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Impact of parenthood on women's careers in the IT sector - a study in the Indian context	[ "Gender", "Career development", "Diversity management", "IT sector" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Until recently, the traditional career advancement model, characterised by full-time, long-term organisational employment and continued commitment to one's organisation, has always formed the basis for studying gender issues within organisations (Valcour and Ladge, 2008). In the context of today's knowledge-driven economy, however, today's modern organisation is more characterised by downsizing, constant competitive pressures, democratisation of work life, decreased job security, increased workforce diversity, expanding use of outsourcing and part-time and temporary employees (Sullivan and Baruch, 2009).Moreover, there is evidence of poignant changes in individuals' attitudes towards their careers. This is due to many factors like increasing lifespans and work life; changing family structures, including the increasing number of dual-career couples, single working parents and employees with eldercare responsibilities; and an ever-growing number of individuals seeking personal growth and development rather than seeing jobs in the traditional light of earning livelihoods (Sullivan, 2010). All these factors have made individuals, irrespective of gender, age and ethnicity, to rethink their career outcomes, and thereby initiate self-directed careers (Tharenou, 2009). Many individuals have begun choosing lateral, or even downward, job moves to fulfil personal needs (Hall et al., 2008).In the context of these changing attitudes towards full-time employment, career persistence and advancement patterns, the purpose of this study is to analyse the impact of factors, such as working mothers' attitudes towards career role salience, notions of career success, work-life balance and the impact of organisational support systems available for childcare, on career persistence, despite parenthood and career re-entry after parenthood. It is conducted among new age, young, working mothers of the booming IT sector in India, a sector whose organisations fit today's modern organisations tag.Section 1 of the paper provides an overview of women's employment participation in the Indian IT sector, their career trajectory patterns, reasons for the existence of the \"leaky\" pipeline due to marriage and motherhood. The following section contextualises the hypotheses with the existing literature concerning the concepts of career role salience, notions of career success, work interfering with family and family interfering with work conflicts, concerning working mothers in the Indian IT sector. The following section describes the research methodology and findings of the study, followed by the discussion and the importance of the findings on career re-entry and advancement of women in the context of career breaks due to parenthood and childcare responsibilities.\nWorking mothers' career trajectory patterns in the Indian IT sector: This section explores the factors responsible for the \"leaky\" pipeline at two points in the careers of women IT professionals, marriage and motherhood, despite the increased employment participation of women in the IT sector. Many of the traditional notions and stereotyped biases that prevent women's employment participation in other professions are not found in the IT sector (ILO, 2001, women at work). Technology is an enabler that helps women to shape, for themselves, a flexible career around their familial responsibilities. Overall, the IT sector is deemed to be a woman-friendly profession (McKinney et al., 2008).As in every other sector, or profession, despite their increasing participation in the IT sector, women's career trajectories are markedly different from those of men. While men's career paths are more linear, women's careers are likely to be non-linear, disjointed and interrupted by one or more breaks in active employment (Mainiero and Sullivan, 2006). Several researchers have reported gender imbalance in IT careers, with a high concentration of women in the entry and middle levels and declining representation of women at higher levels (Adya, 2008; Ahuja, 2002; Sumner and Niederman, 2004; Trauth et al., 2003).In India, the percentage of women in software services organisations was 30 per cent in 2009. Of this, approximately 72 per cent were at entry levels, less than five years' experience, 14 per cent at managerial level and seven per cent each at director and top levels (NASSCOM-Mercer, 2009). This is due to the fact that, despite the rise in women's participation in paid work, overall, women spend less time at work than men, and they are less likely to work continuously without career breaks (Goldin, 1989; Hill and O'Neill, 1992).A plethora of research studies has attempted an understanding of the major reasons for the intermittent interruptions in women's careers and the effects of these on women's career advancement. They have highlighted that motherhood and its associated responsibilities, family formation and family care affect the continued participation of women in paid employment (Killingsworth and Heckman, 1986). Working mothers are structurally constrained in continued employment participation due to the inherent incompatibility of full-time employment and family life, rather than being simply less committed to paid work (Gash, 2008).Career women in India face different, and more difficult, work and family conflicts than do career women in the west (Sekaran, 1992). They, additionally, experience considerable pressure before going out to work and after work (Rout et al., 1999) due to inflexible workloads and inadequate childcare facilities available for working mothers (Bharat, 2001). In a study of 500 women employees of the IT sector in India, Madhavi and Vimala (2011) observed that women faced work interfering with family conflicts more than family interfering with work conflicts.Women are relational by nature, and they value being connected with others (Gilligan, 1982), and their career decisions are impacted by how their careers will affect the important people in their lives (Powell and Mainiero, 1992). The world over, there is an increasing trend of women leaving their jobs, to care for their children (Vanderkam, 2005). Schwartz (1989) coined the term \"mommy track\", which refers to career paths mothers choose to allow them more flexibility and reduced work time, with a trade-off that slows or blocks career advancement. Women also get into \"daughter track\", opting out of jobs late in life to care for their dependent parents (Gross, 2005).Webster (2002) observes that, though family structures and female roles vary across countries, women continue to be primarily responsible for domestic responsibilities, including being caretakers of children and dependent adults. While some working mothers place a higher value on family and childcare than work, others place greater value on career and work, choosing an alternative, and sometimes, expensive quality childcare options (Crompton, 1999). Working mothers' childcare decisions are impacted greatly by organisational, familial and societal support (McRae, 2003). Therefore, it becomes imperative to study the crucial role of organisational support systems in helping working mothers to continue, uninterrupted, in their careers and in maintaining a healthy work-life balance (Voydanoff, 2002).\nRationale for the present study: Organisational support systems provided by the IT sector in India involve a wide range of benefits and programmes offered by the organisations that aim to foster work-family balance. These include job sharing, unpaid extended family leave, extended maternity leave, dependent care assistance, day-care centres, telecommuting, satellite offices, flexi work, support groups for parents, part-time return to work options, reduced workloads and movement to other teams. (Ezra and Deckman, 1996; Lobel and Kossek, 1996; Rajadhyaksha and Smita, 2004; Rajadhyaksha, 2009).Despite the extensive organisational support systems available in the IT sector for women and the nature of work that is far more women-friendly, career interruptions at the time of marriage and parenthood do happen. Therefore, this research aims to study three factors, namely, work and family conflict expressed as family interfering with work (FIW) and work interfering with family (WIF), career role salience as a purposive expression of identity (PCRS) and career role salience as a negotiated necessity of life (NCRS) and career success notions as subjective (SCS) and objective (OCS) and the differential impacts each might have on women's decisions to persist, exit or re-enter at a later time after motherhood.A similar study by Srinivasan et al. (2013) explored the impact of career centrality, belief in gender disadvantage and career success definition, as determinants of career persistence among young women software professionals in India, with marital and parental status as control variables. Srinivasan et al. (2013) describe career persistence (CP) as \"the likelihood of not dropping out of the workforce\" and have studied how three factors, namely, career centrality or career role salience (CC), belief in gender disadvantage (BGD) and personal definitions of career success (CS) have impacted Indian women software professionals' career persistence. They hypothesised that women who persisted in their careers without any interruptions might have strong work role salience, less belief in gender being a disadvantage and believe strongly in an objective definition of career success, which includes high pay, recognition and promotions at the workplace.They concluded, based on their study of 190 women software professionals, that belief in gender disadvantage and objective career success were differentiators for career persistence, while career centrality was not. They also found that the marital and parental statuses were relevant control variables.Married women returned high associations of belief in gender disadvantage and objective career success (OCS) to career persistence, while the relationship of higher career centrality to career persistence was not supported. Similarly, women with one child returned relevance of BGD and OCS for career persistence, whereas women with two children returned objective career success and career centrality as relevant factors for career persistence. They also found subjective career success definition as being relevant for career persistence, especially amongst married women and women with children. This study implied that motherhood, associated with weak childcare support systems, forced women to re-examine their work and home roles and make decisions that require trade-offs between the professional and familial roles. Therefore, an important implication of the study was the need for organisations to consider investing in childcare support and other flexible work options to encourage women to persist in their careers without interruptions.Building on the work of Srinivasan et al. (2013), this research aims to answer the following questions:\nHypotheses: This section contextualises the hypotheses with an overview of the literature regarding how these three factors, namely, career role salience, notions of career success and work and family conflict play antecedent roles in working women's decisions to persist or re-enter careers at the earliest after parenthood.\nMethodology: A survey questionnaire was developed to measure the various variables under study and was pilot tested on a sample. The survey was administered to women software professionals who were also working mothers from Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi NCR and Hyderabad. Responses received from 138 participants formed the sample analysis for the study. Of the 138 working mothers, 66 (48 per cent) of them had taken a career break due to parenthood and 72 (52 per cent) persisted in their careers without a break. The average age of the respondents was 30 years with an average work experience of eight years. About 89 per cent of them had work experience of fewer than 10 years.About 97 per cent of the respondents were married, while 2 per cent were divorced and 1 per cent separated. Totally, 97 per cent of the sample belonged to dual career households. About 87 per cent of the sample had dependent children less than six years of age, and 52 per cent had adult dependents to care for. Of the sample, 39 per cent had one dependent to take care of, 36 per cent had two dependents to care for and 24 per cent of the respondents had the responsibility to care for more than two dependents. The participants of the study worked for an average of 50.38 hours a week as full-time employees.\nOperational definitions of variables: Dependent variable\nFindings and discussion: Career role salience\nImplications of the study: This study reiterates the findings of similar studies, that childcare, the indoctrinated belief of women that the onus of care-taking responsibilities rests with them and the added social pressure with respect to appropriate behaviour that may stop women from sharing the care-taking responsibilities as important causes to exit the career (Handy, 1978; Hall, 1996a, 1996b). Cabrera (2007) who explored the reasons for women leaving the workplace also reported that considerable number of women left their careers citing child-rearing reasons, while mid-career women were most interested in finding balance in their lives and the desire for authenticity increased across the lifespan. Therefore, women do opt out of careers due to parenthood.Nevertheless, Cabrera (2007) also reported that 70 per cent of the women who exited their careers eventually returned to work, debunking the myth that women opt out and do not return to the workforce. The fact that 48 per cent of the respondents of this study, too, were women, who returned to careers after motherhood, reiterates similar findings of studies such as that of Cabrera that re-entry is also a growing phenomenon as much as career break is an accepted reality.\nLimitations and conclusions: Characteristic of most survey research, this study's validity is also limited because the findings are based on self-reported responses. Nevertheless, the study points to new areas to be researched based on other demographic variables such as educational qualifications, years of experience, geographical locations and the type of industry under study. Most of the respondents of this study were young mothers with a pronounced recency effect of motherhood; the possibility of the same findings with older mothers who have spent considerable years in their careers is to be investigated. To find out whether the same sample would answer differently after a few years is also a worthy pursuit to be taken up after a few years.Validating previous studies such as that of Afiouni and Karam (2014), the findings of this study, too, empirically validate the need for an integrative model of objective and subjective career success criteria that is more reflective of working mothers' notions of career role salience and success. Afiouni and Karam state that:\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyse the impact of certain factors (such as working mothers' attitudes towards career role salience, notion of career success, work-life balance and the impact of organisational support systems available for childcare) on career persistence, despite parenthood, and career re-entry after parenthood. It is conducted in relation to new age, young working mothers of the booming IT sector in India.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A survey questionnaire was administered to 138 working mothers in the IT sector to analyse the impact of working mothers' career role salience, notion of career success, work-life balance and the impact of organisational support systems available for childcare on career persistence, despite parenthood.\nFindings: The findings state that re-entry is also a growing phenomenon, in as much as career breaks are an accepted reality. Career role salience and notions of career success are important predictors of career re-entry of young mothers. Most importantly, this study highlights the significant role of the trusted, extended family support system, that is characteristically unique to Indian social fabric, in enabling women's career persistence and career re-entry after motherhood.\nResearch limitations/implications: Like most survey research, this study's validity is also limited to the findings on the self-reported responses. Nevertheless, the study points to new areas to be researched, such as the possibility of the same findings with older mothers who have spent considerable years in their careers, or whether the same sample would answer differently after a few years.\nPractical implications: The paper includes implications for society and organisations, concerning opting out, and for undertaking genuine initiatives to enable and support women to re-enter their careers after breaks, so that the decision to persist, exit or re-enter their careers remains the privileged choice of women employees.\nOriginality/value: The paper fulfils an identified need to study how parenthood affects women's careers in the IT sector and need for organisations in India to understand the practicality of women employees' needs to integrate work and life.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Segmenting public universities based on their stakeholder orientation	[ "Segmentation", "Public universities" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Contemporary public universities must pay special attention to the aspirations and needs of their key stakeholders (Mainardes et al., 2014). Indeed, universities are expected to satisfy the demands of various audiences, including students (providing high-quality teaching), academic communities (providing high-quality knowledge), governments (supporting regional development and the economy as a whole), businesses (generating new ideas for commercial activities) and wider society (resolving many of the issues that affect it) (D'Este et al., 2013). In other words, public universities are expected to be stakeholder-oriented.\nTheoretical framework: Understanding universities' SO, both responsive and proactive, in their relationships is crucial to comprehending its contributions to university performance (Voola and O'cass, 2010). How are these concepts grounded? What kind of theoretical framework supports them?\nContextualisation of Spanish public universities: Originally, Spanish universities typically followed the Napoleonic model (the university has civil service status and no autonomy). Later, responding to the criterion of deconcentration and academic modernisation (Gomez-Mendoza, 2010), the Spanish constitution of 1978 recognised the autonomy of universities. The reform was implemented in 1983 (Ley de Reforma de Universidades (LRU)), transforming universities into autonomous institutions (free to define their own academic programmes) and transferring the direct responsibility for universities from the central government to the 17 autonomous regions. Since 1985, Spanish universities have grown significantly in number, from 28 in 1975 to 77 currently, 48 of these being public and situated in an autonomous community.\nMethodology: Sample and data collection\nResults: Given that our objective was to analyse managers' perceptions of public universities, we grouped these individuals in the 48 different public universities for classification. In applying the latent segmentation approach, the first step consisted of selecting the optimum number of segments. The model used estimated from one (no heterogeneity existed) to five segments (heterogeneity existed). Table III shows a summary of the estimation process and the fit indices for each of the five models.\nDiscussion and conclusion: Our results are in line with the results from studies by Hammond and Webster (2011) and Yu et al. (2018). Hammond and Webster (2011) focus on the MO concept and different market segments (students, parents and employers) by employing a cluster analysis to reveal that some focus strategies do appear to be more effective than others, depending on the group that each business school's dean belongs to. Meanwhile, Yu et al. (2018) show that universities with higher levels of internal market orientation perform better in relation to their internal branding outcomes in terms of employee university brand commitment, as well as brand supportive behaviour.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to extend existing research on stakeholder orientation (SO) on higher education institutions (HEIs) by segmenting Spanish public universities based on their perceived levels of SO and describing the profiles of the different segments identified. Given that being stakeholder-oriented, as well as being market-oriented, is a matter of degree and not an absolute condition, the authors expect to find heterogeneity among public universities in terms of their levels of SO.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors designed a mail survey that was e-mailed to all managers of Spanish public universities, resulting in 795 usable questionnaires. A latent segmentation methodology was used to define the segmentation and profiling of the individuals.\nFindings: Through latent class segmentation analysis, two clusters were identified: high stakeholder-oriented universities (HSOs) and low stakeholder-oriented universities (LSOs). Interestingly, HSOs universities perceive themselves to have greater organisational complexity and a lower level of reputation than LSOs, but that they are more active in terms of resource acquisition. LSOs universities are larger than HSOs and have a superior ranking.\nPractical implications: This study will help university managers by providing useful information that will enable them to be more sensitive to the wants and needs of their stakeholders. It will also assist policy-makers who wish to support strategic decisions to promote differentiation among public universities, avoiding the mimetic effect.\nOriginality/value: Latent class segmentation can be a very useful technique to segment public universities based on their SO. Wherever heterogeneity exists, the latent class analysis will facilitate identification of the clusters of public universities and the profile of these different clusters according to their level of SO (either responsive or proactive).\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Past progress and future directions in conceptualizing customer perceived value	[ "Customer satisfaction", "Perception", "Value analysis", "Visual perception", "Modelling", "Electronic point of sale" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Customer perceived value is a strategic imperative that firms must pay attention to, and has become a major focus of interest in marketing (Parasuraman, 1997; Parasuraman and Grewal, 2000; Woodruff, 1997). Despite the interest, empirical operationalization of perceived value remains unsettled (Parasuraman and Grewal, 2000). The literature is confusing and in some cases appears conceptually self-contradictory. Thus researchers now need to ponder the nature of the construct they are conceptualizing. This study deals with the conceptualization specification of the perceived value construct.Although numerous definitions of perceived value exist, the definition of Zeithaml (1988, p. 14), namely: \"the consumer's overall assessment of the utility of a product, based on perceptions of what is received and what is given\". To conceptualize this construct, two common methods based on structural equation modeling are arrived from empirical studies. The first conceptualization strategy treats perceived value as unidimensional and globally measures overall customer value perceptions. The second strategy treats perceived value as multidimensional and measures perceived value using various get (benefit) and give (sacrifice) dimensions. However, a closer look at the two modeling specifications reveals that both specifications are inadequate and self-contradictory in certain respects. This paper proposes a formative second-order and reflective first-order specification, which conforms to the theoretical definition of the value construct and conceptually outperforms existing models.This paper is organized as follows. First, current applications of unidimensional and multidimensional conceptualization are reviewed, and the inadequacies are discussed. Next, the proposed formative model is elaborated based on theoretical contexts. Third, three model specifications are estimated and compared using eTail service value data. In the final sections, the marketing research and strategic implications are suggested.\nPerceived value as a unidimensional construct: Some studies operationalize the perceived value construct according to the \"give-versus-get\" trade-off concept, and measure it with indicators such as \"fair price\", \"good value\" (Baker et al., 2002; Sweeney et al., 1999), \"value for money\" and \"meeting quality and price requirements\" (Grewal et al., 1998). Table I summarizes studies in this stream. The unidimensional conceptualization strategy is effective and straightforward, but it cannot discern the complex nature of perceived value. As noted by Sweeney and Soutar (2001, p. 207), \"a more sophisticated measure is needed to understand how consumers value products and services ... \".On the other hand, a crucial issue relates to structural models in which perceived value is a focal construct. Structural models have been developed to examine the subtle relationships among constructs (Table I). These models measure not only unidimensional perceived value, but also give-get components, concepts that have been incorporated in the unidimensionl value domain. These structural models conceptually violate the fundamental definition of perceived value construct. This study argues that since perceived value construct, which implies give-get concepts, is conceptualized as unidimensional, give and get constructs, though seemingly independent of value, are not appropriate for inclusion in the structural model. Although these models accurately capture perceived value in a means-end pattern, model users will be misled to regard give-get components and value construct as distinct concepts, with causal relationships based on their nomological network, implying that give-get components are not parts of perceived value. However, by the trade-off definition, both get and give components constitute the perceived value construct, making it more appropriate to conceive them as parts of the perceived value construct.The above structural models may also suffer from logical adequacy issues (Bacharach, 1989). The relationships between give-get and value are conceptually tautological because the existence of high value perception automatically implies the existence of high get perception, or low give perception, or both. The tautological hypothesis is self-verifying and may not be disconfirmed; thus it is not falsifiable. Since the give-get components are integral to the perceived value construct, it is more appropriate to let the measurement model, rather than the structural model, determine their interrelationships.\nPerceived value as a multidimensional construct: Lapierre's (2000) measures, PERVAL (Sweeney and Soutar, 2001), EVS (Mathwick et al., 2001) and SERV-PERVAL (Petrick, 2002) are exemplars for treating perceived value construct as multidimensional (Table II). Taking PERVAL as an example (the discussion should be generalized to instruments that conceptualize the perceived value construct as multidimensional), perceived value includes four dimensions: quality, emotional, social and price. By the definition of these four dimensions, PERVAL is under the \"give-versus-get\" domain of perceived value, where price is a sacrifice component and the other three are benefit components.These multidimensional models help researchers discern the complex nature of customer perceived value; nevertheless, this paper argues that these models are incomplete. Overall perceived value should be conceptualized at a more abstract level (Zeithaml, 1988), and researchers should not confound perceived value per se with the give-get components of which it is composed. The abstraction of overall value is not specified in the extant multidimensional models, which is inconsistent with the conceptual definition of perceived value. That is, these models, without forming overall value, cannot truly map the customer \"give-versus-get\" trade-off experience implied in the construct.Furthermore, directly applying give-get components as predictors in a structural model creates a potential problem concerning the levels of abstraction between endogenous and exogenous constructs. While the theory of interest is customer perceived value, treating give-get components as a set of perceived values and directly modeling them as predictors in a structural model omitting the role of overall perceived value, one may propose research hypotheses at the perceived value level, conduct analyses at the component level, but make conclusions at the perceived value level (Spiteri and Dion, 2004). Therefore, it is unconvincing to conclude the effects of perceived value on other consequence constructs such as satisfaction and behavioral intentions, unless empirical analyses are conducted at the perceived value level instead of the component level. The theoretical parsimony (Law et al., 1998) is also achieved when the overall abstraction of perceived value is conceptualized in the model.\nParadoxes between conceptualization methods and theoretical definition: Summarizing the above discussion, paradoxes exist between unidimensional, multidimensional conceptualization methods and the conceptual definition of the value construct. First, if treating give-get components as antecedents of perceived value in the nomological network is justified, then the value dimensions identified in the multidimensional conceptualization studies do not refer to value; consequently, these dimensions should be distinct from value instead of being components of value. Second, if the current multidimensional conceptualization of perceived value is justified, although incomplete, then the structural models developed to examine relationships between give-get components and value per se are inadequate; these relationships are conceptually tautological. Finally, if both conceptualization practices are justified, the definition of perceived value should be refined and clarified.To rectify the paradoxes, overall perceived value must be included, and the relationships between give-get components and overall value should be specified in the measurement model. Thus, a higher order formative model, rather than a reflective model, is proposed. Before delineation of the proposed model, the distinction between the formative and reflective models is addressed.\nFormative model and reflective model: This study summarizes basic characteristics of the formative (aggregate composite) model and the reflective (latent factor) model in Table III (Jarvis et al., 2003; Law and Wong, 1999; Law et al., 1998). The issue of model taxonomy can be reduced to the discussion of formative (causal) and reflective (effect) indicators, an area that has attracted considerable attention (Bollen and Lennox, 1991; Fornell and Bookstein, 1982), but has been overlooked for various uncertain reasons (Diamantopoulos and Winklhofer, 2001; Jarvis et al., 2003). The thorough reconsideration of this issue from the behavioral science viewpoint is explicitly raised by Law et al. (1998), and more recently highlighted by Diamantopoulos and Winklhofer (2001), Jarvis et al. (2003) and Williams et al. (2003).After Law et al. (1998) developed an exhaustive taxonomy of multidimensional constructs, Jarvis et al. (2003) further recommended four decision rules to identify a construct as either formative or reflective. These four rules include:1. direction of causality from construct to measure being implied by the conceptual definition;2. interchangeability of the indicators;3. covariance among the indicators; and4. nomological network of the construct indicators.The proposed model specification is elucidated based on these criteria.\nPerceived value as a second-order multidimensional formative construct: In the alternative model, this study specifies perceived value as a formative second-order, reflective first-order model. The benefit and sacrifice components, each of which is manifested by multiple reflective indicators, act as formative indicators of perceived value. The second-order model is justified below.Direction of causality from construct to measure\nThe model specification of the second-order multidimensional formative perceived value construct: To summarize, perceived value should be conceived of an overall abstraction and specified as a second-order construct with first-order value components as formative indicators, each manifested by multiple reflective indicators. Figure 1 shows one sample model.As shown in Figure 1, perceived overall value is defined as a second-order construct with first-order give-get components as formative indicators, each reflected by two questionnaire items (the number of manifest indicators is hypothetical). For achieving identification, two theoretically appropriate consequence constructs (satisfaction and behavioral intentions) are included in the model (see Edwards, 2001; Jarvis et al., 2003; MacCallum and Browne, 1993 for technical review).Owing to the inclusion of the overall value at the higher level, the proposed model conceptually outperforms the extant multidimensional models. Overall value is not directly measured but is conceptualized through the four first-order formative components. Because the relationships between overall value and give-get components are determined by the measurement model, the alternative model conceptually outperforms the extant unidimensional models. Importantly, the four first-order components are not antecedents of perceived value, but rather are integral parts of it. In the structural model, perceived value, satisfaction and behavioral intentions share the same level of abstraction. The alternative model corresponds more to the theoretical \"give-versus-get\" trade-off definition and consumer's mental experience in a means-end pattern. The theoretical implications are sharpened and enriched with the proposed model specification.\nDifferent conclusions resulting from different conceptualization methods: an illustration using eTail service value survey data: Research design and the sample\nDiscussion: Implications for theory and practice\nConclusions: This paper reviewed two common modeling specifications for a customer perceived value construct and argued that these models are inadequate in certain respects. Based on the theoretical context, this paper proposed that the perceived value should be defined as a second-order multidimensional formative construct. To select one among three models is a contingency issue. The unidimensional and first-order multidimensional specifications are appropriate when the objective is to assess overall value perceptions or value perceptions at the component level. These models are easily implemented and have merits for evaluating organizational effectiveness, for example, benchmarking management. When the objective is to confirm interrelationships of constructs in a nomological network, the proposed second-order formative specification is a theoretically convincing structure. The questionnaire items can be reserved from extant instruments, and can readily be applied to the first-order of the proposed model because the dimension and item generation processes are rigorous and robust.The empirical illustration of this study also evidenced that different conceptualization methods lead to different parameter estimates and thus conclusions drawn. Simulation study (Jarvis et al., 2003) has demonstrated that parameters estimated from a misspecified measurement model are biased, and any structural relationships concluded are erroneous. However, for survey studies such as the illustration, because the true model in the real world is never known, what a researcher can depend upon is to specify conceptualization models with reason. Consequently, it is imperative to develop a measurement model with an adequate specification that can faithfully represent the conceptual definition of the construct. The construct conceptualization issue should be theory-driven and precede any discussion of structural relationships between constructs. Future research is supposed to insist on the conceptually appropriate measurement model (MacKenzie, 2003). Any empirically technical craft should never dominate the theoretical considerations.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - To propose an alternative model specification for better conceptualizing the definition of a customer perceived value construct, and to discuss the theoretical justification of the model.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The proposed model was elaborated based on theoretical contexts. Three models of different conceptualization specifications were estimated and compared with eTail service value survey data.\nFindings: - Based on theory, perceived value should be conceived as a formative construct. The empirical results demonstrated different parameter estimates and thus conclusions are drawn from different conceptualization methods.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Future research is suggested to apply the proposed formative value model in other marketing settings, and to explore the role of consumer satisfaction in post-purchase behavior.\nPractical implications: - Marketing resources allocation and communication programs may be influenced due to different conceptualization methods of value construct applied by practitioners.\nOriginality/value: - This paper provides a theoretical rationale for conceptualizing perceived value with formative specification. It stresses that the theoretical justification is a major concern for determining conceptualization models.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Do consumers like food product innovation? An analysis of willingness to pay for innovative food attributes	[ "Contingent valuation", "Willingness to pay", "Food innovation", "Food-Related Lifestyle" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: \"Innovation is the lifeblood of successful companies\" (Brown and Teisberg, 2003) and is crucial for companies to achieve their objectives in terms of profitability, growth and stability over time (Grunert and van Trijp, 2014; Roucan-Kane et al., 2011). Innovation is often the result of sustained external pressures that, through adaptive processes, aim to reshape business operations and organizations (Damanpour, 2009). More deeply, it is a stepwise process in which companies turn ideas into new and improved goods, services and processes aiming at differentiate themselves on the market (Baregheh et al., 2012; Karantininis et al., 2010).\n2. Food product innovation and consumer acceptance: Consumers accept or reject innovative food products on the basis of response they evoke. While some innovations arise consumers' resistance and skepticism responsible for innovation rejection, others are regularly accepted by consumers in their daily life and diet (Backstrom et al., 2004). In agri-food sector, the level of innovation and its conceptualization are critical aspects of consumer's acceptance (Vanhonacker et al., 2013; Marotta et al., 2014). More specifically, Stolzenbach et al. (2013) pointed out that changes in food characteristics may be perceived as too innovative by consumers who tend to be more incline toward traditional alternative (Rozin et al., 2004). Further, consumer's acceptance seems to be affected by both the type of innovation and the product carrying it (Guerrero et al., 2009).\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Data collection and sample characteristics[1]\n4. Analysis and results: 4.1 Consumption occasions and willingness to pay\n5. Discussion and conclusion: The study findings suggest a positive attitude of consumers toward product innovations in the agri-food sector. Consumers highly value the innovative product attaching a preference above the average. The study has also investigated the effect of purchasing occasions on consumer's preference toward the product, showing clear differences among the two purchasing occasions explored. More specifically, consumer's preference is higher when the product is purchased as a gift for social events than for home consumption. The study applied consumer's WTP as measure of their acceptance toward the innovative product. The results uncovered a positive acceptance for product innovation in the agri-food sector supporting companies to explore new business strategies and processes. Indeed, the prices stated for the innovative product revealed the value assigned to product innovation, as well as the willingness of consumers to reward innovative food companies. Further, higher is also the share of consumers willing to pay higher price levels to purchase the innovative product rather than the traditional one.\n6. Managerial implications and future research: The results of the study offer useful indications to managers, food practitioners and decision makers for the definition and implementation of targeted strategies and policies that allow a better \"re-availability\" and acceptance by the consumer of the innovations of food products of the Italian artisan tradition. Although the study suggests valuable insights for companies and business managers that want to implement product innovation in traditional food, some limitations may affect the robustness of the observed results. More specifically, while the results of CV revealed a positive attitude of consumers toward product innovation as well as their willingness to purchase the new product, they may be affected by the hypothetical nature characterizing the study. Indeed, the new product was neither on the market at the time of the analysis nor consumers were obliged to buy the product once stated their WTP. Accordingly, future research should address consumers' acceptance toward product innovation either in a real scenario or by using incentive compatible approach such as experimental auction (Lerro, Caracciolo, Vecchio and Cembalo, 2018). Further, since the two alternatives were not available simultaneously on the market, consumers' WTP, per each product, were detected in two different payment scenarios. When making their purchasing decision, instead, consumers face a full set of products among which make their choice. As a result, the WTP expressed by consumers in the study may be overestimated if compared with those actually found on the market. Therefore, to overcome this limitation, future studies may rely on choice experiments to design the research. These studies should also investigate how the innovation of a traditional product allows us to create new value for the company.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumer's acceptance toward product innovation in the agri-food sector, uncovering consumers' characteristics able to encourage food innovation acceptance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The analysis was carried out by administering a web-based structured questionnaire to a convenient sample of 443 Italian consumers. The study relies on consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) to assess consumers' acceptance toward the innovative product, while the Food-Related Lifestyle scale was applied to perform a cluster analysis aiming at detecting the attitude of consumers toward innovations in a traditional food.\nFindings: The study findings showed a clear openness of consumers toward product innovation. Indeed, consumers' WTP for the innovative product was far higher than the traditional one. Further, two out of three consumers' groups detected (i.e. pro-innovation and rational adopters) exhibit a broad correlation between the innovative product attributes and consumers' psychographics characteristics, revealing the existence of a large number of potential consumers.\nOriginality/value: The contribution of the paper to the current literature is twofold. First, it focused on an emerging topic for the agri-food sector (i.e. product innovation) whereby research works are still scarce. Second, product innovation was addressed toward a traditional food that is mostly reluctant to innovation due to consumers' resistance and skepticism.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
An empirical investigation of the relationship between e-government development and the digital economy: the case of Asian countries	[ "Asian countries", "Digital economy", "E-government development", "Multidimensional approach", "Technology adoption model" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In present times, digital economy pervades insurmountable prospects for world economy, influencing different sectors such as energy, banking, retail, publishing, transportation, education, health and media (OECD, 2015; World Bank, 2016). Social interactions and personal relationships are now going through a dynamic transformation by means of information and communications technologies (ICTs). In short, the term \"digital economy\" indicates an economy empowered by digital technologies (Alam et al., 2018; Tapscott, 1997), and it is now regarded as one of the most important catalysts of economic growth (Brynjolfsson and McAfee, 2011; Mohamed et al., 2010). According to a recent study, it is estimated that 22.5 per cent of the global gross domestic product (GDP) can be attributed to the digital economy, that is, some form of digital skills, capital, goods or services (Knickrehm et al., 2015).\n2. Theoretical basis: Coursey and Norris (2008) reported that literature focusing on the relationship between IT and government has long suffered from rigorous theoretical development and empirical testing. There are few variations in TAMs. For example, the Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory (Rogers, 1995) is often used in researching information systems to explain the adoption of new technologies. Likewise, in Rogers' (1995) study, key elements of eight TAMs were incorporated into the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model (Venkatesh et al., 2003). To be specific, they unified the theory of reasoned action (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975), the social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986), the TAM (Davis, 1989), the theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1991), the motivational model (Davis et al., 1992), a model combining the TAM and the theory of planned behaviour (Taylor and Todd, 1995), the model of PC utilisation (Thompson et al., 1991) and the innovation diffusion theory (Rogers, 1995), to study adoption behaviour of individuals and businesses. However, it has been argued that as the functional characteristics of organisational, technological, economic and social perspectives on e-government differ, the UTAUT model failed to explain the complete essence of e-government adoption behaviour by citizens (Shareef et al., 2011). In addition, the UTAUT model has limited value as few empirical studies have been conducted to justify it, particularly in the field of e-government adoption (Straub, 2009).\n3. The research model and hypotheses development: As discussed in the foregoing section, conceptual issues and research on the digital economy and e-government go well beyond technology and involve a wide range of issues including economics, sociology, politics, management and culture. As the topic areas are cross-disciplinary and complex in nature, first, two theoretical frameworks were drawn on: the TAM, which investigates adoption behaviour, and Fountain's technology enactment theory, which focuses on social, organisational and institutional variables. The TAM and Fountain's technology enactment theory were used to develop the conceptual model of this research. On this basis, a multidimensional research model was developed, which allowed us to examine not only the relationship between e-government development and the digital economy but also the various means by which different contextual issues - economic, social, political, demographic, cultural - and ICT infrastructure may impact these two. Moreover, the model incorporates and studies the adoption variables: the adoption of ICT in the digital economy and e-participation in e-government development (Figure 1).\n4. Methodology: 4.1 Data sources and data collection\n5. Results: 5.1 The digital economy\n6. Discussion: 6.1 A reciprocal relationship\n7. Conclusion and policy implications: This study explored the influence of e-governance on the digital economy in a timely and multidimensional fashion as it examined how social, economic, political, legal, technological, demographic and cultural factors interact with e-government development and the digital economy. By doing this, this study conducted a herculean task in analysing the nature of the relationship between the two. By introducing a differential model of analysis the current study contributes to the development of knowledge. The results of the study suggest that digitalisation may lead to e-government development on the one hand, and that e-government development can promote the development of digitalisation on the other. The reciprocal relationship has far-reaching implications for policymaking and strategies in government organisations.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to investigate and comprehend the nature of the relationship between e-government development and the digital economy.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A multidimensional research paradigm is developed on the basis of the technology adoption model and Fountain's technology enactment theory. The model is empirically examined using a regional study of 20 Asian countries.\nFindings: A positive two-way relationship between e-government development and the digital economy has been indicated by the findings. Moreover, along with social, economic, political, technological and demographic factors, certain national cultural characteristics have significant effects on the digital economy and e-government development.\nResearch limitations/implications: One of the key limitations of the study is that it is based on publicly available secondary data. Therefore, some degree of caution should be kept in mind when making generalisations about the findings of this study.\nOriginality/value: The contribution of this study is that it provides a more accurate and comprehensive understanding of the dynamic association between e-government development and the digital economy by providing aid to policymakers in understanding the nature of dynamic relationships between the digital economy, government organisations and citizens' adoption of technologies.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Transformational leadership, organizational justice and organizational outcomes: A study from the higher education sector in Syria	[ "Transformational leadership", "Organizational commitment", "Higher education", "Job satisfaction", "Organizational justice", "Transactional leadership" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Previous research studying leadership style and organizational behavior (Walumbwa et al., 2004; Sun and Henderson, 2017) generated concepts of organizational commitment (OC) (Yousef, 2016) and job satisfaction (JS) (Blake et al., 2016). Several studies have shown that leadership style does affect employee behavior. More precisely, employee perceptions of leadership style and organizational justice (OJ) have been shown to influence OC, JS and employee turnover (Yousef, 2000; Emery and Barker, 2007; Harris et al., 2018). Researchers such as Tatum et al. (2003) noted that the relationship between leadership and OJ, although theoretically plausible, is not supported by empirical evidence. Previous research has examined the relationships between transformational leadership (TL), transactional leadership (TrL) (Burns, 1978; Bass and Avolio, 1995) and perceptions of fairness and OJ (Greenberg, 2001; Adeel et al., 2018) and how distributive justice (DJ) (Greenberg, 1993), PJ (Sapienza and Korsgaard, 1996) and interactional justice (IJ) (Greenberg, 1993) mediate the influence of leadership on organizational outcomes (Colquitt, 2001; Emery and Barker, 2007; Wei et al., 2017).\nLiterature review: Transformational leadership and organizational justice\nMethodology: Measurement tools\nResults: Model I\nDiscussion: General findings\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of transformational leadership (TL) on organizational commitment (OC) with the mediating role of organizational justice (OJ) in the higher education (HE) sector in Syria.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The data were collected from 502 employees from six HE institutions. Two measures of organizational outcomes were selected for this study, namely, job satisfaction (JS) and OC. Using structural equation modelling (SEM), the authors tested four alternative models to indicate the relationship between leadership and organizational outcomes.\nFindings: TL has both direct and indirect effects on OC through interactional justice (IJ). TL has an impact on JS through procedural justice (PJ) and IJ as intermediate variables, while transactional leadership (TrL) has an impact on JS through distributive justice (DJ). The three types of OJ have an impact on OC through JS. The authors found that the national culture may not influence the impact of the leader in the current globalization context, as the results were similar to the Western studies.\nPractical implications: The findings of the study provide managers of the HE sector with insights into the formations of employees' fairness perceptions, and with some guidelines for managing employees by documenting OJ to draw positive attitudinal and behavioral responses from employees.\nOriginality/value: While most previous research has focused on exploring the relationship between leadership and OJ or between OJ and JS in the business sector, the study, however, seeks in addition, to pinpoint the effect of OJ as a mediate variable between the leadership and JS and OC in HE.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Springboard contributes to Royal Mail's continuing success	[ "Learning", "Development", "Confidence", "Skills", "Springboard", "Women’s issues" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: A women's development programme is playing an important part in changing the working culture built up over some 400 years at the UK's Royal Mail. Royal Mail is the UK's designated Universal Postal Service Provider, delivering letters and parcels, supporting customers, businesses and communities around the country. It is the only company delivering a \"one-price-goes-anywhere\", six days a week service to more than 29 m addresses across the UK. Its vision is to be recognised as the best delivery company in the UK and across Europe. Royal Mail floated on the London Stock Exchange in October 2013 and is now a member of the FTSE 100.\nTraditionally male dominated: For some 400 years, Royal Mail has been seen as a male-dominated organisation - and current employment figures still reflect this. However, Royal Mail is one of the few major companies in the UK to have a female CEO - in the person of Moya Greene. Moya has said, \"Women currently represent 16 per cent of the overall workforce and 19 per cent of our management structure - not including senior managers. Within Operations, this reduces to 14 per cent for overall employees and for managers. We recognise that businesses with a diverse workforce are likely to attract a wider customer base, have the ability to recognise new potential markets and provide a better, more tailored service to meet individual needs. So there are clear commercial benefits to be gained by employers who take every step to ensure that they recruit from the widest possible talent pool\".\nLack of confidence: \"Then, in 2005, a company survey revealed what appeared to be a lack of confidence among our female employees. It seemed that this issue was preventing them from seeking new responsibilities along with challenging inappropriate behaviour and language in the workplace. At that time only 13 per cent of our managers were women. We were in the process of developing a Gender Strategy and, since the survey revealed an apparent lack of confidence and self-esteem, this was included in it. Having worked with SBC in the 1990s and gained such positive feedback from the participants, we knew exactly who to contact in 2005\".\nThe Springboard programme: SBC's Springboard programme - delivered over three months - combines self-paced learning with a specially researched workbook, support networks, role models and four one-day workshops. It aims to help women to:\nGender Steering Group (GSG): In addition, in 2010, Royal Mail Group had set up a GSG. Chaired by the Royal Mail's Chief Operations Officer, Sue Whalley, this group carried out a survey of some of its female managers to identify the barriers they perceived to career progression. The results showed that some of these women lacked the confidence to go on training courses; felt that there were insufficient female role models in the business; were unsure of the development opportunities available to them; did not see \"opportunities\" as personal development opportunities, and would value a personal support and mentoring scheme:\nRaising its game: However, by 2012, Royal Mail realised that it needed to \"raise its game\" where women in operational and front-line jobs were concerned. The company's GSG agreed to support a further 1,000 female non-managers through the Springboard programme during 2013/2014. This was endorsed by Royal Mail's Corporate Executive Committee (CEC) and meetings took place with the company's operations managers to support the programme. The initiative also received full trade union support:\nRoyal Mail's experience: \"Our corporate experience with the Springboard programme shows that it gives women the confidence - and the assertiveness skills - to challenge a traditional 'male dominated culture\", said Kay. \"It helps them to develop communications skills - and one of the by-products of this is that any disagreements now tend to be dealt with outside the formal complaints procedure. We've certainly seen a reduction in the number of complaints made by women. The most recent figures from those on the Springboard programme show that about half of them have now written a CV; some 43 per cent have taken on extra responsibilities at work, and 20 per cent or so have moved into management grade jobs\", Kay revealed:\nOperational recruitment: Recruiting into operational roles remains a focus for Royal Mail and one of the enablers for this is trade union support. Therefore one of the other objectives was to increase the number of trade union representatives who are female:\nManagement roles: \"We've shown that the Springboard programme is playing a key part in helping women to move into a first management role, so we're also beginning to use the Spring Forward programme to help them take the next step - into middle management roles\", said Kay. \"Before we took this step, we looked at other ways of encouraging women to move into middle management roles within Royal Mail but the value of the Springboard programme is 'tried and tested' and, over the years, The Springboard Consultancy has proved itself an excellent partner that understands both our business and our business needs\".\nKey learning point: One of the key learning points has been to ensure the initiative is supported by the CEC - and that the support is visible and formalised. All of Royal Mail's CEC members now work towards diversity targets, which include the proportion of women among new recruits. Senior stakeholder endorsement of the programme has, in turn, made it easier to sell to operational managers in the field. Having a robust deployment plan and consistent messages has also maintained interest from all parties:\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to set out the results - so far - of using the Springboard women's development programme within Royal Mail.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper comprises a case study on the application of the Springboard women's development programme throughout Royal Mail. It covers gender, diversity and inclusion issues within the company.\nFindings: The Springboard programme helps women be more realistic in their self-assessment; have more self-confidence; take more initiative; set and achieve clearer goals; have increased personal motivation; accept more responsibility for their own development; have a more mature and positive attitude; communicate more assertively and effectively; add more value to their work; improve customer relations; present a positive image, and improve their assertiveness skills.\nResearch limitations/implications: It is possible to achieve ambitious objectives in terms of gender, diversity and inclusiveness at work through the use of a development programme such as Springboard.\nPractical/implications: With help from programmes such as Springboard, women can become more open, and receptive, to change; raise their confidence and self-esteem levels; take on more responsibility; make more effective use of resources, and improve their problem-solving abilities. The programme is also proving able to help them compete more effectively for promotion at work; take on and be successful in management roles. This helps them achieve their career goals, raise their aspirations and generally develop their careers.\nSocial/implications: Women are being helped to compete effectively with men in the workplace as well as developing an understanding of how to be successful in their personal lives (in terms of sorting out difficult relationships, improving fitness and gaining a better study/life balance).\nOriginality/value: The Springboard women's development programme is helping to change the working culture built up over some 400 years at Royal Mail.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Mobile information services in libraries: a review of current trends in delivering information	[ "Mobile information services", "Mobile technology", "Libraries", "Information professionals", "Librarians", "Mobile libraries", "Smartphones", "Information services", "Information delivery means" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Mobile Web is defined as \"a web in which users are able to access information from any location, regardless of the type of device used\" (Villoldo and Salom, 2012). The use of mobile devices to access the Internet and search for information is growing considerably. Technological improvements such as cell phones, low-cost connectivity and faster data transmission are among the most important factors which have led to the growing use of mobile devices (Villoldo and Salom, 2012).\n2. Methodology: The rules of systematic review were used to meet the aim of this literature review (Hemingway and Brereton, 2009). Specifically, this review focused on reporting the relevant literature on mobile services offered by libraries of all kinds. In this context, the search terms \"mobile service/s library/ies\", \"mobile technology library/ies\", \"mobile library/ies\" and \"m-libraries\" were run on ACM Digital Library, Library, Information Science and Technology Abstracts (LISTA), Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA), Citeseer, Google Scholar, e-prints in Library and Information Science (e-LiS), Digital Library of Information Science and Technology (DLIST), Scopus and ScienceDirect. The searches were limited to 2004-2014 and were performed during the last week of July 2014.\n3. Findings: 3.1 Introducing mobile libraries\n4. Discussion: This literature review focused on the mobile information services offered by libraries. Seven themes emerged after a thorough analysis of the relevant literature dating from 2004 to 2014. The concept of mobile libraries has emerged only recently and especially after the widespread adoption of mobile technology. Until recently the term referred to bookmobile libraries that aimed to bring library's collection and basic information services to users in rural areas. Nowadays, the term mobile library is used to denote information services offered to users through mobile technology (e.g. iPads, cell phones).\n5. Conclusions and future work: This review paper focused on exploring the information services delivered by mobile libraries and revealed that this is a novel research area where a great many changes are taking place to promote delivery of information services through a new, mobile environment. It was found that users acknowledged the importance of offering mobile information services and they further argued that libraries should provide information literacy programmes to assist users in getting accustomed to the new way of libraries delivering information services.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to review the literature on mobile information services. It considers only peer-reviewed papers published in English between 2004 and 2014.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The method of systematic review was adopted to collect and analyse the relevant literature. The searches were conducted during the last week of July 2014 on different databases, and in total, 76 papers were considered after applying inclusion and exclusion criteria.\nFindings: Seven themes emerged: \"introducing mobile libraries\", \"reporting on current trends\", \"exploring users' perceptions of libraries' mobile services\", \"presenting libraries' mobile services\", \"presenting mobile technology use in libraries\", \"reporting case studies\" and \"reporting on evaluation of libraries' mobile services\". It is evident that research on mobile libraries is very recent and focuses mainly on raising the Library and Information Science profession's awareness of providing mobile information services.\nResearch limitations: This literature review focused only on peer-reviewed papers published between 2004 and 2014 in English.\nOriginality/value: This paper summarises and critically presents the relevant literature on libraries offering mobile information services. It informs libraries and librarians' understanding of recent developments in mobile technology for the successful provision of information services.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
RiskTRACK: the five-factor model for measuring risk tolerance	[ "Risk management", "Factor analysis", "Risk tolerance", "G11", "G20" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In light of recent volatility in financial markets and investor confidence in those financial markets, it has become increasingly imperative for financial advisors to understand their clients' risk tolerance. Risk tolerance is generally thought of as the level of financial risk that a client is willing to accept. However, the specifics of gauging risk tolerance have proven more complicated than what this general definition implies.\n2. Theoretical background: Risk management is a growing area of academic research. One important area of risk management that needs better assessment and understanding is risk tolerance. By accurately assessing risk tolerance, financial advisors can properly allocate a client's portfolio and balance the client's perceived trade-off between risk and return. Also, understanding a client's risk tolerance allows the advisor to not only compare the client's risk tolerance to other clients but also track any risk tolerance changes over the client's time horizon. Furthermore, an understanding of risk tolerance can be instrumental for identifying any mismatches between a client's psychological and financial needs (Callan and Johnson, 2002).\n3. Item generation: The first step in Churchill's multi-item approach is to capture the domain as defined. Using Cordell (2001) as our starting point, we capture the risk tolerance domain by generating a set of items or variables that cover each of the dimensions of risk tolerance. For clarification, the \"items\" or \"variables\" we generate in our study are risk tolerance \"questions\". Thus, we use the terms \"item\", \"variable\", and \"question\" interchangeably.\n4. Data collection: We develop an 85-item risk tolerance questionnaire[2], which we categorize into five predicted factors based on the four factors in Cordell (2001) and an additional personality factor. These five factors are risk attitude questions (1-48), risk propensity questions (49-55), risk personality questions (56-66), risk knowledge questions (68-70) and risk capacity questions (74-84). The 85-item risk tolerance questionnaire also includes four demographic variable questions (67, 71-73) and four dependent variable questions (82-85), which are not used in factor analysis but are included to obtain dependent variables for multiple linear regression analysis and for future research opportunities.\n5. Item purification: For item purification calculation, an all-inclusive domain sampling model is used to estimate a client's true risk tolerance score, XT. However, in practice, using 85 questions is not reasonable for any risk tolerance questionnaire. In fact, of the 11 risk tolerance questionnaires we use in this study (Grable's 19-item questionnaire and the ten other publicly available risk tolerance questionnaires), the number of questions they ask range from 4 to 25 (mean 12). Besides practicality, 85 independent variables also present a multicollinearity problem, which is addressed in more detail later using multiple linear regression analysis. As only a sample of the items can be used, the purification goal of this research is to reduce the 85 items down to a more practical number of questions (with low linear inter-item correlation). The most common purification test for reducing items is factor analysis.\n6. Robustness: To ensure that these five riskTRACK factors are robust, validity and reliability checks (in addition to factor analysis) are accessed. Churchill (1979) provides the logic to determine whether the construct is captured by the measure. Let XT be a client's true level of risk tolerance and XO be a client's observed level of risk tolerance. For a questionnaire to be valid, differences in XO scores must only reflect the true risk tolerance characteristic the questionnaire seeks to measure (e.g. risk attitude or risk knowledge). This means that the goal is for XO = XT. However, validity concerns arise when differences in observed scores are distorted away from their true scores. These distortions often occur for the following reasons:\n7. Summary: The goal of the research is to identify the factors needed to create a reliable and valid model for measuring risk tolerance. The risk tolerance model we formulate is based on the sum of five weighted factors: F1 = traditional risk factor; F2 = capacity risk factor; F3 = reflective risk factor; F4 = knowledge risk factor; and F5 = allocation risk factor. By reordering these factors, we created the acronym riskTRACK to provide a collective name for the five individual factors in our risk tolerance model.\n8. Future research applications: Future research should definitely focus on building upon these results to test for additional risk tolerance factors that other research indicates may or may not exist. For example, one unexpected outcome from our factor analysis is the complete reduction of every personality question. This finding suggests four possible scenarios to examine with future research:\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Currently, few academics agree on a standard and scientific way to measure risk tolerance. This paper aims to create a unique model for empirically measuring risk tolerance and to make a strong contribution to the growing literature in risk tolerance and risk management.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors use factor analysis and regression analysis to identify relevant factors for measuring risk tolerance.\nFindings: The risk tolerance model is based on the acronymed model riskTRACK, which includes the five significant factors this paper identifies for measuring risk tolerance: traditional risk factor, reflective risk factor, allocation risk factor, capacity risk factor and knowledge risk factor.\nResearch limitations/implications: Uses for future research streams devoted to risk tolerance and risk management.\nPractical implications: The results also have practical applications for the financial services industry, particularly risk management, portfolio management and financial planning.\nOriginality/value: In sum, this research expands previous research in risk tolerance and also adds to the growing literature in risk management. Once again, this paper is unique in that the authors develop a valid and reliable risk tolerance model based on five specific factors for measuring risk tolerance.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Modeling of product sales promotion and price discounting strategy using fuzzy logic in a retail organization	[ "Fuzzy logic", "Automated model", "Dynamic price discounting", "Lot size", "Price intelligence", "Product sales promotion" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Nomenclature\n1. Introduction: In this research study, single item dynamic pricing and sales promotion problem with lot sizing and supplier selection is considered, in which back orders and shortages are not allowed. The single item dynamic lot sizing (DLS) problem is the same as in Mazdeh et al. (2015), which is integrated with the dynamic inventory control model as in Kumar et al. (2013a, b). The integration of these models into dynamic time frame gives a decision support to dynamic pricing and sales promotion for a retail organization. The solution of these models is illustrated using a hypothetical case, thereafter fuzzy logic is used to decide about different discounting strategies in a dynamic time frame for sales promotion. Economic order quantity model and the economic lot scheduling problem are utilized for the infinite time horizon, continuous time scale, and constant demand lot sizing problems. On the other hand, the form of planning generally known as DLS is used for the finite time horizon, a discrete time scale and dynamic demand lot sizing models (Mazdeh et al., 2015).\n2. Literature review: Supplier selection and inventory management have been key factors for retail organizations (Cebi and Bayraktar, 2003; Pidduck, 2006). Researchers are trying to develop various models that could address supplier selection and uncertainty. Grey-based systems, fuzzy logic and analytical hierarchical process are being used in supplier selection (Bhutta and Huq, 2002; Davidrajuh, 2003; Motwani et al., 1999; Ordoobadi, 2009; Thakur and Anbanandam, 2015; Wu, 2009). Increased consumer awareness in today's world has forced the retailers to think about competitiveness in terms of quality, availability, and price (Afshari and Benam, 2011; Das, 2014). Dynamic pricing is a major tool for both online and store retailers to increase the flexibility in prices and remain competitive (Levy et al., 2004). Dynamic pricing has become a major pricing strategy in several industries such as hospitality, travel, entertainment, energy, power, and retail. Competitors pricing (Greenleaf, 1995), supply and demand (Gustafsson et al., 2000), price sensitivity (Gijsbrechts, 1993) and other external factors are major variables that affect dynamic product promotion and price discounting strategy. Dynamic pricing, as it considers inventory levels, plays a vital role in eliminating inventory waste and consequently adds up to the profitability of the organization (Elmaghraby and Keskinocak, 2003; Hall et al., 2010; Esary et al., 2008; Fisher and Raman, 1996).\n3. Framework of proposed model: The conceptual framework of the proposed model is shown in Figure 1, which consists of five entities that are inputted to the DPDS formulation. These entities are described one by one in a sequential manner in coming sections.\n4. Dynamic fuzzy price discounting strategy: Fuzzy sets are used to map the price discounting strategy with three fuzzy inputs: price sensitivity, rate of change in demand forecast and lot size. The output fuzzy set consists of dynamic price discounting linguistic variables like Mega-Sales Offer, Bumper-Sales Offer, Big-Bang Sales Offer, and Normal-Sales Offer.\n5. Conclusion: The proposed model integrates the inventory control model and DLS model for developing the proposed DPDM. Fuzzy dynamic discounting strategies have been formulated based on the sales forecast, price sensitivity, and lot size that was done for taking the price discounting decisions regarding procurement of the product category. This has helped minimize the inventory cost thereby keeping the profitability of the retail organization intact. The uncertainty in sales forecasts, market price, and procurement is mitigated in the proposed model by using fuzzy logic. The proposed model may be useful for the automation of price discounting strategy in a retail organization.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to capture the dynamic variations in sales of a product based upon the dynamic estimation of the time series data and propose a model that imitates the price discounting and promotion strategy for a product category in a retail organization.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Time series data relating to sales has been used to model the sales estimates using moving average and proportional and derivative control; thereafter a sales forecast is generated to estimate the sales of a particular product category. This provides valuable inputs for taking lot sizing decisions regarding procurement of the products and selection of suppliers. A hybrid model has been proposed and explained with a hypothetical case, which considerably impacts the sales promotion and intelligent pricing decisions.\nFindings: A conceptual framework is developed for modeling the dynamic price discounting strategy in retail using fuzzy logic. The model imitates sales promotion and price discounting strategy. This has helped minimize the inventory cost thereby keeping the profitability of the retail organization intact.\nResearch limitations/implications: There is no appropriate empirical data to verify the models. In light of the research approach (modeling based upon historical time series data of a particular product category) that was undertaken, there is a possibility that the research results may be valid for the product category that was selected. Therefore, the researchers are advised to test the proposed propositions further for other product categories.\nOriginality/value: The study provides valuable insight on how to use the real-time sales data for designing a dynamic automated model for product sales promotion and price discounting strategy using fuzzy logic for a retail organization.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Investigating identity fraud management practices in e-tail sector: a systematic review	[ "Literature review", "Identity fraud", "Identity theft", "Managerial practices", "E-tailer", "Fraud management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: E-commerce has changed the ways of doing business by offering unlimited opportunities to online retailers like reduction in operation costs, effective customer relationship and boundary-less services. However, these opportunities also have created challenges for them especially related to identity frauds. Identity fraud occurs when a fraudster abuses personal information to impersonate someone else or creates a fictitious identity to make a purchase or open an account to defraud (CIFAS, 2018b).\n2. Background: The number of the identity frauds has movement trend with the increased use of online business opportunities. Table I represents the trend of identity-related frauds for the last five years for CIFAS member organisations only. These figures show only the frauds reported by CIFAS member organisations whereas the total number of identity-related frauds in the UK would be higher. Such an enormous number of identity frauds are a serious concern for online business firms in the UK, as they bear most of these losses (Brody et al., 2007).\n3. Identity fraud management: an overview: Fraud is an old activity, so the literature is rich focusing on various aspects of fraud management. Regarding the behavioural aspects of fraud management, it is a well-established argument that the potential fraudsters can be deterred by the fear of being caught and punished (Alanezi and Brooks, 2014). The concept of changing the behaviour of potential fraudsters is derived from the deterrence theory, which has widely been studied in various contexts and is proved to be significant to control the deviant behaviour.\n4. Research methodology: The practice of reviewing the literature systematically is advancing over the last few decades (Al-Kurdi et al., 2018). Systematic literature review highlights significant contributions to specific domains (Jesson et al., 2011). Encompassing a holistic view of identity fraud management and forwarding as set of comprehensive practices, this study used a systematic literature search approach to synthesise prior studies. Hence, the purpose of this study was to suggest a comprehensive set of practices for effective identity fraud management in e-tail sector, so the literature-related any aspect of fraud management was searched.\n5. Research synthesis: Results show that there are numerous studies on identity fraud management, focusing on one or more stages of fraud management but only a few focused on overall process. The following section is focused on understanding the identity fraud management process and activities at each stage.\n6. Discussions: In online business domain, identity fraud is generally treated as a technological issue. Therefore, a large number of articles are limited to the technological arrangements. Only a few studies (Amasiatu, 2016; Jamieson et al., 2007; Kumar et al., 2007; Wilhelm, 2004) have addressed the issue comprehensively to include the eight stages of fraud management and suggest organisational, social and technological arrangements, while majority of the studies have focused on one or two stages of fraud management.\n7. Conclusions: Identity fraud is a growing concern especially for online retail organisations throughout the world. Every year the number of identity frauds and their losses are increasing. There have been some studies on fraud management and related issues but are scattered. Hence, none of the studies presents a holistic view of identity fraud management and practices in detail. In the absence of such studies, e-tailers are losing a significant amount of their revenues in these frauds. Uncontrolled situation of identity frauds may also hinder the development of e-commerce and significant loss in capital markets. Such a situation is also a challenge for researchers and invites academics to research in this field to change the real-world situation against identity frauds. To help bridging this gap, this study systematically reviews the extant literature and presents a holistic view of identity fraud management and forwards a comprehensive set of related practices. We found that most of the studies are focused on one or some aspects, which may not cover the whole of fraud management. This research also found that most firms treat identity frauds as a technological issue.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Identity fraud is a growing issue for online retail organisations. The literature on this issue is scattered, and none of the studies presents a holistic view of identity fraud management practices in the online retail context. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the identity fraud management practices and present a comprehensive set of practices for e-tail sector.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A systematic literature review approach was adopted, and the articles were selected through pre-set inclusion criteria. The authors synthesised existing literature to investigate identity fraud management in e-tail sector.\nFindings: The research finds that literature on practices for identity fraud management is scattered. The findings also reveal that firms assume identity fraud issues as a technological challenge, which is one of the major reasons for a gap in effective management of identity frauds. This research suggests e-tailers to deal this issue as a management challenge and counter strategies should be developed in technological, human and organisational aspects.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study is limited to the published sources of data. Studies, based on empirical data, will be helpful to support the argument of this study; additionally, future studies are recommended to include a wide number of databases.\nPractical implications: This research will help e-tail organisations to understand the whole of identity fraud management and help them develop and implement a comprehensive set of practices at each stage, for effective management identity frauds.\nOriginality/value: This research makes unique contributions by synthesising existing literature at each stage of fraud management and encompasses social, organisational and technological aspects. It will also help academicians understanding a holistic view of available research and opens new lines for future research.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Performance management implementation challenges in Ghana's local government system: Evidence from the Sefwi Wiawso Municipal Assembly	[ "Performance management", "Implementation", "Ghana", "Challenges", "Local government" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Local governments in Ghana play vital roles in development at the local level. The acknowledgement of local governance by the 1992 Constitution makes a structure for residents' support in decision making and governance. The Decentralisation Policy of Ghana transfers power, capacities and obligation, and human and money-related assets, from the Central Government to the local level. Ghana's decentralisation system, as enshrined in the Constitution, assigns District Assemblies as the most noteworthy political, legislating, budgeting and planning authority at the local level and all things considered much is expected of them. The Local government concept is gaining grounds in most developing countries and is increasingly required to play larger roles in the provision of services, alleviation of poverty and facilitation of development. The challenge facing local governments in Ghana and most developing countries is to emerge as a valuable force to enhance development so as to improve the living conditions of the people in their catchment areas or communities. The need for local governments to measure and improve their performance is therefore necessary for the survival and development of the local people.\nMethodology: The study was undertaken from an interpretivist perspective as this offered explanations to the implementation of performance management systems in the Assembly from the perspective of both the heads/supervisors and their subordinates. This paradigm is relevant as it helped the researcher to pose the what, the why and how questions so as to probe the issue of performance management implementation in a local government set-up. The study adopted a qualitative approach. Despite the fact that several studies have been conducted in the performance management arena, little has been done on local governance and, therefore, approaching this study from a qualitative perspective offered the opportunity for the researchers to consider the experiences of the supervisors and employees as well. The specific design that was adopted is case study. The data for the study were obtained from two main sources, namely, primary and secondary data. The primary data for this study were gathered from observations and the in-depth interviews conducted.\nFindings: The findings are presented under the two key objectives of the study and touch on key issues such as the purpose of the Assembly's performance management system, the process of implementation, the effectiveness of the current system and the implementation challenges.\nDiscussion of findings: Performance management systems are composed of process and people components. The process component is made up of job descriptions, assessment standards, the assessment deliberations and reward systems. A key constituent of the people component is the supervisor who pushes the system by establishing the expectations, communicating plans, stimulating growth and giving and receiving feedback from subordinates. Even though the majority of the respondents viewed the performance management system of the Assembly as a process, they were a bit divided. Some of the interviewees felt it was just a two-stage activity or process of performance planning and performance evaluation. To these people, there is actually nothing like performance implementation because when the goals are formulated, hardly does someone ensure its implementation. The only thing supervisors do is to mark the appraisal forms filled by the employee just because it is an annual \"ritual\" or requirement.\nConclusions: Implementing an effective performance management system is not an easy task. Therefore, the Assembly has to put in more effort than what it is doing at the moment. The basic principle underlying performance management is that if employees recognise what is required of them, they are more probable to accomplish tasks effectually. This results in improved employee performance as well as better organisational performance. The responses gathered call for a complete performance management system which includes: clear vision/mission/values, strategic goals, job descriptions, clear accountabilities for delivering strategic and day to day tasks, consistent feedback, training and development, reward and recognition, and a more formal performance appraisal which will not only put fear in employees but will push them to think outside the box and deliver an exceptional performance. The study, therefore, concludes that though the Assembly has not been able to fully implement its performance management to the expectation of all stakeholders, it has the opportunity to turn its fortunes around by adopting a complete and an all-inclusive system which will not only serve the interest of the Assembly but also that of the employees as well.\nRecommendations: From the findings and discussions made, the following are recommended.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the current performance management system of the Sefwi Wiawso Municipal Assembly as well as the challenges faced by the Assembly in implementing its performance management system.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The specific design that was adopted is the case study approach. The primary data were gathered through in-depth interviews. In total, 20 heads of departments and employees were purposively sampled. The data gathered from the interviews were analysed using Miles and Huberman's (1994) approach to qualitative data analysis.\nFindings: The paper reveals that the performance management system of the Assembly has not been effective. The study also reveals poor communication, poor integration, low commitment by the top officials, absence of training, inadequate capacity for setting clear targets and objectives, and measuring and evaluation criteria for performance assessment, cultural issues, absence of rewards for good performance, financial constraints, weak and highly bureaucratic management systems as challenges facing performance management system of the assembly.\nPractical implications: This study indicates that the training of supervisors and the linking of performance management systems with reward and recognition are key to ensuring an effective implementation of the performance management system of the Assembly.\nOriginality/value: This paper contributes to literature by examining the performance management system of the Sefwi Wiawso Municipal Assembly in the Western Region of Ghana by describing and drawing lessons from local government experiences in the implementation of performance management systems in developing countries.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Are overqualified employees bad apples? A dual-pathway model of cyberloafing	[ "Anger", "Cyberloafing", "Perceived overqualification", "Moral disengagement", "Moral identity" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Due to the economic recession and reduced employment opportunities, overqualification has become a common phenomenon in organizations (Hu et al., 2015; Zhang et al., 2016). The statistical data indicated that 20-25 percent of American employees possess more knowledge, skills, and work experiences than their jobs require (Feldman and Turnley, 1995). Overqualification exists not only in developed countries such as America and Europe but also in developing countries such as China. A survey reported that 84 percent of Chinese employees consider that they are overqualified for their work (Zhang et al., 2016). Given that the pervasiveness of overqualification, advancing our understanding of employees' responses to overqualification is imperative.\nTheoretical overview and hypotheses development: Perceived overqualification\nMethods: Sample and research procedures\nResults: Confirmatory factor analyses\nDiscussion: Drawing from cognitive and emotional perspectives, we developed and tested a dual-pathway model elaborating how and when perceived overqualification affects employee cyberloafing. The results showed that the perceptions of overqualification triggered moral disengagement and anger toward organization, which subsequently facilitated cyberloafing. Furthermore, the strengths of these two mechanisms were contingent upon employee moral identity. Specifically, these two indirect effects were positive when moral identity was low, but non-significant when moral identity was high.\nConclusion: The current research developed and tested a dual-pathway model delineating how and when perceived overqualification affects cyberloafing. Specifically, we examined the mediating roles of moral disengagement and anger toward organization in the association between perceived overqualification and cyberloafing. Moreover, we proposed moral identity as a boundary condition that influences the strengths of these two indirect effects. Our results showed that the perceptions of overqualification indirectly impact cyberloafing through moral disengagement and anger toward organization beyond the influence of social exchange. In addition, moral identity buffered the association between the mediators (i.e. moral disengagement and anger) and cyberloafing and the indirect relationship between perceived overqualification and cyberloafing.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Drawing from cognitive and emotional perspectives, the purpose of this paper is to theorize and test a dual-pathway model in which moral disengagement and anger toward organization act as two explanatory mechanisms of the association between perceived overqualification and employee cyberloafing. The authors further proposed that the strengths of these two mediating mechanisms depend on employee moral identity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors used hierarchical linear modeling to examine the hypotheses by analyzing a sample of 294 employees working in 71 departments in China.\nFindings: Results revealed that moral disengagement and anger toward organization mediated the positive link between perceived overqualification and cyberloafing beyond the influence of social exchange. Furthermore, moral identity attenuated the association between the mediators (i.e. moral disengagement and anger) and cyberloafing and the indirect relationship between perceived overqualification and cyberloafing.\nOriginality/value: Extant studies have examined the effects of perceived overqualification on employee behaviors in terms of task performance, organizational citizenship behavior, proactive behavior, as well as withdrawal behavior. The study expands this line of research by empirically investigating whether and how perceived overqualification influences cyberloafing.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
