; Walton and McKersie, 1965). In an Irish context, workplace partnership arose from, and was underpinned by, national level social partnership for some time and national agreements involved deliberate efforts to extend partnership to workplace level. Workplace partnership may involve \"forums\" where management and union representatives meet to discuss issues which often exist in addition to established collective bargaining arrangements (Wallace et al., 2013). Common to most understandings of workplace partnership is that it involves a commitment by unions and employers (often formalised in a \"partnership agreement\") to work collaboratively, especially in managing change, with a view to mutual gains (Upchurch et al., 2008).\nAH, workplace partnership and mutual gains: AH is a practice which sometimes accompanies workplace partnership initiatives and has also been associated with mutual gains (D'Arcy, 1998; Dobbins, 2004, 2007; Frawley, 1998; Higgins, 2005; Irish Productivity Centre, 1998). Although the link between partnership and organisational change has been well documented (Martinez Lucio and Stuart, 2002; Oxenbridge and Brown, 2002; Suff and Williams, 2004), the role of AH in generating mutual gains in cases of workplace partnership has not been examined to any great extent. The literature on AH notes its limited adoption despite claims of \"win-win\" or mutual gains outcomes for workers and management (Arrowsmith, 2007; Bell and Hart, 2003; D'Arcy 1998; Rodriguez, 2003, White, 2010). Despite predictions of widespread take-up of AH in the early 1980s (Mazur, 1995), research from both the UK and Ireland shows limited diffusion of such agreements (Kouzis and Kretsos, 2003; Arrowsmith, 2007; White, 2010). This parallels workplace partnership, in the Irish context, with an apparent mismatch between the capacity of AH systems to generate mutual gains and its limited take-up \"on the ground\".\nResearch design: Johnstone et al. (2009) highlight a number of key recommendations for partnership research. Among them is the suggestion for comparative case studies to explore the experiences of partnership in various sectoral contexts; the need to understand more about contemporary worker views and avoid relying on trade unionists as proxies of employee views and to avoid conflating issues of process and outcome. These are the key issues that this research seeks to address. A case study approach is particularly useful to researchers wishing to gain a rich understanding of the context of the research and the processes being enacted (Morris and Wood, 1991). The focus of this paper is on the roles of both AH and workplace partnership in delivering mutual gains in three case study companies in Ireland. The case studies have the following similarities: all operated within process industries and all were highly unionised. All three companies operated AH for both general workers and craft workers. The AH agreements were negotiated at local level between management and trade unions and the operation of the AH systems were similar. Any provisions for paid overtime were eliminated in all three companies when AH was introduced and reserve hours were paid at a premium rate incorporated into salary. All three company agreements included a provision to discount hours on a quarterly basis and a commitment that both management and workers would endeavour to minimise the use of reserve hours. These features are typical of AH agreements in Ireland in the private sector (D'Arcy, 1998; White, 2010).\nThe case studies: Aughinish\nNatura Foods: Natura Foods was established in 1974 and following a number of takeovers is now a subsidiary of a large multinational pharmaceutical company. It is an export-orientated company which employs almost 600 people. The main unions on site are SIPTU, TEEU and Amicus (Unite). During the 1970s and 1980s, Natura Foods had what management described as \"very poor, adversarial industrial relations\" illustrated by a \"two-way lack of trust between management and employees, lack of accountability, significant demarcation and restrictive practices\" (Management Informant B). There was extremely high use of overtime which, in addition to being costly caused issues around inflexibility and control.\nPharma Physic: Pharma Physic is a pharmaceutical company established in 1980 and employs approximately 100 workers, who are unionised (SIPTU and the TEEU). Up to the late 1990s the company experienced growing sales every year since its establishment and as a result always struggled to meet sales targets thus operating in a very high overtime-based environment. Historically, the relationship between management and workers was described as poor. A management informant described the working environment as \"combative\" and very restrictive in terms of demarcation, which he said was \"probably due to bad management in a way\" and \"[there was a] culture around pay for change\" (Management Informant D).\nWorker survey findings: The case studies provide examples of change being brought about with and without \"workplace partnership\". Interviews with management, unions and shop stewards in all three companies show outcomes from AH were perceived as being very beneficial and delivered mutual gains. These findings are based on representative opinion and as such do not directly establish the views of workers. The worker survey aims to provide direct worker perceptions of both AH and partnership. The findings from the worker survey in all three companies are combined here to allow for a comparative analysis.\nDiscussion and conclusion: Returning to our key research questions, we asked:\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the capacity of annual hours (AH) to deliver gains to both workers and management and assesses the role of workplace partnership in three Irish companies that have adopted AH.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Three case studies are compared and contrasted. The case studies were compiled through semi-structured interviews with management and trade union representatives, a survey of 205 workers and secondary material.\nFindings: The authors find that workplace partnership is not a prerequisite for achieving mutual gains where AH are concerned. The research draws attention to the importance of a mechanism for the creation of gains, in these cases, AH and that such gains can arise from different processes. Mutual gains output is not confined to workplace partnership but can arise from collective bargaining.\nOriginality/value: The paper highlights the importance of comparing case studies so that the role of factors often seen as causal to mutual gains in exemplar cases can be critically evaluated. It also utilises directly workers' opinions on AH and workplace partnership where typically, representative views of management and trade unions dominate the literature on these issues.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A transaction costs-based model to choose PPP procurement procedures	[ "PPP", "Public sector", "Transaction costs", "EU legal framework", "Public procurement procedures", "Tendering process" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The tendering processes of PPP reveal more complicated than those of conventional procurement for two main reasons. First, the transaction in PPP involves not only the design and construction of the infrastructure but also the operations and finance, this requires that the evaluation and selection are based on a wide set of parameters. Second, governments should assure competition among private participants, this increases the number of potential bidders to be evaluated.\n2. Transaction costs and PPP tendering process: 2.1. Transaction costs in PPP\n3. Transaction costs in PPP tendering process: the conceptual model: Tendering procedures handle different level of information (Lingard et al., 1998), due to the different phases to be implemented in the tendering process and the awarding methods for ranking candidate partners.\n4. Impact of project- and country-related factors on PPP tendering process: The transaction costs of a PPP project during procurement phase are affected by several factors, such as project country, economic sector, project size, project complexity, procurement time, number of bidders (Dudkin and Valila, 2005; Farajian and Cui, 2010). Factors influencing transaction costs can be grouped in two categories: project-related factors, such as project scale, project complexity, and project structure; country-related factors, such as the institutional environment in which the project is developed (Ho and Tsui, 2009).\n5. The empirical study: the case of Italian toll highway \"Cispadana\": The developed model was applied to a PPP project for the construction and operation of the Italian toll highway \"Cispadana\", a 67 Km highway which links Reggiolo to Ferrara in Emilia Romagna (a Northern Italy region), in order to support the public decision maker in choosing the procedure that should be used to procure the project to minimize the transaction costs.\n6. Discussion: In this paper we found how specific factors, namely project- and country-related factors, influence the transaction costs in PPP and then the choice of the tendering procedure that minimizes transaction costs.\n7. Conclusions: This paper provides a conceptual tool to support the contracting authority in the design and choice of the tendering procedures in PPPs. The driver of such decision process is the level of transaction costs borne by the public sector and its aim is the minimization of the transaction costs. The implications of our study are relevant to both the practitioners and researchers in the field of public procurement.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a decision model for choosing the tendering procedure in PPP that minimizes the transaction costs borne by the public sector.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A conceptual model that relates the procurement procedures described in the EU legal framework to launch PPPs and the transaction costs, considering the level of information managed by each procurement procedure has been developed. The authors use this conceptual model to develop propositions about the impact that specific project- and country-related factors have on the choice of the procurement procedure that minimizes the transaction costs.\nFindings: The application of the proposed model to the case of the Italian highway \"Cispadana\" shows its usefulness in orienting the public authority's choice between the different tendering procedures, taking into account project- and country-related factors.\nResearch limitations/implications: The present study fills the gap existing in the literature on transaction costs of PPP projects and the procurement procedure used to launch those projects by developing a model that relates the level of transaction costs with a set of key factors, namely the level of information managed during the tendering process, the number of bidders, the project size, the project complexity, and the institutional environment.\nPractical implications: As for practitioners, the main contribution of this study lies in offering a tool for supporting the public authority in the decision-making process about the tendering procedures in PPPs without imposing the selection of a specific procedure.\nOriginality/value: The approach developed provides a new tool to support the contracting authority in the design and choice of the tendering procedures in PPP.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Inheritance and inequality, and aggregate demand and policy issues	[ "Income inequality", "Aggregate demand", "Intergenerational externality", "Natural-resource view of big inheritance", "Paternalistic altruism", "D90", "E02", "H20", "O40", "P10" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Galor and Zeira (2013) documented that low income inequality renders society wealthier in the long run by enabling, if not anything else, much more people to invest in human capital and make it easier economywise to absorb and benefit from technological improvements. Reduced income inequality strengthens output growth anyway (Carvalho and Rezai, 2014) and might even lower macrodependence on credit (Brown, 2004). More importantly, it is a critical factor in shaping the world economy, since: \"A decrease in the wage share leads to lower growth in the euro area, [...] UK, US, Japan, Turkey, and Korea, whereas it stimulates growth in Canada, Australia, Argentina, Mexico, China, India, and South Africa. However, a simultaneous decline in the wage share in all these countries leads to a decline in global growth. Furthermore, Canada, Argentina, Mexico, and India also contract when they decrease their wage-share along with their trading partners\" (Onaran and Galanis, 2014, p. 2489). In short, lower income inequality would not be a \"bad\" alternative, especially nowadays. This paper tackles this issue methodologically in connection with the concept of aggregate demand (AD).\n2. The \"optimal-inequality\" AD: Assuming that there is some optimal inequality satisfying the Pareto efficiency and envy freeness, Meade (1964) contemplates theoretically and Piketty (2014) documents persuasively that suboptimal inequality stems from a perspective of intergenerational property rights such that \"today's entrepreneur becomes the rentier of tomorrow and 'the past devours the future'\" (Piketty, 2014, p. 571). Increasing inequality is the intergenerational externality prompted by patrimonial inheritance the way it is traditionally instituted. So, what AD, a static, short-run concept, would be acknowledging by incorporating an inequality index is the current state of this externality. Redistributive intergenerational Pigouvian taxes/subsidies and pre-distributive institutional arrangements (see, e.g. Kerr, 2016) are proposed to correct for this externality and restore total Cantorian ordering of the social economy. The AD curve corresponding to full-employment, equilibrium, potential, or however else such state of affairs is termed, should acknowledge this precise ordering because it is the one consistent with optimal inequality. Of course, the \"fact\" that Euler-equation-based AD may very well depend on incomplete-market features and be at odds with the representative-agent approach to AD (Werning, 2015) does not imply that income distribution considerations should be approached analytically as such a feature.\n3. Policy considerations: Aside from the matter of the proper AD, it appears that the design of an overall policy against inequality has to address property-right principles as a predistribution means also, from the perspective we just saw. As Tullock (1971) was the first to note, amongst many, who do not object to the system, take exception to wealth inheritance, while others consider inheritance to be entailed in the concept of private property. Also, the mid-ground should consist of a redistributive inheritance tax alongside capital formation motives. Minor issues like that \"[e]ntrepreneurs may be legally bound to bequeath a minimal stake to noncontrolling heirs [...] [which] lower[s] investment in family firms but does not affect investment in nonfamily firms\" (Ellul et al., 2010, p. 2414) might have to be addressed as well. In general, such policy intervention is necessary from the viewpoint of family economics also, as Bruce and Waldman (1990, p. 19) explained: \"[I]f parents make transfers to their children in the second period, then children will do too little saving. But if parents confine their transfers to the first period, then children will have no incentive to maximize joint family income in the second period.\" The outcome is, in any case, inefficient, and the policy maker should confront it as above. Unfortunately, tax reform proposals like the \"Tax by Design\" by Mirrlees et al. (2010) regarding the UK tax system take no notice of these issues on the presumption that \"when actual reforms do have distributive effects, th[e] distribution-neutral mode of analysis remains quite helpful\" (Kaplow, 2011). Furthermore, special attention should be paid to \"social and economic organizations in which property is not, or only to little extent, commodified and where, in any case, non-market allocations and exchanges of goods have much greater significance than in contemporary Western industrialized states\" (Von Benda-Beckmann, 1995, p. 310).\n4. Concluding remarks: What new this paper brings to the literature on inequality and inheritance is that it highlights the analytical inefficacy of the notion of paternalistic altruism to give us a workable definition of optimal-inequality AD as a policy target, and suggests the \"50-50\" split of the current inheritance with heir's child(ren) whose share is to be exploited only by these child(ren) once of age. Would any, in general, set of re- and pre-distributive measures be equivalent to a view of the optimal AD on the part of the policy maker in terms of fairness, i.e. of Pareto efficiency, envy freeness, and equality? These measures do improve societal welfare making some worse off, and as such, they are weak rather than strong Pareto efficiency minded (Palmer and Torgerson, 1999). So, the answer to this question will be positive if the policy maker is content with weak and not strong Pareto efficiency as optimal paternalistic altruism considerations suggest as well, in the context of dynamic of course efficiency, ceteris paribus.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: When the policy maker contemplates the current aggregate demand (AD), she/he does so given implicitly the current state of income inequality. And, policy goals should be set based on the distance between this demand and some \"optimal\" AD from the viewpoint of optimal income inequality. The purpose of this paper is to relate this policy concern to the sources of modern inequality.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To characterize optimality, recent research in inequality reveals that paternalistic inheritance is the decisive source of it. Inequality is the outcome of an intergenerational externality according to which the current entrepreneurs (physical-capital formation agents) bequeath to descendants who use the inheritance as rentiers rather than as entrepreneurs. Several policy measures have been proposed to correct for this externality. Yet, it is found that if the \"dynastic\" character of inequality is disregarded, the distance between actual and optimal AD will be ever increasing.\nFindings: Policy should be addressing the motive of the descendants to act as rentiers, which is found to be easy to attain once the policy maker adopts a natural-resource view of sizeable inheritance and proceeds to reassign property rights over it across generations.\nOriginality/value: Optimality is identified with the Cantorian (total) ordering of the social economy, which is inhibited by the institution of dynastic property rights. One way to deal with this problem is to view inheritance as a depletable natural resource.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Pictorial metaphors for information	[ "Information theory", "Information", "Metaphor analysis", "ISquare", "Visual research", "Visualization of information" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Metaphors are ubiquitous means by which people structure thought. They have an important function as mind settings, which influence our cognition of the self and the world (Moser, 2000). Building on a tradition of research into verbal metaphors, since the 1990s there has been growing interest in visual or pictorial metaphors. A number of studies have explored visual metaphors in diverse genres, such as advertising (Forceville, 1996), films (Carroll, 1996), and cartoons (Morris, 1993).\n2. Metaphors and metaphor-related research: 2.1 Conceptual metaphors\n3. Research questions: The above review of pictorial metaphors and Hartel's prior iSquare research into visual conceptions of information provide a foundation for the development of three research questions are as follows:\n4. Theoretical framework and research design: Arts-informed methodology (Cole and Knowles, 2008) combines the systematic and rigorous qualities of conventional qualitative methodologies with the artistic and imaginative features of the arts. The approach emerged from the field of education and is spreading to other disciplines. In arts-informed research, poetry, literary prose, playwriting, visual arts, dance, and music function as data gathering vehicles. The methodology and its adherents embrace a natural, responsive, intuitive, and reflexive sensibility throughout the research project. There is a pronounced commitment to an inquiry process and results that are accessible, engaging, and memorable to audiences including but beyond the academy.\n5. Results: 5.1 Information as the Earth\n6. Discussion: 6.1 Summary answers to the research questions\n7. Conclusion: The arts-informed, visual research at hand applied cognitive metaphor theory to document the pictorial metaphors that appear in visual conceptions of information. In line with social science practices, a systematic process was followed to isolate a sample and analyze the images. At the same time, an artistic philosophy sanctioned intuitive strategies to organize, interpret, and present the findings for maximum impact. Now thoroughly characterized, the pictorial metaphors for information provide a creative complement to written conceptions of information and bring a greater sense of history, humanity, nature, and beauty to our understanding of information today.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Arts-informed, visual research was conducted to document the pictorial metaphors that appear among original drawings of information. The purpose of this paper is to report the diversity of these pictorial metaphors, delineate their formal qualities as drawings, and provide a fresh perspective on the concept of information.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The project utilized pre-existing iSquare drawings of information that were produced by iSchool graduate students during a draw-and-write activity. From a data set of 417 images, 125 of the strongest pictorial metaphors were identified and subjected to cognitive metaphor theory.\nFindings: Overwhelmingly, the favored source domain for envisioning information was nature. The most common pictorial metaphors were: Earth, web, tree, light bulb, box, cloud, and fishing/mining, and each brings different qualities of information into focus. The drawings were often canonical versions of objects in the world, leading to arrays of pictorial metaphors marked by their similarity.\nResearch limitations/implications: Less than 30 percent of the data set qualified as pictorial metaphors, making them a minority strategy for representing information as an image. The process to identify and interpret pictorial metaphors was highly subjective. The arts-informed methodology generated tensions between artistic and social scientific paradigms.\nPractical implications: The pictorial metaphors for information can enhance information science education and fortify professional identity among information professionals.\nOriginality/value: This is the first arts-informed, visual study of information that utilizes cognitive metaphor theory to explore the nature of information. It strengthens a sense of history, humanity, nature, and beauty in our understanding of information today, and contributes to metaphor research at large.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
How to create a profitable boothscape?	[ "After-show purchase intention", "At-show experience", "Boothscape" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Exhibition is an organized event held at a specific period and place, where companies can meet highly targeted and influential customers. Because of the given merits of exhibitions, 4.4 million companies attend 31,000 exhibitions and met 260 million attendees per year (Global Association of Exhibition Industry, 2012). Although more than 80 per cent of attendees have buying power, the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (2012) observed that they do not always make purchases within 12 months after the exhibition. One of the emerging issues is to find a way to enrich attendees' at-show experience to increase the likelihood of purchase (Friedman, 2014).\nLiterature review: Boothscape\nMethods: Sample\nResults: Respondent characteristics\nDiscussion and conclusions: Conclusions\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study aims to propose an extended framework to design a profitable exhibition booth environment (i.e. boothscape) that fosters attendees' at-show experience and after-show purchase intention.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Survey-based data were collected from attendees who visited one of the five major exhibitions at leading convention and exhibition cities in Korea. Structural equation modeling was used to examine which features of boothscape are more influential in improving attendees' at-show experience and after-show purchase intention.\nFindings: Empirical results revealed that booth design, product variety and assortment and entertainment exert a significant impact on attendees' emotional and cognitive experiences at an exhibition. On the other hand, booth personnel exclusively influence attendees' cognitive experience. A better chance of after-show purchase incident can be obtained by reinforcing both emotional and cognitive experiences.\nResearch limitations/implications: Although emotional and cognitive experiences are two of the most compelling types of at-show experience, future studies can consider mediating roles of other experiences to better understand the complex mechanism of attendees' at-show experience. Moreover, it is worthy to examine the moderating effects of attendees' characteristics, as Bitner (1992) argued that individuals have different perceptions of the surrounding environment based on personal and situation variables.\nOriginality/value: This study provides empirical evidence on the under-explored research area of boothscape. Researchers and exhibitors can learn that both context and content of boothscape should be taken into consideration to create a more holistic at-show experience. In return, attendees can have long-lasting memories of exhibitors and products for future purchase. This new insight can serve as inspiration for researchers and exhibitors to shift paradigms from service- to experience-oriented to improve long-term exhibition performances.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Routes to team goal attainment in retail	[ "Finland", "Thematic analysis", "Teamwork", "Human resource management", "Retailing", "Team performance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The purpose of this case study is to examine the role of individual and social mechanisms in team goal attainment. Teamwork in the retail sector has increased throughout the last decade. Team goals and their fulfilment, however, can be difficult to pin down due to the individual and social mechanisms in their attainment. We propose a team process perspective that takes into account both the role of individual and group aims and motivations. Even when work is organized in teams with decision-making autonomy at the team level, personal aims and goals still affect work. Further, Individual and team perspectives do not necessarily need to be in opposition; they can also be mutually supportive. We introduce the social identity perspective (Tajfel and Turner, 2004, 1979; Ashforth and Mael, 1989), which points out the compatibility of individual aims with group aims and motivations in work life settings. Previous studies have applied the social identity perspective to examine, for example, how current insights into work motivation can be developed to incorporate the complex situations common in today's work life, in which both individual aims and collective goals need to be achieved (Ellemers et al., 2004).\nBackground: Our study draws upon the sociotechnical tradition of teamwork, as it recognizes the importance of team autonomy (Procter and Burridge, 2008). The basic elements of autonomous teamwork are task-interdependency, and independence and discretion when scheduling work and determining the procedures to be used (Hackman, 1987; Kozlowski and Bell, 2003). However, when studying teamwork and team goal attainment, we cannot overlook the relationship of team members' own aims and motivations vs team goals. Moreover, teams as a part of work organization are strongly connected to the tradition of HRM. Autonomous teamwork in particular is seen as an important part of well-designed, employee-involving HRM practices (Evans and Davis, 2005; Subramony, 2009). Next, we introduce the role of processes by which teams attain their goals, and continue by opening up the importance of team members' own aims as opposed to team goals in team task work.\nResearch methodology: Case study context\nFindings: As a result of our analysis, we arranged the data into four themes: (1) teamwork, (2) one's own work, (3) customer service, and (4) team leadership. We located these themes by following our theory-driven approach: we aimed to determine the main processes or routes by which teams gain their goals. Based on the interviews, and according to the observations of the team meetings, team members stressed these four main processes in the frame of team goal attainment. Next we will present the themes identified, with quotations to illustrate them.\nDiscussion and conclusions: In our study, team members' tasks are interdependent and the teams themselves can determine the procedures used for salespersons' duties. However, work schedules, such as the dates of different sales drives, are determined by the organization's strategy. To summarize, although the teams had some autonomy to carry out their processes, their actions were still, to a great extent, determined by top management. This result supports the notion made by Jones et al. (2010) and Broadbridge (2010), that the HRM environment in the retail sector is still affected by non-participative conventions. The discrepancy between top-down and participatory practices makes it both important and interesting to study the processes that team members understand to be important for them, and to find out how they are related to the official goals of the organization.\nImplications: Our results suggest that HR professionals and line managers in retail should support the processes by which teams and team members attain organizational goals. HR professionals should take into account not only direct leadership but also the challenges of teamwork, requirements needed for controlling one's own work, and the development of customer services. These aspects need awareness and detailed knowledge of the processes - routes to team goal attainment - at the shop floor level. We urge HR professionals in retail to collaborate with teams in order to gain knowledge of how work is carried out, how team members can help each other, how skill requirements manifest in everyday work, and what kind of support and guidance they can give to teams that aim to enhance their customer service and sales in supporting the social aspect of teamwork processes, especially the development of an atmosphere of trust and mutual support between team members can be fostered.\nLimitations: The limitations of this study are mostly due to the qualitative case study design which hinders the generalization of the results. The wide perspective of the study can also be seen as a limitation: we cannot provide in-depth knowledge about the themes identified. However, regarding the limited nature of HRM research in retail, we find it important to sketch out and understand how processes of team goal attainment can be perceived. Both a greater number of cases and a deeper analysis of separate processes and their implications are important for future studies.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the routes of team goal attainment through individual and social mechanisms.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study is based on a qualitative thematic analysis of interviews, annual reports and observations of team meetings conducted within a Finnish department store.\nFindings: The key findings of our analysis are three fold. First, we identified four routes to team goal attainment: team leadership, one's own work, customer service and team work. We propose that for team members, these routes to goal attainment are more important than the organizational goals of sales and reputation themselves, since sales and reputation may be too far removed from the team's everyday work. Second, both individual and social mechanisms are needed for team goal accomplishment. This finding highlights the importance of the social identity perspective in binding individual and collective motivations together. Third, teamwork in our case department store is somewhat affected by non-participative conventions, but many employee-involving practices can also be identified. These employee-involving HRM practices offer the employees a voice, and give the teams and team supervisors sufficient power in work organization.\nResearch limitations/implications: The limitations of this study are mostly due to the qualitative case study design which hinders the generalization of the results. The wide perspective of the study can also be seen as a limitation.\nPractical implications: The results suggest that HR professionals and line managers should be more aware of and support the processes through which teams and team members attain organizational goals. This requires detailed knowledge of the processes - routes to team goal attainment - at the shop floor level.\nOriginality/value: This study highlights the interconnectedness of individual and team level attributes in retail team work, and proposes the perspective of social identity theory as a lens for analysis.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Toward a deeper understanding of the roles of personal and business networks and market knowledge in SMEs' international performance	[ "Small and medium-sized enterprises", "Internationalization", "Market knowledge", "Business network", "Personal network" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The Business Network Internationalization Process Model (Johanson and Vahlne, 2009) defines internationalization as \"a multilateral network development process\" (Johanson and Vahlne, 2009, p. 1415). The model posits that obstacles to international development include not only a lack of market knowledge, but also access and inclusiveness in business relationships at home and in host countries. The model accounts for knowledge and networks, two key variables in the traditional Uppsala model (Johanson and Vahlne, 1977), and network approach (Johanson and Mattsson, 1988). Johanson and Vahlne (2009) maintain that \"the model should be equally applicable to large and small firms\" (p. 1425). However, upon applying such a model to the internationalization processes of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), this study identified several ambiguities.\nLiterature review: Roles of personal networks and business networks in SMEs' internationalization\nResearch framework: Built upon the Business Network Internationalization Model, this study postulates that market knowledge and networks are critical to internationalization processes and that both contribute to internationalization performance. While the model views networks collectively, this study views personal network and business network separately, since personal networks that an SME's owner or founder already possesses before the firm establishment may not be part of insidership. Still, personal networks may assist SMEs with connecting to the insidership during the internationalization process; thus, by examining networks with two types, this study posits that SMEs' internationalization performances can be better understood.\nHypotheses: Network as sources of market knowledge\nDrivers of an SME's international performance: This study posits three factors that drive an SME to achieve higher international performance: a key decision maker's personal networks, business networks, and the firm's foreign market knowledge. The literature agrees that SME key decision makers' personal networks help them access information and resources needed for internationalization. These resources are believed to help them operate successfully and gain revenues in international markets (Peng and Luo, 2000; Batjargal, 2003). Beyond access to resources and information, Harris and Wheeler (2005) discovered that an entrepreneur's international relationships, either through personal or business networks, can further direct strategies, serving as the most critical asset for SMEs. By having more access to information, resources, and strategy guidance, SMEs with ample personal networks will, therefore, achieve higher performance in the international market. To draw in empirical support, guanxi networks in China (i.e. personal networks) were found to mediate between SME's internationalization orientation and performance (Zhou et al., 2007). That is, Chinese SMEs with inward and outward internationalization orientation sought guanxi networks to obtain knowledge about international markets and personal advice, which enhanced export performance and profitability performance. In the context of new international ventures in Bulgaria, domestic personal networks improved internationalization as measured by export intensity (i.e. the proportion of foreign sales in total sales) (Manolova et al., 2010). Based on this:\nFirm size, firm age, and industry as control variables: In testing the proposed hypotheses, this study controlled the effects of firm size, firm age, and industry on dependent variables (i.e. market knowledge and international performance). The impact of firm size showed mixed results in the literature. For example, Manolova et al.'s (2010) study indicated a positive association between firm size and export intensity, and Piercy et al. (1998) also found positive influences of firm size on export performance. However, some studies indicated that company size is not a barrier to international business, citing no significant difference in international performance among different sized firms, as well as the finding that small firms showed even better performance than large firms (e.g. Calof, 1993; Wolff and Pett, 2000). With regard to firm age, the Uppsala model posits that foreign market knowledge is gained as a firm's international experience accrues (Johanson and Vahlne, 1977); since older firms may be more knowledgeable about the market, they may have better ideas with which to handle challenges, which in turn may help higher performance. Contrary to the traditional internationalization viewpoint, recent new venture cases provide strong support that firm age is not an influential factor for international market knowledge and performance (e.g. Sapienza et al., 2006; Zahra et al., 2000). Moreover, findings from Bell et al.'s (2004) study manifested clear differences between knowledge-intensive industries (i.e. electronics and information technology (IT) firms) and traditional industries (i.e. food and textile firms) in terms of internationalization patterns, processes, and so forth. The knowledge-intensive firms revealed a similar tendency to born-globals, whereas traditional firms were seemingly consistent with the traditional internationalization model. Distinctive patterns and processes of internationalization may inconsistently affect the extent of foreign market knowledge and perceived international performance; thus, it is believed that the extent of international knowledge and international performance may vary between firms in the IT and apparel industries.\nMethodology: Sampling and data collection\nMeasurement of key variables: Items measuring personal and business networks were modified from Ellis's (2011) study. Personal networks were regarded as a key decision maker's strength of networks with relatives, friends, and former classmates in other countries, whereas business networks were measured by the strength of ties with former employers/employees, existing clients, and business associates. Strength was measured on a seven-point Likert scale (1=weak to 7=strong). Seven items measuring market knowledge were borrowed from Zhou (2007). Another seven-point Likert scale (1=lacking to 7=sufficient) assessed the extent of knowledge on foreign language, regulations, competitors, and so on. International performance was evaluated based on the decision maker's perception of the firm's performance in foreign markets. Six items were borrowed from Nummela et al.'s (2004) study and measured on a seven-point Likert scale (1=strongly disagree to 7=strongly agree). In addition, three control variables - industry, firm age, and firm size - were included. Since the sample was drawn from the apparel industry and the IT industry, respectively, this study attempted to control industry effects. The apparel industry was coded as 0 and the IT industry as 1. A firm's size was measured by the number of its employees, and the firm's age was operationalized by the number of years passed since the firm's establishment (Table I).\nResults: Sample characteristics\nHypotheses testing: Descriptive statistics and correlation for key variables are presented in Table III. A series of multiple regression analyses were performed to test the significance of hypothesized relationships between the independent variables and the dependent variables (Table IV). In the analysis, multicollinearity was assessed through tolerance and the variance inflation factor (VIF). Given that the acceptable cutoff thresholds included a VIF value of less than 10 and a tolerance value of above 0.1 (Hair et al., 2009), multicollinearity problems were not found in all specified models (Table IV).\nDiscussion: Extending Johanson and Vahlne's (2009) Business Network Internationalization Process Model, this study examined how two types of networks (i.e. personal networks and business networks) impact foreign market knowledge and performance after international market entry. Findings revealed that neither personal networks nor business networks led directly to higher international performance. Rather, the business networks of SME key decision makers increased foreign market knowledge, which in turn increased their international performance. Market knowledge was confirmed to be a mediator between business networks and international performance. The next discusses the specific findings of these hypotheses.