"Good" news from nowhere: imagining utopian sustainable accounting	[ "Engagement", "Integrated reporting", "Sustainability", "Stakeholder", "Morris", "Utopia" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nPreamble: In the social accounting literature, there have been many attempts to develop alternate constructions of what has, today, become known as \"sustainability reporting\" (see, e.g. Antheaume, 2004; Bebbington et al., 2001; Bent, 2007). There have also been a number of reporting \"experiments\" attempted by various academics, practitioners, policy makers and lobby groups. These include, for example, full cost accounting, triple-bottom-line accounting and the idea of a comprehensive reporting framework (see Gray, 1994, 2002, 2010; Boone and Rubenstein, 1997; Gray and Milne 2003; Eccles and Krzus, 2010). Current experiments with integrated reporting represent the most recent move towards a \"new\" version of sustainability reporting where the social and environmental disclosures are integrated into the annual report (Solomon and Maroun, 2012; International Integrated Reporting Committee (IIRC), 2013; Solomon, 2013).\nThe method: The method adopted in this paper is four-fold. First, we adopt a type of auto-ethnographic approach, in conjunction with a story-telling technique, to identify a number of shortcomings in the integrated and sustainability reporting projects and offer possibilities for change. Second, the context of the paper is created through a dialogue between a group of accounting academics, environmentalists and other lobbyists. Third, we use Morris's utopian metaphor, describing, not necessarily a socialist structure, but a futuristic society characterised by accountability, stakeholder engagement, technological advance and environmental awareness. Fourth, the paper presents a stakeholder accountability event in the form of an oral account of a day's events in the futuristic production processes, written in the form of a song cycle. Our choice of a utopian method derives from the authors' interest in this literary genre and especially in the works of William Morris.\n\"Good\" News From Nowhere: On the brink of climatic disaster\nOn the need for a paradigm shift in corporate reporting: Traditionally, accounting developments have been described as improvements which reflect technological changes and resultant economic developments. Organisational economy, efficiency and effectiveness can be improved by more refined accounting systems but their essence is not altered by accounting (Watts and Zimmerman, 1983; Hopwood, 1987). In positivist epistemological terms, accounting serves a rational technical purpose only, providing financial information to enable the efficient allocation of capital (Watts and Zimmerman, 1978; Carruthers, 1995; International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), 2010).\nConcluding remarks: It is quite clear that the world is facing climatic disaster. If the UN's reports are correct, all organisations must make far greater strides in managing climate change risks and dramatically reducing their carbon footprints. This is especially true for larger organisations operating in different jurisdictions and enjoying the technological expertise and resources to address serious social and environmental practices. Rather than wait for the effects of climate change to be realised fully, new forms of accounting and accountability have a role to play in altering business behaviour.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to attempt to provide a ray of hope, in the form of a Morris-style utopian dream of a sustainable world, as a basis for new forms of accounting and accountability in contemporary society.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The method is four-fold, weaving together an auto-ethnographic approach, a contextual dialogue between accounting academics and lobbyists, a Morris-inspired utopian metaphor and a stakeholder accountability event in the form of oral disclosures written as a song cycle.\nFindings: Current efforts at integrated reporting are unlikely to change how large companies do business in order to address the risk of climate change in the short term. If the UN reports on climate change are correct, the authors need to take immediate action. The authors argue that, instead of waiting for climatic disaster to lead to a paradigm shift in corporate practice, \"monetisation\" of the costs of climate change is one way to encourage integrated thinking and sustainable business models. This relies on existing finance and accounting discourse to create a new \"field of environmental visibility\" which engenders environmental awareness on the part of the world's companies and policy makers.\nPractical implications: This utopian image may not appear a practicable, realistic solution to current problems but represents a starting point for optimism. It provides inspiration for policy makers to develop better forms of sustainability reporting, more suitable to the accelerating rates of climatic change.\nOriginality/value: To the authors' knowledge this is the first attempt to develop Morris's News From Nowhere as a basis for building new forms of accounting and accountability.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Judicial activism and human rights in Bangladesh: a critique	[ "Bangladesh", "Human rights", "PIL" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The aim of this paper is to evaluate the role judiciary plays in ensuring human rights in Bangladesh through judicial activisms. The role of judiciary has many facets such as judicial review, judicial supervision, judicial activisms and advisory jurisdiction of judiciary, but the present paper highlighted only judicial activisms. Violation of human rights is a big concern overall in the world, and for protecting and promoting human rights, many national and international legal instrumentalities have been initiated. Judicial activism is one of them, and is being practiced from east (China) to west (USA) and north (Norway) to south (South Africa) (Chayas, 1976; Anderson, 2003; Arantes, 2003; Bhagwati, 1985; Charles, 1998; Cavallaro, and Schaffer, 2004; Okpaluba, 2003; Petrova, 1996; Fuller, 1978; Gargarella, 2002, 2004; Gloppen, 2005; Hershkoff and McCutcheon, 2000; Hoque, 2003, 2006, 2011; Goldston, 2006; Krishnan, 2002; Cooper, 1993, 1998; Miles, 2000; Lobel, 1995; Hoque, 2001; Cappelletti, 1975; Anderson and GUHA, 2003; Mohapatra, 2003; Mollah, 2008, 2010; Ahmed, 1998; Geldenhuys, 2006; Hoque, 1993; Rahman, 1999; Tripathi, 1993). Violation of human rights is occurring in various forms, such as deprivation of life and liberty, arbitrary arrest and detention, extra judicial killing, punishment and killing by fotwa[1], violence against women, acid throwing, rape and killing, violation of child labor rights, violation of environmental rights, violation of minority rights, violation of refugee rights, trafficking women and child, and so on. To be more specific, through analysis of some case laws, an attempt has been made in this paper to explicate the role of judicial activism, which is being practiced in Bangladesh in the form of public interest litigation (PIL) and suo-moto[2] rule to protect and promote individual rights against misappropriation of the Government or any other private power. The paper is qualitative in nature and based on review of secondary sources of materials. Relevant cases are selected from Dhaka Law Reports and Web sites of Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), Ain-o-Salish Kendra (ASK) and Odhikar. Besides, data have been used from different published documents in the form of books, unpublished dissertation and journal articles. In addition, information through Internet browsing and news published in different newspapers has also been reviewed and used to extract cases of misappropriation of power and exploitation of individual rights.\n2. Why a study of human rights?: The definition of human rights is a debating issue, but it has been discussed as a burning issue from time immemorial. Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, language or any other status. We are all equally entitled to our human rights without discrimination. These rights are all interrelated, interdependent and indivisible[3]. On December 10, 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the \"Universal Declaration of Human Rights\" (UDHR) in its preamble recognized that the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world[4]. It has also been repeated in both the preambles of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966. According to UDHR:\n3. Why judicial activisms?: Recently, the term \"judicial activism\" is pronounced much more in the academic domain of legal and political studies. However, many of us do not know the real meaning of it. The term judicial activism can be traced back to the case of Marbury v. Madison (1804)[7] decided by Chief Justice Marshall of the USA. He observed that \"it is for the court to say what the law is\". A law repugnant to the Constitution is void. If there was conflict between a law made by the Congress and the provisions in the Constitution, it was the duty of the court to enforce the Constitution and ignore the law. Thus, he laid down the foundation of two concepts-judicial review and judicial activism (cited in Lal, 2004). Simply put, judicial activism depicts the pro-active role played by the judiciary in ensuring that rights and liberties of citizens are protected. Through judicial activism, the court moves beyond its normal role of a mere adjudicator of disputes and becomes a player in the system of the country, laying down principles and guidelines that the executive must carry out[8].\n4. Legal and procedural basis of judicial activisms in Bangladesh: Judicial activisms or PIL is not defined directly in any statute, act or provision of Bangladesh Constitution. It has been interpreted by judges to consider the interest of public at large. However, in Bangladesh, the constitution has not only guaranteed fundamental rights and their judicial enforcement[10], but also sufficiently empowered the HCD of Supreme Court to enforce them through appropriate directions or order to any person or authority including public functionaries[11]. Besides, the Constitution of Bangladesh incorporates 23 rights (both civic and political called fundamental rights) in Part III, Articles 27-44. When these rights are violated by any public or private individual or authority, human right is violated. Article 8 of the UDHR enumerates that everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law[12]. Similarly, for the protection of these fundamental human rights of the citizen, Article 44(1) of the Bangladesh Constitution guarantees the right to move the HCD of the Supreme Court (Mollah, 2008). By protecting the fundamental rights of the citizen, the judiciary ensures the human rights. The HCD of Bangladesh has also been given power to issue appropriate writs to remedy a legal wrong or to enforce legal obligation[13]. Thus, the judicial activism is permitted indirectly by the Constitution of the Republic of Bangladesh. Judicial activism or PIL basically introduced for poor, socially vulnerable, backward and minorities groups who have faced limited access to courts or failed to get judicial remedies due to lack of legal knowledge and consciousness.\n5. How far human rights are ensured in Bangladesh through judicial activism?: 5.1 Protection of women rights\n6. Role of NGOs in PIL intervention:: Over 1,000 NGOs are working in Bangladesh for socio-economic development including protecting and promoting human rights especially that of poor, minorities and socially backward groups[37]. In Bangladesh, there is a human right forum where 17 human rights defender organizations are working for years. In this study, I have mentioned few organizations of them like BLAST, ASK and Bangladesh Environmental Lawyer Associations (BELA). Though it is a short study, however, it has been found that most of the PIL cases are initiated by these organizations. Apart from the PIL initiative, these organizations are working for legal- and right-based awareness program to uphold the status and dignity of the weaker section of society through ensuring their rights. Most of these organizations are funded by Donor Agencies. They examine laws, policies and continuities in practice, focusing on civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. Currently, these 17 organizations are working for war crimes relating to holding inquiries into or trials for genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression that occurred during the 1971 War of Independence. For the right to life, liberty and security, they pressure the Government to make a clear commitment to cease extra-judicial killings and when and what action will it take to hold prompt, adequate and impartial investigations into allegations of human rights' violations, in particular extra-judicial killings and torture under every government - by members of the security forces, including the police, armed forces, and the RAB - to prosecute those responsible, and provide reparations to victims? What action will the Government take to ensure that such trials can be held in civilian courts? Besides, what action will the Government take to implement the High Court's directives regarding arrests without warrant and police remand (Sections 54 and 167 of the Code of Criminal Procedure)? What measures will the Government take to reduce prison over-crowding, including through release of under-trial prisoners in minor offences on bail or use of parole, and to allow human rights organizations to undertake regular inspection of prisons? Will the Government cease forcible evictions of slums and markets, peasants and villagers from Khas lands, roadside and embankments without prior alternative resettlement and what actions does it propose to ensure effective rehabilitation of the urban poor? What steps will the Government take to reform gender-discriminatory personal laws - including Hindu, Muslim and Christian personal laws - affecting rights to inheritance, entry into and rights within marriage, divorce, maintenance, child custody, guardianship, adoption and inheritance? How will the Government fully implement existing quotas for women and minorities in public services and ensure non-discriminatory recruitment for the public services, security forces and judiciary?\n7. Problems and challenges of NGOs and judicial activism: The Bangladeshi judicial administration was inherited from the colonial legacy, however, Western scholars certified that PIL or judicial activism of South Asia including Bangladesh are different from the Western PILs because they are basically right-based, while the South Asian PILs are both right- and obligation-based (Anderson and Guha, 2000; Menski, 2000). However, this approach is still facing and suffering from some problems and challenges. Firstly, it is institutionally not institutionalized even after many years. The Court and judges have not yet adequately developed cooperative mode of adjudicating the public officials within implementation processes (Hoque, 2011). Secondly, grassroots people are still under light of PIL, they do not have adequate knowledge and do not know what it is and what benefit can be received from this. Thirdly, most of the PIL cases are governed by Elitist groups like lawyers of political parties, member of civil society and NGOs workers to ensure their own or urban people's interest instead of vulnerable sections of societies. Finally, implementation of verdicts is solely depended on executives, and as a result, many crucial cases are still pending even after years. Besides, most of the PIL cases are initiated by NGOs or human rights defenders but they have faced many challenges. In India and Bangladesh, human rights defenders belonging to ethnic minorities, tribal communities and indigenous people who have been especially targeted for defending land rights and protesting injustices perpetrated by state actors[39]. The Observatory group for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint program of the International Federation for Human Rights and the World Organization against Torture, expresses concerns about the restrictive environment for human rights defenders in Bangladesh, after completing a fact-finding mission in the country on November 22, 2012[40]. Some editors, reporters and journalists, who denounce unlawful practices or disclose sensitive information about corruption, reported facing indirect or direct threats to their safety. This sometimes has led to self-censorship. For instance, journalist Mutafizur Rahman Sumon of Just News BD was imprisoned in July 2012 and ill-treated for campaigning against the impunity for crimes against journalists - such as the murder of journalists Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi on February 11, 2012[40]. Judicial harassment is another major concern, as a number of lawyers, journalists, trade unionists or environmentalists reporting on human rights violations have faced numerous spurious charges - often brought before a biased judiciary. Such cases, which can even take years, are used as another means to silence the denunciation of human rights violation[40].\n8. Concluding remarks: From review of the overall discussion and analysis, it has been found that there is a close relationship between \"judicial activism\" and \"human rights\". Judiciary is a very vital institution of a government which not only contributes to establish the rule of law in a country but also contributes to ensure and compel any public or private individual or organization to abstain from misuse of power or any other forms of corruption with a view to protecting and promoting individual rights, liberties and properties. Analyzing various case laws, it has been found that judicial activisms is one of the golden mean approach in protecting various aspects of human rights such as fundamental rights, security of life, liberty and properties, rights of women and minorities and overall protection of public interest. All those are the basis of rule of law and good governance of a country. In most of the cases, it has been found that judicial activism is such an approach where there is no need to file a writ by the affected person directly. Any person or organization has the right to writ on behalf of affected rights or public interest-related concern. In this study, it has been found that a number of cases delivered by the judiciary for protecting and upholding human rights in Bangladesh in the form of judicial activisms but most of the cases are initiated and filed by human rights organizations like BLAST, ASK, BELA, BMP, Nejara Kori and so one or legally conscious persons and few initiatives are taken by the higher judiciary through suo moto provision. But it is a matter of sorrow that these initiative are very limited in the context of number of incidents that are happening in Bangladesh. A lot of extra-judicial killing and punishment has been happening, but the cases are limited; only two have been identified as PIL cases. Similarly, violation of minorities rights in the forms of rape and killing, physically and sexually assault, kidnapping, destroying and damaging houses, temples and looting of gold and other ornaments are happening since the War of Independence, but the number of PIL or suo moto cases are limited. Even, verdicts of those cases are not implemented effectively. Delay and disposal of cases is one of the very crucial problems to discharge the verdict of the judiciary which found in extra-judicial killing case of this study. Apart from this, deterioration of law and order, violation of human rights, corruption, arbitrary use of power by the law and order enforcing agencies are still continuing. Therefore, what measures can be taken to eradicate this problem. Along with judiciary, other existing watchdog or regulatory public institutions such as Anti-Corruption Commission, Human Rights Commission, CAG, Parliamentary committees, Ministry of Home Affairs, etc. should be more proactive, independent, accountable and transparent to ensure individual rights and interest from illegitimate or arbitrary exercise of any executive or political power. Aside from this, NGOs, human rights defender organizations, civil society and the initiatives of International Human Rights Organizations that are closely related to establish rule of law and national interest should be accepted and promoted by the government.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the role of judicial activism as a golden mean approach of judiciary in protecting and promoting human rights from illegitimate interferences of government. With this aim, several case studies have been done on verdicts of higher judiciary in Bangladesh.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper is an exploratory case study focused on Bangladesh. The paper is qualitative in nature and based on secondary sources of published facts like books, journal articles and Dhaka Law Reports. Information also gathered through Internet browsing.\nFindings: Though judiciary is very effective to protect and promote human rights and rule of law in a country through judicial activism or public interest litigation, the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are crucial in Bangladesh. Delay and disposal of cases is one of the great impediments in the process of ensuring human rights in Bangladesh. Besides, negligence in implement the verdict of judiciary and interferences of executive over judiciary is another finding of this paper. Apart from these shortcomings, judicial activism is a very important potential instrument of judiciary to protect and promote human rights and the rule of law in Bangladesh.\nResearch limitations/implications: The major limitation of this paper is it is based on secondary sources of information. It would have more rich if periodical data can be used for comparing theory and practice.\nPractical implications: This paper would be helpful for making a policy for overcoming limitations of judicial activism in Bangladesh to protect and promote human rights.\nSocial implications: Social awareness can be build-up through NGOs and readers by disseminating and penetrating information of this paper's findings and recommendations.\nOriginality/value: This paper would an unique and add new knowledge in the literature of public interest litigation and Human Rights Law in the context of Bangladesh.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The impact of process mapping on transparency	[ "Management activity", "Knowledge mapping", "Continuous improvement" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Process mapping enables representation and analysis of business processes. Process maps are just one means of visualizing and controlling the activities of an organization and collectively these visual approaches have been characterized as increasing transparency, or process visibility.In many business entities, the development of process maps is an intermediate step in process improvements. For instance, in lean production's value stream mapping (VSM) methodology, development of a current state process map provides a basis to analyze the existing process, develop an improved future state map, and realize benefits when implementing the future state map (Hines and Taylor, 2000). The value of process mapping as an intermediate step leading to process improvements is broadly accepted (Rother and Shook, 1999; Womack and Jones, 2003).However, it is also helpful to understand the value of process map development prior to implementing any improvements. One way to determine this value is to measure the impact the process map has on employee recall and understanding of the business processes included in the map. Mapping processes within an organization requires a significant investment of resources, and demonstrating a return on this investment as soon as possible is desirable. It may take years for an organization to realize benefits related to implementation of a future-state process map. On the other hand, the value of creating and using current-state maps can be demonstrated much sooner. Demonstrating this value may help justify further investment and motivate organizations to continue towards the later steps of their process improvement efforts.In response, the research described in this paper investigates process mapping use in a construction organization, the Design and Construction Division of Penn State's Office of Physical Plant (OPP). The research objective is to provide evidence and a methodology to assist organizations in evaluating and justifying the early stages of their process mapping efforts, before any future-state improvements are realized. This objective is accomplished through a study at OPP, which reveals improved transparency when process maps are used for employee training. The general methodology from the study at OPP is outlined for easy adaptation by other organizations.Context\nLiterature: A review of literature was performed seeking evidence of the impact of process mapping on transparency. While the review uncovered useful background information for the study described later in this paper, the literature generally reveals a need for further study of the impact of process mapping on transparency. In fact, researchers studying process mapping recognize the limited evidence of the benefits of process mapping, regardless of whether these benefits are related to transparency or not (Sedera et al., 2002; Bandara et al., 2005).As there is little evidence of the benefits of process mapping for general business processes, it is not surprising the same issue exists for the construction industry (Tzortzopoulos et al., 2005). There is a significant gap in literature with respect to implementation, as opposed to design, of process models. In response, determining actual improvements resulting from process mapping efforts is the subject of one of the three research questions resulting from the literature review of process mapping in construction (Tzortzopoulos et al., 2005). The study at OPP will help address this research question.Process mapping benefits related to transparency\nMethodology: Based on the literature review, there is an opportunity for contribution by studying the impact of process mapping on transparency. The step-by-step research methodology described in this section is designed to serve two purposes. First, each step of the methodology is explained in general terms so other organizations can utilize the methodology to study the impact of process mapping on transparency for their own process mapping efforts. Second, an example for each step of the methodology is provided to demonstrate how the study at OPP was performed.Step 1: develop process maps\nResults and analysis: The study at OPP demonstrated that use of process maps in employee training resulted in an overall increase in transparency. Review of the macro-level capital project delivery process map resulted in a 5 percent average increase in transparency. Review of the micro-level closeout and contracting process maps resulted in average transparency increases of 27 percent and 20 percent, respectively. Further, the survey results show employees perceived the process mapping as having a positive impact on transparency.The first process map reviewed in the training session at OPP was a macro-level map representing the capital project delivery process. As shown in Figure 2, the points on the radar plot related to the post-quiz are farther away from the center of the plot, on average, than the points related to the pre-quiz. Therefore, it appears that transparency has increased after the training using the process maps. Comparing the before and after points for each attribute shows increases in the scores for \"facilitation of communication,\" \"facilitation of feedback\" and \"enabling decision making.\" Notably, \"recognition of problems,\" \"recognition of interdependencies\" and \"facilitation of system understanding\" all decreased after using the process map. This inconsistent result is discussed further at the end of this section.Next, the micro-level map showing the closeout process was reviewed. As shown in Figure 3, all of the points on the radar plot related to the post-quiz (with the exception of \"recognition of interdependencies\") are farther away from the center of the plot than the points related to the pre-quiz. Therefore, it appears that transparency has increased after the training using the process maps.Finally, the micro-level map showing the contracting process was reviewed. As shown in Figure 4, all of the points on the radar plot related to the post-quiz (with the exception of \"facilitation of system understanding\") are farther away from the center of the plot than the points related to the pre-quiz. Therefore, it appears that transparency has increased after the training using the process maps.The results from the subjective survey are consistent with the objective quiz results for each of the process maps used in the training session. For the capital project delivery process map, employees perceived an increase in transparency of 3.8 (between 3 - \"somewhat\" and 5 - \"a lot\"). For the contracting and closeout process maps, the subjective survey shows a perceived increase in transparency of 3.7. Data collected from the subjective survey support the conclusions drawn from the objective quiz results. The average perceived transparency enhancement for all three process maps, organized by attribute of the process transparency definition, is shown in Figure 5.As stated previously in this section, there were several instances where process transparency appeared to decrease after using the process maps. For the closeout and contracting process maps, where only one attribute of the definition decreased (Figures 2 and 3), the inconsistency is probably a result of random variability. This variability could be reduced by increasing the number of questions related to each attribute of the transparency definition and increasing the number of participants in the study. For the capital project delivery process map, three of the transparency definition attributes decreased after the training session (Figure 4), which may be due to differences in pre-quiz and post-quiz questions. One attempt to account for these differences was to require half of the meeting participants to complete one quiz prior to the meeting and the other quiz after the meeting, while the other half of the meeting participants complete the quizzes in the opposite order. However, for the study at OPP, one of these groups of participants had a much different background than the other and was therefore better able to answer questions related to their background, regardless of whether they had seen the process maps yet or not. This variability could be reduced in future studies by ensuring the groups have similar backgrounds.\nConclusions and implications: This paper has discussed evidence and a methodology to assist organizations in evaluating the early stages of their process mapping efforts. An examination of literature reveals evidence of the potential of process mapping to improve transparency. Findings of the study at OPP add to the limited body of knowledge on the impact of process mapping on transparency. The implications of these results are especially valuable for OPP to justify their investments in process mapping. Still, it is difficult to draw more broad conclusions directly from a study that is limited to one organization (OPP), three process maps (Capital project delivery, contracting, and closeout), one mapping protocol (L&G mapping protocol), and one group of people (14 employees attending the training.) The study was not intended to definitively show the impact of process mapping on transparency for all applications in all organizations. A more elaborate study of the impact of process mapping on transparency would be useful.Therefore, the more valuable contribution of this study is the methodology, by which other organizations can study their own process mapping efforts. Other organizations may examine the impact of process mapping on transparency using the transparency definition developed in this paper, or they may search for other impacts by applying their own definitions while using the methodology outlined here. In either case, organizations can evaluate their process mapping efforts before seeing the results from implementing future-state improvements. Any positive results shown by this evaluation will help motivate organizations to continue towards the later steps of their process improvement efforts.Finally, it would also be useful to extend the study in this paper, where impact is measured by levels of awareness and quantify how increased transparency through process maps translates to economic impact. This extension, showing impacts on organizations' bottom lines, would further bolster the case for early adoption of process mapping.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Process mapping is used to articulate the activities and procedures of business entities in a graphical way as pictorial images readily convey considerable information. The objective of this research is to provide evidence and a methodology to assist organizations in evaluating the early stages of their process mapping efforts.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A review of literature identifies key characteristics of transparency (process visibility) related to process mapping. Quizzes and surveys are used to study the impact of process mapping on transparency in an employee training session.\nFindings: - The paper finds that process mapping increases transparency between 5 percent and 27 percent for the applications discussed in this paper.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The research presumes that better understanding and recall of the company's business processes equates to higher transparency. This research study is limited to one field test, organization, and process mapping methodology. These limitations should be considered when extrapolating the results to other organizations.\nPractical implications: - The methodology outlined in this paper provides a way to measure the impact that formalizing (mapping) an organization's business processes and then using these maps to communicate the organization's business processes has on an individual employee's understanding and recall of those business processes. This methodology may help other organizations evaluate the early stages of their process mapping efforts.\nOriginality/value: - A measurable definition of transparency is developed. A field study provides evidence that process mapping increases transparency and a methodology is shared for others to study the impacts of their process mapping efforts.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Lessons in disaster management as learned from Korean NGOs	[ "South Korea", "Emergency management", "International NGOs", "Social practices or culture", "Transnational disaster management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Disasters can hit anyone, anywhere. For this reason, every nation normally has their disaster management system. Its extent differs depending on the nation's capacity in terms of priorities, budget, politics and relevant policies. Moreover, disaster management is not linear, but is complex. As such, tools like emergency operational plans, manuals and centers are based on multi-disciplines. In relation to this, there are three major stakeholders in the field, namely governments, industries or the business sector, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).\nResearch framework: Literature review\nCases of general-goal NGOs: ASDM\nCases of specific-goal NGOs: KFSA\nComparative evidence for specific-goal disaster management in Korea: The list of 219 NGOs, which was prepared by MOSPA, contains related information on all NGOs in the Korean field of disaster management. This information includes the names of NGOs, the major activities of the NGOs, yes/no on NGOs' survival, and other characteristics of NGOs. In Tables I and II, we chose 100 of these 219 NGOs under MOSPA to test if general-goal NGOs do not perform as well as specific-goal NGOs, as of July 28, 2013. The activities of the 100 sampled NGOs were more related to the goal of disaster management than those of the 119 non-sampled NGOs. All 100 NGOs played their own roles directly or indirectly in supporting disaster management for the last 10 years, between January 1, 2003 and December 31, 2012, although some of these NGOs no longer exist today. The above four NGO cases are not included here. By referring to the list of 219 NGOs and related classification, we could basically collect raw data for analysis.\nMajor implications for international NGOs: It has been inevitable for so many NGOs, not only general-goal NGOs but also specific-goal NGOs, to be emergent and to survive in the Korean field of disaster management. Particularly in the 21st century, the demand for immediate action from NGOs has sharply increased because of the nature and frequency of disasters. Moreover, there have always been discrepancies between what the general public think ought to be and what they actually see in the field of disaster management. These conditions have facilitated the emergence of NGOs in the field of disaster management.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to improve the role of emergent Korean non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in disaster management by comparing general-goal NGOs and specific-goal NGOs, and ultimately goal provide lessons for international NGOs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study used quantitative research to analyze the issue through an international perspective. The hypothesis drafted was that if general-goal NGOs do not perform as well as specific-goal NGOs under actual conditions, their performance will have international implications. The two types of NGOs were systematically contrasted with reference to their social and political practices or culture through three variables: stakeholders, finance and strategies.\nFindings: The main finding or recommendation is that general-goal NGOs have to be transformed into specific-goal NGOs for effective disaster management, not only in Korea but also in the international community.\nOriginality/value: When reflecting that almost no research has dared to look into the topic on the role or the type of disaster management NGOs in Korea, this paper has potential value as a pioneer study.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Understanding business networks from a mixed network and system ontology position: A review of the research field	[ "Complex adaptive systems", "Agent-based modelling", "Network boundaries", "Causal networks", "Encapsulation", "Network ontology" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The affinity between IMP industrial networks and complexity theory has been noted (Wilkinson and Young, 2005, 2013; Wilkinson, 2008). Drawing on many accounts of systems facing turbulent environments in biology, chemistry, ecology, sociology and economic sciences and business (Anderson et al., 1988; Arthur, 1999; Kaufmann, 1993), the characteristics of industrial networks, business interactions and business relationships closely resemble those of complex adaptive systems (Wilkinson and Young, 2013), displaying emergence, self-organization and distributed control. The main argument is that industrial business networks[1] essentially display the \"causal texture\" (Emery and Trist, 1960) of the relationship between the system and environment that arises as a result of what these scholars label a turbulent environment (Emery and Trist, 1960, 1965). As shown by Wilkinson and Young (2005), the characteristics of the relationship between a system and turbulent environment fit the descriptions of business networks provided by IMP scholars over the past 40+years well.\n2. A review of the literature on industrial networks as complex adaptive economic systems: The literature on industrial networks as complex adaptive systems is a relatively small and fragmented, thus reflecting overall patterns of management sciences (Engwall, 1995; Whitley, 1984). This paper concentrates on the two issues of networks and boundaries and networks and causation, respectively, as they constitute central consequences of a mixed network and system ontology in need of conceptual clarification.\n3. Industrial networks as empirical manifestations of complex adaptive economic systems - ontological challenges: Recognizing that industrial networks are the empirical manifestations of complex adaptive economic systems have some real consequences. We cannot rest assured that traditional ontological assumptions apply because this entails a completely different world-view. Consequently, we must recognize and take seriously the need for entirely new methods and models because, as Brian Arthur puts it, \"[...] [complexity economics] is not an adjunct to standard economic theory, but a theory at a more general, out-of-equilibrium level\" (Arthur, 1999).\n4. Combining network and system ontologies to better understand industrial networks: what does this mean?: A conclusion that can be drawn from the discussions above is that the boundary issue occupies most of the research and that scholars are concerned with the setting of boundaries as well as various crossings of boundaries. In industrial business networks, boundaries are necessary but arbitrary and in continuous flux (e.g. Hakansson and Snehota, 1989; Gadde, 2014; Geiger and Finch, 2009). The continuous opening up and closing off of sub-networks is a core characteristic of business networks (Gadde, 2014). The boundary issue in industrial business networks is not so much a question of boundaries per se. Rather, it is a question of how boundaries are being interactively created and drawn. Drawing on the idea of market performativity (Araujo, 2007; Kjellberg and Helgesson, 2006) implied by Geiger and Finch (2009), boundaries in industrial business networks are performative when understood as a mixed ontological position. This reasons well with the works of, among others, Gadde (2014) and Sousa (2014).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to highlight the ontological implications of combining network and system ontology to conceptualize industrial networks as the empirical manifestations of complex adaptive economic systems.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper contributes with a systematic discussion on how network and system ontology can be combined to produce better understandings of business networks. It also provides a review of the state-of-the art research literature on the topic as a starting point for the discussion.\nFindings: Findings indicate that networks may be enclosed in each other constituting sub- and supra-networks comprising increasing complexity. In these cases, sub-networks that are black-boxed can be seen as entities in themselves producing inputs and outputs to the supra-network. Networks, once they become black-boxed, can assume the functions of generative mechanisms within a wider supra-network.\nResearch limitations/implications: This research is conceptual in nature and needs to be complemented with empirical research. In addition, the literature review used one database complemented with papers from the IMP journal. A wider search could reveal additional research that can be of relevance for the development of the field.\nOriginality/value: This paper addresses the ontological and methodological issues arising from a mixed system and network ontology. These issues are commonly ignored or dealt with indirectly in extant literature. For any accumulation of knowledge in the field to be possible, the explication of a mixed ontology is important as it have conceptual and methodological consequences. Adopting such a mixed ontological position provides an ontology in line with empirical research of business practice.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The effects of IT: from performance to value	[ "Firm performance", "Firm value", "IT capability" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: In studies of IT-enabled organization performance, scholars usually use accounting-based measures or financial market-based measures to measure the impact of IT on firms (Bharadwaj et al., 1999). That is, previous studies have used both of these measurement methods to measure organization performance. However, these two methods should be used to measure different concepts and their meanings have not been defined well in previous studies. Therefore, this study further differentiates and defines the concepts of these two measurement methods. Accounting-based measures, including backward-looking measures (Tanriverdi, 2006) and short-term influences (Saeed et al., 2005), are referred to as \"firm performance\" in this study. Market-based measures, including forward-looking measures (Tanriverdi, 2006) and long-term influences (Saeed et al., 2005), are referred to as \"firm value\" in this study. It can be seen that obvious differences exist between these two types of measures. These differences are important for both research and practice and should be considered at the same time.\n2 Literature review and research hypotheses: 2.1 The differences between firm performance and firm value\n3 Methodology: 3.1 The measurement of IT capability\n4 Results: 4.1 Parameter test\n5 Discussion: This study's empirical findings are similar to the findings of Kohli et al. (2012), which also show that IT investment contributes more to firms' market value than do accounting measures. Specifically, their findings show that the impact of IT investment is not significant on the accounting measures. Compared to their study, this study's sample covers various industries and the sample period is longer. This also supports the argument that IT consistently contributes more to firm value than it does firm performance in recent studies. In particular, this study uses different methods to examine the contributions of IT capabilities to firm performance and firm value, and attains consistent conclusions. That is, IT brings about firm value (long-term influences) rather than firm performance (short-term influences) for firms.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to differentiate and define the concepts of firm performance and firm value. Then, the implications of information technology (IT)-enabled firm performance and firm value will be clarified. Finally, the effects of IT capabilities on firm performance and firm value will be compared.\nDesign/methodology/approach: InformationWeek's IT leader rankings (from 1998 to 2011) are used for analysis in a longitudinal study. Three different test methods (i.e. significant years, significant levels, and adjusted-previous performance) are used.\nFindings: It is confirmed that no matter which tests are examined, the contributions of IT capabilities to firm value are all greater than those to firm performance. This also shows that IT contributes to long-term influences more than it does to short-term influences.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study confirms that firm performance (accounting-based measures) and firm value (financial market-based measures) are two different variables and IT capabilities affect these two parts differently.\nPractical implications: Firms should use a long-term viewpoint to deploy their IT strategies. This will create a long-term growth of firm value leading to greater competitiveness, and, ultimately, sustained competitive advantage.\nOriginality/value: The differences between firm performance and firm value in measurements, characteristics, and implications are specified. The empirical study confirms that IT capabilities contribute more to firm value than to firm performance, although IT capabilities influence both at the same time.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Learning how to learn: How innovation can be hampered and overcome	[ "Learning organizations", "Knowledge management", "Innovation", "Strategy" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: What are the obstacles to successful innovation? This question taxes the minds of senior managers and directors daily around the world, but in large organizations it is difficult not only to overcome these obstacles, but to identify them in the first place. Like asking a young child to \"grow up\", asking a workforce with engrained attitudes and ways of working to change and suddenly become more innovative is almost impossible. However identifying tangible hurdles and devising plans for overcoming them will help turn the proverbial supertanker and change the course of an organization.\nThe theory: Academics have been obsessed with working out precisely why some organizations can innovate effectively while others trail in their wakes. Much has been written about the so-called \"cognitive factors\" that inhibit a business, such as the type of knowledge it has and the type of people that have that knowledge, however a more effective process to work through might be to look at the factors that derive from the organization itself and the institutions it is related to.To put these in context, for the former one needs to look at access to information, organizational structure, knowledge sharing and decision-making, while the latter case refers to issues such as the business environment, strategy, technology available and competition. Again, much has been written and theorized about such issues, however a very useful, long-term case study has been completed using managers' responses to help illustrate theories of where problems lie in an organization and how to solve them.\nThe firm: Lund University academic Thomas Kalling (2007) studied a Brussels-based subsidiary called SCA Packaging (SCAP), part of the large SCA group. SCAP itself has 250 business units across the whole of Europe and structured into five broad regions with a turnover of $4bn employing 20,000 people, and is focused in the area of corrugated paper packaging, in which it has the second biggest market share of 14 percent.Kalling used almost 100 interviews with staff members at all managerial levels across all regions, as well as documentation relating to its performance. In terms of overall position, it was noted that SCAP was in a relatively mature position in a slow-moving market, where the growth it had attained had been through acquisition rather than organic growth. However this sort of growth had been identified recently by the Board of the company as something they should be achieving more in, so as not to rely on acquisitions to grow the company.\nThe obstacles: From the interviews Kalling made, it became apparent that there were three main obstacles to innovation from within the organization:1. Line management issues such as the decentralization of so many business units stymied innovation by limiting it to each small profit center, innovation not be driven, thinking was often too short-term in favor of profit, it was not on the agenda of local managers and knowledge-sharing was inhibited.2. Research and Development was focused on solving local problems and not developing new ideas for the whole organization, geographic location was poor with two offices in Brussels and Northern Sweden, and this caused all sorts of problems with cross-cultural management issues, coordination and line management.3. Financing in the organization was felt to be low and risk-averse. There was a lack of vision and a fear of failure in the company, and individuals themselves, possibly as a consequence, lacked innovativeness. Also, investment requests often never reached beyond each profit center, and so worked against funding small-scale innovation, which HQ was powerless to promote.There were also three main obstacles due to institutional factors:1. Environmental factors drove the company such as demands from major clients, and therefore the business was felt to be reactive and not proactive enough, and therefore lacked innovation. Furthermore, competitive factors did not seem to drive innovation but other areas of the business, and the issue of suppliers was simply dealt with at a local level with no over-arching remit on issues such as specification from the head of the organization.2. Strategy and vision of the company was not focused on innovation but let market forces dictate, with areas such as diversification not actively pursued. There also seemed to be confusion between local-level strategy and that of HQ.3. Norms and values of the organization were not centered on innovation, there were no rewards or recognition for innovative breakthroughs and the whole business had a short-term orientation that worked against long-term goals of innovative approaches.\nThe solutions: Using established and recent theories in a range management areas, the obstacles above can be analyzed and action taken to overcome them. In fact, some problems require quite basic analysis, such as the lack of imperative for innovation within the organization and the structural problems inhibiting innovative action. More strategically, the organization could learn and improve by listening to the feedback closely, establishing communities of (best) practice and measuring absorptive capacity of the firm.These measures relate to the organization, but institutional factors that should be addressed can be very high and often outside the control of the organization itself. However they can be overcome, for example by changing the strategy and vision of the company and offering incentives to ensure they are adopted and acted upon. They can take a long time to take effect, but early action must remain a priority.\nThe last word: It is quite common for organizations to see costs where others see investments, to see risks where others see opportunities, and innovation is placed by such organizations and a \"nice to have\" in the latter category rather than a necessity in the former. It will also mean that the organization will not reallocate resources, change structures, upscale R&D activities or widen the knowledge base, and this will mean stagnation, inability to adapt and change, and ultimately losing everything those organizations thought were so secure in the first place.\nComment: The article by Thomas Kalling (\"The lure of simplicity: learning perspectives on innovation\") is a well written and enticing article for managers everywhere worried that their company does not innovate enough. It is a pity that the first few pages are so theory-laden as this may scare off the time-pressed manager, as there is a lot of practical guidance in the latter half of the paper.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: - It is quite common for organizations to see costs where others see investments, to see risks where others see opportunities, and innovation is placed by such organizations and a \"nice to have\" in the latter category rather than a necessity in the former. It will also mean that the organization will not reallocate resources, change structures, upscale R&D activities or widen the knowledge base, and this will mean stagnation, inability to adapt and change, and ultimately losing everything those organizations thought were so secure in the first place.\nPractical implications: - Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.\nOriginality/value: - The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
"Fish out of water": understanding decision-making and coping strategies of English as second language consumers through a situational literacy perspective	[ "English language", "Consumers", "Literacy", "Immigrants", "Individual behaviour" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In a recent trip to France, the first author, not conversant in French, experienced being a \"fish out of water\" in negotiating the consumer context and completing marketplace transactions. Mishaps and inconveniences resulted from such factors as lack of attention to or understanding of focal information, over-reliance on visually comprehendible information, and assumptions arising from experiences in the US marketplace, accentuated by frustration and anxiety at not being able to complete what would have been mundane activities in one's home country (e.g. misunderstanding bus and train timetables by overlooking weekday exceptions leading to long waits, not asking sufficiently detailed questions at tourist information centers leading to a walk into a town near Normandy in freezing weather in search of a nonexistent coffee shop (!), not providing detailed instructions to waiters leading to over-ordering (of a pizza apiece for each family member)). Although many consumers, whether as tourists or as recent immigrants, can relate to such experiences, research on this topic is scant. This article examines this phenomenon through the study of how individuals with English language difficulties who are unfamiliar with the US marketplace function, make decisions, and cope as consumers. The constraints that these consumers face in view of their lack of language skills in English and unfamiliarity with the marketplace provide fertile ground for research and practice that impacts the interests of such consumers in the US and elsewhere around the world.\nLiterature review: This section examines acculturation processes including the influences of language difficulties and functional skills. In recent decades, mass media, global brands, the export of popular culture and the internet have led to awareness about products and countries across the world. Thus, immigrant consumers typically possess background knowledge today on unfamiliar marketplaces that is fundamentally different from even a generation ago and it is in this larger context that the acculturation processes discussed below occur.Consumer's acculturation processes\nResearch method: Overview\nFindings: Overview\nDiscussion: Viswanathan et al. (2005), in their study of low-literate consumers, introduce the notion of cognitive survivors, as distinct from cognitive misers. They argue that, whereas a \"cognitive miser\" seeks to economize on cognitive resources, \"cognitive survivors\", in spite of spending considerable resources, may not be able to engage in the abstract thinking that enables cognitive miserliness. Our research demonstrates that lack of situational literacy may lead to fundamental shifts in cognitive functioning, such as a shift from cognitive miserliness in familiar settings in one's home country to cognitive survival in unfamiliar settings in a new country.In a broader sense, the notion of situational literacy and specifically, situational consumer literacy, has a number of implications for research on consumers. These insights have implications for immigrant consumers in English speaking countries as well as consumers with second language issues in a variety of contexts (e.g. an English speaking tourist, a tourist in general, or even a low-literate, low-income consumer in a developing country visiting a bank or a department store where English is the language spoken). Furthermore, consumers face a number of situations where they lack functional skills (e.g. lack of prior knowledge about a product category or about a shopping environment, a new-to-the-world product, technologically sophisticated products). Our point is not to equate a variety of behaviors with functional illiteracy. Rather, it is to draw parallels with the lack of functional skills and gain insights, such as those developed here for ESL consumers. The situational literacy perspective provides insights into the underlying causes for seemingly commonplace behaviors, which are yet very different in fundamental ways. For example, the use of extrinsic cues could be considered a heuristic arising out of low involvement; yet, it may arise out of high involvement requiring considerable cognitive resources given the constraints in understanding intrinsic cues. This perspective also provides insights into qualitatively different phenomena, such as trial and error learning and strong emotional responses to shopping encounters (e.g. potential for humiliation and anger in shopping interactions, and the role of emotional trade-offs in decision-making).Research should further examine the cognitive predilections, decision-making strategies, and coping strategies exhibited by ESL consumers to bypass the lack of functional skills arising from language barriers and unfamiliarity. Whereas our study is a qualitative inquiry into this phenomenon, structured experiments can be used to examine issues such as the use of specific extrinsic decision-making heuristics as a function of specific cultural background and level of acculturation. Another line of research should focus on the notion of situational literacy, which has applications in other realms, such as for decision-making by novice consumers with a low level of product knowledge or marketplace skills in specific situations. Finally, research should also focus on the compounding effect of language difficulties and unfamiliarity with low literacy, whereas our focus here has been on literate ESL consumers.Our research has implications in the arena of consumer education and ESL education, where learning modules can be designed that address the cognitive and emotional issues that ESL consumers face and enable appropriate coping strategies. Whereas many of these issues may be implicitly addressed in the excellent work done in ESL education, consumer-focused research can lead to systematic development of educational tasks. Video-based and other educational content and exercises that minimize negative outcomes from such experimentation by providing background and cautionary information about marketplace interactions can be very useful (e.g. trying out drive-throughs in non-peak times, understanding pitfalls of visual dependence, understanding pros and cons of extrinsic decision-making). Addressing negative feelings through specific consumer-related role plays and coping strategies is an extremely important facet of ESL education.Our research similarly has implications for retail stores and companies that interact with ESL consumers. Foremost is the need to develop deep understanding of the issues that ESL consumers face and related nuances. Recognizing strengths and vulnerabilities of ESL consumers and training employees to interact in a respectful fashion can go a long way toward creating positive shopping experiences at a time of some vulnerability and cementing long-term loyalty. Similarly, reconsidering presentation of product information to emphasize visualization is another important recommendation that may benefit all consumers. In summary, research on ESL consumers offers important implications for research and practice in consumer marketing.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to study English as second language (ESL) consumers in the USA. The authors seek to focus on consumers who are literate in their native country, yet akin to fish out of water due to language difficulties and unfamiliarity with the marketplace.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Using qualitative interviews of 31 informants and shopping observations of a small subset, the authors examined cognitive predilections, decision making, emotional trade-offs, and coping strategies of ESL consumers.\nFindings: - The findings relate to cognitive predilections, decision making and emotional trade-offs, and coping strategies of ESL consumers.\nOriginality/value: - The authors analyze ESL consumers from a situational literacy perspective, viewing the situations faced by ESL consumers in terms of functional literacy skills. The findings provide a variety of new insights, and have important theoretical and practical implications for theory and practice.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Real estate risk: heavy tail modelling using Excel	[ "Heavy tails", "Modelling risk", "Spreadsheet models", "Stable distributions", "Cash flow model", "Real estate investments", "Stable laws" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Real estate investment - as any other form of investment - represents the idea that the investor forgoes immediate consumption, but instead provides funds in exchange for future returns. This behaviour is motivated by the expectation that such future returns are higher than the current value of the invested funds. The key to choosing investments is therefore the ability to estimate these returns. The basic tool used to perform this task is a cash flow model that takes into account the amount invested, interest rate and time span of the investment. For real estate investments, additional factors need to be considered, for example vacancy rates and operational costs. While this sounds simple enough, the inherent problem is uncertainty of what will really happen in the future. Specifically, there is uncertainty with regards to the projected income (capitalization rate) or the value the market will place on the projected income. Investment modelling tries to overcome this uncertainty by introducing the concept of risk, which represents an attempt to quantify effects outside of the control of the investor that may impact returns. Mathematically, this is done by exchanging a set interest rate in cash flow models with probabilities for a given interest rate to happen. The question then becomes how the probabilities are distributed. The traditional assumption is a normal distribution, or bell curve. It assumes that there is an expected return (the mean of the distribution), and that positive or negative deviations from this expectation are equally likely to happen (i.e. the curve is symmetric). The variance (or simply speaking, width) of the distribution describes how far off from the expected returns the actual returns may be. A prudent investor would therefore always choose an investment with a small variance, in the attempt to minimize risk. However, the normal distribution ignores some realities of investments[1]. First, it is rarely equally likely that positive or negative deviations have the same probability of occurring. In other words, the probability distribution should rather be assumed to be skewed. Second, the normal distribution is asymptotic, meaning the y-values quickly approach zero, effectively ignoring the possibility of extreme events to happen. Such events in financial markets can be defined as the minimum or maximum stock market index over a given time period (Longin, 1996, p. 384). As real estate investments are a part of global financial markets, extreme events in these markets, such as stock market crashes, financial crisis or terrorist threats need to be considered when estimating risk (Liow, 2008). This reality can be overcome by introducing heavy or fat tails to the distribution function: instead of asymptotic behaviour, the y-values remain above zero for a longer time (hence the tail), allowing for the inclusion of extreme values. Young and Graff (1995) reported that real estate returns specifically do not behave normally, but have heavy tales that are therefore best analysed using Levy-stable methodology. Levy stable distributions are probability functions that allow for skewness and heavy tails (Weisstein, 2014), effectively allowing to overcome the deficiencies of the normal distribution for risk modelling of real estate investments. In fact, it has been said that if Levy-stable laws are found to be at the source of return generation that the world is a fundamentally riskier place than we once thought. Recent high-profile news events involving the international financial system lend credence to this notion. The most recent crisis found real estate at its centre. If it is time to embrace non-normal events as more frequent than previously thought, modelling distributions involving extreme values becomes key.\nOverview: Technology and inspiration for this work comes from diverse sources. Chambers et al. (1976) showed us how to generate stable random numbers. Recent enhancements of Excel allow for named ranges that become the base for simulation exercises. Finally, a web site, ProbabilityManagement.org offers a suite of tools, using the concept of SIPMathTM, where SIP stands for \"Stochastic Information Packet\", which embed macros and simulation routines directly into an Excel workbook. The artful combination of these lead to ModellingRisk.xlsx. It can be downloaded on the homepage of www.mathestate.com under Site News and Updates at date 1 September 2013.\nThe Jensen problem: In essence, the model displays a purchase, five-year holding period and sale of an investment property under assumptions of fixed percentage increases in income over time. The usual performance metrics, net present value and internal rate of return, are computed. However, an important distinction between these two must be made in the context of simulation. Brown (2006) describes the problem associated with simulation of the IRR arising from Jensen's inequality[8]. Simply, since IRR is a non-linear function of cash flow, taking its expectation is at least bad form if not just plain bad mathematics. Also, as the range of uncertainty increases, the precise condition when extreme values populate the distribution, the gap between the expectation of the function and the function of the expectation rises. That gap should be disclosed and ModellingRisk.xlsx makes the calculation attendant to that disclosure. Of course, since net present value is a linear function of cash flow it does not suffer from similar distortion.\nThe model: We will take the worksheet containing the model in small bites.\nThe CDF: The empirical CDF is about as simple as it can be. It makes no assumptions about the limiting distribution. It merely lines up the random variables in order, smallest to largest, and counts them, normalized to the y-axis. The inverse, known as quantiles, answer the question: \"How many observations are below this percentage of all observations?\" Together they are handy tools for explaining probability and risk to clients.\nConclusion: ModellingRisk.xlsx delivers a rich variety of outcomes based on sound distributional theory. Rather than tell a client the return is a deterministic x per cent \"because I said so\", one may offer the client the opportunity to choose a risk comfort zone in which to contemplate a range of returns.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present a practice briefing in the form of a user's manual for Excel-based simulation of real estate risk. Based on a generic discounted cash flow model, the simulation incorporates the often ignored heavy tail behaviour of real estate investments, and consolidates Jensen's inequality. The briefing attempts to explain a model that permits the user to decide whether to include extreme events in real estate risk modelling and how extreme these events may be. Practitioners can generate a variety of modelling outcomes and then choose risk comfort zones in which to contemplate a range of returns.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper provides an overview of the underlying mathematical concepts and challenges, as well as on the perspectives on their application from the current academic literature. It offers a step-by-step walk-through of the Excel model (the model being downloadable at: www.mathestate.com).\nFindings: Existing models for real estate risk modelling fall short with respect to realistic simulation of the probability of extreme events due to challenges in the implementation of stable laws. These former barriers to the implementation of stable laws have been overcome by providing a unique combination of Excel-resident functionalities with a stable pseudo random number generator.\nResearch limitations/implications: Investment advisers no longer need expensive add-ins to estimate risk. The presented Excel model is more robust than common approaches as it considers distribution shapes that are not otherwise easily available. The only apparent limitation is that users need to be familiar with the most basic functionality of Excel.\nPractical implications: Practitioners are provided with an easy-to-use Excel model that does not require further software add-ins. The model simulates real estate investment returns, based on a more realistic inclusion of risk behaviour. It allows specifying how much extreme value behaviour characterizes the volatility in future projections modelled to guide investment decisions.\nSocial implications: Risk is a cost to society. Many recent news events demonstrate the importance of including extreme values in modelling. The paper attempts to contribute to more realistic risk estimation in real estate investment.\nOriginality/value: This briefing introduces a real estate risk simulation model that includes using stable laws, using Excel, a familiar and widely used platform. Such a model has not previously been reported in the academic or practitioners' literature.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
An exploration of organizational factors in new product development success	[ "Product development", "Resources", "International marketing", "Diversification", "Biochemistry" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article.\nThe conceptual model and research hypotheses: Our proposed framework examines the relationship between the organizational factors and the NPD project success as shown in Figure 1. As shown, a collection of firm's resources combined with its international market involvement is hypothesized to affect the NPD project success positively. The resources that are studied in this paper are people resources, development resources, testing resources, and launch resources; and the international market involvement refers to the selling activities at the domestic, regional, and global levels.The people resources\nMethodology: Data\nConclusion and discussion: Theoretical implications\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This study surveys a broad spectrum of new product development (NPD) projects from the biochemistry industry in the USA, Canada, Germany, the UK, and Belgium with the purpose of exploring the role of the organizational activity factors in the NPD success.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Drawing on the resource-based view of the firm, the authors present a set of hypotheses concerning the relationship between the people resources, development resources, testing resources, and launch resources committed to NPD projects and their financial success. In addition, the effect of the firm's international market involvement on the NPD project success is considered. In this study, testing of the hypothesized relationship is accomplished through linear probability model, binary probit model, and binary logit model.\nFindings: - Empirical results generally support the predictions from the theory. Specifically, the findings of this study show that: the involvement of a strong champion, use of a multi-disciplinary team, and focus of a dedicated team are key factors for NPD project success among the people resources; the detailed market research has a significant impact on the project success in the development phase of the NPD process; the allocation of resources to the testing of the product with the final customer, market testing, and production start-up positively influences the NPD project success; advertising quality plays a key role in the NPD project success during its launch; and the NPD project success is positively associated with the degree of a firm's diversification into international markets.\nOriginality/value: - This study provides several guidelines for product managers seeking to launch new products. It offers critical insights into the identification of firm resources that influence the NPD project success. This study also has important implications for firms that consider diversifying or have already diversified into international markets. Understanding the role of market diversification in the NPD project success advances the ability of managers to direct their efforts in international market involvement.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Determinants of best HR practices in Chinese SMEs	[ "China", "Antecedents", "Small and medium-sized enterprises", "Human resource management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Despite the recognized importance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to the global economy there has been a relative dearth of research into their adoption of human resource management (HRM) practices (Wager, 1998; Nguyen and Bryant, 2004). HRM has been defined as \"the strategic integration of HR practices into the management and development of employees\" (Nguyen and Bryant, 2004, p. 600). It covers such aspects of the relationship between employer and employee as recruitment and selection, training and development, appraisal and compensation.\nBest HR practices in the SME context: There is considerable evidence that the adoption of certain HRM practices can have a positive impact on the organizational performance of SMEs (Huselid, 1995; Ichniowski and Shaw, 1995; Wood, 1999; Appelbaum et al., 2000; Guest et al., 2003; Edwards et al., 2010; Messersmith and Guthrie, 2010; Ait-Razouk, 2011; Patel and Conklin, 2012; Allen et al., 2013; Sheehan, 2014). In the literature these practices have often been labelled as \"best practices\" (Pfeffer, 1994), \"high performance work systems\" (Appelbaum et al., 2000) or \"high commitment management/practices\" (De Kok et al., 2006; Walton, 1985). In this study we use the term \"best HR practices\" to denote a set of best practices, recognized by HRM practitioners that have been shown to contribute to the organizational performance of SMEs. These best practices are generally in line with the human relations movement's emphasis on designing jobs to optimize the contribution of employees. At the same time, however, criticisms have been raised concerning the methodological consistency of empirical evidence on the studies citing a strong link between a set of best practices and overall organizational performance (Guest 1997; Legge 2001).\nTheoretical background to the study and hypothesis development: In understanding the determinants of the adoption of best HR practices, the resource-based-view of the firm may be used as a meaningful starting point. The resource-based view of the firm (Barney, 1991) contributes to our understanding of why some firms tend to make greater use of best HR practices compared to other firms. The resource based view encourages a shift in emphasis towards the inherent characteristics of employee skills and their contribution to value addition (Lepak and Snell, 1999). According to the resource-based view differences in the physical, organizational and human resources of firms impact fundamentally on their competitive ability (Barney, 1991). The adoption of best HR practices may contribute to the establishment of a sustained competitive advantage, especially when those practices are valuable, rare and difficult to imitate by other firms in the industry (Wright et al. 1994, 2001; Barney and Wright, 1998). In theory, therefore, large employers or firms operating in highly competitive labour markets are likely to offer higher benefits and invest in best HR practices. Compared to larger firms, SMEs, however, tend to be constrained by resource limitations which result from their comparatively smaller size, reduced complexity and limited experience (Cardon and Stevens, 2004). Limited use of sophisticated HRM practices may also result from a lack of experienced professionals with the requisite managerial knowledge (Boxall and Purcell, 2003). Financial constraints also impact on the ability of SMEs to recruit and retain skilled employees in the face of competition from larger firms with greater resources. As a result small firms with limited resources tend to avoid the costly adoption of best HR practices.\nResearch methodology: Survey questionnaires were distributed to the CEOs of SMEs located in 9 large cities across China during a three-month period from March to May 2009. All firms to which the questionnaires were distributed met the Chinese government definition of SMEs by employee numbers, annual revenue and total assets (see Table I).\nResults and discussion: In this section, we present the empirical results and discuss the main findings from quantitative analysis. Table VI reports the results of regressions on the six dependent variables.\nConclusion and suggestions for future research: The aim of this paper was to examine what factors determine the adoption of best HR practices in Chinese SMEs using the resource-based view of the firm as a framework. Significant relationships were found between a number of variables and the use of best HR practices. Relationships with external organizations were found to be the most significant predictor of the adoption of best HR practices. In addition, firm size, age, growth orientation and CEO characteristics all influenced their adoption. Only family-ownership was found consistently to have no relationship with the adoption of best HR in the firms in our sample.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors which determine the adoption of best HR practices in Chinese small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Regression analysis was utilized to analyse survey data obtained from 345 enterprises operating across China in a wide range of industrial sectors.\nFindings: Enterprises with greater resources in terms of their size, their relationships with external organizations, their cooperation with foreign partners and the human capital of their CEO were found to be more likely to adopt best HR practices. Contrary to the findings of the existing literature no relationship was found of a relationship between family ownership and the use of best HR practices.\nResearch limitations/implications: The cross-sectional design is an obvious limitation of the study. Other limitations relate to the generalizability of the study findings outside the context in which the research was undertaken, and the use of convenience sampling.\nPractical implications: Enterprises should consider building strategic relationships with external organizations and developing cooperation with foreign partners as a way of leveraging human resource expertise at a limited cost.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study to examine how differences in the resource endowments of Chinese SMEs influence their adoption of best HR practices.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Message testing to create effective health communication campaigns	[ "Universities", "Health", "Communication", "Prevention", "Media", "Accidents", "Evaluation of interventions" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nBackground: Distracted driving continues to be an important public health concern since it is a dangerous threat to the safety of drivers, their passengers, and other road users. According to the latest distracted driving report from the United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 31 percent of fatal crashes involved alcohol-impaired drivers (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2012d), 3 percent involved fatigued drivers (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2012c), and 9 percent were distraction-induced crashes resulting in a total of 14,166 deaths (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2012b). Distracted driving is defined as any activity that could divert a person's attention away from the primary task of driving World Health Organization, 2011). A person may be distracted manually (when hands are off the wheel), visually (e.g. when eyes are off the road), and cognitively (e.g. when the mind is taken off of the driving task) (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013). Distractors can be internal (e.g. radio/mp3 player, cell phone, or navigation device) or external (e.g. billboards, scenery, pedestrians, or other motorists). Drivers may also be distracted if their primary task of driving is impaired by fatigue or alcohol.\nPurpose of the study: The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of a health communication intervention on distracted driving among college students living in the residence halls. Messages were created to promote awareness of the various hazards concerning distracted driving. While data show that norms about drunk driving have changed in young drivers through the use of health communication campaigns (Atchley et al., 2011; Smith, 2006), little is understood about the impact of other distraction-related behaviors, such as being fatigued, adjusting the car radio or using a portable music player, and texting. Thus, researchers sought to determine to what extent, if any, college students understood, believed, and found the various prevention messages within the motor vehicle safety campaign appealing, and whether they thought that the messages discouraged distracted driving. This case study may provide insights to other school officials, practitioners, and researchers who want to address this very important but often neglected issue within college health.\nMethods: The university's Institutional Review Board approved this cross-sectional research design, which involved collecting data via central intercept interviewing to assess college students' perceptions of health communication messages designed to reduce distracted driving. For this study, central intercept interviews were performed to acquire specific quantitative and qualitative information from the population in order to evaluate, improve, and amend messages designed to change driving habits related to distraction. All residence halls, with the exception of one hall that was under renovation and would have been difficult to access, were chosen as sites for displaying health communication campaign posters. Posters were placed at multiple locations in each residence hall, including bathrooms and hallways on each floor, study units, laundry rooms, recreation rooms, and a general gathering area. Five different posters were displayed in two-week increments for a ten-week health communication intervention.\nResults: Table I displays demographic information pertaining to the 193 respondents who participated in the central intercept interviews. The gender breakdown indicated that 44 percent (n=84) of the sample was male, 56 percent female (n=107), and 0.5 percent (n=1) identified as transgender. The majority of respondents were in the 18-20-year-old category (82 percent), with ages 21-23 following (11 percent); only 0.5 percent of the respondents were 24 or older. Caucasians represented 56 percent (n=106) of the sample, blacks/African Americans represented 33 percent (n=63); the rest of the minority population combined constituted 10.6 percent (n=20). Most of the participants were in their first or second year of school (84 percent, n=157), whereas upperclassmen represented the minority, based on the fact that underclassmen predominately live in the residence halls (16 percent, n=30).\nDiscussion: Motor vehicle crashes remain the leading cause of death for young adults, including college students. A major portion of crashes is attributed to distracted driving, and thus effective interventions need to be developed to help remedy this serious public health issue. The purpose of this field study was to evaluate a health communication campaign designed to reduce distracted driving among college students. More specifically, message testing was conducted via central intercept interviewing to determine the extent to which students understood prevention messages, found them appealing, and if the messages discouraged high-risk behavior which results in unsafe driving. Central intercept interviewing, for the purposes of this study, involved researchers going out into the field and asking students what they thought of the messages (posters) displayed in their respective homes, the residence halls.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper was to assess a health communication campaign designed to reduce distracted driving among college students within the USA.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Utilizing central interviewing techniques, participants were asked qualitative and quantitative items soliciting feedback concerning the efficacy of the messages.\nFindings: The findings indicated students understood, believed, found the messages appealing, and thought the campaign discouraged distracted driving. Several themes emerged from the qualitative analysis, including the prominence of the logo, recommendation to use bright colors, and the suggestion to use more intense graphics.\nResearch limitations/implications: First, the data were collected by conducting interviews, potentially leading to some shortcomings associated with self-reported data. Second, while the results indicated that participants perceived that the messages discouraged distracted driving, none of the central intercept interview items assessed participants' intentions to change their behavior. Third, a convenience sample was used, and thus the generalizability of the results are limited and warrant further research. Finally, because multiple researchers conducted the interviews, it is possible that data were interpreted differently, which could pose a threat to inter-rater reliability.\nPractical implications: Message testing provides practitioners with invaluable feedback in designing effective messages. However, suggestions from the target audience need to be carefully considered before revising messages, as the lay public are not experts in prevention.\nOriginality/value: Message testing provides health educators with a specific method to receive feedback from the target audience to ensure they understand and are motivated by the message, resulting in a more effective health communication campaign.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The role of distributed leadership in mainstreaming environmental sustainability into campus life in an Israeli teaching college: A case study	[ "Organizational change", "Distributed leadership", "Organizational culture", "Sustainability in higher education", "Leadership in higher education" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Many institutes of higher education (IHE) have integrated sustainability into campus life, responding to the calls of international declarations concerning sustainability in higher education, such as Kyoto Declaration, 1993; Ubuntu Declaration, 2002; and Turin Declaration, 2009 (Lozano et al., 2013), which encouraged such institutions to serve as role models of sustainability in practice for society (James and Card, 2012; Kurland and Zell, 2011; Madeira et al., 2011; Orr, 2004). It is widely agreed that effectively incorporating such sustainability practices into IHE means making several institution-wide changes. These include establishing local leadership on campus, increasing people's understanding of the implications of the environmental crisis and the need for behavioral change, making sure that the theoretical and practical principles of sustainability are understood by all the members of the institutions (i.e. both staff and students) and accepting the necessity of changing the institution's organizational culture (Woods et al., 2004).\nLiterature review: What is distributed leadership?\nMethodology: This study is grounded in the qualitative interpretive approach, which \"centers on the way in which human beings make sense of their subjective reality and attach meaning to it\" (Denzin and Lincoln, 2011. p. 7). Within the interpretive approach, the authors used the instrumental case study method (Stake, 1995) as a means of gaining insight into a particular phenomenon (Baxter and Jack, 2008). As Stake (1995) points out, instrumental case study can be used when a general understanding is required, which will lead to a larger understanding of the case itself. In the study presented here, instrumental case study was used to get a general understanding about how distributed leadership is reflected in IHE structures. Case studies require the use of multiple data sources, such as interviews, documents and observations (Yin, 2009). This study used semi-structured interviews, document analysis and observations (as described below).\nFindings: To answer the above research questions, the findings are presented here in relation to three dimensions of the distributed leadership approach, and of the particular variables that were identified within them:\nDiscussion: This study used a combination of several aspects taken from Bolden et al.'s (2008b) multi-level model of leadership practice in higher education, and from Woods et al. (2004), to identify the organization-level ways in which distributed leadership is implemented to promote sustainability in GUC. Its main findings reveal three organization-level processes that are based on the principles of distributed leadership and that promote sustainability on campus. First, distributed leadership enables change in the organization's internal culture with respect to mainstreaming sustainability. Second, distributed leadership encourages intraorganizational collaboration between the entire campus population (students and staff) and between different departments. This allows for a more holistic, integrative and systematic sustainability discourse on campus, which is implemented and expressed by a wider range of activities. Finally, distributed leadership on campus enables the development of diverse \"bottom-up\" and \"top-down\" structures in the organization, which can begin as informal, independent initiatives then become institutionalized as they gain the organization's formal support. In addition to these three advantages, the study's findings also indicated several challenges to the implementation of distributed leadership and the promotion of sustainability at the level of the organization.\nConclusion and recommendations: This study showed that distributed leadership can be a useful foundation for embedding sustainability in an IHE. It serves both as a theoretical framework and a platform for practical strategies. There are many barriers to implementing sustainability in higher education (Wright and Horst, 2013), and distributed leadership is a means of successfully addressing some of these barriers. Previous studies have highlighted the difficulty of promoting a sustainability-oriented organization-wide cultural change. The findings of this study indicate that such a cultural change was accomplished in GUC. Distributed leadership made this change possible.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Distributed leadership has been reported in the literature as an effective management approach for educational organizations such as institutions of higher education. This study aims to investigate the role of distributed leadership in the promotion of sustainability in an Israeli college of teacher education.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on the Multi-Level Model of Leadership Practice in higher education, taken from Bolden et al. (2008a) and from Woods et al. (2004), the authors investigated how the characteristics of distributed leadership are expressed in three central organization-wide structures in the college (a student group, the green council and a professional development program). They also explored in what ways aspects of distributed leadership promote sustainability-oriented activities on campus. They used a deductive and inductive interpretive approach in this case study.\nFindings: The authors found three organization-level processes that are based on the principles of distributed leadership and that promote sustainability on campus: distributed leadership enables change in the organization's internal culture with respect to mainstreaming sustainability; distributed leadership encourages collaboration between the entire campus population and between different departments and distributed leadership on campus enables the development of diverse \"bottom-up\" and \"top-down\" structures in the organization.\nOriginality/value: While the study's findings indicated several challenges regarding the implementation of distributed leadership in the organization, they ultimately support the idea that distributed leadership may contribute to the long-term, organization-wide implementation of sustainability in higher education institutes. Therefore, the authors recommend that institutions that are willing to promote sustainability adopt distributed leadership as their major management approach.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Location of banks and their credit ratings	[ "Credit ratings", "Banks", "Monetary union", "F30, G21" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This paper examines whether credit ratings of banks located inside or outside the Euro Area are different (see Amtenbrink and de Haan, 2012 for a review of research on credit ratings). The location of a bank may affect the likelihood that it receives support from the central bank or the government. However, conflicting views have been put forward as to whether banks are better off inside or outside the Euro Area. Buiter and Sibert (2008, p. 2) argue that banks located in the Euro Area profit from the European Central Bank's (ECB) lender-of-last-resort facilities. Referring to Iceland's experience, they argue that the:\n2. Related studies: To the best of our knowledge, the only study that has dealt with similar issues as the present paper is Sironi (2003). This author has touched upon the issue of monetary union membership when studying whether bank risk is adequately reflected in subordinated notes and debts spreads of European banks in the period 1991-2000. Dividing his sample into Euro Area and non-Euro Area countries, he reports that \"too-big-to-fail\" (TBTF) benefits were present for banks located in Euro Area countries in the period 1991-1996 but not thereafter, while these benefits were never present for banks in non-Euro Area countries. He attributes this result to the loss of independent monetary policy of countries in the monetary union and the foundation of the Stability and Growth pact. According to Sironi, both features of the monetary union put constraints on the capacities of governments to save an ailing bank.\n3. Methodology: Rating agencies make a distinction between the likelihood that a bank receives external support and the capacity of a bank to meet its financial obligations without any external support (stand-alone capacity). The overall rating takes into account a bank's chances to receive external support and its stand-alone capacity. Only Fitch publishes a rating on the likelihood of external support as well. According to the Fitch Web site, external support ratings:\n4. Results: Table I shows Fitch credit ratings for banks located in countries inside and outside the Euro Area (see Appendix 1 for a list of countries and the number of banks included per country; the Appendix also indicates which countries are part of the Euro Area). The means of the overall credit ratings are higher for banks based in the Euro Area. As the stand-alone ratings of banks located in countries inside the Euro Area and those of banks located in countries outside the Euro Area are very similar, the difference in the overall ratings stems from the difference in the support rating[10]. This is confirmed by Fitch's external support ratings. Banks in the Euro Area have an average external support rating of 3.99, while the figure for banks outside the Euro Area is 2.90. This higher support rating for Euro Area banks is unlikely to be caused by a larger government support received during the crisis, as bank bailouts were not unique to the Euro Area. The difference in the support rating must rather be sought in the varying willingness and ability of sovereigns to provide aid. Apart from Euro Area membership, the willingness and ability of sovereigns to support ailing banks may also depend on bank size. The average size (proxied by bank liabilities divided by GDP) for banks outside the Euro Area is 0.076, while the average size for banks inside the Euro Area is 0.034. So including size in the regression models is important to control for these differences in relative bank size.\n5. Concluding comments: Our results are broadly in line with Buiter and Sibert's (2008) argument that banks located in the Euro Area are better off because they receive a higher credit rating, when controlling for systemic relevance and other bank-specific factors and characteristics of the home country. In our view, this is an important result, also from a policy perspective. Take, for instance, the discussion about a Greek exit from the Euro Area. Our results suggest that this will not be beneficial for Greek banks. For other EU member countries considering entry into the Euro Area, this might be yet another reason for joining.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to examine whether credit ratings of banks are related to their location, i.e. inside or outside the Euro Area.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors estimate a multilevel ordered probit model for banks' credit ratings in 2011 and control for bank-specific factors. They use the overall ratings and the external support ratings provided by Fitch as the dependent variable.\nFindings: Banks located in Euro Area member countries, on average, receive a higher credit rating from Fitch than banks located outside the Euro Area. Evidence for a \"too-big-to-fail\" and a \"too-big-to-rescue\" effect was also found.\nResearch limitations/implications: The monetary union effect on banks' credit ratings may be affected by the period under investigation. The ratings refer to August 2011, when the European sovereign debt crisis was at its height. This implies that, if anything, the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) effect is underestimated.\nPractical implications: Large banks in the Euro Area receive higher credit ratings, so they have a competitive advantage over small banks located outside the Euro Area.\nSocial implications: The present evidence suggests that small European countries with an extensive banking sector will be better off if they are member of the European EMU.\nOriginality/value: The relationship between location of banks and their credit ratings has hardly been researched before. The present evidence is directly related to a debate in the literature on this issue.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