\nLimitation and future studies: As with all research, this study is not without its limitations. Several methodological limitations may restrict the generalizability of our findings. In particular, the low response rate and small sample size could not be avoided, even after several attempts in accordance with Dillman et al.'s (2008) method. Because of the small sample size, casual relationships among the key variables could not be tested; thus, future studies with larger samples in different contexts (e.g. different countries, industries, etc.) are recommended. Despite these limitations, the findings of this study prove meaningful because the results are highly indicative. This study measured the perceived international performance among SME key decision makers. Further direct performance indicators, such as speed, scope, scale, and actual export percentage increase, may help understand international performance in more detail. This study examined SMEs at only a single static point in time. While this approach is more common in internationalization studies, if one considers how the importance of network shifts from personal networks to more calculative business networks (Hite and Hesterly, 2001), more dynamic findings may result if an SME international performance is examined over years of internationalization (i.e. how long they have done business internationally). Thus, an approach toward networks as a developmental process, rather than as a static status, is recommended for future studies. This study is limited to an examination of the \"state\" aspects of the business network model; future studies may examine the \"change\" side of the model, such as learning, creating, and trust-building process to further detail the application of the model to SMEs. Communication barriers and immigration statuses of SME key decision makers may be related to personal networks and their outsidership from the business network model. For future studies, inclusion of these variables is recommended for a deeper understanding of the liability of outsidership. Albeit the limitations, it is hoped that this study adds useful insight to the emergent field of international entrepreneurship.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to, built upon Johanson and Vahlne's (2009) Business Network Internationalization Process Model, explore the role of personal networks and business networks and their impact on foreign market knowledge and performance among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) after international market entry.\nDesign/methodology/approach: With a total mailing list of 2,250 US firms, data were collected via a mail survey in accordance with the methods of Dillman et al. (2008).\nFindings: An empirical analysis of 105 SME cases revealed that business networks increased foreign market knowledge, which in turn also heightened the international performance of the SMEs. This confirmed the mediating role of market knowledge between business networks and international performance. Personal networks, however, provided little support in helping SMEs achieve foreign market knowledge and international performance.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes unique empirical evidence demonstrating that business network internationalization models can be applicable to the context of SMEs; that is, having access to such a network (i.e. a business network) is found to be a critical factor of international performance.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Bridging gaps between policies for sustainable markets and market practices	[ "Networks", "Institutions", "Markets", "Policy", "Sustainable development", "Market practices" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The report from the \"World Commission on Environment and Development (1987)\" (the so called Brundtland Report) was published in 1987. The report presented the term \"sustainable development.\" Since then this term has gained wide acceptance in discourses on economic, ecological and social issues. Even if there are different definitions and interpretations of the concept, the one in the Brundtland Report captures the essential: \"Development that meets the needs of current generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.\" This can in economic terms be defined as maintaining or increasing productivity, preventing resource depletion while up-grading, rather than degrading ecological and social systems. Such global concerns about quantity and quality of natural resources, including climatic conditions, needed for future economic and social development are focussed in a large and increasing number of policy forming initiatives, conferences and many other activities involving public, private, non-governmental, media and research organizations. United Nations' (2015) \"Agenda 2030: the sustainable development goals\" lists 17 wide-ranging ecological, social and economic goals, of both complementary and conflictual nature, e.g. with reference to poverty, health, natural resources, climate, education.\nWhat is sustainable development?: In 2015 the concept sustainable development featured on more than 80 million web pages, almost ten times the corresponding number in 2005. Robert et al. (2005) refers to a study by the US National Academy of Sciences from 1999 that classified the literature on sustainable development according to what is to be sustained (nature, life support, community), for how long (25 years - forever) and what is to be developed (people, economy, society). Three widely used pillars of sustainable development: economic, social and environmental, were specified by the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development. Robert et al. (2005) provides a very broad list of indicators, initiated by different stakeholders, which are used to measure sustainable development. Sustainable development is defined in values and practices and can be viewed as a social movement including also corporate social responsibility (CSR).\nWhat is a sustainable market?: The concept sustainable market is composed of two terms \"sustainable\" and \"market.\" Sustainable market must in this analysis by definition be linked to sustainable development.\nPolicies for sustainability: Public policy initiatives may result in laws, norms and rules that regulate market structure and market behavior in terms of competition, marketing communication, public procurement, attributes of products and processes and more. Public policies may also be directed to economic incentives or disincentives in terms of, e.g. subsidies or taxes. Public policies for a wide range of issues in society obviously also, in a more indirect way, relate to markets such as, e.g. policies on science and innovation, housing, transport and health. Such policies may be more, less or not at all explicitly aimed at sustainability aspects of market practice.\nMarket literature related to policies aimed at sustainability: In the following I exemplify market literature, mostly emanating from IMP-related research. The research publications referred to are selected because they analyze seven important issues, based on the discussion in the previous sections.\nInstitutional perspectives: To understand the link between policies and sustainable markets it is necessary to consider the market as embedded in an institutional context. Two major research streams related but with different scientific base are relevant to understand institutional embeddedness of markets:\nA market practice perspective: The discussion in the previous sections shows that the context of policy initiatives aiming at sustainable development is characterized by substantial heterogeneity is inherently conflictual and multidimensional. Practice perspectives in various studies of organizing (including market practice) are particularly suited for investigating dynamics of such contexts. A market practice perspective has a scientific base, broad enough to acknowledge a variety of theorizing about markets and feedback loops between exogenous and endogenous market shaping processes. Below I refer to contributions by Kjellberg and Helgesson (2007, 2006) for a brief general presentation. They relate to ideas in science and technology studies (Latour, 1987) and Actor Network Theory (Callon, 1986, 1998) in terms of focus on action, performativity, translation and socio-material agency and to IMP on network interdependencies, interaction, heterogeneity, dynamics and the importance to study business practice (e.g. Hakansson and Snehota, 1995; Hakansson et al., 2009).\nConclusions and directions for further research: IMP and market practice studies research have always integrated research from several disciplines and research steams in order to understand network interdependence, interaction and connectivity. Sustainability issues present important challenges and opportunities for further interdisciplinary research, including analysis of research results across disciplines as suggested below. Sustainability research is reported in journals with different disciplinary focus. Research results may often be complementary but efforts to integrate findings are most often lacking. Quarshie et al. (2016), e.g. found that supply chain research and ethics research on sustainability had much in common but hardly referred to each other. Sustainability issues are important and complex and therefore present research opportunities of an interdisciplinary nature. In a market practice perspective different directions for theorizing about markets are not a priori judged as more or less effective or realistic. Both the streams of institutional research referred to may have performative ability and might be considered in market practice research. The literature on sustainable marketing, as argued above, is misleading because it reduces market practice to marketing practice. Marketing reflects only a subset of many market performing activities that, e.g. include finance, accounting, production and R\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The problem addressed is how policies to promote sustainable development may be implemented in market practice. The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual framework on which further research on sustainable market practice can be based.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Literature and conceptual analysis as regards sustainable development and policies to promote sustainable markets. Frameworks from theorizing about markets and about institutions.\nFindings: The context of policy initiatives aiming at sustainable development is characterized by substantial heterogeneity and is inherently conflictual and multidimensional. Stakeholders, NGOs, governments as well as market actors are involved in policy processes. A market practice perspective is suggested. Specific issues for research are how policy practice interacts with market practice and how sustainable markets actually perform sustainable development over time and space.\nPractical implications: Implications for how policy actors and market actors might act to bridge the gap by awareness of market shaping process in market practice.\nOriginality/value: Contribution to holistic understanding of links between policies, market practice and sustainable development.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Designing of smart chair for monitoring of sitting posture using convolutional neural networks	[ "Deep learning", "Data classification", "IoT application", "Convolutional neural network", "Sensing cushion", "Sitting posture classification" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Sitting in a chair is a typical act of modern people. In present society, most people sit in front of computers due to the development of computer technology and software (Bao et al., 2013; Boulay et al., 2005; Ciccarelli et al., 2015). As the time spent sitting and working is prolonging, negative effects on health and productivity are increasing (Dunstan et al., 2010). Furthermore, people often sit in chairs in improper postures due to electronic devices, such as smartphone or laptops (Kim et al., 2018). Not only prolonged sitting but also poor posture cause musculoskeletal disorders, such as herniated cervical/lumbar disc (O'sullivan et al., 2002). An awkward sitting posture causes lumbar flexion and exerts a high compressive force on lumbar (Huang et al., 2016). Disorders caused by prolonged sitting and awkward postures could be prevented by monitoring and controlling the sitting behaviors. In order to prevent an illness caused by incorrect postures, one must change posture. Yet, it is difficult for adults to fix their habit of sitting (Yeats, 1997). Therefore, it is necessary for children to form proper sitting posture habits in their childhood when sitting posture habits are formed.\nBackground: Selecting and classification of sitting posture\nMethods: Sensor apparatus and participants\nResults: Accuracy value for tenfold cross validation\nDiscussion: The purpose of this study is to develop a classification algorithm of children's sitting posture for a smart chair design. Compared with previous studies, the main contribution of this study is as follows.\nConclusion: In this study, we developed a classification algorithm for the design of a smart chair for children. A total of 26 children between the ages of 6 and 12 were recruited as participants and seven sitting postures were selected for classification. Precision, recall, and accuracy were used to evaluate the performance of each algorithm. CNN, a type of deep learning algorithm, showed higher performance than machine learning algorithms such as ANN and MNN. Based on the average accuracy of the sitting posture classification obtained through CNN (97.5 percent), it was confirmed that the classification algorithm based on deep learning is appropriate for the development of a smart chair for children. In addition, the accuracy of posture including crossing leg and sitting front was higher than that of other posture types. In future research, it is necessary to examine how to improve the accuracy by subdividing the posture or assigning weight according to the number or position of sensors in seat. When children perform various activities, such as studying or watching smartphone in their chairs, accurately classifying the sitting posture can prevent musculoskeletal disorders and improve the effectiveness of activities. This study can be used as a foundation research related to the design of classification algorithm in the development field of smart chair that allows children to maintain their correct posture.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Sitting in a chair is a typical act of modern people. Prolonged sitting and sitting with improper postures can lead to musculoskeletal disorders. Thus, there is a need for a sitting posture classification monitoring system that can predict a sitting posture. The purpose of this paper is to develop a system for classifying children's sitting postures for the formation of correct postural habits.\nDesign/methodology/approach: For the data analysis, a pressure sensor of film type was installed on the seat of the chair, and image data of the postu.re were collected. A total of 26 children participated in the experiment and collected image data for a total of seven postures. The authors used convolutional neural networks (CNN) algorithm consisting of seven layers. In addition, to compare the accuracy of classification, artificial neural networks (ANN) technique, one of the machine learning techniques, was used.\nFindings: The CNN algorithm was used for the sitting position classification and the average accuracy obtained by tenfold cross validation was 97.5 percent. The authors confirmed that classification accuracy through CNN algorithm is superior to conventional machine learning algorithms such as ANN and DNN. Through this study, we confirmed the applicability of the CNN-based algorithm that can be applied to the smart chair to support the correct posture in children.\nOriginality/value: This study successfully performed the posture classification of children using CNN technique, which has not been used in related studies. In addition, by focusing on children, we have expanded the scope of the related research area and expected to contribute to the early postural habits of children.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Managing pathways to convergence in the life sciences industry	[ "Product development", "Integration", "Intellectual property", "Investments", "Regulation", "Health services" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Life sciences firms are moving beyond traditional industry boundaries to create new health care solutions for patients and providers. By combining life sciences' core technologies (diagnostics, devices and drugs) in innovative ways, firms are creating new technology platforms and products that offer improvements in safety, effectiveness, convenience and value. These convergent solutions are also providing life sciences companies with new avenues for innovation, growth and differentiation in markets characterized by increasing competition, R&D stagnation, expanding consumer demand and pressure from payers to reduce health care costs.\nExamples of convergence: In the life sciences industry, convergence is defined as the integration of two or more core technologies (diagnostics, devices, and drugs[1]) to create an improved health care product. The number of combination products[2] under development is rising quickly as developers seek to enhance existing products and introduce fundamentally new health care solutions to the market. The promise of enhanced therapeutic efficacy has prompted investment in a wide variety of convergent solutions. Convergence is transforming cardiovascular care, orthopedic treatment, tissue wound management and other clinical areas.Device-drug convergence\nForces driving the trend toward convergence: Scientific advances\nAddressing the uncertainties and risks of convergence: There are many ways to define a pathway to convergence, and therefore, many opportunities for tailoring the approach along with many risks in selecting and investing in a particular pathway.Convergent solutions, which are relatively new opportunities for many firms, typically entail many uncertainties related to the technological components and interfaces needed for integration, the potential partners the firm may need, and the size and receptiveness of prospective markets. A starting point, then, for determining a convergence pathway is to assess specific opportunities in relation to one another and choose a set of investment strategies that balance risks and rewards in the face of these uncertainties over time.To explore this further, assume there is no uncertainty related to partners or markets. Let us then focus on a firm's options when facing uncertainties related to technology. These are of two major types: component uncertainty and integration uncertainty.Component uncertainty refers to whether key components are already available for a convergent solution. For example, targeted drug therapies associated with diagnostic tests for various cancers are still in their infancy, reflecting considerable uncertainty for product developers.Integration uncertainty refers to whether necessary interfaces exist to integrate the components into an effective combination product. In combining blood glucose monitors with insulin pumps, both components - the monitor and the insulin - were well-known. The challenge was to integrate these components into an effective combination product.Differing levels of component and integration uncertainty define different landscapes for action. Depending on the landscape, different investment approaches may be needed to balance risk and reward. Four strategic orientations defined by different levels of technological uncertainty are summarized in Figure 1:1. Market development orientation. When component and integration technologies are generally understood, the challenge for companies is to focus on developing markets and maximizing the returns from the commercialization process. To do this, a company may choose to own or license the necessary suite of component and interface technologies.2. Component development orientation. When technological uncertainty about the performance of specific components is high, companies have two choices. First, they can invest internally in R&D to develop or improve a specific component technology, leading to proprietary new technologies for future use. The second and often complementary choice is to buy externally developed components as new products.3. Integration orientation. When component uncertainty is low, the strategic focus should shift to integrating the components into a coherent solution. Companies can increase their in-house efforts to develop unique and proprietary interfaces; they can source integration capabilities from other firms; or they can acquire a series of real options to hedge their risk across different emerging integration alternatives.4. Absorptive capacity orientation. When component and interface technologies are highly uncertain, a company is best off not limiting itself to investing in just one set of technologies. Instead, it should develop the capability to survey for, identify, evaluate and absorb new technologies as they become available, by establishing an emerging technology evaluation group.Each of the above strategic orientations helps to balance developmental risk and reward for different levels of technological uncertainty. Translating an orientation into a specific executable convergence strategy requires further choices about how much investment to make, at which stage of development to commit investments, and what approach should be taken to execute the strategy.\nChoosing a pathway to convergence: To develop a combination product, companies have taken various pathways defined by the stage of the value chain at which they integrate the technologies and the approach they use to organize the sourcing and integration of capabilities. Determining which pathway to pursue depends on a company's existing capabilities, opportunities and priorities (Figure 2).In the current marketplace, companies have pursued convergence at three different stages:1. R&D. The convergence process is the most complex at this level, requiring greater resources and longer time-to-market horizons than at the other levels; however, solutions developed from the earliest phases of the R&D process may ultimately have the greatest market value if they provide fundamentally new technology platforms or offer highly effective products.2. Production. At this stage, the pathway to convergence is much shorter and less complex than at the stage of R&D, but it still involves significant resource investment and process change. Market value from convergence at this level comes from expanding and improving on existing products in incremental ways, or expanding production scale and scope.3. Marketing. Convergence at the marketing level is the least complex pathway, involving joint labeling, packaging, advertising, sales or distribution of related products. Some convergent solutions may be packaged together; other combinations may be labeled for joint use but packaged separately. This convergence can be faster and cheaper than at the other levels, but fewer intellectual property assets may be gained and product differentiation may be more difficult to achieve.Companies have also taken different approaches to sourcing, organizing and integrating the capabilities needed for convergence to occur. Table I highlights the potential advantages and disadvantages of each approach that should be weighed in the context of a company's capabilities, opportunities and priorities.To determine a convergence strategy, a firm must identify its current position and future investment orientation: In which quadrant of Figure 1 is the firm currently situated and to which quadrant should the firm move next? What is the best approach for developing or securing needed components, interfaces and integration technologies? Answering such questions requires a careful assessment of one's capabilities and opportunities in at least six areas (highlighted in Figure 2):1. Technological. Are the necessary components, interfaces and integration capabilities for the converged product currently available or do they need to be developed? Who might have the core competencies the firm needs?2. Operational. In what ways might existing R&D processes, manufacturing practices, information systems, facilities and other operational elements need to be modified to support the development of the converged product?3. Organizational. In what ways might organizational structures need to be adjusted to support development of a converged solution? Will specialized training be needed?4. Clinical testing. What adjustments to existing clinical testing and validation practices might be necessary? Will special attention and additional investment be needed to ensure that regulatory requirements are met?5. Marketing. Will new marketing strategies be needed? What marketing advantages do potential outsourcing, partnering or acquisition options present?6. Investment. What capital resources are available for building, borrowing or buying the capabilities the firm needs?Further, the convergence strategy should be aligned with the firm's priorities (also highlighted in Figure 2). Given the firm's business position and strategy for growth, how important will it be to:Minimize financial, brand and other types of risk?Maintain proprietary control of activities carried out during the R&D, production and marketing stages?Control the converged solution's speed to market?Keep investment costs at a minimum?Expand production scale to meet market demand?Expand scope to enter new product markets?As the convergence strategy is implemented, it is critical to revisit these questions to consider whether directional adjustments are needed.\nMaking convergence work: synchronizing expectations: Today, most companies seem to be securing the components, interfaces and integration capabilities they need for convergence through relationships with other firms rather than through the development of their own in-house capabilities. Taking advantage of technologies that are already available or under development by others can save time and create access to specialized knowledge, resources and distribution channels. The importance of partnering has long been recognized as common knowledge, yet developing and maintaining effective cross-sector partnerships is not yet common practice. For this reason, we present a framework below for that companies can use to assess whether they have thought through and put into place critical elements for effective convergence partnering.Developing a converged product clearly goes beyond physically integrating disparate technologies. Convergence requires synchronizing the goals, knowledge, capabilities and, perhaps most importantly, the expectations of separate and often very different companies (or business units within the same company). Pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device and diagnostic companies function very differently, in large part because the tasks and timelines needed to develop, manufacture and market their products are fundamentally different[4]. Consequently, two companies (or business units) crossing sector boundaries to form a partnership are likely to have different motivations for entering into the partnership, as well as possibly conflicting perspectives on the processes, timelines and costs associated with developing and commercializing a combination product.Perhaps one of the biggest challenges to a partnership's success arises when the partners differ in their views regarding the role each is playing and the proportion of value each is contributing to the converged product. Should the two parties be considered equal collaborators who deserve equal shares of the returns? Should one party be considered a supplier providing a necessary but relatively minor component and, therefore, be entitled to a smaller share of the returns? Establishing early agreement on this can be critical to the success of the venture. Moreover, adjustments may be necessary to preserve the partnership over time as competitive pressures shift and new opportunities arise that tempt one or both of the parties to betray the relationship.So, how can companies with such different perspectives and operating contexts form and sustain successful partnerships? We propose six critical factors for effective partnering, adapting a framework developed by J.C. Henderson (Figure 3). All these factors are important to consider, but the specific circumstances surrounding the development of the converged product may require that some factors be emphasized more than others.Partnership in context\nEmergence of alliance networks: As firms pursue innovative product development through convergence, alliance networks (clusters of firms working together through various formal relationships) will likely form, shift and expand. Partnering with another firm may not be sufficient for developing a particular combination product; bringing the resources, knowledge and capabilities of multiple firms together may be both necessary and advantageous (for example, to compete with other networks that have formed) (Goerzen, 2005). Moreover, companies may choose to pursue multiple convergence projects simultaneously.Creating and managing an alliance network involves various challenges and strategic considerations. Some companies may see more advantage and less risk in becoming an ancillary player in another firm's network, while others will want to establish themselves as the network hub to maintain greater control over specialized capabilities, components and integrative interfaces from multiple sources. By holding the central position in the network, a firm may be able to capture a relatively greater share of the value created by the network.As firms expand globally, alliance networks will involve partners from different regions of the world, as well as from different industry sectors, making the central firm's role in synchronizing expectations across partners all the more challenging and critical.\nImportant note on regulatory issues: As mentioned earlier, pharmaceuticals, biologics and medical devices are subject to different regulatory requirements that govern pre-market applications, manufacturing practices and post-market reporting of adverse events. Combination products present a difficult regulatory challenge: which regulations should apply?In the USA, an Office of Combination Products (OCP) was established in 2002 to develop regulatory guidelines and compliance systems for products that combine two or more product types. Because a \"one-size-fits-all\" approach does not accommodate the diversity of product combinations, a specific application for combination products has not been developed (Kramer, 2005). Instead, the OCP reviews combination product applications and assigns them to a particular center for review, depending upon the combination product's \"primary mode of action\". For most combination products, a single application is appropriate for seeking market approval. In some cases, however, the OCP may require multiple applications or the companies involved may choose to submit separate applications to obtain the benefits of new product exclusivity or proprietary data protection (Kramer, 2005).Similarly, among countries in the European Union (EU), how the principal intended action is achieved determines which set of regulations is applied to the combination product (Pulford, n.d.). Manufacturers must choose which component is most responsible for the effect and present clinical evidence and scientific reasoning to regulatory agencies in defense of the choice. Even then, countries within the EU may vary in their views of which regulations should apply for borderline cases.In general, devices typically offer incremental improvements over existing products, so they often qualify for an expedited review that does not require new clinical trials.Pharmaceuticals and biologics that offer incremental improvement over existing therapeutics may also be put on a fast track, but most are submitted as new products that necessitate extensive clinical trials and a lengthy review. When devices are combined with drugs, the generally shorter, less costly regulatory path that many devices follow may no longer apply.Given the challenges and uncertainties involved in regulating combination products, conferring with regulatory agencies early in the product development process is clearly important, if not essential, for avoiding extra costs and delays. By engaging regulators in devising the testing and validation strategy, companies can reduce the likelihood of pursuing an approach that has been dismissed by precedent or that requires unexpected supplemental studies at a late stage. As innovative product combinations continue to challenge existing approaches and experience accumulates, regulatory requirements are likely to undergo further modification.\nConclusions: To realize the promise and value of convergence, firms will have to move beyond traditional industry boundaries, resolve technological uncertainties and learn to operate within a network of companies that have substantively different business models, product life cycles, organizational structures and corporate cultures. If life sciences firms can overcome these challenges, convergence seems certain to become a significant driver of innovation, growth and improvement in health care delivery and outcomes. Since most convergent technologies are in various stages of incubation and development, it is premature to estimate the impact convergence will have on industry growth and health care costs. However, early examples suggest that convergence has tremendous potential to drive new business opportunities and meet consumer demand for safer, more effective health care solutions.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Convergence in the life sciences and health care industries - the combining of two or more of drugs, diagnostics and devices to create an improved health care product - is leading to new opportunities for business growth and product differentiation. This report aims to examine the issues around convergence, including the drivers, risks and regulatory issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This report is based on industry and literature reviews and builds on research carried out by Deloitte Research on the life sciences and health care industry.\nFindings: - The paper finds that technological advances, evolving health care needs and shifting market conditions are creating favourable conditions for convergence. Developing convergent technologies, however, has risks and uncertainties that life sciences companies need to consider along with regulatory issues. Cross-sector partnerships are becoming more of a necessity and reality for health care firms, who have to be aware of the many operational and ownership issues involved.\nPractical implications: - Market pressures and opportunities are motivating life sciences firms of all types and sizes to invest in convergence. Convergent technology is transforming cardiovascular care, orthopedic treatment, tissue wound management and other clinical areas by creating solutions that are less invasive, less painful, more patient-specific, more convenient and sometimes more affordable. Consequently, players from all sectors are entering the competition for R&D assets, setting up new rivalries and alliances.\nOriginality/value: - In mapping the many factors surrounding convergence in the life sciences industry, this report enables firms to evaluate their own opportunities and priorities. It proposes a framework that companies can use to decide which pathway to convergence is best for them.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Participation of students in the project Valorbio: A case study to accelerate the implementation of sustainability principles in the curriculum	[ "Circular economy", "Constructed wetlands", "Education for sustainability", "Project-based learning", "Waste valorization", "Sustainable development" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Higher education institutions (HEIs) have a fundamental role in society regarding sustainability issues as they are the prime active agents promoting the dissemination of scientific knowledge, being the natural leaders in the changes of awareness of the societies influenced by them. Thus, HEIs are the most likely vehicles to bring about attitude changes in individuals, communities, companies and institutions, necessary to achieve sustainable development (Purcell et al., 2019; Nunes et al., 2018; Diaz-Iso et al., 2019; Shawe et al., 2019; Leal Filho et al., 2019).\nStructure of academic degrees at Portuguese higher education system: The Polytechnic Institute of Tomar (IPT) is a HEI located in the Middle Tagus Region (in Central Portugal) which assumed from the very beginning that several gaps needed to be filled for the development of the region in which it operates. It offers programs in domains, such as arts, sciences, management and engineering, that create an atmosphere particularly suitable for the implementation of sustainable development principles, because this is a concept that is transversal to all those areas.\nDescription of the research project Valorbio: The Valorbio project - \"Wastes valorization through modular CWs for wastewater treatment\" - was co-financed by EU funds (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-23314). The project was developed over a period of 18 months, between July 2017 and January 2019, and aimed to improve the design, operation and sustainability of CWs. The applied experimental work involved three HEIs (The Polytechnic Institutes of Tomar, Coimbra and Portalegre) and one company (Palser - Bioenergia e Paletes, Lda.).\nShort description of the constructed wetlands technology: CWs consisted in biological systems for wastewater treatment. The CWs are based on synergetic processes and are composed by three major components: soil - plants - microbiota. CWs are contained and controlled variants of natural wetlands (Kadlec and Wallace, 2009). The use of CWs has become widespread and has begun to be implemented throughout the world for about four decades. However, CW technology continues to be the subject of many studies to better understand the complex natural mechanisms that are at the basis of its operation with the purpose of increasing wastewater treatment efficiency and improving its sustainability (Mateus et al., 2016; Mateus and Pinho, 2018; Wang et al., 2017; Wu et al., 2015a; Wu et al., 2015b; Wu et al., 2015c).\nMethodology for the organization of student's participation in the project's activities: Students of three different programs held at IPT participated actively in the applied research: TeSP in Environmental Quality (undergraduate level), first-level (bachelor) program in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering and second-level (master) program in Chemical Technology.\nResults and discussion: The main results consist in the effective involvement of students from the three-degree programs in the project's activities mostly focused in contributions to a sustainable growth, as well as providing students and evolving community education for sustainability.\nConclusions: The students that participated in the Valorbio project contributed effectively for the developed research work. During their participation, the students' concerns with issues that limit a sustainable growth and their knowledge on a circular economy paradigm were clearly improved.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the case of the Valorbio research project, in which students of different high-level programs were involved in the experimental work and in the dissemination of results in collaboration with the research team.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The inclusion in higher education curricula of content related to the sustainable development should be a preferred mechanism for the dissemination of good practices of sustainability. Another equally important way to achieve this is to involve students in research projects that seek solutions to the societal challenges related to sustainable growth. The Valorbio project aims to meet the needs for treating and reusing wastewater and solid waste. Its main goal was the development of modular systems for wastewater treatment based on constructed wetlands, exploring the possibility of the treatment systems being composed of solid waste and by-products from significant industrial sectors.\nFindings: The students' contribution to the research work was relevant and simultaneously allowed them to acquire skills on sustainable development. Additionally, the students contributed to the dissemination of the results. The Valorbio project can thus be considered a successful application of the concept of project-based learning (PBL), as a way to include sustainability issues content in the higher education curricula.\nOriginality/value: The applied experimental work had an original approach regarding the equipment design, the waste materials valuation, as well as the integration of waste treatment processes in the circular economy paradigm. This paper is the first reported PBL experience involving students of short-cycle technical-professional programs in partnership with first and second-level students and a research team.