How much does a diabetes out-patient appointment actually cost? An argument for PLICS	[ "Diabetes mellitus", "Out-patient appointment", "Unit cost", "Service line reporting", "Patient level information and costing system (PLICS)" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Diabetes costs approximately PS23.7 bn per year in the UK: PS9.8 bn in direct costs (PS1 bn for Type 1 diabetes and PS8.8 bn for Type 2 diabetes) and PS13.9 bn in indirect costs (Hex et al., 2012). As the incidence of diabetes and obesity rapidly increases these figures are projected to rise significantly over the next 20 years.\nBackground: Only when costs are aggregated in different ways can things be made to appear to cost different amounts in different circumstances. In reality, it is useful for cost recording to take place at a fairly general level of detail and for this to be disaggregated to lower levels using averaging techniques (Brown, 1999).\nMethod: The purpose of this project is to describe the basic tariff system, explain how it works in diabetes and look at cost modeling and cost containment. We wish to explore the nature of cost objects, cost pools, direct and indirect costs and drill down the overhead costs. By analysing internal cost information, we can begin to ask - Can we unbundle the cost? Is it adequate? The method is relatively straightforward in that it acquires the functional quantitative data that is used in practice to generate cost information from the finance department (Bryman and Bell, 2003). The out-patient activity data will be reliable as it comes from the hospital's PAS system.\nResults: Table II demonstrates all of the costs relating to the secondary care diabetes service at a high level to provide an overview of the different sources of income and the major outgoings in terms of expenditure.\nExplanation of the tariff process: The tariff is based on the average \"reference\" costs for a package of care in England. The Finance Director for each Trust has been asked to calculate the costs for each inpatient and outpatient condition in their hospital and submit it centrally. These reference costs are then averaged, and other factors are applied. This includes an uplift for inflation, and an additional weighting for certain high-cost situations such as some children's specialities.\nWhat is the unit cost of a diabetes out-patient appointment?: The following series of calculations use the data already gleaned and then these foundations are developed to calculate a final cost using an alternative costing methodology.\nDiscussion: Management of Diabetes mellitus is expensive and set to get costlier. It is a prominent disease in the UK and a significant economic burden. By 2035, Diabetes will cost the NHS more than a sixth of its entire budget. The Impact Diabetes report (Hex et al., 2012) demonstrated that the disease and its complications account for 10 per cent of current NHS spending, but this is projected to rise to PS16.9 billion pounds over the next 25 years (or 17 per cent of total NHS funds) (Table IX).\nConclusions: Cost systems give us prices - signals to make decisions. The greater the accuracy of the costing process the better the decisions that you make. The main factors affecting price setting methods are provider payment systems, information on actual costs, service volumes and outcomes and the characteristics of the purchasers and providers (Waters and Hussey, 2004). These factors appear to be strongly inter-related. Provider payment systems determine the unit of services to be priced. In order to minimise the incentives for under or over utilisation, the prices that purchasers pay for health should be related to the actual unit cost of services, but accurately calculating real unit costs is intensive in terms of resources and information.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The national tariff system for clinical processes and procedures aims to put a discrete unit cost on clinical activity. Calculating such costs can be subject to a great deal of local variation and interpretation. Given the rising costs of diabetes the purpose of this paper is to ask the question what does a diabetes outpatient appointment in the UK NHS actually cost? This is important in a time of financial austerity and healthcare rationing because it can be difficult to decipher the attribution of costs within the acute hospital setting.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Exploring this question, the author considers the present cost model and analyse in terms of the language of unit model cost; the basic tariff system and how it works in diabetes and looking at internal cost information the author attempts to unbundle the cost to provide a more accurate value for the cost object.\nFindings: One major finding is that costs and overheads are divided arbitrarily as opposed to being distributed on the basis of measured relative consumption. Alternative costing methods are appraised to demonstrate that a patient level episodic costing approach such as patient level information and costing system (PLICS) which incorporates aspects of activity-based costing (ABC) would be far more appropriate. Using time driven ABC (TDABC), a new patient appointment costs PS162 for 30 minutes and a follow-up appointment costs PS81 for 15 minutes.\nPractical implications: PLICS has the added benefit of greater financial and clinical transparency and this goes some way towards the holy grail of greater engagement with the doctors delivering clinical care.\nSocial implications: It would appear that there are different purposes of different costing systems. One can argue that a costing system is there to both contain costs and divide overheads and demonstrate activity. Depending on how data are interpreted costing information can be an agent of enlightenment and behavioural modification for healthcare professionals to show them their direct and indirect costs, their capacity and productivity.\nOriginality/value: Clinicians and health service managers can see from this practical example how the distribution of costs and resources are unfair and can impede the delivery of a service. By using alternative costing methodologies such as ABC not only do the author gets a better reflection of the true cost of the finished consultant episode but is also able to engage clinicians in understanding how costs are generated.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Promoting individual and group regulation through social connection: strategies for remote learning	[ "Strategies", "Social connection", "Learning regulation", "Online collaboration", "COVID-19", "Remote learning" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Self-regulated learning (SRL) - the metacognitive awareness and control of an individual's thoughts, behaviours, and motivations as they work towards identified learning goals - plays a fundamental role in promoting learning (Jarvela and Hadwin, 2013; Zimmerman, 2002). In a classroom environment, teachers and often other students play an important role in regulating individuals' learning: motivating and supporting students to plan, monitor and evaluate their own learning. However, the sudden shift to remote and online learning as a result of social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic has created a social disconnect, making these immediate regulatory supports less accessible. Individual students and their families now have to take on greater responsibility to regulate learning from home, a task for which they may be under-prepared. If left unchecked, poor learning regulation may hinder student learning. Furthermore, the social disconnect may erode a students' sense of belonging, an important motivator. This real and urgent dilemma is one that the Science of Learning Research Centre (SLRC) has responded to with the development of a range of resources to support the broader learning community.\nBackground: Three forms of learning regulation\nConclusion: The shift to remote learning has created many new conversations around how to support effective regulated learning, particularly when the face-to-face support of teachers and peers is removed. Carefully designed online collaborative learning can be a meaningful way for students to connect with peers, but also a powerful way for them to regulate their own and others' learning, and to develop the skills to regulate collectively as a group. It is proposed that the strategies will be evaluated qualitatively, gathering insight from teachers, students, and parents. This data could then be used to improve the efficacy and design of the resources.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: In a classroom, the teacher and other students play an important role in regulating individual and group learning. However, the sudden shift to remote and online learning, as a result of social isolation during COVID-19, has created a social disconnect, making these immediate regulatory supports less accessible. A need was identified for strategies to support collaborative learning regulation when learning remotely and online.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Drawing on models of self-, co, and socially shared learning regulation, a series of resources were developed for students, teachers and parents to support effective online collaborative learning. These strategies embedded evidence-based principles of learning drawn from the learning sciences, including elaboration, retrieval, dual coding and concrete examples.\nFindings: A set of ten student resources have been developed, accompanied by supporting information and strategies for teachers and families. These resources have been shared with schools across Australia.\nOriginality/value: These evidence-based strategies are valuable, as they are addressing an identified urgent community need. Based on the science of learning, these strategies are original in synthesising effective learning techniques with the three forms of learning regulation to encourage student connection and collaboration in online and remote learning.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Coping with uncertainty in the internationalisation strategy: An exploratory study on entrepreneurial firms	[ "Uncertainty", "International strategy", "Entrepreneurial firms", "Niche strategy", "Global customers" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Internationalisation decisions are a paradigmatic case of strategising under conditions of uncertainty (Vahlne et al., 2017). This is particularly evident in the case of smaller entrepreneurial firms (Cavusgil and Knight, 2015; Laufs and Schwens, 2014). The international entrepreneurship (IE) literature reports ample evidence of small and young firms venturing successfully in international markets (Crick and Jones, 2000; Ibeh, 2003; Keen and Etemad, 2012), notwithstanding their supposed paucity of resources. Constraints in terms of resources prevent them from engaging extensively into data analysis and planning activities, a strategy that can revert a situation of uncertainty into a situation of risk (Li et al., 2004). If so, how do smaller firms approach foreign markets under conditions of true Knightian uncertainty? And which strategic options fit better in the case of entrepreneurial internationalisation (Autio, 2017) in smaller firms? This contribution aims at providing some answers to this question, addressing a gap in studies and encompassing different typologies of international ventures, from born globals and international new ventures (INVs), to enduring established internationalisers, old born globals, born-again global firms and micro-multinationals (mMNEs)[1].\n2. Strategy under risk and uncertainty: Uncertainty represents the natural condition in which most entrepreneurial decisions and processes take place (Korsgaard et al., 2016). This is even truer in relation to internationalisation decisions, particularly in the case of smaller entrepreneurial ventures (Liesch et al., 2011).\n3. Methods: The research design of our empirical work consists of a multiple-case study of ten international entrepreneurial firms in terms of either enduring international growth as in the case of established firms/old born globals, or in their proactive pursuit of opportunities for growth (Shane and Venkataraman, 2000), as in the case of younger firms. We apply a grounded theory approach to data analysis (Glaser and Strauss, 1967; Glaser, 1992), following the so-called Gioia method (Gioia, 2004; Gioia et al., 2013) to analyse the data and present our findings.\n4. Findings: The data structure (see Figure 1) illustrates our three main macro contexts in the uncertainty-coping process: first, the antecedents to uncertainty-coping strategic actions context, comprising the main sources of uncertainty as reported by our respondents, associated with the most uncertain markets; and the decision-making processes implied to tackle the sources of uncertainty, whether based on causal or effectual logics; second, the uncertainty-coping strategic actions context; third, the outcome context, represented by the impact of uncertainty-coping strategic actions in relation to internationalisation decisions. The following sections are dedicated to \"zooming-into\" the aggregated dimension and second-order themes of our macro contexts as systematised in a grounded model (see Figure 2).\n5. Discussion: from perceiving to coping with uncertainty through a global niche strategy: In our research, the decisions makers confirm the hypothesis that - when they are confronted with internationalisation decisions - they typically reason in terms of uncertain conditions, instead of risky ones (Alessandri, 2003). According to the informants' narratives, uncertainty does not only relate to classic distance dimensions (psychic, economic, cultural, institutional/administrative, see Ghemawat, 2001). Our respondents underlined the perception of uncertainty related to the fact of being distant from the (foreign) customer and stressed the need to get closer, either by relying on employees' own expertise in pre- and post-sale assistance or by establishing trustworthy relationships with distributors.\n6. Implications: The present study has some relevant implications for studies in IB, IE and IM that aim to investigate the strategies entrepreneurial firms adopt to cope with uncertainty in their internationalisation. We respond to calls for studies in entrepreneurial internationalisation (Autio, 2017; Knight and Liesch, 2016), as well as for studies about risk and uncertainty in IB, as distinct conceptual categories (Liesch et al., 2011). We provide a novel perspective, framing these processes in the uncertainty-coping posture, since Knightian uncertainty is the dominant context in which they occur.\n7. Concluding remarks: The present paper is aimed at casting a light on the strategic actions adopted by international entrepreneurial firms in coping with uncertainty in their internationalisation process, contributing to a gap in the studies at the crossroads of IM, IE and IB.\n8. Boundary conditions and future research: Our purposeful sampling restricts the direct empirical generalisability of the findings: in fact, our study is limited to firms that have successfully internationalised or that are in the process of beginning their internationalisation.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore uncertainty-coping strategic actions in the internationalisation strategy of entrepreneurial ventures, encompassing born globals/international new ventures, enduring established internationalisers, old born globals, born-again globals and micro-multinationals.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors developed a qualitative exploratory study applying a grounded theory approach to ten entrepreneurial firms to investigate the strategies they adopted to cope with Knightian uncertainty in international markets.\nFindings: The global niche strategy emerged as a successful path to deal with uncertainty in smaller firms' internationalisation. The authors uncover the components of this strategy, namely the creation of markets, the focus on global clients and the control of technology.\nOriginality/value: The contribution of this paper consists in exploring how entrepreneurial firms cope with uncertainty through a global niche strategy and in outlining its main components. The authors develop a model of smaller entrepreneurial firms' international strategising under this perspective. The research thus links together international marketing and strategy with (international) entrepreneurship studies.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Developing closed loop supply chains for environmental sustainability: Insights from a UK clothing case study	[ "Sustainable production", "Environmental sustainability", "Environment", "Closed loop supply chains", "Green operations", "Buyer-supplier relationships", "Natural resource-based view of the firm (NRBV)", "Supplier relationships" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Globalisation and economic trends have created highly complex supply chains (Varma et al., 2006), and there has been a significant shift to firms outsourcing non-core activities to overseas suppliers (Darnall et al., 2008). This has been especially evident in the UK clothing industry, where cost pressures, competition and quota removal have forced firms to outsource the manufacturing function, and focus on customer-facing and design activities (Allwood et al., 2006). It is also an industry that has received a significant negative press regarding its environmental impacts, particularly in relation to the responsible use of natural resources and chemicals, and the waste and pollution it generates (Fletcher and Grose, 2012). It, therefore, represents a highly appropriate focus for this paper, as successfully addressing such major environmental issues in this complex industry has implications for global supply chain practice.\nLiterature review: A set of search criteria related to environmental sustainability and CLSCs was applied to identify the most relevant papers for review; as well as using these specific search terms the keywords/phrases of green supply chains, environmental supply chains, environmental responsibility and sustainable/responsible supply chains were employed. The search was limited to journals produced in English; for quality purposes searches were limited to journals rated from 2* to 4* in the ABS journal rankings (2016). The search databases used were Science Direct, EBSCO and Emerald Fulltext, and as each search was completed the abstracts were reviewed to ensure the relevance of the results. Recognising the interdisciplinary nature of the subject areas, and the fact that environmental sustainability and CLSCs are still evolving concepts, it was subsequently deemed important to include certain journals that fell outside this scope, to ensure that the most current and relevant research in the field was included.\nCLSCs: Every product generated, transported, used and discarded within a supply chain has some degree of impact on the environment, and is a function of the material and energy consumed, and wastes released in its lifecycle (Tsoulfas and Pappis, 2006). Increasing environmental consciousness across multiple industries together with stricter legislation (Neto et al., 2010) has made product disposal a critical issue for firms (Jena and Sarmah, 2014). Recovery and recycling are practical and value-maximising alternatives to landfill disposal (Guide and Van Wassenhove, 2009), and there is growing recognition that with increased global consumption of goods, the quantity and availability of raw materials will deplete significantly (Kumar and Putnam, 2008), so resources need to be used (and reused). To manage the environmental performance of a supply chain, all stages need to be addressed (Tsoulfas and Pappis, 2006), as any activity may have a negative impact. Environmental issues cannot be managed in isolation from other supply chain activities (Vachon and Klassen, 2008), and companies must design, produce, distribute, and dispose of products in a way that minimises the associated environmental impacts (O'Brien, 1999).\nCLSC environmental concepts and practices: Design for the environment (DfE) and design for remanufacturing (DfRem)\nResearch methodology: The clothing industry has been heavily researched in relation to global supply chains and therefore has an important contribution to make to the developing CLSC research field. It can be seen as an extreme case for managing environmental sustainability due to frequent shifts in product portfolio and its internationally organised product chains that substantially influence and extend the stages where environmental impacts can occur. Production processes in the clothing supply chain make intense use of chemical products and natural resources, creating emissions and waste and generating a high environmental impact (Fletcher, 2008). There is also a \"throwaway\" attitude to clothing, due to increased purchase frequency and substantial pricing reductions (Birtwistle and Moore, 2007), which has resulted in an increased rate of garment disposal (Allwood et al., 2006), a key consideration within the CLSC.\nResearch findings: Principles\nDiscussion: This paper has provided unique and rich insight into the environmental principles, practices, strategic resources and relationships of an exemplar UK clothing firm, and how these different dimensions have informed and developed their CLSC as a response to environmental sustainability. The application of the NRBV research framework (Figure 3) has shown that the case study's supply chain relies strongly on supplier collaboration and embedded environmental principles, and it has always taken a proactive, product stewardship-based approach to environmental sustainability. The UK clothing industry is a very relevant area for study, often representing an extreme example of poor environmental and social responsibility, and has historically operated highly transactional and poorly coordinated supply chains. This exemplar case study illustrates that these barriers and challenges can be addressed in the clothing industry through the implementation of coordinated environmental practices and collaborative supplier relationships, and has implications for CLSC design and practice in similarly complex and cost-driven industries and where environmental sustainability is of growing importance:\nConclusion, limitations and future research: This paper builds on CLSC research that is taking a more integrated approach to understanding environmental principles, value creation and relationships in global supply chains (Miemczyck et al., 2016), and applies an NRBV framework to the UK clothing industry where environmental sustainability is of critical importance. CLSCs are recognised as a significantly important mechanism to address environmental sustainability (Crandall, 2006), but have not been broadly researched or developed to date (Kumar and Putnam, 2008). There is an acknowledged need for practitioner tools in the field (Das and Posinasetti, 2015), and the global and complex nature of the clothing industry strongly reflects the key challenges of CLSC implementation. The \"greening\" of products and processes is a dominant metaphor in current research and practice (Vachon and Klassen, 2006), but this focus on pollution prevention limits the CLSC response, and lacks the embeddedness required for achieving a sustainability strategy. Pollution prevention is a reactive approach to environmental sustainability, but the case study has shown that it does not have to be the initial response to environmental sustainability, and more importantly that CLSCs are not just the tangible implementation of environmentally responsible practices.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Forward and reverse supply chains form a \"closed loop\" when managed in a coordinated way and this \"cradle to cradle\" responsibility has strong relevance to addressing environmental sustainability in global supply chains. The extensive outsourcing of manufacturing has created highly fragmented supply chains, which is strongly evidenced within the UK clothing industry, and it presents major environmental challenges, particularly around waste and resource use. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how a closed loop supply chain (CLSC) can be successfully developed to address environmental sustainability.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The natural resource-based view (NRBV) acknowledges the importance of a firm's tangible and intangible resources, as well as socially complex relationships, and provides three path-dependent strategies for achieving environmentally based competitive advantage. Via an in-depth case study of the UK-based clothing firm, the NRBV is employed as a framework for understanding the processes that a focal firm needs to engage in to develop a CLSC, and the contribution that is made by its resources and supplier relationships.\nFindings: The findings illustrate the key importance of strategic resources and shared vision and principles between the focal firm and its suppliers, in order to progress from a more reactive pollution prevention strategy to a fully embedded CLSC response to environmental sustainability. The case study highlights the need to extend the current CLSC model to integrate the design function and end customer; the design function ensures that appropriate environmental practices can be implemented, and customers represent a key stakeholder as they enable the reverse flows required to maximise value and minimise waste.\nOriginality/value: The NRBV and its three path-dependent strategies are an established framework for understanding environmentally based competitive advantage, but has not previously been explicitly employed to investigate CLSCs. This research, therefore, provides valuable insight into the applicability of this model in the supply chain field, and the key role of tangible and intangible resources and socially complex supplier relationships in developing and achieving a CLSC.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The role of the predictive gamification to increase the sales performance: a novel business approach	[ "Sales training", "Games", "Gamification", "Learning analysis", "Sales simulator", "Retailing", "Business games" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: \"Gamification refers to designing information systems to afford similar experiences and motivations as games do, and consequently, attempting to affect user behavior (Koivisto and Hamari, 2019)\". In recent years, a growing number of companies and institutions have embedded game design techniques (Koivisto and Hamari, 2019; Baptista and Oliveira, 2019). Additionally, sales training has increasingly been regarded as a source of competitive advantage (Bachrach et al., 2017; Singh and Venugopal, 2015).\n2. Theoretical framework: 2.1 The use of gamification in sales training\n3. Method: 3.1 Research design\n4. Results: The analysis of the data from the application of the gamification in the training of vendors of the company revealed, on the whole, a position that extends the use of gamification as an organizational strategy to evaluate the level of readiness of the vendors and to mitigate problems that have not yet occurred.\n5. Discussion: The results indicated gamification with a Predictive role enables the development of a training strategy to evaluate the level of readiness of the sales force and to mitigate future problems. Findings have shown that three steps are essential to achieving these results: adequately defining the content of the training, analyzing the learning process, and simulating store reality. The discussion of such findings and mitigation alternatives is organized below.\n6. Managerial and theoretical implications: Predictive gamification allowed mitigating future problems four months in advance of the arrival of the new products in stores, thus improving the sales argument, knowledge about the products, and closing of the sale. By predicting the results, planning future strategies and immediate actions to improve the business revenues (based on the performance and use of the participants in the game simulator) was possible. Therefore, managers interested in exploiting such opportunities should note the management implications presented below.\n7. Conclusions: Our research examined the role of predictive gamification as a strategy to improve sales performance in organizations. The results of this investigation demonstrated that the use of predictive gamification allowed evaluating the level of readiness of the sales force and mitigating future problems four months in advance of the arrival of the new products in the physical stores. Findings showed that, in order to assess the level of readiness of the sales force, three steps are fundamental: adequately define the content of the training, analyze the learning process, and simulate store reality.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to examine the impact of predictive gamification, through a sales simulator game, as a strategy to minimize sales problems in organizations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This empirical study was executed in a large global company that produces and markets footwear for B2B and B2C markets. The company operates in more than 18 countries and adopts the gamification to train 7,600 sellers and 10,052 professionals directly linked to the sales area. The methodology adopted followed a qualitative and exploratory approach based on an in-depth case study analysis.\nFindings: Results indicated that the use of predictive gamification allowed mitigating future problems, in average, four months in advance of the arrival of the new products at the points of sale. The main findings included improvement in sales arguments, product knowledge and sales closure. The company assigns the results to the implementation of the gamification and the possibility to simulate the evaluation of the level of readiness of the sales force resources. For this, the following three primary variables emerged: adequate definition of training content, analysis of the learning process and simulation of store reality.\nResearch limitations/implications: The authors introduced to the sales training literature the concept of predictive gamification. The predictive gamification allows anticipating and reducing future problems before the arrival of the new products in the market, improving the argument of sales, the knowledge about the products and the ratio of sales conversion of stores.\nPractical implications: First, the content design of gamification needs to be carefully projected before the simulator development, considering the target audience and its particularities. Second, the construction of evaluation activities needs to consider contexts, actions and results. Third, monitoring the paths taken by the seller in the simulator environment is requisite. Fourth, the analysis of the results of vendor responses in the simulator environment can be obtained through learning management system reports. Fifth, the development of game simulators with advanced technologies may be done with low investment.\nOriginality/value: The findings have implications for the field vis-a-vis three main research gaps identified in the literature discussing gamification in sales training. First, the authors identified best practices from the application of gamification in sales training. Second, they showed the sales qualification processes, which can be improved by applying gamification. Third, they presented strategies of use of gamification as an approach allied to the training of sales professionals to generate enhanced sales results.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Reexamining the place of servicescape in marketing: a service-dominant logic perspective	[ "Value co-creation", "Servicescape", "Value-in-use", "Service-dominant (S-D) logic", "Value-proposition" ]	[ { "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.\n1. Introduction: The importance of place in service management and marketing has been conceptualized as servicescape, a contextual landscape for service. It was first defined by Booms and Bitner (1981) as the environment in which the service is assembled for customers, where buyer and seller interact together. The servicescape shapes the expectations of the customers and also their satisfactions (Harrell et al., 1980; Booms and Bitner, 1981; Bitner, 1990). The place where service is produced and consumed (often simultaneously) is also a place of service co-production, and recognized as such by many customers, whether taking the form of physical place or virtual space. The servicescape is traditionally concerned with the atmospherics of service, which can have a strong impact on customers' perceptions of the service experience (Bitner, 1990; Reimer and Kuehn, 2005) and in communicating the firm's image and purpose to its customers.\n2. Servicescape logic: The most widely cited typology of the service setting is Bitner's servicescape (1990, 1992). Her framework points to a complex mix of environmental and psychological factors that influence the internal responses and external behaviours of customers and employees. The servicescape is the context of the service encounter that influences the customers' sense of well-being, directly or indirectly. The servicescape impacts on customer sensory appreciation of place, and its relevance to the purpose of the service. In other words, it helps customers clarify both their expectations and their satisfaction with their service experience (Harrell et al., 1980; Booms and Bitner, 1981; Bitner, 1990; Morrison et al., 2011). By connecting the \"atmospherics\" of place to specific purchase situations, servicescape has demonstrated positive (and negative) effects on customers' attitudes and decision-making. Environmental psychology suggests that individuals react to places in one of two general but opposite behavioural forms: approach or avoidance (Mehrabian and Russell, 1974). Approach behaviours include a desire to stay in a particular place, and avoidance behaviours include a desire to leave that particular place.\n3. S-D logic: Vargo and Lusch in their award-winning Journal of Marketing article (2004), set out to challenge the fundamental G-D premise on which modern marketing has been based. Underlying traditional marketing logic, goods are assumed to be embedded with value in production. In other words, the traditional view is that finished goods come ready with value added. Vargo and Lusch challenge this logic when they say that value is assessed by customers and other beneficiaries from service offerings at the time of use, not at time of purchase. This means that firms can make value propositions but the value proposed is provisional until tested by customers in use. Thus, S-D logic has the effect of displacing exchange value as the historically located context for value realization, and substituting instead value-in-use.\n4. Integrating servicescape and S-D logic: S-D logic understands value as a judgement by service beneficiaries who with various resource integrators apply knowledge and skilfulness (operant resources) to the task of changing or adapting \"static\" materials (operand resources) for customer use (Vargo and Lusch, 2004, 2008). It is not acknowledged in the literature, but, clearly, a servicescape is an operand resource in this sense. Furthermore, customers become part of the resource integration through their purposeful presence in any interactive service setting, such as a conventional retail setting or in a web-based \"virtual\" service.\n5. Conclusions: We have critically examined the concept of servicescape in light of S-D logic and the changing interactive environment for business that it foreshadows. First, servicescape acts to enhance or detract from any provider's value proposition. Second, servicescape supports or constrains resource integration between customers and firms, and influences the value-creation outcomes. Neither of these attributes is surprising. However, we recommend that service designers go beyond single-frame servicescape perspectives to recognize multiple service interaction zones (Ballantyne et al., 1995) and a range of possible engagement platforms (Ramaswamy, 2011) where value is co-created. It is time for the concept of servicescape to be construed more flexibly. This would open up options for monitoring value-in-use and gathering reports \"in-use\" from customers and other beneficiaries. For example, a range of physical settings (shop, office, taxi, home, garden or tool shed), as well as virtual and symbolic spaces such as a web-based \"store\" or a digital social network forum.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper was to extend understanding of the sense of place captured by the servicescape concept, as a means by which customers clarify their service expectations and their satisfaction with service experiences.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The design is conceptual. This article critically examines and extends the servicescape concept in the light of insights from the service-dominant (S-D) logic.\nFindings: First, we explain how servicescape adds meaning to a service provider's value proposition, part of a pattern of customer expectations which are later confirmed or disconfirmed as value-in-use. Second, the servicescape is a more socially imbued context than has previously been recognized, because the service experience is co-created by customer and service provider. Third, the context for service is not restricted to the traditional physical servicescape, as other more fluid and web-based settings are now common.\nPractical implications: Extending the understanding of place as a context for value determination in new ways.\nOriginality/value: The literature on servicescape is extensive, but it is anchored to the physicality of the service environment. Given the rise of the Internet and, more recently, digital social media as a virtual \"place\" of business, the relevance of servicescape is due for critical review. Our critical examination adds to the experience value of service and also extends the S-D logic understanding of value-in-use.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Increasing learners' satisfaction/intention to adopt more e-learning	[ "E‐learning satisfaction", "Technology adoption", "Authentic learning", "Openness to change", "Organizational support", "Learning", "Computer based learning" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: E-learning represents an alternative way of teaching and learning in today's knowledge-economy environment, and the number of organizations using these learning strategies for employee development has progressively increased (Hill and Wouters, 2010). While definitions of e-learning broadly encompass computer technology, there exist a number of approaches. For instance, Fry (2001, p. 234) described e-learning as the \"delivery of training and education via networked interactivity and a range of other knowledge collection and distribution technologies.\" Other researchers have defined e-learning as distance education that uses computer-based technologies, information communication technologies (ICTs), and learning management systems (Derouin et al., 2005; Govindasamy, 2001; Lowe and Holton, 2005). Although there is a range of e-learning definitions, the common elements are \"instructional content or learning experiences delivered or enabled by electronic technology\" (Servage, 2005, p. 306). We thus adopted the same definition for our research.\n1. E-learning in rail industry context: Our case organization provides city and intercity rail services. It also provides freight operators with access to the rails of the metropolitan area. The case organization implemented an e-learning program in 2008, to supplement the existing (face-to-face) system and to provide additional flexible and voluntary training for personal development. The organization adopted a bespoke (i.e. custom built) e-learning system specifically designed to focus on company-specific initiatives. For our case organization, the e-learning system is used for financial management system training, training for security transit officers, and safety-related training. The e-learning program is delivered through 2and2 and Adobe Captivate platforms. E-learning in the case organization is limited to mainly passive asynchronous activities including basic services such as the provision of recorded classroom training and online documentation and videos; however, users are also able to interact with the system and take online exercises and quizzes. The e-learning system is used for voluntary training for various job roles; as such, individuals are free to choose if they participate.The development and implementation of e-learning across the organization has necessitated a high expenditure including cost, time, and training. From an ecological perspective, this expenditure must be balanced with satisfaction obtained (Tatnall and Davey, 2003). Individuals experience satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) when they engage with the e-learning program. Although e-learning adoption in organizations has increased, the rate of failures and abandonment continues to exist (Arbaugh and Duray, 2002; Guri-Rosenblit, 2006; Wu et al., 2006). Little is known about why some users stop engaging e-learning after their initial experience or how we can encourage individuals to use the voluntary e-learning program (Sun et al., 2008). Drawing from information systems literature, authors have found that satisfaction is a critical factor influencing individual to repeat e-learning usages (DeLone and McLean, 1992, 2003). However, in a corporate e-learning environment, other components besides users' satisfaction influence the use of e-learning. These components include the characteristics of the learners, the teachers, content design, and environmental dimensions (Arbaugh and Duray, 2002; Thurmond et al., 2002; Wang and Bagaka, 2002). Our study focusses on learners (comfort level with technology and satisfaction), content design (authenticity and complexity), and the environment (organizational support). Moreover, our study proposes that these key factors influence the intention of users to engage in voluntary e-learning in the future. Intention to use e-learning is a motivational factor that captures individuals' willingness trying to perform a behavior (Ajzen, 1991). Based on meta-analysis of 87 studies, a strong correlation between behavioral intention and actual behavior was 0.53, and the behavioral intention is considered as the most influential predictor of behavior (Pavlou and Fygenson, 2006; Sheppard et al., 1988).\n2. Factors influencing successful e-learning implementation: Peslak et al. (2007) reviewed information systems literature and found that 30 percent of technology failed to be implemented successfully. Researchers have found various reasons for this failure, including individual learner characteristics, characteristics of the e-learning itself, and organizational support for the use of e-learning. Successful implementation of e-learning is frequently measured by learners' satisfaction (Sachs and Hale, 2003). It should be noted, however, that theoretically and practically, an important measure of success of e-learning implementation is the adoption of e-learning. This section provides a necessary literature review identifying key factors related to satisfaction and future adoption of e-learning.2.1 Learner characteristics\n3. Method: This section outlines the research methodology adopted for our study: describing the participants and explaining how the data were collected. Further, we describe the measures employed used in our study as well as validity issues.3.1 Participants and procedure\n4. Results: Descriptive statistics, correlations, and reliability coefficients for focal variables of this study are displayed in Table I. As can be seen, all variables reported satisfactory reliability coefficients (i.e. over 0.70; see Tabachnick et al., 2001). Correlations ranged from 0.15 to 0.65 and were in the expected directions. Overall, intention to adopt e-learning was significantly associated with e-learning characteristics (authenticity: r=0.42, p<0.01 and complexity: r=-0.20, p<0.01), learner characteristics (technological efficacy: r=0.15, p<0.01 and openness to change: r=0.29, p<0.01), and organizational support (r=0.36, p<0.01). E-learning satisfaction was significantly associated with authenticity (r=0.65, p<0.01), openness to change (r=0.19, p<0.01), and organizational support (r=0.55, p<0.01), but not significantly related to simplicity and technological efficacy.To examine the roles of e-learning characteristics, learner characteristics, and organizational support on e-learning satisfaction and intention to adopt, which are specified by the research hypotheses, three identical hierarchical multiple regression analyses were constructed. To control for possible confounding effects, personal demographic information (gender, age, education (dummy), job position (dummy)) were entered into each equation at Step 1. To test the main effect of the predictors on criterion variables after controlling for the influence of confounding variables, e-learning characteristics (authenticity and complexity), learner characteristics (technological efficacy and openness to change), and organizational support were entered at Step 2. Next, the two-way interaction terms between e-learning characteristics, learner characteristics, and organizational support were entered at Step 3. Finally, the three-way interaction terms were entered at Step 4. To calculate this interaction term, both independent variables were centered in order to reduce problems of multicollinearity (Aiken and West, 1991).4.1 Testing hypotheses\n5. Discussion: This study examined the roles of learner characteristics, e-learning characteristics, and organizational support on e-learning satisfaction and intention to adopt further e-learning in the future. Our main effect hypotheses in relation to intention to adopt further e-learning were supported (H1b, H2b, and H3b). In line with previous studies, this study demonstrated that learner characteristics (both openness to change and technological efficacy), e-learning characteristics (both authenticity and complexity), and organizational support significantly predicted learners' intention to adopt further e-learning in the future (Colquitt et al., 2002; Dabholkar and Bagozzi, 2002).However, our main effect hypotheses in relation to learners' satisfaction were only partially supported for H1a and H2a. This suggests that certain learner characteristics (i.e. openness to change) and e-learning characteristics (i.e. authenticity) significantly contributed toward learners' satisfaction with e-learning. Individuals who are open to new experiences are more likely to be satisfied with e-learning as a new experience of personal learning and development (Vishwanath, 2005). Likewise, previous studies also support that learners are more satisfied when e-learning includes authentic activities (Huang, 2002; Meyers and Nulty, 2009). E-learning content design is the precedent factor for learners' satisfaction (Piccoli et al., 2001). Sun et al. (2008) compared the impact of e-learning system design and e-learning medium (i.e. internet quality) on e-learning users. They found that the way e-learning was designed (e.g. interactive) as opposed to the technology itself significantly impacted on users' satisfaction. Clearly, the design of e-learning content should incorporate the application of a pedagogical model relevant to the specific learning objective, target group, and context or knowledge domain (Knight et al., 2006). Thus, e-learning users' experience satisfaction when e-learning content incorporates a relevant and realistic context that facilitates the gaining of new knowledge and helps them to solve problems in their professional lives.The non-significant result between technological efficacy and satisfaction could be explained by self-efficacy theory (Bandura, 1997). As self-efficacy is often found to be highly associated with behavioral change, technological efficacy seems to be an appropriate predictor of intention to adopt (behavioral change) rather than satisfaction (emotional state). Our main effect of organizational support on learners' satisfaction was fully supported (H3a). In line with previous studies, adequate supports help learners feel comfortable using e-learning which then leads to learners' satisfaction with e-learning (Black et al., 2007; Nelson, 1990).Inspection of two-way interactions revealed significant results for H4b, H5c, and H6b. In line with predictions, individuals who reported low technological efficacy and openness to change but experienced high authenticity tended to adopt further e-learning over those who perceived low authenticity. Our study suggests that e-learning characteristics can possibly alleviate the barrier of learner characteristics, such as technology ability or change reservation. E-learning which integrates authentic activities may encourage learners, who may potentially avoid using e-learning due to low technological efficacy or hesitate to try a new way of learning, to adopt e-learning as a part of their personal learning and development. We also found a significant two-way interaction between organizational support and technological efficacy, providing only partial support for H9. This means that individuals with low technological efficacy but who experienced high organizational support tended to adopt further e-learning more than those who perceived low organizational support.Inspection of the three-way interaction revealed significant interaction among openness to change, complexity, and organizational support on intention to use e-learning in future. Our study partially support H10, demonstrating that the best chance for encouraging employees to use e-learning as part of their personal development is when they are highly open to change and perceive high organizational support and low complexity in relation to the e-learning system.Nonetheless, inspection of the moderating effects revealed several unexpected results. First, authenticity and complexity (e-learning characteristics) did not moderate the relationship between learners' characterization and e-learning satisfaction as well as organizational support on e-learning satisfaction. Second, authenticity and complexity did not moderate the relationship between organizational support and future adoption of e-learning. We also did not find a significant interaction between complexity and learner characteristics on future adoption of e-learning (H5b). Lastly, we found only one out of four three-way interaction hypotheses that was significant. Non-significant interaction between e-learning characteristics and organizational support could be explained by the notion that learners' satisfaction may be influenced by self-determination rather than the environment (Ryan et al., 1997). This means self-motivation and personality integration influence individuals' satisfaction; therefore, environmental factors such as e-learning characteristics and organizational support may not play a major role in buffering the relationship between learner characteristics and satisfaction. Future research is recommended (discussed in the next section).5.1 Limitations and future research\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - E-learning is an organizationally risky investment given the cost and poor levels of adoption by users. In order to gain a better understanding of this problem, the aim of this paper is to conduct a study into the use of e-learning in a rail organization.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Using an online survey, employees of a rail-sector organization were questioned about their use and likelihood of adoption of e-learning. This study explores the factors that affect the way in which learners experience and perceive such systems. Using statistical analysis, 12 hypotheses are tested and explored. Relationships between learning satisfaction, intention to adopt, and the characteristics of e-learning systems were established.\nFindings: - The study found that e-learning characteristics can buffer the relationship between learner characteristics and intention to adopt further e-learning in the future. Further, the paper found that high levels of support can compensate individuals who are low in technological efficacy to adopt e-learning.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The cross-sectional design of the study and its focus on measuring intention to adopt as opposed to actual adoption are both limitations. Future research using longitudinal design and research employing a time lag design measuring actual adoption as well as intention are recommended.\nPractical implications: - From a practical perspective, organizations can focus on the actual content and authenticity of the learning experience delivered by the e-learning system to significantly impact how employees will perceive and use e-learning in the future. Low technological efficacy individuals tend not to adopt new technology. Instead of changing individuals' personalities, organizations can implement supportive policies and practices which would lead to higher e-learning adoption rate among low efficacy individuals.\nOriginality/value: - The study integrates technology adoption and learning literatures in developing enablers for e-learning in organizations. Further, this study collects data from rail employees, and therefore the findings are practical to an industry.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
CEO transformational leadership and top manager ambidexterity: An empirical study in Taiwan SMEs	[ "Transformational leadership", "Ambidexterity", "CEO-top manager interface" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: To ensure viability and competitiveness in an increasingly turbulent environment, firms must be ambidextrous by simultaneously pursuing exploratory innovation and exploitative innovation (Gibson and Birkinshaw, 2004). Previous studies have focussed on the firm level or unit level to address this challenge, and suggested structure designs (Tushman and O'Reilly, 1996) and intrafirm contexts (Gibson and Birkinshaw, 2004) as crucial mechanisms to support firm ambidexterity. Recent research has increasingly highlighted the importance of top managers and their behavioral integration to firm-level ambidexterity (Smith and Tushman, 2005).\nLiterature review and hypotheses: Recent studies have explicitly emphasized that for firms to be successful, they must realize ambidextrous innovation by conducting exploratory and exploitative innovation simultaneously (Benner and Tushman, 2003; Raisch et al., 2009). Exploratory innovation focusses on meeting the needs of emerging customers and markets by offering new designs and creating new products and services; whereas exploitative innovation emphasizes meeting the needs of existing customers and markets by improving established designs and expanding existing products and services. Despite top managers being the primary ambidextrous learning unit within ambidextrous organizations (O'Reilly and Tushman, 2004), studies at the individual top manager level are scant.\nHypotheses development: Transformational leadership and the CEO-top manager interface\nResearch methods: Sample and data collection\nResult: Table I presents descriptive statistics and correlations for all study variables. We should note that correlations at the individual level do not take into account non-independence within the data and therefore should be interpreted cautiously.\nDiscussion and conclusion: Discussion\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of CEO transformational leadership in promoting ambidexterity of top managers. This paper posits that connecting CEO transformational leadership with the CEO-top manager interface offers a better explanation of heterogeneity in top manager ambidextrous behavior.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study is based on a questionnaire survey of 388 senior managers in 80 top teams nested in 80 small- to medium-sized Taiwan manufacturing firms.\nFindings: The findings indicate that transformational CEOs shape the CEO-top manager interface, characterized by senior team behavioral integration, decentralization of responsibilities, long-term compensation, and individual manager risk propensity, and in turn promote ambidexterity at the individual top manager level.\nOriginality/value: Hence, the authors contribute to the existing understanding that transformational CEOs may not only have a beneficial influence on firm-level ambidexterity, but also may be particularly effective in enabling individual-level top managers to simultaneously explore and exploit.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Salary increases in American academic faculty: Perceptions, intentions and satisfaction	[ "Turnover", "Perception", "Satisfaction", "Academia", "Raises", "Salary" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: A pay rise is generally seen as being positive; it rewards an employee, showing recognition for their efforts, and can motivate them to be happier and work harder. However, it is also possible for an employee to look at their own pay rise (or lack of) and compare it with others to rank themselves. This is also affected by how happy the employee believes that others are with their pay rises. If others are perceived as being happy, while the employee at hand is not as happy, then this creates dissatisfaction and could even lead to the employee considering changing jobs.\nMethodology: Gevrek et al. (2017) had investigated perceptions of salary, and how perceptions of other employees with their pay may affect an individual's feeling about their own pay, intention to leave, or take earlier retirement. They sent an email survey to full-time faculty members of a US public university that had implemented pay increases in 2013. There were 262 full-time faculty members, and 174 responded to the survey.\nComment: The review is based on I can't get no satisfaction: The power of perceived differences in employee intended retention and turnover by Gevrek, D., Spencer, M., Hudgins, D., and Chambers, V. published in Personnel Review.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: Pay rises are an effective means of retaining employees. However, satisfaction with pay is linked to perceptions of happiness in and comparison with other employees' pay. A happiness gap that causes an employee to feel deprived or dissatisfied may lead to them looking elsewhere for a new job. It is important to have good communication and a fair distributive process to reduce perceptions of a gap and reduce potential staff turnovers.\nOriginality/value: The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Patterns and trends in engineering education in sustainability: A vision from relevant journals in the field	[ "Complex networks" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Actions for sustainability have been promoted from the different areas of environment, society and economy, with the longed for common aspiration to face multiple interconnected sustainability crises in a world that can no longer be conceived as \"society without nature and nature without society\" (Beck, 1992; Latour, 1993; van Breda et al., 2016).\n2. Materials and methods: With the advent of the indexing and availability of scholarly documents and literature, we have begun to quantitatively understand the process by which scientific fields emerge (Borner, 2010, 2015; Bettencourt and Kaiser, 2015). These quantitative methods commonly include one or a mixture of population contagion dynamical models for the spread of ideas and the emergence and development of scientific fields (Bettencourt et al., 2006, 2008; Bettencourt and Kaur, 2011) and the structural analysis of networks.\n3. Results: 3.1 Descriptive of the number of publications evolution and the keywords distribution (2001-2018)\n4. Discussion: Results shown in the previous section offer new strategies to assess and analyze the evolution of the research in these three journals, highly devoted to Engineering Education in Sustainability in the last two decades, both from an individual (i.e. journal) point of view and a global one. The next sections explain in terms of the structural analysis of the networks, the evolution of each of the three individual journals networks (4.1) and the global one (4.2). Finally, Section 4.3 features the main trends of the identified Categories of keywords, by means of clustering them from the three relevant points of view of EESD (Section 2.3).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to identify patterns and trends taking place in engineering education in sustainability, through analyzing the evolution of research conducted in relevant publications in the field of engineering education for sustainability in the past decades.\nDesign/methodology/approach: First, a bibliometric approach has been applied, adopting a co-word analysis based on co-occurrence of the keywords (300 items) in articles from three indexed journals related to engineering, education or sustainability. The selection of the articles has been based on the appearance of the previous three terms in the topic and title fields of the journal, where journal scope (based in the categories of the InCites Journal Citation Reports) covered at least two topics, and the third topic was applied in the search, as follows: International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education - Scope of the journal: sustainability and education, Keyword search: engineering (20 papers); Journal of Cleaner Production - Scope of the journal: sustainability and engineering, Keyword search: education (122 papers); International Journal of Engineering Education - Scope of the journal: engineering and education, Keyword search: sustainability (29 papers); Second, to identify topological patterns and their evolution, a structural and temporal analysis of the network of keywords and a categorization of the keywords in thematic clusters (named categories) have been performed.\nFindings: The most relevant categories in terms of corresponding number of keywords, even though these have decreased in recent years, are those related with institutional and policy aspects to embedding or applying sustainability in higher education. At the same time, categories related to the professional development of faculty members, implementation and use of learning strategies (i.e. real-world learning experiences, educational innovative initiatives/tools/techniques) and cross-boundary schemes (i.e. transdisciplinarity, ethics, networking, etc.) increase their relevance in the past five years, signaling some of the challenging fields of interest in engineering higher education in sustainability in the near future.\nPractical implications: Knowledge of the trends in devising sustainability education in engineering allows for designing curricular schemes and learning strategies to achieve competences, which are key factors for the change toward sustainability.\nOriginality/value: This research has a strong strategic value, as it indicates the focus of future research efforts and networking on some of the topics of greatest concern in engineering higher education for sustainability.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Causal inferences between participation in decision making, task attributes, work effort, rewards, job satisfaction and commitment	[ "Decision making", "Job satisfaction", "Employee participation", "Job enrichment", "Job design" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Modern organizations implement participatory work practices in the belief they will gain more from an educated, technologically-oriented workforce (Connell, 1998). Evidence suggests participation increases employee motivation, job satisfaction and organizational commitment (Witt et al., 2000; Latham et al., 1994; Pearson and Duffy, 1999); however, support for improving job performance is less conclusive (Tjosvold, 1998; Jones, 1997). Nonetheless, organizations proceed with implementing participatory practices. Acknowledging participation should lead to positive outcomes, we also think ambiguous outcomes regarding productivity warrant further investigation. In part, productivity outcomes are confounded by previous researchers using a mixture of single site or cross-sectional studies (Connell, 1998; Jones, 1997) with few longitudinal or multi-site studies. Additionally, various interpretations of participation have been studied. These include, formal versus informal participation (Scully et al., 1995), worker predispositions to participation (Ashmos et al., 1998), levels of involvement (Locke and Schweiger, 1979) and a synthesised multi-dimensional model that included the role and levels of employee participation (Black and Gregersen, 1997).\nSupport for participation in decision making: Knoop (1995) defines participation in decision making (PDM) as sharing decision making with others to achieve organizational objectives. Support in the literature claims that participation in decision making increases employee motivation, job satisfaction and organizational commitment (Pearson and Duffy, 1999) and Kappelman and Prybutok (1995) attribute these outcomes to empowerment. Despite less conclusive evidence that participation in decision making improves job performance, the positive correlations between job satisfaction, commitment and PDM suggest a link (Tjosvold, 1998; Jones, 1997). This is based on the premise that employees who can influence decisions that impact on them are more likely to value the outcomes, which in turn reinforces satisfaction (Black and Gregersen, 1997). The highest satisfaction comes with high-level involvement, as occurs when employees are involved in generating alternatives, planning processes and evaluating results.Research indicates that employee participation across organizations is increasing (Harley et al., 2000) therefore, it is important to understand when and how workplace participation contributes to gains for both employees and employers. Proponents claim that involving employees in formulating task strategies and goals promotes organizational citizenship behavior (Van Yperen et al., 1999). Information flow and decision making are enriched (Anderson and McDaniel, 1999) and communications are more open and transparent. In turn, uncertainty, ambiguity and role conflict reduce and teamwork is promoted (Daniels and Bailey, 1999; Shadur et al., 1999). Consequently the workplace seems a fairer place so perceptions of procedural justice increase and political behaviors decrease (Witt et al., 2000). One caveat is that the level and extent of participation needs to be congruent with employees' knowledge, experiences and environment (Nyhan, 2000) if they are to participate effectively and not be exposed to risk. In practical terms this means the role and level of involvement varies (Drehmer et al., 2000) as does the level of satisfaction.Previous research results support a strong correlation between job satisfaction and commitment (Becker et al., 1996; Meyer and Smith, 2000). Job satisfaction describes how well a person likes their job (Judge, 1993) and is an attitudinal response to perceptions of how well a job provides valued rewards (Locke, 1976). Commitment, on the other hand, is defined as the strength of an individual's \"identification with and involvement in the organisation\" (Mowday et al., 1982, p. 27). This type of commitment is defined by Allen and Meyer (1990) as affective commitment and is deemed more positive for performance than normative commitment, which occurs when an individual stays out of obligation, or continuance commitment, which occurs when the cost of leaving out-ways the cost of staying. Commitment foci can also vary; for example, the work environment (Roy and Ghose, 1997), supervisors (Benkhoff, 1997), occupation or profession (Pearson and Duffy, 1999; Meyer et al., 1993), career or work ethic (Cohen, 1996). The conclusion is that regardless of foci, affective commitment in any form, will direct an individual's effort toward achieving organizational goals (Becker et al., 1996; Meyer and Smith, 2000).Previous research suggests that participation in decision making influences changes in work practices, conditions and rewards and these correlate with job satisfaction and affective commitment. When employees influence the antecedents to work effort, such as goal setting (Latham et al., 1994), problem solving (Tjosvold, 1998) and locus of knowledge (Scully et al., 1995) satisfaction and performance are enhanced. The cycle is reinforced when individuals whose needs are satisfied put in greater effort toward achieving organizational goals (Ostroff, 1993) and this in turn enhances commitment and satisfaction outcomes (Benkhoff, 1997; Nyhan, 2000).To work effectively employees need to understand and value the tasks they perform. Hackman and Oldham's (1980) job characteristics model has proven an effective tool for evaluating task attributes such as, task variety, identity, significance, autonomy and feedback (Pearson and Duffy, 1999). This model taps psychological needs that encourage employee motivation and involvement (Brown, 1996). Nonetheless to be meaningful they need to be supported by human resources policies and practices that recognize and reward employee contributions. Benefits can encompass promotional opportunities, improved conditions or benefits, as well as financial rewards (Hackman and Oldham, 1980; Meyer and Smith, 2000).Knowing which aspects of work life engender commitment and satisfaction outcomes is necessary if they are to be attained (Jernigan et al., 2002). Therefore this study aimed to explore the relationships between participation in decision making, the task characteristics, rewards and performance effort and outcomes of job satisfaction and affective commitment. By exploring these relationships over time we hope to gain a better understanding if specific variables have greater impact over time than others. A conceptual framework of the expected relationships is diagrammatically represented in Figure 1 and presented in the following hypotheses:H1. Participation will positively influence affective commitment, both directly and indirectly through improved task characteristics, rewards and performance effort.\nMethodology: Two sets of data were collected from three industry sectors 18-months apart. This time lag allowed participants to achieve performance milestones that led to pay increases or other improved benefits so cause and effect could be examined. Data were analyzed with multivariate analysis and latent variable structural equation modeling. Unmatched data collected at Time 1 was used to confirm and validate the model using the accepted Anderson and Gerbing's (1992) two-stage approach. The longitudinal matched data were reserved for testing changes over time and for cross-lagged analysis (Bentler, 1995).Subjects and procedures\nDiscussion: The positive relationship between participation in decision making and the other constructs in the study lends credence to previous findings that employees value the opportunity to participate in decisions affecting them. Participation positively influences job satisfaction and affective commitment and the increased strength of the correlations at the time 2 gives credence to Meyer et al.'s (1993, 1990) contention that these attitudinal responses are reciprocal and mutually reinforcing over time. More surprising was that work effort promotes both job satisfaction and participation, corroborating similar findings by Benkhoff (1997) and Nyhan (2000). Aggregate response patterns did not differ significantly over time despite that all workers in the study received gains in either wages or conditions during the time lag between data collection. Of two possible explanations, the first seems the most likely given the additional comments made by employees. One possibility is that employees perceive any gains or benefits as their due because they derive from performance improvements. The alternative view relates to Stohl and Cheney's (2001) theory of the \"paradox of participation\", which suggests that expectations grow as gains are achieved.Another interesting finding was that task variety and work effort appear to foster participation. This suggests participation is a means for coping with the stresses of the modern work environment. Challenges, such as multi-tasking, adapting to new technologies, work intensification, downsizing and increased pressures for higher performance are occurring in an increasingly insecure and demoralized work environment (ACCIRT, 1999; Watson et al., 2003)! Increased participation at least allows employees the opportunity to influence better outcomes for the organization and ultimately themselves. Written comments from some respondents indicated that increased job span or variety blurred the boundaries of what was expected of them and undermined their effectiveness. Such in-congruency poses a risk to longer-term satisfaction and performance outcomes, as has been highlighted in previous studies linking task, employee involvement and performance (Brown, 1996; Nyhan, 2000).The findings also raise concerns that employees are not being granted the higher levels of involvement recommended by Black and Gregersen (1997). Given that autonomy was an influential predictor of participation in decision making over time, it is concerning that this did not influence satisfaction or commitment outcomes. Purser and Cabana (1997) contend that autonomy needs to be supported by sufficient task and outcome related information to successfully impact outcomes. The reality in this instance seems to be reversed; participation provides autonomy so that employees can better manage the variety in their multiple roles and responsibilities. Nonetheless, it appears that the more satisfied employees are overall, the more likely they are to want and seek autonomy, which matches Kappelman and Prybutok's (1995) assertion that empowerment promotes positive attitudinal outcomes.Another finding of note was that employee's value the opportunity to influence and gain rewards. Satisfaction with rewards did influence participation and affective commitment, although some comments indicated that rewards were not perceived as equitable given the work effort extended. Although not apparent in this study it does raise concerns that inadequate rewards can erode positive attitudinal and performance outcomes over time; as was found to be the case in study on the impacts of privatization in Britain (Pendleton, 1997). Employers would do well to be mindful of the strong evidence in the American literature that indicates rewards are a substantial employee motivator (Lawler, 1996).While this study revealed no changes to employee participation, commitment and satisfaction over time, all participating organizations claimed they had initiated strategies to increase participation (as is required under the current legislative framework). The organizations also reported varying degrees of productivity improvements against key performance indicators, even though employees perceived no significant change in work effort over that time. Improvements were reported in terms of reduced operating costs, improved quality, customer service and reduced absenteeism. However, it is difficult to substantiate whether productivity improvements have resulted from employees being more effective through participation in decision making, or technology improvements, increased workloads and work intensification, or as seems more likely, a combination of these factors.Implications for practitioners\nConclusion: This study addresses the call for longitudinal and multi-sample studies (Tjosvold, 1998) to investigate the influence of participation in decision making. It examines the role participation plays within a decentralized employee relations environment that claims to encourage greater employee involvement. However, investigating causal inferences over time over time reveals relationships that are not apparent when analysis occurs at only one point in time. Inferences from this study suggest that participation in decision making promotes autonomy, job satisfaction and affective commitment; however in this context at least, it is task variety and rewards that appear to promote participation in decision making. More positive attitudes to work effort appear to correlate with higher job satisfaction and participation in decision making. Affectively committed employees also appear to be more positively inclined toward job satisfaction, work effort and their rewards.These results raise a number of issues deserving attention in future research. Finding no significant changes over time raises questions about the role employee participation actually plays in the current environment. This lack of evidence might merely reflect employee pragmatism about the changes taking place in the broader work environment. Employers in the study reported productivity improvements and to some extent, this appears to have come at a cost to employees. Finding that work effort and variety promote participation in decision making implies that participation is a coping strategy, especially when considered alongside the finding that employees are less than happy with the rewards received for the effort they put in.Overall, it appears that employee's value autonomy as a means for improving work effort, quite apart from the benefits it brings in terms of satisfaction and rewards. If, as Black and Gregersen (1997) claim, the philosophical choice for implementing participation is important, we believe more attention needs to be paid to understanding the relationship between mutual gains for the employee as well as the employer. The correlations between PDM, autonomy, work effort, job satisfaction and commitment suggest PDM does have benefits for both employees and employers. The risk for employers is that an unbalanced relationship means employees are not the only losers. Where participation is aimed at productivity gains and employee rewards are not perceived as commensurate with task expectations and work effort, negative consequences may well arise over the longer term.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Regulatory frameworks in Australia encourage employee participation in decision making (PDM) on the basis that participation benefits work effort, job satisfaction and commitment. Although the literature supports this premise, there is little evidence that patterns of causal inference in the relationship are clearly understood. This study aims to examine for structural and causal inference between PDM and the work environment over time.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Structural equation modeling was used to examine longitudinal, matched sample data for causal inferences.\nFindings: - The paper finds that participation in decision making appears to promote job satisfaction and commitment, whereas task variety and work effort foster participation.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The use of quantitative, self report data, small samples and cross industry data as well as possible overlap between commitment foci may limit the transferability of the findings. It is also important to note causality is merely inferred.\nPractical implications: - Although participation in decision making positively influences work effort, autonomy and commitment, practitioners need to be mindful of keeping a balance between employee and employer needs. Job satisfaction and commitment are at risk in the long term if participation is viewed merely as a survival strategy for coping with work effort and task variety.\nOriginality/value: - The paper examines inferred causality within a participative decision-making framework and addresses the previously neglected need for multi-site and longitudinal studies.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Application of spectral and ARIMA analysis to combined-ratio patterns	[ "Underwriting", "Data analysis", "Property insurance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Most of the analyses of fluctuations in underwriting results in property-liability insurance have used ARIMA analysis as the tool of choice. ARIMA is necessarily model-based. For example, as Leng and Venezian (2003) pointed out, the rational expectations model of Cummins and Outreville (1987) is not a second order autoregressive model it does not lead to quasi-cyclical behavior. If analyzed as an AR(2) process, however, it leads to the conclusion that the pattern is cyclical.Spectral analysis, an alternative tool that could be used, is model-free. It can provide measures of cyclicality without the need to specify before-hand a model for the behavior, yet this tool has seldom been used in the analysis of underwriting results in property and liability insurance. The most notable exception is Grace and Hotchkiss (1995), who used spectral analysis. This notable paper used quarterly data in an attempt to define more clearly the cyclical nature of the fluctuations. The use of spectral analysis in that study is less than satisfying for two reasons[1]. One is that it uses data for the period 1974-1990, a period that has been shown (see Leng, 2000; Leng et al., 2004) to straddle a structural shift in the pattern of interest rates and in the pattern of insurance results[2].The second one is that it makes no attempt at assessing whether the spectral peaks are significant in any statistical sense. The first problem can be corrected by analyzing the data separately before and after the structural shift. Venezian (2006) provides a means to characterize the results of spectral analysis as \"significant\" or \"not significant.\" This is done by considering as \"not significant\" the height of spectral spikes that would be produced by white noise in a given fraction of spectra based on the same number of data points. Since the article provides critical values for these spectral heights it is now possible to set the threshold to exclude heights that could be encountered by chance from uncorrelated random noise. Hence there is now a means of remedying the second problem.This article uses spectral analysis to investigate an issue raised by Leng et al. (2002); namely, whether the cyclical behavior commonly found in data for the USA changed during the decade of the 1980s. Venezian (1985) and Haley (1995) found differences in the characteristics of underwriting results among lines of insurance. Fields and Venezian (1989) found that there was significant aggregation bias if all lines were considered compared to dealing with individual lines. In addition, Leng (2000) found that the evidence indicates that the structural breaks in individual lines occurred in different years and some line had no structural breaks in the period 1973-1997. For these reasons we deal with that issue at the level of lines of insurance rather than at an aggregate level, to deal with the possibility that the lack of cyclicality in some lines may obscure cyclicality in others.Another, very different, concern contributed to the decision to perform the analysis by line. Venezian (2006) found that the power of spectral analysis, when sine models and AR(2) models of characteristics of the order of magnitude found in previous studies are considered, is modest when the number of points is in the range between ten and 50. Using a single data series under those circumstances would give a high probability of not rejecting the hypothesis that the underwriting results are uncorrelated random noise. Performing the analysis on several lines reduces this probability.This decision carries a cost. As shown by Leng et al. (2002 and 2004), financial equilibrium considerations dictate that the dependent variable be a function of the underwriting profit, the risk-free rate of return, the tax rates on operating and investment income, and the ratio of premiums to net worth. To carry that down to the line level we would have to devise ways of allocating both surplus and taxes to the individual lines. Accordingly it is necessary to simplify the problem and use the combined ratio as a measure underwriting results.This article is arranged as follows. Research issues will discuss four issues we faced. The data section describes data sources in detail. Then, the results section lists results from our analysis and the discussion section is for implications from this article.\nResearch issues: Choice of data frequency\nData: The analysis is based on combined ratios for industry and eight lines of business from 1960 to 2004. The data were obtained from various issues of Best's Averages and Aggregates published from A. M. Best. However, the definition of line of business has changed over time. We collected data based on the following rules. First, before 1972, combined ratios by line of business are obtained by adding both stock and mutual together because Best's Averages and Aggregates did not have by line information for Lloyds and reciprocals. Second, homeowner multiple peril, commercial multiple peril, inland marine, ocean marine and workers' compensation are consistent from 1960 to 2004. However, before 1960, homeowner had some issues about its filing. That is the reason why we start the data period from 1960. Third, auto liability were separated into auto liability and auto property damage from 1960 to 1970, combined both lines in 1971. From 1972, it separated into commercial and private auto liability. Fourth, auto physical damage was separated into auto collision and auto fire, theft, and comprehensive before 1972. As auto liability, it separated into commercial and private auto physical damage from 1972. Fifth, other liability includes miscellaneous liability and medical malpractice from 1975 to 1997 and other liability, medical malpractice, and product liability from 1998 to 2004. Finally, usually for one year of data could be in several issue of Best's Averages and Aggregates because it publishes ten years' data in each year. For example, in 1981's issue, it contained data from 1970 to 1980. So, 1970s data can be published in multiple times. In the earlier issues, the information was consistent. But since 1990s, A.M. Best updated their data in more recent issues. So, we use the most recent issue information for the analysis even though the difference is minor.\nResults: Spectral analysis\nDiscussion: Spectral analysis is not as widely used as the AR(2) process in underwriting cycles. It has its own merits. Up to now the major drawback was absence of a significance test that would apply in the context of research on cycles. Venezian (2006) provides one such test and the significance levels for it. It also has its disadvantages, especially the limited power when the kinds of stochastic processes that have been used in cycle research are concerned. It is an alternative tools to check for the existence of underwriting cycles and possible cycle lengths.By using two methods, we can see how consistent results are. For the 1981 break, about 60 percent of results from both methods are consistent, but for the lines' break, it is about 40 percent. Therefore, judgment is involved in deciding which methods or results are more reliable.One more interesting point to mention is the significance of the test. If spectra are not significant, the cycle length derived from the analysis could be spurious. If they are significant the analysis provides at least a rough indication of the range of uncertainty in the period. The AR(2) process also has its hazards. If the second coefficient in AR(2) is not significant, then the cycle lengths derived from those coefficient are meaningless since the series may not even be cyclical, the range of uncertainty in the cycle length is much more difficult to estimate. Therefore, caution is needed in interpreting the results of both types of analysis.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper seeks to use spectral analysis as an alternative method to analyze whether underwriting results exhibit a cyclical behavior for the property-liability insurance industry and by lines of business. In addition, aims to use the AR(2) process to obtain information about cyclical behavior and cycle lengths. Then, the results from the two methods are to be closely examined and compared.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Spectral analysis and ARIMA are used to obtain cycle lengths, then to compare them to check the consistency of the two methods.\nFindings: - The AR(2) produced more significant results than spectral analysis.\nOriginality/value: - This is the first article in insurance using significant levels for spectral analysis to decide appropriate cycle lengths. In addition, the consideration of multiple comparisons to get critical values for significance levels reduces false positive and produces more reliable results.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Interest rate, liquidity, and sovereign risk: derivative-based VaR	[ "Liquidity risk", "Emerging markets", "Interest rate", "Diversification benefit", "Diversified VaR", "Sovereign debt" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The two most important risks faced by financial institutions in their banking book are credit risk and interest rate risk. Financial industry regulators traditionally address the credit risk as the most relevant for the banking book. Nevertheless, recently, the awareness of the regulators has also become focused on the interest rate in the banking book. For example, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has recently issued \"Standards for Interest Rate Risk in the Banking Book\" [Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), 2016], alerting financial institutions on possible negative impacts of interest rate changes on their balance sheets and profitability.\n2. Methods: 2.1 Historical value at risk\n3. Data and scope of application: The developed herein derivative-based methodology of integrated IR and credit risk evaluation is applied to the data on sovereign debt of developing countries. The country selection is aligned with the FTSE Global Equity Index Series Country Classification (FTSE International Limited, 2014), which distinguishes four emerging markets (EM) statuses, namely, advanced emerging, secondary emerging, frontier, and unclassified. The research is centered on three former categories, namely, advanced emerging, secondary emerging and frontier markets.\n4. Results and discussion: 4.1 Derivative-based undiversified versus diversified value at risk applied to emerging markets sovereign debt\n5. Conclusions: This research advances a historical VaR technique for studies of IRR and CR interdependence. The use of IRS rates and sovereign CDS spreads as proxies for the interest rate and sovereign credit risk, respectively, allows reconstructing the interest rate and credit spread components in the sovereign bond yields.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study connections between interest rate risk and credit risk and investigate the inter-risk diversification benefit due to the joint consideration of these risks in the banking book containing sovereign debt.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper develops the historical derivative-based value at risk (VaR) for assessing the downside risk of a sovereign debt portfolio through the integrated treatment of interest rate and credit risks. The credit default swaps spreads and the fixed-leg rates of interest rate swap are used as proxies for credit risk and interest rate risk, respectively.\nFindings: The proposed methodology is applied to the decade-long history of emerging markets sovereign debt. The empirical analysis demonstrates that the diversified VaR benefits from imperfect correlation between the risk factors. Sovereign risks of non-core emu states and oil producing countries are discussed through the prism of VaR metrics.\nPractical implications: The proposed approach offers a clue for improving risk management in regards to banking books containing government bonds. It could be applied to access the riskiness of investment portfolios containing the wider spectrum of assets beyond the sovereign debt. The approach represents a useful tool for investigating interest rate and credit risk interrelation.\nOriginality/value: The proposed enhancement of the traditional historical VaR is twofold: usage of derivative instruments' quotes and simultaneous consideration of the interest rate and credit risk factors to construct the hypothetical liquidity-free bond yield, which allows to distil liquidity premium.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Reconstructing lives: transformative services for human trafficking survivors	[ "Liminal", "Community ties", "Coping strategy", "Human trafficking", "Trafficking survivors", "Transformative services" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the present society, a technological revolution is permeating all aspects of world affairs. It is facilitated in part by significant advances in sciences and innovative capacity and is leading to an increasingly integrated global economy where frequent transnational trade transactions have become the norm. These macroeconomic trends are not without their consequences, both intended and unintended. Some researchers claim that the benefits of globalization - marked increases in standards of living, quality of life, health care access, public infrastructure, education, unemployment safety nets, etc. - can be observed throughout the world (Jorgenson and Vu, 2009). Others argue that variations in social, political and economic activities across political frontiers as part of globalization lead to emergence of new spatial entities and inequitable economic and social dynamics among global players (Held et al., 2000, Lerche, 1998; Tidwell and Lerche, 2004).\nDemystifying human trafficking: Human trafficking is now acknowledged as an issue of grave concern, with ramifications for societal cohesion and global security. At present, it is the third largest and fastest growing criminal industry in the world, following drugs and weapons trafficking (Interpol, 2016). The Office of High Commissioner, Human Rights, at the United Nations, defines human trafficking as:\nLong road ahead for anti-trafficking agencies: The heart-wrenching accounts of human trafficking survivors detailed earlier speak volumes about their plight, but what was not contained in them is far more revealing - accounts of numerous others, who are trapped in a trafficking nightmare and are yet to be discovered/rescued. Equally apparent in these accounts is the efficacy, or lack thereof, of a variety of services offered by anti-trafficking agencies to survivors of human-trafficking crimes.\nTrafficking survivors, not victims: Before delving further in this paper, a clarification of trafficking-related terminology is warranted. Oftentimes, in human trafficking literature, a person who is exploited by means of trafficking activities is labeled as a trafficking victim. The late fifteenth century English term, victim, finds its etymological origins in the Latin word victima, denoting a creature killed as a religious sacrifice (Klein, 1971). This label precludes any hope for recovery of the affected person. In addition, it strangely puts the behavior of the trafficker in a favorable perspective, such as that of the sacrificing priest. Increasingly, the affected persons are challenging the practice of being labeled as victims (Rock, 2004). Julia Ormond, UN goodwill ambassador for the fight against human trafficking, pointed out the awkwardness of the victim label:\nConceptual foundations: Human trafficking research in recent years has brought to light the physical as well as psychological trauma that is endured by the survivors. Researchers have studied post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and recovery strategies for survivors of other horrific ordeals such as wars (Tedeschi, 2011), ethnic cleansing (Silove et al., 2002), natural disasters (Cryder et al., 2006), crises (Tedeschi et al., 1998), rape (Ugarte et al., 2003) and family abuse (Wolin and Wolin, 1993). However, studies have found that survivors of sex trafficking, for instance, exhibit higher levels of PTSD than survivors of many of the aforementioned trials (Hossain et al., 2010; Zimmerman et al., 2011). An argument that is provided towards explaining this is that in trafficking situations, the ordeal usually extends over a longer duration and persons are potentially subjected to more trauma episodes, imparting a sustained sense of entrapment, alienation, loss of control, humiliation, hopelessness and resignation, thus leading to higher levels of mental trauma (Hossain et al., 2010). Actual individual experiences during trafficking not only affect the eventual emotional and psychological adjustment of survivors but may also challenge their reintegration into society during the post-trafficking stage. Loomba (2017) conducted an extensive review of the literature on serving trafficking survivors from a multi-lens theoretical perspective. Harvey (1996) found that several intrapersonal, interpersonal, environmental and other contextual factors play a crucial role in the success of post-trafficking recovery among survivors. Loomba and Kokhanovski (2013) explored how project management skills can be used by anti-trafficking agencies to fight human trafficking. Next, we offer a review of the relevant theoretical perspectives in the context of trafficking survivors and service offerings that will best aid them in the post-trafficking stage.\nSociological perspective: Borrowing from the sociology literature, the theory of symbolic interaction offers a sociological perspective, with applications in the area of services for post-trafficking recovery. Symbolic interactionism emphasizes that people derive subjective meaning of human behavior from social interaction and modify it through interpretation and pragmatism (Blumer, 1969). Based on this theory, trafficked persons can be viewed as pragmatic individuals who continually adjust their behavior to the actions of other individuals, including traffickers, punishment enforcers, customers, corrupt lawmen, stigmatizing peers, rescuers, social workers, etc. These trafficking survivors are posited to be active, creative participants who construct their own social world, and not as passive, conforming objects of socialization. Trafficking survivors and anti-trafficking agency workers place emphasis on symbols that they see and their own negotiated reality, which is their view about oneself and the world (Schlenker, 1985). This explains why oftentimes, there is difficulty in establishing trust relationships between trafficking survivors and anti- trafficking agency workers. While one may contend that a trafficking survivor is likely to trust other survivors of past trafficking events assisting anti-trafficking agency staff, at present, examples of such assistance arrangements are the exception not the norm (Abram, 2016; Hillstrom, 2013; Kempton, 2016; Naples and Polansky, 2014). Moreover, customary post-trafficking stay of survivors behind closed-door shelters and clinical treatments for emotional trauma may prove counterproductive due to the fact that survivors, after having experienced loss of control to traffickers in the past, may view their post-trafficking shelter/treatment arrangements as a symbol of their trafficked past, causing re-traumatization and stalling their recovery (USA Department of State, 2014, p. 11). The shame and stigma of sex trafficking may leave many survivors with altered versions of negotiated reality and they may elect not to be forthcoming about their trafficking ordeal during recovery (Ugarte et al., 2003).\nLiminality perspective: A human trafficking event can be also analyzed through the liminality lens. The concept of liminality was introduced in 1909 by Arnold Van Gennep in his seminal anthropological work, Les Rites de Passage (Starr, 1910). Turner expanded this concept and focused specifically on the state of liminality, a notion of in-betweenness, or no-whereness, when normalcy of past life is disrupted. Turner (1967, p. 95) defines liminal individuals as, \"neither here nor there; they are betwixt and between the positions assigned and arrayed by law, custom, convention and ceremony\". Recent research also explores the relevance of liminality in modern societal settings to better comprehend the impact of social and structural disruption, including temporary situations of natural disasters (Cheung and McColl-Kennedy, 2015; Elliott et al., 2005), and more prolonged situations of poverty (Nugent, 2015).\nHuman trafficking causal loop model: Juxtaposing the sociological and liminality schools of thought, we can depict the vicious circle of human trafficking cycle as a causal loop model so as to better understand where and what role anti-trafficking agencies can play in assisting trafficking survivors with coping strategies. Figure 1 shows a human trafficking causal loop diagram if no interventions are instituted to disrupt it. This model demonstrates a cyclical pattern where antecedents to trafficking vulnerability can be traced back to internal factors, such as an individual's own relative capacity to absorb/handle stress during such encounters, their low economic status, broken family background, little to no emotional support, a history of abuse, etc., and external factors such as lack of community support network, weak societal links, a broken system in terms of weak economy, corrupt legal infrastructure, meager employment opportunities, etc. (USA Department of State, 2014, pp. 5-41).\nRole of anti-trafficking agencies: As the bane of human trafficking is a cause for major concern across the globe, many NGOs are adopting a multi-pronged approach in working to curb its progression. The International La Strada Association is one of the more proactive NGOs in Europe that focuses on anti-trafficking activities. It operates in eight countries - Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Macedonia, Poland, Belarus, The Netherlands, Moldova and Ukraine - where trafficking is more prevalent. La Strada's main activities as an organization are improving public policy and research, providing preventive, informational and educational activities against trafficking; providing social assistance to victims; and having a working hotline that anyone can call and address questions or concerns relating to trafficking or abuse to (La Strada International, 2012).\nTransformative role of services in human trafficking context: The United Nations has incorporated the concept of human dignity (originating from the term dignitas hominis in the Roman times) as an underlying concept in its Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As each and every human trafficking event has the capacity to rob trafficked persons of their basic dignity, rights, physical health and emotional security, ensuring human dignity can transform trafficking survivors' lives. Consecutively, human dignity should be a fundamental prerequisite in any and all appropriate services aimed at survivors by anti-trafficking agencies, and can, therefore, be viewed as transformative services (Anderson et al., 2013; Rosenbaum et al., 2011).\nAgency aid for survivors as \"transformative services\": In their seminal paper, Rosenbaum et al. (2011) posited that services can be viewed as transformative in two ways:\nCoping strategies during post-trafficking stage: Post-traumatic growth theory suggests that despite the overwhelming distress caused by complex physical and emotional trauma, survivors of extreme events have the capacity of experiencing positive growth (Tedeschi et al., 1998). This claim has been validated in complex trauma research focusing on children/youth survivors of natural disasters (Cryder et al., 2006), victims of domestic/relational abuse (Cobb et al., 2006) and armed-service combat veterans (Tedeschi, 2011). As survivors of human trafficking also experience complex trauma (Courtois, 2004), it is conceivable that they also have the capacity of positive growth through aftercare services provided by anti-trafficking agencies during the post-trafficking stage.\n\"Transformative services\" model for trafficking survivors: The definition of transformative service can be well adapted to fit the context of trafficking survivors. Besides the actively transformative services, such as physical health, psychological health and mental trauma service offerings, anti-trafficking agencies can provide passively transformative services to nurture coping strategies in trafficking survivors, so as to improve chances of their successful reintegration into society. In addition, anti-trafficking agencies can also provide services with transformative potential to champion the cause of trafficking survivors among community stakeholders. Through these services, the aim is to create uplifting changes and improvement in the well-being of post-trafficking entities: survivors, agency service providers, communities and ecosystem (Anderson et al., 2013). A model for provision of transformative services during the post-trafficking stage is depicted in Figure 3, which shows tripartite interaction dynamics between trafficking survivors, anti-trafficking agency and the community ecosystem at large.\nConclusion: Our study provides a framework for understanding the transformative role of services provided by anti-trafficking agencies to help trafficking survivors with their coping strategies during the process of their reintegration into society. The contributions of our study are multifold: First, this study contributes by offering a better understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of the human trafficking concept from the perspective of the sociological and liminality schools of thought. Second, it categorizes transformative by design services into actively transformative and passively transformative services. That is, these services can be viewed as transformative on an active-passive continuum. Third, our work explores a variety of coping strategies, which anti-trafficking agencies can assist survivors with, in post-trafficking service settings. Taken together, we offer a transformative service-based model, which analyzes the tripartite service interaction logics in a process of exchanges for facilitating reintegration of trafficking survivors into society. This model is aimed to help researchers and practitioners better understand service provision in post-trafficking settings, thereby addressing an important service research priority.\nResearch limitations: As with any study, we acknowledge limitations of this research. Our study is a theoretical development of provision of passively transformative services to help trafficking survivors with their coping strategies towards reintegration into society by anti-trafficking agencies. That said, human trafficking situations vary significantly by the country/region of study and the demographics of the population/environment under study (gender, age, race, income status, family characteristics, community infrastructure, institutional intervention/support, etc.). In addition, resources allocation for fighting trafficking crimes may vary significantly from one nation to another, which may impact the implementation of such services. Our research is general in nature, and care should be taken about applying it to a specific human trafficking situation. Also, caution is advised when generalizing implications from this study beyond the context of human trafficking.\nFuture research: This study provides a solid foundation for future research. The proposed framework of transformative services culminates in several research propositions that provide the basis of further qualitative and/or quantitative exploration of these issues, such as using social network analysis for mapping community ties and anti-trafficking agency-community-societal support structures. We believe that the transformative service framework can be applied to management of after-sales/post-service interactions, service recovery and a growing body of literature related to service value co-creation through transformative services. Application and extension of this model to family health and psychological interventions, personal/family/community crisis situations, rehabilitation services, victims of disasters, etc., can be explored. In addition, extending model application to other settings with primary data collection and analyses will enable further refinement of the proposed framework.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce a transformative service-based model, which analyzes tripartite service interaction logics among trafficking survivors, anti-trafficking agencies and the community during a process of actively- and passively transformative exchanges. It aims to help researchers and practitioners better understand services that facilitate reintegration of trafficking survivors into society.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using theory development from sociological and liminality schools of thought, this paper explores a variety of coping strategies that anti-trafficking agencies can offer human-trafficking survivors in post-trafficking service settings.\nFindings: A novel transformative service-based framework extends current conceptualizations of social and service exchange in a tripartite interaction setting. Anti-trafficking agencies can create a supportive community environment to offer trafficking survivors passively transformative services and to cultivate and nurture their coping skills towards reintegration into society.\nResearch limitations/implications: Important implications for transformative service-based theory and practice of serving trafficking survivors are discussed. In addition, the study limitations are addressed.\nPractical implications: The transformative service-based model analyzes tripartite service interaction logics during a process of exchanges between trafficking survivors, anti-trafficking agency and community ecosystem to achieve meaningful post-trafficking reintegration into society.\nSocial implications: Using the transformative service model, community ties need to be re-established for trafficking survivors to achieve successful reintegration into society, and for communities to heal and restore human dignity.\nOriginality/value: This research proposes a new framework for actively- and passively-transformative service logic for anti-trafficking agencies to offer assistance to trafficking survivors, based on sociological and liminality schools of thought.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A framework for encouraging retail customer feedback	[ "Customer engagement", "Commitment", "Customer feedback", "Retailer-customer relationships", "Social benefits" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: why feedback?: On the customer side, genuine engagement extends the boundary of the organization's culture to include the customer as a member who shares in both the commercial and psychological life of the organization. Understanding how to create engaged customers is needed for theory and research. (Ostrom et al., 2010, p. 10).\nMethod: The customers of a large regional coffee house were surveyed at five locations to study aspects of customer-retailer relations. This study uses a cross-sectional, single retailer approach that provides control over contextual effects (Garbarino and Johnson, 1999; Jap and Ganesan, 2000; Liu, 2007). Even though the relationships are constrained to a single retailer, an acceptable amount of variance can be expected given that the retailer has multiple retail locations where customer experiences could differ. The coffee house market is one of interest, given the market's fascination with well-known national retailers such as Starbucks and newer competition like McDonald's. A large regional coffee retailer in the USA was chosen as a specific context for studying relationships for the following reasons: it has been in business for\nResults: The purpose of this study is to test for moderated mediation, that is, that the mediational effect of social benefits on customer feedback varies across levels of customer commitment. As a precursor to analyses, reliability, convergent validity and discriminant validity were assessed for all multiitem measures. All measures were above the recommended thresholds for Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability (0.70) (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). Confirmatory factor analysis (AMOS 18) was used to assess the convergent validity of measures, and observed indicators were all statistically significant (p\nDiscussion: In the relationship marketing stream, much research has been done on important relationship marketing outcomes such as loyalty and WOM and their antecedents - relationship benefits, commitment and satisfaction (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2002) - however, this paper extends such work to include the importance of feedback to the company (including negative, positive and neutral information) in the emerging area of customer engagement.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine antecedents of the under researched area of customer feedback in a retail context with feedback defined as positive and negative comments as well as suggestions for product/service improvements. A market-oriented firm listens to customers and puts their feedback into practice. Research on customer engagement, which includes customer feedback, has recently surged. The preponderance of feedback research to date has been focused on customer complaint behavior which is negatively valenced. Much less attention has been paid to customer feedback (including sharing positive information, thoughts and suggestions for new ideas, in addition to negative information) even though it has great value for companies. This research addresses this gap by integrating literature on customer orientation and engagement and relationship marketing antecedents (social benefits) and outcomes (commitment) to better understand what retailers can do to encourage customer feedback through relationships with frontline employees.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study employs a cross-sectional, single retailer approach surveying 864 customers who have varying relationships to a coffee house.\nFindings: Conditional process analysis was used to test the hypothesized mediating and moderating relationships. Results were consistent with predictions, showing that retail employee customer-oriented behavior is mediated by customer social benefit perceptions to influence feedback. Further, social benefit perceptions will interact with the level of customer continuance commitment to impact feedback. Specifically, the impact of social benefits will be stronger when commitment to the retailer is higher.\nOriginality/value: This research has academic and practical implications by increasing our understanding of an underrepresented and valuable aspect of engagement - customer feedback. Specifically, it addresses a key marketing research priority set forth in a 2010 JSR special issue, calling for more work contributing to this topic. Also, this research implies managers have the ability to influence the amount of feedback that they receive by encouraging certain employee behaviors.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Ethnic food attitudes and behaviour among Belgians and Hispanics living in Belgium	[ "Acculturation", "Attitudes", "Consumers", "Hispanics", "Food products", "Belgium" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Since every person must eat, what people eat becomes a most powerful symbol of who they are (Fox, 2003). Although the primary use of food is to satisfy hunger and the physiological needs (Lowenberg et al., 1979), food has increasingly exerted many roles in human life. Several established and emerging food trends affect the food consumption decisions that individuals make. These include foods that taste good because they are fresh, particularly fruits and vegetables; convenient foods that are quick and easy to buy and prepare; ethnic foods with distinctive ingredients, flavours, and spices that offer variety; fusion foods that combine ethnic cuisine; vegetarian meals; foods labelled as natural or organic; or foods that specifically promote health (Asp, 1999). Food is also a cultural symbol (Edles, 2004); it is one of the cultural traits that humans learn first from childhood, and one that consumers change with the greatest reluctance at older age (Gabaccia, 1998; Cervellon and Dube, 2005). Awareness and trial of ethnic cuisine has increased in the past decades as a consequence of the growing international trade, globalisation, migration and tourism. In relation to the classification of human needs set forth by Abraham Maslow, Lowenberg et al. (1979) state that the increasing popularity of foods from other countries probably bespeaks the fact that increasing travel increases belongingness and raises self-esteem, perhaps even gives greater satisfaction to the security need. Furthermore, the convenience-oriented lifestyle, and the relative wealth of today's consumers, especially in developed societies, result into more people eating in restaurants or consuming prepared foods, therefore being more exposed to new food options and developing a comfort level with them.\nScope and objectives: In the context of this study, the term \"Hispanic\" refers to anyone from a Spanish-speaking country in the Americas, including the Caribbean and excluding Spain. Hence, when making reference to Latin-American ethnic food, it will be understood as the food belonging to any of the Spanish-speaking countries in the Americas. Analysing cultural changes in the Hispanic subculture in Belgium in terms of food habits and preferences becomes an interesting research topic owing to the fact that the host country is very different in many socio-cultural aspects from the Hispanics' homeland and from the most preferred countries of migration of this ethnic group, such as Spain, Italy and the US. Previous studies, mainly in the US and some in the UK, have dealt with food consumption among ethnic minorities, but there is almost no research available from the rest of the European countries. This research seeks to fill part of this gap in literature by analysing the attitude, perceptions and behaviour towards ethnic foods based a survey among Belgians and Hispanics living in Belgium.Ethnic food refers to the expression of food in terms of attitudes, values, behaviours and beliefs of a culture that is an expression of its cultural traditions or heritage, religion or national origin (Mora, 1998). The Food Marketing Institute (1998) defines ethnic food as products that a particular ethnic (racial, national) or cultural group favours, such as Mexican, Chinese or Kosher foods. On the other hand, according to Kroll (1994) the prepared ethnic food market consists of two categories. One comprises those foods that are so familiar to consumers that they are no longer considered to be speciality foods, but rather mass market or mainstream products, such as prepared Italian and Asian-Chinese foods in many European countries. The second group is made up of foods that relate to various ethnic populations that are small and sometimes confined to specific regions of a nation with little exposure to non-ethnics. For the purpose of this study the term \"ethnic food\", refers to the food that is characteristic of a region and/or culture (Hispanic Latin-American in this case) and is influenced by the available food supply.The research has two main objectives. The first objective is to assess the degree of awareness, perception and satisfaction towards ethnic food available in the market among the Belgians and Hispanics in Belgium. The second objective consists of evaluating the role of socio-demographics, food neophobia and the cultural environment on the food habits and preferences of the Belgians and Hispanics living in Belgium. The major contribution of this research pertains to gaining insights in individual factors as determinants of ethnic food consumption. Specifically, the impact of socio-demographics, acculturative processes (acculturation of Hispanics and openness of Belgians) and psychological traits (food neophobia and attitudes) will be explored.\nIndividual determinants of ethnic food consumption: There are many factors that play a role in food consumption decisions in general, and decisions towards new or unfamiliar food items in particular. In general, influencing factors can be classified as product-specific, situational and individual factors. The focus in this study is on potential individual determinants of \"new\" food acceptance, i.e. acceptance of Latin American ethnic food among Belgians, and acceptance of Belgian food among immigrant Hispanics living in Belgium. Determinants of interest include socio-demographics, food neophobia, acculturation of the immigrant population, and openness of the host culture.Food neophobia\nMethodology: Primary quantitative data were gathered through a cross-sectional consumer survey with samples of Belgians and Hispanics living in Belgium. The fieldwork was organised during April-May 2003. Respondents were personally contacted at-home and asked to complete a self-administered questionnaire. A total of 570 questionnaires were delivered, of which 265 among Belgians and 305 among Hispanics living in the main cities of Belgium. The criterion was set that all Belgian respondents had to have a basic awareness and experience with ethnic foods. The valid response was 246 completed questionnaires that were usable for analysis, which is a valid response rate of 43.2 per cent. The valid sample includes 119 Belgians and 127 Hispanics. The selection of the respondents was done through non-probability convenience sampling (snowball technique). The characteristics of the sample are presented in Table I. It is important to note that this sample is not statistically representative to the population. Specifically, younger consumers are over-represented in the sample. The gender distribution reflects the fact respondents had to be involved with food purchasing within their household. Hence, findings are to be interpreted within the characteristics of the sample at hand, and generalisation of descriptive statistics to the broader population is not valid. Nevertheless, the sample size meets the requirements set forth by Sudman (1976), i.e. the amount of respondents in gender or age categories suffices to draw statistical inferences between subgroups (e.g. gender or ethnic groups) of the sample.The survey used a structured undisguised questionnaire, which was originally drafted in English and later translated into Spanish, Dutch and French. The translated questionnaires were pre-tested with each language group, modified, and refined prior to final distribution. The questionnaire included close-ended questions in the form of standardised and fixed-alternative questions, sets of response alternatives, and fixed measurement scales. The questionnaire consisted of three parts. The first part dealt with \"behaviour\" in terms of food habits and preferences at the moment of eating ethnic foods, which in the questionnaire addressed to the Hispanic group were called \"Latin-American ethnic foods\" or \"homeland foods\". The Belgian version included a five-point scale to inquire liking of ethnic foods. The second part was addressed to find out the \"attitude\" and \"perceptions\" of Belgians about Latin American ethnic foods. Belgian respondents were subjected to evaluate ethnic foods and to compare them to Belgian food in terms of quality, authenticity, healthiness, safety, nutritional value, appearance, taste, price, convenience to prepare and availability. The evaluations and comparisons for both groups were given in the same terms using five-point semantic differential scales, and the five-point Likert scales, respectively.Finally, the fourth part included individual characteristics, such as food neophobia, acculturation/openness and socio-demographic characteristics. The Food Neophobia Scale (FNS) (Pliner and Hobden, 1992) was used to measure the individual tendency of avoidance of novel foods. This scale has ten statements, five positively worded and five negatively worded (Table II). A seven-point scale was used to rate each statement, ranging from \"strongly disagree\" (1) to \"strongly agree\" (7). Items 1, 4, 6, 9 and 10 were reverse-scored and recoded before analysis. The scale was carefully translated into Dutch, French and Spanish taking into account that no main verbs should be repeated in the ten statements, in order to assure the scale's predictive power.Acculturation among Hispanics was assessed with seven items designed to tap three conceptual dimensions recognised as the best indicators of acculturation: language, mass media usage and social interaction (Laroche et al., 1999) (Table III). The items were assessed on a five-point Likert scale. Furthermore, the openness of the host culture (Belgians) to subcultures was assessed through the measurement of the degree of integration with the subcultures present in Belgium. For this aim, seven items similar to those used for acculturation of Hispanics were measured on a scale of five points from \"strongly disagree\" (1), to \"strongly agree\" (5) (Table IV). The reliability of the constructs was assured by a reliability analysis (Cronbach's alpha). In cases where the internal reliability proves insufficient, factor analysis using principal components is used to detect the underlying dimensions of the construct.Socio-demographics pertained to age, gender, level of education, occupation, income, and place of residence. After the editing and codification, the data were transcribed and analysed by means of SPSS 12.0. The analysis includes factor analysis using principal components, cross tabulation with chi-square statistics, independent samples' t-tests and one way ANOVA for comparison of means, and linear correlation (Pearson r). For all statistical analyses a 95 per cent interval of confidence (a=0.05) was used as threshold for significance.\nEmpirical findings: Behaviour and attitude of Belgians to Latin-American ethnic foods\nConclusions and limitations: In general, food preferences and choices described in this study fit with expectations from a multinational and polyethnic society like Belgium. The study highlights Belgian's high degree of awareness, acceptance and trial of ethnic foods in general, as well as Latin-American ethnic foods, with Mexican food being the best known. Such finding corroborates with the current ethnic food trends that placed Mexican food among the most wide spread and fast growing ethnic foods world-wide. Among the Belgians, the influence of mass media in the process of selecting ethnic food items was small, rather social factors relating to personal interest and friendships were the factors influencing ethnic food choice. Despite the least positive perception scores on convenience, price, leanness and safety, the overall opinion of the Belgian consumers towards ethnic food is favourable as well as their degree of satisfaction.Food neophobia emerges as an important barrier to acceptance of ethnic foods by the host culture, but it fails to explain dietary acculturation of the immigrant Hispanics. Age, education and place of living, more than gender and income were determinant factors of food neophobia among the Belgians participants, which in turn negatively correlates to ethnic food consumption. The older the person is, the higher the tendency to restrict food choice to \"familiar\" products. On the other hand, people with higher education have less food prejudices than those who have lower education. Also people who live in a big city show a higher tendency and willingness to try new food items, which is related to their wider exposure to other cultures and variety of food. In the case of the Hispanics sampled, food neophobia was not related to any socio-demographic characteristic. Perceptual barriers to the retention of Hispanic food habits were the time consuming preparation of their traditional Latin-American ethnic food, the low availability of ethnic ingredients on the Belgian market and the high cost of ethnic ingredients. The time of residence of the Hispanics in the host environment emerges as a significant determinant of dietary acculturation. Instead of food neophobia, local food taste perception and willingness to extend social interactions beyond the immigrant population, determine Hispanic's dietary acculturation.This study faces some limitations that are inherent to the research method. One of the primary limitations of this study results from the lack of secondary data from similar studies in European countries. As a consequence the major source of this type of secondary information was gathered from studies in the US. Primary cross-sectional data had to be collected from the Hispanic ethnic population in Belgium, and from native Belgians, in order to obtain insights in ethnic and local food perception by different population groups. Another limitation pertains to the sample size and sampling method. Samples are relatively small and they are not statistically representative to the total population. Furthermore, respondents were selected by means of convenience or judgement from the researchers. In result, findings have to be interpreted within the characteristics of the samples used, i.e. Belgians who are prime witnesses or people who have some experience with ethnic food, and Hispanics who mainly belong to the generation aged below 40 years. Despite the aforementioned limitations, the present study underscores the need for future research on analysing in depth the role of individual determinants of food and dietary choice of specific ethnic minority groups in the Western European multicultural society. Within the wide array of potential individual determinants, attention should be paid simultaneously to socio-demographics, individual acculturative processes and personality traits.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Awareness and testing of ethnic cuisine have increased in the past decades as a consequence of the growing international trade, migration, tourism and globalisation. This article aims to focus on the attitude and behaviour of Belgians towards Latin-American ethnic foods, and of Hispanics living in Belgium towards mainstream Belgian food.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The role of socio-demographic characteristics, food neophobia, and degree of acculturation or openness on food preference and choice among these two population groups is analysed. A survey with 119 Belgian and 127 Hispanic participants was performed. Data analysis deals with descriptive analyses and statistical validation of the perceived associations by means of chi-square, t-test, ANOVA, correlations, and stepwise multiple regression.\nFindings: - The overall opinion and degree of satisfaction of the Belgian sample towards ethnic food were favourable. Latin-American food consumption and attitude of Belgians are negatively correlated with food neophobia, which is significantly higher among urban and 55+ aged consumers, and positively correlated with openness to new cultures. Taste and appearance were key attributes that determined Belgians' preference for ethnic foods. Hispanics' general perception towards Belgian mainstream food was favourable as well, although they considered their own food as being better in taste. Barriers to maintain Latin-American food habits are availability and time constraints. Hispanics' adoption of traditional Belgian cuisine is positively correlated with time of residence in Belgium and negatively correlated with maintenance of native social interaction and language use. Food neophobia does not emerge as a determinant of Hispanics' dietary acculturation to mainstream Belgian food.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Data are collected from a relatively small convenience sample, which limits generalisation of the findings beyond the sample characteristics, which renders the findings exploratory rather than conclusive.\nOriginality/value: - This paper covers important, not well-explored and previously neglected research subjects, namely attitude, perceptions and behaviour towards ethnic food and food consumption among ethnic minorities in the increasingly globalised food market. The main contribution pertains to simultaneously investigating the role of socio-demographic, acculturation and food neophobia on food consumption decisions.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Foresight of evolving security threats posed by emerging technologies	[ "Foresight", "Security", "Emerging technologies", "Future threats", "Signals of change", "Wild cards" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In foresight studies, usually the positive impact of emerging technologies on the quality of life is considered, or their negative environmental effects. This paper draws the attention to an overlooked \"dark side\" of new technologies: their potential abuse by terrorists or organised crime. Recent debate on the legitimacy to publish (or even to conduct) a research on genetically engineered \"bird flu\" virus exemplifies the tension between the benefits of new technologies and their \"dark side\" if abused. Would we have been able to foresee in 1993 that something like Google \"Street View\" will help terrorists to plan an attack in Mumbai in 2008? In 1932, in a famous BBC address H.G. Wells asked, referring to the dangers of nuclear power: \"Will there be no Foresight until those [atomic] bombs[1] begin to rain upon us?\" (Wells, 1932). This, in a nutshell, was our challenge in the EU-funded project FESTOS[2]. Its main goals were to assess potential abuse threats posed by selected emerging technologies, to cope with the dilemma of knowledge control, and to propose policy guidelines to reduce the likelihood of abuse.\n2. Horizon scanning: The horizon scanning effort focused on five fields: ICT[3], nanotechnologies, biotechnology, robotics, new materials, and converging technologies (Nano-Bio-Info-Cogno). Security threats under consideration involved potential malicious use by terrorist groups and/or organised crime. The scanning was based on a broad literature survey, interviews with experts, and internal brainstormings. In the first stage 80 technologies were identified and briefly described, including related threat indications. These preliminary indications were regarded as \"weak signals\", and were analysed in a later stage. Three broad categories were observed:\n3. Expert survey: The objective of the worldwide online expert survey was to elicit experts' opinions about the threat potential of 33 technologies (briefly described in the Appendix Table AI), selected from the 80 identified in the previous stage. The preliminary scanning and then the selection of technologies for further evaluation in the survey were two steps of the so-called \"surveillance filtering\" process, carried out by internal discussions and consultation with external experts and the project's Advisory Board. For each technology the experts were asked to assess:\n4. Threat scenarios: The selected technologies with their threat indications are \"weak signals\"; some of them may hint at \"wild cards\": surprising low-probability high-impact events (Petersen and Steinmuller, 2009). Consider, for example, the combination of the \"internet of things\" with \"molecular manufacturing\" and/or \"programmable matter\". One could imagine future products with built-in capabilities of reconfiguration and recycling. What about potential abuse? This was the idea behind one of the FESTOS narrative scenarios inspired by these technologies. In this scenario ordinary products and gadgets are nano-based and can be set to self-destruct (by terrorists? organised crime?) with a remote wireless signal. This scenario was called \"at the flea market\", because of the obvious economic value of \"pre-nano\" products in this situation.\nConclusions: This paper presents a foresight process which identifies and assesses evolving security threats posed by the abuse of emerging technologies. It reflects a pressing need for continuous analysis of the unfolding technology landscape for potential threats. The foresight study provided evidence of riskier fields of research and technology. Tens of technologies give rise to novel security threats, once available to evil actors such as terror and crime groups. The study covered technologies from leading fields: nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, materials, robotics as well as their convergence. These are only the tip of the iceberg. Our study could pave the way to further foresight studies, widening the scope. We view the emerging technologies as conveying signals of change, with the following characteristics:\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Many emerging technologies are being developed in an accelerating pace and are key drivers of future change. In foresight studies, usually their positive impact on the quality of life is considered or their negative environmental effects. This paper seeks to draw attention to an overlooked \"dark side\" of new technologies: their potential abuse by terrorists or organized crime. Recent cybercrime events are examples of abuse that perhaps could have been minimized if appropriate foresight studies were performed years ago. This was the aim of the recently completed EU-funded project FESTOS.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Several foresight methodologies were employed. Following a horizon scanning for potentially threatening technologies, a Delphi-type expert survey helped to evaluate critical threat characteristics of selected 33 technologies: the likelihood that each technology will actually come to pose a security threat (in different time frames), the easiness of its malicious use, the severity of the threat, and the most threatened societal spheres.\nFindings: The results enabled ranking the technologies by their \"abuse potential\" and \"threat intensity\". Certain emerging technologies (or their combinations), regarded as \"weak signals\", inspired ideas for potential \"wild cards\". In a subsequent workshop, which employed a variant of the \"futures wheel\" method, four wild-card \"scenario sketches\" were constructed. These were later developed to full narrative scenarios.\nOriginality/value: The entire process enables the introduction of security foresight into policy planning in a long-range perspective. The foresight results were followed by the evaluation of policy implications and coping with the knowledge control dilemma. The paper illustrates how a mix of foresight methods can help in a continuous analysis of new and threats posed by emerging technologies, thus raising awareness of decision makers and mitigating the risk of unforeseen surprises.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Predicting elementary student teachers' technology acceptance	[ "Multiple regression analysis", "Self-efficacy", "Intention", "Usability", "Subjective norm", "Elementary education", "Behavior theories", "Student teachers", "Technology integration", "Value beliefs" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: While many educators view technology integration as highly important, extensive technology integration on American school campuses remains uncommon (Software and Information Industry Association, 2014). Preparing prospective educators to effectively integrate technology can help bridge the gap between ideal and actual levels of technology integration in schools. Teacher candidates' experiences with technology during university educator preparation programs can influence their readiness to implement it effectively in their future classrooms (Tondeur et al., 2012). Determining salient factors related to preservice teachers' acceptance of technology can enable faculty to target those factors for intervention (Marcinkiewicz and Regstad, 1996; Wong et al., 2013a). Researchers have studied a number of intrinsic and extrinsic factors associated with educators' technology acceptance (Nair and Das, 2011; Shiue, 2007; Sugar et al., 2004; Teo, 2011). While faculty cannot control extrinsic factors in K-12 schools, such as access to and support for technology, they can shape intrinsic factors such as beliefs and intentions regarding technology integration (Anderson and Maninger, 2007; Lee and Lee, 2014). Hence this paper focusses on intrinsic factors potentially associated with student teachers' technology acceptance. Following is a review of theories and research regarding intrinsic factors related to technology acceptance in educational contexts.\nPurpose and questions: The purpose of the current investigation was to evaluate factors associated with student teachers' intentions to integrate technology in their first year of teaching in elementary schools. Since experiences with technology during student teaching may impact beliefs and intentions regarding future technology integration (Hsu, 2013; Smarkola, 2011), we chose to evaluate these factors just after student teaching, a crucial transition period in new teacher development. We focussed on elementary-level student teachers' intentions since past research has indicated that factors influencing teachers' technology integration intentions vary by grade level (Sugar et al., 2004). Thus, relationships between beliefs and intentions may also differ among prospective elementary, middle, and secondary level teachers.\nMethod: Participants\nResults: First we calculated descriptive statistics and correlations for the variables. As shown in Tables II and III, student teachers' beliefs and intentions were positive and inter-related. Average ratings for each item were four or above on a five-point scale. Correlations among the variables ranged from 0.46 to 0.73, indicating that the factors shared a considerable amount of variance. Next, we conducted hierarchical multiple regression to determine the best predictors of intentions. Colinearity diagnostics were within acceptable limits, with tolerance values above 0.20 and variance inflation factors below ten (Field, 2009). We also calculated effect sizes (R2 and adjusted R2) to evaluate the strength of the relationships among variables as well as change in R2 and Cohen's f2 to determine the effect size attributable to additional predictors in the model (Cohen, 1988; Soper, n.d.). Table IV presents the results of the regression analysis.\nDiscussion: This study adds insight into teacher candidates' technology acceptance. Understanding factors related to student teachers' intentions to integrate technology in their first year of teaching can help teacher educators to develop interventions targeting salient factors at a critical juncture in new teacher development. Subjective norm and perceived ease of use were the strongest predictors of intentions to use technology in elementary classrooms. Student teachers tended to anticipate using technology in their classrooms when they perceived that significant others expected them to do so and thought that it would be relatively easy to accomplish. Most believed that technology integration would be effective and were confident that they could accomplish it; however, value and self-efficacy beliefs were not the best predictors of intentions to integrate technology in elementary classrooms.\nRecommendations: Since the expectations, values, or opinions expressed by influential people help shape elementary teachers candidates' intentions to integrate technology, teacher educators should expose their students to positive norms through classroom or online discussions among faculty, peers, and teachers, and through collaboration with and mentoring by teachers who model effective technology integration (Sadaf et al., 2012). Communicating and modeling professional expectations to integrate technology could promote a culture in which educators view it as routine, and thus it would seem unusual not to do so (Marcinkiewicz and Regstad, 1996).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate intrinsic factors associated with student teachers' intentions to integrate technology during their first year of teaching in elementary school classrooms.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The researchers surveyed 103 undergraduate teacher candidates who had completed student teaching. The survey measured five factors derived from three inter-related theoretical models. A four-step hierarchical multiple regression analysis determined the contribution of each variable (value beliefs, self-efficacy beliefs, perceived ease of use, and subjective norm) to the prediction of intentions.\nFindings: The best predictors were subjective norm and perceived ease of use, which predicted 65 percent of the variance in intentions. Student teachers tended to anticipate using technology in their future classrooms when they perceived that significant others expected them to do so and thought that it would be relatively easy to accomplish. Most believed that technology integration would be effective and were confident that they could accomplish it; however, their value and self-efficacy beliefs were not the best predictors of their intentions to integrate technology in elementary classrooms.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to the literature on modeling technology acceptance in education. The model developed is unique compared to those presented in related studies. The results provide insight into factors associated with elementary preservice teachers' intentions to integrate technology and highlight the close association between intentions and subjective norm at a crucial transition point in new teacher development.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Proactive diagnosis: how professional service firms sustain client dialogue	[ "Client dialogue", "Professional services", "Relationship marketing", "Proactive diagnosis" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: When marketing underwent its most recent paradigm shift, from transactional to relational marketing, client relationships were recognized as a source of enduring competitive advantage (Berry, 1995; Gronroos, 1990; Gummesson, 2002). This new perspective appears particularly relevant for professional service firms (PSF), whose relational interactions with clients represent the core of their business (Gummesson, 1978; Maister, 1993). For example, accounting, legal, and management consulting firms seek to build, maintain, and develop high-quality, long-term relationships with their clients (Beaton and Beaton, 1995; Edvardsson, 1990; Halinen, 1997; Karantinou and Hogg, 2009; Maister, 1993; Reid, 2008). The benefits of such long-term relationships for PSFs include greater revenues through repeat assignments, positive word of mouth from existing clients, lower costs to attract new clients, and more learning potential in collaboration with existing clients. Clients in turn enjoy higher-value solutions to their problems as professionals gain intimate knowledge of their context and provide more reliable services. Long-term relationships with PSF also reduce search costs for clients (Bove and Johnson, 2000; Cater and Cater, 2009; Howden and Pressey, 2008; Lian and Laing, 2007).Dialogical interactions between service providers and their clients are cornerstones of such relationship marketing, because they focus on creating longitudinal bonds with clients rather than single point-of-sale transactions (Gronroos, 2004). In the PSF setting, dialogical interactions with clients, or \"client dialogue,\" means that professionals and managers in the client organization engage in a continuous exchange of ideas, opinions, and knowledge about the client organization's problems and the PSF's problem-solving capabilities (Ballantyne, 2004; Gronroos, 2004). Both professionals and client managers may take the initiative to introduce client problems to their dialogue. However, most service literature focuses solely on scenarios in which clients take the initiative to introduce problems (Edvardsson, 1990; Gummesson, 1978; Maister, 1993; Schein, 2002). Schein (2002, p. 21) even integrates this focus into a definition of the client as \"the person seeking help.\" However, if professionals simply remain passive and wait for clients to introduce additional problems, the client dialogue may stagnate, fade away, and ultimately fall dormant when the problems of the dialogue become obsolete. There are several reasons problems grow obsolete. First, the PSF may resolve the problem during a client assignment, so the client perceives no need for further interaction (Eriksson and Vaghult, 2000). Second, the client may hire a competitor or solve the problem itself. Third, the client could turn to more urgent and/or more important problems. Thus, to sustain a fruitful client dialogue and overcome the threat of dormancy, professionals cannot afford to wait for the client's initiative. Rather, professionals must proactively introduce additional problems the client considers relevant.Doing so is a critical challenge. Client managers may avoid discussing problems that do not immediately appear relevant, that threaten the managers' position, or that interfere with their dialogues with other service providers. As we show in greater detail in the literature review, existing research on client dialogue and relationship marketing in professional service settings has not explained how professionals might deal with this challenge. Ballantyne and Varey's (2006, p. 116) call for research on \"new methods, techniques, and even tactics for engaging in productive dialogs,\" is thus particularly pressing in the professional services context. In response to their call, we address the following research question in this paper:RQ. How do professionals introduce additional client problems to client dialogue?In the following sections, we review relevant research on relationship marketing in PSFs, as well as research into client dialogue. After describing our research design, we outline our research result, a framework that describes how professionals introduce additional client problems to the client dialogue. This framework has significant implications for existing research on client dialogue and relationship marketing in PSFs; in addition, some limitations of our study offer opportunities for further research.\n2 Literature review: Extant literature on relationship marketing in professional services and the notion of client dialogue together motivate our research question. We position our empirical study accordingly.2.1 Relationship marketing in professional service firms\n3 Research design: The purpose of our study is to develop inductively a novel framework that explains how professionals proactively introduce additional problems to an existing client dialogue. To this end, we employed the constant comparison method, moving among data collection, analysis, and further data collection based on emergent themes (Corbin and Strauss, 2008). For clarity, we describe data collection and data analysis separately, though they were simultaneous in the research project.3.1 Research setting\n4 Empirical findings: Our inductive analysis of data from Service Firm and 11 of its client companies shows that professionals seek to introduce additional problems to an existing client dialogue through proactive diagnoses of client problems (Figure 5).Such proactive diagnoses entail both seeking information about clients' problem formulations and influencing those problem formulations. Thus, the professionals follow different strategies to seek information about and influence client managers' problem formulations. We describe them, then develop six propositions that reveal a trade-off between the two methods and explain how professionals resolve the trade-off. We also summarize how four enablers and constraints - client relationship quality, client-specific knowledge, problem-specific knowledge, and problem characteristics - affect professionals' proactive diagnosis activities. Finally, we turn to client perceptions of proactive diagnosis in Section 4.5. Our data reveal that professionals must address three major client concerns to introduce additional problems to an existing client dialogue: the problem's relevance, the professional's competence, and the professional's sincerity, as perceived by client managers. These are necessary conditions; if professionals neglect any during proactive diagnosis, client managers refrain from devoting attention to additional problems, and no additional problem gets introduced to the dialogue.4.1 Influence strategies in proactive diagnosis\n5 Discussion: In this section, we outline the contributions of our research to the literature on relationship marketing in professional services. We also derive managerial implications before describing limitations of our research and avenues for further research.5.1 Proactive diagnosis as relationship marketing\n6 Conclusion: Based on an extensive empirical research on a PSF and its clients, we inductively develop a new theoretical framework of proactive diagnosis to explain how professionals sustain client dialogue by introducing new problems to the dialogue. In productive client dialogue, the professionals and client managers jointly create deep knowledge about important client problems. On the basis of this knowledge, professionals can develop attractive value propositions and service offerings customized to clients' specific contexts. In this sense, proactive diagnosis is a relationship marketing activity of a PSF, undertaken by individual professionals in their roles as part-time marketers. However, as a relationship marketing activity, introducing new problems to an existing client dialogue also appears more challenging than prior research has acknowledged. Professionals have limited opportunities to stimulate client dialogue, and some efforts will not pay off. Client managers sustain dialogues only if professionals address problems they consider relevant, and when professionals appear competent, behave tactfully, and act in the client's best interest. Therefore, our introduction of this novel and important relationship marketing activity offers a nuanced, context-sensitive view and describes the necessary conditions for proactive diagnosis to succeed in the specific context of professional services.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper seeks to contribute to the discussion of relationship marketing in professional services firms (PSF). The process of dialogical interaction with clients is central to relationship marketing. However, client dialogue may fall dormant if not properly cultivated by employees of the PSF, that is, by professionals. This inductive study aims to investigate how professionals sustain a fruitful client dialogue by proactively introducing additional client problems to the dialogue.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Extensive field research with a \"Big Four\" accounting firm and 11 client companies inductively generates a framework to describe how professionals engage in proactive diagnosis of client problems to introduce these problems to the client dialogue. The framework is grounded in 49 focused interviews with professionals and client managers, as well as supplementary interviews, observations, and firm documents.\nFindings: - The suggested framework consists of the components of proactive diagnosis (information-seeking and influence strategies), a trade-off that professionals must make among these components, several enablers of and constraints on proactive diagnosis, and key client concerns that professionals must address to introduce additional client problems.\nOriginality/value: - Despite the importance of client dialogue for relationship marketing, recommendations about how professionals can sustain client dialogue over time remain limited. This study describes proactive diagnosis as one potential approach. It contributes to literature on relationship marketing in PSFs by showing how proactive diagnosis helps professionals overcome the problem of dormancy in client dialogue, complements personal selling, and extends the role of diagnosis beyond paid client assignments into the pre-selling phase.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Integrating environmental management into supply chains: A systematic literature review and theoretical framework	[ "Sustainability", "Systematic literature review", "Supply chain integration", "Green supply chain management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The need to integrate environmental issues into manufacturing has been highlighted since the beginning of the 1990s (Klassen, 1993). Since then, various supply chain environmental management practices have been identified and include providing environmental requirements to suppliers (Hu and Hsu, 2010; Zhu et al., 2012a), selecting suppliers based on environmental criteria (Azevedo et al., 2012; Montabon et al., 2007; Vachon and Klassen, 2008; Wong et al., 2012), monitoring/assessing environmental practices of suppliers (Rao, 2002; Vachon and Klassen, 2006; Zhu et al., 2008a), providing assistance to suppliers (Kim and Rhee, 2012; Rao, 2002; Wong et al., 2012), and collaborating with supplier and customers (Krause et al., 2009; Lai and Wong, 2012; Lee et al., 2012; Thun and Muller, 2010; Vachon and Klassen, 2006, 2008; Zhu et al., 2008b, 2010, 2012). These practices have two common threads; first, they require integration of environmental criteria into internal management systems (Margerum and Born, 2000), engagement with supply chain members (Klassen and Whybark, 1999), and extension of environmental management practices across the supply chain (Gimenez and Tachizawa, 2012); second, they lack a theoretical foundation and a conceptual framework for recognizing the various integrative practices and explaining their performance implications.\nMethodology: This paper applies the systematic literature review method outlined by Denyer and Tranfield (2009). A systematic literature review overcomes the perceived weaknesses of a narrative review (Tranfield et al., 2003). It is an evidence-informed approach based on the five-step approach: question formulation, locating studies, study selection and evaluation, analysis and synthesis, and reporting and using the results (Denyer and Tranfield, 2009). Figure 1 summarizes the procedures of the content analysis.\nTheoretical framework: Based on analysis of the literature, the need to integrate environmental issues into manufacturing was first discussed in the 1990s (Klassen, 1993). From an open-systems perspective, Klassen (1993) argues that there is a need to \"integrate environmental issues into manufacturing.\" Further research suggests including technology, process, resource, and strategy while implementing environmental management (Klassen and Whybark, 1996; Klassen and Whybark, 1999; Srivastava, 1995). The need to integrate ethical, societal, and environmental issues into business strategy and management systems was also recognized (Gond et al., 2012). The adoption of a proactive environmental strategy also means the need to engage supply chain members (Klassen and Whybark, 1999). In fact, the need for a proactive environmentally friendly supply chain was suggested as soon as the concept of supply chain management was introduced (Walton et al., 1998). Later, Carter and Rogers (2008) highlight the importance of integration in their definition of \"sustainable supply chain:\" \"the strategic, transparent integration and achievement of an organization's social, environmental and economic goals in a systematic coordination of key inter-organizational business processes for improving the long term economic performance of the individual company and its supply chains\" (p. 368).\nFuture research agenda: The framework developed in this paper introduces two alternate theories to the green supply chain management literature: stakeholder and resource orchestration theories. The framework allow future research to understand the main purposes and effectiveness of the various collaborative and integrative efforts from a different perspective: that is, to identify the appropriate stakeholders then enable integration for acquiring, bundling, and leveraging their resources instead of purely monitoring and collaborating without a focus on resources across the supply chain. Thus, further research can extend the theoretical framework by identifying the activities involved in each of GSCI practice and empirically test their roles in resource orchestration for firms to improve environmental performance.\nConclusion: The main problem facing the green supply chain literature is that there are plenty of studies that acknowledge the importance of supply chain integration, but there is a lack of theory to explain why and how integration leads to better performance, and who and what are supposed to be integrated. To address the problem, this paper reviews the literature on environmental and supply chain management and integration, with a focus on identifying the key theories and dimensions of GSCI contributing to advancing theory for explaining environmental management in supply chains. Through a systematic review of the extant literature and development of a theoretical framework grounded in stakeholder and resource orchestration theories, this paper reveals that green supply chain literature is diverse but lacks a holistic understanding on how different functions, supply chain partners, and stakeholders may integrate environmental management efforts in supply chains by identifying the relevant stakeholders and key resources to be orchestrated. As a result, we identify four emerging practices, namely internal, supplier, customer, and community stakeholder integration. The identified dimensions for the four emerging GSCI practices provide a foundation for future development of green supply chain management theory. This new concept, developed by integrating stakeholder and resource orchestration theories, represents a move toward advancing conceptual theory development in the field (Carter, 2011).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The need to integrate environmental management into supply chains has been recognized recently. Yet, there is a lack of theoretical ground and conceptual framework guiding such efforts to leverage resources and capabilities across supply chain partners. Grounded on stakeholder and resource orchestration theories, the purpose of this paper is to map the emerging practices, develops a theoretical framework, and proposes future research for understanding an emerging best-practice called \"green supply chain integration\" (GSCI).\nDesign/methodology/approach: A systematic literature review of 142 academic articles is conducted to ensure the process of framework development is auditable and repeatable. The article selection criteria are aligned with the review question ensuring that related theories and practices are identified and evaluated.\nFindings: The paper illustrates how stakeholder and resource orchestration theories can be used to explain an integrative approach of environmental management in supply chains. The paper identifies four GSCI practices - internal, supplier, customer, and stakeholder GSCI. A theoretical framework and proposition also provide for new directions of research.\nResearch limitations/implications: The results of this paper are drawn from an extensive review of the existing literature and novel practices that have not been revealed and could have been missed. The emerging practices and theoretical framework can be used for further empirical investigation.\nOriginality/value: This paper integrates theoretical concepts and empirical findings from the disparate literature and identifies four emerging practices of environmental management by developing a theoretical framework and proposition for future research.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The impact of customer orientation on the quantity and quality of user-generated content: A multi-country case study of mobile applications	[ "Social media", "User-generated content", "Customer orientation", "Digital", "User innovation", "Mobile marketing" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recently reported that smartphone adoption in OECD countries had increased by 30 percent from 2012 to 2013, peaking at 73 percent in South Korea and showing an average of almost 50 percent (OECD Digital Economy Outlook, 2015). Online social media is now going mobile: in 2013, more than 40 percent of individuals in OECD countries used their smartphones several times per day to access social media. As smartphone penetration is increasing, mobile social media are driving the emergence of new business models, thereby changing consumers' communication behavior (Lamberton and Stephen, 2016). The rise in Web 2.0 including social media sites, video sharing sites and web applications has changed the nature of online interactions and enabled users to generate content (Constantinides and Fountain, 2008). In particular, social network services and mobile instant messaging applications are the most important features of smartphone devices (Oghuma et al., 2015).\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 User innovation and UGC\n3. Research design: 3.1 Sample industry and country\n4. Data collection: 4.1 Summary statistics\n5. Results: 5.1 Summary of the results\n6. Discussion: 6.1 Involvement and familiarity\n7. Conclusion: 7.1 Summary and contributions\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the driving factors of user innovation behaviors using the case of smartphone applications to estimate the indirect and direct effects of consumers' attitudes toward user-generated content (UGC).\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study proposes a structural model to examine the relationship between user innovation behaviors toward UGC and three attitude factors: involvement, consumer knowledge and customer orientation. The empirical analysis is based on a consumer survey that examines the commonalities and differences between Japan and China. In each country, two social media services are chosen as representative cases of the UGC business model to measure user innovation behaviors toward the quality and quantity aspects.\nFindings: Customer orientation is the most significant driving factor of user innovation behaviors toward UGC. It positively affects both the number of followers and the frequency of information transmissions. In particular, for the quality dimension of user innovation, customer orientation has a more significant effect on the number of followers than does familiarity.\nOriginality/value: This study emphasizes the quality aspect of user innovation. Previous research has focused on the quantity of user innovation behaviors by measuring the amount of information. However, this research measures both the quality and the quantity aspects with the number of followers and the frequency of uploading content. The findings of this study suggest that companies should maintain relationships with highly customer-oriented users to manage content quality.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Tailoring service recovery messages to consumers' affective states	[ "Services marketing", "Service recovery", "Affect" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: After an announcement is made to a large group of passengers that their train has been canceled, two passengers approach customer service. One passenger is furious, yelling about the inconvenience the cancellation will cause, whereas the other passenger appears worried, explaining how she will miss her business meeting that morning. How should representatives respond to these two passengers? Should the response be the same for both? In this paper, we argue that the two passengers require different responses because their affective states differ, which subsequently dictates the type of service recovery they prefer. Recognizing the positive relationship between effective service recovery, repurchase intentions and satisfaction (Customer Care Measurement and Consulting [CCMC], 2017) and the dominant role of negative emotions in the service failure setting, this paper contributes to the growing body of research on service recovery.\nLiterature review: Service recovery and message congruency\nHypothesis development: The approach-avoidance framework is highly relevant during service recovery, as a service failure can activate either the approach or avoidance system and produce strong emotional responses (Chebat and Slusarczyk, 2005; McCollough et al., 2000). This research focuses on the emotional states of anger and worry because both are negatively valenced, high-activation emotions that occur frequently after a service failure (CCMC, 2017; Gelbrich, 2010). Importantly, anger is categorized as an approach-related emotion, whereas worry is an avoidance-related emotion (Adams et al., 2006; Carver and Harmon-Jones, 2009). Of note is that anger, although an approach-related emotion, does not produce positive affect. Rather, the affect experienced is not pleasurable; and in terms of motivational direction, anger is often the result of a blockage in movement forward toward goal achievement. Worry is an avoidance emotion that helps to inhibit behavior that can lead to negative consequences. Avoidance emotions, including worry, promote vigilant apprehensiveness and motivate people to avoid potentially threatening situations, as discussed by Carver and Scheier (1998) and Watson et al. (1999).\nStudy 1a: field study: Research design\nStudy 1b: lab replication: Research design\nResults: Statistical analysis\nStudy 2: the moderating effect of involvement: Consumer motivation/involvement has been identified as a potential moderator of the matching - positive outcome relationship (Lee and Higgins, 2009). Involvement refers to the personal relevance consumers ascribe to a service (Celsi and Olson, 1988). High involvement describes a situation in which consumers find a service to be highly relevant to themselves, whereas consumers who find a service less relevant are under low involvement.\nResults: Statistical analysis\nGeneral discussion: The product of this research makes a novel contribution to the dense field of emotion research and the important context of service recovery research. Across three studies, our work shows that participants reported more positive evaluations and intentions to speak positively about the firm when they received recoveries that reflected their preferred coping strategy.\nConclusion: To summarize, service personnel should provide customized service recovery messages post-failure based on the emotional state of the consumer. This state can be determined by focusing on the consumer's verbal and nonverbal behaviors, such as facial expressions, tone of voice and gestures. If the consumer is experiencing an approach emotion such as anger, a problem-focused recovery should be provided. Providing information, compensation and an explanation can be effective strategies because they focus on the future and provide the consumer with a positive outcome (e.g. a free meal as compensation). If the consumer is experiencing an avoidance emotion, then an emotion-focused message that emphasizes removing the consumer's negative state will work best. Empathy is an effective strategy here because it can help to reduce the consumer's negative state. Finally, matched messaging appears to be strongest when consumers are processing recovery messages under low involvement and therefore is most important when consumers are unable or unwilling to process a recovery message systematically.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study aims to propose that providers should tailor recovery responses to consumers' emotional states to improve evaluations and behavioral intentions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A multi-study approach comprising field and lab data was used. The field study, conducted on the Boston public transport network during a weather crisis, sought to determine how a provider should deliver their recovery response to match the consumer's affective state. In the lab studies, the importance of tailoring a recovery message to the consumer's state is experimentally demonstrated while controlling for factors such as consumer brand involvement.\nFindings: This study finds that an emotion-focused recovery emphasizing empathy should be given to those in an avoidance affective state (i.e. focused on the avoidance of negative outcomes) such as worry. A problem-focused recovery, in which the focus is on the process that led to the failure and the steps that will be taken to correct it, should be provided to those in an approach state (i.e. concerned with advancement and accomplishment) such as anger. This study also finds this effect is more salient under low involvement conditions.\nResearch limitations/implications: Future research should examine how nonverbal behavior during recovery can be tailored to a consumer's state.\nPractical implications: Service providers are encouraged to tailor recovery messages to consumers' affective states.\nOriginality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to examine matching recovery messages to affective states, an important contribution as service failures can elicit a wide variety of affective states that influence how consumers react to recovery messages.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Responsible drinks marketing: shared rights and responsibilities: Report of an ICAP Expert Committee	[ "Alcoholic drinks", "Marketing", "Regulation", "Consumers" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction and background: When a product has the potential to be misused and thus may confer harm as well as benefit, it is particularly important for marketing standards to be upheld consistently. In addition, marketing is a commercial right and a critical conduit for consumer information in most countries.In an effort to broaden the debate on responsible drinks marketing, the International Center for Alcohol Policies (ICAP)[1] convened an Expert Committee in 2006 to engage in discussions on responsible drinks marketing and develop recommendations about rights and responsibilities in this context (International Center for Alcohol Policies, 2006). The committee was comprised of participants from each region of the world and included marketers, regulators, beverage alcohol producers, researchers and consumers (see list below):1. Chairman:Hugh Burkitt, Chief Executive, The Marketing Society, London, UK.1. Co-rapporteurs:William Weintraub, Professor, School of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA;Amy West, Consultant, Manchester, CT, USA; andSusan Biemesderfer, Consultant, Santa Monica, CA, USA.1. Members:Matti Alderson, Director, FireHorses Ltd, Bucks, UK;Arthur Guerra de Andrade, Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil;Jodie Bernstein, Director, Council of Better Business Bureaus, Washington, DC, USA;Victoria Brooks, Marketing and Business Development Director, SolarLab Research and Design, London, UK;Marcus Grant, President, International Center for Alcohol Policies, Washington, DC, USA;Juan Luis Guillen, President, Entredosmundos, Burgos, Spain;Michael Harvey, Consumer Planning Director, Diageo, London, UK;Mark Leverton, Director of Alcohol Policy and Industry Issues, Diageo, London, UK;Michael MacAvoy, Chief Executive Officer, Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand, Wellington, New Zealand;Mark McCallum, Chief Marketing Officer, Brown-Forman Corporation, Louisville, KY, USA;Louise Nadeau, Professor, Department of Psychology, Universite de Montreal, Montreal, Canada;Roger Sinclair, Professor of Marketing, Wits School of Economic and Business Sciences, Wits University, Benmore, South Africa; andJames Tait, Corporate Affairs Director, Lion Nathan, Sydney, Australia.