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Assessment of innovation and performance in the fruit chain: The innovation-performance matrix	[ "Innovation", "Performance measures", "Fruits", "Supply chain management", "Critical success factors", "The Netherlands" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: New lifestyles, higher income and awareness of consumers, lead to a demand for variety, quality, year-round supply of fresh produce, convenience, value added and \"healthy\" food. There is also an increase of demand for \"ready-to-eat\" food. It is well documented that fruit and vegetables are an important component of a healthy diet and, if consumed daily in sufficient amounts, can help preventing major chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and certain cancers. Several reports indicate the need for an increased intake of fruit and vegetables as a means to prevent certain human diseases (WHO, 2002; Pomerlau et al., 2003; EURODIET, 2001). The recent Joint FAO/WHO Expert Consultation on diet, nutrition and the prevention of chronic diseases, recommended the intake of a minimum of 400 g of fruit and vegetables per day. Worldwide, low intake of fruits and vegetables is estimated to cause about 19 percent of gastrointestinal cancer, about 31 percent of ischaemic heart disease and 11 percent of stroke (FAO/WHO, 2004).Therefore, a shift towards more fruit and vegetable consumption amongst the middle and upper middle classes is expected. The FAO/WHO report on diet, nutrition and chronic health indicates that these changes in dietary patterns will be tremendous in the coming years, in particular in developing countries (Brazil, China, India, South Africa and others). Consequently, a great opportunity emerges for the fruit market. However, the fruit market does not always meet consumer expectations. Quality deterioration along the supply chain, price and availability are major problems. Consumers also often worry about pesticide residues in fruits and are concerned with the introduction of GMOs in the food chain. These dreads and the lack of awareness about the health-giving attributes are amongst the reasons of the low intake of fruits. Therefore, growers need more sustainable production methods and the whole chain should work closely together to find solutions to meet consumer's expectations. Although large differences between fruit products, countries and cultures can be expected, the following critical bottlenecks for increased fruit consumption have been hypothesised:H1. Insufficient quality and safety of fruit and fruit products at the point of consumption.H2. Limited availability of certain fruits and fruit products.H3. Lack of sufficient consciousness of consumers about the health benefits of regular fruit consumption.H4. High price and lower levels of convenience of fruit and fruit products compared to competing products, i.e. snacks and soft drinks.In order to cope with these critical bottlenecks and to increase the consumption of fruit in the world, especially in Europe, the fruit supply chain has to become consumer-driven, efficient, responsive and innovative.The objective of this paper is to design a conceptual framework underlying supply chain performance and innovation, to be used as a guide for analysis and improvement of European fruit chains. In this respect, innovation and performance are treated as separate entities. The exploratory and theory building character of the research typically demands for a case study approach (Yin, 2003). Data generation is done through a small number of selected in depth research unit interviews. Research units are individuals who belong to companies within the fruit supply chain. This instrumental case study approach enables to iteratively build and test the conceptual framework. As a case the Dutch apple chain is chosen. Our research strategy contained the following steps:1. Identify Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for innovation and performance in the different stages of the (apple) chain.2. Identify indicators for innovation and performance at different stages in the (apple) chain.3. Identify organizational and management instruments that (may) impact on innovation and performance in the (apple) chain.For data collection and analysis in-depth interviews were held with company representatives and other stakeholders in the apple chain. A total of nine in-depth interviews were performed: one nurseryman; two growers, three cooperatives' top managers; one food service company R&D manager, one fruit advisor; and one expert. Further, the respondents were willing to show their installations, therefore, it was also possible to get information through observation.\nDescription of processes in the apple chain: The Dutch apple chain\nInnovation: Innovation classification\nPerformance: Performance measurement\nThe innovation - performance matrix: Usually, studies focus either on innovation or on performance. To enable assessment of the trade-off between performance and innovation in this study a matrix has been designed. This matrix including CSFs, indicators and trade-off \"cells\", supplements the theoretical process model as described in section 2. The two following examples clarify what is meant by trade-off:1. A cooperative could need to reach the highest quality of apples, e.g. >50 percent of class 1 (performance), in order to promote these high quality apples with a new name, e.g. \"prestige\" (marketing innovation).2. Growers could need to innovate in a new plant system (e.g. new pruning method) in order to increase the yield (kg/ha) of production (performance) - the relation is illustrated the other way around in comparison with the previous example.Figure 13 shows the basic design of the matrix. In the figure only the main performance and innovation categories are given.In this matrix the CSFs for innovation and the related indicators are in the X-axis while the CSFs for performance and the related indicators are in the Y-axis of the matrix, keeping the selected categorization of each one. CSFs and major indicators are selected by company respondents and therefore will differ from company to company. Figure 13 gives examples of CSFs and indicators for a hypothetical company. The empirical research was dedicated to fill in the matrix. The goal was to come up with one specific matrix per link of the apple chain since each link has got specific CSFs and indicators. The next step in the use of the matrix is to find the most important performance-innovation combinations. Each combination applies to one or more particular processes. In the matrix these processes are described in the cells (for example this could be in the marked cells in Figure 13). In this way we find out which processes are critical in the chain.Linking the process model (see section 2) with the innovation-performance matrix (see previous section) enables:* bringing out the main management and supporting processes;* emphasizing the CSFs and related indicators for performance and innovation of each link;* assessing the trade-off between performance and innovation;* showing within which process(es) this trade-off takes place; and* defining instruments to improve performance or innovation.This leads us to our basic theoretical framework (Figure 14).In practical cases first critical success factors (CSFs) and indicators for innovation and performance are identified by the respondent based on the CSF and indicator tables presented in the previous sections. Next, the processes in the company are identified that have an impact on the innovation and performance indicators, based on the generic process model developed in section 2. Then possible measurements (organizational and management) are identified that may impact on innovation and performance. These are described in the cells of the matrix.In the following we will give the case study results for two links in the chain: grower and cooperative.\nEmpirical research: Grower results\nConclusion, further research and management implications: Conclusion and further research\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to bridge the concepts of innovation and performance and to develop a framework to assess innovation and performance in food chains.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Based on an extensive literature search the paper identifies critical success factors (CSFs) and related indicators for innovation in food chains, on the one hand, and performance in food chains, on the other. Main CSF categories for innovation are: product, process, market and organization. Main CSF categories for performance are: efficiency, responsiveness, quality and flexibility. A chain process model is developed that enables one to identify main chain processes that impact on innovation and performance. A trade-off matrix is constructed in which effects of innovations on performance and vice versa in typical chain processes can be identified.\nFindings: - This article reviewed available supply-chain innovation and performance indicators and models and methods used to assess performance and innovation within fruit supply chains. Based on the existing literature a conceptual framework for assessing innovation and performance of companies in the European fruit supply chain has been developed. The framework consists of a supply chain process model and an innovation-performance matrix which have been successfully applied to several cases along the apple chain in The Netherlands.\nPractical implications: - The chain process model and matrix are applied in an integrated way to the Dutch fruit chain. An apple grower case and a fruit cooperative case are worked out. Managers in food chains can use the framework to assess their company's innovations and performances.\nOriginality/value: - The paper aims to bridge the concepts of innovation and performance. Literature and research on this subject are minimal.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Sino-UK transnational education in China: rhetoric versus reality	[ "China", "United Kingdom", "Education sector", "Joint ventures", "Knowledge transfer", "Transnational education" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The recent decades have seen rapid growth of higher education (HE) exported from English speaking countries, notably the UK, the USA and Australia. This is known as transnational education (TNE), which refers to education delivered by an institution based in one country to students located in another (Mcburnie and Ziguras, 2007). With the total demand for HE places set to rise from 8 million in 2000 to 45 million in 2015 (Bohm, 2003; Marginson, 2004) and the state sector having only the capacity for 6.75 million in 2010 (CHSI News, 2010), China has become one of the most popular countries for TNE (Yang, 2008).With a strong reputation for academic quality, the UK HE has seen rapid growth of demand from China for TNE since 1997 (QAA, 2006). However, many Sino-UK TNE providers are finding it tough to maintain their operation due to shrinking numbers of school leavers (China News, 2010), expanding state provision (Li et al., 2009), growing competition from other English speaking countries (UK He International Unit, 2010, p. 11) \"differences in culture, institutional structure, educational ethos and motivations\" (Zhuang, 2009, p. 244) and the constant tensions between income generation and quality (Garrett, 2004).This is the third in a series of papers (Zhuang, 2009, 2010) focusing on issues concerning Sino-UK TNE operations in China. Based on an exploratory study conducted as part of a master's dissertation, it examines the differences between rhetoric and realities of the Sino-UK TNE provision in China with a focus on the challenges induced by barriers of culture and language.\nLiterature review: Growth of Sino-UK TNE in China\nResearch design: As mentioned in the previous section, little research had been conducted on the significance of culture and language to the success of Sino-UK TNE hence an exploratory design was adopted for the current research (Saunders et al., 2007, p. 133). It sought to gain insights (Roboson, 2002) into how the factors of foreign culture and language affected different aspects of Sino-UK TNE operations in China as perceived by those who were personally involved.The current study was carried out between February and August 2010, which examined how barriers of language and culture were managed at ten Chinese HEIs engaged in TNE partnership with UK institutions. To ensure the validity and reliability (Saunders et al., 2007, p. 149-50) of data collected, three methods were employed for the collection of primary data, which included questionnaire survey (Saunders et al., 2007, p. 356-64), semi-structured interview (Fisher, 2007, p. 167-71) and observation (Fisher, 2007, p. 161-4).Data collection\nFindings: Managing Sino-UK TNE operations in China\nConclusions and recommendations: This exploratory study attempted to gain an understanding of how differences in language and culture were managed in Sino-UK TNE operations in China.According to findings from the current study, disparities were found between the rhetoric and the reality of Sino-UK TNE operations due to language barriers underlined by cultural differences. These disparities raised some serious questions concerning the following two important aspects the TNE provision:1. Student recruitment. Despite the growth of Sino-UK TNE provision in China in recent years, the potential demand from Chinese school leavers is in long term decline as a result of the \"one-child\" policy, expansion of the Chinese state provision and growing number of high school leavers from wealthy families going to study abroad. Moreover, most TNE providers found it impossible to enforce a minimum level of English during admissions for reasons including restrictions of the NCEE quota system and pressure on getting numbers from a declining pool. As such, how sustainable is it for many Sino-UK TNE programmes in China in the long-term, especially those hosted in less well-known institutions recruiting outside the quota system?2. Student learning experience. The varying levels of English between students and staff meant that a large proportion of Sino-UK TNE programmes were not delivered in English as they should be. The majority of staff involved in the administration and management of TNE programmes were Chinese who spoke limited English with limited understanding of the UK culture. This made it difficult to create an academic culture outside the classroom conducive to helping the Chinese students make the transition from the \"teacher-centred\" tradition to the \"student-centred\" practice. Is it realistic then to expect students on a Sino-UK TNE programme in China to learn and be supported entirely in English and in a true UK style?These disparities raise some further questions. First, given the declining pool of potential students in China, can the current scale of Sino-UK TNE operation in China be maintained without looking at alternative sources of students, e.g. adult education, work-based learning and perhaps students from outside China? Second, if alternative sources of students in China are to be tapped into and given the employment destination for most of them being in China, is it important that they study in English and understand the British culture? Third, in view of the fundamental differences between the academic cultures of the UK and China being skill-building versus knowledge accumulation, which aspect(s) of a Sino-UK TNE programme really add value to the Chinese students' education? Is it the content, the language of instruction, or the academic culture?Whilst further research is clearly needed in order to address these questions appropriately, according to findings of the current study, the long-term survival of Sino-UK TNE in China will also depend on how relevant parties in an TNE operations effectively address these questions.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine the gap between what should happen and what actually happens in Sino-UK transnational education (TNE) provision, with a focus on the barriers of language and culture.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Following a literature review, an exploratory study was carried out using the non-probability-based snowball sampling method. In total, 38 programme managers from ten Sino-UK TNE providers responded to a questionnaire survey, with eight of them taking part in a subsequent semi-structured interview. Additional data were collected via observations at staff meetings and classes.\nFindings: - Demand for Sino-UK TNE based in China was in decline for reasons including demographic changes, increased competition and expansion in the Chinese state sector. Due to barriers of language and culture, the overall learning experience of TNE students in China was not found comparable with that of their counterparts in the UK in terms of learning, teaching and academic support.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Without further research, the findings of this study may not be generalised to all Sino-UK providers due to the non-probability based sampling method.\nPractical implications: - Managers of a Sino-UK TNE partnership on both sides need to be open about the language and culture induced challenges facing the sector and be committed to addressing them in the long term if they are to continue their operation.\nOriginality/value: - The paper presents admissions from practitioners about the disparities between the rhetoric and reality of the current Sino-UK TNE provision, which raise questions critical to the future survival of the sector.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Business process redesign project success: the role of socio-technical theory	[ "Change management", "Business process management", "Business process redesign", "Information and communication technology infrastructure", "Socio-technical theory" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Business processes have drawn a great deal of attention from industrial practitioners and academic researchers since the 1990s because of their great potential for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of organizations. The roots of business process focussed research can be traced back to business process reengineering, promoted by Hammer and Davenport et al. (Hammer and Champy, 1993; Davenport, 1993), that described it as a radical redesign of business processes resulting in a singular transformation. However, researchers soon realized that better results were obtained when organizations started with a revolutionary design phase, followed by actually implementing changes in an evolutionary manner (Jarvenpaa and Stoddard, 1998). Later on, a more general term business process management (BPM) was widely adopted by many researchers in the business process focussed research context. BPM is defined as an integrated management philosophy and set of practices that includes incremental change and radical change in business processes, and emphasizes continuous improvement, customer satisfaction, and employee involvement (Hung, 2006; Houy et al., 2010). BPM covers concepts such as total quality management, business process reengineering, business process redesign (BPR), business process improvement, etc.\n2. Theoretical model and hypotheses: 2.1 STT and BPR project implementation components\n3. Research methods and data analysis: 3.1 Construct operationalization\n4. Analysis and results: 4.1 Validity and reliability tests\n5. Discussion: 5.1 Impact\n6. Conclusions: The conclusions from our study are first, that STT has been validated in the BPR project implementation research context. The establishment of the BPR project implementation model was based on the well-known aspects of STT, and included the development of three BPR project implementation components (i.e. change management, process redesign, and ICTI improvement). The results from analyzing the research model showed that the great majority of the variance in BPR project measures of success (69.7 percent) was explained through factors based on STT. This provides a foundation for utilizing STT in future BPR project research.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to seek to advance business process redesign (BPR) project research through the generation and testing of a new research model that utilizes formative constructs to model complex BPR project implementation issues. Instead of looking at management principles, the paper examines the activities of improving business processes from the project perspective.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A survey of 145 managers and executives from medium and large-sized USA and Canadian companies was used to validate the model.\nFindings: The model, based on socio-technical theory, includes three implementation components (change management, process redesign, and information and communication technology infrastructure improvement), and links the effects of these components to BPR project outcomes. The empirical findings indicated that all three implementation components had a significant impact on BPR project success, with change management having the greatest effect. Interestingly, the results also showed that productivity improvement was no longer the main focus of companies carrying out BPR projects; instead, improvement in operational and organizational quality was more important.\nResearch limitations/implications: The main limitation of this study is its generalizability with respect to company size and organizational culture. The sample in this study was drawn from medium- and large-sized companies in Canada and the USA, but small-sized organizations were excluded from this study due to their distinct features (e.g. superior flexibility or ability to reorient themselves quickly). Also, this study controlled the variable of organizational culture by limiting respondents to Canada and US companies. It would be very interesting to investigate BPR project implementations in other countries where the organizational working culture may be different.\nPractical implications: Based on the findings of this study, BPR practitioners can refer to the three BPR project implementation components and then prioritize and sequence the tasks in a BPR project to achieve their preset BPR goals.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study which utilizes formative constructs to validate the important BPR project components.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Pedagogy and public-funded research: an exploratory study of skills in digital humanities projects	[ "Skills", "Data handling", "Data literacy", "Information literacy", "Digital humanities pedagogy", "Information and library science", "Public-funded research" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Technology has to be learned. It's not like opening the refrigerator.(P11-02)\n1. Introduction: Combining disciplinary expertise and computational science, digital humanities (DH) is interdisciplinary, data-driven, usually collaborative and heavily indebted to library and information science (LIS) (Poole, 2017). DH received international recognition in 2009 when a consortium of three funders in the USA, UK and Canada announced the two-year Digging into Data Challenge (DID1). DID1 encouraged scholarly experimentation. Propounding \"one culture\" embracing both humanities and science research, it hailed a \"new paradigm: a digital ecology of data, algorithms, metadata and visualization tools\" (Williford et al., 2012, p. 3). Such public-funded projects mandate that teams refine data sets for open access, enabling the public as well as scholarly communities of practice to benefit.\n2. Literature review: Research on DH pedagogy is wanting. Hirsch (2012) rues the prevalence of \"bracketing\": \"the almost systematic relegation of the word 'teaching' (or its synonyms) to the status of afterthought, tacked-on to a statement about the digital humanities after the word 'research' (or its synonyms), often in parentheses\" (p. 5). Other scholars express similar concerns not only regarding the lack of research on DH pedagogy, but also the concomitant lack of agreement on what DH curricula should include (Brier, 2012; Clement, 2012; Davis et al., n.d.; Losh, 2015; Spiro, 2012). Complicating matters, few DH instructors were themselves educated in DH graduate programs; they may well have more to learn than their students (McCarty, 2012; Rockwell and Sinclair, 2012). The lack of precedent for preparing students for careers related to DH as well as the celerity of change in the field appears similarly bedeviling (Reid, 2012).\n3. Methods: To maximize interviewee recall, this study focused on the most recent round of digging into data (2014-2016). Representatives from 11 of the 14 projects (53 persons) participated. Interviews took place between September and December, 2016, by phone, Skype and Google Hangouts.\n4. Findings: The following list and Tables I and II present information DID3 scholars submitted on reports to international funders; they provide useful background for the findings. The below list shows the titles of the 14 projects awarded in DID3; Table I tabulates 20 areas of disciplinary and interdisciplinary expertise across the case study's 11 projects based on participants' departmental affiliations; and Table II shows the 16 professional titles DID3 scholars reported.\n5. Discussion: DH pedagogy and DID3 projects inform each other dialectically. Team members bring diverse disciplinary and interdisciplinary expertise developed through their own training and experience to project ecologies that span national, institutional and disciplinary cultures. Once embarked on the project, DID3 team members acquire themselves and impart to others skills specific to project goals. Training at once promotes project work and feeds back into pedagogy at home institutions. Three issues stand out: skills, strategies for acquiring them and teaching challenges.\n6. Conclusion: Public-funded, international, collaborative and IDR projects advance institutional and individual research missions and priorities, facilitate the training of students and produce data for public as well as scholarly reuse. DH pedagogy provides a foundation for developing broader, transferrable, collaborative interdisciplinary skills.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Public-funded research in digital humanities (DH) enhances institutional and individual research missions and contributes open data to a growing base of globally networked knowledge. The Digging into Data 3 challenge (DID3) (2014-2016) is an international, interdisciplinary and collaborative grant initiative, and the purpose of this paper is to explore skills that faculty and students brought to projects and others they acquired and shared on collaborative teams.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Rooted in the naturalistic paradigm, this qualitative case study centers on semi-structured interviews with 53 participants on 11 of the 14 DID3 projects. Documentary evidence complements empirical evidence; analysis is constructivist and grounded.\nFindings: Hailing from diverse academic research institutions, centers and repositories, participants brought 20 types of discipline-based or interdisciplinary expertise to DID3 projects. But they reported acquiring or refining 27 other skills during their project work. While most are data-related, complementary programming, management and analytical skills push disciplinary expertise toward new frontiers. Project-based learning and pedagogy function symbiotically; participants therefore advocate for aligning problem-solving skills with pedagogical objectives at home institutions to prepare for public-funded DH projects. A modified content analysis juxtaposes DID3 skills with those advanced in 23 recent DH syllabi to identify commonalities and gaps.\nOriginality/value: Pedagogy has an important yet under-researched and underdeveloped role in public-funded DH research.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Re-examining the future of resource sharing	[ "Resource sharing", "Document delivery", "Interlending", "United States of America" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Interlending managers, library administrators, consortia directors, and library vendors are thinking about the future of resource sharing. At least three separate discussions were begun in the first half of 2005 and it is likely that similar discussions are underway in other parts of the world. People are beginning to explore whether there are new service and technical innovations that will change the current way libraries exchange materials. It is not surprising that these formal and informal explorations are identifying common themes and issues. Let me summarize some of these conversations, highlight common themes, and reflect on what these conversations might mean.\nThe emerging themes: Resource sharing is increasing. Resource sharing is decreasing. The Australian report noted both decreases in demand for interlibrary loan and document delivery over the past ten years as a result of increased access to electronic journals and increases in demand for copies of journal articles because electronic access is not yet universal. The change in transactions depended in part on the type of library. The American white paper noted that the number of transactions is likely to increase, but the increase may be most noticeable in user-initiated requests rather than mediated requests.Increasing acceptance and adoption of alternative resource sharing models - user-initiated or unmediated ILL, circulation-based resource sharing, direct consortial borrowing - may be one of the key drivers in the near-term future. Mediated, library-to-library interlibrary loan is no longer the only way to obtain a book or copy of an article available in another library or source. Open linking directly to an electronic copy is a user-centered and growing alternative for users to obtain copies of journal articles.Some of these emerging models have embraced characteristics of the \"external world\" in an effort to respond to increased user expectations. That is, they attempt to replicate the simplicity of discovery of a document via a Google search, the one-stop shopping and ordering ease of many consumer websites, home delivery of Netflix.com, and the fast delivery of materials from Amazon.com. Library patrons are expecting library services to be \"Amazoogle-like,\" that is, providing service on their terms, not the library terms. Even within traditional library services, a growing number of users feel empowered to fulfill their own information needs, including using retrieving documents ordered through mediated ILL procedures from secure websites.The packaging of information held by libraries is changing, and increasingly it is becoming electronic and accessible via the web. Library budgets are not keeping up with expanding patron needs or exploding publishing output. There is a potential conflict between the library community's interest in long-term preservation and immediate electronic access to that content preferred by users. Restrictive license terms may increasingly limit the supply of electronic copies via mediated or unmediated ILL, which might have the unintended consequence of increasing the demand for resource sharing.Traditional organizational boundaries within libraries are blurring. Some mediated ILL operations now fall under circulation, access services, or reference departments. User-initiated services may be part of mediated ILL, circulation, access services, reference, the information commons, or may be managed by separate staff. There is no consensus, at least in North American libraries, on where mediated or user-initiated operations are best situated within the library organization.Closely related is a growing re-examination of policies for mediated ILL. As libraries begin to offer unmediated services, users begin to question the variant policies for mediated and unmediated services. Libraries are removing limits on the number of mediated ILL requests, encouraging individuals to order via user-initiated systems, and relaxing the restrictions on the type of material they will lend to another library via either service. Outside consortial agreements, most libraries remain reluctant to lend a book directly to a user from another library.Libraries are using new suppliers (libraries in new consortia, commercial document delivery, websites) to fill mediated and user-initiated requests. As libraries join consortia, implement user-initiated models, or discover that electronic delivery eliminates distance and time zones between libraries, they expand the number of potential suppliers to fill their requests. In many cases, service improves for the local patrons.Some of this expanded network of potential suppliers is a result of the implementation of new automated products and tools. In many cases, these tools result in improved workflow and increased efficiency. Many of the new-generation of resource sharing products is standards-based, but few, if any, products fully support all of the resource sharing standards.Some vendors and librarians have joked that there are too many technical standards to support resource sharing activities. However, most would agree that a growing number of vendors are developing, and libraries increasingly adopting, standards-based products that include Z39.50 for searching, ISO ILL Protocol for ILL communication, NISO Circulation Interchange Protocol (NCIP) for user-initiated circulation, and the Open URL to link directly to electronic resources. Mediated ILL, through the KDD or OCLC ILL systems, is still the predominant method used by most libraries in Australia and the US respectively. The Australian report noted that in 2003-2004, 26 percent of all KDD requests came from \"ISO ILL libraries\" (KDD, 2005). The library community now expects that products from different vendors will be able to communicate using standards rather than proprietary methods.\nWill these discussions make a difference?: These trends highlight a key change in providing resource sharing services. Library-centric policies, rules, and procedures are no longer acceptable in an environment that is increasingly customer-focused. The growing discussions in Australia and the US about the future of resource sharing are the first steps in improving mediated and user-initiated services. I am encouraged that there appears to be several grass-root initiatives underway. Similar discussions about other library services are also underway as librarians realize that they need to keep libraries relevant in the web world. To paraphrase Don Barlow, one of the speakers at the OCLC session, libraries must go permanently BETA!The small group that drafted the white paper made a series of recommendations on follow-on actions. At this early date, it is unclear whether those actions are needed, are the right ones, or who will take the lead. Even if the white paper ends up as an interesting \"think piece\" it will have spurred discussion, reflection, and interest in how resource sharing is changing and needs to change to meet current user needs.\nA final thought: The US White Paper asserts that \"technical capabilities, combined with reconsideration by many libraries of their policies regarding the sharing of materials, combine to provide a unique opportunity to examine resource sharing with a clean slate - a time to reconsider existing paper-originated models of the last 30 years and identify actual, need-based sharing functions appropriate for the future.\" What are your emerging resource sharing needs? I invite readers to contribute to this re-examination by sending comments to me or to the authors of the Australian or American initiatives.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this article is to provide an update on matters pertinent to ILDS readers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This article provides a discursive discussion on the future of resource sharing.\nFindings: - The future of resource sharing is a topic of at least three separate discussions in Australia and the USA. The business, technological, and organizational environments are changing. National libraries, bibliographic utilities, and informal groups of individuals are exploring the implications of these trends on resource sharing. This column identifies common trends and speculates on the future of resource sharing.\nOriginality/value: - This article provides insights into matters of importance to ILDS readers from an experienced figure in the US interlending and document supply scene.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Corporate governance and performance of Italian gambling SMEs during recession	[ "Performance", "SMEs", "Financial crisis", "Corporate governance", "Gambling" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Nowadays, gambling plays a relevant role in the overall travel and tourism industry. It has a significant impact on the gross domestic product (GDP) of many countries around the world (Li et al., 2010). In this regard, it is commonly argued that the gambling industry does not seem to have been influenced by the global financial crisis and continues to increase its turnover. Indeed, such industries as casino hotels have been regarded as \"recession-proof\", as gamblers increase their spending in difficult economic times compared with less turbulent times (Mikesell, 1994; Zheng et al., 2013).\n2. Literature review and hypothesis development: 2.1 Related literature and motivation for this study\n3. Methodology and results: 3.1 Research context: Italian gambling small and medium-sized enterprises\n4. Discussion and conclusion: 4.1 Conclusions\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study aims to explore how the economic recession and some corporate governance (CG) provisions can affect the performance of Italian gambling small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across different business segments.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study uses a panel sample of 2,135 observations before and during the global financial crisis. Specifically, the roles of ownership, boards of directors, chief executive officer gender and gambling business segments are investigated in the Italian gambling market.\nFindings: Ownership concentration has a negative relationship with the performance of foreigner- and financial-owned firms, while boards exert a positive role on performance. Interestingly, the financial crisis does not impact the performance of Italian gambling SMEs and some business segments, such as bingo, perform even better during the crisis.\nResearch limitations/implications: Further investigations should analyze the role of single games on firm performance. The consumer- and firm-level examinations offer very different perspectives and scholars should be aware of this when investigating the gambling industry.\nPractical implications: This study might help both policymakers and other gambling firms, such as casinos, to better understand which appropriate CG model should be adopted and how it can positively influence performance, especially in recessionary times.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to studies on hospitality and tourism by focusing on the complementary role of gambling SMEs with respect to casinos. It also increases knowledge on the role of CG in privately owned gambling firms, which thus far has been scantly investigated by scholars.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Income capitalisation method and hedonic model: an integrated approach	[ "Income capitalization method", "Hedonic model", "Hedonic prices", "Capitalization rate", "R21", "R31", "R32" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The capitalisation rate is one of the most important variables of real estate market, since it allows to convert the value of an owned home into a market rent and vice versa. Alternatively, the real estate value can be estimated with a hedonic model by applying the hedonic prices to the characteristics of the property[1]. Indeed, income capitalisation approach and hedonic model are the two methods usually used in the real estate appraisals (see e.g. Garner and Short, 2009). Precisely, \"property that is capable of generating rental income, and for which an investor represents the most likely purchaser, warrants use of the income capitalisation approach as the principal valuation model for ascertaining market value\" (Sevelka, 2004, p. 135). Instead, when an enough number of transactions (sale prices) is available, the hedonic approach is the most object method for estimating the market value of a property (see e.g. Eurostat, 2013). Indeed, \"market value is a concept in economic theory and cannot be observed directly. Sales prices provide the most objective estimates of market values and under normal circumstances should provide good indicators of market value\" (IAAO, 2013, p. 7).\n2. The theoretical model: In the basic model of income capitalisation, the house market value (V) is the present value of all the expected future cash flows (see e.g. Phillips, 1988; Wang et al., 1990; Appraisal Institute, 2001; Sevelka, 2004; Clayton and Glass, 2009):(1)\n3. The empirical analysis: To provide evidence for the theoretical model, we develop an empirical analysis.\n4. Conclusions: Income capitalisation approach and hedonic model are the two methods usually used in the real estate appraisals. Specifically, the income capitalisation approach is the principal valuation model for ascertaining market value when the property is capable of generating rental income and an investor represents the most likely purchaser. Instead, when an enough number of transactions (sale prices) is available, the hedonic approach is the most object method for estimating the market value of a property. As a result, the real estate literature considers the hedonic model and the income capitalisation approach as two separate and alternative methods.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide an integrated approach that combines the two methods usually used in the real estate appraisals, namely, the income capitalisation method and the hedonic model.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In order to pull out the link between the income capitalisation approach and the hedonic model, the standard hedonic price function is introduced into the basic model of income capitalisation instead of the house market value. It follows that, from the partial derivative, a direct relation between hedonic prices and discount rate can be obtained. Finally, by using the close relationship between income capitalisation and direct capitalisation, a mathematical relation between hedonic prices and capitalisation rate is also obtained.\nFindings: The developed method allows to estimate the capitalisation rate using only hedonic prices. Indeed, selling and hedonic prices incorporate all of the information required to correctly estimate the capitalisation rate. Furthermore, given the close relation among going-in and going-out capitalisation rates and discount rate, the proposed method could also be useful for determining both the going-out capitalisation rate and the discount rate.\nPractical implications: Obviously, it is always preferable to estimate the capitalisation rate by just using comparable transactional data. Nevertheless, the method developed in this paper is especially useful when: the rental income data are missing and/or not entirely reliable; the data on rental income and house price are related to different homes; the capitalisation rate, in fact, should compare the rent and value of identical homes. In these cases, therefore, the method can be a valuable alternative to direct estimation.\nOriginality/value: The large and important literature on real estate economics and real estate appraisal neglects the relationship between hedonic prices and capitalisation rate, thus considering the hedonic model and the income capitalisation approach as two separate and alternative methods. This paper, instead, shows that integration is possible and relatively simple.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Using health information technology to manage a patient population in accountable care organizations	[ "Medicare", "Healthcare reform", "Accountable care", "Delivery of healthcare", "Health information technology" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Supporters of the accountable care organization (ACO) model anticipated that a diverse array of organizations might participate in such a delivery and payment reform since it does not require the level of financial and structural integration of fully integrated delivery systems (Fisher et al., 2007; Fisher and Shortell, 2010; Shortell and Casalino, 2008). Provider organizations that were willing to take on financial and clinical responsibility for a defined population of patients were not required to possess a high degree of hospital integration or long standing experience with managing risk. Instead, program regulations under the Affordable Care Act for the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP), which serves as a model for ACOs, were relatively broad and specified the types of provider groups eligible for inclusion and required that the ACO establish a governing body; be responsible for routine self-assessment, monitoring, and reporting of care; include at least 5,000 Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries; and apply for acceptance in the MSSP (Department of Health and Human Services, 2011).\nMethods: Survey data\nResults: Survey results\nDiscussion: In this study we examine the HIT capabilities of existing ACOs, their strategy for further development of their HIT infrastructure, and examples of how HIT capabilities are used to improve outcomes and promote population management. We found that while there are a number of ACOs with advanced HIT capabilities, these early ACOs vary widely in their EHR, data integration, and analytic capabilities. In our interviews, we also found that HIT systems varied widely. The clinical systems of some ACOs were completely integrated; a couple of others had a single system for the majority but not all of their physicians, and some faced the challenge due to having several disparate systems. Even among those with fully integrated EHRs, some respondents did not have access to inpatient data for their ACO members and yet others had not fully developed the functionality built-in to such large investments. ACOs realize the necessity for robust data analytics, yet the ACOs we spoke to have gone about this differently - some have achieved integration and reporting through a data warehouse and, yet, others have sought vendor-sponsored systems to meet their needs. It is clear that there are many paths leading toward the same destination.\nImplications: Though our study focusses on HIT capabilities of the earliest ACOs, it is clear that all ACOs are challenged with the development of relatively sophisticated HIT infrastructure. These organizations are highly incentivized, but may need additional help to develop their HIT, whether it is for health information exchange with other providers or to utilize data from various sources to understand clinical and financial aspects of patient care. Recent studies of office-based physicians found that practice organization and ownership were strongly associated with whether or not a physician had adopted a basic EHR (Hsiao et al., 2013; Furukawa et al., 2014). Physicians in larger organizations and those owned by a hospital or academic medical center had a higher rate of adoption. Given that smaller physician practices constitute one of three specific types of ACOs comprising 40 percent of early ACOs (Shortell et al., 2014), and that 40 percent of early ACOs report being physician-owned (Colla et al., 2014), it is important to determine the various types and levels of support or resources these particular organizations may need.\nConclusion: In this study, new survey data paired with interview data were used to understand the extent of existing HIT capabilities within early ACOs and to understand how ACOs are strategically using and developing their HIT infrastructure. For the most common capabilities, about half of the study ACOs reported possessing complete or near complete ability. These capabilities include drug interaction checks, problem lists, and coded clinical lab results within the EHR. While some ACOs have sophisticated ability to incorporate EHR systems in their clinical workflows and share information across providers, we also find that ACOs are just learning how to use other HIT systems to provide better care in terms of quality and efficiency. Many of the ACOs we spoke to leveraged various data sources to identify various patient subpopulations that may require additional support.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the current landscape of health information technology (HIT) in early accountable care organizations (ACOs), the different strategies ACOs are using to develop HIT-based capabilities, and how ACOs are using these capabilities within their care management processes to advance health outcomes for their patient population.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Mixed methods study pairing data from a cross-sectional National Survey of ACOs with in-depth, semi-structured interviews with leaders from 11 ACOs (both completed in 2013).\nFindings: Early ACOs vary widely in their electronic health record, data integration, and analytic capabilities. The most common HIT capability was drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction checks, with 53.2 percent of respondents reporting that the ACO possessed the capability to a high degree. Outpatient and inpatient data integration was the least common HIT capability (8.1 percent). In the interviews, ACO leaders commented on different HIT development strategies to gain a more comprehensive picture of patient needs and service utilization. ACOs realize the necessity for robust data analytics, and are exploring a variety of approaches to achieve it.\nResearch limitations/implications: Data are self-reported. The qualitative portion was based on interviews with 11 ACOs, limiting generalizability to the universe of ACOs but allowing for a range of responses.\nPractical implications: ACOs are challenged with the development of sophisticated HIT infrastructure. They may benefit from targeted assistance and incentives to implement health information exchanges with other providers to promote more coordinated care management for their patient population.\nOriginality/value: Using new empirical data, this study increases understanding of the extent of ACOs' current and developing HIT capabilities to support ongoing care management.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Contextualising migrant black business women ' s work-life balance experiences	[ "Women", "Black people", "Small businesses", "Entrepreneurialism", "Work-life balance", "Gender", "Migrant entrepreneurs", "Law", "Hairdressing", "Quality of working life", "Family life" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Employing an intersectional feminist lens and a multi-level analysis, this paper draws on the narratives of women business owners in the hairdressing and legal sectors to contextualise the work-life balance experiences of black migrant women in the cultural, institutional and individual levels of social action. Many women embark on business ownership to counter the obstacles to career development that they perceive in paid employment, such as barriers to promotion, the pay gap, long working hours and an inability to achieve work-life balance (Winn, 2004; Bridge et al., 2008). However, it is now clear that although entrepreneurship provides women with the opportunities to combine market and non-market work, it does not necessarily shield them from the inequitable and sometimes discriminatory effects of wider social structures. For example, entry into self-employment does not negate the fact that women bear the primary burden of domestic responsibilities, neither does it necessarily lessen the burden (Ahl, 2004).\nWork-life interface, gender and entrepreneurship: An entrepreneurial career can be highly stressful, and balancing the needs of the family and the business is not easy (Dyer and Handler, 1994), particularly when working in a very competitive environment such as black hairdressing and the arenas of law that are less lucrative (e.g. immigration, residential conveyancing), where black women are concentrated (Forson, 2007b). Combining work and family life has been seen as a source of conflict for entrepreneurs (male and female) and \"marital conflict, neglect of children, and divorce can all be outcomes if work-family issues are not managed well by the entrepreneur\" (Dyer and Handler, 1994, p. 74). Entrepreneurs also experience higher levels of work-family conflict and lower levels of family satisfaction than employees (Robinson and Sexton, 1994).\nMethodology: The primary source of information for this paper is the semi-structured interview narratives and observation evidence of 29 (20 hairdressers and 9 lawyers) black migrant female business owners in London. The data were drawn from that of a larger study of 50 black (African and Caribbean) female business owners in the legal and hairdressing sectors. The study sought to examine how black women\nFindings: The findings are organised around a range of interrelated dimensions within which domesticity and work confront each other. These are cultural dimensions with respect to family and feminine ideologies at the societal level; structural dimensions in relation to family structures and sectoral processes, and finally, action dimensions regarding individual women\nConclusions: In the context of two very different labour market sectors - law and hairdressing - the aim of this paper was to demonstrate the utility of applying Evett\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Employing a feminist relational lens, the purpose of this paper is to explore the work-life balance experiences of black migrant women entrepreneurs, examining the relationship between macro, meso and micro levels of business activity. The paper examines the obstacles raised and opportunities enabled by the confrontation and negotiation between the private and public space.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Qualitative methods are used and the paper draws on semi-structured in-depth interviews with 29 black women business owners in the legal and black hairdressing sectors in London. The analysis of the paper is informed by a relational approach that recognises the embedded nature of business activity in differing levels of social action.\nFindings: The analysis reveals that ability of the women in the study to manage their work-life balance was shaped by power relations and social interactions between and within cultural, structural and agentic dimensions of small business ownership.\nOriginality/value: This paper contributes to the literature on business and entrepreneurial behaviour of women by embedding work-life balance experiences of black migrant women in context of relations between and within macro, meso and micro levels. It conceptualises the behaviour of the women in the study in terms of confrontations, negotiations and dialogue between notions of motherhood, femininity, family and entrepreneurship at the societal, institutional and individual levels. In so doing the paper expands the literature on minority entrepreneurship and underscores the interconnected nature of these three levels to produce unique experiences for individual migrant women.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
How women and men business owners perceive success	[ "Gender", "Success", "Business owners" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Success is broadly defined as \"the accomplishment of one's goals\" (\nLiterature review: Prior to focussing this literature review on success factors specifically, it is useful to first consider some background research, particularly how women come to be entrepreneurs. The number of women entrepreneurs is growing globally, with an estimated 126 million starting new businesses, and a further 98 million running established businesses (Kelley et al., 2013). However, women still participate less than men in entrepreneurship in most parts of the world (Kelley et al., 2013; Marlow et al., 2009; Singer et al., 2015). While the focus is on increasing the participation of women in entrepreneurship, a recent study suggests we should be concentrating on ensuring better (emphasis in original) levels of representation rather than merely focussing on increasing numbers (Thebaud, 2015).\nMethodology: Data collection\nFindings: Demographics of the businesses in this study are first presented in Table I. The sample can be seen as representative of businesses in New Zealand, in terms of size of the business (97 percent of New Zealand businesses employ fewer than 20 staff), industry (a heavily service sector based), and almost identical to New Zealand's businesses in terms of gender composition (35 percent of this sample were women, compared to 38 percent in New Zealand overall) (Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment, 2014). There are some differences in the women and men's businesses - particularly around the size of the business in terms of employees and sales turnover, consistent with the results of the literature review. The age of the business owners differed by gender. Men were older than women participants in this sample, and there is an increasing trend toward people aged 50 and over in business in New Zealand (Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment, 2014). Each of the four main themes around success factors is discussed next.\nDiscussion: Results showed that financial success was the highest occurring success criteria for the respondents. Both women and men were describing similar things in this category - financial stability, profit, and paying the bills. These results parallel earlier findings of women business owners who assess success in financial terms (Lee-Gosselin and Grise, 1990). While the numbers of women noting financial success factors was higher than men's these were not statistically significant gender differences. These results are the opposite to early studies which found male managers and the self-employed consider monetary factors more important success criteria than women (Dyke and Murphy, 2006). When viewing these results compared with the motivations for becoming a business owner in Table I, it may be concluded that women are less motivated to go into business ownership for monetary gain/profit, but once they are in business, they do see these factors as success criteria. This may be related to earlier findings that expectations of what people want from the business can change once the business is established (Anna et al., 1999).\nImplications for research, policy, and practice: There are implications for researchers, policy makers, business advisors, and business owners from these results. The results may point toward a narrowing of the definitions of success of women and men business owners, but they may equally point to the weaknesses and limitations of prior research in the field. Few previous studies have used self-perceived definitions of success and therefore ask business owners about such things as innovation, growth, and so forth. As noted in the current study, if you ask business owners about their growth aspirations, almost all say they have aspirations to grow their business(es). However, when you ask them about success in their own words, only a very small number will mention growth in their answer. A study of business growth suggested a similar notion, whereby participants may have a sense that they are \"supposed\" to say growth is a goal, as that may be what they think the researcher wants to hear (Achtenhagen et al., 2010).\nConclusion: In returning to the two research questions that were the focus of this study, the results indicated that success criteria are varied among business owners, with 30 main types of success factors being identified. Granted, most business owners described four key success factors, and the results focus around explaining them, but it should be noted that many other factors were not detailed here in any depth. These were success criteria such as freedom, helping the community, having a challenge, exiting the business, fueling the economy, having a good reputation, gaining recognition, and overcoming the sceptics. While these occurred fewer times in the business owners' accounts when describing success, this does not mean they are not important to other business owners. Therefore, these findings suggest that questionnaires including lists of success factors may need to be more extensive than many have used previously, or participants should be asked such questions in an open-ended fashion or via interview techniques.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Women and men business owners are often thought to have different success criteria for their businesses, but there is little empirical research to support this. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nature of self-defined success factors, and to compare women and men's success criteria.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study surveyed 216 New Zealand business owners' (78 women, 138 men) self-perceived success criteria for their businesses. Results are based primarily on an open-ended question on their interpretation of what success means to them. In total, 30 main categories of success factors were identified, and the four main factors analyzed in depth.\nFindings: The four most frequently occurring success factors were financial success, personal satisfaction, work-life/work-family balance, and satisfied stakeholders. Women and men business owners described very similar success criteria, which were balanced across financial success and personal and relationship factors. No statistically significant gender differences were found in the incidence of these success factors, suggesting a movement of male business owners to a more holistic view of business success that incorporates financial success, alongside personal and relationship aspects.\nResearch limitations/implications: Offers implications for researchers, policy makers, and practitioners. Highlights the need to be careful when designing research studies in multi-faceted areas such as business success, and also in gender comparative studies.\nOriginality/value: Uses self-perceived success criteria to assess gender differences.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Time-varying beta during the 2008 financial crisis - evidence from North America and Western Europe	[ "GARCH", "Subprime crisis", "BEKK model", "Time-varying beta" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Several previous studies analyze separately the \"Subprime crisis\" and the \"Sovereign debt crisis\". Other papers provide evidence on the linkage between the subprime crisis and the sovereign debt crisis (Fontaine, 2014; Ureche-Rangau and Burietz, 2013).\n2. Econometric methodology: 2.1 Bivariate model of MA-GARCH\n3. Data sources: Various theoretical and empirical studies analyze the linkage between the Subprime crisis and the Sovereign debt crisis. In light of these studies, we choose two North American countries (USA and Canada) and two Western European countries (France and Germany) to analyze the impact of the Subprime crisis on these markets. The choice of these markets is also based on their geographic proximity by couple and their economic positions in their respective continents. Moreover, several papers show the existence of a pronounced contagion effect between the stock markets of the USA and developed countries (Syllignakis and Kouretas, 2011). They show that the contagion effect varies over markets, and it is more pronounced for developed markets.\n4. Empirical results and policy implications: Tables V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI and XII present the BEKK bivariate MA-GARCH (1,1) results for the American, Canadian, French and German Markets, respectively. The bivariate GARCH results are quite standard. The ARCH coefficients (a11 and a22) for the American firms are all positive and significant, implying volatility clustering in both the firms' return and the market return. However, these coefficients are not significant for the Canadian firm WELLS FARGO & CO and for the French firm ALSTOM according to local index and VORNADO REALTY TST according to world index. This implies that there is no negative effect of past information on the share prices of these companies.\n5. Conclusion: This paper examines the impact of the \"subprime crisis\" on the time-varying beta for a sample of US, Canadian, French and German firms. Using bivariate GARCH model of Engel and Kroner (1995), we computed daily betas for each company of the sample over the whole study period. Our empirical analysis shows that historical volatility allows to predict the future volatility for some companies. The presence of an autocorrelation between terms of errors is an informational source to understand the risk in the markets. We also report an increase in the risk premium and the beta for the period of crisis, and this for all the sectors except food producers. In addition, the use of dummy variables allows us to capture an effect of additional volatility linked to the crisis. Our results show that US and Canadian companies show an effect of the crisis observable over the period crisis/post-crisis to all selected sectors, and this according to the world market index and local market index, with the exception of Canadian companies in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to analyze the impact of the global financial crisis on the conditional beta in the region of North America and Western Europe and the effect on the behavior and decisions of the investor.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors model the variations of volatility in financial markets during crisis using the bivariate GARCH model of Engle and Kroner (1995).\nFindings: The empirical investigation identifies an additional effect of the crisis over the period of the test. Results indicate a rise in the beta in some cases and a fall in others. This rise had a direct impact on the systematic beta risk, which increased for the majority of the companies during the crisis period. The increase in beta during the crisis period has an effect on the behavior of the investor and his decisions.\nResearch limitations/implications: The increase in the beta during the period of crisis due to a high volatility returns has an effect on the behavior and decisions of the investor.\nOriginality/value: This paper examines the effects of the \"subprime crisis\" on the risk premium of companies in several sectors of activity.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Leveraging utilitarian perspective of online shopping to motivate online shoppers	[ "India", "Online shopping", "Shopping motivation", "EFA and CFA", "Utilitarian motivation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Motivation has always been a central issue in the research of marketing, psychology and consumer behaviour. Shopping motivation is a major concern for marketers and retailers. While investigating online shopping pattern, utilitarian motivation is a driving force for customers to shop online. Westbrook and Black (1985) defined motivation as \"forces instigating behaviour to satisfy intense need states\". Motivations are an important element among the aspects which define people's behaviours. Since online retailing is growing its share in overall India retail market, shopping motivation or motivation factors towards mediation of shopping are also varying. However, plenty of research has been conducted on shopping motivation in traditional marketing context, using partial and complete approaches. There are two large categories of motivations: utilitarian and hedonic (Babin et al., 1994).\nLiterature review: Shopping motivation and online shopping\nResearch methodology: Participant's demographic profile and procedures\nData analysis and results: EFA\nDiscussion: Beyond other investigated predictors, information available, accessibility, product availability, searchability and convenience are strong motivation factors towards online shopping. This study explores five utilitarian motivation factors, namely, information available, accessibility, product availability, searchability and convenience to be important factors that affect online shopping in India. The most contributing factor in this study is information available. Information is the most important aspect of any decision-making process, whether it is engaging the customers in browsing or force them to buy the product or service. Availability of adequate information on a website (Close and Kinney, 2010; Shim et al., 2001) may convert the browsing into buying. The information related to company and product is important to customers (Kaur and Quareshi, 2015) and for customer support services. Moreover, it enables the shoppers to gather information about products without the necessity of placing the items of interest (Close and Kinney, 2010). Additionally, clearly stated information about warranty & guarantee or product return on website motivates customer towards online shopping (Upadhyay and Kaur, 2013). The second factor, i.e. accessibility, found in the study of Suki (2001), Wolfinbarger and Gilly (2001) and Rishi (2010), revealed that Indian internet user can access product at any time (24 hoursx7 days), seeks wider information about the product and also needs fast and latest information. Indian shoppers consider online shopping as a cheaper source to access the products sold by the e-retailers globally. Without the constraints of location, the consumer can access wider market and varieties of products. Customer can shop at different locations and in 24x7 hours format (Monsuwe et al., 2004; Yoon, 2002). Next factor is \"product availability\" that accounts for 10.672 per cent variance. A product that is not available in the local market but available online motivates customers to shop online (Liu et al., 2013). The factors like availability of product with more variety, clearly stated payment options and detailed information increase the confidence of shoppers on a shopping site. Online shopping portals usually display information about product price with or without offers, discount if available, cash on delivery, options of partial payment or equated monthly instalment (EMI) facility. The fourth explored factor is \"searchability\". Searchability engages the customer on shopping website for a long time if their desired requirement is available (e.g. detailed customised information about product). Shoppers may gain the ability to search a product and to gather detailed information without taking up the sales person's time and involvement. Shoppers choose shopping online as it is a reasonable source which includes product-related information. Like Wolfinbarger and Gilly (2001), Martinez-Lopez et al. (2014) and Suki (2001), this study also confirmed that convenience motive is an important utilitarian motive in online shopping for Indian shoppers. As there is neither hassle of queuing to counter for payment nor the existence of crowd like in conventional stores.\nManagerial implications and future research: The findings of this study predict strong implications for e-retailers. The website for E-retailing should be designed in such a way that it provides high utilitarian shopping values and greater perceived benefits to its customers. The purpose of this study is to further explore and validate the utilitarian perspective in the Indian context. Online customers are more utilitarian oriented (Overby and Lee, 2006; Liu and Forsythe, 2010) and this tendency is far more in frequent shoppers. In this study, it is confirmed that frequent online shoppers are more utilitarian oriented than the occasional visitors. By offering more utilitarian value, online retailers strengthen their claim to be the preferred shopping site. After breaking utilitarian factor into the sub factor, such as information available, accessibility, product availability, searchability and convenience, more insights about online shopping came out. Information, which is being considered a moderate factor, emerged as the prime factor in this study. Information whether related to product description or in the form of customer feedback gives an additional edge to the online shopping. The way of presenting information and information depth give a customer confidence to rely on E-commerce site. Visitors who came on site just to get information or to update themselves, if received appropriate information, the chances of their purchase and to revisit the site became high. Information available in the form of user-generated content, i.e. review, is another important dimension of information which makes customers buy, recommend and revisit. The success of the online channel largely depends on its distinctiveness as a platform for diffusion of information.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Shopping motivation has been extensively explored in traditional marketing context but less in online shopping. Utilitarian attribute of online shopping is one of the success factors of e-retailing. The purpose of this paper is to explore the utilitarian shopping motivation in online shopping and validate these factors through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in the Indian context.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The data were collected from the 183 regular online shoppers. The collected data were analysed through exploratory factor analysis and CFA using Amos 22 version.\nFindings: This paper explored the utilitarian shopping motivation of online shopping into five factors, i.e. information availability, accessibility, searchability, product availability and convenience.\nResearch limitations/implications: The research is conducted on online shoppers to measure their utilitarian motives of shopping online. Further research may be conducted to investigate other motives of online shopping. The sample is taken from Central India which is not enough to generalise the findings. Research may be conducted in other regions and on different segment of respondents to know the impact of geographical variance on utilitarian perspectives of online shoppers.\nOriginality/value: This paper addresses a significant input in online retailing platform, and it will contribute to the theory of shopping motivations in online shopping context and provide valuable inputs for developing online marketing strategies. The findings of the study also aid to retail practitioners in analysing retailing's current transformation due to digitalization.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Differential impact of short-term and long-term group incentives	[ "Psychological ownership", "Organizational commitment", "Gainsharing", "Employee ownership", "Compensation", "Profit sharing" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Given the prevalence of team or group-based work structures in organizations, a body of research has found that group incentives are positively related to organizational performance (Ladley et al., 2015; O'Boyle et al., 2016; Park and Kruse, 2013) as well as diverse outcomes at the individual level (Garbers and Konradt, 2014; Gerhart et al., 2009), including organizational commitment, job satisfaction, peer monitoring, retention and organizational citizenship behavior (Chiu and Tsai, 2007; Klein, 1987). However, apart from a few studies (e.g. Kim et al., 2017), previous research has mostly examined single group incentive plans. This conventional approach is problematic, given that representative data on the US working population from the General Social Survey 2006 indicated that almost half (47 percent) of US employees participated in some form of group incentives (i.e. profit sharing, gainsharing, employee ownership and stock options) and approximately 4-5 percent of employees engaged in two or more forms of these group incentives (Kruse et al., 2010: Table 1.1, p. 47). A unitary index approach is also problematic, because different forms of group incentives may have different effects on workplace outcomes due to their unique mechanisms to generate economic and psychological effects (Cadsby et al., 2007; Peterson and Luthans, 2006; Stajkovic and Luthans, 1997, 2001). Consequently, it is worthwhile to examine the unique (i.e. specific links between particular group incentives and particular work outcomes) and relative (i.e. stronger or weaker relationships between certain group incentives and certain work outcomes compared to other plans) effects of various group incentives on work outcomes.\nDistinguishing between group incentives: Various types of group incentives have emerged with a common goal of promoting collective performance (Gerhart et al., 2009), although with unique approaches to implementation. Profit sharing, gainsharing and stock ownership plans are prevailing schemes used in organizations (Kruse et al., 2010). Profit sharing and gainsharing are annual cash bonus plans based on organizations' excess profits and saved costs, respectively. Employee ownership plans allow employees to own stock, so that their financial benefits from the plans hinge on organizational performance. The Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) and Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) are the most popular forms of employee ownership. In an ESOP, employees receive cash to buy company stock or the company stock typically without buying the stock with their wages or savings. An ESPP provides employees with opportunities to purchase their organizations' stock at a discounted price. Stock options give employees the right to buy company stock at a specific exercise price, typically the market price on the day the option was granted, for ten years and then to sell the stock and pocket the difference between the exercise and future prices. A 401(k) is a retirement savings plan in which some portion of employees' wages is invested in stocks or bonds, or directly saved in their accounts for retirement. In many cases, employees also receive company grants of stock that match their purchases.\nThe effects of group incentives on employee attitudes: As Klein (1987) noted, group incentive plans promote work attitudes by benefitting employees through three psychological routes: instrumental (opportunities for financial participation), intrinsic (self-enhancement through organizational identification) and extrinsic (financial rewards) satisfactions. An incentive plan basically induces positive employee attitudes required to attain organizational goals (Jiang et al., 2012). Under group incentives, employees are allowed to participate in sharing financial gains resulting from their contributions to the achievement of their common goals (Gerhart et al., 2009; Kruse et al., 2010). Also, according to agency theory (Bartol and Locke, 2000; Eisenhardt, 1989), group incentives yield interest alignment between employers and employees (Pendleton and Robinson, 2011). Furthermore, expectancy theory (Vroom, 1964) suggests that employees have positive attitudes toward their jobs if their job performance is rewarded. In this vein, group incentives elicit positive attitudes in employees toward organizations by sending employees signals about the organizations' willingness to recognize and reward their work outcomes (Han et al., 2015; Park, 2012), particularly in a way that establishes a clearer line of sight between employee efforts, their performance and their rewards. Hence, we investigate why the intensive use of multiple STOGIs and LTOGIs is related to employee attitudes toward their organizations (i.e. psychological ownership of the organization and organizational commitment) and why those relationships depend on group incentive type. In addition, given that psychological ownership is an antecedent of organizational commitment (Van Dyne and Pierce, 2004), we examine whether STOGIs and LTOGIs are related to organizational commitment via psychological ownership.\nThe relative efficacy of group incentives: The remaining inquiry is whether there is variation in the psychological effects of STOGIs and LTOGIs. As Bowen and Ostroff asserted (2004, p. 206), HR \"practices can be viewed as a symbolic or signaling function by sending messages that employees use to make sense of and to define the psychological meaning of their work situation (e.g. Rousseau, 1995).\" In this regard, as STOGIs and LTOGIs are oriented toward different outcomes and implemented in different ways (i.e. cash bonuses and stocks), both practices are likely to send different messages that induce different meanings, decisions and actions. This idea has been generally supported in the executive compensation literature. For example, compensation plans linked to short-term accounting measures tend to force CEOs and senior managers to pursue external growth through external acquisitions, whereas compensation plans linked to long-term measures tend to encourage their engagement in internal growth through research and development (Hitt et al., 1996). Put differently, short-term practices (e.g. profit sharing and gainsharing) reward activities that aim to raise current profits and efficiency, but long-term practices (e.g. stock ownership) reward activities that raise stock prices, reflecting the future profitability of the company. Extending this research to group incentives and their individual outcomes, it follows that STOGIs and LTOGIs may have different impacts on employee work attitudes. Taking into account the foregone hypothesized direct and indirect relationships, we adopt the relative importance approach recommended by Johnson and LeBreton (2004), in which the relative efficacy of STOGIs and LTOGIs on psychological ownership and organizational commitment is examined by comparing the total (i.e. direct and indirect) effects of both sets on an attitudinal outcomes.\nMethod: Data\nResults: Using a CFA with LISREL 8.7 (Joreskog and Sorbom, 2004), we performed Harman's one-factor test to address common-method bias in our findings based on data collected from a single respondent. Absolute fit indexes of this CFA for a one-factor model (kh2=1,406.13, df=9, p<0.001; goodness-of-fit index (GFI)=0.97; adjusted goodness-of-fit index (AGFI)=0.94; comparative fit index (CFI)=0.92; incremental fit index (IFI)=0.92; root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA)=0.10) were far from the generally acceptable levels. On the contrary, our hypothesized four-factor model (i.e. STOGIs, LTOGIs, psychological ownership and organizational commitment) demonstrated acceptable levels of absolute fit indexes (kh2=169.93, df=6, p<0.001; GFI=1.00; AGFI=0.99; CFI=0.99; IFI=0.99; RMSEA=0.04). These results showed that the four constructs are distinguished and thereby common-method bias is not a serious concern in the findings of this study.\nDiscussion: This research revealed that each set of STOGIs and LTOGIs was positively related to psychological ownership and organizational commitment. Also, we found that psychological ownership mediated the positive linkages between the two sets of group incentives and organizational commitment. Finally, it was indicated that LTOGIs outperformed STOGIs in relation to psychological ownership, whereas STOGIs outperformed LTOGIs in relation to organizational commitment.\nConclusion: This research suggested the additive and differential effects of STOGIs and LTOGIs in relation to employee attitude. By analyzing a large-scale data set collected from employees working in diverse US firms, we revealed that both additive indices of group incentives have direct positive relationships with psychological ownership and organizational commitment, as well as indirect positive relationships with organizational commitment through psychological ownership. Furthermore, STOGIs and LTOGIs were found to have stronger relationships with organizational commitment and psychological ownership, respectively. In the end, we hope that these results help practitioners effectively implement different forms of group incentives within their organizations.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the additive and differential effects of short-term-oriented group incentives (STOGIs) and long-term-oriented group incentives (LTOGIs) on psychological ownership and organizational commitment.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study analyzed data from 17,255 US employees in the 2005 data set of the National Bureau of Economic Research Shared Capitalism Research.\nFindings: Both additive indices of group incentives have direct positive relationships with psychological ownership and organizational commitment, as well as indirect positive relationships with organizational commitment through psychological ownership. STOGIs have a stronger relationship with organizational commitment and LTOGIs have a stronger relationship with psychological ownership.\nOriginality/value: The value of this research lies in exploring the differential effects of short-and long-term group incentives, which provides new insight into the theory of group incentives and practical implications for their effective utilization.