( Susan Biemesderfer and Jodie Bernstein were invited but were unable to attend.)Committee members were selected for their experience with and commitment to issues of alcohol and regulation, their sensitivity to the intersection between good advertising and public health concerns, their knowledge of emerging threats to individual security and quality of life and their understanding of the challenges posed by current regional market realities.The following commentary reflects the viewpoints of Expert Committee members generally and its Chairman in particular.\nA context for new perspectives on responsible drinks marketing: It is important to address the topic of responsible drinks marketing in a realistic context. Beverage alcohol marketing is already one of the most highly regulated forms of commercial communication in the world. In some countries, such as Norway, alcohol advertising on billboards and television is banned altogether. In Ireland, spirits advertisements on television and radio are prohibited, as is the broadcasting of alcohol advertisements before sports programs. In France, there is a ban on alcohol company sponsorships of sports events, as well as alcohol advertisements on television. Changes in regulation activity, including self- and co-regulation strategies [2], are emerging as well (see Table I for select country examples).Efforts to further regulate drinks marketing are taking place at a time when beverage alcohol producers have willingly and increasingly engaged in addressing responsible drinks messaging, adherence to proposed new labelling guidelines, requirements for the pre-vetting of future marketing campaigns, pressure for the withdrawal of advertisements deemed to breach codes of best practice and the implementation of other acts of self-regulation in many countries.These responsibility-focused activities and developments, as well as public and legislative debate on responsible drinks marketing, are increasing around the world. There are important national and regional concerns that ought to be taken into account and considered within broader debate and discussion. From Asia and the Pacific to the Americas, Europe and Africa, each region is characterized by cultural, religious and socioeconomic variants that affect debates about alcohol advertising, regulation and the relevance of particular messages within specific population subgroups and markets.In short, responsible drinks marketing is undisputedly a topic of international concern with serious implications for countries, communities, families and individuals. In addition, the abuse of alcohol and irresponsible drinking patterns are complex social problems. And when it comes to achieving responsible drinking patterns, the manner in which alcohol is presented to the public is a key component. That said, although responsible drinks marketing is a particular and significant facet of this equation, it is also merely one piece of a very large, complicated puzzle.The right to chose: a key piece to the puzzle\nRecommendations: What must be addressed to advance the responsible marketing - and safe and healthy consumption - of alcohol beverages? And what is possible in terms of advancing the efforts of people, communities and countries invested in safe and healthy consumption?1. Government and industry should strive to build partnerships with regard to the marketing of alcohol beverages. Society is arguably best served when the relationship between the beverage alcohol industry and government is characterized by understanding, trust and cooperation. This requires open and regular communication leading to a consensus approach to self-regulation, co-regulation, monitoring and enforcement. A critical barrier to aligning the perspectives of the industry, marketers, regulators, retailers, public health officials and consumers in the responsible drinks marketing debate remains the absence of a unifying idea or overall objective that all parties might agree upon, commit resources toward and unilaterally champion. Again, this kind of feasible result can be achieved only with true and lasting partnership across sectors. In addition, with self-regulation, there ought to be consensus to implement procedures across all sectors of the industry (beer, wine and spirits) and apply such measures to both developed and developing markets.2. Marketing codes should be developed where they do not already exist. Marketing codes should describe the appropriate practices for marketing communications, promotions, media, products and packaging. Since local populations best understand their own values, customs and regulations, they are in the best position to adopt relevant local codes. Guidance on principles and how to apply them is available in Self-regulation and Alcohol: A Toolkit for Emerging Markets and the Developing World (International Center for Alcohol Policies, 2002). Above all else, it is important for marketing to be legal and truthful, and for codes to reinforce this. It would be difficult to construct one code or means of regulation that would serve every market, but, excepting those countries where there is an outright ban on the promotion of alcoholic drinks, a benchmark of best practices - such as the regulatory model devised by the European Advertising Standards Alliance - is worth examining [3]. It is also important to bear in mind that industry self-regulation and other kinds of activity (for instance, community efforts, special interest group initiatives and local and national legislation and government regulation) are not mutually exclusive and can, in fact, be complementary.3. The industry should take steps to ensure that marketing codes cover all types of consumer communication, including new media. Some codes were developed before the emergence of Internet communications, text messaging and other technologies. The same provisions that apply to on- and off-premise promotional activities should also apply to these new media. It is important to take into account the fast-growing popularity of new media among young people and the potential they offer for responsibility messaging. If both informal and formal information and communication technologies are influencing young people and their choice of activities, then these same channels of communication can be used to educate and inform consumers about responsible drinking behaviours. In fact, the United Nations and the International Telecommunications Union recently joined forces to rethink information, education and communication globally and to close existing gaps in development and knowledge worldwide.4. Responsibility messages should be developed globally and adapted at the local level to help educate consumers. Alcohol beverages are not always consumed appropriately or legally. Since industry has a unique opportunity and particular skills to help reinforce responsible drinking norms, focused and consistent messaging can have a positive impact on consumer behaviours. In particular, marketing strategies that incorporate familiar cultural and social norms related to drinking may help to preserve traditions and reinforce patterns of responsible drinking behaviour. The authority of a specific brand in a local market ought to be considered, as well as the possible advantage in pooling resources across brands in favour of a single message in certain locations. If a brand has greater stature in the market, it will have the ability to carry a message and be heard more easily than those messages emanating from unknown sources or from less respected brand names. However it is delivered, the most effective message will be based on understanding consumers on a market-by-market basis.5. Alcohol beverage retailers should ensure the creation of consistently safe drinking environments. Although retailers are often conspicuously absent in organised discussions about responsible drinks marketing, their role in the supply chain - as well as in social settings where alcohol is served - is significant. Enlisting retailers in the responsible drinks marketing discussion is important not simply because they contribute to a social problem or are more inclined to engage in illegal, harmful activities, but because they are well positioned to understand the market and the demands of the consumer. The point of purchase provides a unique opportunity to promote and reinforce responsible consumption. Conversely, experience shows us that retail establishments, at times, may sell alcohol beverages to consumers inappropriately (for example, to underage consumers or consumers who are intoxicated). In addition to the training of servers, public health authorities and government can play a crucial role in engaging retailers more effectively in the development of codes, regulations, licensing and enforcement.6. The industry should facilitate consumer access to channels of communication for feedback, complaints, questions and concerns. The more fully industry understands and appreciates consumers' attitudes, problems and ideas, the better it is able to serve them. In addition, effective self-regulation requires not only the existence of strict standards and compliance with them, but also accessible mechanisms for redress. The ways in which consumers may and have voiced their opinions range from buying (or not buying) certain brands to filing complaints alleging code violations and, in extreme cases, filing litigation. It is worth noting that, despite the existence of numerous codes that address alcohol advertising worldwide via both self-regulatory systems and government-imposed regulations, relatively few consumer complaints are filed with regard to beverage alcohol marketing.7. The public health community, government and the industry should disseminate results of research on alcohol-related issues. Areas of particular focus ought to include information on the factors contributing to problems such as underage and binge drinking, as well as success stories on the effectiveness of particular national strategies. Insights from research findings could help support alcohol policy and inform responsible marketing campaigns. In addition, credible data from well-designed research can inform policy decisions and help influence national strategies for strengthening the responsible use of alcohol in society.8. The industry should set up a repository of \"best practice\" with regard to responsible marketing. There are helpful truths and insights to be shared. Some individual members of the beverage alcohol industry are already engaged in reminding and/or educating people about how to drink responsibly. However, there is no mechanism in place by which industry members can go on record with their consumer research, successes and other experiences in terms of responsible drinks marketing. For example, one best practice shared by marketers serving on the ICAP Expert Committee focused on the need for responsible drinks marketing to be consistent if it is to be effective. Messages that carry the greatest potential to influence consumers are likely to be those that are not too extreme, effectively communicate a reasonable and well-understood reflection of current realities and address situations to which consumers can relate.\nMoving forward: responsible marketing and what is possible: Responsible marketers have an interest in the long-term satisfaction of consumers and in applying both truth in advertising and a real understanding of how their products are being used throughout their campaign strategies. While it is the job of an effective marketer to secure distribution, widen the market base and maintain some ability to translate brand demand into power in price negotiations, it is important to do so in conjunction with long-term consumer satisfaction, safety and wellbeing. Ultimately, the success of a particular product will relate directly to its contribution to safe and enjoyable lifestyle patterns among consumers. And there is evidence of new awareness along these lines - for instance, with the heightened pace of activity in the self-regulation arena.Responsible drinks marketing efforts, done right, can reach beyond the result of preventing the marketing of risky and unhealthy drinking behaviours to providing information that can help consumers make decisions about whether, how and when they drink. Well-informed consumers, like well-informed marketers, retailers, regulators and public health officials, should be better positioned to make choices compatible with a balanced, safe and responsible lifestyle.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to share - and provide context for - eight recommendations about responsible drinks marketing, which were developed by an Expert Committee led by the author in 2006. The International Center for Alcohol Policies (ICAP) and its sponsors have long recognized the importance of maintaining integrity and high standards in the marketing of beverage alcohol products.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An Expert Committee was convened from 30 May to 2 June, 2006, with participants who were selected from each region of the world, representing the perspectives of marketers, regulators, beverage alcohol producers, researchers and consumers. The result of their work together was a report entitled, Responsible Drinks Marketing: Shared Rights and Responsibilities, which included the eight recommendations presented in this article.\nFindings: - Recommendations focus on three distinct contexts: understanding perspectives on responsible drinks marketing; unifying principles for marketing worldwide; and best practice strategies for marketers.\nPractical implications: - Alcohol beverages have been an integral part of societies for thousands of years. While consumption patterns vary dramatically in different countries and societies, the marketing of beverage alcohol carries significant responsibilities.\nOriginality/value: - Based on the agreed-upon premise that adults who choose to drink should be free to enjoy alcohol beverages safely and responsibly, the author and Expert Committee drew upon resources that included United Nations Guidelines for Consumer Protection.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The school as a learning organisation in China	[ "Human capital", "Knowledge mobilization", "Professional learning community" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In a recent article published in this journal, Stoll and Kools (2017) review and extend the concept of the \"School as a Learning Organisation\" (SLO). First conceptualised a few decades ago, the vision of the SLO has gained mass appeal in recent years. The SLO is increasingly upheld by policymakers, researchers and educators as \"the ideal type of school organisation for dealing with the changing external environment, for facilitating organisational change and innovation, and even effectiveness, i.e. improvements in the learning outcomes of students and other important outcomes\" (Kools and Stoll, 2016, p. 10, also see Diggins, 1997; Giles and Hargreaves, 2006; Johnston and Caldwell, 2001; Stoll and Fink, 1996; Fullan, 1995; Gandolfi, 2006; Retna and Ng, 2016; Schechter, 2008; Silins et al., 2002; Strain, 2000; Watkins and Marsick, 1996). The notion of SLO is rooted in the concept of a \"Learning Organisation\" (LO), the latter popularised by Senge (1990) in his book, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organisation. Despite different and competing understandings of what a LO is and entails, a broad consensus among scholars is that the LO \"is a necessity, is suitable for any organisation\" (OECD, 2016, p. 1). Building upon the arguments for LO, proponents of SLO regard it as necessary and suitable for all schools. As articulated by Kools and Stoll (2016), a widely held belief is that SLO \"is suitable to any school organisation, regardless of the context in which the school operates\" (p. 24). But given the plural and evolving education systems in the world that originate from and are shaped by diverse historical, political, institutional and social factors, needs and interests, how can SLO be applied to a learning site effectively? Put it another way, how do prevailing socio-cultural conditions and developments mediate and moderate the furtherance of SLO in a particular schooling context?\nThe integrated model of the school as learning organisation: As mentioned, the ideal of SLO is premised on the concept of LO (Stoll and Kools, 2017). According to OECD (2016), a LO is essentially a \"a place where the beliefs, values and norms of employees are brought to bear in support of sustained learning; where a 'learning atmosphere', 'learning culture' or 'learning climate' is nurtured; and where 'learning to learn' is essential for everyone involved\" (n.p.). A SLO is a school that \"has the capacity to change and adapt routinely to new environments and circumstances as its members, individually and together, learn their way to realising their vision\" (Kools and Stoll, 2016, p. 5; also see Ng, 2005). An integrated SLO model which is drawn upon Watkins and Marsick (1996) is elucidated in an OECD-UNICEF Education Working Paper (Kools and Stoll, 2016; OECD, 2016). The model comprises seven action-oriented dimensions that collectively underline the aspirations and processes for a school to become a LO. The dimensions are as follows (Stoll and Kools, 2017, p. 7; also see OECD, 2016, p. 1):\nAn application of the integrated SLO model to the schooling contexts in China: As the integrated model of SLO is derived from the concept of LO, the former shares the same strengths and weaknesses as the latter. Space constraints mean that this paper is unable to rehearse the existing evaluation, critiques and debates surrounding LO and SLO (for good discussions, see Caldwell, 2012; Easterby-Smith et al., 1998; Eijkman, 2011; Henderson, 1997; Kools and Stoll, 2016; McHugh et al., 1998; Retna and Ng, 2016; Smith, 2008). Instead, this section shall only focus on the question of the socio-cultural appropriateness of the integrated SLO model as explicated in Kools and Stoll (2016) (also see Stoll and Kools, 2017). To do so, this segment shall explore how the seven dimensions of the integrated SLO model can be applied to the schooling contexts in China.\nKey educational implications: The preceding has put forward the claim that the integrated SLO model needs to be interpreted in ways that are contextually appropriate for the school organisation, leadership, teaching and learning in China. Two key educational implications are highlighted in this section. The first is a rejection of the universal application of the integrated SLO model for all schools regardless of historical, political and socio-cultural contexts. It is not the case that SLO models can be transported from one locality to another regardless of differing and competing ideologies and worldviews across cultures. Citing research by Dimmock and Walker (2000) and Hofstede (2001), Retna and Ng (2016) caution against the embrace of \"western assumptions that might not be culturally suitable for application in non-western organisations\" (p. 11). A more culturally sensitive approach is warranted by recognising the theory-laden nature of SLO models and understanding how a particular school community makes sense of and adapts the different dimensions of the SLO model. Any specific construction of a SLO model must of necessity acknowledge and incorporate local histories, conditions, developments, agendas and needs. After all, learning \"takes place in an emotional and political context that is as wedded to the established social order as it is desirous of making changes to it\" (Vince, 2018, p. 273).\nConclusion: In a globalised world, schools in China reflect an international trend to equip their students with twenty-first century competencies. To be sure, political education that advocates national loyalty and party allegiance remains an important function of schools in China. But recent education reforms in the country show that a chief mission of Chinese schools is to transform themselves into LOs. Prioritising student learning, the Ministry of Education in China declares its aim to \"promote the students' active participation, willingness to inquire, diligence in hands-on activities, abilities in collecting and processing information, obtaining new knowledge, analysing and solving problems, and interaction and cooperation\" (MOE, 2001, p. 1). In this regard, the schools in China need to become SLOs, like many other schools in other parts of the world. Returning to the question on how the notion of a SLO can be applied across cultures, this paper has investigated such an application in the schooling contexts of China. It has been argued that the prevailing socio-cultural conditions and developments in China mediate and moderate the promotion of SLO in Chinese schools. A collective slant of SLO is proposed for China so as to prevent such a school model from being merely an \"ideological cosmetic\" (Fielding, 2001, p. 27). A hierarchical and centralised orientation espoused by schools in China is compatible with the goal of becoming a SLO in China because such an approach is rooted in collegiality, community spirit and the larger good.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to respond to a recent article published in this journal by Stoll and Kools (2017) on the \"School as a Learning Organisation\" (SLO). It critiques Stoll and Kools' integrated model of a SLO by investigating whether the model can be applied to a specific socio-cultural schooling context using the example of mainland China.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper reviews the extant published works on SLO with a focus on Stoll and Kools' integrated model of a SLO. The paper also reviews the existing literature on schooling practices in China.\nFindings: It is argued that the application of Stoll and Kools' integrated model of a SLO in China needs to take into consideration and incorporate the prevailing centralised, hierarchical and collective characteristics in the country.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper questions the universal application of the seven action-oriented dimensions of the SLO for all schools regardless of socio-cultural contexts. It highlights the mediating and moderating effects of local histories, conditions and developments when promoting SLO in a specific learning site.\nPractical implications: Policymakers, researchers and educators need to contextualise the ideal of the SLO by interpreting and appropriating it in ways that are compatible with the dominant socio-cultural norms and practices in a particular locality.\nOriginality/value: This paper fills a current gap by relating the notion of SLO model to the schooling settings in China. It offers a collective slant to SLO that is tailored for the educational realities and experiences in China.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Critical success factors for facility management employer's information requirements (EIR) for BIM	[ "Facilities management", "Building information modelling", "Operational information requirements", "Asset information requirements", "Employer’s information requirements", "Asset information model" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The building industry is the second largest in the world after agriculture and buildings and assets are fundamental to the success of society (Brand, 1995). He observed they contain our lives and all civilisation and office buildings are now the largest capital asset of developed nations and employ over half of their workforce. Consequently, achieving buildings and assets, which perform well offers the potential for countries to realise significant value in economic, environmental and sustainable value terms (Ashworth, 2013).\n2. Facility management and building information modelling: Research by Eastman et al. (2011) and Eadie et al. (2013) indicate the main beneficiaries of BIM are ultimately clients and end users. The operational phase of the whole life cycle (WLC) offers the largest opportunity for delivering value in terms of cost savings, sustainability and usability of assets cost of assets. Akcamete et al. (2010) note that the operational costs of a building equate to 60 per cent of the overall costs of a project and the potential benefits of using BIM for facility operations are compelling. Another good reason is waste. Gallaher et al. (2004) estimated potential annual savings in the US facilities industry of $67m with respect to wasted time recapturing and transferring information provided by architects, engineers and contractors and $613m with respect to the automated transfer of information into available CAFM tools.\n3. Methodology: The research design used a qualitative approach, triangulating several research methods. The authors decided this was appropriate as the project required different research methods for separate parts of the research. Saunders et al. (2009, p. 146) also observe:\n4. Findings: The key topics, issues (critical success factors or CSF) raised and the actions taken to iteratively improve the EIR via the three various methods are summarised in the following Tables II to IV.\n5. Discussion: The research findings helped identify critical success factors during the interviews. These indicate that facility managers generally perceive BIM as potentially delivering significant benefits to the FM industry. This aligns with the findings of the \"FM Awareness of BIM\" survey, which found that 74 per cent of respondents believe \"BIM will have a significant impact on the FM industry\" (Ashworth and Tucker, 2017). However, the introduction of BIM has not been without its challenges. The interviews revealed some practitioners (across various disciplines) were sometimes struggling to familiarise themselves in depth with all of the BIM standards, terminologies and clarity around roles and responsibilities in the overall BIM process.\n6. Conclusion: The main lessons and critical success factors from the research project are summarised as follows:\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to describe the development and testing of an employer's information requirements (EIR) template and guidance document designed to meet client and facility management (FM) needs in the building information modelling (BIM) process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A qualitative design approach was used and triangulation of methods which included a focus group with the British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM), semi-structured interviews with the case study Glasgow Life Burrell Renaissance Project who trialled the EIR and peer-reviews and interviews with BIM/CAFM experts from the BIM Academy and FM180.\nFindings: Specific guidance to help clients and facility managers prepare key BIM documents like the EIR are needed. They are aware of industry BIM standards and guidance but often not in detail. The Glasgow Life case study illustrated the EIR as a useful collaboration-tool to bring together stakeholders in early planning stages to understand client information needs.\nSocial implications: Assets and buildings account for most of the energy and material use in society. A well-structured EIR will help ensure the right information is available to enable optimisation of running costs and utility-use over their whole life, thus contributing to long-term sustainability.\nOriginality/value: This paper provides a new EIR template and guidance document ideal for practitioners in industry as a practical starting point to plan the client information requirements for BIM projects. It can be downloaded at www.bifm.org.uk/bifm/knowledge.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Facilitating employee socialization through mentoring relationships	[ "Reflection", "Mentor learning goal orientation", "Mentoring functions received", "Perceived relationship quality", "Protégé socialization" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Organizational socialization refers to a learning process through which newcomers move from being outsiders, to becoming effective insiders, by acquiring the organizational values, norms, knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors required in a new work role (Bauer et al., 1998). Since organizational socialization is positively associated with important organizational outcomes, including job performance and employee turnover, many organizations are interested in learning how to help newcomers become insiders of the organization more quickly and easily (Bauer et al., 2007; Saks et al., 2007). One widely known intervention for newcomers' organizational socialization is formal mentoring relationships, which facilitate interactions between newcomers and others in workgroups (Chao, 2007; Slaughter and Zickar, 2006).\nTheoretical background and hypothesis development: Mentors' LGO and reflection\nMethods: Samples\nResults: Descriptive statistics and correlations are presented in Table I. As seen in Table I, mentors' LGO was positively related to their reflection (r=0.47, p<0.01). Mentors' reflection was also positively associated with mentoring functions received by proteges (r=0.21, p<0.05). Additionally, mentoring functions received by proteges were positively related to protege socialization (r=0.34, p<0.01). Furthermore, relationship quality perceptions by mentors were positively related to mentors' LGO (r=0.32, p<0.01).\nDiscussion: The purpose of this study was to advance understanding of the mentor factors that promote mentoring outcomes, by investigating the role of mentors' LGO, learning activity such as reflection, and perceived relationship quality in relation to mentoring functions received by proteges, and their further socialization in a formal mentoring relationship. The findings of the current study make several contributions to the mentoring literature.\nConclusion: Mentoring is considered as an important learning process for both mentors and proteges. The results of the current study indicated that mentors' LGO is a predictor for mentors' learning activity such as reflection. In addition, mentors' reflection is closely associated with the mentoring functions received, and further protege socialization. In particular, it is important to note that how mentors perceive the relationship quality with their proteges represents a critical boundary condition in that learning-goal oriented mentors engage in reflection. Therefore, in order to maximize the effectiveness of mentoring relationships in workplaces, mentor factors such as their individual characteristics, learning behavior, and perceived relationship quality should be taken into account in arranging mentoring relationships.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to advance understanding of the mentor factors that promotes mentoring outcomes. This was done by investigating the role of mentors' learning goal orientation (LGO), their learning activity such as reflection, the perceived relationship quality in relation to the mentoring functions received by proteges, and the furtherance of their socialization in a formal mentoring relationship.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In total, 131 matched mentor-protege dyads were recruited from three different organizations in Korea, for the final analysis. Structural equation modeling and Hayes's PROCESS macro were used to test the proposed model and the moderating effect of perceived relationship quality.\nFindings: Results show that mentors' LGO was positively related to their reflection. Additionally, mentors' reflection was positively associated with mentoring functions received by proteges. Further, mentoring functions received by proteges were positively related to proteges' socialization. In particular, mentors' reflection mediates the relationship between mentors' LGO and mentoring functions received by proteges. Moreover, perceived relationship quality moderates the relationship between mentors' LGO and their reflection.\nOriginality/value: Even though mentoring research is well advanced, not many researches have yet investigated mentors' LGO and their learning activity such as reflection, in relation to mentoring functions received by proteges and their socialization.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Fairness perceptions and satisfaction with components of pay satisfaction	[ "Pay", "Employee attitudes", "Job satisfaction", "Compensation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Although the perception of fairness is important to all human resource decisions and processes (Cohen-Charash and Spector, 2001; Jawahar, 2007; Thurston and McNall, 2010), it is particularly important to compensation decisions, such as pay, pay raises and benefits. Indeed, perceived fairness of compensation, the procedures used to make compensation-related decisions, and the manner in which compensation-related information is communicated play an integral role in shaping reactions to critical elements of the compensation system (Milkovich and Newman, 2008; Nelson et al., 2008). Yet, the literatures on attitudinal reactions pertaining to compensation and fairness perceptions have evolved independently (Williams et al., 2006). Even though most would readily acknowledge that fairness is important to compensation decisions, research examining how fairness perceptions relate to reactions to components of pay is relatively scarce.\nJustice perceptions: Early research on fairness addressed the fairness of the distribution of outcomes (e.g., pay). Research on distributive justice has established that the fairness of outcomes (Adams, 1965) significantly affects people's attitudes. A decade later, Thibaut and Walker (1975) introduced the construct of procedural justice. Procedural justice refers to the fairness of the procedures used to decide outcomes (Leventhal, 1980; Thibaut and Walker, 1975). Early research focused on the structural aspects of procedures (e.g., voice opportunities, consistency), and demonstrated the importance of procedural fairness to human resource management processes including performance appraisal (Greenberg, 1986) and selection (Gilliland, 1994).Bies and Moag (1986) introduced the construct of \"interactional justice\" to examine the \"social side of justice.\" Some researchers who adhere to the relational model of justice treat interactional justice as a component of procedural justice (Tyler and Blader, 2000; Tyler and Lind, 1992). Others treat it as a third form of justice, independent of procedural and distributive justice (Bies, 2001; Bies and Moag, 1986). According to Bies and Moag, interactional justice consists of two elements:1. informational justice-whether the reasons underlying the resource allocation decision are clearly, truthfully, and adequately explained to the affected parties; and2. interpersonal justice - whether those responsible for implementing the decision treat the affected individuals with dignity and respect. Greenberg (1993, 1994) suggested that interpersonal justice primarily alters reactions to decision outcomes because supervisor sensitivity can make people feel better about an unfavorable outcome.Informational justice primarily alters reactions to procedures as explanations provide the information needed to evaluate structural aspects of the process. Colquitt (2001) tested Greenberg's assertion and found support for a four-factor model in two separate samples. Consistent with Greenberg's (1993) proposal, Colquitt identified distributive justice, procedural justice, interpersonal justice, and informational justice as the four factors comprising the construct of organizational justice (see also Ambrose, 2002; Bies, 2001; Judge and Colquitt, 2004; Jawahar, 2007; Kernan and Hanges, 2002; Thurston and McNall, 2010).\nIntegration and hypotheses development: Distributive justice and satisfaction with pay components\nProcedural justice and satisfaction with pay components: Jenkins and Lawler (1981) found involvement in compensation decisions is positively related to pay satisfaction. In their meta-analysis, Williams et al. (2006) reported a strong relationship between procedural justice and satisfaction with pay level (r=0.42). However, when the effect of distributive justice is statistically controlled, Tremblay et al. (2000) found procedural justice failed to explain any variance in satisfaction with pay level. Tremblay et al.'s (2000) results are consistent with predictions of the two-factor justice model (McFarlin and Sweeney, 1992) and the agent-system model (Bies and Moag, 1986).In general, most people believe that they are above-average performers (e.g. Alicke et al., 1995) and should be rewarded for their performance (Gomez-Mejia and Welbourne, 1991); consequently, they are sensitive to pay increases and the process used to allocate pay increases (Harris et al., 2008). Thus, fairness in the procedures used to allocate pay raises increases satisfaction with pay raises.The two-factor justice model (McFarlin and Sweeney, 1992) proposes that perceptions of distributive justice are more closely related to person-referenced outcomes whereas perceptions of procedural justice are related to evaluations of organization or system-referenced outcomes. Sweeney and McFarlin (1993) were able to demonstrate that distributive justice better predicts person-referenced outcomes than procedural justice and that procedural justice better predicts system-referenced outcomes than distributive justice. In a meta-analysis, Colquitt et al. (2001) found support for Sweeney and McFarlin's two-factor model particularly for person and system-referenced attitudes. The gist of Bies and Moag's (1986) agent-system model is that perceptions of procedural justice likely influence reactions toward the organization or organizational systems. Satisfaction with benefits and satisfaction with structure and administration of pay systems are organization or system-referenced outcomes. Sweeney and McFarlin's (1993) two-factor model and Bies and Moag's (1986) agent-system model suggest that perceptions of procedural justice are likely related to system-referenced outcomes, such as satisfaction with benefits and satisfaction with structure and administration of pay systems.According to the relation model of procedural justice (Lind, 1995; Lind and Tyler, 1988) people join groups to obtain both economic resources and psychological rewards associated with group affiliation (Cropanzano and Greenberg, 1997). Employee benefits are considered group membership rewards designed to strengthen an employee's relationship to the organization (McCaffery, 1992). For example, many employee benefits, such as vacation time, become more valuable over time. In many cases, procedures for benefit use may be the only knowledge an employee has about the benefit, not the experience of the benefit itself (e.g. retirement, long-term disability insurance). Consequently, procedural justice perceptions are likely to relate to satisfaction with benefits.Martin and Bennett (1996) found a weak, but significant relationship between procedural justice regarding benefits and benefits satisfaction. In their 2000 study, Tremblay et al. reported that procedural justice explained 24 per cent of the variance in satisfaction with benefits. They also found benefit satisfaction was based more on an accurate benefit communication program than on involvement in decisions and the choice of employee benefits. Thus, procedural justice is likely to be related to satisfaction with structure and administration of the pay system:H2. Perceptions of procedural justice will be positively related to satisfaction with pay raises (2a), satisfaction with benefits (2b), and satisfaction with structure and administration (2c).\nInterpersonal justice and satisfaction with pay components: In most organizations, when a new employee is hired the supervisor will have some influence on the deciding the starting pay. However, once the new hire is on board, supervisors have very little influence in terms of authorizing a higher pay level outside of the pay raise or equity adjustment process. In addition, supervisors have very little control over benefits offered to an employee or the manner in which pay is structured and administered. The effect of interpersonally sensitive treatment will influence how the supervisor is perceived; however, it is unlikely to have a substantial impact on employees' satisfaction with pay level, the benefits offered by the organization or the manner in which pay is structured and administered.Supervisors have more control over pay raises than other pay components. People, in general, feel more undercompensated than overcompensated (Harris et al., 2008). When pay is secret, employees tend to overestimate the pay of those both at their same level and below and underestimate the pay of those above them (Milkovich and Anderson, 1972). Research has shown people are more apt to engage in upward comparisons than lateral or downward comparisons (Harris et al., 2008). Given that most people believe they are above-average performers (e.g., Alicke et al., 1995), they are likely to feel their performance and contributions warrant a larger pay increase than they receive, and thus feel the outcome to be somewhat unfavorable. Interpersonal justice affects reactions to decision outcomes because supervisor sensitivity makes people feel better about an unfavorable outcome (Greenberg, 1994). By showing sensitivity and treating employees with respect and dignity, supervisors may be able to influence employee satisfaction with their pay increases. Thus, perceptions of interpersonal justice are likely to be positively related to satisfaction with pay increases:H3. Perceptions of interpersonal justice will be positively related to satisfaction with pay raises.\nInformational justice and satisfaction with pay components: Informational justice primarily alters reactions to procedures as explanations provide the information needed to evaluate structural aspects of the process (Greenberg, 1993, 1994). Subordinate employees trust supervisors who communicate in an \"informationally\" just manner (Cohen-Charash and Spector, 2001).Employees are most concerned with pay level and raises and when they are concerned with either are likely to seek information pertaining to the processes used to determine pay level and raises. In such cases, they are likely to ask their supervisor. The extent to which the supervisor candidly and thoroughly communicates the rationale for the processes used and tailors this communication to the specific needs of the employee (Bies and Moag, 1986; Colquitt, 2001), employees are likely to be satisfied with pay, raises and the structure and administration of the pay system. Consequently, informational justice may be expected to be related to satisfaction with pay level, raises and the structure and administration of pay systems:H4. Perceptions of informational justice will be positively related to satisfaction with pay level (4a), satisfaction with raises (4b) and satisfaction with structure and administration (4c).\nMethod: Sample and procedure\nResults: Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)\nDiscussion: In this study, two streams of research were integrated and we examined the associations between distributive, procedural, interpersonal and informational justice perceptions and all components of pay satisfaction. As hypothesized, distributive justice was related to satisfaction with pay level, procedural justice to satisfaction with benefits, raises and pay structure and administration and informational justice to pay level and structure and administration. Contrary to expectations, interpersonal justice was unrelated to pay satisfaction. Collectively, the hypothesized model explained 27 per cent of the variance in satisfaction with pay level, 17 per cent with benefits, 37 per cent raises and 35 per cent of the variance in satisfaction with pay structure and administration.Contributions of the research\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to integrate two streams of research and investigate the associations of different forms of justice perceptions on attitudinal reactions to four components of compensation: pay level, pay raises, benefits, and structure and administration In doing so, it responds to calls for more primary studies linking interactional justice perceptions to pay satisfaction.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In total, 151 technology professionals employed at an international consulting company were surveyed to investigate hypotheses. Structural equation modeling was used to test the model.\nFindings: - As hypothesized, distributive justice was related to satisfaction with pay level, procedural justice to satisfaction with benefits, raises and pay structure and administration, and informational justice to pay level and structure and administration.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The primary limitations of this research are the cross-sectional research design and a single source of survey data.\nPractical implications: - Since pay dissatisfaction is significantly related to numerous employee outcomes and attitudes toward pay meditate the relationship between compensation and work outcomes, understanding the role of perceived justice may facilitate managers' ability to influence pay satisfaction. HR policies and managers' behaviors can influence pay satisfaction as much or more than actual pay (distributive justice). For example, results for informational justice suggest pay satisfaction can be increased by clearly and candidly explaining and communicating the organization's procedures and processes.\nOriginality/value: - This paper is the first to examine associations between the four-factor justice model and components of pay satisfaction and demonstrate that informational justice adds additional explained variance for pay level, raises, and structure and administration.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Assessing the synergy status of TQM and SCM initiatives in terms of business performance of the medium and large scale Indian manufacturing industry	[ "Business performance", "Transfusion of TQM–SCM", "Indian manufacturing industry", "PPS percent point scored", "Supply chain management (SCM)", "Total quality management (TQM)" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Globalization of markets and the changing needs and demands of consumers have forced the nature of competitive paradigms to change continuously (Singh et al., 2010). As a result of this, Indian organizations are under pressure to search for new methods to enhance profitability and sustainability in today's market (Sundharam et al., 2013; Govindan et al., 2016). In order to respond to this challenge, organizations are adopting various improvement strategies. Furthermore, the industrial growth and survival depend on various strategies followed by the organizations and their successful implementation, which help organization to become cost effective, responsive in operation and may meet the needs of customer in competitive environment (Singh and Ahuja, 2014). All such requirements have forced industries to use tools such as total quality management (TQM) and supply chain management (SCM), effectively to get higher achievements in business performance. TQM and SCM are such popular strategies adopted by the manufacturing organizations in order to seek improvement in organizational performance. Implementation of these strategies have helped organizations all over the world, in terms of attaining customer satisfaction, reliability, productivity, market share, timely delivery, profitability and even survival. It is observed that customer satisfaction in terms of product availability, delivery, innovation and quality dimensions can be achieved through synergistic implementation of TQM and SCM strategies (Sharma and Modgil, 2015).\n2. Need for transfusion of TQM and SCM for Indian manufacturing industry: The economy of India is the tenth largest in the world by nominal gross domestic product (GDP) and the third largest by purchasing power parity. However, India lacks in manufacturing, because manufacturing in India still contributes to mere 16 percent of the country's GDP, whereas it is 34 percent for China and 40 percent for Thailand (Gorane and Kant, 2017). In other words, till date, India's manufacturing sector has not performed well as compared to some other large emerging economies. Moreover, Indian manufacturing organizations are struggling with heightened challenges from global manufacturing players with respect to cost of inventory management, quality and after-sale services to the customer (Jasti and Kurra, 2017). Such challenges faced by Indian manufacturing organizations can be addressed through synergy of TQM and SCM. As both TQM and SCM share ultimate goal which is \"customer satisfaction\" their integration enhances the influence of both, resulting in enhanced organizational customer satisfaction levels (Mahdiraji et al., 2012). In addition, the literature reveals that a firm's quality management approaches and SCM practices complement each other and need to be integrated to achieve superior financial and business performance (Kaynak and Hartley, 2008, Terziovski and Hermel, 2011). This synergy of TQM and SCM has been formally termed as supply chain quality management (SCQM) (Lin and Gibson, 2011). For all scholarly endeavors in other fields, a range of different definitions of SCQM have so far been offered by different authors. For example, Kuei and Madu defined SCQM in the following way:\n3. Methodology: The research framework developed and used for this study is presented in the form of Figure 1. The study has been carried out in the medium- and large-scale manufacturing organizations in India that have implemented or are in the process of implementing SCM alone and both TQM-SCM to compile comparative analysis of business performance enhancements accrued through these performance improvement drives. The objective is to explain the status of relationships between implementation factors and performance parameters for both approaches, i.e. only SCM approach and combined (TQM-SCM) approach and to extract an effective approach, which significantly contribute to improvement in performance.\n4. TQM-SCM questionnaire administration: The simple, relevant and a comprehensive questionnaire, covering various aspects of quality (TQM) and supply chain (SCM) have been specially designed and utilized to accomplish objectives of this study. Starting of the questionnaire seeks information on the general aspects of industrial organizations, i.e. organization name and address, investments in plant and machinery, products of the organizations, present turn over, market share, etc. Further the questionnaire has been divided into various sections. Section A seeks information on status of role of top management and leaders in the context of quality initiatives in Indian enterprises.\n5. Conclusions: The present study in the context of Indian manufacturing organizations reveals that the leading Indian manufacturing organizations have taken proactive initiatives to effectively improve the manufacturing by transfusing various lean manufacturing philosophies like TQM, TPM, SCM 5 S, Six Sigma, etc. for realizing enhanced manufacturing system performance. Furthermore, it is found that Indian entrepreneurs have been more successful in improving the business performances of the organizations through synergy of TQM and SCM, as TQM support to SCM is much effective and this improvement initiative have significantly contributed toward enhancing the overall manufacturing performance. Moreover, this study contributes to the supply chain and quality management literature by examining the interlinking of the two perspectives and their resulting combined effects (i.e. SCQM) on supply chain performance and then comparing with only SCM performance. The current study of transfusion of TQM-SCM heeds the suggestion offered by Robinson and Malhotra (2005) who have highlighted the need of more focused approach in evaluating quality management issues within the internal and external supply chain context\". The key findings of the study are:\n6. Limitations and suggestions for future research: Despite the contributions of the current study to both the theory and practice of SCM and TQM, it has several limitations that establish avenues for future research. The current study encompasses only manufacturing sector of India, and a similar study can also be conducted in services sector also. Furthermore, future studies could involve examining the cross-national/cultural differences in supply chain relationships and their impact on SCQM performance.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop an insight into the prevalent quality and supply chain practices adopted in the contemporary Indian manufacturing industry, and compare business performance measurements between transfusion of total quality management (TQM)-supply chain management (SCM) companies and only SCM implementing companies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To meet the goals of this work, i.e., to ascertain contributions made by TQM-SCM practices, a reasonably large number of Indian manufacturing organizations have been extensively surveyed, through a specially designed TQM-SCM questionnaire. And the design of TQM-SCM questionnaire has been finalized through extensive literature review. Finalized TQM-SCM questionnaire was sent to around 720 industries that are implementing TQM and SCM with other related lean manufacturing practices.\nFindings: The leading Indian manufacturing organizations have taken proactive initiatives to effectively improve the manufacturing by transfusing various lean manufacturing philosophies like TQM, SCM, TPM, 5S, Six Sigma, etc., for realizing enhanced manufacturing performance. The study reveals that Indian entrepreneurs have been reasonably successful in improving the business performances in the organizations by implementing combination of TQM and SCM, as TQM support to SCM is much effective and this improvement initiative has significantly contributed toward enhancing the overall manufacturing performance.\nPractical implications: Synergy of TQM and SCM in the context of Indian manufacturing industry has been proved beneficial in terms of competitive image as well as business performance. Therefore, the whole Indian manufacturing entrepreneurs must continue to make an earnest effort in their endeavour to realize enhanced competitiveness through synergizing different business improvement initiatives. A major implication is that only SCM implementing companies should develop their supply chain through synergy of TQM-SCM after analyzing the business environment and their future plans.\nOriginality/value: Much of the attention has been given to TQM practices and SCM practices, and very few studies have been undertaken to integrate TQM and SCM practices. But as far as the authors know till now there is no study undertaken to analyze synergy status of TQM and SCM and then comparing with only SCM implementing companies in India for medium- and large-scale manufacturing class. Therefore, this study compares the transfusion of TQM-SCM with only SCM companies and can be, thus, treated as filling a gap in the extant literature. Therefore, the findings of this research paper will contribute to future research.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Inclusiveness and effectiveness of agricultural cooperatives: recent evidence from Ethiopia	[ "Impact evaluation", "Ethiopia", "Q12", "Q13", "D71" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Smallholder agriculture remains the crucial sector for attaining food security and economic development in most developing countries (Hazell et al., 2010). However, the success of smallholders is challenged by their comparative disadvantage in the market - i.e. they face proportionally higher transaction costs (Bernard and Taffesse, 2012). Hence, improving the performance of smallholder agriculture, in general, and market participation, in particular, needs institutional innovations (Verhofstadt and Maertens, 2014). To achieve increased market participation, agricultural cooperatives have been promoted in many African countries (Wanyama et al., 2008). Ethiopia is no exception and the cooperative sector has been promoted, since its establishment in the early 1960s (Getnet and Tsegaye, 2012). Recently, the Ethiopian Government re-emphasized the role of agricultural cooperatives by establishing the Federal Cooperative Commission in 2002. A significant goal of the commission was to establish one cooperative per kebele[1]. By 2010, approximately 70 percent of all kebeles had established a cooperative (Abebaw and Haile, 2013). Considering the existing challenge to access well-functioning input and output markets in Ethiopia, collective action through agricultural cooperatives was thought to help smallholder farmers minimize transaction costs, boost their bargaining power for both purchases of inputs and sales of crops and operate on a larger scale for overall economies of scale benefits (Markelova et al., 2009).\n2. Cooperatives in Ethiopia: history and conceptual framework: The cooperative sector has a long history in Africa that can be thought of in three \"generations.\" The introduction of cooperatives by colonial administrators in the first generation sought to organize production, marketing and exporting of raw materials to European markets. Following the independence of many Africa countries, the second-generation cooperatives were initiated by the state as a tool for implementing planned development activities. Finally, the third-generation cooperatives, operating in the post-reform period, are considered to be more genuine, autonomous and free from governmental influences. However, the establishment of modern cooperatives in Ethiopia, a country which has never been colonized, followed an alignment that is analogous to the second-generation cooperatives of other African countries during their independence period. Since then, cooperatives in Ethiopia have passed through three distinct phases of this second and third generation - i.e. the imperial period, the socialist period and the current government (Getnet and Tsegaye, 2012).\n3. Data and descriptive statistics: 3.1 The data\n4. Estimation strategy: 4.1 Participation model\n5. Result and discussion: 5.1 Inclusiveness of agricultural cooperatives\n6. Conclusions: This study attempts to understand why farmers are not participating in cooperatives by explicitly examining the inclusiveness and effectiveness of agricultural cooperatives in Ethiopia. Generally, the results show that lower participation rates, in the study area, could be due to both less inclusiveness and effectiveness of cooperatives. Moreover, the impact analysis confirmed that cooperatives are effective in terms of improving yield and income of their members. Furthermore, membership in agricultural cooperatives also helps farmers to reduce the unit cost of fertilizer. This study also suggests that the effectiveness of cooperatives varies by their collective behavior and finds some interesting results. The result confirms that membership in marketing cooperatives has effectively improved members marketed surplus - i.e. members of marketing cooperatives would have had 34 percent less marketed surplus if they were not members.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Using a recent rural farm household survey, the purpose of this paper is to investigate inclusiveness and effectiveness of agricultural cooperatives in Ethiopia.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study employs a logit model to examine inclusiveness and an endogenous switching regression (ESR) model to evaluate the effectiveness of agricultural cooperatives.\nFindings: The results show that agricultural cooperatives are less inclusive of land-poor and illiterate households. On the other hand, the estimated results indicate that cooperatives effectively improved agricultural performance and welfare of its member households - i.e. membership in cooperatives increases yield and income by 1.37 quintal/hectare and 1,804 birr, respectively. Moreover, the result shows that marketing cooperatives effectively increased marketed surplus of their members by 34 percent.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study has important implications regarding the ways to improve the effectiveness and/or inclusiveness of agricultural cooperatives.\nOriginality/value: While accounting for the collective behavior of cooperatives, this study uses multiple outcome variables in examining the effectiveness of cooperatives in Ethiopia. Furthermore, this paper employs the ESR model and accounts for potential problems in estimating impact using non-experimental data.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Managing frontline employee performance through coaching: does selling experience matter?	[ "Sales force", "Managerial coaching", "Sales performance", "Career stage", "Multigroup CFA", "Selling experience" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: 1.1 Research problem\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Managerial coaching\n3. Theoretical framework: 3.1 Main effect hypotheses: coaching influence on performance\n4. Method: 4.1 Research design and data collection procedure\n5. Analysis: 5.1 Sample\n6. Results: After the measuring model was deemed to have acceptable psychometric properties and to show invariance across early-, middle-, and late-stage salespeople, we proceeded to test the main hypotheses and the invariance of the causal model across groups.\n7. Discussion: Coaching is a managerial behavior that can be used in organizational settings to help subordinates achieve increasing levels of performance. Although the number of studies exploring the relationship between coaching and performance has increased lately, very few studies have explored the role of moderators in the relationship between managerial coaching and employee performance. In order to contribute to this stream of research, we present an initial empirical investigation from a sample of frontline employees from two regional banks in Canada. The results of the study suggest that managerial coaching positively influences employee sales and behavioral performance, and that salesperson's selling experience does not play a moderation role in this relationship.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The impact of managerial coaching on frontline employee performance has received initial support in literature in recent years. However, no studies have explored if this impact should vary according to the career stage that the employee is in. If an interaction effect exists, then managers should expect different results when coaching people in different stages of their careers. Otherwise, all employees (independently of their career stage) can benefit from the positive impact of coaching and, thus, the manager can expect a continuous positive outcome on employee performance throughout their careers. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate the moderation effect of an employee's career stage on the relationship between managerial coaching and performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A sample of 318 financial advisors from two Canadian banks was used to collect data on the amount, and quality, of managerial coaching received by the employees, as well as their performance. multigroup confirmatory factor analysis ran in AMOS was used to test the moderation effect of experience.\nFindings: Results confirmed the positive effect of managerial coaching on frontline employee behavioral and sales performance, but no moderation effect was found. The measuring and causal models showed invariance for employees in their early (one to seven years of selling experience), middle (8-15 years), and late (more than 15 years) career stages, suggesting that managerial coaching will make a consistent contribution to performance throughout all the stages of the employee's career.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study makes two main contributions to the scientific literature. First, it offers an original study examining the effect of managerial coaching on frontline employee performance in the banking sector. Second, it examines the role of selling experience as a moderator in coaching processes, thus contributing to the limited literature on career stages.\nPractical implications: The study suggests that managers should equally devote their coaching efforts to all employees, independently of their selling experience. Contrary to the belief that rookies will benefit more from coaching, and that \"you cannot teach an old dog new tricks,\" results suggest that managerial coaching makes a continuous contribution to performance throughout all the stages of an employee's career.\nOriginality/value: To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to examine the moderation effect of selling experience on coaching consequences, and one of the few to present evidence of the positive effect of managerial coaching on frontline employee performance in the banking sector.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Understanding the factors driving m-learning adoption: a literature review	[ "Learning", "Technology led strategy" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Along with the popularity of mobile telephony, mobile learning (m-learning) presents to be a new education conduit helping people to acquire knowledge and skill in a ubiquitous manner with the support of mobile technologies. Over the past decade m-learning has grown from a minor research interest to be a thriving research field. It is increasingly used in workplaces, museums, schools, enabling a wide spectrum of new education possibilities. Naismith et al. (2004, p. 36) point out that m-learning would initiate a kind of \"highly situated, personal, collaborative and long term; in other words, truly learner-centered learning\". Since nearly half of the world's population are mobile phone owners and the figure will expand to 75 percent in 2011 (Portio Research, 2007), m-learning enables citizens covering all social-economic levels to access training and education in a ubiquitous and even lifelong manner, using their personal devices.Despite widespread enthusiasm, m-learning is still in an embryonic stage, and its theoretical underpinnings have not yet matured (Muyinda, 2007). In particular, the issues regarding how to promote learners' acceptance of m-learning are largely unsolved. Research in this regard is in short supply. Note that even if mobile technology is one of the prerequisites of m-learning, the availability of mobile technology per se does not guarantee that its potential will be realized. First, recent reports show that whilst advanced phones along with 3G mobile telephony are increasingly diffused, advanced mobile services have not yet found their ways into the consumers' everyday lives and consumers in general are still hesitant to use these services (Carlsson et al., 2005, 2006a; Walden et al., 2007). There is no reason why m-learning services should be an exception. Second, from the perspective of distance learning, a high dropout rate is frequently reported in for instance online courses, which can be as high as 50 percent in some cases (Sulcic and Sulcic, 2007). As m-learning is frequently described as a subset of technology-medicated distance learning, there is some concern whether a high dropout rate will also happen. For instance, in the research conducted by Attewell and Savill-Smith (2003), Attewell (2005), an important proportion of learners did not show any preference for future use of m-learning at the end of the projects. In order to deliver acceptable m-learning services and to retain the developing cost of service providers, it is important to investigate the learners' adoption process of m-learning.It is important to note that in m-learning contexts learners are trusted with great autonomy and that they are in charge of their own learning. Unlike learning in conventional formal contexts, the use of m-learning posits to be a new option rather than a compulsory responsibility. Hence, the key issues for the success of m-learning lies in an individual's subjective willingness and cognitive engagement in m-learning activities. Based on previous researches on mobile information system (IS), we consider different roles m-learning users have when adopting m-learning services, namely technology user, consumer, and learner. Two theories, namely subjective task value and readiness for online learning, are integrated with technology acceptance model (TAM) in combination with two new ingredients - perceived quality and perceived mobility, in order to develop a sound conceptual model. The rest of paper is structured as follows. After a review of current m-learning research in Section 2, a conceptual model for m-learning adoption is proposed and elaborated in Section 3, followed by a brief conclusion of the study in Section 4.\n2. Outline of m-learning researches and applications: Both for education and business, m-learning potentials and benefits abound. In addition to common students, learners \"who were hard to reach, hard to engage, or hard to access - for example young offenders, traveler communities, disengaged teenagers and work-based learners in difficult contexts\" appears to be a hot topic for m-learning research (Attewell, 2005; Stead, 2006, p. 1; Duncan-Howell and Lee, 2007). Funded by the European Commission, a pan-European project - m-learning for instance has been run since 2001 for educationally disadvantaged young adults, such as dropouts and unemployed, to improve their literacy and numeracy skills. Further, m-learning in many countries has been developed to be a sort of new education products, generating new sources of revenue for business communities. In the USA, Ambient Insight (2008) reports that despite current economic crisis, m-learning market in USA is still growing. It reached $538 million in 2007 and will continue to develop at a five-year compound annual growth rate of 21.7 percent. \"In the last 18 months\", stated Ambient Insight (2008, p. 5), \"all the major educational publishers have launched mobile content\" in the USA. Astonishingly, m-learning also attracts the interest of leading handheld device manufacturers, such as Nokia and Apple, to make a step into this growing market. For instance, in China market, almost all the mobile manufacturers have started to offer m-learning services in their products since 2007.Despite aforementioned potentials, the uptake of m-learning services in general is much slower than expected. Patten et al. (2006) classify current m-learning services into seven distinct categories, namely administrative, referential, interactive, micro-world, data collection, location aware, and collaborative. They further conclude that much of the work presented across the categories has limited success \"in the field\" (Patten et al., 2006). By investigating the behavior of both teachers and students, Corbeil and Valdes-Corbeil (2007) state that familiarity with handheld devices and technologies does not ensure that teachers and students would like to use them in teaching and learning scenarios (Corbeil and Valdes-Corbeil, 2007). Pozzi (2007) points out that m-learning service in most cases is still used occasionally and in a supplemental manner in education settings. In fact, these research findings support the proposition made by Carlsson et al. (2005), who argue that the adoption of mobile technology and services is asynchronous and that the adoption of mobile technology per se does not guarantee the adoption of mobile services.From a technology viewpoint, many scholars state that there are many technical restrictions that may impede m-learning adoption. Wang et al. (2009) note that technical challenges make the adaptation of existing e-learning services to m-learning difficult, and that users may not be inclined to accept m-learning. These restrictions, as discussed by Maniar and Bennett (2007), include following eight aspects:1. small screen size and poor screen resolution;2. lack of data input capability;3. low storage;4. low bandwidth;5. limited processor speed;6. short battery life;7. software issues and interoperability; and8. lack of standardization.Based on two m-learning projects in the UK and a review of usability findings from the empirical studies of m-learning, Kukulska-Hulme (2007) points out that m-learning activity continues to take place on devices which are not designed for educational use, and that therefore usability issues are frequently reported. These issues may include physical attributes (e.g. size, weight, memory, and battery life), content and software applications (e.g. students seem to be more comfortable with built-in functions), network speed and reliability, and physical environment (e.g. use in rainy conditions, risk of loss and theft).A handful of adoption studies are carried out to investigate learners' m-learning activities. Phuangthong and Malisawan (2005) put forward an adoption model in their preliminary research on m-learning, and propose that perceived enjoyment would have a direct impact on people's attitudes. Based on 245 completed questionnaires, Ju et al. (2007) indicate that perceived usefulness significantly affects users' attitude, which further impact users' intention to use m-learning. Building upon TAM, Huang et al. (2007) point out that individual differences significantly influence a user's acceptance of m-learning in which the perceived enjoyment and perceived mobility predict users' adoption intention. Through a study of 330 usable responses from five organizations, Wang et al. (2009) find that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, perceived playfulness, and self-management of learning are significant determinants of the behavioral intention to use m-learning. Despite these studies, it has to be noted that thus far m-learning has not yet had great impact on education context and the studies which address the adoption of mobile information and communications technologies in school settings are still lacking (Pozzi, 2007; Perry, 2002). Consequently, insufficient research on m-learning adoption results in a lack of a complete view of m-learning adoption. In light of this, we believe that in addition to current m-learning literature, a more extensive review to the relevant adoption literature is essential in order to extend the scope of our theoretical support and to identify the possible predictors of m-learning adoption.In a meta-analysis of mobile commerce literature which covered several key publication sources from 2000 to 2006, AlHinai et al. (2007) extend the researching findings of Kim et al. (2007) and Pedersen et al. (2002), and contend that it is necessary to consider the threefold roles people played in adoption research, namely technology user, network member, and customer. They further conclude that researchers may need to consider and integrate theories concerning the different roles people play in other than ISs (AlHinai et al., 2007). Following this notion, we made an extensive review of literature from the perspective of both mobile services and consumer in general, and technology-mediated learning in particular. As m-learning is generally described as the intersection between mobile services and distance education, or as a natural extension of e-learning, the m-learning user in fact has a new role: learner. Concerning this, the topics reviewed and main findings are specified in Table I. However, as papers concerning m-learning adoption are limited but broadly distributed, our scope of review includes both conferences and journal papers, most of which are retrieved from Emerald and ScienceDirect database.\n3. Factors driving m-learning adoption: In this section, we summarize the finding from reviewing the literature concerning three roles m-learning users play as aforementioned. Key theories and factors in relation to m-learning adoption are specified.3.1. M-learning user as a technology user\n4. Conclusion: Indeed, there has to date seldom any communication equipment used as popular as a mobile phone. It comes as no surprise that people are eager to find ways to apply these portable and personal handhelds for education purposes. Currently, m-learning has not reached its maximum potential and the gap between what is offered and what is used is apparent. Whilst digital learning materials of different formats are generally available, very limited use of it has been made by learners via mobile phones. Owing to the limited screen size and input difficulties, individuals may be reluctant to adopt this new education approach. Therefore, technology alone does not bring about m-learning, and the key success factor is to understand the concerns of learners and to identify the determinants which lead to learners' willingness to adopt m-learning.However, it is a challenge to apply traditional adoption models in an m-learning context. For instance, Carlsson et al. (2006b, p. 8) argue that, TAM and unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) were developed to describe and explain IT innovation adoption in organizational contexts, \"but the mobile technology adoption is more individual, more personalized and focused on the services made available by the technology\". In addition, an m-learning user behaves as a learner instead of employee, and on the other hand, m-learning is a kind of education services, which is different from traditional services. Based on an extensive review of researches on m-learning, technology-mediated learning as well as mobile services, this paper offers a comprehensive, yet parsimonious model. It contributes to the growing literature on m-learning by grounding new theories and variables into well-established model (TAM) and applying them to a new context of m-learning. It fills a gap by extending TAM to social contexts when technology user gains a new role - learner. Also, the paper provides several preliminary insights into the adoption of m-learning. It highlights the fact that the familiarity with and the adoption of mobile technologies per se does not guarantee the adoption of m-learning. To ensure a continuous and effective use of m-learning, promoting user's self-management capability of learning is essential, since it is learners themselves who are in charge of their own learning issues. Further, unlike most mobile services, m-learning does not always bring an immediate sense of gratification, but probably rewards a learner in the long term, hence the use of m-learning will depend on how learners value their education tasks. In addition, as mobile technologies and devices are used as a conduit to transmit training and education to the learner, the quality of learning materials delivered would affect the perceived quality of services as a whole. Hence, it is essential to increase the relevancy, timeliness, adequacy, and uniqueness of learning materials that are delivered. The proposed model provides a coherent framework for further empirical research. An empirical testing of the conceptual model would extend the boundaries of current theoretical foundations, and enrich our understanding of m-learning. This in turn would offer a set of possible guidelines for practitioners to promote the diffusion of m-learning.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - By surveying current literature, the purposes of this paper are twofold: to identify current situation of mobile learning (m-learning) adoption and specify the challenges and to identify the factors driving m-learning adoption.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper reviews literature related to: m-learning applications and challenging issues and adoption researches on m-learning and related topics. A reflection on the unique nature of m-learning adoption building upon the literature reviewed contributes to a new conceptual model.\nFindings: - Even if m-learning is fast evolving, the review of literature reveals a challenge as to how to promote m-learning adoption. In this light, the paper extends the scope of literature reviewed to the theories and factors relating to different roles m-learning users have into consideration, namely, technology user, consumer and learner, in an attempt to offer a more complete understanding of m-learning adoption. Insights are drawn from the proposed model.\nPractical implications: - A number of m-learning projects have been initiated worldwide while guidelines drawing from m-learning adoption research are in short supply. A research in this regard will contribute to a better understanding of developing acceptable m-learning service.\nOriginality/value: - Based on a literature review, the paper not only specifies the current situation of m-learning adoption, but also develops factors influencing m-learning adoption to enrich our understanding of m-learning adoption - which help to facilitate and promote future empirical research.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Exploring routes of dissatisfaction feedback: A multiple case study within a machine industry segment	[ "Knowledge management", "Feedback", "Customer satisfaction", "Sweden" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Fornell and Wernerfelt (1987) suggested that complaint management as a defensive marketing strategy would reduce cost for the total marketing expenditure significantly. The Technical Assistance Research Program (TARP Inc.) found that most companies spend 95 percent on reacting to individual complaints and less than 5 percent for analyzing and using them as a means for improvement (Adamson, 1993). The research program emphasizes the importance of creating complaint procedures for achieving long-term prevention and improvement benefits.According to Dutka (1994), initial customer satisfaction research indicates that both satisfied and dissatisfied customers affect the bottom line of a company. The research shows that 100 satisfied customers generate approximately 25 new customers, but also that, for every customer complaint a company receives, approximately 20 other customers have the same feeling but do not complain. Dutka thus argues that organizations should have an index measuring customer satisfaction but they should also be aware of dissatisfied customers, even if the number of customer complaints is not a good customer dissatisfaction index (Dutka, 1994; Kondo, 1993). Kondo (1993) points out that companies must react to and eliminate customer dissatisfaction not only by making safe, reliable and easily usable products, but also by identifying hidden needs of their customers by using information from customers about previous products when they develop new products.An interesting perspective in line with the discussion above is how complaint management systems are combined with other quality management tools; for example, the descriptive case study by Bosch and Enriquez (2005) shows how complaints become a natural input in the quality function deployment work at a service company. Other related research explores not only the resulting outcome of a specific complaint, but also investigates the importance of customers' experiences about the complaint process itself, see Stauss (2002). Accordingly, there is a need to further explore the actual customer dissatisfaction feedback process and it is certainly a need to further explore this phenomenon in manufacturing industry contexts. The aim with this paper is to contribute with an empirically defined framework on how complaints are transferred into product development contexts within a machine industry segment. There is also an interest in describing the nature of the feedback itself - whether the feedback is reliable and, if not, how to improve the reliability of this information to create a better basis for decision-making.Our project is essentially managerial, aiming to provide managers and other decision-makers with a framework to establish reliable and adequate customer dissatisfaction feedback systems for more effective product development. Davenport et al. (2001) demonstrate that companies need to gain knowledge of multiple customer types, but also that there is a need for multiple types of customer information. Is the information about the dissatisfaction contextualized and is it from the original source, or is it transferred via service personnel working close to users? The service personnel that work as organization representatives, for example, application engineers, service technicians or sellers, may provide the product development organization with relevant knowledge about customer complaints. This is further explored in the present investigation with making a distinction of two commonly used categorizations of dissatisfaction feedback systems: in-plant and field quality information systems. An in-plant system transfers information from factory issues, while the field quality system involves end-users. Garvin (1988) emphasizes the importance of distinguishing these two. Hence, the present study concentrates on field quality systems. Consequently, dissatisfaction feedback is defined here as information or data that are either codified as customer complaints in these field quality systems or transferred personally via service personnel, or directly transferred with product development personnel working as knowledge carriers.Accordingly, the paper presents results from a qualitative interview-based study of 16 product development managers in different organizations, regarding how they view dissatisfaction feedback from customers and particularly from users and service personnel. The selection of cases is based on companies' size and their category in a company database, and covers 84 percent of the Swedish machine industry in the segment of 500-1,000 employees. Semi-structured interviews were made during the fall of 2003. First, a presentation of the dissatisfaction concept is discussed and it is also put in relation to concepts of data, information, knowledge and action. Definitions of complaint, customer dissatisfaction feedback system, customer, user and user representative are made. This part also discusses previous research on different ways and means to manage dissatisfaction transferals. Further, in the method of investigation, the 16 participating companies are presented and an outline of the study is demonstrated. Utilizing a typology, the empirical investigation explores four different constructs. These are based upon whether dissatisfaction transferals are active, passive, codified or personalized. Quality of dissatisfaction feedback is also a focused topic. Finally, an outline of the different dissatisfaction feedback mechanisms is presented according to the typology.\n2 Theoretical and conceptual framework: This section provides an overview of the conceptual framework which guides our analysis. The framework is presented on the basis of the process perspective in which data from users are transformed into information and finally utilized as knowledge within the product development organization by product developers. Also, we describe the structure of the system, which includes humans (e.g. service personnel, product developers, managers, and competitors), the various ways in which people are connected to each other, and the technologies that enable information to flow in this system. Central concepts derived from the framework are defined and linked to theories of knowledge management and specific customer dissatisfaction research.2.1 From user complaint to actionable knowledge in product development\n3 Method of investigation: This research project is based on a multiple case study in Swedish industry. The reason for choosing a qualitative research methodology is its appropriateness for gaining novel knowledge about specific phenomena. Case studies are also a research strategy that is suitable for understanding the dynamics present within settings; see Eisenhardt (1989). In the present study, uniqueness of data from each case has been pushed into the background in relation to the comparison of variables as proposed by Westlander (1985). The main data collection method has been interviews with managers from 18 product development organizations during the fall of 2003. These managers are conceivable representative informants, since the investigation has an interest to explore whether customer dissatisfaction feedback is transferred all the way to the NPDP.The selection of organizations to study has been made through a Swedish business database (AffarsData). The criterion used for selection has been to choose companies that are classified as machine industry companies and are employing 500-1,000 people. Most companies within this range have only one product development manager which makes it relatively easy to find the informants in these cases. Still, we wanted to study companies that meet challenges to organize the transfer of customer dissatisfaction feedback; hence the idea with the lower limit of company size. This search found 23 companies, which also is a reasonable number of companies for investigating the industry segment in its entirety. Three of these were sorted out because they are large service organizations working for larger concerns, i.e. they do not develop and produce any products. Of the remaining companies, one had moved its product development organization abroad, and one could not find time for an interview. Hence, 18 product development managers were interviewed. Of these interviews, two were sorted out of the analysis, since one was not recorded on demand of the interviewee and the other was too difficult to manage with a reliable analysis. In order to guarantee the anonymity of the companies, they are not named in the present paper. Hence, to give a picture of the variation of the participating companies, information is presented in Table I.The interviews were performed, recorded and transcribed by the first author. The interview protocol was semi-structured on the basis of three main dissatisfaction feedback mechanisms: codified data and information in customer complaint systems, codified information via other feedback mechanisms such as e-mail, for example, and personalized information. Questions from an earlier study of feedback systems were used as a basis for designing the protocol. This previous study was also performed within the Swedish manufacturing industry; see Fundin and Bergman (2003). The protocol also had fixed questions with an interest in getting a better understanding of the extent to which the feedback mechanisms are used.Data were analyzed in two steps. First, a naive reading of the interviews was conducted in order to get a sense of the text as a whole; see Ricoeur (1976). Through this analysis, important concepts were extracted from each interview and these were put together into themes by using an affinity diagram. In the second analysis, the themes were quantified through a second reading of the interviews. For example, it was found in the naive reading that geographical distance between product development and sales organizations may inhibit transfer of customer dissatisfaction knowledge. Quantification examined how many of the interviewees discussed this specific aspect. If a theme is correlated positively in an interview (a company), it is indicated with a plus (+); if a theme is negatively correlated, it is indicated with a minus (-). Zero (0) indicates that the theme is not present in the data, or it is not possible to state whether the correlation is positive or negative. The quantification of themes makes it possible to obtain a view of various magnitudes of problems; the authors completed the quantification independently of each other, and the results were discussed after an interview had been analyzed. The discussions were conducted by telephone. When any themes were quantified differently, this was discussed until there was a consensus. The inter-coder reliability was calculated for each interview. The mean value of the inter-coder reliability of the 16 interviews was 84 percent.\n4 The empirical investigation: This section is divided into three parts, of which the first presents a list of various dissatisfaction routes. In the second part, a typology of feedback systems based on four different constructs is discussed. The four types are:1. active and codified feedback systems;2. active and personalized;3. passive and codified; and4. passive and personalized.These constructs are based on the theoretical framework described in previous parts of the paper. The third part of this section presents and discusses the quality of dissatisfaction feedback. Especially, we analyze the problems of codification of data into feedback system and the pros and cons of personalized information transferals.4.1 The many routes of dissatisfaction feedback\n5 Discussion: The role of active and passive dissatisfaction is discussed in relation to how codified and personalized dissatisfaction systems are combined. Further, we provide a discussion of ways and means for companies to overcome the many filters from dissatisfied users.5.1 Active vs passive, and codified vs personalized, dissatisfaction systems\n6 Conclusions: A classification of the dissatisfaction feedback routes according to the typology is shown in Figure 2. The dissatisfaction feedback is categorized according to whether it appears to be active and codified, active and personalized, passive and codified or passive and personalized.Decontextualized feedback such as codified information, for example, in customer complaint systems or in early warning systems, is usually not sufficient when trying to get to the bottom of the dissatisfaction. When a feedback first appears as personalized knowledge, it appears to be contextualized. For instance, service personnel as knowledge carriers after interactions with users can give better nuances of circumstances surrounding the dissatisfaction situation than codified information in a customer complaint system that follows strict rules. Still, personalized dissatisfaction routes transfer subjective information. Some managers point out that cultural aspects influence how powerful the personalized information appears to be. Furthermore, personalized dissatisfaction routes vary in frequency according to where in the world the service organization is situated. In such cases, strict codification systems are one way to bridge not only these cultural differences, but also geographical distances.Thus, managing personalized or codified customer dissatisfaction feedback systems in isolation does not give a fair picture of the nature of user dissatisfaction feedback. Parallel usage of these two types provides a better position for decision-makers in product development organizations when deciding future actions based upon the feedback received. Nevertheless, a real challenge for future research is how to turn passive, personalized dissatisfaction routes into active ones. A good example of how to manage this change is presented by the few companies that regularly arrange knowledge-overlapping conventions with product developers and service personnel. These conventions substantiate the view that personalized information routes from service personnel not only contain keys to improving the reliability of dissatisfaction feedback connected with current products. By managing passive, personalized dissatisfaction routes with service personnel and call centers as knowledge carriers more actively in product development, one can certainly reveal many of the hidden needs of users.