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Exploiting online environment to engage customers: social commerce brand community	[ "Brand community", "Web 2.0", "Social commerce", "Social commerce brand community", "Multiple case study" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Empowering customers to actively produce contents and influence brands, the growing usage of Web 2.0, and especially social media, has led to the emerging concepts of both social commerce and online brand communities. On the one hand, social commerce has enabled e-retailers to capture customers' buying behaviors, satisfying their shopping experiences and expectations with high quality products, insights and tools to support customers' decision-making process (Constantinides and Fountain, 2008; Hajli and Sims, 2015). In this way, successful e-retailers can predict market trends and maximize the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns (Constantinides et al., 2008; Turban et al., 2015), strengthen business relationships with customers, increase traffic to firms' websites, identify new business opportunities and support brands development (Michaelidou et al., 2011; Zhang and Benyoucef, 2016). On the other hand, online brand communities have enabled the establishment of social interactions and relationships not only between customers and brands but also, and more importantly, among peers, within a specialized and non-geographically bound community (Muniz and O'Guinn, 2001).\nLiterature review: Social presence theory and social support theory\nResearch design: The aim of the paper is to shed light on social commerce brand communities phenomenon and to understand its core pillars, essential to engage customers and transform them into brand advocates.\nFindings: The case analysis of the five social commerce brand communities reveals that they are the result of the integration of both social commerce and online brand community concepts. More in detail, it has emerged that social commerce brand community gives customers not only the opportunity to produce and share content, interact with brands and peers, build strong social relationships, and receive support but also allows customers to purchase their favorite brand within the same community. In fact, as suggested by a manager:\nDiscussion of findings: The objective of this study is to explore, from a managerial perspective, social commerce brand communities and their key dimensions necessary to engage customers and transform them into brand advocates (Figure 1). This study is the first to combine and extend the understanding of social commerce and online brand community, offering significant implications both theoretically and managerially.\nManagerial implications: The present study provides interesting insights useful to understand how brands can exploit social commerce brand communities to engage customers and transform them into brand advocates. Managers can take into account the following insights. First, with the emergence of social commerce brand community, managers should be aware of the importance of this new kind of community in enhancing customers' interactions with brands and with other peers, in supporting members, and, more importantly, in driving their decision-making process and buying behavior within the community itself. Investing in social commerce websites and in online brand communities' presence is no longer sufficient. E-retailers need to define and develop new business models that differ from those typical of e-commerce. Brands have to create a participatory environment for their customers, providing a new community experience and an innovative social space that enables customers to interact and buy products with the real-time support of other community members. To achieve such a result, firms have to recognize the importance of social commerce brand communities and to understand its five core pillars, namely, participants' identification, participation, conversation, social support and commerce. In this scenario, is vital for firms to define innovative solutions to create and continuously enlarge their social commerce brand communities. If participation appears to be fundamental to stimulate actual and potential members to take part in community activities, managers should be also aware that implementing the new idea to let participants identify their peers and their contribution within the community is essential to increase their willingness to be part of the community itself. However, this is not enough to develop a strong online relationship between the brands of its customers. Firms have to fully exploit the social commerce brand community potentiality, implementing and exploiting those features that allow to efficiently satisfy the instances coming from online customers. Doing so, firms not only attract an actual and potential customer to actively take part to the social commerce brand communities but also they can engage them alongside their whole journey, reinforcing the relationship with them and transforming them into loyal buyers. Second, this study shows that user-generated contents and social relationships are crucial aspects of the success of a social commerce brand community. Consequently, social commerce brand communities have to be designed adopting solutions that allow members to easily post their opinions and experience, and implementing features that facilitate the sharing of contents such as photos and videos. Doing so, firms not only keep their social commerce brand community vital and active but also stimulate members' curiosity about their products and services, and consequently, encourage them to use the \"commercial\" feature of their social commerce brand community. In this scenario, managers are required to be aware of the predominant role of user-generated content and social relationships in supporting community members in their buying behavior, and consequently, in boosting brand loyalty and brand advocacy. In this regard, managers have to foster participation, social interactions and social support among peers, facilitating the conversations between brands and customers, promoting the generation of peer-to-peer contents and simplifying its sharing within the social commerce brand community.\nConclusion and future research: This paper provides contributions to academic literature and managerial practice by investigating the social commerce brand community phenomenon and clarifying the five fundamental pillars needed to transform customers into brand advocates.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Taking jointly into account social commerce and online brand community, this paper aims to investigate how the growth of social commerce and the fast adoption of online brand communities have given firms the opportunity to establish a new kind of community, namely, the social commerce brand community. Adopting a managerial perspective, the research aims to identify the core dimensions of social commerce brand community and shed light on how they contribute in engaging customers and transform them into brand advocates.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Five social commerce retailers operating into five different sectors of activity have been involved in a multiple case study. Data retrieved from semi-structured interviews have been triangulated with information gathered from different sources to provide depth to the cases and enhance data validity.\nFindings: This study substantiates the rise of social commerce brand community as a new phenomenon that differs from traditional online brand communities and provides firms with concrete support in selling activities and in managing relationships with customers. The multiple case study allows also to detect social commerce brand community core pillars, namely, participants' identification, participation, conversation and social support. These four elements turned out to be crucial to develop an effective social commerce brand community.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study extends existing theory on social commerce and online brand community by investigating the social commerce brand community as a new phenomenon and clarifying the fundamental pillars on which it relies.\nOriginality/value: This study extends existing theory on social commerce and online brand community by investigating the social commerce brand community as a new phenomenon and clarifying the fundamental pillars on which it relies.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Supply chain integration, risk management and manufacturing flexibility	[ "Supply chain risk management", "Internal integration", "Manufacturing flexibility", "Asian manufacturing", "External integration" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: With ever more complex, international, and dynamic supply chains, the importance of risk management and supply chain integration is increasingly recognized in both practice and theory. This paper focuses on the interaction between supply chain integration, supply chain risk management (SCRM), and operations performance, in particular flexibility.\nLiterature review: Impact of supply chain integration on performance\nHypotheses: Internal integration and flexibility\nResearch design: Instrument and sample demographics\nAnalysis and results: In order to test the hypotheses, hierarchical regression analyses were conducted. Mean centered data for independent variables were used as recommended by Cohen et al. (2003), as this approach helps in minimizing multicollinearity (Parthasarthy and Hammond, 2002). The results are shown in Table VI.\nDiscussion: This study provides a number of valuable insights into the direct and interactive effects of internal integration, EI, and SCRM on manufacturing flexibility. While the role of internal and EI has been relatively widely researched (Vereecke and Muylle, 2006; Devaraj et al., 2007; Braunscheidel and Suresh, 2009; Wong et al., 2011), conflicting results on the association of integration with flexibility have been reported (Flynn et al., 2010; Mackelprang et al., 2014). Moreover, the possible direct effects of SCRM on flexibility, and the moderating effects of SCRM on the relationships between internal and EI, respectively, and flexibility performance are not well understood either.\nConclusion: Contribution to theory\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of internal integration, external integration (EI), and supply chain risk management (SCRM) on manufacturing flexibility, and the moderating effect of SCRM on the relationships between internal and EI, respectively, and manufacturing flexibility.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using hierarchical regression, data are analyzed from a sample of 343 manufacturing plants in Asia collected in 2013-2014 as part of the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (IMSS VI).\nFindings: Internal integration and SCRM have a direct effect on manufacturing flexibility. SCRM moderates the relationship between EI and flexibility.\nResearch limitations/implications: Further research is needed to generalize beyond the flexibility performance of discrete manufacturing firms in Asia.\nPractical implications: To benefit from EI and increase their flexibility performance, manufacturing firms need to implement different mechanisms of SCRM to prevent and deal with supply chain risks including those associated with supply chain integration.\nOriginality/value: This research contributes to the body of knowledge on the relationships between internal integration, EI, SCRM, and manufacturing flexibility.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
An assessment of strategic corporate philanthropy on perceptions of brand equity variables	[ "Corporate strategy", "Philanthropy", "Brands", "Experimentation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Corporate philanthropy, where a corporation donates a portion of its resources to a societal cause, has been an important part of American business for over a century. An examination of the amount of funds donated underscores the importance today's corporations place on philanthropic activity. For example, during the 1990s the Avon Corporation donated $22 million to breast cancer awareness and American Express donated $20 million to hunger relief and prevention. Also, during the 1990s, scandals at Texaco (e.g. allegations of racial discrimination and insensitivity) and Mitsubishi Motors (e.g. allegations of gender discrimination and sexual harassment) may have prompted these companies to donate funds to offset the heightened awareness of discriminatory practices. Thus, companies' ability to enhance their image and thwart negative publicity can be a reasonable goal of philanthropy.As highlighted by the examples above, objectives for corporate giving range from altruistic to strategic. In fact, organizations are increasingly attempting to tie their philanthropic activity to corporate strategy (Porter and Kramer, 2002; McAlister and Ferrell, 2002). However, according to Porter and Kramer (2002):What most organizations are describing as \"strategic philanthropy\" is not strategic at all. The implication of the strategic label in corporate giving is that there is some connection to corporate objectives, but those connections are often loose and vague, if they are connected at all.Some of the objectives for corporate philanthropy that are clearly tied to marketing include: increasing visibility, enhancing corporate image, and thwarting negative publicity. However, the literature is mixed on the effects that corporate philanthropy has on a firm's performance (Griffin and Mahon, 1997), and there is scant research as to how consumers perceive and react to corporate philanthropy, whatever its organizational intent.As such, the purpose of this study is to examine the effects of philanthropic activity on consumer perceptions of firms and the brands they market. Two objectives are addressed:1. To present a classification schema for corporate philanthropy to assist with managerial decision making and to serve as a framework for this study as well as other empirical investigations.2. To present the results of two experiments examining the effects of different types and implementation strategies of philanthropy on consumer perceptions.The first experiment examines the perceptions of African-Americans versus other ethnic groups based on philanthropic activity directed toward African-Americans versus the general population. These perceptions are also examined in the context of a crisis (after a firm has been found to be discriminatory toward African-Americans) versus a good will gesture. The second experiment provides a closer examination of philanthropic activity in the crisis context by replicating the crisis conditions from the first experiment with modified experimental manipulations based on the results of that study. Finally, a discussion of the managerial implications and suggestions for future research are offered.\nClassifications of strategic corporate philanthropy: Sanchez (2000, p. 364) cites Wartick and Wood (1998) when defining philanthropy as:A discretionary responsibility of a firm involving choosing how it will voluntarily allocate its slack resources to charitable or social service activities that are not business related and for which there are no clear social expectations as to how the firm should perform.For this study a modified version of this definition is used, where the phrase \"that are not business related\" is removed. This deletion is important, because it allows for cause-related marketing and other philanthropic activity that are used as an option to meet strategic marketing related objectives to classify as philanthropy. Cause-related marketing is a tie-in between corporate philanthropy and sales promotion whereby a firm designates a specified amount to a cause when customers engage in revenue providing exchanges (Varadarajan and Menon, 1988). Cause-related marketing is by definition tied to business related activities, yet it is still a philanthropic activity in which the firm donates money to a charitable cause. The word \"slack\" is also removed because support for cause-related marketing and other strategic philanthropic activities may come directly from marketing budgets and not through corporate foundations. For this study, strategic corporate philanthropy is defined as \"a discretionary responsibility of a firm that involves choosing how it will voluntarily allocate resources to charitable or social service activities in order to reach marketing and other business related objectives for which there are no clear social expectations as to how the firm should perform.\" To aid further empirical research and strategic managerial decision making, a 2 x 2 classification schema of strategic corporate philanthropy, with two functional categories (directed and general) and two kinds of strategic implementation (reactive and proactive), is presented (see Table I).At the most basic level it would appear that corporations' philanthropic activity may be \"directed\" or \"general.\" General philanthropy, as demonstrated by the American Express example, is defined as philanthropic activity that does not benefit a particular segment that the company is likely to target for business or wants to associate with for strategic reasons (i.e. as a response to a negative event). This is an important distinction because in the American Express example, \"the malnourished population\" is a specific identifiable group. However, because of the nature of the business of American Express, it is highly unlikely that the company would target the malnourished population for business.On the other hand, if American Express had been aware of or received allegations that corporate officers were insensitive to the hungry, this could be an example of directed philanthropy. Directed philanthropy is philanthropic activity that benefits a specific segment that an organization is likely to target for business, or a segment that the company wants to associate with for strategic reasons other than to be perceived as a good corporate citizen. An illustration of directed corporate philanthropy is Avon's focus on breast cancer awareness. In this example Avon's philanthropic activity generally benefits its primary market, women.At a second level the above mentioned examples of strategic corporate philanthropy could be a part of a corporate strategy that is \"proactive\" or \"reactive.\" Proactive philanthropy is defined as philanthropic activity that is designed to increase visibility or enhance corporate image and is not in response to an event that pressures the company to respond. For example, if a new group of stockholders feels that a firm should be more concerned with environmental issues, and the firm responds by donating to environmental causes, this would be classified as proactive philanthropy. Proactive philanthropy does not occur due to any obvious environmental event or social mishap (e.g. Exxon Valdez incident) that pressures the organization to react by directing more philanthropic activity toward environmental/social issues. Those types of philanthropic activities are examples of \"reactive\" philanthropy, which is defined as philanthropic activity that is designed to increase visibility or enhance corporate image that is in response to a negative event. Dawar and Pilluta (2000) suggest that corporate responses to product-harm crises move along a continuum from unambiguous support (e.g. the Johnson and Johnson's Tylenol crisis) to unambiguous stonewalling (e.g. the Exxon Valdez). Unambiguous support consists of assumption of responsibility, an apology, and some form of remedy. Particularly in non-product related cases, philanthropy could be used as a form of remedy to accompany the assumption of responsibility and apology. The next section further elaborates upon the 2 x 2 philanthropic framework and outlines the theoretical conceptualization for the first study.\nConsumer perceptions of strategic corporate philanthropy: Overall, consumers should have a positive view of proactive corporate philanthropic activity. There are a number of studies that demonstrate that corporate image affects consumer perceptions of products. Keller and Aaker (1995) found that corporate image has a direct effect on perceptions of product quality. Brown and Dacin (1997) found that corporate associations, which include corporate ability and corporate social responsibility, affected product evaluations through corporate evaluations. Netemeyer et al. (2001) determined that the organizational association of being a \"good corporate citizen\" is related to willingness to pay a price premium for a brand and brand purchase. Additionally, Sen and Bhattachary (2001) reported that corporate social responsibility may effect customer purchase intentions[1]. The afore cited studies suggest an overall positive consumer attitude toward companies associating themselves with causes that benefit society, and companies using their resources to benefit society is clearly related to the concept of corporate philanthropy.Theoretical overview and hypotheses\nBrand identification pretest: Athletic shoes were chosen as the product category due to their extensive use in the consumer research literature and relevance to a college student sample (Netemeyer et al., 2001; Ahluwalia, 2000; Ahluwalia and Gurhan-Canli, 2000; Costley and Brucks, 1992; Kirmani, 1990). To identify a brand with equal quality ratings across groups, a pretest was conducted using six different brands of athletic shoes. Respondents were asked to rate the degree they perceived each brand as a low or high quality brand on a seven-point scale. All the brands and their mean scores are listed in Table II. Perceived quality was chosen as the dependent variable because it is the primary construct in the brand evaluation scale. Of the six brands of athletic shoes, the means for two of the six brands were not significantly different between the targeted (African Americans) and non-targeted (other ethnics groups) groups.The means for Converse were closest to the midpoint of the scale, and thus Converse was selected for the study's experimental manipulations.\nStudy 1: Overview\nStudy 2: Overview\nManagerial implications: Three key managerial implications follow from the results of these studies. First, traditional philanthropy may be effective for corporate or brand image objectives, but ineffective for brand evaluation and purchase objectives. This suggests that philanthropy is a viable strategic option for brand managers looking to create positive affect toward their brand, but if the manager's intention is to impact sales, cause related marketing would be a better alternative. A second important finding is that philanthropy directed toward a particular segment also has a positive effect on consumers beyond that segment. This gives brand managers some options to contribute to overall brand image while targeting a specific segment. Finally, philanthropy as a part of a recovery strategy appears to have a consistent but marginal effect on consumer perceptions of brand equity variables. This seems to suggest that in cases in which the objective is simply to thwart negative publicity, reactive philanthropy may not be a viable strategic option for brand managers. However, if the objectives include creating relationships with and influencing important stakeholders (e.g. policy makers or opinion leaders within a particular segment), the marginal increase in consumer perceptions may provide an added value. Additionally, using philanthropy to influence a key stakeholder can be a strategic objective in itself. For example, PepsiCo and Island Def Jam founder Russell Simmons had a disagreement over Pepsi's cancellation of ads featuring Def Jam artist Ludacris, following complaints regarding profane lyrics in his songs. Simmons' position was that such a move was hypocritical since Pepsi was airing ads featuring Ozzy Osbourne, whose heavy metal lyrics were just as profane and threatened to call for a boycott of PepsiCo. As part of resolving this matter, Pepsi agreed to donate millions of dollars to a number of urban charities and PepsiCo and Def Jam are doing projects together again (Hein, 2003).\nResearch limitations: One important limitation of this study was timing. In these manipulations respondents received the response at the same time as they read about the crisis. This generally would not happen in actual situations. A second limitation is the lack of control or manipulation for history between the company and the target segment in the directed philanthropy conditions. Exposure to previous philanthropic activity may moderate the relationships found in this study. Finally, as with any using scenario manipulations, is the good subjects phenomenon, in which subjects determine the purpose of the study and answer in a way they believe the researcher want them to. However, given the lack of results on a number of hypotheses, it appears unlikely that this was the case.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This study aims to develop a classification schema for strategic philanthropy as a framework for empirical investigation and managerial decision making. Additionally it aims to present experimental assessments of various types of philanthropy based on the classification schema.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This study presents the results of two experiments examining the effects of different types and implementation strategies of philanthropy on consumer perceptions of brand equity variables.\nFindings: - The experiments suggest that in a proactive condition corporate philanthropy does have an overall positive effect on consumer perceptions of corporate associations. However, the effects did not transfer to brand evaluations or patronage intentions. Additionally, philanthropy as a part of a recovery strategy has a consistent but non-significant effect on consumer perceptions.\nResearch limitations/implications: - In the study manipulations respondents received the response at the same time as they read about the crisis. This generally would not happen in actual situations. A second limitation is the lack of control or manipulation for history between the company and the target segment in the directed philanthropy conditions.\nPractical implications: - The findings of this study have three managerial implications. First, traditional philanthropy may be effective for corporate or brand image objectives, but ineffective for brand evaluation and purchase objectives. Philanthropy directed toward a particular segment may also have a positive effect on consumers beyond that segment. Finally, in cases in which the objective is simply to thwart negative publicity, reactive philanthropy may not be a viable strategic option.\nOriginality/value: - This study examines the effects of philanthropic activity on consumer perceptions of firms and the brands they market.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Apprenticeship as a mode of learning and model of education	[ "Apprenticeship", "Apprenticeship as mode of learning", "Apprenticeship as model of education", "Mediation of experience", "Practice curriculum", "Practice pedagogy" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Apprenticeships are usually seen, in contemporary times, as a model of education focused on occupational preparation, albeit manifested in different ways across nation states. However, throughout human history, the majority of occupational preparation has been premised upon apprenticeship as a mode of learning, that is, as preparation and ongoing learning arising mainly through active and interdependent engagement by apprentices in their work, rather than their being taught or directly guided by more experienced practitioners. Whilst both conceptions are important, the apprenticeship mode of learning is also central to the success of educational models, such as contemporary apprenticeships and the ongoing development of workers' occupational capacities and subjectivities. So, although apprenticeship has become viewed as a model of education associated with initial occupational preparation whose specific form is shaped by societal sentiment and governmental preference and imperatives, it is important to understand and emphasise apprenticeship as a mode of learning, not restricted to initial learning of an occupation. This consideration seems particularly salient for those of us living in schooled societies that often privilege education provisions over individuals' learning, yet which are seeking to enhance the efficacy of individuals' active learning across working life.\nApprenticeship as a mode of learning and model of education: Currently, apprenticeships are usually seen as models of education focused on initial occupational preparation, usually for young people, albeit manifested in distinct ways across nation states. Some of these models are largely premised on workplace experiences, with apprentices being employees and positioned as novice practitioners (Chan, 2013; Deissinger and Hellwig, 2005). Others comprise programmes largely enacted through educational institutions, with apprentices being students (Berglund and Loeb, 2013), and then there are variations between these two kinds (e.g. in Denmark and Norway). However, across human history, most occupational preparation has arisen through apprenticeship as a mode of learning, not through these models of education; that is, it has arisen mainly through learners' active and interdependent engagement in occupational tasks, not through being taught or directly guided, and rarely in hybrid settings (i.e. educational institutions) established to promote that learning (Billett, 2014). Rather than viewing this mode as being just learning \"on the job\", it is characterised as being mediated by learners themselves, rather than the kinds of activities and interactions though which others (e.g. teachers, practitioners) directly attempt to mediate that learning (e.g. teaching and direct guidance). Whilst both conceptions are important, the apprenticeship mode of learning is also central to the success of educational models, such as contemporary models of apprenticeships, and in building learners' occupational capacities and subjectivities across working lives. Hence, whilst contemporary apprenticeships are usually viewed as educational models, they need also to be understood as a mode of learning to be engaged with by those wishing to develop occupational capacities and sustain them across lengthening working lives.\nPremises for understanding learning through apprenticeships: To understand and appraise apprenticeship as both a mode of learning and model of education, it is helpful to advance premises through which this case can be comprehended. First and perhaps foremost is that as individuals engage in everyday thinking and acting they are also learning (Rogoff and Lave, 1984). There is no separate and distinct process of learning that humans engage in other than that which arises through their construing from experience and constructing what they know, can do and value through and from that experience. This premise is supported by diverse perspectives on human learning and development. Both cognitive (Anderson, 1993; Shuell, 1990; Van Lehn, 1989) and social constructivist (Rogoff, 1990) views advance this proposition, as do genetic epistemologists (Piaget and Inhelder, 1973), some developmental perspectives (e.g. Baldwin, 1894) and contemporary anthropological accounts (e.g. Hasse, 2014; Lave, 1993). It is the learning that arises from experiences earlier in individuals' lives (i.e. premediately) that generates what individuals know, can do and value, which in turn shapes how and what they learn through subsequent experiences (Valsiner, 2000). So, for instance, as individuals engage with activities or experiences that are novel for them, most likely new learning arises, as they may come to understand, know or value in new ways (Billett, 2001). Even when encountering experiences that are familiar, learning arises. That learning is associated with honing, refining or making links and associations with what they already know, can do and value, which are essential to the learning of occupational capacities. Yet, this process of learning is necessarily person-dependent (Billett, 2003; Valsiner, 2000). What for one individual will be a novel experience, for another will be routine or familiar. Hence, the \"same\" experience can lead to quite different outcomes or legacies for individuals. Also, individuals' processes of experiencing are premised upon intentions, interest, values (i.e. dispositions) (Perkins et al., 1993) that have arisen through experiences that have had across their life histories. Therefore, how individuals construe what they experience, direct their efforts and construct legacies of particular experiences are all central to individuals' learning.\nApprenticeship as a model of education: There is long history of organised occupational preparation (Barbieri-Low, 2007; Bennett, 1938; Lodge, 1947). However, the origins of contemporary vocational education systems are usually found in the formation of modern nation states and/or industrialisation (Deissinger, 1996; Gonon, 2009). For instance, institutionalised apprenticeship arrangements were established to overcome skill deficits (Deissinger, 2002; Greinert, 2002), to avoid unemployment amongst young people, and to be aligned with, but not reliant upon, these new nation states (Gonon, 2009). Vocational education including models of apprenticeships have become enacted through bureaucratic control and means (Frommberger and Reinisch, 2002; Hanf, 2002). Hence, they have come to serve states' interests and institutions, building on earlier institutional roles (e.g. guilds) previously held in the organisation and regulation of skilled work, albeit now through bureaucratic means.\nApprenticeship as a mode of learning: Apprenticeship as a mode of learning has been the most common means of developing occupational capacities across human history. Most likely the vast majority of occupational preparation has arisen through individuals' active and personally mediated learning outside of institutionalised educational provisions (Billett, 2014). That preparation has been essential for human survival and progress over the last 10,000 years at least, since humans have lived in settled communities and cities. Without the development of the occupational capacities to provide food, shelter and services that humans need, our societies would not have been sustained or developed to what they are today. The evidence suggests that across this time, teaching or close guidance by more expert partners was a relative rarity. Most contemporary examples of analogous learning fail to identify direct teaching and instead emphasise learning through the lived experience of the occupational practice (Bunn, 1999; Jordan, 1989; Lave, 1990; Marchand, 2008; Singleton, 1989). It seems that the kind of close guidance or teaching that is taken as orthodox in modern \"schooled\" societies is a product of modernity (Jordan, 1989). Before that time, individuals learnt, rather than being taught (Donald, 1991; Webb, 1999). In many ways this is hardly surprising, given that even in the educational institutions the mode of learning was rarely through didactic processes, and the vast majority of the population would not have experience of even these kinds of educational processes, and that teaching as we understand it and experience it through schooling was in the distant future.\nKey elements of enacting apprenticeship as a mode of learning: Drawing on earlier empirical work and from a review of historical, anthropological and developmental literature, three broad elements of apprenticeship as a mode of learning outside of educational practices and institutions have been identified: practice curriculum - access to, organisation and ordering of apprentices' experiences; practice pedagogies - means of augmenting learning experiences in practice settings; and learners' personal epistemologies - how learners come to engage with and contribute to the learning process. An account of promoting apprenticeship as a mode of learning is now advanced through an overview of these elements.\nImplications: Understanding more fully and effectively advancing apprenticeships both as models of education for and a mode of learning occupational capacities is central to developing and sustaining occupational competence. The sections above have set out some premises and processes by which apprenticeship as a mode of learning might be considered and enacted, and these also have relevance to contemporary educational models of apprenticeship. Hence, it is worth identifying implications from apprenticeship as a mode of learning with what is being enacted within educational models of apprenticeship.\nApprenticeship as a model of learning: The key point advanced here is to consider apprenticeships primarily as a mode of learning, that is essential to, and can be supported, augmented and extended by, educational processes. Ultimately, it is individuals' apprehending of the knowledge that they need to learn, that is central both to this mode of learning and models of education. As noted, there are different kinds of educational models that seek to engage apprentices' learning in distinct ways to achieve occupational outcomes. The degree by which these are able to be effective is often constrained by practical considerations associated with the range and diversity of experiences afforded in work settings. Hence, consideration needs to be given to pathways of experiences (i.e. practice curriculum) and how they can be augmented (i.e. practice pedagogies) to achieve what workplaces and apprentices want learnt: occupational capacities. Hence, there is a need to enhance awareness about practice pedagogies, and promote their use to support apprenticeship as a mode of learning and a model of education. Yet, beyond what is afforded in the workplace, how apprentices come to engage in their work and learning is salient. Securing the kinds of knowledge required for occupations necessitates active and enduring effortful engagement in working and learning. Consequently, central here, also, are apprentices' capacities to work and learn interdependently, with others and with artefacts, and to do so in ways that are intentional and well directed. Hopefully, the understandings from studies of learning outside of educational institutions can be of assistance here.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Apprenticeships are now usually seen as a model of education focused on occupational preparation, albeit manifested in different ways across nation states. However, throughout human history, the majority of occupational preparation has been premised upon apprenticeship as a mode of learning. That is, a preparation arising mainly through apprentices' active and interdependent engagement in their work, rather than being taught or directly guided by more experienced practitioners. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A review of literature.\nFindings: A way of considering apprenticeship as a mode of learning as well as a model of education.\nResearch limitations/implications: Three elements of considering and supporting apprenticeship as a mode of learning.\nPractical implications: Practice curriculum, practice pedagogies and personal epistemology.\nSocial implications: A way of considering apprenticeship as a mode of learning as well as a model of education.\nOriginality/value: A way of considering apprenticeship as a mode of learning as well as a model of education.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Decomposition of stock market trade-offs using Shewhart methodology	[ "Mean/standard deviation trade-off", "Common causes", "Higher order moments", "Shewhart methodology", "Skewness/kurtosis trade-off", "Special causes" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Shewhart (1931) introduced a simple, but effective methodology in the 1920s for assuring economic control of a process based on sound scientific reasoning. Even though his goal was to have statistical theory serve the needs of industry, Shewhart methodology is widely used in the service sector and shows us a way of looking at any process that displays variability. Given that financial markets display volatility (resulting from fundamentals, information, and market expectations) and that understanding this observable volatility continues to be the basis for many studies, we feel there is a real need to consider the value Shewhart methodology can bring to this area of research.\n2. Quality management principles and stock market behaviour: This section establishes the validity of using quality improvement concepts to analyse stock market behaviour. In any kind of process, unnecessary interventions such as tool changes (production process) or speculation (stock market) should not become another source of special cause. We need to emphasize here, external adjustments to a process can be controlled in an industrial setting which is not always possible in the stock market due to human behaviour.\n3. Theoretical background: 3.1 Partitioning of common and special causes\n4. Empirical findings: The daily closing prices and trading volumes of 442 S&P 500 companies were retrieved from www.finance.yahoo.com. In total, 58 of the current S&P 500 companies were not traded from the arbitrarily chosen start date of 1 January 2003, and have therefore been omitted from this analysis. The statistical analysis was carried out using R statistical software (R Core Team, 2015) and \"xts\" package (Jeffrey and Joshua, 2013) to manipulate time series data. The RStudio (RStudio Inc., 2014) interface was used to develop a package to implement the Shewhart approach for financial data.\n5. Summary and conclusions: A market anomaly suggests that a long past price change in a security, usually explained as the response of price to a random news event, continues to influence the price of the security in the present. However, it is not possible to capture or explain the many factors that lead to anomalous patterns in stock returns before they happen. From Shiller's point of view, the irrational market behaviour of investors cannot be predicted through rigorous mathematical models or explained through traditional finance theory. We cannot ascribe a direct one-to-one relationship between irrational behaviour and special cause variation. The special cause variability which we have identified could be caused by investors' irrational market behaviour, and certainly much of the irrational behaviour having an impact on the market would be reflected in the special cause variability.