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to explore routes of dissatisfaction feedback transferrals within a Swedish machine industry segment. The study focuses upon transferrals from dissatisfied users to the product development organizations. There is also an interest in determining whether the feedback is reliable and, if not, how to improve the reliability of this information to create a better basis for decision-making.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper presents the results from a qualitative interview-based study of 16 product development organizations and their customer dissatisfaction feedback systems. About 84 percent of the companies within a machine industry segment in Sweden are covered. Based on the empirical investigation, a typology describes four different dissatisfaction feedback constructs, depending on whether the feedback system is active or passive, and on whether the feedback is codified or personalized.\nFindings: - The study indicates that parallel usage of codified and personalized dissatisfaction feedback, compared to using these transferrals in isolation only, improves reliability of dissatisfaction information and puts product developers in a better position when deciding on future actions. However, a real challenge is how to turn passive dissatisfaction routes into active ones. Managing passive dissatisfaction routes with service personnel and call centres as knowledge carriers more actively in product development can certainly reveal many of the hidden needs of users.\nOriginality/value: - Our project is essentially managerial, aiming to provide managers and other decision-makers with a framework to establish reliable and adequate customer feedback systems for more effective product development.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Tattooing and brand sponsorship: how far is too far?	[ "Marketing", "Brand", "Corporate tattoos" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Going under the needle for your brand: tattooing as the new market medium.\nIntroduction: At the London 2012 Olympics, US Olympian Nick Symmonds was inundated with press both on and off the field for his decision to auction off a portion of his shoulder for a sponsored temporary tattoo on eBay (ESPN, 2012). Symmonds offered companies international recognition in exchange for a fee by selling part of his body as a marketing medium. Sponsorship tattooing is the act of physically wearing a tattoo of a corporate logo, slogan or symbol on your skin. Logo tattoos - which can be either permanent or temporary - generate a relationship whereby a financial incentive is granted to the person adorning himself or herself with a tattoo featuring a corporate brand. In Symmonds' case, Hanson Dodge Creative (an advertising company out of Wisconsin) won the bid on Ebay for US$11,000 and signed with him for a larger yearlong deal (Elliot, 2012). Symmonds stated that Hanson Dodge's foresight was only to their benefit, as they would never find better cost per thousand in professional sports marketing. Numerous athletes and fans were outraged, believing that Symmonds was cheapening the value of his sport and, in some cases, himself. Symmonds, however, has stated numerous times that he chose to auction off his shoulder as a means of bringing international attention to an outdated and archaic policy toward sponsorship by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and other international sports bodies (Elliot, 2012). While Symmonds was by no means the only or the first athlete to wear a sponsorship tattoo, he did bring international attention to the practice by auctioning off his shoulder through a public auction site as well known as Ebay.\nSponsorship in sports: Cornwell (1995, p. 15) defines sponsorship-linked marketing as \"the orchestration and implementation of marketing activities for the purpose of building and communicating an association to a sponsorship\". Further, in general, there is agreement within the academic community that sponsorship involves an exchange that is mutually beneficial between the sponsor and sponsee (Biscaia et al., 2012; Cornwell and Maignan, 1998; Farrelly et al., 2005; Henseler et al., 2011). Sports are cluttered with millions of advertising messages, and chief among these messages are sponsorships (Ngan et al., 2011). Sports sponsorship exists where a financial exchange occurs between a corporation and a sports entity, resulting in the usage of a corporate logo or symbol by a sports entity for the purpose of access to consumers associated with a particular sports entity (Meenaghan, 2001; Ngan et al., 2011). Sports entities can be any individual (athletes), institution (teams, leagues, associations, etc.) or events (Andreff and Szymanski, 2006) that are involved in for-profit professional competitive sports. Sponsorship in sports is hardly a new phenomenon; the act of sponsorship goes back to ancient Greece, where wealthy benefactors would financially contribute not only to support athletes but also, similarly, to make the act of watching and engaging in sports more accessible for the masses (Andreff and Szymanski, 2006). Over time, though, sponsorships have evolved into far more nuanced marketing endeavors. This multi-billion dollar market attracts corporations because of the passion and devotion consumers show to their teams, specific athletes and sports communities.\nTattooing: Tattooing has existed for centuries and is often associated with ritual practices within a community (Atik and Yildirim, 2014; Karacaoglan, 2011). Tattooing is a technical modification of the body that can be used either as a means of signifying particular acceptance into a community or the departure from it (Gell, 1993; Pritchard, 2000). Throughout history, the tattoo has held many cultural meanings - both for the individual who wears the tattoo and for the community that the bearer of the tattoo resides in (Pritchard, 2000). Originally, tattoos were used as a means of identifying members of specific tribes (Goulding et al., 2004) and their positions within it (Pritchard, 2000). The location and design of the tattoo were indicators of both status and belonging (Pritchard, 2000). In many communities, the placement of the tattoo was as important as its content in indicating this information to the community (Pritchard, 2000).\nResearch questions: The aim of this research is to explore the relationship between the use of tattoos as a form of sports sponsorship technology and consumer opinions about the brand. Further, we explore opinions of tattoos, athletes and tattoo placement, as well as differences related to location of the tattoo and gender of the athlete. Based on the literature review above, we present the following list of research questions that were subsequently explored through a series of focus groups:\nResearch design: Due to the exploratory nature of this study and uncertainty surrounding the relationships between tattoos, consumer brand perceptions and their reflections of self identity, qualitative research in the form of focus groups was a suitable method of investigation (Morgan and Krueger, 1993; Rao and Perry, 2003). As the phenomenon being investigated is subjective and, therefore, could be considered less accessible without the interaction between members of a group, this further supports the selection of focus groups (Rao and Perry, 2003) as a method of qualitative inquiry.\nFindings and analysis: Numerous interesting findings emerged from the focus groups. The most discussed theme in all of the focus groups, regardless of gender or age, was meaning. Meaning encapsulated discussion of both the meaning of the tattoo to the athlete and the meaning of the athlete with the tattoo to the greater society. Specifically, themes seemed to cluster in three areas:\nGeneral discussion: The importance of the meaning of the tattoo supports other research on sponsorship in general. The fit of sponsorships has been indicated as one of the most important determinants of the effectiveness of the strategy, and this finding was reiterated in our research as well. The focus groups indicated that the value of the sponsorship tattoo was more dependent on the meaning of the tattoo itself, the meaning to the athlete or the meaning of the brand than on anything else. First, our findings suggest that the relationship between the brand and the athlete needs to be relevant and meaningful for the sponsorship to be successful (e.g. McDonald's is not perceived as a brand that professional athletes frequent, and, therefore, this sponsorship is perceived as one for financial gain and ultimately greed). Second, while placement was important, the meaning behind the placement was even more important. Thus, our findings suggest that tattoo placement in a position related to the athlete's sport is more relevant and therefore more effective.\nLimitations and next steps: There are three major limitations of the presented study. There are:\nConclusion: In sum, this exploratory research ties together the fields of sports marketing and sponsorship advertising by examining the concept of placing tattoos on sponsored athletes. Our findings suggest that consumer interaction with the brand through sponsorship tattoos is a complex, multi-dimensional process in which meaning is associated with multiple facets of the sponsorship relationship. This research identifies ways in which consumers interpret meaning related to the tattoo itself, the brand and the athlete based on placement, sport and brand perceptions. In sum, our findings suggest that as firms approach this complex medium for advertising, they need to be cautious in assessing the multiple dimensions along which a consumer may respond.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how consumers view sponsorship tattoos. This study specifically addresses three research questions: first, how consumers view the idea of sponsorship tattooing; second, how the brand of the tattoo alters acceptance of the tattoo; and third, how the placement on the body of the athlete affects acceptance of the tattoo.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To address these research questions, focus groups were conducted.\nFindings: Findings highlighted three important themes related to tattoos, sponsorships and brand perceptions: meaning of the tattoo itself, meaning related to the brand and the tattoo and meaning related to the tattoo and athlete.\nPractical implications: For practitioners, this research highlights the complexity between consumers' interaction with brands through sponsorship tattoos, which is a complicated, multi-dimensional process during which meaning can be assigned to multiple facets of the sponsorship relationship.\nOriginality/value: For scholars, this research offers a glimpse into an emerging trend that ties together the multi-billion dollar sports and tattoo industries. In sum, this research identifies ways in which consumers interpret meaning related to the tattoo itself, the brand and the athlete based on placement, sport and brand perceptions.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Globalization and financial instability: Challenges for exchange rate and monetary policy	[ "Globalization", "Inflation", "Capital flows", "Monetary policy", "Error analysis", "Economic forecasting" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The debate over globalization has been lively and passionate over the past years, and it has been associated with high emotions and sometimes even violent conflicts. However, \"globalization\" is a vague term under which the ongoing trend toward a deeply integrated world economy with all its economic, technological, political and cultural dimensions has been subsumed.In economics, real (non-monetary) aspects or implications of globalization (with respect to international trade, income/wealth distribution, growth, employment, and environment) have largely dominated the discussion during most of the 1990s (see IMF, 1997; Wagner, 2000; Masson, 2001; Bourguignon et al., 2002; World Bank, 2002)[1]. Only in the late 1990s, after the Asian crisis, the discussion on monetary aspects or implications of globalization has developed on a broader scale (Wagner (2000c); early publications were Romer, 1993; Bernanke et al., 1998; Issing, 1996; Lane, 1997). Then in particular, the implications on optimal exchange rate regimes and on financial stability have been discussed (Frankel, 1999; Eichengreen, 1999), whereas monetary policy implications in the narrower sense have become a popular topic of research only in very recent years (Friedman, 1999; Wagner, 2002a, b, c, 2003).This paper will mainly focus on this monetary aspect of globalization. Section 2 will deal with the implications of globalization for the choice of an appropriate (or optimal) exchange rate regime. Briefly after the Asian crisis, the current mainstream view in international macroeconomics arose arguing that only so-called \"corner solutions\" could avoid the reappearance of such financial and currency crises in the emerging markets. The following theoretical and empirical research, however, has shown that, on the one hand, there apparently are institutional hindrances to credible hard pegging (currency boards or dollarization), and, on the other hand, there obviously is a systematic \"fear of floating\". Therefore, in the search for other or supplementary institutional solutions of the inherent problem of financial instability caused by globalization, the need of a \"credible\" nominal anchor soon moved into the centre of discussion. Section 3 discusses different strategic aspects of monetary policy in the light of globalization. Section 3.1 delineates the current main proposal of an appropriate nominal anchor for developed as well as emerging market economies, namely inflation targeting. Looking at the Japanese crisis, however, it has argued that price stability is not a sufficient condition for financial stability. Therefore, the discussion on asset price targeting has gained much attention in the very recent years. Section 3.2 investigates the proposal of implementing asset price targeting in monetary policy to meet the dangers associated with financial globalization. It also deals with the most recent attempt of the ECB to defend its two-pillar monetary policy strategy by referring to the increased financial volatility.However, not only strategy aspects within monetary and exchange rate policy have been emphasized in the debate on monetary aspects of globalization also the question regarding the goals of monetary authorities has been arisen. This is dealt with in Section 4. Section 4.1 examines the question of whether globalization \"eases\" the job of central banks by helping to tame inflation. This argument has been used to maintain that central banks (particularly the ECB) could or should reduce their efforts in the fight against inflation in favour of other goals. This contention is concerned critically within Section 4.2 by highlighting some pitfalls associated with such a conclusion, namely the existence of trade-offs, a credibility trap, an increase in uncertainty, and the danger of deflation. Section 5 concludes the paper.\n2 Exchange rate regimes under the constraints of globalization and financial instability: The 1990s witnessed a tremendous increase in capital mobility and financial globalization that occurred not only within the area of the industrialized world but also between the industrial countries and the emerging market economies. They also saw serious financial and currency crises, in particular in emerging market economies. The most prominent one is the so-called Asian crisis in 1997 with its contagion effects onto other areas in 1998 (Mishkin, 2000; Berger and Wagner, 2002; Feldstein, 2003).The Asian crisis was characterised by an extreme volatility and reversal of international capital flows[2]. While in 1996, 93 billions of US-dollars flew into the five countries most severely hit by the Asian crisis (Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines), 105 billions of dollars flew out in 1998. This reversal of capital flows was around 10 per cent of the sum of GDP of the five countries before the crisis. This sharp reversal of mainly portfolio and banking flows was possible because of the high share of short-term external debt in the whole external debt of these countries which was between 50 and 67 per cent at the end of 1996. Moreover, the macroeconomic policy as well as the exchange rate regimes in these countries contributed to the increase in proneness to crisis. The countries typically reacted to the massive capital inflow by restricting their monetary policies in order to prevent an excessive increase in domestic demand. Hence, the domestic rates of interest increased, and this led to a further increase in capital inflows. In addition, the phony stability of the exchange rate system (based on the official exchange rate pegging to the US-dollar in these countries) favoured a wrong assessment of the exchange rate risk and hence led to an extensive relinquishment of hedging of the external debts.2.1 Soft pegging\n3 Monetary policy strategies under globalization: 3.1 Is inflation targeting a solution/shield to the financial instability problem?\n4 Monetary policy goals under globalization: Globalization not only affects the strategy of central banks but also has an impact on their goal considerations. A main topic in this context is the effect of globalization on inflation and the implications of this for the focus of monetary policy.4.1 Does globalization reduce inflation?\n5 Conclusions: We have analysed the challenges of globalization for monetary and exchange rate policy. The main challenge of globalization for exchange rate policy refers to the choice of an appropriate exchange rate regime. Exchange-rate policy is constrained by the financial instability tendency effect of globalization insofar as intermediate exchange rate regimes tend to be very unstable. However, most emerging market economies, on the one hand, seem to be overstrained by the high requirements for sustainable hard pegging, and, on the other hand, show \"fear of floating\", i.e. conduct managed floating at the utmost. This means that the implementation of a \"credible\" nominal anchor becomes a particularly important macro-policy element in the fight against financial instability. Inflation targeting is often regarded to be a good one in this regard. However, how successful inflation targeting may be in stabilizing price level expectations, there are more and more doubts about inflation targeting being able to counteract the dangers of the globalization-induced increase in financial instability. Price stability does not guarantee financial stability as recent experience has shown. This has prompted more and more economists to suggest that inflation targeting is not enough: central banks should also react to the danger of asset price bubbles early in advance. That is, central bankers may need to raise interest rates to curb sharp rises in the prices of assets, such as equities and property, so as to prevent painful consequences when bubbles burst. In other words, central banks can or should no longer ignore surging asset prices by insisting that monetary policy should focus only on consumer-price inflation. The question, however, is how this should be done. A presently much-discussed proposal is to include asset prices in the monetary policy rule, for example, in a Taylor rule. This, however, may not be appropriate in the light of information, operational and communication problems associated with such a policy.But globalization may also create the wish to change the focus of monetary policy. Globalization is sometimes argued to reduce inflation pressures and therefore, to \"ease\" the job of central banks. This is mainly substantiated by the argument that globalization leads to an increase in competition among firms and among governments (locational competition). Therefore, globalization appears to improve the conditions for maintaining price stability and thereby to ease the job of central bankers. This is used to argue that central banks (particularly the ECB, referring to the objectives as laid down in the EU-Treaty) could or should reduce their efforts in the fight against inflation in favour of supporting the general economic policies of the governments. However, there are caveats with this conclusion or argument. First, there are trade-offs between different locational goods that a country or government tries to attain. This trade-off situation may result in a stronger pressure on the central bank to allow for an increase in the share of seigniorage (beyond the optimal share of seigniorage that may also rise) in financing government expenditures. Second, central banks can be fooled by their own credibility for low inflation into being insufficiently pre-emptive in a business expansion. In the belief in the inflation-suppressing power of the globalization-induced increase in competition, central banks may be inclined to delay monetary tightening when the economy moves beyond a presumed level of non-inflationary potential output. If, however, the economy continued to run above potential, the credibility for stable prices may, at some point when some prices start to rise, self-destruct. Third, the many structural changes that are associated with the globalization process cause an increase in the number and extent of disturbances and hence increase the uncertainty surrounding monetary policy. This uncertainty refers to the interpretation of macroeconomic data or indicators, to the model parameters and to the economy model itself and so clouds the view of the monetary policy transmission mechanisms. Furthermore, the increase in financial and asset price volatility associated with globalization (Wagner and Berger, 2003) will force central banks to formulate their inflation forecasts in an environment of greater uncertainty so that the efficiency of monetary policy of inflation targeting central banks (but not only of them) might be impaired. Fourth and finally, even if globalization really erased the danger of inflation, and financial instability were suppressed by institutional precautions, this would not mean that central banks could relax, since globalization may generate another, potentially even greater danger, namely deflation.Insofar, the challenges of globalization for exchange rate and monetary policy are far-reaching and very demanding. Therefore, there is no opportunity for central banks to lean back or to reduce their efforts to fulfil their main task of maintaining price stability.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The paper analyses the challenges of globalization for exchange rate and monetary policy.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - It first deals with the implications of globalization for the choice of an appropriate exchange rate regime. Then it discusses different strategic aspects of monetary policy in the light of globalization. Finally, it examines the effect of globalization on inflation and the implications of this for the focus on monetary policy.\nFindings: - The main challenge of globalization for exchange rate policy refers to the choice of an appropriate exchange rate regime. Exchange rate policy is constrained by the financial instability tendency effect of globalization insofar as intermediate exchange rate regimes tend to be very unstable. However, globalization may also create the desire to change the focus of monetary policy. Globalization is sometimes argued to reduce inflationary pressures and therefore to \"ease\" the job of central banks. However, there are caveats with this conclusion or arguments that are discussed in this paper.\nOriginality/value: - The paper gives an innovative overview of the various challenges of globalization for monetary policy.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The evolution of brand management thinking over the last 25 years as recorded in the Journal of Product and Brand Management	[ "Brand engagement", "Brand experience", "Brand communities", "Brand management", "Brand love", "Brand relationships", "Consumer brand equity", "Financial brand equity", "Brand hate", "Brand as a person" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Since its inception, the Journal of Product and Brand Management (JPBM) has featured papers that advance the theoretical and managerial knowledge in the areas of product management and brand management. During the past 25 years, branding has drastically evolved - becoming global, strategic and interdisciplinary - in response to the ever-changing market, environmental and technological challenges organizations face when managing their brands and brand reputations. As a result, the JPBM has developed into an international and interdisciplinary journal.\nThe evolution of brand management over the past 25 years: From brands as transactional tools managed from within companies to brands as engagement entities co-created with others.\nDifficulties and challenges for brands: Increased expected accountability and loss of control\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: By outlining the evolution of brand management research over the past 25 years, as reported in the Journal of Product and Brand Management (JPBM), this paper aims to analyze the changes in the way branding has been approached in research, highlight the current challenges the discipline faces and suggest future research avenues that will hopefully further enrich brand management knowledge.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper includes internal historical literature review and commentary.\nFindings: After a thorough analysis of the journal's content, the contribution that the JPBM has made in the development of brand management knowledge over the past 25 years is highlighted. Eight major shifts in brand management research and thought, and three overarching difficulties and challenges, are identified.\nResearch limitations/implications: By solely focusing on the contributions published in the journal, by no means this review is exhaustive and includes all the contributions to the discipline. Its contribution is limited to the analysis of the work, and the evolution of brand management thinking, recorded in the JPBM.\nOriginality/value: The paper highlights the evolution of brand management thought and presents imperatives and challenges to guide future research in brand management.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
UK local councils reporting of biodiversity values: a stakeholder perspective	[ "UK", "Biodiversity", "Instrumental value", "Intrinsic value", "Local councils", "Stakeholders theory" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Biodiversity is the variety of all life found on the Earth. Species of plants, animals, microorganisms, the enormous diversity of genes in these species, the different ecosystems on the planet, are all part of a biologically diverse Earth. Biodiversity is important for its own sake and because human existence depends upon it (Norton, 1994). Although the importance of biodiversity has been emphasised from many perspectives, there is still a general lack of awareness of its importance (Union for Ethical BioTrade, 2016). This lack of awareness has been considered as one of the most serious barriers to biodiversity conservation (Convention on Biological Diversity, 2010). Human activities are causing plants and animals to go extinct. Neither does the rate of biodiversity loss seem to be slowing. International, national and local initiatives have been developed with the aim of promoting biodiversity conservation. The Convention on Biological Diversity, created and adopted by governments at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, set up, in 2010, a strategic plan. This aimed at reducing the loss of biodiversity, raising awareness of the importance of biodiversity conservation and developing a flexible framework to integrate biodiversity values into national and local strategies, accounting and reporting systems. To support and promote the implementation of the Strategic Plan of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the United Nations declared 2011-2020 as the Decade of Biodiversity and 2010 the Year of Biodiversity.\n2. Literature review and theoretical framework: 2.1 Biodiversity in the accounting discipline\n3. Research context: UK approach to biodiversity conservation: Among with many others countries, the UK is committed to halting biodiversity loss by 2020 as part of the Convention on Biological Diversity Strategy (Convention on Biological Diversity, 2010). The mechanisms through which biodiversity is protected are complex and achieved using a hierarchical framework of commitments transposed into national and local legislation. At the national level, the most important piece of legislation for biodiversity conservation is represented by the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP). The UK BAP, reviews the UK biodiversity resources, analyses the principal issues that affect biodiversity conservation and proposes a forward programme for action (UK Biodiversity Action Plan Steering Group, 1994)[2]. To implement the UK BAP, the UK Government established the UK Biodiversity Steering Group, which in 1995 published two reports (UK Biodiversity Steering Group, 1995a, b) that established the framework and criteria for identifying the species and the habitat types of conservation concern. It also encouraged the development of LBAPs as a means of ensuring that national targets are translated into effective action at the local level (UK Biodiversity Steering Group, 1995a, p. 6). The development of LBAPs was also encouraged with the aim of raising awareness of the importance of biodiversity conservation in the local context (UK Local Issues Advisory Group, 1997).\n4. Research methods: 4.1 Data analysis\n5. Results: 5.1 Levels of LBAP disclosures\n6. Discussion: Sustainability and environmental accounting have been criticised for acting as a legitimising tool, rather than as an accountability tool leading to the adoption of sustainable behaviours (Gray, 2010). A communitarian approach that envisages interchange between all levels in a community has been suggested as a way forward to overcome flaws identified in the current sustainability practices (Gray, 2010; Lehman, 1999). Several studies have argued that a communitarian approach to environmental accountability should be developed, particularly in the public sector, by providing information to the community about environmental impacts in order to create avenues for discussion on the relationship between humanity and nature (Burritt and Welch, 1997; Lehman, 1999; Pallot, 1992). LBAPs are examples of communitarian accountability tools based on a communication approach aimed at raising awareness of biodiversity's importance. These plans provide stakeholders with information about the impact that biodiversity losses will have on humanity and the natural world. This has the potential to stimulate discussions about the impact of human activities on biodiversity and lead to positive changes on stakeholders' approach to biodiversity (Lehman, 2002).\n7. Conclusions: This study sheds light on the use of biodiversity reporting as a communication tool to raise public awareness on the importance of biodiversity, by analysing 143 LBAPs published by UK local councils during the period 1998-2015. To evaluate whether local councils used LBAPs to promote awareness of biodiversity's importance among their stakeholders we first analysed the aims and objectives of the LBAPs and then the presence of narratives that explained biodiversity's importance. We found that most LBAPs analysed were used to diffuse a general understanding of biodiversity's importance. By using content analysis, the narratives on biodiversity's importance were analysed first to identify the main categories of biodiversity values used to explain biodiversity's importance and then to evaluate their consistency with the theoretical constructs of shallow (resource conservation, human welfare ecology and preservationism), intermediate (environmental stewardship and moral extensionism) or deep philosophies. Stakeholder theory was used to explain the philosophical foundations of these narratives.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of narratives in biodiversity reports as a mechanism to raise the awareness of biodiversity's importance. By classifying biodiversity narratives into 14 categories of biodiversity values this paper investigates whether the explanations for biodiversity conservation used by UK local councils are line with shallow, intermediate or deep philosophies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study used content analysis to examine the disclosures on biodiversity's importance in the biodiversity action plans published by UK local councils. The narratives were first identified and then allocated into 14 categories of biodiversity value. Then, they were ascribed to either shallow (resource conservation, human welfare ecology and preservationism), intermediate (environmental stewardship and moral extensionism) or deep philosophies.\nFindings: UK local councils explained biodiversity's importance mainly in terms of its instrumental value, in line with shallow philosophies such as human welfare ecology and resource conservation. UK local councils sought to raise awareness of biodiversity' importance by highlighting values that are important for the stakeholders that are able to contribute towards biodiversity conservation such as landowners, residents, visitors, business and industries. The authors also found that local councils' biodiversity strategies were strongly influenced by 2010, the International Year of Biodiversity.\nOriginality/value: This paper is one of the few accounting studies that engages with the literature on environmental ethics to investigate biodiversity. In line with stakeholder theory, it indicates that explanations on biodiversity's importance based on anthropocentric philosophies are considered more effective in informing those stakeholders whose behaviour needs to be changed to improve biodiversity conservation.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Millennials create conflict at work because they feel "hurt" by unfair attitudes of superiors	[ "Conflict", "Unfairness", "Inter-generational", "Millennials" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Previous research has largely blamed millennials for conflict, but many of their criticisms of managerial culture ring true and other generations may be equally complicit.\nMillennials ignored: Until the present study challenged the prevailing myths, researchers had largely ignored the perspectives of millennials. Instead, their studies of conflict at work were full of the perspectives of traditionalists, boomers and gen-Xers. Millennials have been portrayed as self-centered, disrespectful and over-confident of their abilities. In this stereotypical view, the egotistical millennials see X-ers and Boomers as much less competent, which leads them to challenge their more experienced co-workers and supervisors. By listening to the views of millennials about the reasons for conflict, the present study opened up different ways of looking at the problem.\nDysfunctional bosses: The researchers pointed out that the millennials' descriptions of workplace bullies and dysfunctional bosses rang true. The millennials spoke about bosses taking all the credit when things went well and who were often rude to subordinates. These findings are consistent with academic reports about office culture. The common observation about a pervasive culture of duplicity, or dishonesty, in organizational life, is also in line with much of the academic research about organizational cultures.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: American millennials who instigate conflict with their elders and superiors at work are doing so because they feel hurt by the unfairness they experience, according to new research. One of the major findings was that millennials initiated conflict because they were \"hurt.\" They felt insulted, disrespected, angry and aggrieved. The unfairness gnawed away at them and they felt obliged to speak up. The researchers pointed out that the millennials' descriptions of workplace bullies and dysfunctional bosses was supported by research.\nPractical implications: The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.\nOriginality/value: The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Consumer food safety knowledge: Segmentation of Irish home food preparers based on food safety knowledge and practice	[ "Food safety", "Survey", "Consumers", "Cluster analysis", "Refrigeration", "Ireland" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Many food materials may be contaminated by pathogenic bacteria at almost every stage of the food production, processing, retail and service chain, placing consumers at considerable risks of contracting food borne illness, leading to increased individual and societal costs in terms of discomfort/disability, loss of economic productivity and pressures on primary and public health resources. For this reason, significant legislative, industrial and public health authority efforts are devoted to establishing and maintaining effective surveillance and control of the commercial food chain. Such efforts may however be in vain, if they are not matched by safe food shopping, preparation, cooking and handling in the domestic environment. Commercial catering premises are the most frequently identified settings of foodborne disease outbreaks (World Health Organization, 2000; Clayton and Griffith, 2004; Olsen et al., 2000). However, most consumers overestimate the contribution of \"eating out\", and underestimate the contribution of their own domestic food storage and preparation practices, to the overall burden of food-borne illness (Clayton and Griffith, 2004). Thus most consumers are not aware, or do not accept, that more than half of all registered food-borne infections were contracted in the home (Beumer and Kusumaningrum, 2003). Concerns in this area have stimulated a number of previous investigations of domestic food preparation practices, using telephone surveys (Woodburn and Raab, 1997), postal surveys (Williamson et al., 1992), home visits (Worsfold and Griffith, 1996), observations (Jay et al., 1999a) and laboratory simulations (Meredith et al., 2001). Reviewing the findings of these studies, Daniels (1998) concluded that 99 per cent of cooks make a least one major food hygiene error in the preparation of each meal and that such errors are frequently compounded by cross contamination.Against such a background, there is an urgent need to improve domestic food hygiene knowledge and practice (Clayton and Griffith, 2004). However, consumer education activities are expensive to mount, maintain and evaluate. Thus it is particularly important to identify, target, and reach, higher risk consumer groups correctly.This study uses principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) in the identification of such higher risk groups.\nMethodology: As part of a wider study, 102 sample locations on the island of Ireland were chosen by the Marketing Research Bureau of Ireland (MRBI), using methods to ensure that the results obtained would be representative of the entire population and free from interviewer bias. Appropriate quota controls on the number of people in the household, the occupation of the chief wage earner and the employment status of the main food preparer were put in place, and the socio-demographic profile of respondents have been previously described by Kennedy et al. (2005). Ten or more households in each location were visited using a \"random route procedure\". Residents were not given notification of the visit and homes in each area were \"cold called\" until the quota and target number (ten) had been achieved in each area. In total 1,020 households participated in this survey. All the respondents were identified as responsible for food preparation and cooking in their household. All the answers were unprompted. The questionnaire included a number of questions similar to those used in previous surveys in the UK (Walker, 1996), the USA (Altekruse et al., 1995), Australia (Jay et al., 1999b) and Ireland (Food Safety Authority of Ireland, 1998).On completion of the questionnaire respondents were asked to allow a swab sample to be taken from the surface of their domestic refrigerator. The methods used in the analysis of such swabs, and the results obtained have been previously described Kennedy et al. (2005).Multivariate analysis of data from the food safety questionnaire\nResults: 1. PCA\nDiscussion: In this study the respondent population was successfully segmented in terms of their food safety knowledge and reported practice. Cluster analysis has been previously used to segment consumers based on preference data for the purpose of target marketing of products (Murray and Delahunty, 2000), to identify dietary patterns (Kristeller and Rodin, 1989; Wirfalt and Jeffery, 1997) and to segment consumers based on attitudes towards food purchase (Ryan et al., 2004).Many studies have shown that consumer food safety behaviour and knowledge differ according to demographic and socio-economic factors such as gender, age, educational level and economic status (Altekruse et al., 1999; Fein et al., 1995; Johnson et al., 1998; Klontz et al., 1991; Schlech et al., 1983). This study is the first study to identify the demographic characteristics of higher risk groups (in terms of food safety) and also to relate the levels of food safety knowledge/practice to levels of contamination in the refrigerators of such at risk groups using PCA and HCA.Three cluster/groups of respondent emerged from the analysis. Cluster 1 had the characteristics of Careful food handlers. These food handlers were more likely to know about safe cooking practices but less likely to know about familiar bacteria than respondents in other clusters. Careful food handlers were significantly more likely than Cluster 3 but less likely than Cluster 2 to have microbiological indicators of contamination.Cluster 2 had the characteristics of Cavalier food handlers. Cavalier food handlers were less knowledgeable than Careful food handlers or Cluster 3 in terms of safe cooking practices, prevention of cross-contamination and unfamiliar bacteria. Cavalier food handlers scored worse than the population average on all microbiological factors.Cluster 3 had the characteristics of Conscientious food handlers. These food handlers did not have the lowest score on any knowledge factors and were less likely than other clusters to have microbial indicators of contamination in their refrigerators.The group displaying and reporting undesirable domestic practices in relation to food safety, the Cavalier food handlers, were identified as young (<45 years of age), male, respondents from urban areas and/or those with university, other third level or professional education.This study has shown that the Cavalier food handlers were more knowledgeable about familiar bacteria but less knowledgeable about unfamiliar bacteria than the other clusters. This is not entirely in agreement with other findings (Altekruse et al., 1999; Woodburn and Raab, 1997; Altekruse et al., 1995; McIntosh et al., 1994), which reported that knowledge about pathogens is an important motivator for safe food practice. In this study, knowledge of how to prevent cross contamination and awareness of how to cook food thoroughly were important pieces of knowledge in distinguishing factors and also lacking among Cavalier food handlers. These factors may be important in enhancing food safety practice as demonstrated by microbiologically cleaner refrigerators.\nConclusion: This study has shown that there is a positive relationship between food safety knowledge and safe food handling practices. What is now needed is to consider what practical ideas on food hygiene measures can be put in place. For example, it is important that the at risk group, the Cavalier food handlers, are given personalised information about food safety hazards to avoid the risk of an underestimated perceived personal risk status (Frewer et al., 1994).The information in the food safety message to the Cavalier food handler should include guidelines for the prevention of cross contamination and the correct methods of checking that meat and poultry are sufficiently cooked. The message should also include some information about food borne pathogens.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Consumers have an important role to play in preventing food-borne disease. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate that consumers could be segmented successfully based on their food safety knowledge and practice.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) were applied to data on food safety knowledge and practice, collected by individual face-to-face questionnaires with domestic food preparers (n=1,020) and refrigerator swabs (n=726).\nFindings: - From the food safety questionnaires four factors were identified as important for inclusion in the HCA. This analysis identified three groups of consumers based on the knowledge factors; they were \"Conscientious\" (21 per cent), \"Cavalier\" (25.4 per cent) and \"Careful\" (53.3 per cent) food handlers. In terms of food safety knowledge, the higher risk consumers were found to be in the Cavalier food handler group. This group of food handlers also engaged in less hygienic food handling practices. This group were more likely than the other groups to be less than 45 years of age, male, living in urban environments and those with higher levels of formal education.\nOriginality/value: - The identification of consumer groups with respect to food safety is important as it can inform more effective tailoring and targeting of food consumer safety education programmes to reach higher risk groups and individuals. This is the first study to not only identify the demographic characteristics of higher risk groups, but also to relate the levels of food safety knowledge/practice to levels of contamination in the fridges of such at risk groups using HCA and PCA.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Food and nutrition education in private Indian secondary schools	[ "Curriculum", "Adolescents", "Schools", "Food and nutrition" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The rapidly changing lifestyles and food choice patterns associated with the nutrition transition (Mehan et al., 2012) have contributed to an increased prevalence of overweight and obesity among Indian adolescents (Khadilkar et al., 2011; Midha et al., 2012; Wang et al., 2009). Because of the strong tracking of adolescent BMI into adult life (Biro and Wien, 2010; Steinberger et al., 2009), it is likely that these increases in overweight and obesity will raise the burden of non-communicable diseases among adults in India. This disease burden could severely affect the health and quality of life of about 1.2 billion Indian citizens, causing a massive drain of the public health resources of the country (Gopalan, 2013).\nMethods: The study adopted a qualitative research design (Sandelowski, 2000), underpinned by the paradigm of social constructivism (Denzin and Lincoln, 2011). Social constructivism suggests that individuals' experiences are determined by the culture in which they live and are formed through their interactions with the family and community as well as through historical and social customs that operate in their lives (Creswell, 2013). This interpretive framework allows the researchers to examine the participants' views of the situation being studied (Creswell, 2009).\nResults: The 52 interviewees identified a number of themes associated with the secondary school food and nutrition curriculum and the attainment of food skills. These themes included both positive and negative views of the stakeholders towards the current curriculum which are described below.\nDiscussion: The most striking feature which emerged during the 52 interviews was the unanimity in reporting of themes from all the stakeholder groups. The key findings were that knowledge of food and nutrition is essential and this knowledge was predominantly transferred through Biology and Home Science lessons; the nutrition curriculum was too theoretical and limited; the curriculum was contradicted by the school food services, and the curriculum did not support the learning of two major food skills i.e. planning of meals and food purchasing.\nConclusion: This study provides essential information on the views of key stakeholders in the Indian education system towards the food and nutrition curriculum and the attainment of food skills. Through these 52 interviews, a number of shortcomings of the current food and nutrition curriculum were revealed, raising questions over the effectiveness of nutrition education imparted in Indian schools. The limited food skill training received at home and at school reinforces the need for an effective skills-focussed curriculum.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The current Indian secondary school curriculum has been criticised for its failure to deliver relevant skills-based food and nutrition education for adolescents. The purpose of this paper is to understand the views of adolescents, their parents, teachers and school principals on the present food and nutrition curriculum and the role of the schools in developing food skills.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Semi-structured interviews were held with 15 students aged 14-15 years, 15 parents, 12 teachers and ten principals in ten private schools in Kolkata, India. The interview questions were primarily based on the content, merits and demerits of the curriculum. The digitally recorded data were transcribed verbatim and analysed thematically.\nFindings: All the 52 interviewees observed that the food and nutrition curriculum created awareness in students about the importance of healthy eating. However, they also described certain weaknesses of the curriculum. These included lack of practical assignments, an out-dated and a limited curriculum, which failed to initiate critical thinking and was contradicted by sales practices in the school food environment. The interviewees prioritised the inclusion of food skills in the curriculum.\nPractical implications: The emerging evidence suggests the need for the development of a skills-focussed food and nutrition curriculum to encourage healthy eating behaviours among adolescents.\nOriginality/value: Most of the work on food and nutrition education has come from developed nations - this is the first study in the Indian context of the secondary school food and nutrition curriculum.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
What policyholder and contract features determine the evolution of non-life insurance customer relationships? A case study analysis	[ "Customer retention", "Customer development", "Customer acquisition", "Econometric analysis", "Non-life insurance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The competition for new insurance customers has increased during recent years. Established firms drive their strategic agenda along profitability and growth priorities. Such guidelines include increasing profitability in terms of adequate premium levels and risk selection, growth in saturated markets through offering competitive prices and developing new interaction points, rejuvenating the customer portfolio and improving customer loyalty while increasing retention (Maas et al., 2008; Bieck et al., 2010). At the same time, the world of retailing has changed dramatically. Especially in non-life insurance, customers can compare the prices of products much more easily since they are available online. They can use new interaction points such as insurers' websites and online brokers, to buy insurance. The emergence of aggregator platforms has also had an impact on shopping behavior (Bieck et al., 2013). The above elements may lead to changes in the composition of insurers' portfolios, the customer base and the products customers hold.\n2. Research framework and development of hypotheses: A major reasoning of this research and a practical application of customer relationship management is the common understanding that it is more cost efficient and effective to expand on or to retain an existing business relationship than to acquire a new customer (Prinzie and Van Den Poel, 2006; Kamakura, 2007; Verhoef et al., 2010). To develop a long-term relationship, it is important to understand the customer characteristics that influence cross-buying and loyalty (Frost et al., 2008). Starting from the above, we focus on the following three areas of interest (see Figure 1):\n3. Data set and statistical methods: In this section, we describe the data available for our study. We outline the data set, provide a sketch of the available variables and introduce the notations used in the sequel to this paper. Then, we introduce the statistical methods used in our empirical analysis.\n4. Customer acquisition: results and discussion: In this section, we statistically describe the data characterizing newly acquired customers in the period from 2005 to 2014 and study H1a-H1d introduced in Section 2.1. To strengthen the observed results in the descriptive statistics (see Table II) and to statistically verify the hypotheses, we apply two statistical tests, an ANOVA and a kh2-test as introduced in Section 3.2. Furthermore, we perform a logistic regression on the urbanicity criterion. The results are reported in Table III.\n5. Customer development: results and discussion: 5.1 Descriptive statistics\n6. Customer lapses: results and discussion: 6.1 Descriptive statistics\n7. Conclusion: Through this study, we aim to gain new insights on the development of customer-insurer relationships and, thus, potential indications of the management of customer acquisition, development and retention. We provide a practical contribution to the understanding of the customer base (Ganesh et al., 2000) and identify selected purchase and loyalty patterns as described by Oliver (1999) that can help to improve the balance of strategic acquisition and retention decisions (Reinartz et al., 2005). Based on a large-scale longitudinal data set of non-life insurance contracts in Switzerland, several conclusions can be drawn. Table XII summarizes the hypotheses considered in this work.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Over the last decade, technological and social trends have significantly influenced the relationship between customers and insurers. New buying patterns, price comparison platforms and the usage of different interaction channels driving single-product purchases and impacting lapses have influenced insurers' customer portfolios and development. The purpose of this paper is to study the features driving the customer relationship along three areas, namely, customer acquisition, development and retention.\nDesign/methodology/approach: After defining 14 related hypotheses, the authors use econometric analyses to quantitatively support these hypotheses in the three areas of interest. The authors build on a large-scale longitudinal data set from a Swiss insurance company covering the period from 2005 to 2014 and including 2,757,000 customer-years. The data comprise information on private customers, their contract history, including coverage and losses and the channels used for buying insurance. This analysis focuses on the two most common non-life insurance products, namely, household/liability and car insurance.\nFindings: The authors provide descriptive statistics and results from econometric analyses to determine the significant features and patterns affecting customer development and retention. Among the main results, the authors underline the significant influence on cross-selling given by the customer's age and the interaction channel. Customers from rural regions are more loyal and likely to conduct cross-buying when compared to their peers from urban regions. Car insurance holders are more likely to lapse than household/liability insurance clients. Finally, while newly acquired customers tend to buy only a single product, the authors show the importance of cross-selling for retaining customers. In fact, customer retention is positively influenced by the number of products hold.\nResearch limitations/implications: This work is relevant for academics and practitioners alike, adding a quantitative basis to the understanding of managing customer relationships and for the development of further prospective models. Further work could investigate or add products, extend the study to other companies and focus on customer development with time.\nOriginality/value: This study explores a large-scale longitudinal data set. The analyses of customer acquisition, development and retention can support insurers to construct their own models for customer relationship management.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Empirical research on the technology opportunities analysis based on morphology analysis and conjoint analysis	[ "Research and development", "Light‐emitting diodes" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Technology opportunities analysis, introduced by the Technology Policy and Assessment Center at Georgia Tech (Porter and Detampel, 1995), aims at providing insight into technology development trends and possible configurations. Unfortunately, technology opportunities are not presented to us with a fixed form in advance, so technical managers and R&D personnel need to excavate and explore them over time.Morphology analysis (MA) provides a method to identify the character and elements of a system, and investigate the configuration of an existing system and other possible configurations the system could adopt. Through analysis of possible configurations, researchers can find the most likely configuration a system could have (Majer, 2007; Leinhard, 1985). This method allows models of complex problems to be included in a structuring expression. MA has been widely used in new product and technique development, searching for technology opportunities, strategic decision making and facilitating potential inventions.The procedure of MA is as follows (Yoon and Park, 2007; Lee et al., 2007). First, the fundamental functions of the subject are defined. In this step, the features of the subject are broken down into several attributes. The next step is to list all possible levels in which each attribute can manifest itself. Third, all combinations that can produce unique sets of levels are investigated. The number of combinations can be calculated by multiplying the number of levels associated with each attribute together. The fourth step is to attempt to find practical instances for each combination. The final step is to eliminate the unfeasible combinations and list the remaining combinations in order of importance.Studies on technology opportunities analysis have mainly focused on the combination and improvement of multi-methods of technology forecasting (TF) (see, for example, Porter and Detampel, 1995; Yoon and Park, 2007; Yoon, 2007; Sanz-Casado et al., 2007; Li and Qiao, 2007; Lu, 2006). Some software has also been developed to analyse technology opportunities, such as a customer software package called the Technology Opportunities Analysis Knowbot (TOAK), developed by the Technology Policy and Assessment Center to scan major national and international publication databases, as well as a major US patent database. TOAK captures and analyzes pertinent publication data, including keyword, affiliation (company, state, and country), and co-word analyses. Further statistical analysis provides growth curves, institutional profiles and technology maps. Another piece of software - Tech-pioneer - was developed by Yoon (2007) using textual information from technological document databases and applying morphology analysis to derive promising alternatives and conjoint analysis to evaluate their priority.Bibliometrics is a set of methods used to study or measure knowledge. Citation analysis, keyword analysis and content analysis are commonly used in bibliometric methods. It utilizes quantitative analysis and statistics to describe patterns of publication within a given field or body of literature. Researchers may use bibliometric methods to determine the influence of a single writer, and to explore the historical development of subject fields and connections among knowledge. One common way of conducting bibliometric research is to use the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) database, the Science Citation Index (SCI) database, the Engineering Index (EI) database or the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI) database to trace citations. The bibliometrics analysis method is also used in technology development trends and hot-point analysis (see, for example, McCain, 1990; Daim et al., 2006; White and McCain, 1998). These studies give us many suggestions for the further research.One area of bibliometric research uses various methods of citation analysis in order to establish relationships between authors and their work. Citation analysis uses citations in scholarly works to establish links. Many different links can be ascertained, such as links between authors, between scholarly works, between journals, between fields, or even between countries. Data from citation indexes can be analyzed to determine the popularity and impact of specific articles, authors, and publications. Using citation analysis to gauge the importance of one's work, information scientists also use citation analysis to assess quantitatively the core journal titles and watershed publications in particular disciplines, the interrelationships between authors from different institutions and schools of thought, and related data about the sociology of academia.Conjoint analysis is a statistical method used in market research to determine how people value different features that make up a product or service. The objective of conjoint analysis is to determine what combination of a limited number of attributes is most influential on decision making. A controlled set of potential products is shown to respondents and by analyzing how customers make preferences between these products, the implicit valuation of the individual elements making up the product or service can be determined. These implicit valuations, often called part-value, can be used to create market models that estimate the market share, revenue and even profitability of new designs.In the current research into technology opportunities analysis, the focus is mainly to use text mining for the analysis of technology development trends and technology development opportunities. The main objective of this research is to present a hybrid approach of technology opportunities analysis based on bibliometrics analysis, morphology analysis and conjoint analysis. The proposed method solves the limitation of a single technology forecasting method, and can take great advantage of each method. We use technology documents and a technology morphology matrix to determine all possible technology projects. We then use document keywords vectors to identify technology that has not yet been developed, combined with a joint analysis method with the cited frequency of technology documents to calculate a utility score for each technology project. Finally according to the utility scores and the technologies experts, a comprehensive evaluation of technology opportunities analysis is presented.The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. In section 2, a hybrid approach framework of technology opportunities analysis is presented. Section 3 presents a case example to demonstrate the analysis process of the hybrid method, and assures its usability in a practical application. Section 4 concludes with implications and limitations of current research, and considers future research from both managerial and technical perspectives.\n2. The framework of technology opportunities analysis based on BA, MA, and CA: Numerous technologies have been developed for the purpose of supporting the TF process in a systematic manner, such as technology foresight, technology roadmaps, bibliometrics analysis and patent analysis (Kim et al., 2008; Yoon and Park, 2005), and so on. Among them, morphology analysis, a representative qualitative technique in TF, has been utilized for new product development (NPD) and to identify technology opportunities. However, conventional MA is subject to various limitations as it is non-quantitative, vague and static, there is no scientific or systematic way of establishing the morphology of technology, and it is difficult to prioritize the alternatives. So, conventional MA outcomes typically do not provide practical technology opportunities.Due to complex contexts, TF experts agree more and more that models should be used in combination. Technical trend analysis usually incorporates the organizational and political scenarios that will influence technologies future development (Daim et al., 2006). Therefore, in order to overcome the limitation of conventional morphology analysis, a hybrid approach to identify technology opportunities is presented in this paper, combining the BA, MA, and CA methods. The technology morphology matrix is not simply generated by the experiences and technology backgrounds of technology experts. In this paper, the mapping knowledge domains generated using BA are sent to technology experts as background information. Then, judgment on the utilities of technology configuration, which used to be dealt with by a conventional public survey, are replaced by citation analysis of each technology document, which can avoid subjective preference and private intuition. Finally, the technology alternatives are prioritized by CA, which can well solve the limitations of conventional methodologies may produce voluminous desultory information but may not be capable of exploring meaningful technology opportunities. Therefore, the proposed method is more scientific and credible, and this method not only aims to propose evaluation criteria for technology opportunities, but also gives orientation suggestions for enterprise technology research and development. The framework can be seen in Figure 1.The procedure of applying this method for excavating technology opportunities analysis is composed of five steps. First, technology documents in the technology area of interest are collected from the SCI and EI databases. Second, these documents are converted into a standardized table, and multi-dimensional scaling analysis and mapping knowledge domains are generated by BA. Third, these results, as background information, are sent to technology experts to generate a morphology matrix, and all kinds of technology configurations can be listed by permutation and combination. Fourth, technology documents keywords vectors, connected with the morphology matrix, are developed by keywords analysis. And based on the technology documents keywords vectors, the morphology of existing documents is represented and the unoccupied configurations of all possible alternatives are derived by eliminating existing configurations. Fifth, the utilities of each technology configuration are calculated by citation analysis, and then the priority of technology alternatives is presented.According to the priority of technology alternatives, where low scores are regarded as no technology opportunities to development, for those with satisfying scores there are two contexts. On the one hand, if they have been developed, they can be considered as the main and hot technologies at present; on the other hand, if they belong to unoccupied configurations, these technologies can be called technology opportunities with promise for future development.\n3. An empirical study: For the 2008 Beijing Olympics, many high technologies were adopted to support stadium building, transport network, city planning, and so on. This paper takes one of these high technologies - a blue light-emitting diode (LED) based on GaN illumination technology - as a case study to illustrate the benefits of this proposed approach.Due to reduced power consumption, robustness, and long lifetime, solid-state lighting based on light-emitting diodes (LEDs) opens up new opportunities in general illumination applications. New technologies in epitaxy, processing and packaging used in high-brightness LEDs improve the flux and input current of the LED, and accelerate the possibility of replacing incandescent and fluorescent lamps in conventional forms of illumination. Many governments and companies have paid attention to the development of these new technologies.3.1 Generating morphology matrix of blue LED base on GaN illumination technology\n4. Conclusions: This paper proposes a new hybrid approach based on BA, MA and CA to help identify new technology development opportunities. The proposed hybrid process is illustrated with a case example of a blue light-emitting diode (LED) based on GaN. The core advantage of this approach is the combination of expert opinion and the analysis of quantitative document data to realize the technology forecasting process. The results of analysis prove that this hybrid approach can not only solve the limitations of using a single method, but can also provide practical guides. However, the proposed approach is also subject to several limitations when tackling the intractable issue of forecasting. First, the effectiveness of this method mostly depends on the accuracy of the technology morphology matrix generation, and needs the exclusiveness of levels in each attribute in the technology morphology matrix. For example, materials used in the interfacial layer, such as Al2O, SiC and Si, are exclusive in Table V. Second, it is a tedious process to identify technology configuration opportunities manually. The best way to solve this problem is to develop a machine identification method to generate keywords. Finally, although using the citation frequency of documents to replace the traditional process of subjective judgment when calculate the part-worth of each configuration is easy to some extent, the issue of citation-lag is a painful problem.With regard to these limitations, future research could include the following themes. First, analytic tools, such as technology trees and patent maps, could be useful in defining the morphology matrix of the technology, as they are able to portray the characteristics of a technology. Second, an effective technology dictionary should be developed to identify and match keywords extracted from results of bibliometric analysis. Third, a better way to estimate the citation-lag distribution of the value of technological documents should be used to indicate the real value of patents.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to propose a new hybrid approach based on bibliometrics analysis (BA), morphology analysis (MA) and conjoint analysis (CA) to help identify new technology development opportunities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A new hybrid approach based on BA, MA and CA has been conducted to help identify new technology development opportunities. The proposed hybrid process is illustrated with a case example of blue light-emitting diode (LED) based on GaN.\nFindings: - In this paper, the proposed hybrid process is illustrated with a case example of document information from a blue light-emitting diode (LED) based on GaN documents database. The results show that the configuration \"Al2O3+MBE+two dimensional photonic crystal\" should be given greater attention with respect to R&D activities in future.\nPractical implications: - This paper is of interest for technology opportunities analysis practitioners and policymakers at the industrial and government levels.\nOriginality/value: - This paper proposes a new hybrid approach of technology opportunities analysis based on bibliometrics analysis, morphology analysis and conjoint analysis methods.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Sustainability champions? Academic identities and sustainability curricula in higher education	[ "New Zealand", "Sustainability", "Metaphor", "Academic identity", "Interdisciplinary", "High education curricula" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: catching the \"third wave\" of Education for Sustainability?: Whilst many universities have adopted Education for Sustainability (EfS) policies and practices, the integration of sustainability into tertiary curricula and pedagogy in a way that achieves long-lasting curriculum change has proven much more difficult to achieve (Christie et al., 2014; Cotton et al., 2009; Ryan and Tilbury, 2013b; Thomas, 2004; Vaughter et al., 2013; Wals and Blewitt, 2010; Winter and Cotton, 2012). As Vaughter et al. (2013) argue, higher education institutes have made some headway in \"greening\" the campus but much less progress in \"greening the Ivory Tower\". Wals and Blewitt (2010, p. 56) refer to this deeper form of integration as the \"third wave\" of sustainability in higher education or \"a university's attempt to re-orient teaching, learning, research and university-community relationships in such a way that sustainability becomes an emergent property of its core activities\".\nEmbedding sustainability in the higher education curriculum: Wals and Blewitt (2010, p. 56) state that \"sustainability in higher education is no longer novel\" and has experienced three different \"waves\" of development over the past 50 years. The \"first wave\" in the 1970s and 1980s centred on the \"environment\" and led to the rise of environmental engineering and environmental studies. This was followed by the \"second wave\" in the 1990s, which responded to the growing number of declarations and commitments to sustainability in higher education, such as the Talloires Declaration (1990) (for further details on these declarations see Lozano et al., 2013; Tilbury, 2013). As a result, many universities attempted to reduce their ecological footprint and \"green\" the campus through more effective management of their facilities, reduction of energy consumption, sustainable and ecological initiatives and the promotion of recycling and awareness of sustainability issues (Christie et al., 2014; Cotton et al., 2009; Thomas, 2004; Vaughter et al., 2013; Wals and Blewitt, 2010). The \"third wave\" of EfS, which requires a re-orientation of the curriculum and pedagogy for sustainability in higher education, has proven more difficult to implement for many universities (Calder and Clugston, 2003; Cotton et al., 2009; Green, 2015; Ryan and Tilbury, 2013b; Thomas, 2004; Wals and Blewitt, 2010; Winter and Cotton, 2012).\nAcademic identities and Education for Sustainability: Critical to the success or otherwise of EfS in tertiary institutions is the role of sustainability advocates or \"champions\" (Calder and Clugston, 2003; Ferrer-Balas et al., 2008; Ryan and Tilbury, 2013b). Ryan and Tilbury (2013a, 2013b, p. 285) describe these to be \"educators with experience [in EfS] and the drive to support it\". Their role is vital in the initiation, support and ongoing delivery of EfS. For example, Calder and Clugston (2003) describe that a key reason for the vulnerability of EfS in higher education is the reliance on a \"critical champion\" who often brings in external funding but conversely reduces the viability of an EfS programme if this champion leaves.\nMethod: Similar to other countries reviewed, the uptake of EfS within New Zealand tertiary institutes has been patchy, with Chapman et al. (2006) reporting that efforts have been minimal and impacts negligible and the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (2007, p. 20) stating that \"initiatives for sustainability have been largely ad hoc, isolated and uncoordinated within and between universities\". More recent research describing ways to embed sustainability within tertiary curricula (Mann, 2011; Spicer et al., 2011) and support for distributed leadership for sustainability in higher education (Williams, 2008) gave inspiration to this research which sought to investigate the capacity of academic staff at a New Zealand university to teach environmental literacy through EfS.\nAcademic identities: sustainability \"saviours\", \"nurturers\" and \"strugglers\": Through a narrative analysis of the participants' interviews and the metaphor(s) they used, the authors constructed three broad identities held by these sustainability champions: the sustainability \"saviour\"; the sustainability \"nurturer\"; and the sustainability \"struggler\". The focus on these three identities is not an attempt to pigeon-hole these academics into a fixed or narrow identity nor is it to claim that their identities were restricted to the one narrative portrayed here. As Juntrasook et al. (2013) suggest, academic identities often simultaneously hold contradictory and complementary plotlines and characteristics. Instead, the aim in identifying and describing these identities is to highlight how some characteristics of sustainability champions coalesced around certain key traits, ideas and experiences. Furthermore, these shared identities often reflected disciplinary characteristics which impeded or enabled such identities to emerge. Table II provides a summary of the participants and their metaphorical images.\nChallenges of interdisciplinary teaching: As discussed earlier, interdisciplinary EfS approaches are still rare in many universities in the Western world (Jones et al., 2010; Vaughter et al., 2013). Jones et al. (2010) suggest that where it is practised in higher education, it appears on the margins of the mainstream, which remain dominated by discipline-based practices and structures. In this research, a majority of questionnaire respondents (60 per cent; n = 52) believed that environmental sustainability should have a place in all disciplines taught at the university on a voluntary basis, with a smaller number believing it should be compulsory (n = 22) or confined to a small number of specific disciplines (n = 17). This approach was summed up by Gaby (Humanities and Social Sciences), who stated that whilst she thought the university had \"quite a strong focus on sustainability from different disciplines [...] it's not necessarily across the disciplines\".\nDiscussion: Whilst the work of sustainability champions in higher education has been noted before (Lozano, 2006; Wahr et al., 2013), few studies have explored the identities, experiences and roles of this group. Rather than viewing these champions as a homogenous group, this research highlights the diverse range of identities that such academics hold. This was apparent by the wide range of metaphors participants used to illustrate how they positioned themselves in relation to the dominant academic narrative. A metaphorical narrative analysis provided a creative entry point into the participants' perceptions, beliefs and feelings, as well as a sense of their everyday realities (Lackoff and Johnson, 1980). By analysing these metaphors within their wider narratives of experience in EfS, three broad identities were constructed - the sustainability saviour, nurturer and struggler - and it is likely that many more such identities could be found within tertiary institutions.\nConcluding thoughts: Catching the \"third wave\" of EfS is a difficult task. The findings of this study show that to make sustainability the \"golden thread\" (Lozano et al., 2013) that runs throughout the entire university system, thus creating an \"ecological university\" (Barnett, 2011), significant changes are required. Recognising the vital role that sustainability champions play in higher education is a crucial part of any change, as they enable and speed up the whole adoption of any new innovation in higher education (Lozano, 2006). \"Champions\" in this study were doing important and innovative work in EfS (interdisciplinary, transformative, holistic, collaborative, action focussed). They were even going beyond the requirements of transformative pedagogies, drawing on culturally aware partnership models and dialogical approaches. Lozano (2006) argues that by neglecting to support these innovators, universities can run the risk of losing some of their most valuable supporters.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of academic staff who are committed to embedding sustainability within tertiary curricula and pedagogy.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The focus of this paper is on a New Zealand university. A survey of staff was undertaken and in-depth interviews conducted with 11 sustainability \"champions\". A narrative variant of thematic analysis was used to examine the ways these sustainability \"champions\" made sense of the work they do. Through an analysis of their metaphors and metaphorical language, a sense of the identities that they held as educators of sustainability was gained.\nFindings: Three types of identities emerged - the sustainability \"saviour\", \"nurturer\" and \"struggler\". These identities reflected the champion's experiences, disciplinary affiliations and pedagogical approaches. Interdisciplinarity emerged as a key tenet and challenge for such sustainability champions.\nOriginality/value: This paper provides rare insights into the experiences, identities and teaching approaches of sustainability champions within higher education. It highlights the need for university-wide conversations and cross-discipline support for such academics.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Strategic response to Industry 4.0: an empirical investigation on the Chinese automotive industry	[ "Automotive industry", "Empirical investigation", "Industry 4.0", "Technological", "Organizational and environmental framework" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Intensified competition in the market and rapid changes in demand have pushed companies to adapt advanced technologies to improve smart manufacturing. Industry 4.0 is the current trend of automation and data exchange in production technology. As the fourth industrial revolution, Industry 4.0 extends the advanced digital technologies to a broader content, which mainly include cyber-physical systems (CPS), internet of things (IoT), and cloud computing.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Industry 4.0 review\n3. Research model and hypotheses: 3.1 Technological dimension\n4. Research methodology: Items for survey measurement have been adopted from the literature, as discussed in Section 2, with the questionnaire developed using a five-point Likert scale. The reason for using a Likert scale is that strategic response to Industry 4.0 can be considered as involving cognitive understanding (Byrch et al., 2007), and Likert scale has been widely confirmed as an appropriate tool for questionnaire surveys (Vinodkumar and Bhasi, 2010). Researchers that used questionnaires to investigate the possible impacts of Industry 4.0 include Schmidt et al. (2015), Veza et al. (2015), and Sackey and Bester (2016).\n5. Results: Though it is well known that the size of the company would impact the access to the advanced technology, further analysis is conducted to identify whether the same phenomena applied when the nature of the company changed. F-test was applied to conduct a significance test for H4. The least squares use the mean differences to test the variance so as to determine the variables that cause significant impact. Results of the significance test are shown in Table IV, in which F-value is 0.727 while the significance value is 0.575. Such results indicate that there is insufficient evidence in showing significant differences between various natures of companies with regards to the application of advanced manufacturing technologies. Thus, H4 is rejected.\n6. Discussion: The contribution of this study is to present the existing body of knowledge on Industry 4.0 by examining factors that affect the adoption of advanced technology in automotive companies. Going through the results, some interesting implications can also be delineated based on the TOE framework. From technical dimension, the results confirmed the importance of technique development on the technology adoption. First, information technology represents the cornerstone of the advanced technologies of Industry 4.0. The maturity of information technology covers the infrastructure, readiness, competence, complexity, compatibility, and standard. This is in line with Yeh et al. (2015) with regard to the role of IT.M. in the technology adoption. Second, the results highlight the role of IT.M. in the automotive industry. As one of the typical industries that obsessed with applying advanced technology, the automotive industry recognizes the value of technology and disseminates the technology throughout the industry, which conversely encourages the breakthrough of technology and theory in automobile industry. Third, the results confirmed the critical role of T.I. of the adoption of advanced technology for Industry 4.0. This implies the necessity of exploring intrinsic force of technology that drives the adoption. Fourth, this study confirmed the most significant role of perceived benefit in driving technology adoption. This result is consistent with other findings (e.g. Racherla and Hu, 2008; Lin, 2014; Leung et al., 2015; Osakwe et al., 2016) that realize the role of perceived benefit in the adoption of Industry 4.0's advanced technologies.\n7. Conclusions and limitations: This research investigation enhances the literature of Industry 4.0. In comparison to previous research, the contribution of this study first figured out the factors that had the positive impact on the intention of using APT for Industry 4.0. Second, TOE framework revealed that analyzing factors from different dimensions can extensively represent the strategic response to Industry 4.0 in the automotive industry. The TOE framework posits the relationship between the increased use of advanced production technology and six factors including IT.M., T.I., P.B., C.S.N., E.P., and G.P. The model is validated based on a survey that is distributed to automotive companies in China. Through results analysis, this paper found that automotive companies tend to demonstrate the highest willingness to adopt advanced production technology when they have noticed the great perceived benefit from Industry 4.0. Contrary to what the hypotheses states, the relationship between the technology adoption and C.S.N. was not significant, which requires further exploration from the other organizational perspective that incorporated with product characteristics. In addition, the impacts of factors \"IT maturity\" and \"technological incentive\" are more significant than that of \"external pressure\" and \"government policy.\" This implies that the direct and internal factors play an important role in influencing the technology adoption. From a managerial perspective, this study offers a guidance for company managers to check their current technology adoption status in the Industry 4.0 era.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the strategic response to Industry 4.0 for Chinese automotive industry and to identify the critical factors for its successful implementation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A technological, organizational, and environmental framework is used to build the structural models, and statistical tools are used to validate the model. The data analysis helps to determine which factors have impact on the strategic response and whether their relationships are positive or negative. Interpretive structural modeling method is applied to further analyze these derived factors for depicting the relationship.\nFindings: The result shows that company size and nature do not increase the use of advanced production technologies, while other factors have positive impacts on improving the technology adoption among the companies surveyed.\nPractical implications: A strategic response to Industry 4.0 not only helps in improving organizational competitiveness, but it also has social and economic implications. For this purpose, empirical data are collected to measure the understanding of Industry 4.0 in the Chinese automotive industry.\nOriginality/value: Despite the fact that the Chinese Government has proposed the \"Made in China 2025\" approach as a way to promote smart manufacturing, little empirical evidence exists in the literature validating company's perspective toward Industry 4.0. This paper is to fill the research gap.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Improving immunization practices in United States hospitals and health systems	[ "Public health", "Continuous quality improvement", "Health policy", "Infectious diseases", "Vaccines or vaccination", "Surveillance or screening" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The World Health Organization (2000) describes a health system of a country as the organizations, institutions, and resources dedicated to the production of successful health actions. World Health Organization provides a framework to implement system building blocks to achieve goals and measurable outcomes for health systems (Duran et al., 2011) which strive for four primary goals: improved overall community health, responsiveness, financial risk protection, and improved efficiency (Duran et al., 2011; Lahariya, 2015). Improving health includes ensuring equity and access, responsiveness refers to meeting needs and expectations of patients, risk protection is provided to protect individuals from financial consequences of disease, and efficiencies are achieved through minimal cost and maximum output.\nUS healthcare system: The Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 currently represents the law of healthcare for the USA. The ACA stipulates insurance requirements for the US public and the general services that should be available. The largest insurers in the USA are the Federal Government though the Medicare and Medicaid programs; however, there are many private insurance companies that provide medical insurance benefits, largely for employed individuals and their families.\nImmunization services and the US healthcare system: Immunizations are one of the most successful and well-known public health programs in reducing morbidity and mortality from vaccine-preventable diseases (Lahariya, 2015). The terms immunization and vaccination are often used interchangeably, although immunization technically means that the administered vaccine was effective in eliciting an immune response in the recipient. Disease prevention through vaccination is a valuable and cost-effective public health strategy (Jit et al., 2015; Plotkin, 2005; Szucs, 2000).\nImmunization requirements for HCP: When discussing vaccination rates in health systems, it is also relevant and important to consider the vaccination rates for healthcare workers. Many hospitals in the USA have developed mandates requiring influenza vaccine for HCP and this is supported by regulatory bodies. The Healthy People 2020 target for influenza vaccination for healthcare professionals is 90 percent, a target that is higher than the general public and has not yet been achieved. Requirements for HCP to receive vaccines is a controversial issue about which there is much public debate, although there have been clear trends toward mandating vaccines by national accrediting bodies (Field, 2009).\nSummary: The provision of vaccines are an important core measure of performance for health systems. Meeting vaccination goals for susceptible patients improves performance and compensation, as well as provides protection against vaccine-preventable diseases. Proven strategies exist for developing successful vaccination program that should be considered for site-specific planning. Multidisciplinary programs that engage clinicians and managers have been most successful. Mandatory programs requiring vaccination of HCP have a goal to improve overall health and protect patients of the health system.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Payment for healthcare services in the USA has shifted from fee for service to compensation based on value and quality. The indicators used for payments are a variety of clinical measures, including administration of vaccines to patients. The purpose of this paper is to describe the implementation of programs in health systems to improve vaccination rates and patient outcomes.