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the applicability of Shewhart methodology and other quality management principles to gain a deeper understanding of the observed volatility in stock returns and its impact on market performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The validity of quality management philosophy in the context of financial market behaviour is discussed. The technique of rational subgrouping is used to identify the observable variations in stock returns as either common or special cause variation. The usefulness of the proposed methodology is investigated through empirical data. The risk/return and skewness/kurtosis trade-offs of S&P 500 stocks are examined. The consistency of this approach is reviewed by relating the separated variability to \"efficient market\" and \"behavioural finance\" theories.\nFindings: Significant positive and negative risk/return trade-offs were found after partitioning the returns series into common and special cause periods, respectively, while total data did not exhibit a significant risk/return trade-off at all. A highly negative skewness/kurtosis trade-off was found in total and special cause periods as compared to the common cause periods. These results are broadly consistent with the theoretical concepts of finance and other empirical findings.\nPractical implications: The quality management principles-based approach to analysing financial data avoids the complexities commonly found in stochastic-volatility forecasting models.\nSocial implications: The results provide new insights into the impact of volatility in stock returns. They should have direct implications for financial market participants.\nOriginality/value: The authors explore the relevance of Shewhart methodology in analysing variability in stock returns through reviewing financial market behaviour.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Raising capital by issuing transferable membership in a consumer cooperative	[ "Cooperatives", "Economic philosophy/theory" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: 1.1. Consumer cooperatives in the market economy\n2. Transferable membership: an overview: To obtain an intuitive idea of the function of transferable membership in the market economy, this section considers a circular flow of factors of production and output between the household and production sectors.\n3. The model: This section develops a simple model of a firm with investors and consumers in which: the firm is organized as either a capitalist firm or a consumer cooperative, and the shares of stock (for a capitalist firm) or membership (for a consumer cooperative) are traded in the open market.\n4. Procurement of equity capital: This section derives and compares the amount of equity that a capitalist firm and a consumer cooperative can raise in the primary (as opposed to secondary) stock and membership markets, respectively[9].\n5. Conclusion: This paper showed that, in theory, a consumer cooperative would not be financially weaker than a capitalist firm in the presence of a membership market. This implies that a consumer cooperative can potentially be a promising alternative to a capitalist firm when intractable market failure prevails in the product market.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: It is generally recognized that consumer cooperatives are at a disadvantage when raising capital as compared to conventional capitalist firms. The purpose of this paper is to explore a method for consumer cooperatives to issue transferable membership shares as financial securities and raise non-redeemable equity. The author examines if such a method can strengthen the financial viability of consumer cooperatives in the market economy.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The author first explain the mechanism by using diagrams of the circular flow of factors of production and the product. The author then developed a simple formal model and compare the amount of equity capital raised by a capitalist firm and a consumer cooperative.\nFindings: The author found that the amount of equity that a consumer cooperative can raise by issuing shares of membership is greater than the amount of equity that a capitalist firm can raise by issuing shares of stock.\nResearch limitations/implications: More research effort is required to apply the theory discussed in this paper for practical use.\nSocial implications: Consumer cooperatives have many good features that conventional capitalist firms do not have. However, the scale and scope of consumer cooperatives have been quite limited partly because of the problem of finance. The method presented in this paper is expected to improve the financial viability of consumer cooperatives and promotes their activities in the market economy.\nOriginality/value: This paper regards the membership of a consumer cooperative as a kind of financial security and as a tool for procuring capital for investment. As far as the author knows, the present paper is the first one that presents such a concept.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Failure demand: a concept evaluation in UK primary care	[ "Demand", "Capacity management", "Patient satisfaction", "Primary healthcare", "Failure demand" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: All public service sector managers are under significant financial pressure, especially after the 2007 global financial crisis. The UK Government spending on public services and welfare in 2015 was PS747bn, but there have been several financial cuts to public expenditure, with the 2013 financial review requiring PS11bn more savings in the 2015/2016 budget (ONS, 2016). The challenge for service managers is to identify ways to reduce costs without unnecessarily cutting services. Many authors looked towards lean or quality improvement approaches to achieve sustainable productivity gains without compromising services. Attempts to implement such approaches have been met with considerable difficulties but some significant improvements have been achieved in various public-sector organisations (McNulty, 2003; Lucey et al., 2005; Radnor and Osborne, 2013).\nHealthcare context: Projected demographic and societal changes are expected to intensify the pressure on health systems and demand new and improved healthcare. Ageing populations in both emerging and developed nations are increasing healthcare demand. According to the United Nations, the world's population is expected to increase by 1bn people by 2025 (United Nations Population Fund, 2013); 300m will be people aged 65 or older, as globally, life expectancy continues to rise. Healthcare resources and service innovation are needed to support this increase. Countries will be affected differently by these demographic changes. Successful and sustainable change will require flexible and adaptive models to fit the new health economies.\nFailure demand: Failure demand emerged from a telephone call study suggesting that most calls received by a sales call centre were, in practice, calls from customers complaining about the service they had received or reporting issues for the company to deal with, not the desired calls from customers wishing to place orders. Marr and Neely (2004, p. 4) argue \"It is critical to understand and classify the nature of demand. Often calls are unwanted or even unwittingly generated by other parts of the organization. By analyzing and classifying demand, it becomes more manageable and more predictable. Unwanted calls could then be reduced or even eliminated\". Thus, in lean thinking terms, these calls indicate waste in the system and handling the call is a waste. A key mistake made by managers was to treat all work coming into the system as demand, rather than seeing an opportunity to reduce workload on staff and simultaneously improve customer service. These analyses have since been applied across the UK public sector, with many reports coming from local council services such as (Randle and Kippin, 2014). Housing services are the most widely reported applications, with examples provided from several sources (ODPM, 2005; Jackson et al., 2007; Masters, 2010; Zokaei et al., 2010). Figure 1 is adapted from the data provided by Seddon (2003), based on Jackson et al. (2007), breaking down calls coming into a council housing department call centre.\nFailure demand measurement in government: In 2008, following a pilot study, local government managers were asked to routinely measure and report their failure demand. This announcement had been preceded by prior reports into contact between public services and the public (Masters, 2010). For example, one underperforming local council had been identified as logging two-thirds of all contact as waste demand (Caulkin, 2005). Benefits service errors had also been wasteful, where welfare under- and over-payments were resulting in considerable unnecessary contact. The cabinet office head, Alexis Cleveland, announced that National Indicator 14 (NI 14) would be Avoidable Contact, as the Government's approach to measurement and recording failure demand. Measurement started in October 2008 for first reporting in April 2009. The Government defined avoidable contact in several ways:\nFailure demand in primary care: In healthcare, the issue is whether patients can receive the right care in the right location without unnecessary delay. Failure demand, should it exist, may include healthcare system contact that is either unnecessary extra steps in the process to obtain care, or steps in the process that do not provide appropriate care. Comparable studies on access issues use two other terms: supplier-induced demand (Bickerdyke et al., 2002) and supply sensitive demand (Dartmouth Atlas Project Topic Briefing, 2007) (Table I). In an integrative study, Rosen (2014) found information that suggests 16 per cent of patients attending walk-in clinics would not have bothered to seek any care if this service had not been available. Additionally, 46 per cent using walk-in centres should not have needed to attend before obtaining the care they needed, which added an extra step in their journey and created significant extra health service demand/contact. In some cases, no treatment was needed but in others, treatment could have been obtained more directly, e.g., visiting a pharmacy. The relative proportions are not recorded. Appleby (2013) showed that substitutes for emergency visits to primary care or A&E departments, such as walk-in centres, minor injuries units and urgent care centres, made no difference to A&E attendance rates once they were implemented, i.e., in effect, additional demand.\nResearch methods: We combine two studies. First, in March 2015, an expert panel considered the NHS 2014/2015 \"Winter Crisis\". In total, 90 healthcare management experts convened for a round table discussion, studying each healthcare system element and its role in winter pressures. The expert panel was chosen from senior managers, healthcare professionals, technical specialists and improvement consultants from across NHS organisations (including Scotland and Wales), civil service, universities, independent research organisations and private consultancy companies. Organisations such as the Nuffield Trust, the Emergency Care Intensive Support Team and Monitor were included in the event. The panel was initially split into groups of ten, with care taken to ensure diverse specialities represented at each table. After an introduction where the Winter Crisis was described in detail, the remaining time was structured into three sessions, where an issue was highlighted, and each table was given the opportunity to discuss and recording the issues and reporting their findings in a plenary session. These responses were summarised by appointed chairpersons at each table, recorded in word documents, and handed over at the end. Other points by individuals were captured on notice boards, which were photographed. Discussants were asked to highlight evidence sources for points raised and this resulted in 22 follow-up responses with data after the event. The following questions were posed:\nFindings: We found that demand data are not routinely collected, and it is unclear how much unmet primary care demand was not met. Individual primary care systems were not in place to capture all potential demand during attempts to access the system, e.g., staff in many practices do not monitor or record failed calls when requested services were unavailable or appointments rejected by callers for reasons such as the delay between call and appointment offered. Staff record activity, i.e. work done, rather than demand. Statistics showed how demand is deflected to alternative contact points, especially the 111 services, where there are clear, seasonal OoH contact patterns, which are exaggerated during holiday periods (Figure 2). These patterns coincide with reduced primary care service capacity, i.e., the conventional working week is reduced by public holidays (Figures 3 and 4).\nDiscussion: One challenge faced by the researchers was to obtain validated primary care demand data at practice level. How individual practice staff manage demand means that determining true demand on the system is difficult. GPs might not understand how much unmet demand there is because patient demand is not always recorded. It is not clear from our analysis what proportion simply abandon their attempts to obtain medical care when they experience problems. Similarly, the way in which GPs attempted to implement advanced access inadvertently converts routine demand into emergency demand because routine demand cannot reliably be booked in a reasonable timescale. Patients requiring an appointment within one week may have to convert this demand into an emergency request. This creates failure demand in the emergency care system. Our analysis shows additional demand does not increase hospital admissions. Patients unable to access primary care are discharged from the system prior to full admission. However, there will be an increase (up to 50 per cent) in A&E minor patient (e.g. less severe injuries) workload and an unknown increase in patients triaged as A&E \"majors\", i.e., on arrival at A&E, patients are assessed to ensure that people with the most serious conditions and life-threatening emergencies, are seen first (NHS Choices, 2017).\nConclusions: We open the failure demand dialogue in relation to accessing healthcare emergency services. We draw upon UK national demand data and patient experience interviews to convey how failure demand might present in healthcare. Our overall aim was to assess failure demand as a lean concept to analyse waste during quality improvement activity. Our contribution is threefold: first, providing insight in to how failure demand analysis may be conducted; second, showing how failure demand can affect healthcare; and third, indicating how failure demand affects patients. We confirm that limiting failure demand analysis is a missed opportunity to help understand healthcare improvement priorities. We recognise the difficulties associated with recording failure demand activity particularly across healthcare providers. We focussed mainly on NHS primary care. Further research is required, therefore, to explore failure demand in other healthcare settings, such as hospital departments. Our research has implications for academics, practitioners and policy makers. For academics, it is a call to generate further empirical studies to broaden our failure demand understanding, particularly within healthcare. For practitioners, there is a need to identify failure demand when looking to redesign and improve services. For policy makers, there is a need to support managers trying to measure and reduce failure demand within their services.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess failure demand as a lean concept that assists in waste analysis during quality improvement activity. The authors assess whether the concept's limited use is a missed opportunity to help us understand improvement priorities, given that a UK Government requirement for public service managers to report failure demand has been removed.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors look at the literature across the public sector and then apply the failure demand concept to the UK's primary healthcare system. The UK National Health Service (NHS) demand data are analysed and the impact on patient care is elicited from patient interviews.\nFindings: The study highlighted the concept's value, showing how primary care systems often generate failure demand partly owing to existing demand and capacity management practices. This demand is deflected to other systems, such as the accident and emergency department, with a considerable detrimental impact on patient experience.\nResearch limitations/implications: More research is needed to fully understand how best to exploit the failure demand concept within wider healthcare as there are many potential barriers to its appropriate and successful application.\nPractical implications: The authors highlight three practical barriers to using failure demand: first, demand within the healthcare system is poorly understood; second, systems improvement understanding is limited; and third, need to apply the concept for improvement and not just for reporting purposes.\nOriginality/value: The authors provide an objective and independent insight into failure demand that has not previously been seen in the academic literature, specifically in relation to primary healthcare.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Multi-professional teamwork in human services: The mutual shaping of professional identity and team activities	[ "Collaboration", "Professional identity", "Human services", "Multi-professional teamwork" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The social worker placed herself on the floor with the recently become mothers and fathers and their babies. She struck up a nursery rhyme and the parents joined her, clapping their hands while the babies were watching, round-eyed. \"This is not really part of my profession\", the social worker later confessed to the interviewer, \"so I have to use my personal experiences as a parent in this situation\".\"I have had many young women coming to my reception lately\", said the midwife to her team members on the Friday team meeting. \"They have very different questions and concerns compared to more mature mothers.\" - \"Maybe we should start a special support group for them\", one pre-school teacher proposed. Her male colleague enthusiastically seconded the proposal: \"That is a very good idea. It is very important that we also reach the expecting young fathers and encourage them to take their responsibility.\" But the district nurse looked very hesitant. \"I have no time to start a new activity\", she claimed. \"I have to vaccinate all four-year-olds this month!\"These scenarios, constructed from empirical findings, illustrate the hurdles professionals experience when expected to engage in collaborative work practices while also upholding their professional domain. Collaboration between agencies and professions is frequently put forward as necessary to overcome problems of specialisation and fragmentation within human services (e.g. Axelsson and Bihari Axelsson, 2006) and to ensure quality, patient-focussed care and economic benefits (e.g. Lemieux-Charles and McGuire, 2006; McNeil et al., 2013; Nylen, 2007; Samuelson et al., 2012).\nBackground: Collaboration through multi-professional teamwork\nEmpirical setting and method: A qualitative case study method was considered appropriate to capture individual identity formation in relation to emerging team activities. The study was conducted in Sweden and in order to find suitable cases of multi-professional teamwork, purposive sampling was applied (Ritchie et al., 2012). The type of team selected for study is the \"family care centre\" (FCC), which targets families with pre-school children in a district. An FCC co-locates professionals from maternity care (midwifes), child welfare (nurses), open kindergarten (pre-school teachers) and preventive social services (social workers). The centre is a joint venture between the local authority, with responsibility for open kindergarten and social services, and the county council, which operates maternity care and child welfare. When moving to the FCC, each professional should continue performing existing services while also collaborating to improve the caretaking of families. Collaboration could result in improved services such as information exchange and referral of families between professionals, or the development of new services. Overall, the rationale behind establishment of an FCC is to increase service quality in family care in general as well as provide customised support to vulnerable families.\nResults and analysis, Case 1: In Case 1, the first steps towards opening an FCC were taken already 10 years ago when local actors formed a project group to develop a project plan. Just before the respective agencies were to take the formal inauguration decision, however, primary care actors claimed that social workers' right to exercise authority (e.g. take children into custody in case of mistreatment) would scare parents away from the centre. The planning process was suddenly terminated much to the disappointment of involved actors, particularly from the local authority:We ran out of steam, when we thought we were ready in 20xx, and [found out that] the primary care centre was not on board(Anne, social worker, 1st interview).\nResults and analysis, Case 2: Individual contributions to early team activities (I - O) are retrospectively described by those respondents who were involved from the beginning (see Table III). The initiative to start an FCC originated from Celia; after many years as social worker, she wished to improve the preventive work. Celia organised a project group to develop an FCC proposal where the then pre-school teacher was much involved. Both the county council and the local authority promptly approved the proposal. Another pre-school teacher, Carolyn, was initially not familiar with the FCC concept but persuaded to join the team and soon became very committed. Also district nurse Erica and the then midwife were on board. Overall, respondents describe the planning and establishment process very positively:We had a good start. [...] We met on the autumn before the start-up and time was set aside for planning. [...] So we were able to sit down together and think about how we should work and get to know each other(Carolyn, pre-school teacher).\nDiscussion: Case findings will now be discussed regarding, first, the mutual shaping of team-level vs identification processes and, second, professional identity formation.\nContributions: This study on multi-professional teamwork in human services makes three main contributions. The first, and chief, contribution concerns how simultaneously ongoing processes at team and individual level create more or less fertile vs futile spirals of multi-professional team developments. The two empirically found trajectories are particularly interesting as they emanate from similar contexts. They show how prospects as well as pitfalls in multi-professional teamwork are created by individual team members' perceptions and contributions that shape evolving interactions, which gradually conflates to team activities, in turn, influencing ongoing identity formation. This provides a contribution beyond previous research that has either looked upon how identity formation shapes teamwork achievements (Mitchell et al., 2011) or how the teamwork setting is utilised for professional identity formation (e.g. by Finn et al., 2010).\nImplications and limitations: From this study, it seems as if the potential to reach expected team benefits is founded quite early in team formation. The selection of professionals is therefore of crucial importance, so that the individual both holds a genuine interest for the team as such, and an openness for taking on new perspectives and work tasks - to leave their \"professional silos\" (Samuelson et al., 2012). After team establishment, managers need to provide individualised support to team members, not least depending on the individual's readiness to change professional role as well as his/her felt ability to contribute to team-level activities.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper investigates the prospects and difficulties of multi-professional teamwork in human services from a professional identity perspective. The purpose of this paper is to explore the mutual interplay between professional identity formation and team activities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This is a process study of two cases of multi-professional teamwork in family care. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with team members and managers. The analysis follows a stepwise approach alternating between the individual and team levels.\nFindings: In showing the mutual interplay between teamwork processes and individual identity formation, the study contributes knowledge on professional identity formation of mature professionals; in particular showing how unique individual identification processes have different consequences for multi-professional team activities. Further, alternative shapes of interplay between individual identity formation and team-level processes are identified.\nResearch limitations/implications: Despite the fact that the sample is small and that collaboration intensity was relatively low, the paper succeeds in conceptualising the links between professional identity formation and multi-professional teamwork.\nPractical implications: In managing multi-professional teams, team composition and the team's early developments seem determining for whether the team will reach its collaborative intentions.\nOriginality/value: This paper is original in its exploration of the ongoing interplay between individual identity formation and multi-professional team endeavours. Further, the paper contributes knowledge on mature professionals' identity formation, particularly concerning individual variation within and between professional groups.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
How flood risk impacts residential rents and property prices: Empirical analysis of a German property market	[ "Property values", "Natural hazards", "Economic sustainability", "Environmental impact", "Flood risk", "Market reaction pattern" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: It was observed throughout the past decades that extreme weather events have increased significantly in terms of not only frequency but also intensity (Stott, 2016). Indeed, flooding today depicts the second-most frequent cause for elementary damage in Germany (just after storms) with major implications for property owners or the insurance industry. It is expected that severe flood events will occur more frequently in the future and real estate depicts one major field of damage and, therefore, is connected to high economic vulnerability. That is why we intend to quantify the impact of flood risk on residential property markets in Germany.\n2. Literature review: There is no extensive (empirical) analysis of property prices in Germany in the context of existing flood risks. However, there is a range of international studies, primarily from anglophone regions that discuss the impact of flood risks on property markets. The data and literature available are in this context limited to individual regions, whereas the transferability of these insights is barely generalizable. In this section, underlying data challenges will be discussed and existing results of fundamental and specific nature will be summarized and put into context.\n3. Empirical analysis: Data\n4. Conclusion: This study reveals the empirical impact of flood risk on residential rents as well as purchasing prices in the case of Regensburg, Germany. The analysis has delivered that, while the sales market seems to work very rationally and prices in the potential costs of flooding damages to upcoming owners by a discount of, on average, EUR299 per square meter, in the time period from 2012 to 2015, the rental market shows unexpected patterns. We expected tenants and rent prices to be indifferent toward flood risks, as they do not carry financial risk for damages of the property. However, the actual patterns seem to incorporate non-physical downsides to tenants, who on the one hand side do not carry any financial risk for the property in the case of a flood event, but even seem to appreciate the flooding exposure in the sense of a significant (*), but marginal rental discount. As we have controlled for rental differences due to the micro-location separately, we expect this to arise from negative factors that tenants have to face in the case of a flood event, although they are not financially disadvantaged by the property damage costs. However, landlords seem to accept the fact that nevertheless, inconveniences from, e.g., cleaning work as well as potential other expenses (e.g. uninsured household goods) may put a burden on the tenant. However, the rent price discount quotes rather marginal at, on average, 1.8 percent.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to quantify the impact of 100-year flood risk on both property rents and values in Germany, exemplified by the market of the historic city of Regensburg, and therefore supports investors in understanding market behavior patterns in both rental and investment context.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors construct two generalized additive models for rents and purchasing prices with spatial components and under inclusion of both typical property characteristics (as control variables) and a 100-year flood risk parameter in order to estimate its effect on the rents and property price structure. The authors apply the methodology to a four-year data set of more than 16,500 observations.\nFindings: The analysis shows that flood risk is a highly significant parameter when estimating both the rent as well as the sales price model. The authors also find that purchase prices for one square meter of living area are, on average, EUR299 lower if the property is located in the flood risk zone. In addition, also rental markets come with a respective, but rather low, discount.\nPractical implications: The authors provide transparency to investors in terms of the impact that a flood risk location has on property rents as well as purchasing prices. The study supports investors by providing evidence on reaction patterns in German real estate markets and helps quantifying the financial impact that comes with flood risk in Germany.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study that aims to empirically test and to quantify the impact of flood risk on property rents and purchasing prices in Germany. Related research has been performed for the USA, Ireland and New Zealand and largely refers to event-driven work or rather conceptual in the context of property valuation.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Sen, Marx and justice: a critique	[ "Justice", "Marx", "Sen" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Amartya Sen won the Nobel Prize in Economics but his intellectual terrain has transcended disciplinary boundaries into the political, social and philosophical throughout his illustrious career (Morris, 2009, p. 1). Interviewed in 2009 as his magisterial The Idea of Justice was published, Sen pondered on his student days at the University of Calcutta (1951-1953) and reflected that at that time \"Whether you sat in Calcutta, Saigon, Tokyo or Peking, Marx was a huge presence. Marxism was anti-imperialist and also intellectual. So I was attracted by that\" (Derbyshire, 2009). Even so, as the interviewer noted, Sen was never a Marxist, being more drawn to the work of Adam Smith and in particular his Theory of Moral Sentiments both then and for the rest of his life. However, Sen's intellectual trajectory is more varied than that as he himself had declared three years earlier when he stated: \"I take much pride (and I think that is the right word) in the fact that my ideas are not 'rootless' - they are in the 'tradition' established by some very great people\", and these \"intellectual instigators\" include: Aristotle, Adam Smith, Mary Wollstonecraft, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx and Kenneth Arrow (Sen, 2006, pp. 80-81). Sen's adolescent attraction towards Marx developed into the mature \"pride\" of being influenced by his ideas, \"notably for teaching us that the most terrible inequalities may be hidden behind an illusion of normality and justice\". I begin by briefly examining how Marx fits into Sen's overall approach to justice and Sen's inclusion of him with other theorists. I then consider how he praises Marx for his more nuanced understanding of human identity that was not simply based on class but included other social groupings (Sen, 2009, pp. 120-121, 2010, pp. 245, 247). Sen also cites Marx's analysis of \"false consciousness\" or \"objective illusion\" as a \"concept that he uses in his investigation of the underdogs in the class hierarchy\" and which also informs Sen's understanding of justice (Sen, 2006, p. 82, see also Sen, 2005, p. 8, 2010, pp. 163-164). Finally, I explore the conflicting claims that can arise from Sen's endorsement of Marx as part of his discussion of just distribution (Sen, 1982, pp. 250 and 427, 1984, pp. 73, 80, 285 and 291, 2009, pp. 120-121, 2010, pp. x, 12-15, 297).\nSen's Marx: The Marx that emerges from Sen's engagement with him in his theory of justice is the Marx that has been appropriated by the analytical Marxist tradition. (For a representative sample of this approach see Roemer, 1989a.) The approach is \"inspired by Marxian questions\" using the \"contemporary tools of logic, mathematics [...] model building\" and \"an unabashed commitment to the necessity for abstraction\" (Roemer, 1989b, p. 3)[3]. Sen accordingly abstracts discussions of Marx where his critique is greatest, namely where Marx insists on the need to abolish capitalism and create a communist society. Sen forces Marx into a more flattened-down persona as one among many reformers who want to see more justice in the world but presume it can be achieved within capitalism as is evinced when Sen begins to explain his idea of justice further.\nIdentity and social choice: For Sen, Marx realised that class analysis was important but that it needed to be enhanced by recognising that people are members of a number of social groupings. Sen cites as evidence The Critique of the Gotha Programme where Marx states that the mistake of the United Workers' Party of Germany was that it considered workers only as workers and \"nothing more is seen in them\" (Sen, 2010, p. 247; Marx). Sen relates this to the current intellectual climate where individuals can be identified in one social category to the exclusion of all others, be it a Muslim, a Jew and so on. For Sen, following Marx, \"individual human beings with their various plural identities, multiple affiliations and diverse associations are quintessentially social creatures with different types of societal interactions\" (Sen, 2010, p. 247). Consequently, seeing a person as a member of one social group ignores the \"breadth and complexity of any society in the world\" (Sen, 2010, p. 247).\nObjective illusion: Marx also informs Sen's discussion of illusion when considering the epistemological need to \"transcend the limitations of our positional perspectives\" in the search for justice and the rooting out of injustice (Sen, 2010, p. 155). Sen realises that the latter can be difficult given our inability to always comprehend what is happening in the things that we see, an inability which arises from the limitations of our own perspective. Sen explains these \"positional variations of observations\" by considering a claim that the sun and the moon look similar in size (Sen, 2010, p. 156). He sees this as a positional claim even though it is not made explicit, because in reality the view is made from the position of the earth. A person in a similar position could confirm the statement but another person could also make a claim about how things might appear from a different position, where the sun and the moon would not look similar in size, a position which is not in tension with the previous statement.\nJust redistribution: Marx also influences Sen's discussion of what constitutes a just distribution of goods in society. Sen observes that Marx recognised in The Critique of the Gotha Programme (1875), the \"inescapable conflict\" between the argument for eliminating the exploitation of labour on one side and for allocating according to needs on the other (Sen, 2010, p. x). In the first case, the relation is to the \"justness of getting what can be seen as the product of one's efforts\", whereas in the second case it relates to the demands of distributive justice. So Marx is important for recognising conflicting claims of justice and that is one of the main features of Sen's own theory.\nConclusion: Sen's \"pride\" in Marx as an \"intellectual instigator\" for his exploration of the idea of justice has centred around four themes. The first was Sen's positioning of Marx in Sen's own approach to justice by grouping him with thinkers who would not accept his desire for the abolition of capitalism, as Sen himself would not. Also, the Marx that Sen presents to us is the one appropriated by the analytical Marxism tradition, a diluted Marx reduced to unrealistic abstractions that consider issues of justice without locating them in the systemic nature of the capitalist system. Sen's discussion of identity and social choice, although correctly grasping Marx's notion of multiple selves, ultimately falls back into a methodological individualist approach of choice that Marx rejects, and could not form the basis of a just communist society. As regards the issue of objective illusion, Sen's search for positional objectivity (so we can come to agree on what is just or unjust through practical reasoning) is undermined by the power of capitalist ideology and ruling class interest. Finally, Sen's utilisation of Marx's redistributive theory mistakenly elides Marx with libertarian perspectives which are based on very different notions of what is just in relation to the reward for labour expended. Sen's retreat into the hypothetical abstract world is symptomatic of analytical Marxism and its inherent weaknesses. This retreat fails to make a distinction between Marx's different phases of communist society, which has major implications for what is and what is not a just distribution according to Marx, and which is not arbitrary as claimed by Sen. Consequently, failing to link his idea of justice with Marx's rejection of capitalism means Sen's desire to \"eliminate [...] remediable injustices\" (Sen, 2010, p. vii) although to be welcomed, is more akin to building \"castles in the air\" (Marx and Engels, 1987, p. 117).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to offer a critique of Sen's utilisation of aspects of Marx's thought that inform his idea of justice. Marx's ideas appear in four main areas of discussion: Sen's positioning of Marx in relation to the other thinkers in his approach to justice; Marx's fluid notion of identity and its relation to social choice; the problem of going beyond a subjective perspective to consider objective concerns by considering the impact of what Sen calls \"objective illusion\"; and the issue of just redistribution.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The author utilises a Marxian framework of analysis that engages in immanent critique of Sen's use of Marx in relation to his theory of justice. This is accomplished through textual analysis and by critical assessment of the analytical Marxist tradition that Sen can be seen as using in his own theories with all their inherent weaknesses.\nFindings: Sen's attempt to use Marx's ideas to inform his theory of justice founder because: he groups Marx with thinkers that would not accept his desire for the abolition of capitalism and a more just society beyond it. He reduces Marx to the analytical tradition with all its inherent weaknesses. He resorts to a methodological individualist approach of choice that Marx rejects. His search for positional objectivity is undermined by the power of capitalist ideology and ruling class interest. His discussion of just redistribution ignores how Marx's approach can overcome the arbitrariness that Sen thinks is inevitable when making just decisions.\nResearch limitations/implications: Theoretically, the paper suggests that, based on immanent critique and textual analysis, Sen's use of Marx's idea of justice is problematic most notably because Sen keeps his analysis within the framework of capitalism that Marx would reject. The implication for further research is the development of Marx's own arguments on what constitutes a just society.\nPractical implications: Practically, the paper raises questions about the capacity for justice to be achieved within the capitalist system for the reasons discussed in relation to Sen.\nSocial implications: Socially, the paper implies that far greater measures to tackle the injustices of the world are necessary than seem to be admitted to by justice theorists such as Sen.\nOriginality/value: The author shows that the use of Marx's theories to inform Sen's notion of justice, while to be welcomed, lose their efficacious power to expose the full injustice of capitalism and the need for its transcendence.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Green maintainability design criteria for nanostructured titanium dioxide (TiO2) facade coatings	[ "Sustainability", "Defect library", "Green maintainability indicators", "Singapore case studies", "Titanium Dioxide (TiO2) coatings" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Buildings are the third largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions (Toepfer, 2007; Jones, 2008; UNEP, 2009) and are thus a large contributor to global climate change. This pressing global issue has moved the building and construction industry towards environmentally friendly approaches. The pursuit for sustainability has transformed the whole product-delivery process of design and construction, thereby advancing the maintainability of buildings (Enea, 2013). This highlights the importance of considering maintainability issues right from the design stage, where cost savings on maintenance are of the highest priority. Special attention is given to the facade systems, as they are a crucial part of the building maintenance lifespan. Facade cleaning is a difficult and expensive process, involving the high use of resources such as energy, water and chemicals leading to high costs (Benedix et al., 2000). The conventional facade cleaning process is cost intensive, requires high water consumption, and brings forth labour, safety and health issues. In addition to this, due care must be taken so that the building and the surrounding site and environment are protected against any harm, deterioration or damage during and after cleaning.\n2. Research stimulus: Building maintenance aims to reduce labour costs and lower the risk of accidents when using conventional methods such as spider men and gondolas. The application of super hydrophilic paints on facades will reduce cleaning frequency and other facade cleaning-related risks and accidents. In Singapore, the Building Construction Authority (BCA) has been working hard towards driving the Singapore's construction industry in environmentally friendly directions, leading to the launching of the BCA Green Mark (GM) Scheme in 2005. The BCA GM Scheme is an internationally recognised best practice rating tool that aid in promoting environmental design and performance. The eco-friendly, self-cleaning property of TiO2 coating technology has been recognised under the criteria of \"Green Features and Innovations\" by the BCA GM Scheme, as these coatings are considered \"innovative and with a positive environmental impact\".\n3. Literature review: TiO2 Facade coatings and global acceptance\n4. Considerations for tropical Singapore conditions: Since this paper is using five Singaporean case studies, which include the two instrumental case studies, considerations of the country's tropical conditions are a vital part in the groundwork of this study. In examining the effectiveness of the application of TiO2 facade coating in tropical conditions, it is necessary to consider external stressors (e.g. rain, relative humidity, wind, pollutants and acid rain, solar radiation, etc.) since they affect the building envelope and could act either as a staining agent or as a stressor on the facade's surface (Chew, 2004). Singapore's climate should be taken into account when looking at appropriate facade application, since it is highly prone to suffer from the presence of microorganisms or biological pollutants (plant groups such as algae, fungi, mosses, ferns and figs) which can pose as staining agents (Chew, 2004). As Singapore has many high rises, algae have received the most attention due to the cost of stain removal from facades. Staining due to animal excretion (e.g. from pigeons and mynahs) should also be taken into account. In Singapore, the monthly rainfall ranges from 158.3 to 288.2 mm based on the National Environment Agency statistics (National Environment Agency (NEA), 2016). That, combined with the high relative humidity (64-97 per cent) and strong ultraviolet radiation, makes Singapore a harsh climate for coatings, sealants and other facade materials (NEA, 2016).\n5. Green maintainability: The International Organization for Standardization identifies maintainability as one of the indicators for building sustainability (International Organization for Standardization, 2011). Moreover, the merging of sustainability into facilities management (Shah, 2007; Meng, 2014) stimulates the coining of the green maintainability concept (Chew et al., 2017). The proper maintenance of green buildings brings with it long-term economic, environmental and social benefits throughout the building's life cycle (Chew et al., 2017). Green maintenance blends with a sustainable development approach (Zhang et al., 2012) and adopts a sustainable management strategy in maintenance processes, methods and materials in order to reduce pollution (Olanrewaju, 2011), carbon dioxide and energy use in buildings (Forster et al., 2011). In addition, Chew (2016) explains that green maintainability ensures sustainable design and maintainability with green facility management (FM) practice. Figure 2 illustrates the five green maintainability factors: maximising building performance, minimizing cost, minimizing risk, minimizing negative environmental impact, and minimizing consumption of matter/energy throughout the life cycle of a facility, right from the outset. These green maintainability factors are crucial for the optimal performance of green technologies such as the TiO2 facade coatings.\n6. Research methods: This research used a mixed-mode approach that involves multiple case studies of different TiO2 facade applications (e.g. concrete, glass, painted aluminium cladding, masonry/stonemasonry) and site investigations before going deeper by conducting instrumental case studies of two commercial buildings with concrete and masonry finishes coupled with in-depth expert interviews. The five multiple case studies were revisited after four to six years after application to see the common defects of TiO2 coatings. Out of these five case studies, only the two instrumental case studies were undertaken for accessibility of data and interior access. The study started with an extensive literature review and site investigation for the identification of issues in the design for maintainability of TiO2 facade coatings (Table I). The case study approach was considered an effective way for researching a variety of building diagnostic issues (Chew, 2005, 2016; Chew et al., 2004, 2005) and green building technologies such as green wall/vertical greeneries system in tropical conditions (Chew and Conejos, 2016). The identified list of issues and defects gathered from the literature review, site investigations, case studies and expert interviews were validated and possible bias is low since the triangulation of gathered data from different sources was found to be consistent. The data collection and analysis were gathered accordingly.\n7. Discussion of findings: This section discusses the findings after conducting the site investigation surveys and instrumental case studies, including interviews with expert professionals to validate the identified defects/issues of TiO2 facade coatings. The findings are explained accordingly using the revisited case studies via site investigation survey results, instrumental case study results and the identified TiO2 coating defects and maintainability issues.\n8. Green maintainability design indicators for TiO2 coatings in tropical conditions: Based on the above findings and discussions, a set of design criteria are presented in Figure 5. The six proposed design criteria are grouped according to the five green maintainability factors and further translated into detailed design parameters to guide designers in designing for maintainability of green technologies (e.g. TiO2 facade coatings) in tropical areas. The paragraph following Figure 5 briefly explains each design criterion and their corresponding sub-design criteria as categorised under the five green maintainability indicators.\n9. Conclusions and further research: Acting as passive \"air scrubbers\", the application of nanostructured titanium dioxide (TiO2) coatings can save facade maintenance costs, conserve water, eliminate contaminants and provide an improved air environment, as attested by previous research conducted to ascertain its performance as well as being confirmed by the experts interviewed in this study. The effectiveness of TiO2 facade coating technology has been proven to counter high labour costs and achieve high aesthetical standards, most particularly in Japan and Europe. Although, TiO2 facade coating is not yet widely used in Singapore, it is suggested that due to labour shortages and high future facade maintenance costs, TiO2 coating can be a solution to address the expected surge in cleaning costs, maintenance and labour problems. This study has shown that design for maintainability of green technologies (e.g. TiO2 facade coatings) in buildings is a vital requirement when designing sustainable buildings at the outset. The concept of designing with maintainability considerations of green technologies and the identified list of green maintainability design criteria will help to ensure the standard and quality of design, installation and maintenance practices of these green technologies right at the design stage.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Nanostructured titanium dioxide (TiO2) coatings can potentially address the current surge in facade cleaning cost, maintenance and labour problems. The purpose of this paper is to investigate potential maintainability issues and design challenges concerning the effective performance of TiO2 facade coatings' hydrophilic properties, especially in tropical environments such as Singapore. This paper aims to establish a list of green maintainability design criteria to help minimise future TiO2 facade coating issues when this coating is applied on commercial buildings with concrete and stonemasonry facade materials.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A mixed-mode approach that includes a literature review, site investigation, instrumental case studies and expert interviews is used in this study.\nFindings: TiO2 coatings help improve facade performance whilst offering environmental benefits to society. This study reports that green maintainability design criteria are vital requirements in designing sustainable buildings at the outset. The identified defects and issues will aid in ensuring the effectiveness of TiO2 application in building facades.\nOriginality/value: This study acts as a foundation for future researchers to strengthen this little researched area, serves as a useful guide in preventing possible TiO2 coating issues and promotes industry awareness of the use of TiO2 facade coatings.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The franchise relationship in China: agency and institutional theory perspectives	[ "China", "Institutional theory", "Retail", "Qualitative", "Agency theory", "Franchise relationship" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The number of franchise outlets in China is estimated to grow to 800,000 by 2016, creating more than 10 million jobs (\nThe franchise relationship: Grunhagen and Dorsch (2003, p. 367) contend that \"the franchisor-franchisee relationship represents a partnership conducted as a form of relational exchange\". Relationship-building involves sharing of benefits and costs. The formal basis of the relationship is the franchise contract. The franchisor provides the franchisee with the right to sell products or services. In business format franchising, this includes use of a brand name owned by the franchisor. In return for a lump sum payment and an annual royalty fee based on sales, the franchisor gives the franchisee the right to use this intellectual property for a specified time period. The franchisee, in return for franchise fees, expects to operate in a supported and assisted environment (Fulop and Forward, 1997). Rahatullah and Raeside (2008, p. 27) describe relational exchange relationships as \"durable, dynamic, and adaptable\", emphasising that the relationship constructs of support, power and control, facilitate \"an effective, efficient, and long-lasting dyadic relationship\".\nTheoretical frameworks: Agency theory (Jensen and Meckling, 1976) is based on the concept of the principal-agent relationship: the principal delegates work to the agent to be carried out on the principal's behalf on a day-to-day basis. Two agency problems arise in this context: horizontal and vertical (Combs et al., 2004). The horizontal agency problem concerns the franchise brand and the potential for free-riding by franchisees (Brickley and Dark, 1987; Kidwell et al., 2007). The vertical agency problem concerns the potential for employees to act self interestedly against the wishes of management (Combs et al., 2004; Jensen and Meckling, 1976). Franchisees are not employees and will not shirk because income is directly related to effort: they are profit-motivated. Employees require closer monitoring than franchisees; therefore, franchising is expected to reduce monitoring costs (Rubin, 1987). However, the potential for opportunism and moral hazard remains. On the double agency problem, Combs et al. (2004, p. 912) conclude:\nFranchising in China: Dant (2008) highlights the North American dominance of franchising research. The challenge of emerging economies has attracted researchers (Welsh et al., 2006), although research to date has provided very little primary data collection and analysis of how the franchise relationship in China operates. Establishing an understanding of the regulatory pillar is the first step in providing a context for the current work.\nMethodology: Research position\nFindings and analysis: Franchise forms\nDiscussion: Table V details the main sources of power, control, support and conflict in the franchise relationship in China, from the perspective of both franchisors and franchisees. While the sources of power and control for franchisors largely conform to established understanding, that is, control through the contract, brand and support (Doherty and Alexander, 2006; Frazer et al., 2007; Lusch, 1976), it is the franchisee sources of power and control which exhibit fundamentally different characteristics. Those franchisees which possess important locations for their retail outlets are able to exert significant power and control in the relationship, resulting in franchisors not wishing to exert contractual power. Support services offered to franchisees, such as marketing, training and monitoring, have also been explored in previous studies (Doherty, 2007; McIntyre, 1996; Quinn, 1999). It is support via prior disclosure and the secure opt-out system which provides important insights, as these are support issues which the franchisor must provide to franchisees following the implementation of franchise legislation in China. Franchisees in this study derive extra confidence and reassurance from the legally required support mechanisms when making the decision to enter into a franchise relationship.\nImplications for franchising practice: Franchisors and franchisees already operating or considering entering into a franchise relationship in China must be aware that while franchising as an organisational form is growing, it is still at an early level of development. Franchising legislation does exist, and it requires franchisors to provide support to franchisees and financial reassurances which come from prior disclosure and the secure opt-out system. These issues encouraged franchisees in the current study to enter into the franchise system. That said, the institutional framework remains relatively weak and contract enforcement is difficult, particularly in the convenience store sector for those firms not practicing business format franchising. Franchisors would be advised to build and develop strong brands which would allow them to develop a business franchise format. This attracts franchisees that understand the power of the brand and are, therefore, less likely to act outside the system. Without a strong brand, many convenience store franchisors are simply employing franchising to distribute product and are reliant on a distribution system without strong infrastructure. This weakens their position vis-a-vis franchisees in a highly competitive price-driven market place.\nConclusion, limitations and areas of future research: This is an exploratory qualitative study and is therefore subject to the limitations of the method. The study is not intended to be generalisable, but these data are deemed to be of value in themselves, providing thick descriptions and rich details (Cope, 2011). That only one geographic area of China is addressed could be deemed a limitation of the current work. However, the Pearl River Delta is a very developed area of China, and it is a region which has been the site of previous related studies such as Bruton and Ahlstrom's (2003) work exploring the differences between Western venture capitalism and that which occurs in China. Franchisee informants in the current work were secured via their franchisor. There is the potential that franchisors chose their \"best\" franchisee. However, with the assurances of confidentiality, we are confident respondents discussed issues honestly: that a range of conflict sources were found is testament to that. Finally, this study is focused on two sectoral groups within retailing, shopping goods and convenience stores. This was a result of the sampling procedure (Cope, 2011) and all participant companies met the criteria set for inclusion in the study.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the franchise relationship in China, focusing on the relational constructs of power, control, support and conflict in this developing franchise environment. Agency theory has dominated franchise research. A more rounded theoretical interpretation of the franchising relationship is offered by employing both agency theory and institutional theory perspectives.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study adopts an interpretive approach, employing in-depth interviews with franchisors and franchisees in nine franchise organisations operating in the retail sector in China. It contributes a fuller understanding of how to manage the research process in China.\nFindings: The study reveals how the relational constructs of power, control, support and conflict are manifest in the franchise relationship in China. The explanatory power of agency theory is apparent when viewed in terms of the vertical agency problem. However, free-riding outside the franchise system, in the form of counterfeiting, mitigates against the occurrence of free-riding within it. With regard to institutional theory, we demonstrate that the regulatory institutional pillar is a crucial foundation for the franchise relationship.\nPractical implications: The study offers insights for franchisors and franchisees considering franchise relationships in China.\nOriginality/value: For the first time in the literature, this study offers insights into key elements of the franchise relationship in China. Employing both agency and institutional theories facilitates a rounded explanation of the developing franchise environment in China.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Exploring the motivation of affect management in fostering social media engagement and related insights for branding	[ "Affect", "Social media engagement", "Consumer–brand stories", "Mood adjustment" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Sentiment analysis is becoming a popular buzzword in social media analytics, in which companies can understand consumer feelings about particular brands along a continuum of positive to negative. This analysis is made through the adoption of algorithms referred to as natural language processing (Hovy, 2015), which captures words to mine sentiments. Brands such as Starbucks and the American Cancer Society incorporate such tools into their social media strategies to capture consumer sentiment and respond accordingly (Bort, 2012). The prevalence of sentiment analysis increases as consumers turn to social media to express a variety of emotions related to interactions with brands - from product complaints to joyful appreciation of exceptional customer service.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Motivations for social media engagement\n3. Research design: 3.1 Research methodology\n4. Findings and interpretation: 4.1 Affect and social media engagement\n5. Discussion: 5.1 Theoretical contributions\n6. Limitations and future research: This study is limited to qualitative data collection and analysis as a result of the lack of systematic research in the area of affect as a motivation for social media engagement. Future research can expand on the findings through conclusive research to shed further light on the types of content that are created and consumed based on differing affective states.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present an affect-based perspective to explain levels of social media engagement.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study uses face-to-face long interviews and online observation of the Facebook profiles of respondents over an eight-month period.\nFindings: Social media engagement varies depending on a user's current and desired affective state. When individuals are in a low to moderately aroused negative affective state (such as feeling bored or upset), individuals tend to spend time passively consuming content: the lowest level of engagement. In a low to moderately aroused positive mood state (such as happiness), users both passively consume and actively participate with relevant content by liking and commenting on existing content. When users are in a highly aroused positive affective state, the propensity to create original content is greater, reflecting the highest level of engagement. When users are in a highly aroused negative affective state (such as being angry at a brand), users are motivated to vent on social media to manage the mood. Conversely, when users are in a highly aroused negative affective state related to personal trauma, the avoidance of engagement on social media is evident.\nPractical implications: Brands can increase the likelihood of consumers creating positive consumer-brand stories offline and online by priming consumer affect.\nOriginality/value: This study explores how a desired affective state motivates varying levels of user engagement with different types of content on social media.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The evolution of SAP implementation environments: A case study from a complex public sector project	[ "Process management", "Computer software", "Armed forces", "United States of America" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1.0 Implementation methodologies: Implementation methodologies provide detailed instructions, templates, and accelerators to guide the customer when implementing standard software solutions. The SAP implementation methodology is the equivalent to the manufacturer's instructions that would come with a mechanical or electronic product. If the instructions are studied and adhered to, then one is more likely to achieve a successful implementation than if one does not follow the instructions. Hence, the implementation methodology is neither necessary nor sufficient for project success, but the trade and academic literature support the assertion that one is more likely to succeed while following a methodology than not. This paper addresses how implementation methodologies have evolved in large-scale public sector enterprise projects, such as those described in Gulledge (2003, 2004a), and in particular, the mySAP business suite (Gulledge et al., 2004b) This paper does not address the specific reason that the US Army decided to implement ERP, but we focus specifically on how the Army is planning to implement the SAP product. The benefits of SAP to the US Army are significant, and the benefit structure articulated by the Army is very similar to that address in Spathis and Constantinides (2003). Hence, from a research point of view this paper focuses on the initial phases of ERP implementation as described by Willis and Willis-Brown (2002). The general approach is consistent with Veasey (2001), But more focused on monitoring and managing an ongoing SAP implementation project using an enterprise solution architecture.\n2.0 Value SAP: First, we review the lifecycle of an SAP implementation. SAP's overall lifecycle approach is called Value SAP. Within Value SAP there are three primary phases:1. Discovery and evaluation (methodology used is customer solution strategy).2. Implementation (methodology used is ASAP or Global ASAP).3. Operations and continuous business improvement (methodology used is CBI).These phases repeat in a continuous circular fashion as the implementing organization evolves its installation of SAP. This paper focuses mainly on the implementation as opposed to the post go-live phase.2.1 Accelerated SAP\n3.0 Solution manager: The SAP Solution Manager is a platform that provides tools, integrated content, and the procedures needed to implement, support, and operate the MySAP solution. Solution Manager is NOT a new version of ASAP. It is a new tool and approach for managing SAP implementations, and it extends previous implementation concepts. Solution Manager is designed to manage all SAP products, not just SAP R/3. Hence, the Solution Manager is more than an implementation methodology. It is a tool that is embedded in the MySAP software, and the tool contains an implementation methodology.The Solution Manager retains some aspects of the ASAP methodology and the supporting tools, but the Solution Manager assumes the role of the onsite platform to support key implementation activities. In fact, it is the SAP implementation portal.The Solution Manager helps to:* ensure that the sap business blueprint will be configured, tested and monitored;* understand events that occurred during the implementation project;* ensure that components are built at the right time during the project;* monitor and manage implementation progress;* organize configuration and testing across a complex system landscape of sap components; and* manage and compare configurations across systems.Figure 2 presents the phases in which Solution Manager is used during the SAP implementation life-cycle.As previously mentioned, the Solution Manager is an implementation portal, providing all necessary implementation tools. It also integrates the project deliverables to improve implementation results while allowing the team to reuse outputs from earlier phases as input for following phases. For example, the Business Blueprint is integrated into the configuration process for use during activities such as SAP Customization as well as into the testing. The portal has the appearance of an implementation roadmap, which makes it easier to use the implementation methodology that is embedded inside Solution Manager. The Solution Manager implementation portal is presented in Figure 3.3.1 More tool than methodology\n4.0 Example: Solution Manager alternatives for the US Army: Solution Manager is a desired tool for the Army because of the complex system landscape. That is, the Army has three projects Logistics Modernization Program (LMP), Global Combat Support System - Army (GCSS-A), and Product Lifecycle Management Plus NetWeaver (PLM+), which must be consolidated into one integrated solution. This section provides one concept for how the Solution Manager and ARIS may be used together to manage and monitor across the Army's complex solution landscape.The assumption is that LMP, GCSS-A, and PLM+ will be managed as a single implementation program, with all projects sharing a common Business Blueprint that is stored in the SAP Solution Manager tool. This blueprint will be periodically synchronized with the Enterprise Architecture[5] using the bi-directional interface with the ARIS for MySAP Suite. The Army has established a Strategies, Architectures, and Standards Group (SASG) that will consult with the project teams to address inconsistencies in the implementation program relative to the plan. In this context, the plan is the Single Army Logistics Enterprise (SALE) architecture.The strategy of the section is to first show how the monitoring environment will work for a single implementation project. Once the basic concepts are introduced with a single project, then we will show how the concept scales to cover the three projects: LMP, PLM+, and GCSS-Army.The basic assumption is extended to include the version of the Solution Manager; i.e. all projects will use the Solution Manager, version 3.1 or later. A subset of the information stored in the Solution Manager is relevant to the SASG. Our preliminary analysis indicates that the SASG has sufficient information to complete its tasking using the Functional Implementation component and the Global Strategy Management component inside of Solution Manager. However, the implementation project teams should use all components of the Solution Manager. This allows the Army to standardize its implementation methodology, tools, and documentation across the logistics enterprise.4.1 The single project configuration\n5.0 Implications for end-to-end integration: Given the conclusions of Section 4, alternative three is not considered. If SAP cannot support alternative three with an automated solution, there is no value in the Army pursing it. The object-complexity of the Army's SAP implementation precludes consideration of an unsupported alternative. Manual processing across multiple Solution Manager instances is out of the question. Hence, we focus only on scenarios one and two.SAP has a modular orientation, but the solution is implemented to support cross-module business processes. This concept is easily understood by considering the business processes that are actually tested during integration testing. They are cross-module; not modular. If the integration test scenarios are sufficiently critical to be included in the testing, then from an Army point view, they are critical for implementation. They should be given special attention in the architecture as well as the solution.As an example, we consider one process that received attention in the SALE architecture study, weapon system sustainment. This process is presented in Figure 12.The business process in Figure 12 is an end-to-end scenario, flowing across GCSS-A, PLM+, and LMP. It is one uninterrupted Army business process, and it should be managed as such. Figure 13 presents a component view of the same business process.Notice that the business process flows across LMP, GCSS-A, and PLM+; satisfying the definition of an end-to-end process. Also, note that the business process is continuous; i.e. there are no breaks, and for it to operate efficiently, it should be managed as a single process. In fact, the OSD policy for Total Lifecycle System Management (TLCSM) requires that it be managed as a single process, with the weapon system program manager assuming the role of the National Asset Manager (NAM). Figure 13 represents scenario 1, and it provides the basis for end-to-end business process management.Now, consider the business process management implications of scenario 2. This scenario is a single Solution Manager, but LMP, GCSS-A, and PLM+ are stored in three independent project folders. This situation is indicated in Figure 14.As previously noted, this scenario requires that LMP, PLM+, and GCSS-A be managed as three independent projects, but the project executive would have visibility through a single ARIS instance that pulled information from the three projects and mapped them to the SALE architecture. On the surface, this alternative seems to provide autonomy and oversight. However, when the business process implications are examined, it is clear that end-to-end business process management is sub-optimized. The implications are presented in Figure 15.Figure 15 demonstrates that the projects do have autonomy, but the autonomy comes at the expense of a fragmented end-to-end business process. It is possible that the business process interactions could be managed across projects, but the management would have to be manual. We recommend against such an approach, since the DoD does not have a great record in managing business process integration across multiple project boundaries. Also, as Figure 15 indicates, the Process Executive loses end-to-end business process visibility.Scenario 3 requires that each project have an independent Solution Manager, with a fourth consolidating Solution Manager. The business process implications of scenario three are presented in Figure 16.The interesting thing about scenario three is that the business process implications are the same as scenario 2. This is interesting, since the technical implications of implementing and managing scenario three are more difficult than scenario 2. That is, the synchronization of business process scope across multiple Solution Managers is not supported by SAP; hence, manual synchronization across the multiple Solution Managers would be required. For our purposes, this fact does not matter, since scenarios two and three are both sub-optimal.\n6.0 Conclusions: This paper discusses the evolution of SAP's implementation methodologies and tools. The focus is on comparing Value SAP with the SAP Solution Manager. The objective is to understand why the Solution Manager is preferred over Value SAP, and also to understand how the Solution Manager can enhance implementation success in large and complex implementations. To meet these objectives, the paper describes how implementation methodologies relate to implementation tools, and also how the Solution Manager tool may be used to monitor complex SAP system landscapes.We also show how the ARIS for MySAP methodology and toolset can be used to enhance the capabilities of Solution Manager. This enhanced capability is a result of ARIS driving the Solution Manager scope from a business requirements perspective as opposed to an SAP product perspective.Finally, as an example, we show how the Solution Manager and ARIS can be used together to help the US Army manage three complex SAP implementations as one. This is accomplished by presenting a proposed implementation environment that is based on project monitoring and control from an Enterprise Architecture.The Solution Manager landscape options for the US Army are further analyzed in terms of program-level monitoring and evaluation, project-level configuration control, distribution and re-use of SAP objects, architectural alignment, and total cost of ownership. The results of this analysis are summarized below:* Option 1 - Single Solution Manager, single project: This option presents the baseline configuration for a solution manager landscape. All design, monitoring, management, and alignment activities are best achieved through this configuration. Overall total cost of ownership remains low given the requirements for maintaining a single-system landscape.* Option 2 - Single Solution Manager, multiple projects: Solution manager is designed to support SAP programs as well as projects, with the definition of a program being the centralized monitoring and oversight of multiple project-level activities. This option, therefore, presents an opportunity for the individual projects to retain control over configuration activities while affording integrated enterprise-wide evaluation of program progress and costs. Design and monitoring activities are integrated across the enterprise; architectural alignment is facilitated through the reuse of enterprise-level SAP objects; and overall total cost of ownership remains low because the multiple projects are maintained within one system.* Option 3 - Multiple Solution Managers, multiple projects: There does not appear to be any literature or case studies supporting this landscape. This option provides the individual projects with control of their activities but minimizes program-level effectiveness. As such, monitoring and evaluation are hampered by this landscape. While this scenario supports project-level configuration control, the project control is no greater than that provided to the projects in option 2. Architectural alignment becomes problematic in this environment because the distribution of objects across multiple solution manager systems can create synchronization errors and process overlaps. Finally, this landscape leads to exponential increases in total cost of ownership because of the requirement to maintain multiple systems and the probability of having to manually validate all distribution and synchronization activities.Our analysis clearly supports option 1 as presented in Figure 17.Option one supports end-to-end business process management, and it is the only option that allows the Army to manage the SALE architecture as a single integrated solution. Other options can be managed, but with cost and risk. The risk is fragmentation and divergence, which will eventually call for convergence. The cost of convergence is well understood, because our experience is that a re-install is required.This paper has reviewed the latest developments in SAP implementation methodologies from a management orientation. The issues in this paper are often taken for granted by researchers, so it is our hope that the focus on these issues will elevate interests in pursuing some of the unanswered questions as we continue to pursue the unfinished research agenda described in Al-Mashari (2003).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper seeks to describe the evolution of SAP implementation methodologies and tools, in particular, Value SAP, with a focus on the Accelerated SAP (ASAP) implementation methodology and its evolution as a part of SAP's new Solution Manager tool.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The general approach is more focused on monitoring and managing an ongoing SAP implementation project using an enterprise solution architecture. Three options are explored.\nFindings: - Finds that one option supports end-to-end business process management - other options can be managed, but with cost and risk.\nOriginality/value: - This paper has reviewed the latest developments in SAP implementation methodologies from a management orientation. The issues in this paper are often taken for granted by researchers, so it is hoped that the focus on these issues will elevate interests in pursuing some of the unanswered questions.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