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A search of the literature was conducted to find examples of vaccine programs in US health systems, and also to identify policies to improve immunization rates.\nFindings: Successful programs for improving vaccination rates require advocacy and support of leadership, a systematic and multidisciplinary approach, and an evaluation of local resources and capacity. Numerous examples exist of medical, nursing, and pharmacy led programs that improve vaccination rates. The department in charge has relied on the support of other groups to ensure the success.\nSocial implications: Mandatory vaccination of healthcare personnel (HCP) in the health system has been a growing trend in the USA. Although there has been some resistance to mandatory vaccinations for HCP, the standards and requirements have resulted in improved rates in health systems, which ultimately improve efficiency and protects patients.\nOriginality/value: This review describes considerations for implementing a successful vaccination program in a health system and provides examples of specific strategies. An overview of mandatory vaccinations for HCP is also described.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Community participation framework for post-disaster resettlement and its practical application in Pakistan	[ "Pakistan", "Housing", "Rehabilitation", "Relocation", "Sustainability", "Recovery", "Community participation", "Model village" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Disasters have now become more frequent around the world, causing widespread economic losses and displacing millions of people. Various mitigation and capacity measures are adopted in recovery phases for survival and preparation for future risks. Several studies have recommended the participation of communities - both affected and unaffected - can result in effective disaster risk reduction, particularly in the recovery and reconstruction phase (Pearce, 2003; Ozden, 2007; Ganapati and Ganapati, 2008). Community participation is vital in order to harness the full potential of planning projects and ensure their successful implementation. Projects designed around the devolution and involvement of affected communities can result in sustainable and inclusive development (Monday, 2002; Hickey and Mohan, 2004). Community participation is also a major factor contributing to the efficiency and success of the resettlement process. In developing countries, community participation is gaining significant attention in disaster risk management and increasing resilience of hazard-prone communities (Usamah and Haynes, 2012; Nadeem et al., 2014). Considering socio-economic barriers and perceived negative consequences by political systems (Mortreux et al., 2018), post-disaster resettlement is a challenging task in developing countries and is often considered to be the last resort in disaster rehabilitation (Rowsell et al., 2013; Smith and Sherbinin, 2014). Azad and McElhinney (2011) contended that achieving disaster resilience lies in the involvement of disaster-affected communities throughout the complete process. In this context, the role of community participation in the success and sustainability of post-disaster resettlement processes has not been explicitly explored. In addition, there is no comprehensive integrated framework for community participation in the resettlement process.\n2. Theoretical background: Natural hazards have amplified the displacement of populations, particularly in Asia (Yonetani, 2012). Such displacements often become permanent when communities are unable to return to their original places, due to inhabitable conditions or public agencies trying to resettle them (voluntary or involuntary) to reduce future disaster risk (Birkmann et al., 2013). Correa et al. (2011) contended that disaster-induced resettlement is a more complex process as compared to development induced resettlement. However, there are numerous factors which contribute to the success and failure of post-disaster resettlement (Oliver-Smith, 1991). Disaster-induced resettlement involves broader \"negative and positive development pathways\" (Birkmann et al., 2013). A positive development is identified as reduced exposure to hazards and less future spending on response and recovery (Menoni and Pesaro, 2008). Even though resettlement reduces the disaster risk, it also exposes people to new threats and vulnerabilities. These negative aspects are considered as new socio-economic susceptibilities resulting from social fragmentation, livelihood loss, food insecurity and landlessness (Hall, 1994; Cernea, 1997; Usamah and Haynes, 2012).\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Selection and description of case study areas\n4. Results and discussion: 4.1 Socio-economic profile of respondents\n5. Conclusion: Community participation is an important tool in the success of development projects. Similarly, its importance in resettlement projects cannot be ignored. The framework presented has worked out essential measures to be kept in mind whenever planning for resettlement of displaced communities, in order to make it a success. The framework has identified five main components of the resettlement process and operationalized it. The post-flood resettlement exhibits different results when focusing on community participation. The NGOs involved community throughout the process, selection of the most deserving and careful planning made the project successful. It gives the residents long-term and deep attachment with the MV. Participating in construction works created a sense of ownership. The private sector provided an environment in the MV which, while facilitating village-level interaction and development, would also protect the social fabric and privacy of each individual community block. Moreover, use of clean and sustainable technologies makes the community less dependent on natural resources. Skill development and education enhance knowledge of climatic risks and promote resilience. Livelihood training programs are an important aspect of project success, paving the way for sustainable income generation. Moreover, village organization financed by community funds facilitates MV maintenance and, thus, ensures sustainability. Limited participation by the government resulted in an unfavorable outcome, wasting public resources, which suggests the inefficient government officials and strategies. However, the findings of this research cannot be generalized, for other areas or other disasters, as there are different dynamics at work. This complicates the matter for provincial and national disaster management authorities, which regards resettlement process more or less same for all disaster-stricken communities.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose a practical framework for community participation in post-disaster resettlement.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The proposed framework has been tested in two model villages (MVs) of Punjab, Pakistan. Primary data were collected through household surveys, focus group discussions and expert interviews. A survey with 67 households was conducted for obtaining qualitative data regarding community participation in post-disaster resettlement.\nFindings: The first MV (Ittehad MV) was resettled by the local NGO, and the second (Basti Meera Mullan) by the provincial government. Results indicate that community participation significantly varied in selected MVs. NGOs have achieved positive realizations due to effective community involvement in resettlement efforts, whereas the governmental approach lacked in proactive community participation.\nPractical implications: This framework can be used for other disasters, by refining and incorporating disaster relevant components. This research will be highly useful for disaster managers, private developers and NGOs engaged in resettling disaster-affected population.\nSocial implications: The proposed framework can help disaster-affected communities to resettle according to their terms. This can only be attained if affected communities will proactively participate in resettlement planning process.\nOriginality/value: This original framework is exclusively designed to attain sustainability for post-disaster settlement through community participation.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Employee well-being in smaller firms: How to enhance program effectiveness	[ "Employees", "Health promotion", "Company culture", "Workplace wellness" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An organization performs better when its employees feel happy. It is little wonder then that many companies take the well-being of workers seriously. Continuing willingness to invest in services to benefit employee health is testimony to this.\nWorkplace wellness: Spending on workplace wellness has been increasingly questioned in recent years. Cynics doubt both their impact and claims of cost-effectiveness. These misgivings have not blighted their popularity though. In the USA, for instance, schemes that address employee well-being remain evident in around 50 per cent of firms.\nThe role of innovation: Innovation is the first concept and has scope to transform many organizational aspects. It comes in various guises that can add considerable value to workplace wellness. These different forms of innovation consist of the following:\nThe importance of organizational culture and the work environment: Company culture must be oriented toward workplace wellness if programs are to succeed. Critical aspects of culture include the roles of the following:\nPut employees first: Workplace wellness programs are often more successful when they are employee-oriented. This is indicated through such as:\nComment: The review is based on \"Workplace wellness strategies for small businesses\" by Rucker (2017). The author uses a case study approach to explore how smaller companies address the challenges involved in enhancing the well-being of their employees. Major concepts and themes are identified, and this detailed article examines how they are incorporated into workplace wellness programs.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: Innovation, work environment, employee-centric, company culture and altruism are identified as key concepts in workplace wellness for smaller businesses. It is critical that such firms focus on these concepts and the various themes incorporated within them. Companies that place employee well-being at the core of their strategies and address other key issues can enhance the effectiveness of their workplace wellness programs and increase both the return on investment and the more recently acknowledged value on investment.\nPractical implications: The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.\nOriginality/value: The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Amoeba management and organizational ambidexterity: Similarities, differences, and implications for organizational fit and success	[ "Amoeba management", "Organizational effectiveness", "Organizational ambidexterity", "Competitive environments", "Fit with organizational context", "Performance management system" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Performance management systems embody the set of organizational activities employed by managers to focus employee attention and motivate behaviour for the ultimate purpose of implementing the organization's strategy (Ferreira and Otley, 2009). Successful performance management systems allow for both the efficient utilization of existing business operations and the effective discovery and support of what will become the organization's future profit-making products, services and business units. Using Otley's (1999) framework, it can be observed that amoeba management and organizational ambidexterity each exhibit all the essential characteristics of a fully operational performance management system. In particular, they include Otley's (1999) five elements of objectives, strategies and plans, performance targets, rewards and information flows.\n2. Methodological considerations: The review of the amoeba management and organizational ambidexterity literatures was undertaken by an academic team with multidisciplinary expertise and fluency in English and Japanese. The multidisciplinary capability was vital due to the multiple disciplines that commonly contribute to the amoeba management and organizational ambidexterity literatures. Being aware of these various streams of work was essential to identifying and assembling the work relied on to create the original table that is presented in Section 7. The research team's fluency in Japanese was especially vital for undertaking the literature review of amoeba management, for the vast majority of this literature appears in books and academic and practitioner journals published in Japanese.\n3. Organizational ambidexterity: Ambidextrous organizations are characterized by their ability to undertake the seemingly contradictory actions of promoting stability and promoting change, and to do so with ease and without losing focus (Duncan, 1976). Nadler and Tushman (1999) refer to this ambidextrous aptitude as the simultaneous ability to manage the paradoxes of refinement (efficiency) and renewal (innovation). Meanwhile, O'Reilly and Tushman (2004) describe ambidexterity as being able to exploit one's current business operations and at the same time identify new business opportunities that will come to define the organization's future. O'Reilly and Tushman (2004) liken this ability to the Roman god Janus, who had two sets of eyes. One set focused on what lay behind, while the other saw what lay ahead. The use of ambidexterity is positively associated with organizational effectiveness and longevity (see, for example, Kim and Huh, 2015), with prominent ambidextrous adopters including IBM, USA Today, Ciba Vision, Hewlett-Packard, Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline and Asea Brown Boveri.\n4. Amoeba management: Amoeba management is a Japanese-inspired performance management system. It was conceived by Kazuo Inamori and introduced into the fledgling company he founded, which was originally called Kyoto Ceramics Company, Ltd Today's company, named Kyocera, produces a wide variety of products ranging from automotive components to semiconductor components and from dental implants to solar panels. The company operates on six continents, and together with the Kyocera Group has annual net sales of over PS11.5bn and a total workforce of almost 77,000 employees. For its latest fiscal year end of March 2018, the company reported net income of PS733m, which is 6.4 per cent of net sales. As further testament to Kyocera's outstanding financial performance, the company has reported a profit every year over its 59 years of operations. Kyocera's financial performance clearly meets Porter's definition of sustained success: above average rate-of-return (Porter, 1980, p. 35) sustained over a period of years (Porter, 1985, p. 11).\n5. Performance management systems: Performance management is often conceptualized in a variety of ways, with no universal definition prevailing (Ferreira and Otley, 2009). While it is generally accepted that performance management comprises the means (i.e. the organizational systems, structures and processes) for influencing organizational members' implementation of the organization's strategy, debate exists about whether the formulation, implementation and control of an organization's strategy is separate from or part of performance management. Anthony and Govindarajan (2007) subscribe to the former view, while Mintzberg (1978), Merchant and Otley (2007) and Ferreira and Otley (2009) argue for the latter perspective. Resolving this debate is not an intended purpose of this paper, and therefore the approach adopted by Adler (2011) is used here. In particular, performance management is conceptualized as:The means by which an organization seeks to encourage and support its workers' implementation of the organization's strategy, including the way in which the organization designs its internal business processes and structures, utilizes and develops its core competencies, and promotes and leverages its culture.\n6. Similarities between amoeba management and organizational ambidexterity: As just noted, amoeba management and organizational ambidexterity both constitute complete performance management systems. In addition, amoeba management and organizational ambidexterity share a common philosophy. Both recognize the danger of organizational hubris, or what Nadler and Tushman (1999) refer to as the \"success syndrome\". Accordingly, both performance management systems exhort managers to act entrepreneurially and with a high customer focus. Inamori (1999, p. 41), when speaking about the operation of amoeba management, describes this latter need as becoming your \"customers' servants\".\n7. Differences between amoeba management and organizational ambidexterity: Substantial, although often overlooked, differences punctuate the operation of amoeba management and organizational ambidexterity. Ambidexterity scholars are particularly prone to conflate the two performance management systems, and this occurrence appears to be at least partly the result of the flexible understandings scholars apply to the concept of ambidexterity (Birkinshaw and Gupta, 2013). As the succeeding paragraphs demonstrate, the two performance management systems differ on such key dimensions as strategy, organizational structure, organizational culture, planning horizon, performance measures, employee involvement, employee selection and leadership. These eight dimensions, and in particular how the two performance management systems differ across them, are discussed in turn below.\n8. Conclusion: Amoeba management and organizational ambidexterity, in their respective abilities to represent fully functioning performance management systems, have the misfortune of being both understudied and misunderstood. The two are commonly seen as offering similar, if not equivalent, performance management opportunities. This is an unfortunate mistake. As this paper shows, while the two performance management systems share a common overarching philosophy on how to successfully operate in highly competitive environments and adopt a similar urgency about the need for business units to feature relatively small numbers of employees, there are several significant differences that separate the two. Amoeba management and organizational ambidexterity take different approaches to enacting strategy, organizational structure, organizational culture, planning horizon, performance measures, employee involvement, employee selection and leadership.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to extensively discuss the performance management system characteristics of amoeba management and organizational ambidexterity to provide conceptual comparisons between the two and assist scholars and practitioners in their respective research design and adoption decisions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Management databases that included Science Direct, ABI/INFORM Global, Business Source Premier and Scopus (and their Japanese counterparts), as well as a number of journals known for publishing work on amoeba management and organizational ambidexterity, were used to identify relevant published work. An initial identification of almost 2,500 books and articles was reduced to the paper's approximately 100 references. Feedback from presenting the paper at management conferences and university seminars supports the comprehensiveness of the assembled literature.\nFindings: This paper shows that prior research's conflating of amoeba management and organizational ambidexterity is misguided. While the two performance management systems share a common overarching philosophy on how to successfully operate in highly competitive environments and adopt a similar urgency about the need for business units to feature relatively small numbers of employees, significant differences involving the enactment of strategy, organizational structure, organizational culture, planning horizon, performance measures, employee involvement, employee selection and leadership prevail.\nOriginality/value: By providing scholars and practitioners with better, more holistic understandings of amoeba management and organizational ambidexterity, the paper seeks to advance theoretical and practical understandings of the two performance management systems. The model provided helps scholars incorporate into their research more complete theoretical constructions and operational representations of these two performance management systems and helps practitioners make better informed adoption choices.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The research proposal	[ "Research", "Information theory", "Research methods", "Degrees" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nThe research proposal: You pick your topic and you think it's setThen there's the supervisor who needs to be metAfterwards it seems the topic wasn't clearYou ask yourself, was it really so dear?A PhD's a long journey that must be takenAdjust so your passion's not totally forsakenWhy choose the very difficult path to go?A little adaptation and it won't be so slowBut getting the topic is only the beginningWithout theory and method, you ain't singingFinding a theory, how do you pick which one?You've been working for months but just begunThe method needs to fit the question that you askBalancing this with theory is really quite a taskYou read and read and read some moreGetting these issues settled is a bit of a choreWorking hard here is effort you should spendIt will pay off when your proposal you defend\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose is to reflect on writing a PhD proposal.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper is a poem based on the author's experience.\nFindings: - This is meditation on how the topic, theory and method for a research project all need to be fine-tuned, so they are in balance.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The paper stimulates thought about what drives a research project, and that various adaptations are required, so the topic theory, and method are woven together in harmony.\nOriginality/value: - The paper provides an insight into the preparation of a research proposal, and highlights that it is not a linear process, driven only by the topic.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The social pillar of lean: a theoretical framework	[ "Lean thinking", "Social pillar of lean", "Relational coordination theory", "Change management", "HR strategy", "Socio-technical systems theory" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Lean thinking developed in the manufacturing industry and focuses on continuous process improvement to maximize customer value while at the same time minimizing waste. The positive effects of this perspective such as the reduction of labor, investment in tools, manufacturing space and time have resulted in it being taken up by service industries including financial services, healthcare and education. However, critics of lean thinking suggest that it leads to greater intensification of work rather than increasing the involvement of workers. Two pillars which underpin this approach have been identified as continuous improvement, \"the technical pillar of lean,\" and respect for people, \"the social pillar of lean\"(SPL). Reviews of research into lean thinking have shown a lack of consistency in findings and an emphasis on the technical pillar rather than the social pillar.\nResearch into SPL: In developing a theoretical framework McMackin et al draw on research on lean thinking from operations management (OM) and wider management literature. Reviews into research on lean management highlight a predominance of empirical studies which consider a range of factors and variables in different combinations such as organizational culture, lean empowerment, HR strategies and change management along with measures of employee attitudes, behavior and performance. However only 10 per cent of the studies are grounded in theory and theory development on the social pillar of lean is rare. This lack of a strong theory providing a conceptual framework to guide research has prevented a full understanding of the SPL. An increased interest in the application of socio-technical systems theory (STS) has been evident in lean research suggesting that both social and technical contexts should be considered in the work task which has led to more consideration of the SPL in more recent research.\nRelational coordination theory (RCT): RCT emphasizes the importance of relationships in complex work environments where there are higher levels of uncertainty, time constraints and greater interdependence between tasks. When workers understand how their work relates to others and how it contributes to the goals of the group then they are more likely to achieve their potential through shared problem-solving, trust between team members and clear channels of communication. High quality relationships based on shared knowledge, shared goals and mutual respect are necessary for work coordination between the tasks and the people who perform them. These relationships are seen as being integral to lean implementation as when social interactions take place within this context then a higher quality service is provided for customers, waste is minimized and use of resources is optimized.\nTheoretical framework: The key relationships in this theoretical framework are between lean foundations and employee responses to lean change as demonstrated by attitude, behavior and performance. Two factors are considered to mediate this relationship, namely the levels of relationship coordination and the change process put in place by the organization. A linkage perspective is employed in the framework showing that foundations (the organizational context factors) affect the relational coordination (the behaviors of the group) and subsequently the individual employee responses however these relationships can work in both directions at the same time.\nImplications: The SLP framework provides a framework for an organization to use in the implementation of lean practices with a particular emphasis on relationships\nCommentary: The review is based on \"A theoretical framework for the social pillar of lean,\" by McMackin and Flood (2019), published in Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance. The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical framework for the social pillar of lean which can be used to direct future research into lean thinking. A theoretical model was developed categorizing factors and their relationships within lean foundations, mediating variables and employee responses. The SLP model provides a framework for an organization to use in the implementation of lean practices with a particular emphasis on relationships. This paper has an original approach by focusing on factors which are most relevant to lean implementation such as factors.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical framework for the social pillar of lean which can be used to direct future research into lean thinking.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Shortcomings in previous research are identified, factors to be considered are outlined and the relationships between these factors are examined.\nFindings: A theoretical model was developed categorizing factors and their relationships within lean foundations, mediating variables and employee responses.\nPractical implications: The SLP model provides a framework for an organization to use in the implementation of lean practices with a particular emphasis on relationships.\nOriginality/value: This paper has an original approach by focusing on factors which are most relevant to lean implementation such as factors.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Resolving conflict in organizations - achieving results through a harmonization process	[ "Skills", "Organisational change and learning", "Team development" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Conflict is inevitable in organizations. On the one hand, it can bring creativity and enhance problem-solving. On the other, it can hinder effective problem-solving, increase defensiveness and member dissatisfaction, and create a destructive work environment (Young, 2013). Conflict management is a key skill organizations need to develop. A research project that studied the way Vietnamese consumers negotiate their weddings (Nguyen and Belk, 2013) provides important hints on how to develop conflict-management skills in organizations.\nThe harmonization process: A study of wedding consumption in Vietnam introduces a harmonization process when the groom's and the bride's families need to synthesize multiple goals and balance differences in order to achieve better solutions without discounting any of their elements. Harmonization does not involve seeing those who differ as opponents to eliminate, or as adversaries to accommodate by suppressing your own personal interests. Harmonization provides a better understanding of important issues and why they are critical to each party. Each party will feel better about the situation after having heard the other side's position. Recognizing that compromise is not about ceding power, but rather about working together, makes the process easier. There might be anger, anxiety, or frustration at the beginning. However, when people successfully go through the harmonization process, they feel happy, connected to the others involved and proud of the results they get. These processes require people to communicate with others, learn others' perspectives, understand and empathize with others, and be willing to adjust (Figure 1).\nHow do weddings relate to organizations?: Weddings are a unique context in which to study harmonization, as weddings involve many people and there are lots of decisions to be made. Researchers also expect that harmonization practices might be successful in organizations. Here, although there are often power struggles, groups of people with different perspectives and/or preferences still have the common goal of organizational success. It is well established that marketing people think differently from manufacturing people, faculty members have goals that differ from those of administrators, and R&D engineers think differently from accountants (Young, 2013). If there is mutual complementing and mutual support among the parties, so that each depends on the others for strength, productivity, and value, then we can say the parties engage in a harmonization process. However, harmonization does not mean mindlessly following others or forcing one's opinion on them. Harmonizing with other people means reconciling different views on various issues to achieve better results.\nSelf-cultivation: Consumer researchers found that self-cultivation (Nguyen and Belk, 2013) is the basis of harmonizing with others. Self-cultivation is a process that involves educating oneself, understanding oneself, seeing good traits in others, and imitating them. This requires people to be open to learning others' perspectives, understanding what is important and why it is important to other parties.\nEmpathy: Empathy is the ability to predict the thoughts, feelings, and situations of another person. It is emotional involvement in others' feelings. Empathy goes beyond knowing others' thoughts and emotions; it includes sharing and experiencing the feelings of other people. Having a sense of similarity between one's own feelings and those of others leads one to treat others in a more sensitive way. A high level of empathy encourages people to work on integrating differences rather than to eliminate or suppress them. Luckily, empathy can be effectively trained (Teding van Berkhout and Malouff, 2016).\nWillingness to adjust and \"collective adjustment\": A good metaphor used to describe the collective adjustment process (Nguyen and Belk, 2013) is that of an orchestra. Each musician has his or her own instrument, but they must coordinate and adjust to blend into the group performance. Each party not only responds to other parties' adjustments but also does so in a completing, supplementing, and advancing way. Each musician has his or her own role, and the team harmoniously collaborates to achieve a common goal. Having empathy facilitates all parties' collective adjustment in the harmonization process. A willingness to adjust is a necessary criterion of harmonization. Understanding oneself and others through self-cultivation promotes the willingness to adjust.\nCommunication: Communication is the foundation of the three other components above. Open communication enriches the process of learning about different departments. Communication is required to identify and show empathy. Finally, communication promotes the collective adjustment process. Organizations should be designed to improve communication about common goals, increase exchange of ideas, and create a sense of collaboration among employees.\nDeveloping the four components of harmonization: Harmonization occurs to provide solutions for any conflicts and tensions in the practice of the independent and interdependent parties without discounting any of them. Recognizing four important components of the process makes it easier for organizations to encourage harmonizing behaviors by fostering those components as suggested below.\nConclusion: It is not always easy to keep everyone in an organization on the same page. However, companies can promote conflict management skills through training. This paper has discussed a harmonization framework for conflict management and provided specific training practices to enhance employees' capability to harmonize with others.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Conflict is inevitable in organizational life. On the one hand, it can bring creativity and enhance problem-solving. On the other, it can hinder effective problem-solving, increase defensiveness and member dissatisfaction, and create a destructive work environment. This paper aims to outline four important components of harmonization that help to enhance conflict-management capability.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on Nguyen and Belk's (2013) harmonization framework, the author adds their own comments and places in the context of resolving conflict in organization.\nFindings: The harmonization process synthesizes multiple goals and balances differences to achieve better solutions without discounting any of these elements. Harmonization provides better understanding of important issues and why they are critical to each party. Each party will feel better about the situation after having heard the other side's position. There might be anger, anxiety, or frustration at the beginning. However, when people successfully go through the harmonization process, they feel happy, connected to others and proud of the results they get. These processes require communicating with others, learning others' perspectives, understanding and empathizing with others, and being willing to adjust.\nPractical implications: The paper outlines four skills in which organizations can train their employees to improve conflict management.\nOriginality/value: Harmonization process is applied to conflict management in organization.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Procedural fairness and cooperation in public-private partnerships in China	[ "Partnership", "Economic cooperation", "Contracts", "China", "Organizations" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A public-private partnership (PPP) is usually defined as a long-term development and service contract between the government and a private partner (Maskin and Tirole, 2008). Based on the definition of a PPP used in the literature, all PPPs share one essential characteristic: a contractual basis. Compared with more traditional forms of cooperation, a PPP involves three important features. First, the ownership pattern of a PPP is quite different from that of general firm alliances: one side is a publicly owned organization, such as the government or a non-profit organization (NPO), while the other side is a privately owned organization, such as an enterprise. Owing to the many different interests and motivations of different types of organizations, the two types operate with different goals. Second, the outputs from this kind of cooperation are always public, or at least quasi-public, goods, or services. This kind of cooperation differs significantly from traditional cooperation, in which the outputs are private goods. Third, consistent with their basis in long-term contracts, PPPs usually remain in effect between specific partners for long periods of time.Governments are faced with rapid developments in society. They are also becoming more and more dependent on private and semiprivate actors to implement their policies (Teisman and Klijn, 2002). In this respect, governmental organizations and actors are functioning in similar networks (Kickert et al., 1997). This makes the implementation of policies and projects a complex issue that requires cooperation between various actors.In China, governments face an urgent need to develop public services, yet they face enormous capital pressure and lack effective methods of development. However, although enterprises are motivated to promote social affairs, they are constrained by the Chinese institutional environment. Consequently, securing support from the government is indispensable.Within the fast-changing Chinese environment, partnerships have become even more entrenched. This has important implications for business practices and has increasingly become a cultural characteristic that also affects interpersonal and inter-organizational dynamics (Park and Luo, 2001). Furthermore, increased competition brought about by the reform of economic institutions in modern-day China requires more comprehensive networks. In response to this situation, the PPP is a newly developed collaboration model between public and private sectors. It can enable enterprises and NPOs to build governmental relationships and to acquire complementary resources, resulting in a \"Win-Win\" or even a \"Multi-Win\" situation. There is both practical and theoretical significance to researching PPPs and exploring their practical potential.A PPP is defined as an enterprise that is associated with a governmental institution through a long-term partnership; this represents a unique type of corporate resource/core competition ability in China's transitional economy.PPPs are closely connected to firm alliances. A firm alliance is a form of inter-organizational cooperation involving multiple enterprises (Anand and Khanna, 2000). Alliances have become an important research topic, and they have been analyzed from a range of theoretical bases and perspectives (Baum and Oliver, 1991; Harrigan, 1985; Kogut, 1988; Colombo, 2003).In particular, alliance executives in China have often reported that it is not always easy to build and preserve trust with partner firms and that they are sometimes overwhelmed by the fear of a partner's opportunism. Interestingly, one executive indicated that he worried more about uncertainty inside an alliance than uncertainty outside of that alliance; this fear cannot be alleviated if outcome sharing, joint decision-making procedures, and interactions are not conducted justly. Another executive commented that the existing trust might well slip into distrust if organizational justice is absent. In such situations, helping executives to perceive justice within an alliance may in turn give them confidence in partner firms and improve their ability to cooperate with them (Luo, 2008a). The use of justice therefore creates a strong foundation for inter-party cooperation and for the kind of evolving cooperation needed in a volatile environment (Child et al., 1998).Fairness is the foundation of all types of economic transactions; it has a positive effect not only on employees' trust and social harmony between decision-makers (Korsgaard et al., 1995; Naumann and Bennett, 2002), but also on citizenship behaviors (Ball et al., 1994; Konovsky and Organ, 1996; Niehoff and Moorman, 1993). In particular, fairness has a very important function in inter-organizational cooperation, a process marked by a variety of internal and external uncertainties.Few studies have addressed procedural fairness in the context of PPPs, particularly in terms of its effects on cooperation. To date, much of the existing literature has been restricted to examining one of the following three aspects of PPPs: providing an explanation for the rise in their popularity with government (Dodge, 1988; Stainback, 1990; Coburn, 1994; Woodward, 1994; Collins, 1997; Goldsmith, 1997; Gray, 1997); discussing the outcomes of PPP projects (Weiner and Alexander, 1998; Mays and Roy, 1999; Boase, 2000); and examining the criteria that make for a successful PPP project (Grant, 1996; Lawson, 1997). In general, the existing literature is concerned with examining PPPs only on a broad social or organizational level, thus providing few insights into the ongoing managerial life of a PPP (Noble and Jones, 2006).Compared to the advanced state of research on firm alliances, however, there is a lack of in-depth, systematic research on PPPs, whether theoretical or empirical (Reich, 2002; Hart, 2003; de Bettignies and Ross, 2004; Francesconi and Muthoo, 2006; Martimort and Pouyet, 2006).To partially fill this gap, this study investigates the indirect links between procedural fairness and cooperation effects in PPPs. This allows us to determine the underlying mechanism through which fairness affects three kinds of cooperation effects in PPPs. We propose that procedural fairness indirectly affects cooperation by increasing the formal and informal contracts between organizations over the lifetime of the PPP. Assessing these mediation effects can help managers better understand the ways in which fairness stimulates cooperation and how to achieve excellent results.\nModel and hypothesis development: Theoretical foundations\nResearch methods: Procedures\nAnalysis and results: Reliability and validity test\nDiscussion: Does procedural justice affect cooperation within the framework of PPPs? Our research suggests that the level of procedural justice perceived by partners and the level of contract control during the process of the PPP are critical to answering this question.This study applies the equity theory to explain how procedural fairness affects cooperation effects. It broadens the scope of existing research to include an analysis of the inter-firm level of justice to the particular type of inter-organizational cooperation - known as PPPs. PPPs, as special cross-sector alliances, require procedural justice when formulating, governing, and managing inter-organizational joint projects. Procedural justice serves as a foundation for inter-partner cooperation, knowledge sharing, economic exchange, and ongoing commitment. Our analysis suggests that procedural justice improves cooperation effects in the form of direct effects, knowledge-created effects and social effects by strengthening inter-organizational formal and informal contracts over the lifetime of the PPP. The indirect link between procedural justice and cooperation effects suggests that justice stimulates formal and informal contract control during the PPP process and then stimulates these three kinds of cooperation effects within the PPP.Contribution\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The paper aims to extend research on public-private partnerships (PPP) by exploring the path toward procedural justice and cooperation performance through contracts.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper uses equity theory to address inter-partner cooperation in PPPs. The paper emphasizes how procedural fairness, as perceived by partners in a PPP, influences cooperation effects. Using both social exchange theory and transaction cost theory, it hypothesizes that procedural fairness improves cooperation effects by enhancing two kinds of contracts: the control-formal contract and the informal contract.\nFindings: - The regression analysis suggests that procedural fairness indirectly affects three kinds of cooperation effects - direct effects, knowledge-created effects, and social effects - by increasing formal and informal contracts.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Further research might address the antecedents of procedural justice.\nPractical implications: - The paper suggests that procedural justice is important to PPPs and that contracts mediate this relationship.\nOriginality/value: - The paper enriches PPP research, especially with regard to procedural formalization, contracts, and cooperation performance.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Triangular cyclic accelerated degradation zero-failure test plan	[ "Accelerated degradation test", "Bogey testing", "Triangular cyclic stress", "Variance optimality criterion", "Wiener process" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Nomenclature\n1. Introduction: Reliability demonstration test (RDT) is used to demonstrate if the product has met a goal of certain reliability at a given time with high confidence level. In a zero-failure test plan also referred to as a bogey test plan, the RDT is successful if zero failure occurs during the specified test duration. This testing is widely used in the verification and validation phase of a product life cycle (Yang, 2007, 2009). However, the advent of high reliability products with short product development period in today's market has rendered traditional RDTs at normal operating environmental conditions useless. Accelerated testing has been therefore incorporated in RDT to induce early failures of these items. Accelerated tests (ATs) are used widely in manufacturing industries, particularly, to obtain timely information on the reliability of products, components and materials. Generally, information from tests at high levels of stress (usage rate, temperature, voltage or pressure) is extrapolated, through a physically reasonable model, to obtain estimates of life or long-term performance at normal level of stress. In some cases, stress is increased or otherwise changed during the course of a test. AT results are used in the design-for-reliability processes to assess or demonstrate component and subsystem reliability, certify components, detect failure modes, compare different manufacturers and so forth. ATs have become increasingly important because of rapidly changing technologies, more complicated products with more components and higher customer expectations for better reliability.\n2. Assumptions: Degradation of each unit follows Wiener process {W(t); t0} with some positive drift (e>0) and diffusion parameter (s2>0). The Wiener process W(t) is defined to be an independent increment Gaussian process with W(0)=0 and each increment W(t2)-W(t1), 0<t1<t2, possessing mean e(t2-t1) and variance s2(t2-t1) (Tang and Chang, 1994; Kahle and Lehmann, 1998).\n3. Test procedure: The triangular cyclic stress scheme involves application of high and low temperatures repeatedly over time on a test item to induce early failure. Clavel and Pineau (1978) have studied fatigue crack growth behavior of Alloy 718 used in the gas turbine industry for fabrications of disks using cyclic wave form signals, namely, sinusoidal, triangular and square.\n4. Model formulation: In this section, model based on Wiener process has been formulated.\n5. Illustrative example: For illustrative purpose, the following hypothetical data set is used: th={s, e, k1}={1.8, 0.5, 2}, with cost factors as Co=25 per unit time, Cm=15 per measurement, and Cd=250 per unit and stress levels as a0=30; a1=70; a2=10. Here b0=(a1-a0)/(l1f); b1=-b0; b2=b0.\n6. Conclusion: Zero-failure test also referred to as bogey test aims at demonstrating specified target reliability metric by testing a specified number of units for a predetermined time. If no failure occurs, then the target metric is demonstrated. Most of the electronic gadgets are affected by both extremely high and extremely low stress conditions. Triangular cyclic stress ADT makes a product fail quickly as it is encountered with varying stresses in a short span of time. Triangular cyclic stress involves applying high and low temperatures repeatedly over time. Coupling zero-failure reliability demonstration test with accelerated degradation testing under triangular cyclic stress scheme help in inducing early failures in highly reliable items. This paper combines zero-failure testing with triangular cyclic stress to formulate an optimum ADT plan. The optimal plan consists in finding out optimum number of cycles, optimum specimens, optimum stress change point(s) and optimum stress rates are obtained by minimizing asymptotic variance of estimate of qth quantile of the lifetime distribution at use condition with pre-specified mission time under normal operating conditions. The Wiener process has been used for the purpose. The Wiener process has been found appropriate for modeling failures that occur with less frequency and also when there is high occurrence of early failures. This distribution has been found appropriate for accelerated life testing experiments. The method develop has been explained using a numerical example and sensitivity analysis carried out. The results of sensitivity analysis show that optimum plan is robust for small deviations in the true values of the model parameters.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Zero-failure reliability testing aims at demonstrating whether the product has achieved the desired reliability target with zero failure and high confidence level at a given time. Incorporating accelerated degradation testing in zero-failure reliability demonstration test (RDT) facilitates early failure in high reliability items developed within short period of time to be able to survive in fiercely competitive market. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The triangular cyclic stress uses one test chamber thus saving experimental cost. The parameters in model are estimated using maximum likelihood methods. The optimum plan consists in finding out optimum number of cycles, optimum specimens, optimum stress change point(s) and optimum stress rates.\nFindings: The optimum plan consists in finding out optimum number of cycles, optimum specimens, optimum stress change point(s) and optimum stress rates by minimizing asymptotic variance of estimate of quantile of the lifetime distribution at use condition subject to the constraint that total testing or experimental cost does not exceed a pre-specified budget. Confidence intervals of the design parameters have been obtained and sensitivity analysis carried out. The results of sensitivity analysis show that the plan is robust to small deviations from the true values of baseline parameters.\nOriginality/value: For some highly reliable products, even accelerated life testing yields little failure data of units in a feasible amount of time. In such cases accelerated degradation testing is carried out, wherein the failure termed as soft failure is defined in terms of performance characteristic of the product exceeding its critical (threshold) value.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Hewlett-Packard Consulting and Integration shows that one size does not fit all: Japan's learning communities foster face-to-face communications	[ "Communities", "Communications", "Knowledge creation", "Knowledge sharing", "Multinational companies", "Mentoring" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Knowledge sharing, knowledge creation and organizational learning need to be adapted to be appropriate to the requirements of the company. Even within a firm such as Hewlett-Packard, which tries to standardize and define its business processes at its various global units, different corporate and national features have an impact on how work is done - and this should be considered when communities of practice or learning communities are set up.\nCommunities of practice are key to learning: Hewlett-Packard Consulting and Integration is part of HP Services (Technology Solutions Group), which has 65,000 IT specialists in 160 countries encompassing the four geographical regions of: the Americas; the Asia Pacific; Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and Japan. Its main business is the system integration of corporate computer systems, including the development of software for customers, IT consulting, and sales and distribution of software developed by HP and others.At Hewlett-Packard Consulting and Integration, the knowledge-management program relies on: people who are the producers and consumers of knowledge; processes that guide the management of knowledge; and technology and tools to help access to knowledge.Community-based approaches to knowledge sharing and organizational learning are a key feature of Hewlett-Packard Consulting and Integration's knowledge-management activities. The firm's consultants and system engineers often work with different teams and in different locations, so need location-independent and flexible solutions for sharing their knowledge. As a result, no two Hewlett-Packard Consulting and Integration communities of practice are exactly the same.Japan, as one of the four regions that the firm covers, has formed its own kind of community of practice. Hewlett-Packard Consulting and Integration Japan has applied HP's standard knowledge-management activities to a certain extent, but has adapted particular aspects, tools and activities to its individual ways of working and sharing knowledge.\nMentoring as an educational tool: Learning communities at Hewlett-Packard Consulting and Integration Japan officially emerged in November 2001 from special interest groups that had independently formed and worked in different departments. The main purposes of these learning communities is to make tacit knowledge of individual consultants and system engineers explicit and shared, mostly through discussion and professional interaction, and also to provide a chance for HP's mentoring system to be put into operation as an important part of the employee-education program.All junior consultants and engineers have a senior counterpart assigned as their mentor to help and support them through guidance and advice. A learning community's goal is to share knowledge and information about relevant and important issues, discuss these and exchange opinions about them. It gathers all employees who have expert knowledge, or are simply interested in taking part and learning more about these topics.In this context, it is important to be aware of some key concepts in Japanese sociology - such as uchi-soto and honne-tatemae, which are essential for an understanding of the Japanese relationship within a group.The word uchi refers to the insider, a member of the group, while soto refers to the outside, somebody not in the group. Honne can be explained as the true feelings, and tatemae as the outward appearance. Japanese people will clearly distinguish between their uchi and soto and will treat and talk to other people accordingly, usually using tatemae for soto people and hone mostly for themselves and sometimes also for uchi people.\nBecoming uchi to express honne: In the course of the development of the learning community, its members will become uchi for each other, which will eventually enable people directly to express their honne in learning-community discussions - an occurrence very unlikely to happen in the anonymity of formal meetings with large numbers of participants.Learning-community meetings usually begin with a presentation on interesting or urgent topics and issues, followed by discussions. The presentations and other materials are made available on the intranet to all employees. The same is true of summaries of discussions and meeting minutes of the learning community. Learning communities at Hewlett-Packard Consulting and Integration Japan tend to cover: certain types of products, such as databases or security software; subjects, including project management and IT service management; or areas of business, like financial services.The learning communities are guided and coordinated by the knowledge-management department, whose staff also serve as facilitators for the communities. The knowledge-management department is also responsible for handling and organizing the registration of the community (usually on an annual basis), training, and administrative work resulting from the learning community. The learning communities mostly meet every two weeks, or monthly, and numbers taking part range from five to 40. As well as face-to-face meetings, learning communities use mailing lists and learning-community forums on the intranet for quick and easy access to, and exchange of, information.The regular meetings and discussions of the learning communities help employees to share current information, news on important issues and their know-how on topics, as well as their experiences, success and failure stories and best practices. They provide a space and context for education of members and for solving problems, plus preventing new difficulties.\nFocus on tacit knowledge: The biggest difference between Hewlett-Packard Consulting and Integration Japan's learning communities and the worldwide communities lies in the number of participants and the focus on the type of knowledge. While the communities are meetings of large numbers of employees and often take the form of seminars or training courses, focusing on explicit knowledge and the sharing and transfer of this, learning communities in Japan usually have only a small number of people and focus on the sharing and co-creation of tacit knowledge.Hewlett-Packard Consulting and Integration Japan's learning communities illustrate how there are different kinds of communities of practice within HP worldwide and there is no single one-size-fits-all solution. Also, at Hewlett-Packard Consulting and Integration Japan, face-to-face communication and, as a result, a focus on sharing rich tacit knowledge, predominates. Thirdly, HP's knowledge-orientation, knowledge-management organization and the co-ordination of the learning communities, foster knowledge creation, sharing and organizational learning at the communities.Under the umbrella of the global community, there are various learning communities that share common characteristics but at the same time differ from each other. Communities of practice like HP's learning communities have different meanings and connotations depending on their context and individual and organizational agendas, even within the same multinational corporation.Hewlett-Packard Consulting and Integration Japan's learning communities show that IT-based knowledge-management tools cannot substitute for rich human interaction. This also implies that communities should not become too big, because face-to-face communication between all members will barely be possible.\nComment: This single article review is based on \"Japan's learning communities in Hewlett-Packard Consulting and Integration: challenging one-size fits all solutions\", by Kohlbacher and Mukai (2007), in The Learning Organization: The International Journal of Knowledge and Organizational Learning Management, which gives an illuminating and original insight into Japanese corporate culture when it comes to sharing knowledge and organizational learning.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Explains and analyzes community-based corporate knowledge sharing and organizational learning, the actual use of communities in Hewlett-Packard Consulting and Integration, and their role in advancing and making the most of knowledge.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Draws on interviews with top executives, middle managers and employees.\nFindings: - Identifies an effective approach to community-based knowledge sharing and organizational learning at Hewlett-Packard Consulting and Integration Japan's learning communities.\nPractical implications: - Shows that IT-based knowledge-management tools cannot substitute for rich human interaction. This also implies that communities should not become too big, because face-to-face communication between all members will barely be possible.\nOriginality/value: - Presents a real-life example of an effective community at the case study organization.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Integration between the Asian REIT markets and macroeconomic variables	[ "Interest rates", "Asian REITs", "Johansen cointegration test", "Macroeconomic variables", "Causality test", "Government spending" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The total market capitalization of the Asian Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) markets, established since the year beginning 2000, stood at USD$192.32 billion as of 2014 (Datastream). The significant growth of market capitalization has made the Asian REIT market an attractive investment option for investors and this had led to the proliferation of studies emphasizing on market capitalization. Among the seven Asian REIT markets, the Japan REIT market has the largest market capitalization (USD$88.23 billion), followed by Singapore (USD$53.96 billion), Hong Kong (USD$26.79 billion), Malaysia (USD$10.20 billion), Thailand (USD$9.67 billion), Taiwan (USD$2.46 billion), and South Korea (USD$1.02 billion). With relatively smaller market capitalizations, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, and South Korea are thus considered as emerging REIT markets. In contrast, nearly 90 percent of the total market capitalization of the REIT markets have been contributed by the developed REIT markets of Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore.\n2. Literature review: Since the establishment of the REIT in the period of the 2000s, there has been a proliferation of research looking at the Asian REIT markets and investigating their portfolio performance. Evidence shows that the REITs were only moderately correlated with property stocks in Hong Kong (Newell et al., 2010), Thailand (Pham, 2011), and Taiwan (Peng and Newell, 2012). In looking at the return performance, it appears that the Asian REIT markets also demonstrate higher than average returns which are relative to property stocks and shares market in general. As of December, 2014 four Asian REIT markets (Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, and South Korea) have been placed as emerging markets while Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore were categorised as developed markets. In terms of their linkage, Pham (2012) reports that the linkage among emerging Asian REIT markets is weaker as compared to developed Asian REIT markets. This demonstrates a potential diversification opportunity among the emerging Asian REIT markets.\n3. Data: This study employs the total return S\n4. Methodology: 4.1. Unit root test\n5. Result and discussion: 5.1. Descriptive statistics\n6. Conclusion: This study contributes to the limited literature on Asian REITs by presenting the interdependence of the REIT markets with macroeconomic variables. It focuses on the emerging Asian REIT markets and its comparison with developed Asian REIT markets. Unlike past research, the factor of government spending was included into the analysis so that investors and policy makers can gauge the impact of the fiscal policy towards REIT markets. The findings derived from this study can serve as a reference for investors in managing their portfolio and in the making asset allocations. This information also alerts REIT investors in considering macroeconomic conditions before they enter into the market. The findings can also advise investor on the need to regularly review the composition of REIT in their portfolio based on the changes of macroeconomic condition and to make the necessary adjustment to the weightage of the REIT in their portfolio accordingly. Investor can also construct a macroeconomic model to determine the sensitivity of a particular REIT towards the macroeconomic changes by using the identified macroeconomic factors. In contrast, policy makers can make use of the same information to consider the impact of the change of macroeconomic variables towards REITs before making changes in government policies.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the long-run relationship and short-term linkage between the Asian REIT markets and their respective macroeconomic variables.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The data collected comprised total return REIT Index from Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan and South Korea and their macroeconomic variables from the date of availability of the data until December 2014. The macroeconomic variables are either available in monthly or quarterly basis, they will be separately tested with REIT Index respectively to their frequency. All the variables are tested for its stationarity prior to the investigation of their long-run relationship and short-term linkage using Johansen cointegration test and Granger causality test.\nFindings: The results showed that certain of the emerging REIT markets show a higher degree of integration with macroeconomic variables in the long run. This implies that the emerging REIT markets are more sensitive towards the change in macroeconomic environment in relative to the developed REIT markets.\nPractical implications: The paper implied that the distinction of each market structure and their unique way of policy implementation. The findings can assists policy makers to understand about the significance of policy implementation on the Asian REIT markets prior to decision making and also for the portfolio management my asset managers.\nOriginality/value: The paper is one of the few attempts at assessing the long-term relationship and short term linkage between the Asian REIT markets and the macroeconomic variables.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
How products induce regulatory fit: evidence from the health domain	[ "Regulatory focus", "Health message" ]	[ { "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: Health expenses in developed countries have increased significantly over the past three decades, particularly those related to diseases caused by lifestyle (Stremersch, 2008). To address this issue, health agencies are increasing their efforts to encourage individuals to adopt healthy behaviors (e.g. consuming more fruit and vegetables) or avoid unhealthy behaviors (e.g. quitting smoking). These public health issues contribute to the growth of health-related industries (Stremersch, 2008). One way of encouraging consumers to engage in healthy behaviors is to use health messages, so it is crucial for policy-makers and health-related companies to design effective health messages (Keller and Lehmann, 2008). In this research, we define health messages as those used to promote healthy behavior.\nTheoretical background: In recent years, regulatory focus theory has been widely used in consumer behavior research (Haws et al., 2010). This theory posits that individuals use two self-regulatory systems to pursue goals (Higgins, 1997). In a promotion focus, individuals represent their goals as hopes or aspirations and are inclined to pursue gains and avoid non-gains. In a prevention focus, individuals represent their goals as duties and obligations and are more sensitive to avoiding losses and pursuing non-losses (Higgins, 1998; Kim and Sung, 2013).\nPilot study: The goal of this study is to test our premise that exposing consumers to products can prime regulatory focus. We predict that exposure to a product will activate the regulatory focus associated with this product and, consequently, will influence how individuals perform the subsequent task.\nStudy 1: the effects of regulatory fit on health message efficacy: This study tests the persuasive effects of the regulatory fit focus induced by the product and the health message frame. Research demonstrates that a fit between the message regulatory focus and individual orientation results in an increase in the message's persuasiveness (Cesario et al., 2008). Our pilot study confirmed that the product itself can elicit regulatory focus. Therefore, we expect that consumers exposed to a prevention-focused product should be convinced more by a loss-frame message, whereas consumers exposed to a promotion product should be convinced more by a gain-frame message.\nStudy 2: generalizing the results: Study 2 extends the results from Study 1 by adding other products to those tested in Study 1. This extension avoids a potential confounding related to the idiosyncrasies of each product. Because only one product was used for each orientation in Study 1, the results could derive from the product itself and not from the regulatory focus that this product was supposed to prime. Study 2 seeks to address this limitation and includes message credibility as another persuasion measure. Credibility is a particularly important persuasion variable in the health domain (Svederberg and Wendin, 2011).\nGeneral discussion: This research contributes to the literature on regulatory focus and on health message efficacy by showing that certain products can temporarily trigger a consumer's regulatory focus and that health messages designed to fit this regulatory focus are more persuasive than those that do not. Besides the situation and the individual, we find that products are also a source of regulatory focus and can be used to create regulatory fit. Consumers use products to achieve goals, and these goals become mentally associated with the product. This association leads the product to elicit the corresponding regulatory focus (prevention or promotion) and, when this focus fits the message frame, product evaluations improve.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to test whether the simple exposure to different types of products can trigger different motivational orientation on consumers (prevention vs promotion), which in turn would match message frame and increase persuasion.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Three experiments test whether exposure to product categories can trigger consumer's regulatory focus orientation. Participants in the pilot study are students, while participants in the two other studies are consumers.\nFindings: A first pilot study randomly exposed participants to a product that could trigger promotion orientation (e.g. orange juice) versus a product that could trigger prevention orientation (e.g. sunscreen). Participants exposed to promotion (prevention) product suggest more promotion (prevention) strategies to reach a particular goal (preparing for their final exam). Study 2 shows that gain (vs loss)-framed messages using health appeals have better evaluations when featuring promotion (vs prevention) products. Study 3 generalizes these results using another sample and different product categories.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper uses some product categories and including other categories would increase external validity.\nPractical implications: The practical implication is to help marketers to choose the right health argument to match the product category they are trying to sell.\nOriginality/value: Theoretically, the results from three studies show that exposure to products can temporarily trigger a consumer's regulatory focus and that messages using health arguments that are consistent with this regulatory focus are more persuasive than those that are not. Managerially, these results help managers to adapt the right message in function of the product category.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Consumer behaviour towards willingness to pay for Halal products: An assessment of demand for Halal certification in a Muslim country	[ "Religiosity", "Attitude", "Willingness to pay", "Concern on Halal", "Perception of usefulness of Halal", "Product ingredient" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In this era of globalization, products are processed and produced through various operations and stages before they reach the end consumers and they are consumed. The end consumers usually do not know about the manufacturing processes involved as well as the ingredients used in the products which cause uncertainty and suspiciousness among the consumers about the food safety. For the Muslim world, a product is considered to be healthy, safe or hygienic, only if it has gone through the Halal process and made with Halal ingredients in accordance with the Shariah principles. Fathi et al. (2016) observed that the need and demand for the certification of Halal is now intensified in both non-Muslim and Muslim countries. Consumers are also expressing their concerns about the authenticity of Halal labels on the products and the manufacturing processes even in Muslim majority countries.\n2. Review of literature: 2.1 Theoretical background\n3. Research methodology: 3.1 Research design\n4. Data analysis: 4.1 Statistical analysis and results\n5. Conclusion, discussion and recommendations: Organizations usually invest when they expect value creation from consumers' perspective and foresee a proper return on investment. Halal operation is a capability which food and non-food companies want to acquire to enhance their acceptance among the Muslim buyers. At the same time, this capability may require a significant additional cost for assurance and transparency. Non-Halal consumption of food or other commodities is always a sensitive issue for most of the Muslims consumers. Thus, it is important to understand how these businesses may understand and improve consumers' WTP by studying consumers' behavior. This study investigated the factors that affect consumers' WTP for Halal accredited products. This research provides insights for producers and manufacturers of Halal products about the perspective of consumers. The results of the study revealed that the perception of the usefulness of Halal food has a positive and significant impact on WTP for Halal food. Concern about Halal products is growing among Muslim consumers which is supported through this finding as the consumers are concerned and willing to pay more for Halal products. However, attitude has a positive but insignificant impact on WTP. Data analysis further shows that the product ingredients and religiosity have a relatively higher positive and significant impact on WTP. The extent of demand for Halal process certification for the product is very highly and positively affected by WTP for the consumer, which may be motivating for manufacturers to invest more on developing Halal capabilities. Consumers may pay even more for Halal products, if the products are properly ensured, certified and marketed by the producers as compliant with Halal Shariah principles.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to empirically analyze the factors affecting Muslim consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for Halal food, products and operations by employing theory of reasoned action.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study has used quantitative research methodology and collected data from 350 questionnaires from a densely populated city of Pakistan. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.\nFindings: The results show that the concerns about Halal, religiosity, perception of usefulness of Halal and product ingredients have a significant impact on WTP for Halal foods, while attitude has an insignificant impact on WTP. Moreover, the extent of demand for Halal certification is significantly affected by WTP.\nOriginality/value: The study highlighted the concerns of the Muslim consumers with respect to Halalness of the products and operations despite living in a Muslim country. It is recommended that the policy makers, food authorities and health institutions should conduct regular inspections of foods, products and producers'/manufacturers' operations to ensure that all the procedures from manufacturing of the raw material till the finished goods follow Islamic principles to make them completely Halal.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Consumer - green brand relationships: revisiting benefits, relationship quality and outcomes	[ "Relationship quality", "Green marketing", "Brand relationships", "Relationship benefits", "Brand loyalty", "Green branding" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The market trend of consumer support for green products has driven a considerable increase in both the number of products promoted as environmentally friendly and the sales growth enjoyed by such brands (Borin et al., 2013; Chen, 2010; Lin et al., 2017a). The current marketplace reveals a mounting emphasis on environmental sustainability, and firms are increasingly seeking ways to respond by investing significant resources in developing environmentally friendly new products (Olsen et al., 2014). The value of the global green market has experienced a fourfold increase in just four years, rising from US$209bn in 2011 to US$845bn in 2015 (Leonidou and Skarmeas, 2017). This increasing market penetration of green products has shifted the focus of both academics and practitioners from the initial purchase to repeat purchases, i.e. the construction of a strong and sustainable relationship between the consumer and the green brand. This focus on relationship development also requires a shift from the concept of the green product to the green brand, which entails a specific set of attributes and benefits related to the product's reduced environmental impact that builds its brand equity and offers a significant eco-advantage over its competitors (Hartmann et al., 2005; Lin et al., 2017a).\nLiterature review: Our research model is built on the well-established sequence of effects suggested by the marketing relationship literature, which comprises a set of relational benefits that lead to behavioural outcomes via the mediating role of satisfaction and/or the higher-order construct of RQ (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2002; Palmatier et al., 2006). The literature review is structured in accordance with these three building blocks. For each building block, the conceptualizations and findings of relevant studies from the fields of relationship marketing and branding are reviewed, then existing evidence on the green branding context is presented and research hypotheses are developed (see Figure 1).\nThe consumer-brand relationship background: Relational benefits\nRelationship quality and satisfaction: The mediating roles of both satisfaction and the higher-order construct of RQ in the link between relational benefits and behavioural outcomes is well established in both the relationship marketing literature and the branding literature (Aaker et al., 2004; Hennig-Thurau et al., 2002; Kressmann et al., 2006; Nyffenegger et al., 2015; Palmatier et al., 2006). A consumer's brand-related satisfaction results from his/her cumulative valuation of the brand's performance relative to expectations, expresses the sum of positive vs negative emotions that one party experiences with the other party in a relationship and reflects a consistent satisfaction with the decision to consume the brand's underlying service or product (Aaker et al., 2004; Giovanis, 2016; Nyffenegger et al., 2015).\nRelational outcomes: Three behaviours are examined as potential outcomes of the relationship mediators. Favourable word-of-mouth (WOM) is either the likelihood of a customer making positive references to the seller to another potential customer or informal communication between private parties involving evaluations of goods and services (Ruane and Wallace, 2015; Zeithaml et al., 1996). Research in relationship marketing has long considered the role of WOM as an indicator of loyalty, supporting the positive path from relational benefits and RQ to WOM (An et al., 2018; de Oliveira Santini et al., 2018; Hennig-Thurau et al., 2002; Kinard and Capella, 2006; Verhoef et al., 2002). The extent to which the brand performance meets or exceeds customers' expectations motivates them to tell others about their positive brand experiences (de Oliveira Santini et al., 2018; Nyffenegger et al., 2015). Customers who spread favourable WOM about a company can become the company's best salespeople (Kumar et al., 2013); thus, WOM has received a lot of attention as a powerful instrument in increasing sales and acquiring new customers (Popp and Woratschek, 2017). For instance, Aaker (1991) noted that the real value of those customers most loyal to an entity stems more from their impact on other customers in the marketplace than from their individual purchase behaviour. Moreover, previous studies have found that positive emotions towards the brand are associated with favourable WOM, because brand love predicts active engagement (Carroll and Ahuvia, 2006; Karjaluoto et al., 2016; Wallace et al., 2014).\nThe context of green branding: Although extant research has paid much attention to exploring the issues of satisfaction, trust and loyalty, these issues have not been discussed from a green marketing perspective (Chen, 2013; Martinez, 2015). Furthermore, existing literature points towards the fact that marketing practitioners lack clarity/insight on the factors responsible for the purchase of green products, i.e. the core and peripheral benefits delivered by green products (Narula and Desore, 2016). Thus, empirical studies integrating antecedents and outcomes of the consumer-green brand relationship are limited.\nModerators: Given the study's context, the level of environmental consciousness is expected to have an impact on the strength of the relational benefits perceived by consumers. As green marketing literature has demonstrated, environmentally conscious consumers are more likely to consider as salient the environmental consequences of their purchase behaviour (D'Souza and Taghian, 2005; Hartmann et al., 2005; Klein and Dawar, 2004; Mohr and Webb, 2005; Sen and Bhattacharya, 2001). Consumers who place a high importance on environmental issues will demonstrate stronger attitudes and place greater value on corporate and brand actions in this domain (Pritchard and Wilson, 2018). More environmentally conscious consumers, therefore, are expected to pay attention to marketing information relevant to the environmental consequences of their consumption, evaluate the associated product accordingly and indicate higher purchase intentions towards those products that have the lowest environmental impact (Grimmer and Woolley, 2014). Pickett-Baker and Ozaki (2008) demonstrate that consumers who are more concerned about the environment are generally more aware of green product marketing and consider it more engaging and relevant. The more consumers care about environmental degradation, the more likely they are to purchase products that are less damaging to the environment (Barbarossa and de Pelsmacker, 2016). Other research verifies that consumers with a favourable attitude towards the environment are more likely than those with a less favourable attitude to possess the intrinsic motivation to seek out and use green products (Davari and Strutton, 2014), to buy environmentally friendly products more frequently (Collins et al., 2007), or buy products from companies with good environmental performance (Mohr and Webb, 2005), because the purchasing intentions of consumers with strong environmental values will be less influenced by attributes that fulfil their self-serving motives and more influenced by green product attributes (Schuitema and de Groot, 2015). Davari and Strutton (2014) provide empirical evidence that consumer environmental consciousness moderates the relationship between a firm's green marketing strategy and its consumer-based brand equity. Considering the effects of environmental consciousness from a relationship marketing perspective, it is expected that more environmentally conscious consumers, due to their predisposition to evaluate green brand's product attributes and marketing efforts more favourably, are generally more inclined to develop positive emotions and build relationships with green brands than less environmentally conscious consumers.\nMethodology: Research context\nResults: Measurement model\nDiscussion and implications: As brands are becoming dynamic experiential entities full of life, to which consumers can talk to, connect with and with whom they can build long lasting relationships (Veloutsou and Guzman, 2017), green brands need to keep up with this trend by using contemporary relationship marketing strategies. The contribution of this study is the conceptualization and empirical validation of a parsimonious model that integrates both relational benefits and relationship strength measures as antecedents of relational outcomes towards green brands, which have been theoretically suggested in the past but have rarely been empirically tested together in a comprehensive model.\nRelational benefits: This work adds evidence in support of the experience of the typology of relationship benefits as an antecedent to the long-term emotional bonding in consumer-green brand relationships, enriching our understanding in the green branding context on the motivations that drive consumers to develop and maintain relationships with green brands. Moreover, this study contributes to the literature of relational benefits extending this framework to the new context of green branding and providing validation of the altruistic benefit, which can be experienced across a wide range of environmental, ethical and social contexts.\nConsumer-brand relationship quality: Extending the literature suggesting that RQ is an important construct for assessing consumer-brand relationships, the current research demonstrates its relevance for green branding and identifies how RQ relates to relational mediators, i.e. satisfaction, and behavioural outcomes such as cross-buying and expectation of relationship continuance. The results contribute to the literature on RQ by applying this multidimensional construct in the specific context of green branding. This study provides evidence that the proposed measure is consistent and valid, serving as a mediator between relational benefits, satisfaction and relationship outcomes.\nModerators: Next, the study examined the role of two moderators in the benefits-mediators interrelationship. Research has demonstrated that both environmental consciousness and length of the relationship positively influence consumer intentions to act in a supportive way for the relationship longevity; however, the impact of the specific moderators on perceptions and outcomes of relational benefits has not been investigated. The results indicate that the effect of satisfaction to outcomes is statistically significant amongst the less environmentally concerned consumers (Korres sample). In line with previous findings that environmentally conscious consumers are generally more aware and positively predisposed towards marketing efforts of green brands and express higher purchase intentions (Barbarossa and de Pelsmacker, 2016; Grimmer and Woolley, 2014; Schuitema and de Groot, 2015), the results of Korres sample indicate that the effects of satisfaction to RQ and of RQ to WOM are higher amongst the more environmentally conscious consumers. Moreover, as the relationship evolves, the consumer gathers more interactions with the brand and knowledge of its performance as a relationship partner (Nyffenegger et al., 2015), which increases the significance of the altruistic and confidence benefit to satisfaction for Korres and Apivita, respectively, as well as the links satisfaction-RQ and RQ-outcomes for Korres sample (the effect of satisfaction to relational outcomes is statistically significant only amongst consumers in a shorter relationship with the brand, which further supports the hypothesis on the augmented role of RQ as the relationship duration increases). These findings are in accordance to Huber et al.'s (2010) study supporting that the functional aspects attributed to a brand's products strengthen the consumer-brand tie with increasing relationship duration, whereas the effect of symbolic benefits remains steady. However, the results as to the effect of moderators are indicative, expressed mainly in the relationships amongst mediators and outcomes, and need further investigation within the green branding context.\nManagerial implications: The findings on the importance of relational benefits and the dimensions of RQ provide marketers with the knowledge required for designing effective relationship marketing strategies in the green branding context. Brand and communication managers should emphasize the provided benefits of the brand as part of their effort to anthropomorphize it and strengthen the consumer-green brand relationship. Especially, when positioning green brands, a combination of functional and emotional benefits works best (Hartmann et al., 2005); thus, green brands could be positioned as a means for the consumer to express environmental concerns whilst enjoying similar to conventional brands levels of functional performance. Taking into consideration the cost of information processing and product evaluation, managers need to educate consumers as to the benefits of green products in general and build trust with customers to offset the lack of trust consumers appear to have in green products. Discounted sample or trial promotional offers designed to enhance consumers' perceptions of the green brand performance and their personal expertise relative to green products are examples to educational communication strategies likely to be beneficial.\nLimitations and directions for future research: These findings are limited to the specific product category of natural cosmetics and to the national context of the study. As mentioned earlier, the specific context selected did not allow for the testing of all of the hypothesized relationships, and especially for the effect of socialization benefit. Thus, the model should be further tested in other product categories. Additionally, in the case of environmentally active companies offering services, the inclusion of other proposed benefits, such as social relationships with personnel, special treatment and experiential benefits, are of particular interest (Gwinner et al., 1998; Trudeau and Shobeiri, 2016). Extension of this research could study whether and how green brands deliver the various perceived benefits throughout all brand touchpoints for both individuals, brand groups and individuals in their brand group settings, as it has recently been suggested (Veloutsou and Guzman, 2017). The effect of brand personality, and especially the aspects of brand sincerity and credibility regarding its environmental performance, on the perceived benefits of self-expression, socialization and altruistic would be of particular interest in such context (An et al., 2018; Davies et al., 2018; de Oliveira Santini et al., 2018). Future research should also extend to testing for context-specific effects. As Megicks et al. (2008) suggest, when making decisions about socially responsible choices, consumers' motivations will vary by situation, and therefore will be multidimensional in nature. The role of altruistic benefit requires further testing, validation and inclusion of other aspects of ethical behaviour such as human rights and labour conditions (Doane, 2001). Finally, replication of this work could shed more light on the dynamic nature of the consumer-green brand relationship, and in particular, the intensity of each benefit across the different stages of the relationship development (Huber et al., 2010).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The study aims to develop and test a relationship-building model for green brands. It synthesizes findings on the consumer motives offered by green brands, with relationship marketing and branding literature to the specific context of green brands to build a parsimonious model testing the links amongst four relational benefits, i.e. confidence, socialization, self-expression and altruism; two relational mediators, i.e. satisfaction and relationship quality; three behavioural outcomes, i.e. word-of-mouth, expectation of continuity and cross-buying; and two moderators of the benefits-mediators relationship, i.e. environmental consciousness and relationship length.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data are collected from consumers of three brands of natural cosmetic products, totalling 848 questionnaires. Structural equation modelling is used to test the hypothesized relationships across the three brands.\nFindings: The results show that confidence benefit has the strongest influence on relationship quality, followed by self-expression and altruism. Relationships quality and satisfaction with the green brand have a significant impact on all three behavioural outcomes. Both environmental consciousness and length of the relationship moderate the hypothesized interrelationships.\nResearch limitations/implications: A new set of relational benefits for the green context is suggested. Several future research opportunities are suggested.\nPractical implications: The study offers suggestions for managers to leverage relationship benefits for relationship strengthening.\nOriginality/value: No previous work has studied in an integrated way the relationship benefits and mediators to model the consumer-green brand relationship. The study provides a better understanding of the antecedents of consumer loyalty towards green brands.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