International e-marketing: opportunities and issues	[ "International marketing", "Electronic commerce", "Globalization" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: E-marketing strategies entail utilizing existing and emerging communication and data networks to impart personalized and uninterrupted communication between the firm and its customers and to provide value above traditional networks (Watson et al., 2002). The opportunities of e-marketing are large as papers in this special issue will attest. However, in order to understand the opportunities and issues faced by e-marketing we examine the evolution of marketing practice. In the agricultural era and, recently, even in developing countries, consumers and businesses bought products close to their physical location and had them adapted toward their needs. In this structure, most marketing transactions were initiated by the customer and adapted to her/his specific needs (e.g. tailors and clothing). Production was typically initiated after receiving the customer order, and specialization was at a local level. This mode shifted with the advent of mass manufacturing and mass transportation (especially after World War II). The costs of mass-manufactured goods were dramatically lower than small-lot adaptable local products, leading to market dominance by mass-produced goods. Marketing also became more organization initiated as products were first manufactured and then marketed (Sheth et al., 2000).E-marketing creates a fundamental shift in business and consumer behaviors similar to that associated with the introduction of automobiles and telephones that reduced the need for channel immediacy. E-marketing uses the internet as a platform that allows firms to adapt to the needs of customers, reduces transaction costs, and allows customers to move from time- and location-based behaviors toward non-temporal and non-locational behaviors (Watson et al., 2002). E-marketing is similar to agricultural-age marketing, with direct recurring relationships between consumer and producer but with lower costs (Sheth et al., 2000; Sheth and Sharma, 2004).The implementation of e-marketing strategies in international markets adds an increased level of complexity. There are justifications in examining common e-marketing strategies due to the communalities across international markets (Levitt, 1983; Ghosal, 1987; Walters, 1986; Wind, 1986; Yip, 1989; Samiee and Roth, 1992). However, country's infrastructure for e-marketing strategies and different stages marketing institutional development leads us to suggest targeted strategic development of e-marketing strategies in different countries (Quelch and Hoff, 1986; Douglas and Wind, 1987).Our emphasis in this paper is to identify e-marketing opportunities and issues in international markets based on country development. Building on the work done by us and with our colleagues (Sheth et al., 2000; Sheth and Sharma, 2004), we begin the paper by discussing e-marketing advantages of costs and reach in international markets. We then develop a framework for classifying countries based on the \"countries infrastructure development\" and \"countries marketing institutional development.\" Based on this classification, we develop a framework that examines the type of e-marketing strategies that will be successful in different international contexts. The implications of the international e-marketing strategies on the theory and practice of marketing - first from the marketers' perspective and then from the customers' perspectives are then discussed. The final section highlights the implications of these findings on marketing thought and practice. Research propositions are presented throughout the manuscript.\nAdvantages of e-marketing in international operations: The primary advantages of e-marketing is reducing costs and enhancing reach. The cost of an e-marketing platform is typically lower than other marketing platforms such as face-to-face salespeople or middlemen/distributors (Watson et al., 2002). In addition, e-marketing allows firms to reach customers that may not be accessible due to temporal and locational limitations of existing distribution channels. E-marketing platforms increase reach and reduce costs by providing three areas of advantage for customers. First, the marketing firm can provide unlimited information to customers without human intervention. This is an advantage over other forms of contact because the amount of information that can be provided is much greater than in any other form of communication. Additionally, and more importantly, the information can be provided in a form that customers can easily process and understand. For example, airline scheduling and reservation systems are very difficult to create and maintain to serve individual needs. Additionally, in this context, the choices are large and difficult to provide in any format that is better that the e-marketing or web-based format. Second, the e-marketing firm can create interactions by customizing information for individual customers that allow customers to design products and services that meet their specific requirements (Watson et al., 2002). For example, online checking and seat assignment can be done on the internet. Finally, e-marketing platforms can allow transactions between customers and firms that would typically require human contact as in the case of successful firms such as Dell and amazon.com.\nCountry effects on e-marketing: The framework\nCountry classification, opportunities and threats: Based on country classification, we now examine how the emergence of e-marketing will effect country-level marketing practices. The key reasons for e-marketing will be to reduce costs and increase reach.Evolution of successful e-marketing strategies\nWhat type of e-marketing will succeed in different countries: In this section, we suggest that successful e-marketing strategies in international markets will depend on existing infrastructure and marketing institutions. These expectations are shown in Figure 2.As discussed earlier, in countries with developed infrastructure and competitive marketing institutions the focus will be on reducing marketing costs and increasing reach. In these countries, an e-marketing strategy that will be successful will be brick and click strategies. Through e-marketing strategies firms that have physical presence can easily increase reach and reduce costs by developing e-marketing strategies. We see retailers such as Wal-Mart, manufacturers such as Dell and Cisco, and service firms such as Pizza Hut effectively use e-marketing strategies to reduce costs and increase reach. In addition, catalog firms will utilize successful e-marketing strategies that are similar to bricks and clicks (multiple channels) to reduce costs and increase reach. We also expect a dramatic rise in e-marketing strategies that can provide products and services in a digitized format to be successful. Digitized information reduces the need to deliver products and services for the marketing firm and reduces the need to physically obtain products and services for the customer. As an example, e-marketing strategies that allow airlines to provide e-tickets and boarding passes are successful. Similarly, other digitized product and service sites for music (e.g. iTunes), software (e.g. Norton) and information (e.g. Wall Street Journal) are increasingly successful. In addition, publishers such as Thompson, Reuters and Bloomberg have very successful e-marketing strategies in delivery digital content to their customers.In countries that demonstrate developed infrastructure but restricted marketing institutional development, the focus will be on disintermediation. We think that this process can take two paths. First, third party e-marketers will emerge. These e-marketing firms will be equivalent to physical retail institutions but with dramatically lower cost structures. These third party retailers will be more successful in these countries because of the high cost of existing marketing institutional. Examples of such third party retailers are amazon.com and buy.com. Second, firms will develop e-marketing strategies that will allow them to bypass existing channels of distribution. This type of successful marketing strategies has been followed by firms such as Dell, IBM, and Movado.Countries that have low levels of infrastructure development but have developed marketing institutional will develop two types of e-marketing strategies - buying groups and alternative infrastructure. In the former case, buyers will get together to develop infrastructure that will allow members to take advantage of e-marketing strategies. An example of this type of strategy are the credit card processing systems that banks have established in countries such as Mexico and Brazil to enable both banks and customers to take advantage of e-marketing strategies. This type of infrastructure is in contrast to the competitive infrastructures that banks developed in developed countries such as the US. The second type of e-marketing strategy firms use is to extend e-marketing institutional to customers. We discussed the example of Lojas Americanas a Brazilian department store chain that provides access to its web site and virtual store at www.americanas.com.br inside the store through kiosks.In countries where there is both low infrastructure development and low marketing institutional development, successful e-marketing strategies will include an extension of both infrastructure and marketing institutions. Typically, these strategies will be firm driven e-marketing strategies and/or corporate exchanges. Firm driven e-marketing strategies will typically involve firms providing e-marketing services that bypass the lack of traditional infrastructure. Examples of firms using mobile phones have been discussed earlier. In addition, some firms such as airlines (e.g. Jet Airlines in India) will provide e-marketing access, as their primary customer (business traveler) has access to e-marketing institutional. Another successful e-marketing approach is a corporate exchange where the firm provides access to its infrastructure and also provide customers an easy access to firm. These types of infrastructure have been developed by firms such as Tata Steel in India.\nHow international e-marketing will change marketing theory and practice: In the previous sections, we discussed e-marketing strategies and outcomes in different countries. In this and the subsequent section, we discuss the impact of international e-marketing strategies on the processes of firms and customer behaviors. This section is been based on research by Sheth et al. (2002) and Sharma (2004).Marketing practices and processes\nManagerial implications and directions for future research: This paper examined a critical and interesting area of research - e-marketing strategies in different country contexts. We developed a framework to first classify countries based on their infrastructure development and marketing institutional development. We examined the evolution of e-marketing strategies in these countries with exemplars of the more successful strategies that will emerge. This paper has implications for both managers and future research.Managerial implications\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - E-marketing is growing at a dramatic pace and is significantly impacting customer and business market behaviors. As a result, most firms have started developing e-marketing strategies for the web. However, the evolution and strategic direction of e-marketing strategies in international environments has not been discussed and is the focus of this paper.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In this paper, the authors examine two issues based on extant literature and our previous research in this area. The authors discuss e-marketing in an international context and develop a framework that will allow researchers and managers to understand the impact of country level effects on e-marketing strategies. The paper proposes that the evolution of e-marketing strategies is based on the countries infrastructure and marketing institutional development.\nFindings: - It is found that international e-marketing strategies are fundamentally changing, and will continue to change, marketing thought and practice in international markets. The paper suggests that the e-markets of tomorrow may have little resemblance to the markets of today.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The paper suggests that additional conceptual and methodological research is required in this area. Propositions are derived that will provide directions for future research.\nPractical implications: - Firms need to better monitor their international environments to determine the type of strategy that they need to follow. The proposed strategies are - brick and click strategies, digitization, disintermediation, buying groups and alternative infrastructure, firm driven e-marketing strategies, and corporate exchanges.\nOriginality/value: - This paper is the first attempt to examine the relationship between a country's infrastructure, marketing institutions and the appropriate e-marketing strategies.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Models, definitions, and outcome variables of action learning: A synthesis with implications for HRD	[ "Action learning", "Modelling", "Knowledge management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Since Reg Revans introduced action learning in the 1940s, there have been multiple variations of the concept, but all forms of action learning share the elements of real people resolving and taking action on real problems in real time and learning while doing so (Marquardt, 2004, p. 1).\nProblem statement: Four models of action learning and its proponents were examined according to the literature. Yet, among these models, critical empirical research may not support the linkage between the model and espoused outcomes. There are gaps in action learning theories presented in the literature because of the disconnect between the models and the application of action learning. For example, Paton (2001) asserted that the action learning conceptual framework is not complete, and there is a need for more systems modeling and action learning methodologies that that are \"common, proved forms\" (p. 110). Torraco underscored the significance of \"conceptually structuring a topic\" which \"requires the author to adopt a guiding theory [in the form of] a set of competing models or a point of view about the topic\" (Torraco, 2005, p. 359). Yet, it is known which process of investigation, methodologies, and the underlying theories of the models are effective in producing the desirable, predictable outcomes, such as the capacity to \"influence strategic decision making\" (Gregory, 1994a, p. 42). This article explores variations in action learning models according to the espoused outcomes.Brix (1983) argued that \"the emphasis [of action learning] is so much on the pragmatic aspect that we may easily lose sight of the need for a theory or, at least, some logical, coherent methodology to guide those pursuing managerial pragmatism\" (p. 497). Further, models are necessary for synthesizing the various theoretical perspectives and methodologies necessary to employ action learning for prescribed purposes. Synthesis of theory and research extends beyond a review of existing literature to include an examination of new knowledge, which can be expressed through the development of a new model (Torraco, 2005).More synthesis is necessary \"to summarize new knowledge\" pertaining to the conceptual framework of action learning (Torraco, 2005, p. 362). Lynham (2002) defined the conceptual development phase of theory building as an \"informed conceptual framework that provides an initial understanding and explanation of the nature and dynamics of the issue, problem, or phenomenon that is the focus of the theory\" (Lynham, 2002, p. 231).\nPurpose: The purpose of this article is to propose an integrated model of action learning based on an examination of four reviewed action learning models, definitions, and espoused outcomes. The models presented were selected on the basis of identifying distinct phases of the action learning process with respect to specific methods. For example, Paton's (2001) models discuss soft systems methodology in relation to action learning. Gregory's (1994a, b) models articulate how action research is a method for approaching the action learning process. A clear articulation of the strengths and limitations of each model is essential to developing an integrated model, which could be applied to Lynham's (2002) general method of theory building research in applied disciplines. Subsequently, the proposed integrated action learning model and the underlying theories can be tested, \"refined and developed\" (Lynham, 2002, p. 231) based on application, as part of future research. Lynham's general method of theory building model and Dubin's methodology for theory building are necessary to serve as a guide for theory building research to close the gap between the models and application of action learning.\nResearch questions: The following research questions were developed for this study:RQ1. What are the definitions of the reviewed action learning models and the espoused model outcomes?RQ2. How does theoretical model building take place to develop an integrated model of action learning based on the four review models?RQ3. How can the four reviewed action learning models be linked to action research, change theories, and systems theory to form an integrated model?\nTheoretical framework: Dubin's methodology for theory building (Dubin, 1978; cited in Torraco, 2000) served as the framework for developing an integrated model based on the four models of action learning. This section provides a discussion of how the integrated model was constructed as it relates to Dubin's methodology. Dubin's requirements for establishing a theory are:* \"units or concepts of theory\";* \"laws of interaction among the units\";* \"the boundaries in which the theory is expected to apply\"; and* \"conditions under which the theory is operative\" (Torraco, 2000, p. 41).More research is needed to complete the last four phases of the model which include, the \"logical deductions about the theory in operation\" (Torraco, 2000, p. 41) and the testing of the relationships among the units of the model.First, the authors identified the distinct phases represented in the four models. Second, the authors noted the proposed methodologies explaining the relationships among the phases of action learning and how one phase informs the next. For instance, the framing of the problem affects the actions that are taken to investigate an organizational issue. The models structured according to Lewin's change model include planning as a distinct phase both prior to reflecting on the problem and after identifying solutions. Third, the authors established the boundaries for the integrated model as organizational issues that human resource development professionals encounter in the workplace. Fourth, the integrated model represents the phases of action learning and is designed to be operative during periods of internal and external changes.Lynham's (2002) general method of theory building sets forth the four phases of theory building that are needed to further research conceptual development and the other phases of theory development. The phases of Lynham's model are outlined in Figure 1. For a full discussion of the model, see Lynham (2002).The first phase, i.e. conceptual development, consists of \"developing an informed conceptual framework that provides an initial understanding and explanation of the nature and dynamics of the issue, problem, or phenomenon that is the focus of the theory\" (Lynham, 2002, p. 231). This article will emphasize the conceptual development phase.The purpose of the second phase, i.e. operationalization, \"is essentially an explicit connection between the conceptual development phase and practice\". Empirical confirmation of the \"initial explanation of the phenomenon, problem, or issue\" should be provided. \"To achieve this necessary confirmation, the theoretical framework must be translated, or converted, to observable, confirmable components/elements\" (Lynham, 2002, p. 232).The third phase, i.e. confirmation/disconfirmation, \"involves the planning, design, implementation, and evaluation of an appropriate research agenda and studies to purposefully inform and intentionally confirm or disconfirm the theoretical framework central to the theory\" (Lynham, 2002, p. 232). During the application phase, the theory is tested through \"experience and learning from the real-world application [...] and the practice gets to judge and inform the usefulness and relevance of the theory for improved action and problem solving\" (p. 232). The continuous refinement and development phase is based on the learning from the application phase because a \"theory is never complete\" (p. 232).\nMethod: The literature was reviewed primarily through searching Business Source Premier, Academic Source Premier, WorldCat, Dissertation Abstracts, and Emerald using search terms such as \"action learning, studies, and business\" The key words \"action learning\", \"definition of action learning\" and \"action learning and leadership\" were used in JSTOR and Google Scholar. Advanced searches in WorldCat and Business Source Premier used a combination of search terms, such as \"action learning or experiential learning and executives-training of\". These database searches at a major university yielded a total of 134 resources, which were reviewed for history of action learning, models, definitions and outcomes. Only resources that discussed action learning \"process\" models, illustrating the phases of action learning, were included in the review. Action learning \"program\" models were eliminated. European and US journals were accessed. There were 26 electronic articles and eight books related to either action learning models, methods and methodologies, outcomes, and/or the history of action learning that were examined.\nHistory of action learning: Motivated to \"heal the schisms within society\" such as the \"conflict between education and industry at large\", Revans was first drawn to the coal-mining industry (Revans, 1982a, p. 5). He recognized the need for more relevant education in British industries as a means of \"regenerating\" industry (Revans, 1982a, p. 6). The first action learning program was implemented at the British National Coal Board in 1952, where he studied how managers trained new miners. During the 1950s, he studied the relationship between sizes of work units, and learning and communication in both the mines and hospitals (Revans, 1982). Hospitals were of interest because of the \"divisions between nurses and administration\". He noted many similarities between the mines and hospitals in terms of demanding work, technical knowledge, and employee relations issues (Revans, 1982, p. 12).Gradually, action learning, originally designed as a management development tool, evolved into a vehicle for facilitating change. Revans stated: \"you cannot change the system unless you also change your 'self'\" (Revans, 1982, p. 13). He described the types of work-related questions that should be asked as part of self-reflection to extend beyond \"programmed knowledge\", which is what one was taught (Revans, 1982, p. 13). During the 1980s, universities around the world were using action learning. Reg Revans wrote several books such as Action Learning: New Techniques for Management (Revans, 1980), The Origins of Action Learning (Revans, 1982), and ABC of Action Learning (Revans, 1983). During the 1990s, the Global Institute of Action Learning and Revans's Institute of Action Learning were formed (Stein and Farmer, 2004).\nMajor contributions to action learning: The models incorporated into the integrated model include:* the Action Learning Group Process Model (Gregory, 1994a);* the Systemic Action Learning Cycle (Paton, 2001);* Systemic Action Learning Spiral (Paton, 2001); and* the Continuous Learning Model (Watkins and Marsick, 1993).Each model is described in terms of its definition, espoused outcomes, and strengths and limitations. Following the consideration of each individual model, a table is presented that synthesizes the relevant information for HRD professionals, and finally, a synthesis model is offered that attempts to combine the strengths of each of the reviewed models in hopes of suggesting an updated best practice model for applied action learning.Action Learning Group Process Model\nSummary table of model characteristics: Table I summarizes the definitions and outcomes of the four predominant action learning models presented in this article. Each model is displayed in first row. The corresponding definitions of the models are cited according to the major author in the second row. The espoused outcomes based on the author's definitions and quotations are presented in the third row.\nResults: Action learning researchers acknowledge the multiple factors such as the facilitation, the purpose of using action learning, and the participants that influence the impact of action learning; however, the integrated model focuses exclusively on the process. Applying Dubin's methodology of theory building, the \"units\" of the models (Dubin, 1978) were identified through incorporating action learning, action research, and soft systems methodology as an approach to organizational modeling for planning change. Figure 6 displays the integrated action learning model based on the Action Learning Group Process Systemic Action Learning Cycle, and Systemic Action Learning Spiral. It consists of four phases with emphasis on action research methods presented in the center of the model. Common themes were examined according to the model structure, phases, methods, and methodologies. This section will discuss the analysis of each of these areas in terms of the integration of the four predominant models of action learning.The proposed Integrated Action Learning Model\nImplications for theory, practice, and research: This section provides an analysis of the implications for theory, research, and practice of the proposed integrated model for action research. Certainly, the introduction of a revised model for action learning must be examined before being implemented; however, given that the proposed model is based on integrating the current \"best practices\" in terms of the models used for conducting action research projects, it is logical that the proposed model can already be claimed as based on sound research and theory. It is also clear that model building and development are never really complete (Dubin, 1978; cited in Torraco, 2000; Lynham, 2002); thus, our recommendations are to continue examining the proposed and other models in use with a critical eye toward their integration of theory and continued investigation via sound research.Implications for theory\nConclusion: This article presented four major action learning models including the definitions, outcomes, strengths and limitations, and the resulting integrated model. The objective of the integrated action learning model is to improve decision-making related to facilitating change from an HRD perspective, given the theories and principles underlying each model. Certainly, the model should be \"refined and developed\" (Lynham, 2002, p. 231). The integrated model blends the essential components of action learning and action research together, while providing the HRD practitioner flexibility in using multiple methodologies. The model also illustrates the relationship between action learning and the formation of management and planning strategies, which HRD practitioners could have a more significant role in as the knowledge base about learning transfer increases.Dewar and Sharp (2006) stated that \"[action learning] is increasingly being used in action research or practice development initiatives to support practitioners throughout the change process\" (p. 221). The integrated model could serve as the basis for gaining new knowledge about systems theory, soft systems methodology, and action research as it relates to action learning and change facilitation. It is the authors' intent that the proposed integrated model will spur further theory building research in employing action learning as an organizational change intervention.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to propose an integrated model of action learning based on an examination of four reviewed action learning models, definitions, and espoused outcomes.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A clear articulation of the strengths and limitations of each model was essential to developing an integrated model, which could be applied to Lynham's general method of theory-building research in applied disciplines. The paper examined common themes according to the model structure, methods, and methodologies. The four models selected for this review were Gregory's Group Action Learning Process Model, Paton's Systemic Action Learning Cycle, Paton's Systemic Action Learning Spiral, and Watkins and Marsick's Continuous Learning Model.\nFindings: - A comparison of the key variations in the definitions of action learning and desired outcomes explained differences in model designs. HRD practitioners need a better understanding of the variables that affect the outcomes of action learning through exploring learning transfer issues and through testing multiple methodologies. Similarly, the integrated model was designed to indicate how change takes place within an organization, dictated by either internal or external factors. A description of the construction of the integrated model is provided.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Owing to the disconnect between the conceptual development and application phases of theory-building research, more empirical evidence is needed to support the connection between action learning models and methodologies and desired outcomes. The integrated model was designed from a systems perspective with particular emphasis on soft systems in the problem and analysis phases to illustrate the role of organizational modeling of the relationships among members, processes, and the internal and external environment. HRD practitioners could re-examine their decision making, particularly in approaching large-scale change. HRD practitioners could document their specific approaches to action learning, including a combination of action research methods and soft systems methodologies. A comparison of outcomes versus the methodologies could be made.\nOriginality/value: - The objective of the integrated action learning model is to improve decision making related to facilitating change from an HRD perspective, given the theories and principles underlying each model. The integrated model could serve as the basis for gaining new knowledge about critical systems theory and action research as it relates to action learning and change facilitation. It is the paper's intent that the proposed integrated model will spur further theory-building research in employing action learning as an organizational change intervention.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Monetary policy surprises and jumps in interest rates: evidence from Brazil	[ "Interest rates", "Jumps", "Monetary policy surprises" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In this paper, we shed light on the market reaction to changes in the Brazilian central bank's target interest rate. Such policymaking consists of deciding whether or not to change the target rate and, if so, to what extent. This decision not only affects short-term market rates, but also long-term rates, thus affecting the value of interest-rate-linked assets and influencing spending in interest-rate-sensitive sectors of the economy such as housing, consumer durable goods, and investments. In this sense, studying the market reaction to monetary policy is important not only to assess the effectiveness of monetary policy but also to assess the central bank's predictability in executing monetary policy[1].\n2. Literature review: The predominant approach to assess market reaction to monetary policy is based on the event-study approach introduced by Cook and Hahn (1989). In this approach, one-day changes in interest rates are regressed against the respective changes in the target rate, i.e. (Equation 1), where (Equation 2) is the change in the market interest rate with maturity i and DTarget\n3. A monetary-jump model for interest rates: In this section we review the monetary-jump model used in this paper. We consider that interest rates follow a process of the form:\n4. Empirical implementation: In this section we describe the empirical application of the monetary-jump model discussed in Section 3. We provide a description of the data set, implementation details, and finally, discuss the results.\n5. Concluding remarks: The importance of jumps in explaining the volatility of interest rates depends intrinsically on how central banks shape market expectations regarding the target rate (Roley and Sellon, 1995). One expects that the higher the central bank's predictability, the lower the contribution toward jumps should be, since in this case market expectations regarding monetary policy are incorporated in a smoother way. Conversely, one expects that the contribution toward jumps is higher the less predictable the central bank is. Specifically for the Brazilian economy, these market expectations were largely shaped by the introduction of the inflation-targeting framework in 1999. Tabak (2004), for instance, finds that the adoption of inflation-targeting led to a dampening effect of interest rate surprises along the term structure. Furthermore, the political stability and the macroeconomic equilibrium that Brazil enjoyed after 2003 also affected agents' reaction to monetary policy. In particular, Buchholz et al. (2012) find that surprises in policymaking for the period before this macroeconomic equilibrium are considerably higher. The evidence provided in this paper amends the existing literature in several aspects. First, we employ a more robust econometric framework with respect to the event-study approach adopted by Tabak (2004) and Buchholz et al. (2012). Our approach, which is based on a mixture GARCH-jump model, disentangles the total volatility of interest rates in a GARCH component that accounts for the \"normal\" volatility and a jump component that accounts for the abrupt changes that are likely to be induced from unexpected changes in monetary policy. Second, our empirical evidence based on daily DI-Pre swap rates with post-2003 data and with five distinct maturities shows that the jump contribution to total volatility varies substantially over time, and that the probability of a jump occurring during a meeting day is higher than the probability of a jump occurring in non-meeting day. We also find that monetary policy surprises in Brazil are more likely to induce jumps in interest rates in comparison to the European evidence reported by Leon and Sebestyen (2012).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to consider a monetary-jump model to measure the contribution of jumps to the total volatility of interest rates in the Brazilian interbank market and to assess the extent to which the central bank's unanticipated monetary policy decisions are driving these jumps.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors use a sample of swap rates contracts with different maturities to estimate a mixture GARCH-jump model that disentangles two components of interest rate volatility: a GARCH-type specification that models conditional heteroskedasticity to account for the volatility during \"normal\" times and a Poisson process that models the occurrence of abrupt changes in interest rates.\nFindings: The contribution of jumps to the total volatility is substantial, and monetary policy decisions partly explain the occurrence of those jumps. In particular, the authors find that the likelihood of a jump occurring during a meeting day of the Brazilian central bank's monetary policy committee (COPOM) is higher in comparison to that of a non-meeting day.\nResearch limitations/implications: The occurrence of jumps in the term structure of interest rates raises the question of the transmission mechanism of the monetary policy through the asset price channel as well as the relation between jumps and economic fundamentals.\nPractical implications: Communication between the central bank and the market will affect expectations and asset values. If the central bank's decisions generate fewer jumps, then the variance of the interest rate-linked asset values will also be reduced.\nOriginality/value: The paper employs a new approach to assess monetary policy surprises to a set of Brazilian interest rate data and relates the occurrence of jumps to the macroeconomic environment.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Increasing smart city competitiveness and sustainability through managing structural capital	[ "Strategic management", "Intellectual capital management", "Smart city", "Knowledge management", "Intellectual capital", "Urban development" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The concept of smart city (SC) has emerged recently and appears to be equated with a strategy to tackle the opportunities and challenges of increasing urbanization (Caragliu et al., 2011; IDC Government Insights, 2013; EU Parliament, 2014). However, despite its worldwide dissemination, the concept's definition is still fuzzy and the theoretical background can be described as heterogeneous and vague (Dameri, 2013). An analysis of scientific and grey literature allows drawing boundaries and meanings of an SC, considering both the city itself and its \"smartness\" and the processes to transform a city into a smarter one.\n2. IC roots in the SC concept: a literature review: SC is a complex approach to metropolitan challenges and opportunities (Giffinger et al., 2007). It is strongly based on innovative technologies, but especially on ICT that supports the pivotal role of data and information gathering, processing, and sharing (Ishida, 2002; Komninos, 2008). This specificity of an SC is an important way to produce and capitalize knowledge in intangible assets which in turn make SC's IC (Dameri and Ricciardi, 2015).\n3. Methodology: The methodological framework presented below is based on a literature review and takes into account the following aspects of the relationship between SCs and IC:\n4. Conclusions: SCs are emerging all over the world and seem to be the outcome of urban strategies aiming at implementing better cities, with respect to aspects such as reducing pollution, improving public services, supporting more effective governance systems, and eventually increasing city competitiveness and attractiveness. An SC itself is an intellectual body, not only because it is strongly based on processes using data and information to produce knowledge about the city, but also because it is rooted in a reasoning system, where all the leading actors produce a living and reasoning system distinct from the ones of other cities and capable of showing a rational behaviour, of choosing courses of action, and of pursuing the objectives set in domains such as transports, communications, quality of life, and economy.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore and discuss possible solutions to integrate the concepts of smart city (SC) and intellectual capital management, especially referring to structural capital. On the basis of this, the authors propose a theoretical framework that highlights the relevance of structural capital for strategic and operational planning of smarter cities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a neuropsychological analogy, the authors assume that the development of SCs corresponds to the development of a sensorial or even a nervous system for cities based on their structural capital, and the development of city intellectual capital (CIC) corresponds to a further phase of the cities' mind development. The authors propose a practical framework that combines the concepts of city nervous system and city mind. It can be used as an instrument for project management. In this model, sensorial data - associated with the implementation of cities' sensorial systems - should naturally contribute with open data to the development of higher abstract functions that in turn supports the creation of CIC.\nFindings: This paper highlights the interrelations between intellectual capital (IC) (especially its structural component) and SC and their synergic capability of improving both an SC's competitiveness and sustainability, and by this illustrates the benefits of combining both concepts in a common theoretical framework.\nResearch limitations/implications: Given the paper's theoretical nature, the empirical validation of the proposed framework is missing. This limitation will be addressed in forthcoming empirical research.\nOriginality/value: By proposing a framework that combines the concepts of SC and IC, the paper contributes to theory development regarding the strategic management of cities and the application of IC.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Lean Six Sigma for public sector organizations: is it a myth or reality?	[ "Six Sigma", "Lean Six Sigma", "Lean", "Case studies", "Public sector" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Given the wide range of services provided in the UK public sector and the different ways in which those services touch individuals and communities, the breadth and scale of public sector can be easily missed. The financial crisis of 2007 resulted in significant reductions in public sector funding with an associated reduction in the size of the sector itself. The public sector currently employs 5.35 million people in the UK (Office of National Statistics, 2016a, b). The number of people employed in the UK public sector can be further broken down into 2.23 million employed in local government and 2.95 million employed in central government departments. Further, 1.61 million people are employed in the National Health Service (NHS), which accounts for approximately 30 percent of all public employment, and 1.51 million people are employed in education, another public sector.\nLean Six Sigma (LSS): The last two decades have witnessed an increased pressure from customers and competitors for greater value from their purchase whether based on superior quality, faster delivery, or lower cost (or a combination of all) in both manufacturing and service sectors (Evans and Lindsay, 2005). Lean and Six Sigma are two popular and dominant process excellence methodologies widely adopted by a number of manufacturing and service organizations for achieving process efficiency and effectiveness, which results in superior customer service experience, superior product and service quality, enhanced business profitability, and sustainable competitive advantage (Sitkin et al., 1994).\nLSS in the UK public sector organizations: As previously noted, the public sector in the UK remains both a significant employer over a range of areas, notably health and education. The UK public sector is maintained at a significant cost to the taxpayer, albeit with financial challenges that have been growing since 2007 and will continue over the next decade. Based on the current situation, it is necessary to direct public services to where the general public and service users specifically most need and value these services in the most effective and efficient manner.\nLSS - case examples: Although LSS has been around for nearly 15 years, a number of professionals in public sector organizations still view LSS as limited to manufacturing with little relationship with business processes in higher education, councils, fire and rescue, ambulance and police services, and healthcare environments. The purpose of this section is to illustrate how LSS is not just confined to manufacturing and service sectors; rather, LSS can be equally applied to public sector settings. The following subsections present a number of simple but powerful case examples carefully chosen from a number of public sector organizations (e.g. public hospital, university, police service) where LSS projects have been successfully executed.\nConclusion: The Local Government Association has predicted that councils around the country will face a shortfall of almost PS10bn by 2020 due to a variety of factors and before any further cuts are even made. The same is the case for all other public sector organizations across the country, including the NHS, higher education institutions, police force, and fire and ambulance services, among others. The question which arises, therefore, is how exactly local government and other public sector organizations can survive or even flourish in the forthcoming years. The LSS methodology can be embraced by all public sector organizations to create efficient and effective processes to provide enhanced customer experience and value at reduced operational costs. Further, the application of LSS is more widely spread than many people realize but there has not yet been an evidential base showing exactly how beneficial the use of LSS in the public service has been to date. Additionally, activity has been delivered on a piecemeal basis, which can lead to the feeling that it is a fad or something that is done to them by consultants or specialists rather than sustainable and good practice in delivering public services across the entire gamut of the sector. The key question is how the public sector should work together to maximize benefits, reduce duplication, and deliver a customer-focused and integrated service.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Lean Six Sigma (LSS) as a process excellence has been widely adopted in both manufacturing and service organizations; however, its application in the public sector has not been widely explored. Is LSS still a myth or reality in our public sector organizations? The purpose of this paper is to make an attempt to debate about the use of LSS and its potential applications in the public sector context.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The initial approach is to critically evaluate the role of LSS in various public sector contexts, followed by showcasing four case studies from four different public sector settings: higher education, police service, public hospital and local government.\nFindings: LSS methodology can be embraced by all public sector organizations to create efficient and effective processes to provide enhanced customer experience and value at reduced operational costs.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper seeks to contribute to and broaden the limited body of evidence of the applicability of LSS to public sector organizations and identifies areas for further research and review.\nPractical implications: LSS will continue to grow across many public sector organizations in Europe and other parts of the world over the forthcoming years. However, what will eventually determine if LSS is viewed by public sector organizations as just a passing management fad or not largely depends on the leadership and success of its execution. If LSS is deployed in its true sense across the public sector organizations at a global level, the hard cash savings generated can reach several billions.\nOriginality/value: The paper yields an immense value to both research scholars and practitioners who are engaged in the introduction of LSS as a business process improvement strategy to achieve and sustain competitive advantage. Moreover, this paper makes an attempt to dispel the myth of LSS which have been quite prevalent in many public sector organizations around us today.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]

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