RFID implementation strategy: perceived risks and organizational fits	[ "Radio frequencies", "Critical success factors", "Risk assessment", "Business performance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: An increasing number of firms are looking into radio frequency identification (RFID) hoping that it can improve and even revolutionize the way they do business. A RFID tag is made of two parts - an integrated circuit for storing and processing information and an antenna for sending and receiving signals. The tag when applied to or incorporated into an object allows identification and tracking of the object. RFID has been touted as a technology that can significantly improve business processes and in turn enhance organizational performance and competitiveness (Wu et al., 2006). The potential value of RFID has been widely recognized and reported (Hardgrave et al., 2005; Loebbecke and Palmer, 2006).These encouraging reports have inspired other firms worldwide to follow suit to explore and adopt this relatively new technology. Particularly we noted a high level of interest and investment in RFID by firms in South Korea. A report by ABI Research describes South Korea as one of emerging forces in RFID. The aggressive industry-government collaboration pushes the technology in a wide array of areas including logistics, libraries, retailing, manufacturing, education, government and public services, defense, shipping and transportation, and livestock in South Korea (RFID Update, 2006). It was in this backdrop that we choose South Korea to carry out the study.Despite numerous anticipated benefits of RFID, many firms are still reluctant to commit due to the lack of concrete evidence of meaningful ROI. They are not convinced that the technology has been proven to justify the investment. Thus, RFID calls for a carefully laid out adoption strategy, taking into consideration various organizational factors and potential risks associated with the adoption of the technology (Angeles, 2005). However, information regarding such potential success and risk factors of the technology is scarce to guide companies. This study was motivated by this paucity of useful information on organizational and risk factors for adopting RFID.The study serves the following two objectives. The first objective of the study is to identify critical organizational factors for successful implementation of RFID. There are numerous organizational factors that the company must assess prior to implementing RFID to ensure that the technology is properly aligned with its business. The findings of this study should provide companies a useful guide to successful implementation of RFID.The second objective of the study is to identify risk factors associated with adopting the RFID technology. RFID is a relatively new technology and it comes with numerous imagined and real risks. How a company perceives the risk of RFID will have a significant bearing on its technology investment decisions that will bring a lasting impact on business. Thus, it is crucial for companies to have a clear understanding about the potential risks and devise a strategy accordingly (Aloini et al., 2007). This study will help shed light and demystify risk issues associated with RFID.This paper is organized in five sections as follows: section 1 discusses the needs for and the objectives of the study; section 2 provides theoretical background and reviews relevant literature; section 3 proposes the research model and hypotheses; section 4 discusses research methods and data analysis, and section 5 discusses the findings of the study as well as the limitations of the study and suggestions for future studies.\n2 Theoretical background: 2.1 Current research on RFID\n3 Research model and research variables: 3.1 Research model\n4 Data analysis: 4.1 Descriptive statistics\n5 Conclusions: 5.1 Summary of study findings\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate how organizations perceive the impact of radio frequency identification (RFID) on business performance in relation to the perceived technology-organization fit and the perceived risk of the technology.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A survey is conducted with professionals involved in RFID implementation initiatives in their organizations. The survey results in usable responses from 350 firms. The survey instrument consists of questions for demographics, organizational fit factors, risk factors, and expected performance measures.\nFindings: - The results suggest that management of organizational fit factors in connection with perceived risk levels has a significant effect on the perceived impact of RFID on business performance.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The sampling process is not completely scientific and random. As a result, some findings may not be applicable to the general population. Another limitation of the paper is that most research constructs and variables measure perceptions and expectations of respondents rather than objective, factual data.\nPractical implications: - This paper identifies several organizational factors that the company must assess prior to implementing RFID to ensure that the technology is properly aligned with its business. This paper should also help managers better understand various risk issues associated with RFID.\nOriginality/value: - Few studies have systematically looked into these organizational and risk factors for successful RFID implementation. This empirical study should make a significant contribution for the research and practitioner communities by systematically and empirically investigate organizational and risk factors for adopting RFID and their impact on business performance.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
An effective school autonomy model: Examining headteachers' job satisfaction and work-related stress	[ "Job satisfaction", "Cyprus", "School autonomy", "Work-related stress", "Scenarios", "Headteachers" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The educational reforms implemented in many countries during the last decades include measures of school autonomy enhancement (Eurydice, 2008). These educational changes are not designed and carried out in the same way, in all countries. Some countries have enhanced school autonomy in specific educational matters, whereas in others, the control has been kept in the hands of the national or district educational authorities (Caldwell, 2008; OECD, 2004). In some cases, the school autonomy policies differ from district to district in the same country (Eurydice, 2007). Therefore, it can be understood that a formula of an effective school autonomy reform cannot exist. Every country and educational system is unique and its characteristics, needs and goals have to be put under examination in order to find the most appropriate policies to improve school effectiveness. This leads us to an important question, whether school autonomy is actually related to school effectiveness.\nThe current situation: The study is based on the case of Cyprus, a country where the educational system is centralized and school autonomy exists at a very limited level (Pashiardis, 2004; UNESCO, 1997). There is first a need to examine whether the existing situation related to school autonomy is effective in Cyprus and if not, to design a change, a school autonomy reform, which promotes school effectiveness. As mentioned above, school autonomy is not a simple matter; policies implemented in many countries enhance autonomy in some educational matters, whilst in others, control is kept in the hands of educational authorities. Therefore, the question needed to be answered does not only refer to the decisions for which school autonomy needs enhancement but also the degree/the level of autonomy the school needs for each educational decision. In Cyprus, the complete lack of school autonomy is considered to be one of the main problematic characteristics of the educational system; although the need for change and improvement can be recognized clearly throughout the existing literature in Cyprus, yet the matter of school autonomy has not been adequately examined.\nResearch methods: This study follows a methodology that allows the researcher to evaluate not only the existing situation (in terms of job satisfaction and work-related stress) where school autonomy in Cyprus exists at a very limited level, but also a non-existent/possible situation where school autonomy exists in a higher level, either this refers to full autonomy or a specific level of autonomy for each one of the various decisions a headteacher has to take. As was mentioned above, the purpose of the study is to find the most effective model of school autonomy for Cyprus. School effectiveness is approached through headteachers' job satisfaction and work-related stress. In order to fulfill this purpose, a comparison between different conditions of autonomy was needed, all referring to the same educational system, which in this case was the one in Cyprus. This need guided the whole effort for finding and implementing a methodology that allows the evaluation and comparison of the dependent variables (satisfaction and stress) between hypothetical situations of different levels of autonomy, since (currently) in Cyprus, only the case of no autonomy exists. The methodology followed fulfills this need, as well as the purpose of the study; the research method has to do with the use of scenarios.\nResults: Headteachers' job satisfaction when working in conditions of full autonomy in all educational matters had a mean score of 3.9 in a scale from 1 to 5, whereas in the scenario of no autonomy, the mean was 2.98. The work-related stress measured in the scenario of full autonomy was 3.21 (scale 1-5); in the scenario of no autonomy the headteachers' stress was approximately the same, 3.23. The headteachers' job satisfaction and work-related stress for each educational decision (referring to various academic, economical, organizational and human resource matters) separately were also measured. The mean scores of job satisfaction (Table I) were relatively low in the various educational decisions in the scenario of no autonomy (mean scores: 3.63-5.79 in a scale from 1-10) whereas in the scenario of full autonomy were considerably higher (mean scores: 6.55-8.70). Concerning the variable of work-related stress (Table II), the mean scores where approximately the same - scores around the middle value of 5 in a scale from 1-10) in the various educational decisions between the two scenarios, with some exceptions referring to the following matters: selection of teaching manuals, books and materials (no autonomy mean: 4.71, full autonomy mean: 6.66), recruitment of teaching personnel (no autonomy mean: 5.95, full autonomy mean: 8.00) and finally payroll, promotions and termination of cooperation (no autonomy mean: 5.41, full autonomy mean: 8.43). The above decisions were the only ones that seemed to increase headteachers' stress when they received full autonomy in these matters. The comparison between the mean scores of the two opposite (in terms of school autonomy levels) scenarios, presented at the tables, revealed that all differences were statistically significant.\nDiscussion: The most common approach for evaluating school effectiveness is through pupils' achievement and learning. However, the various models of school effectiveness highlight the different factors involved in this complex concept (see, Creemers, 1994; Pashiardis and Brauckmann, 2008; Scott, 1997). Some of the most important factors affecting school effectiveness have to do with the headteacher and school leadership (Purkey and Smith, 1983; Pashiardis, 1998, 2014; Scheerens, 1992; Uline et al., 1998). It is essential to explain at this point that the study does not suggest that the focus should be driven away from students' learning to the headteachers job satisfaction when referring to school effectiveness; the study can provide a different approach toward a better understanding of the headteachers' role in school effectiveness, by taking into consideration two important indicators: headteachers' job satisfaction and work-related stress. There is an important part of the existing literature supporting that the above two variables relate to school effectiveness itself (Borg and Riding, 1993; Carr, 1993; Chambers, 1999; Chaplain, 2001; Harrison et al., 2006; Jex and Gudanowski, 1992; Kelly, 1988; Scheerens, 2000). It is believed that headteachers and school leadership indirectly affect school effectiveness (Hallinger and Heck, 1996). However, this effect, indirect or not, exists especially in terms of an educational change that first and most of all affects headteachers' jobs, like a school autonomy reform; thus, the importance of taking into consideration the indicators of school effectiveness that relate to headteachers, becomes even stronger. At the methodology section of this paper, it has been explained that it was not possible to take into consideration students' achievement, due to the lack of variation in terms of school autonomy levels among schools in Cyprus. However, an important suggestion of the study is to implement relevant research in contexts where academic results can be examined.\nConclusion: The methodology of this study provided the chance of examining a hypothetical situation referring to the enhancement of school autonomy in Cyprus. The results of the study provided an insight of what is most possible to happen if a relevant educational change takes place. This allows the researchers to highlight the educational matters for which more attention must be given, in order to promote the effectiveness of this change, when this is actually implemented. In a period where economic crisis affects many countries, including Cyprus, it is important to implement changes with higher chances of success, with lower resistance of the stakeholders involved and therefore, with limited risks of wasting resources. The methodology of the study, with the procedure of scenarios, can be followed in other contexts as well, in order to gain a first evaluation/insight of a change planned. The scenarios might not be helpful in evaluating an educational change in terms of academic results, since these cannot change in hypothetical situations, but the specific method can help collecting data relevant to variables that refer to the various stakeholders and the people affected from a possible change. For example, the job satisfaction, stress, productivity, motivation, commitment or opinions the people will have if a change - affecting their personal or professional life - takes place, can be studied and evaluated in this way before this change takes place, in order to improve or abort the proposed reform.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Although school autonomy has been a matter of great interest during the last decades and several relevant measures have been implemented toward this end, the relation between school autonomy and school effectiveness has not been examined thoroughly. The purpose of this paper is to explore this relation and to propose an effective school autonomy model for Cyprus, a small European country with a highly centralized educational system. The suggested model indicates which decisions (related to various administrative, financial, academic, pedagogical and human resources matters) must be made at school level, which decisions can be made partly from the school with a higher level of control from the ministry and which decisions have to be made exclusively by a central authority, in order to enhance school effectiveness.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An unusual methodological design is followed, using scenarios to examine hypothetical situations. Cypriot headteachers' job satisfaction and work-related stress is examined in the case of full autonomy and in the opposite scenario of very limited autonomy. The results from this phase of the study lead to the design of the suggested school autonomy model, which is then tested in terms of effectiveness through a third scenario. The scenarios are given in questionnaires and the sample includes 300 out of a population of 350 primary school headteachers of Cyprus.\nFindings: The findings of the study suggest that headteachers' job satisfaction and work-related stress is affected by the level of school autonomy that characterizes an educational system. The most effective scenario for the case of Cyprus does not refer to the existing situation of very limited autonomy, neither to the opposite scenario of full autonomy. The most effective scenario refers to the suggested model of school autonomy where all decisions related to various academic, managerial, financial and human resource matters are taken at school level, except for the decisions related to teaching materials and textbooks, teacher placements, promotions, payroll and dismissals. For these decisions the guidance, support and/or control from the educational authorities have to be enhanced.\nResearch limitations/implications: In this study school effectiveness is examined through the headteachers' job satisfaction and stress as the dependent variable, and not through the conventional student achievement variable. A part of the existing literature suggests that these variables affect school effectiveness in an indirect way. Taking into consideration student achievement was not possible for the case of Cyprus, since the only scenario currently existing refers to very limited or no school autonomy. Therefore, it is not possible to compare the academic results of students coming from schools with different levels of autonomy.\nPractical implications: The methodological approach of the study can be followed in other contexts as well, in order to design an effective school autonomy model for a different educational system, district or school. Scenarios can also be used to test and make corrections for a suggested educational reform, before this is implemented, in order to avoid waste of time and/or financial resources.\nOriginality/value: The value of this study first lies in its attempt to design a school autonomy model, based on all the educational decisions and matters that can be affected from a school autonomy reform; this became possible through an extensive literature review. Second the study, does not only support some suggestions based on the results, but also tests the effectiveness of the suggestions before these are implemented, following the unusual methodological approach of scenarios. Moreover, the relation between school autonomy and school effectiveness has not been examined thoroughly in the existing literature and some conflicting opinions exist. The findings of the study can help us gain a better understanding of the above relation.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Applying fuzzy interpretive structural modeling to evaluate responsible consumption and production under uncertainty	[ "Corporate sustainability", "Triple bottom line", "Fuzzy interpretive structural modeling", "Responsible consumption and production" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The Chinese construction industry is striving to develop more sustainable practices to comply with international standards and government regulations. However, several barriers are observed in the current market, such as the rapid decline in industry growth, increasing labor costs, intensive competition, contractor payment delays, high risk during the constructing period, strict government regulations, etc. These barriers impede firms from pursuing sustainability, especially if they have to pay the additional cost of launching sustainable development (Tan et al., 2015). In addition, the Chinese construction industry is associated with high resource consumption and low value-added activity, which generates a conflict between industry and public expectations (Lai et al., 2016). Although construction firms have focused on managing this conflict, it persists in the Chinese construction market because of the lack of an appropriate and effective method of resolution. Thus, this study proposes a novel concept called responsible consumption and production (RCP) to assist firms in performing comprehensive evaluations. This novel concept enables leading firms to follow precise guidelines for managing natural resource depletion, complying with public expectations, reducing environmental impacts and promoting long-term competitive advantages (Govindan et al., 2013; Tomsic et al., 2015; Wu et al., 2016).\n2. Literature review: This section provides the background underlying the RCP, TBL and corporate sustainability concepts. The proposed measures and methods are addressed to promote an understanding of the theory and offer a framework for evaluating industry performance.\n3. Method: Based on the proposed measure (as Table I shows), this study attempts to integrate fuzzy set theory and ISM to develop a clear framework that can enhance our understanding of RCP.\n4. Results: This section provides the background on the case and empirical results to demonstrate the importance of RCP. The validity and reliability of this study can be increased based on the quality of the group of experts. Thus, this study invited two professors, three presidents, three vice presidents, five managers and two senior engineers with at least ten years of relevant experience in the industry to form the expert group.\n5. Implications: This section presents the theoretical bases for strengthening our understanding of RCP and provides managerial strategies for assisting firms in the development of sustainable practices. The detailed discussion is based on the top two levels (management style and stakeholder management) and the top five criteria (establishing transparent communication channels, managers' attitudes and behavior, technical capabilities, organizational culture and stakeholder engagement).\n6. Conclusions: In this work, a significant RCP framework that provides precise guidelines toward sustainable development is presented for the Chinese construction industry. To develop a theoretical foundation that is valid and reliable and can support actual practices, this study proposes 36 criteria based on an integration of the TBL concept and corporate sustainability. These proposed criteria are used to increase our understanding of RCP and recognize current performance goals according to expert assessments. However, these assessments are time consuming and include uncertain information. Thus, the FISM method is proposed as a strategy for integrating the advantages of fuzzy set theory and ISM to overcome these issues. Thus, fuzzy set theory is applied to overcome the uncertain information in the experts' judgments, which are transformed into quantitative data. Subsequently, ISM is applied to use this quantitative data to form a framework and facilitate decision making by solving complex problems through the development of a hierarchical structure.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to adopt fuzzy interpretive structural modeling (ISM) to develop a precise evaluation framework and provide a theoretical basis for enhancing the understanding of responsible consumption and production (RCP) in academic and industrial fields.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An integration of fuzzy set theory and ISM is proposed to maintain a higher level of consistency and reduce the uncertainty inherent in expert responses.\nFindings: RCP can be categorized into seven levels, which represent the driving power from higher to lower. The top aspect is management style; the remaining aspects are stakeholder management, regulation compliance, efficiency improvement, sustainable awareness, sustainable production and social responsibility.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study attempts to integrate the triple bottom line (TBL) concept and corporate sustainability to develop a significant framework for evaluating RCP. Although the proposed aspects and criteria can be used to evaluate the Chinese construction industry, these may be insufficient for other industries. In addition, further discussion regarding important aspects and criteria is required to complete the theoretical basis.\nPractical implications: The results indicate that the top two criteria are establishing transparent communication channels and promoting managerial attitudes and behavior, which are followed by technology capabilities, organizational culture and stakeholder engagement. These five criteria play important roles when implementing RCP practices among Chinese construction firms.\nOriginality/value: This study is the first to discuss RCP via an integration of the TBL concept and corporate sustainability. The framework developed herein provides a precise guideline for Chinese construction firms to improve their performance, and it also promotes the efficient use of resources via sustainable practices.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Determinants of involuntary cross-listing: US restaurant companies' perspective	[ "Involuntary cross-listing", "Cross-listing", "Determinants", "Frankfurt Stock Exchange", "Restaurants", "Stocks", "Stock exchanges" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: As the barriers to foreign investment diminished worldwide, many firms listed their shares on overseas exchanges to exercise a strategic option for their financial, marketing, and operational benefits (Saudagaran, 1988). The phenomenon is commonly called \"cross-listing (CL)\". However, some firms became cross-listed despite not intending or consenting to doing so. This involuntary CL occurs because many stock markets changed rules to significantly simplify listing requirements for companies already listed in other stock markets, mainly to increase trading volumes and generate greater fees. The simplified rules typically allow third party financial institutions, including market makers and depositary banks, to list companies' shares on local stock exchanges as long as the shares have been listed on one or more other stock exchanges. Accordingly, involuntarily cross-listed firms are not obligated to pay any fees; the applicant, a third party financial institutions pay fees for registration and trading. The only imposed requirement is that the listed company is in good standing on another stock exchange.\nLiterature review: CL literature has largely developed with attempts to explain the motivations for voluntary CL and empirical examinations for those explanations. Few studies have considered involuntary CL, thus far, perhaps due to the phenomenon's relative newness compared to voluntary CL, and the action's involving a foreign third-party, not a function of a company's strategic decision-making. Four main hypotheses explain firms' reasons for voluntarily CL:\nMethodology: The current study adopts a mixed methods design, which collects both qualitative and quantitative data. Qualitative data arises from salient interviews, and quantitative data, subjected to pooled logistic regression for main analysis, uses S&P (Standard and Poor's) capital IQ database.\nResults: Descriptive statistics\nDiscussion: Results of the logistic regression analyses indicate three determinants for US restaurant companies' involuntary CLs on the FSE Open Market: large firm size, favorable overall economic conditions in Germany, and a high degree of industry growth opportunities. Identification of these factors is crucial to the US restaurant industry since more and more US restaurant companies have had their securities involuntarily cross-listed on the FSE Open Market without prior knowledge due to significantly simplified requirements for listing on that exchange. Although involuntary CL is not a company's strategic decision, risks and disadvantages may accrue to those involuntarily cross-listed companies due to a lack of communications with German investors. Therefore, the US restaurant companies should maintain supervision of this phenomenon in order to prevent problems. In addition, previous studies found that home and host country mix and industry affect wide range of stock investment and listing behaviors (Pagano et al., 2002). The current study extends CL literature by adding empirical evidence of the effects of involuntary CL of US companies on non-US stock markets, which has had little attention so far.\nLimitations and suggestions for future studies: The current study produced results that focus on US restaurant companies involuntarily cross-listed on the FSE open market. Considering the industry specific factor, restaurant type, does not appear to be significant, the results of this study may be generalizable to involuntary CL of US companies operating in other industries. However, considering more than 3,000 US companies have CLs on the FSE open market as of 2011, with high probability of expanded involuntary CL, a worthwhile investigation would be to discover whether or not the results of the current study are generalizable to other US companies in other industries. Future studies may examine the effect of involuntary CL on media coverage in Germany or valuation on the home exchange.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify determinants of involuntary cross-listing (CL) of US restaurant companies on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (FSE).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study utilizes a mixed method design with an interview and a pooled logistic regression analysis with panel dataset using the company-clustered standard error to develop and test the hypotheses.\nFindings: The empirical investigation identified determinants of involuntary CL by examining ten factors, including size, firm growth opportunities, leverage, financial flexibility, international operation, profitability, overall German economic condition, industry growth opportunities, restaurant type, and local operation. The study found three determinants - large size, favorable economic condition in Germany and positive industry growth opportunities - utilizing the sample that covers the entire periods of involuntary CL of US restaurant companies on the FSE.\nOriginality/value: This paper uncovers the phenomenon of involuntary CL, which many stock exchanges have strategically adopted by simplifying listing requirements for companies already listed in other stock markets, focusing on US restaurant companies. The number of involuntarily cross-listed US restaurant companies greatly increased to 50 percent of domestically listed US restaurant companies while those companies are largely unaware of the phenomenon. The research advances understanding of involuntary CLs, which previously received little attention.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Collective action in the Greek agrifood sector: evidence from the North Aegean region	[ "Co‐operative organizations", "Greece", "Agricultural products" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Collective action can be defined as a voluntary action carried out by a group of people working towards a common goal. Collective action in the agrifood sector takes many forms, such as farmer co-operatives, co-ordinated supply chains of specialised regional or typical products and wine and olive oil routes (Lamprinopoulou et al., 2006), as well as initiatives aiming to direct producer-consumer relations, initiatives offering agro-services (e.g. tourism, care facilities or agro-environmental services) and non-food initiatives (e.g. bio-energy). Brunori and Rossi (2000) claim that there are also other forms of collective action -such as the role of the family, localised socio-economic networks in which farms are embedded, which are overlooked by the modernisation paradigm. According to Birchall (2003), a co-operative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise. Co-operation exists when two or more actors agree through formal or informal arrangements to share information, support managerial and technical training, supply capital and/or provide market information (Polenske, 2004). Collective action has been identified as a key point of rural development (Brunori and Rossi, 2000; OECD, 1998), and the main benefits for its members are:* resource access;* economies of scale and scope; and* reduced transaction and co-ordination costs (Lamprinopoulou et al., 2006; Brunori and Rossi, 2000; LEADER European Observatory, 2000).Phillipson et al. (2006) have pointed out that voluntary organisations must overcome the problem of free-riding in order to be sustainable.As noted in Lamprinopoulou et al. (2006) collective action in the agrifood sector in Greece is under-researched. Thus, this paper aims to fulfil this gap by attaining two specific objectives. First, it examines the different forms of collective action in the Greek agrifood sector and categorizes them using a typology. Second, the paper focuses on the forms of collective action in one Greek region (NUTS II), the North Aegean. The paper examines four important agrifood products for the region: mastiha, wine, olive oil and cheese, which are produced by co-operatives (exclusively or to some extent) and one specific category of co-operatives: the women's co-operatives. The co-operatives of the region are analysed according to the key conditions for successful collective action laid down by Lamprinopoulou et al. (2006) in order to delineate strengths and weaknesses of the co-operatives for collective action. The structure of the paper is as follows. The next section deals with the current forms of collective action in the Greek agrifood sector. The third section presents the research method used, while the following section focuses on some case studies of collective action in the North Aegean region. The penultimate section illustrates the analysis of the case studies according to the contextual and behavioural conditions for successful collective action and, finally the last section draws some conclusions.\nForms of collective action in the Greek agrifood sector: The current forms of collective action in the Greek agrifood sector at present can be categorised as:* first and second-degree co-operatives;* interprofessional organisations referring to types of products (i.e. olive oil, wine) rather to specific products;* producer groups and associations; and* other forms of collective action.Co-operatives\nResearch method: Lamprinopoulou et al. (2006) has identified six conditions under which collective action may emerge, namely: type of market; social cohesiveness; institutional support; market orientation; co-operative spirit; presence of an initiator. The first three conditions are contextual and refer to socio-economic contexts in which agrifood SMEs operate, while the other three are behavioural conditions and refer to the actors' aptitudes, dispositions and interactions.This paper presents evidence that refers to the collective action in the agrifood sector of the North Aegean region (Greece) based on the aforementioned conditions for successful collective action. Two research programmes (NAIAS and Euromed-Heritage)[4] and one PhD dissertation (Vakoufaris, in progress) are the sources of information for the collective actions that appear in the agrifood sector of the North Aegean region. The Programme NAIAS dealt with innovation in the SMEs of the agrifood sector. Data were collected with a questionnaire for 98 out of the 119 enterprises (cheese making units, women's co-operatives, olive oil mills, olive oil bottling companies, wineries etc.). Therefore, 17.6 per cent of the enterprises did not respond. Thirty two of these enterprises were co-operatives and data were collected for all of them. The Programme Euromed-Heritage dealt with traditional know-how and ways of production in olive oil enterprises (mills and bottling companies) and cheese making units. Forty one enterprises (olive oil mills, olive oil bottling companies and cheese-making units) were surveyed in total (non-response 10.8 per cent) with the use of a questionnaire. Twelve of these were co-operatives and data were collected for all of them. Both researches took place in 2002. The PhD dissertation deals with specific agrifood products in the North Aegean region and their contribution to the sustainable development triptych: economy, environment, society. There are four case studies on three islands of the North Aegean region, that is PDO Ladotyri cheese and PGI Lesvos olive oil on Lesvos island, VQPRD[5] Samos wine on Samos island and Mastiha PDO resin on Chios island. Two of these products (VQPRD Samos, Mastiha PDO) are exclusively produced by co-operatives. A research with questionnaires to all cheese-making units, wineries, olive oil bottling companies and to other key informants took place in 2005. Although the focus of the Programmes and the PhD Dissertation is not collective action per se, an insight to the dominant form of collective action in the region (i.e. the co-operatives) was gained.\nCollective action in the agrifood sector of the North Aegean region: What follows is an analysis of four products of great value for the North Aegean region in terms of land use, social value (number of farmers) and economic importance, as well as an analysis of a specific category of co-operatives: the women's co-operatives. Since women's co-operatives produce a great variety of products, we employ an analysis at the product level for most cases but at the co-operative level for women's co-operatives. Moreover, by focusing on products of all other cases, we can present the overall picture of production modes (farmers, manufacturing units, etc.) and the actual power and extent of co-operatives in their production. It must be mentioned that other forms of collective action in the North Aegean region are non-existent up to now.The North Aegean region is an island region consisting of three Prefectures and ten inhabited islands (Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Limnos, Ikaria, Agios Efstratios, Psara, Oinousses, Fournoi, Thimaina) (Figure 1). The region stretches over 3,836 km2, with a total population of 200,066 (2001) and a population density of 52.1 inhabitants/km2 (82.9 inh/km2 for Greece). The region's GDP per capita is 91 per cent of the national average (2001 data), against 79 per cent in 1992. The main agricultural land uses in the region are groves (olive groves on Lesvos and Samos islands and mastiha and citrus groves on Chios island), vineyards (on Limnos and Samos islands) and grazelands (on all islands), while arable land is important only on Limnos. Sheep and goat farming is also of great importance for Lesvos, Limnos, Samos, Ikaria and Chios. The main food and drinks products of the region are mastiha, wine, olive oil, cheeses, and ouzo. Ouzo is not produced at all by co-operatives in the region and it is not considered in our analysis.Mastiha\nAnalysis of successful collective action according to the contextual and behavioural conditions: Contextual conditions\nConclusions - discussion: The dominant form of collective action in the North Aegean region is the co-operatives. The identified contextual and behavioural conditions for successful collective action are very different in the case studies presented. On the one hand, the CMGA is the co-operative, which fulfils most conditions for successful collective action. The co-operative spirit is high, the specialized personnel managed to overcome the inefficiencies of the past and Mediterra SA is used in order to obtain more information about the end-consumers. The social cohesiveness and institutional support is strong and the type of market is a monopoly.On the other hand, there are co-operatives, such as the UVCL and the UACL, which are characterised by the usual inflexibilities of co-operatives: unspecialised personnel at key positions, inability to make quick decisions and respond to a constantly changing market, inability to produce manufactured products, to market and differentiate the manufactured products and achieve good prices etc. Between the two cases lies the UVCS, a monopoly in itself, which is characterised by a strong social cohesiveness, a high co-operative spirit, but also low institutional support. Therefore, the co-operatives of the region form a spectrum of successful collective action with the CMGA being the most successful and the UVCL and the UACL the less successful.Our case studies show that besides the six aforementioned conditions for successful collective action, the legal status of co-operatives in Greece is also very important. The two most successful co-operatives in the North Aegean region are obligatory co-operatives. This peculiar legal status is, on the one hand, a safety net but, on the other hand, can endanger the future of the co-operatives. In two cases (olive oil, wine on Limnos island) small privately owned companies flourish in numbers and constitute an increasing size of the market. In one case (cheese products), privately owned companies constitute the greater part of the market. Will this be the case for Mastiha and Samos\" VQPRD wines too, if the legal status of the CMGA and the UVCS changes in the future?The CMGA is an example of the tremendous potential of Greek co-operatives. In five years, the CMGA managed to reverse the negative trends in the development of the co-operative and to diffuse part of its profits to Mastiha farmers. Moreover, the UVCS shows promising signs as far as the impact on farmers is concerned. However, these two co-operatives are the exception to the rule of inflexible co-operatives that are unable to respond to the needs of consumers and to adopt the right marketing strategies for the best remuneration of their, in most cases, highly qualitative products.Concluding, the findings of this study have some broader implications for the agrifood sector in the EU generally. They seem to indicate that the type of collective action is of great importance. Co-operatives, and especially second-degree ones with many members, are laden with inflexibilities, have slow decision making processes and individual members-farmers have limited control over these decisions. The most successful ones attempt to by-pass these inflexibilities by creating different development means that are able to compete with private enterprises. At the same time, smaller co-operatives and producers' groups are more flexible and can adapt faster and more efficiently to market pressures and demand. Here, it seems that even the exclusive exploitation of resources that the obligatory co-operatives of the region are armed with, is not enough for success. But, even the obligatory co-operative with the bigger problems is in a better financial and production condition than the rest of the big co-operatives who see more and more of their resources and products being appropriated by private enterprises. This can be a lesson, especially for Southern EU countries, where the State is strongly in favour of such big co-operatives.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to present the existing forms of collective action in the Greek agrifood sector and to focus on co-operatives, the dominant form of collective action in the agrifood sector of the North Aegean region.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The analysis is based on six contextual and behavioural conditions under which collective action may emerge.\nFindings: - This paper shows that very successful co-operatives, according to the six contextual and behavioural conditions, co-exist with unsuccessful ones, which are characterised by inflexibilities and inability to respond to a constantly changing market. Moreover, the legal status of some co-operatives (obligatory co-operatives) is of great interest.\nOriginality/value: - This paper attempts to categorise existing forms of collective action in the Greek agrifood sector. Moreover, it gives information about the co-operatives of the North Aegean region, based on three research programmes that were conducted in the region.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A comparative study of intangible investment in Egypt and South Africa	[ "Africa", "Comparative study", "Intangible investment", "Knowledge-based capital" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Since the influential work of Corrado et al. (2005) which standardized and popularized the measurement approach of investment in intangible assets, evidence is growing stronger that investment in intangible capital, also known as knowledge-based capital (OECD, 2013), has become increasingly more important over time. According to the estimates constructed by Corrado and Hulten (2014), the share of intangible investment had already exceeded the share of tangible investment in the USA by the early 1990s and reached over 14 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010 (see Figure 1). This increasing importance of intangible investment is not only specific to the USA or industrialized economies such as the European Union (Corrado et al., 2012), studies that look at other parts of the world, such as China (Hulten and Hao, 2012) and Brazil (Dutz et al., 2012), also show a similar pattern with investment composition gradually shifting away from tangible to intangible assets. By including intangible capital estimates in a growth accounting framework, the extant literature also finds that intangible capital plays an important role in determining labor productivity growth (e.g. Corrado et al., 2009; Fukao et al., 2009; Roth and Thum, 2013; van Ark et al., 2009). This new finding suggests that the role of measured total factor productivity (TFP) or \"our measure of ignorance\" as it was coined by Abramovitz (1956) is reduced, while capital deepening (tangible and intangible combined) constitutes the dominant source of growth.\n2. Measurement approach and data sources: This section begins with a general description of the measurement approach for intangible investment, followed by detailed discussions on how each intangible asset is estimated as well as the associated data sources used.\n3. Descriptive results: Based on the measurement approach discussed above, this section turns to present the results of intangible investment estimation for Egypt and South Africa. As can be seen from Figure 2, total intangible investment (i.e. sum of investment in R&D, organizational capital, and brand equity) as a portion of intangibles-adjusted market GDP is consistently and considerably higher in South Africa than in Egypt. According to the estimates, South Africa devotes about four times more resources to intangible investment than Egypt. In addition, the contrast in their investment trends is also quite noteworthy. South Africa seems to invest increasingly more on intangibles over time. The intangible investment share rose from 1.9 percent of GDP in 1995 to over 2.8 percent in 2011. Whereas, the investment share of intangibles remained stagnant in Egypt at about 0.5 percent of GDP.\n4. Potential policy relevance: Albeit this paper is descriptive in nature, the findings could still be of policy relevance. For instance, this paper finds that too much intangible investment in Egypt is in brand equaity (accounting for over 75 percent) while too little is invested in R&D and organizational capital. It seems worthwhile for the policy makers in Egypt to consider a different investment strategy by reallocating more resources to investment in R&D and organizational capital. This policy advise is based on the extensive empirical evidence that R&D and organizational capital are not only highly productive as factor inputs (Chen and Inklaar, 2016; Tronconi and Vittucci Marzetti, 2011), but more importantly investment in R&D generates positive externalities (Bloom et al., 2013) and investment in organizational capital tends to complement the productive use of other assets such as information and communications technology (Chen et al., 2016; Corrado et al., 2017). In addition, by investing more in R&D and organizational capital it would also help Egypt to build up its learning capacity so that more advanced technologies or management know-how can be diffused to the country or can be disseminated at a faster pace. As Egypt is still quite far from the technology frontier, the build-up of the learning capacity in order to assimilate knowledge seems to be even more relevant and important.\n5. Conclusions and discussions: As a key driver of future economic growth, investments in knowledge-based intangible assets have become increasingly more important over time (OECD, 2013). This paper seeks to provide the first estimates on intangible investment for two African countries, namely, Egypt and South Africa, over the period 1995-2011.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand the recent developments and trends of intangible investment in Egypt and South Africa.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper follows the framework pioneered by Corrado, Hulten and Sichel (2005, 2009) and measures investments in scientific R&D, organizational capital, and brand equity using the expenditure-based approach.\nFindings: The main findings are that South Africa invests consistently and considerably more in intangible assets than Egypt. Among the three intangible assets examined, namely, scientific R&D, organizational capital, and brand equity, South Africa seems to invest more evenly across these assets, whereas intangible investment in Egypt is predominantly driven by investment in brand equity and very little in R&D.\nOriginality/value: This is the first paper to formally examine intangible investment in African countries. The ballpark estimate provided in this study is a useful step forward in understanding the trends of intangible investment in Egypt and South Africa.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill and factors associated with depressive symptoms among residents of the Mississippi Gulf Coast: A path analysis	[ "Deepwater Horizon oil spill", "Depressive symptoms", "Gulf/ocean-related lifestyle", "Worry" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Counties along the Mississippi Gulf Coast have struggled with the effects of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico - the nation's largest marine oil spill (Cleveland, 2013). The spill was a \"slow,\" creeping disaster and resulted in 4.9 million barrels of oil being gradually spilled into the Gulf of Mexico over a three-month period (McNutt et al., 2011). The response and recovery process that began almost immediately after the breach was aimed at the advancing oil slick. To the dismay of Mississippi residents and all other responders, the millions of government and BP dollars spent to contain the oil spill were insufficient. The unrelenting oil slick slowly brought environmental degradation along with serious economic implications to coastal residents that were still questioning their capacity to rebuild after disasters. It also eroded the confidence that residents had in human systems to protect their coastline and eventually rebuild ecological systems, not only on the Mississippi Coast but also the entire Gulf Coast. To compound this problem, many residents were still adapting or coping with their recovery from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, one of the strongest storms in US history (Adeola and Picou, 2014; Groen and Polivka, 2008).\nLiterature review: Exposure to the oil spill, physical symptoms, and depression\nHypotheses: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the psychological effects of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster. Specifically, the aim was to develop and test a conceptual model in which exposure to the oil spill through clean-up activity, physical symptoms since the oil spill, worry about the impact of the oil spill on health, and the disruption of the gulf/ocean-related lifestyle were hypothesized predictors of depressive symptoms (Figure 1). Prior studies (e.g. D'Andrea and Reddy, 2013; Drescher et al., 2014; Eykelbosh, 2014; Gill et al., 2012; Osofsky et al., 2011; Palinkas, 2012; Zock et al., 2012) provided a conceptual framework and guided the direction of relationships among study variables.\nMethod: Participants and processes\nResults: Sample characteristics\nDiscussion: This study tested a proposed model for depressive symptoms using a randomly selected sample of 354 Mississippi Gulf Coast residents living in the area that was directly affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The findings of the present study confirm the results of previous studies, since they continue to suggest that uncertainty and worry about long-term outcomes is the likely mechanism through which the immediate consequences of the disaster most strongly affect psychological distress (Gill et al., 2012; Palinkas, 2012). In the present study, worry about the impact of the oil spill on health played a mediating role between physical symptoms and depressive symptoms. This meant that experiencing acute physical symptoms might cause greater concerns regarding the negative impact of the oil spill on their health and the health of their family and in turn this led to increased depressive symptoms. Furthermore, the greater the physical symptoms and the associated worry and concerns about their health status, the greater were the disruptions of lifestyle that were intertwined with the gulf/ocean. This process resulted in an increase in depressive symptoms. These findings are consistent with previous studies with samples of Gulf Coast residents in Alabama and Louisiana. For example, Gill et al. (2012) found a significant relationship between concern about the impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on family health and psychological distress. Osofsky et al. (2011) found that although concerns related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill were not significantly related to psychological distress, they were significantly related to the disruption of life. In addition, the disruption of life was significantly related to psychological distress.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to extend prior research on the psychological effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster by developing and testing a conceptual model in which exposure to the oil spill through clean-up activity, physical symptoms, worry about the impact of the oil spill on health, and the disruption of the gulf/ocean-related lifestyle were hypothesized as predictors of depressive symptoms.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The analysis included a randomly selected sample of 354 subjects from the three most Southern Mississippi counties. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale was used to measure depressive symptoms.\nFindings: Results indicated that physical symptoms since the oil spill were related to depressive symptoms directly and indirectly through worry about the impact of the oil spill on health and the disruption of the gulf/ocean-related lifestyle. Worry about the impact of the oil spill on health was related to depressive symptoms directly and indirectly through the disruption of the gulf/ocean-related lifestyle.\nOriginality/value: Study results highlight that uncertainty and worry about the impact of the disaster played a critical role in understanding the psychological effects of the oil spill disaster, especially among coastal residents whose lifestyles were bound up with the gulf/ocean.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
How asymmetrical task dependence and task interdependence interact: An individual level study into the effects on affective reactions	[ "Asymmetrical task dependence", "Interdependence theory", "Power-dependence theory", "Quantitative field study", "Task interdependence", "Team and task design" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: To meet the demands of an ever more complex business world there have been major changes in the last decades in the way jobs and tasks are organized. A key change is that increasingly more individuals are put into multidisciplinary work teams, ranging from task forces and project teams, to autonomous work groups and management teams (e.g. Cohen and Bailey, 1997; Wageman, 2001). This boost in working in teams has meant that increasingly more employees are dependent upon one or more colleagues for resources to complete their tasks. Research has shown that such task interdependence can increase an individual worker's motivation and performance if the exchange of resources with fellow colleagues goes smoothly (e.g. Kiggundu, 1983). However, other research has indicated that being task dependent on colleagues can also be frustrating when colleagues refrain from sharing the needed resources, as it then becomes hard, or even impossible, to complete one's assigned tasks (e.g. Tjosvold et al., 2003). As such, it is crucial to consider task interdependencies carefully when (re-)designing the tasks and jobs of team members and, to this end, practitioners and scholars alike often turn to interdependence theory.\nTheory and hypotheses: Before developing our hypotheses in more detail it is important to stress that asymmetrical task dependence is distinct from task interdependence, even though both are defined in terms of the need for resources (Thibaut and Kelley, 1959). Imagine, for instance, an individual \"X\" and another individual \"Y\" who work in different teams, but who have to exchange a similar moderate amount of resources within their respective teams (e.g. an average of 4 units of resources). Despite their similar task interdependence, they might differ greatly in their asymmetrical task dependence, because individual X might only need 3 units from other team members, while her team members need 5 units from her. In contrast, individual Y might need six units from his colleagues, while his team members only need 2 units from him. Although both individuals have the same (average or mutual) task interdependence score of 4 units, their individual-level asymmetrical task dependence scores are very different (-2 and +4 units, respectively). Hence, it is important to investigate these two constructs separately. For a graphical illustration of why this distinction is important, see Casciaro and Piskorski (2005, p. 171).\nMethod: Sample and procedure\nResults: Descriptive statistics\nDiscussion: A key starting point for this study was the observation that, until very recently, most studies regarding task interdependence overlooked the effects of asymmetrical task dependence (Thibaut and Kelley, 1959). Drawing from theories of power and dependence in social and exchange relationships (e.g. Casciaro and Piskorski, 2005; Emerson, 1962; Fiske and Berdahl, 2007), and building upon recent studies (De Jong et al., 2007; Van der Vegt et al., 2010), we argued, and found, that there is an interaction between asymmetrical task dependence and task interdependence. The theoretical implications of this are discussed below after which the strengths and weaknesses, ideas for future research, and practical implications will be discussed.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether research and practice on task design and work teams could benefit from a more nuanced perspective on task (inter)dependencies among team members. Prior research often overlooked that task interdependence captures the average exchange of resources, while asymmetrical task dependence captures the inequalities within an individual's work relationships. To date, no study on work teams has combined the two aspects.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were obtained from 262 individuals working in 67 work teams. Multilevel and bootstrapping analyses were used.\nFindings: Drawing from interdependence theory and power-dependence theory it was argued, and subsequently found, that asymmetrical task dependence interacts with task interdependence, and affects the job satisfaction of individuals and their affective commitment to their team.\nPractical implications: A key practical implication is that both asymmetrical task dependence and task interdependence should be taken into account when optimizing intra-team task dependencies, for instance when (re-)designing jobs or teams.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to research on asymmetrical task dependence within work teams, by investigating its interaction with task interdependence, its effects on the affective reactions of workers, and its effects on the individual level of analysis.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Internet use by international graduate students in the USA seeking health information	[ "International students", "Graduate students", "Consumer health information", "Health information seeking", "Internet health information" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This study aims to explore internet use by international graduate students seeking health information by analyzing Korean graduate students residing in the US Internet use to obtain health information is becoming increasingly common. According to a 2013 Pew Internet and American Life Project report (Fox, 2013), 81 percent of US adults use the internet and 59 percent have searched online for health information in the past year. Although medical professionals continue to be considered reliable sources for health information, online health information is now an indispensable resource to guide health consumers to make better health decisions. Existing research has examined the online health information-seeking behaviors of the general public or of sub-populations (e.g. Hispanics, Chinese, Vietnamese), but international students have been neglected as a specific target group despite their growing numbers.\nLiterature review: As international graduate students are located at the intersection of immigrants and college students, having characteristics of both groups, this section highlights literature related to the health information-seeking behavior of immigrants and college students.\nMethods: After receiving approval from the University of South Florida Institutional Review Board, we administered a web-based survey to collect quantitative data for statistical analysis. A web-based survey was deemed to be the most appropriate means to gather data for this study because it easily reaches a large number of respondents scattered around the nation, and the anonymity of the respondents is enhanced, which encourages frankness. The latter was considered especially important because sensitive questions, such as health topics sought on the internet, are much more likely to be answered truthfully through an online survey. The questionnaire was developed based on previous studies that examined internet use for health information among American college students (Escoffery et al., 2005), and among Koreans (Kim and Park, 2004), with some revision. The Web-based survey was written in Korean and administered through Survey Monkey (www.surveymonkey.com/). The survey questionnaire consisted of four parts (Table I).\nResults: Table II presents the basic characteristics of the students who took part in our study. The 54 respondents who completed the survey were predominantly PhD students. Males and females were represented in almost equal proportion and the average subject age was 32 years. Married students accounted for almost half of the respondents and this is attributed to the high percentage of PhD students in our sample. A majority of the participants had lived in the USA for more than two years and half of the participants perceived their English fluency as good or very good. Almost all of the respondents were frequent internet users and confident in their internet searching ability.\nDiscussion: Compared with the general foreign-born population, the Korean graduate students surveyed in the current study showed better indicators in self-rated health status, health information-seeking experiences, and health insurance coverage. According to the 2012 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) (National Cancer Institute, 2012), which includes data on the foreign-born population of the USA, 73 percent have experience searching for health information and 84 percent hold health insurance. On the other hand, all Korean graduate students who participated in the current study had previously searched for health information and 98 percent held health insurance. This outcome might result from mandatory insurance requirements for international students and the relatively high socioeconomic status of graduate students compared with adults and non-students in the aforementioned survey.\nImplications: Our study has implications for health education specialists and health information professionals when they develop and distribute health education materials and guidelines for international graduate students. Our findings suggest some specific directions.\nLimitations: This study has some limitations that should be taken into account in analyzing the results. First, the sample size is small, and PhD students, whose health information-seeking behaviors and internet usage patterns may differ from those of master's students, were oversampled. Second, there are possible differences between Korean students who are members of KSA and those unaffiliated. Third, the percentage of respondents using the internet for health information may be an overestimation because the web survey method may have encouraged people who had experience using the internet to participate in the study. Fourth, there were some multiple-answer questions that allowed more than one answer to be chosen in order to elicit all the relevant items. These questions cannot differentiate weights, such as frequently visited sources vs rarely visited sources and frequently searched topics vs rarely searched topics. Another limitation is that the results rely on self-reported data. The participants may have exaggerated their behaviors, such as the credibility criteria they used for evaluating health information on the internet, due to social desirability effects. Finally, the participants may not have revealed private details, such as the web sites they consulted or topics they were looking for. Because of these limitations, our findings cannot be simply generalized to the entire population of Korean graduate students or the broader international graduate student group in the USA and the feasibility of the directions we suggest in the previous section should be assessed after the results of this study are confirmed with a larger sample.\nConclusion: Existing at the intersection of international students and immigrants, Korean graduate students have notable characteristics. The Korean graduate students in the current study reported that they had searched health information for themselves or for their families, and the internet was their primary source for health information; however, the participants also pointed out barriers: not knowing appropriate sources for health information and difficulties in understanding health information due to language problems. In addition, they often sought health information on the internet to solve their or their family's current health problems and consequently, personal relevance was regarded as an important criterion. Based on our findings and previous research, we believe that these characteristics are also common to other international graduate students.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Considering that the internet is a useful source for health information, especially by foreign-born students, this exploratory study aimed to investigate international graduate students' internet use in the context of seeking health information.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected from 54 Korean graduate students in the USA using a survey questionnaire. Quantitative analysis using SPSS was conducted to describe Korean graduate students' internet use for seeking health information and to identify factors that possibly influence their health-information seeking activities.\nFindings: The survey participants preferred Korean resources because of language problems and the internet was the primary source. They reported difficulties in identifying appropriate health information sources and understanding medical information. They often sought online health information to solve their or their family's current health problems and consequently, personal relevance was regarded as an important evaluation criterion, as was accuracy.\nResearch limitations/implications: By looking at an understudied user group, this study leads to a better understanding of the patterns of internet use for seeking health information among a specific ethnic group. The findings of this study demonstrate the needs of health education materials and guidelines that introduce credible health information sources and medical information for Korean graduate students and their families.\nOriginality/value: Despite the increasing number of international students in the USA, there is a lack of research on the health information-seeking behavior of international students. The findings of this study will help health education specialists and health information professionals provide international students with necessary health information.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Methods of evaluation of intangible assets and intellectual capital	[ "Methods", "Intellectual capital", "Intangible assets", "Methods of evaluation", "Methods of evaluation of intangible assets" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The world economy has been through constant and significant transformations. One of the main effects of such transformations is the increase in the value of intangible assets, considering sources of organizational value generation. With the globalization of the economy, there is a greater demand for information, imposing, among others, changes in the way of measuring the patrimony of the organizations (Scherer et al., 2004).\n2. Intellectual capital: Today, organizations compete based on their intellectual assets, in a knowledge economy, where functions, which require more skills, are performed by knowledge workers, and the organizations that improve from their past experiences are learning organizations. In this scenario of innovation, with the constant need of organizations to search for better products and services, it is the intellectual capital of companies that increasingly determines their competitive positions (Klein, 1998).\n3. Methodological procedures: This research is characterized as applied, according to Almeida (2011), Gil (1999), because it makes use of knowledge that has already been systematized and aims to generate knowledge for practical application. The classification of the research, regarding the approach is qualitative and has an inductive approach, without using any statistical tools. The methodological procedures are classified as a bibliographical study - using material already published - and documentary - through the analysis of original documents (Almeida, 2011).\n4. Data analysis: The present section, data analysis, occurs in a descriptive and comparative way. The data collected with the accomplishment of the present research were analyzed from predetermined criteria from the information in the literature. These criteria consisted on the analysis of aspects such as: year of publication of the method; author of the method; objective of the method; to which sectors it is intended.\n5. Final considerations: The management of intellectual capital is considered to be the process of extracting the value of knowledge, which can generate profit for the organization, while intangible resources are considered intellectual capital (Rodrigues et al., 2009). In this context, when describing the methods of evaluating intangible assets and intellectual capital, which are related to organizational knowledge, it is believed that this information could bring profits to the organizations, as well as facilitating their management.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The competitive model has changed. In this context, society entered into an era in which intangible assets are the greatest assets of a company. However, some gaps and uncertainties are presented in the literature as to understand the value of a company based on knowledge intensive activities. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the methods of evaluation of intangible assets in the context of business, economic and strategic management.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This is a qualitative research. This research is characterized as descriptive, bibliographic, inductive.\nFindings: The main results of this research can highlight the existence of valuation methods of intangible assets intended for specific industries, as public and/or private, that can be better aligned to the context of business; economic and/or strategic management.\nOriginality/value: It was found that intangible assets are a current topic and increasingly addressed in the literature.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Inequality of what? Social exclusion in the e-society as capability deprivation	[ "Social inclusion", "Internet", "Personal health", "Information systems", "South Africa", "China" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The concern with social exclusion in the e-society can be related to debates about globalisation (e.g. Beck, 1992; Giddens, 1990), and was highlighted by Castells (1999), who warned of the global negative effects of \"informational capitalism\". The concerns regarding social exclusion in an information-based world were at first most commonly framed as the \"digital divide\", and expressed in terms of the access to technological resources (Warschauer, 2002). However, later work has challenged this somewhat simplistic approach. The focus on the provision and distribution of technological resources has expanded to the integration of a wider range of social resources in the process of social exclusion and inclusion (Warschauer, 2003; Cornford and Klecun, 2003; Molina, 2003; Cushman and Klecun, 2006). For example, Warschauer (2003) proposed that \"access for ICT can not rest on providing devices or conduits alone\". Rather, the promotion of social inclusion must involve a range of factors, such as physical, digital, human, and social resources.This awareness of multiple social resources required for social inclusion has been further expanded to broader inequalities and deprivation endemic in societies (Van Dijk and Hacker, 2003; Trauth and Howcroft, 2006). It is recognised that social exclusion is not only related to inequalities in social-economic status (Norris, 2001; Standing et al., 2003), but also deep-seated issues of political and institutional arrangements, as well as discrepancies between traditional norms of social life across cultures (Trauth et al., 2006). This echoes the debates on social exclusion in political science, where the concept is regarded as contentious and difficult to define (Peace, 2001). The term was originally related to deprivation caused by poverty and unemployment. It has evolved to refer to a wide range of phenomena and processes which \"work to deprive people of access to opportunities and means, material or otherwise, to achieve well-being and security in the terms that are important to them\" (Peace, 2001).What is the role of information communication technologies (ICTs) in these wider processes of social deprivation? A common discourse is one which simplistically aligns technological diffusion with economic development and social progress (Lyon, 1988; Avgerou, 2002). The idea that ICTs are intrinsically desirable and beneficial to the society is still prevalent. A wider debate on social exclusion in an e-society recognises the differing roles that ICT can play in society. ICTs can contribute to the exacerbation of social exclusion, or can be tools to bridge gaps (Trauth and Howcroft, 2006). Research on this subject in the information systems field has encouragingly moved beyond the boundary of an organisational level of analysis to explore much wider societal issues (as exemplified in Trauth et al., 2006) within which ICTs are embedded.Building on this line of research, our paper suggests a particular theoretical lens to help conceptualise the complexity and multiplicity of social exclusion in e-society. In particular, we draw on the capability approach developed by the economist Amartya Sen, who challenged mainstream economic theories and egalitarian approaches focussed solely on material inequality, arguing that inequalities were much wider than that, and related to broader issues of lack of opportunities, freedoms and choices. He summarised this perspective by asking: \"equality of what?\" (Sen, 1992). Similarly, we ask: social exclusion in an e-society is inequality and deprivation, but of what?Using the capability approach as a conceptual basis, we analyze two empirical studies where the effects of social exclusion are manifested in rather different ways. The reason for using two case studies rather than one, despite the space limitations of a short paper, is in order to demonstrate the heterogeneity of dimensions of social exclusion in e-society, and to show how Sen's capability approach is adaptable to these different conditions. The empirical studies were conducted by the first author as part of her doctoral research, but here re-analysed from a social exclusion perspective using concepts from the capability approach. The rest of the paper is organised as the following. The next section gives an introduction to the capability approach and the selected key concepts that we will draw on to analyse the empirical cases. The case studies from South Africa and China are then presented. The concluding section undertakes further cross-case analysis and discusses the contribution of the paper.\nConceptualising social exclusion in an e-society: This section presents Sen's capability approach and his writing on social exclusion as \"capability deprivation\", from which we derive a conceptual lens to examine social exclusion in the e-society. This lens is applied to analyse the empirical studies in the later sections of the paper.Introduction to the capability approach\nInformation literacy in South Africa: The research presented here constitutes a small part of an international project called HISP - the Health Information Systems Program (Braa et al., 2004; Braa and Hedberg, 2002). HISP was initiated in 1995 as a collaborative project between two universities in South Africa and Norway, together with South African health departments and non-governmental organisations. The vision of HISP is to \"support the development of an excellent and sustainable health information system that enables all health care workers to use their own information to improve the coverage and quality of health care\" (Williamson et al., 2001). HISP has achieved considerable success in a number of developing countries, but particularly in South Africa where the initiative was first applied. The HISP project in South Africa has implemented District Health Information Systems (DHIS) software, complemented by paper-based District Hospital Essential Data Set registers in the hospitals of Eastern Cape province, which are the subject of the case analysis below. The approach has, across South Africa as a whole, greatly improved the collection of information from grassroots health facilities.The empirical research was conducted by one of the authors over two cycles for a total of two-and-a-half months during visits to two rural hospitals in South Africa, while the other author has a familiarity with HISP and the South African context due to frequent interaction over the last decade. The original purpose of the case study was to observe how health information was collected and used in the rural hospitals, and whether the DHIS was effectively integrated into day-to-day practices. The research methodology was mainly participative observation, combined with interviews and a focus group, with a specific emphasis on information practices. A total of eight interviews were conducted, including government officials at the provincial level, information officers at the district level, heads of hospital and hospital staff. A focus group meeting was organised in one of the hospitals involving about 15 hospital staff. The emphasis of the research lay with observing and communicating with people about their work and lives.Cultural background\nInformation freedom in China: The original purpose of the Chinese study was to look at the development of health information systems in China in relation to the access and use of health information by healthcare professionals and citizens. The case study below focuses on the SARS outbreak, which highlights some of the underlying tensions that could have gone unnoticed if one focuses on the technological diffusion of HIS. A mixture of several types of qualitative methods were employed together, each with merits in collecting data of a different nature. While primary data have been the main source for qualitative research in the field of information systems, Jarvenpaa (1991) argues that secondary data allow us to \"pan for gold\". Examples of research on secondary data include Walsham (2001), Silva and Backhouse (1997), and Thompson (2004). A combination of the two sources of data was used in this field study. Primary research data on health information systems in China was collected through participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and questionnaire surveys during field visits by the first author, who is Chinese. The case study of SARS relies mainly on secondary sources (Caijing Magazine, 2004). Due to the domestic and international attention drawn to SARS, the outbreak and the subsequent social repercussions were relatively well documented and discussed in documents, newspapers and journals (e.g. CNN, 2003; WHO, 2003a).Social and cultural background\nConclusion: This paper has engaged with the debate on social exclusion in e-society by introducing aspects of Sen's capability approach as a conceptual basis. The perception of social exclusion as capability deprivation highlights the importance of grounding the investigation in local conditions. Discussing social exclusion in general terms risks oversimplifying the complexity and heterogeneity of social issues at stake. Therefore, there is a need to ask the question upfront: \"Social exclusion from what\"? From a capability approach perspective, the question is deprivation of what capabilities that are considered essential in the e-society.The distinction between well-being freedom and agency freedom enables an analysis of social exclusion at multiple levels. One could be excluded from taking advantage of information online by being deprived of access to the Internet. At another level, one can also be excluded from participating in political and public affairs by being denied certain information that should be available to the public, despite available access to the communication channels. Exclusion in this sense could be conceived of as one type of inclusion (connected to the digital network) but under unfavourable terms (denied free flow of information communication), namely, unfavourable inclusion. Thus, inclusion in one space can co-exist with exclusion in another space. Furthermore, there is also a subtle distinction between passive exclusion, i.e. due to existing environmental, social and cultural conditions, and active exclusion, i.e. due to institutional and political reasons.The two empirical studies we presented serve as examples to illustrate how social exclusion in the e-society can manifest in different forms under different conditions, as deprivation of different capabilities. In the South African example, the rural hospitals seemed to be included in the DHIS, yet were in effect excluded from actually benefiting from the health information which they took part in collecting. This arises from, in part, the level of information literacy of the local people. Coming from an oral culture, the health workers had not adapted to the type of encoded information required in an e-society, nor could they see it as anything but imposed by higher authority due to the lack of institutional support. This form of exclusion, or unfavourable inclusion, then in turn contributes to the deprivation of quality healthcare in the area. In the Chinese case, again, despite the rapid diffusion of the internet and health information systems, the Chinese people are still being excluded from a free flow of health information, therefore deprived of the capability of taking part in public affairs, not to mention monitoring the performance of the government. The two cases each exemplify one aspect of social exclusion in an e-society, while there could be many other aspects that one could explore. The capability approach, we propose, could be an analytical tool to do so.This paper is also an attempt to apply aspects of the capability approach in social studies of ICT in developing countries. The approach has been criticised as being too abstract and utopian, and difficult to apply directly to the analysis of empirical material. We would argue that, while the capability approach can certainly serve as a philosophical basis or a framework of thought in general (Zheng, 2007), we can use the key concepts as sensitising devices in analysing empirical cases. The distinction between functionings and capabilities, for example, conceptually guides us to go beyond the material conditions of living to consider the importance of social opportunities and issues like social exclusion. Very often ICT is still primarily considered as a production tool or an industry to boost economic development. This is a perspective which remains narrowly focused on the functionings of individuals. If capabilities of people are the ultimate concern, i.e. their freedom to lead a life they value, then social inclusion and the ability to participate in the e-society automatically become primary issues.In this paper, we have applied a framework of conversion from commodities to capabilities, which highlights the conversion factors and their relationship with people's capability in the e-society. It also sheds light on the \"relational features\" of social exclusion. In other words, social exclusion as capability deprivation in one space is often related to capability deprivation in another space; and social exclusion of one group of people may cause capability deprivation in another group. The capability failure of the rural South African health workers to use encoded information and the media of the ICT gave rise to their exclusion from being effectively integrated into the district health information systems. This then, in part, contributes to the capability deprivation of the local patients to receive quality healthcare. Moreover, such a passive exclusion also takes place when the agency of local people is not given sufficient attention. In other words, the data collection requirements did not sufficiently take into account the local needs of the people, nor was the data fed back and utilised in a way that was meaningful to the health workers. The rupture of the information system from local context then led to the social exclusion from the e-society in terms of usage of information.Social exclusion in the e-society needs to move beyond the distribution of ICT among the population, and the inequality of social-economic status behind it. If the e-society is expected to be a better place than earlier societies, it will not be just the digital technology that makes the difference. Rather, it would be the utilisation of the flow of information and channels of communication which potentially enhance people's freedom to pursue a life that they have reason to value, including participating in economic, social and political activities. Conceiving social exclusion as inequality in different spaces, or different types of capability deprivations, the capability approach provides a lens to address the complexity and multiplicity of the phenomena in the e-society.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to engage with the debate on social exclusion in the e-society from the human development perspective, which goes beyond inequality in distribution of technological goods and services to emphasise the options, choice and opportunities related to accessing and using information.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This is an interpretivist study. It draws on Sen's capability approach (CA) to conceptualise social exclusion in the e-society as capability deprivation, both in well-being and agency freedom. A framework of the core aspects of the CA is used to analyse two empirical studies in South Africa and China which serve to illustrate social exclusion manifested as capability deprivation in different \"spaces\".\nFindings: - The paper demonstrates the relational features of social exclusion and different types of capability deprivation in e-society; highlights \"unfavourable inclusion\" which can be masked by technological diffusion.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This paper is an early attempt to apply the capability approach to social studies of information communication technologies in developing countries.\nPractical implications: - The paper provides implications for government policies to go beyond technological provision and pay attention to socio-political, cultural and institutional aspects in ensuring effective utilisation of information and channels of communication, which should serve to enhance people's opportunity to better participate in economic, social and political activities.\nOriginality/value: - The paper is a novel attempt to apply concepts of the CA in information systems, which provides a conceptual lens to address the complexity and multiplicity of social exclusion in the e-society.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
University transformation: Explaining policy-making and trends in higher education in Russia	[ "Russia", "University", "Policy analysis", "Kingdon’s theory of agenda setting", "Triple Helix interactions" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Universities have faced changes throughout their existence. However, since the 1970s, the speed of such changes has increased significantly. Wissema (2009, p. xv) and Lorenz (2012, pp. 599-600) summarise global developments taking place across the university landscape. First of all, student numbers have been steadily increasing since social transformations resulting from the movement from an industrialised economy towards a knowledge economy began in the 1970s. At the same time, knowledgeable students have become economically relevant to firms and business. Furthermore, it was the emerging trend of life-long learning that led universities to offer additional education programmes for working and mature people. The growth of student numbers, leading to education \"massification\", challenges universities by urging them to both ensure the quality of services provided, and at the same time to cut excessive costs. These changes and challenges engender administrative reforms, necessary in order to manage these \"splits\". New public management (NPM) policies which embrace the concepts of accountability, transparency, efficiency and preferably high standards in quality, have been set out to solve this problem. But what does NPM mean in practice? Dent and Barry (in Lorenz 2012, p. 608) point out that NPM goes hand-in-hand with increasing audits and introducing management techniques adapted from business, and development of measurable performance parameters with predetermined standards for output. At present, the main instrument available to stakeholders for comparing higher education (HE) organisations is the ranking system. For example, the position obtained in world university rankings, and number of publications, have become important leverages which significantly influence both students' choice of university and science policies.\n2. Kingdon's theory of policymaking process: John Kingdon (1995) concludes that the policymaking process \"is seen as an organised anarchy\" with more emphasis on \"organised\" than \"anarchy\" (p. 86). Different actors, solutions and other items come together, but the question is: how and why a particular issue will appear on the public policy agenda and become a chosen answer to a given problem, among various possibilities. There are various theoretical frameworks with which to evaluate the policy process, for example, innovation and diffusion models, the network approach, multiple-streams, punctuated-equilibrium theory and advocacy coalition framework. In this paper, the theory developed by John Kingdon (1995) is chosen as the conceptual framework, because Kingdon's theory does not focus on where policy arises, but rather helps to synthesise the various influences upon the policy process and evaluate the strategy's progress. In his book Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies (1995), Kingdon proposes a method for analysing the structural process of policymaking and provides a contribution towards better understanding of the complex policymaking process in practice today. Kingdon's theory can be seen to be in operation in several fields. Kingdon himself conducted a large-scaled field study and analysed secondary data in the domestic policy fields of health and transport. In this paper, the subject of analysis is HE, as HE has been subject to elaborate and complex institutional reforms in recent years.\n3. Application of Kingdon's theory to the policy process in Russian universities: In this chapter, we illustrate and apply the structural analysis method of Kingdon's theory to the policy field of HE. Interactions between universities, government and the business sector in light of transformations occurring within the Russian education system are explored.\n4. Case study: building up a Russian national research university: In this chapter, the goal is to test and assess the policy process in a single case study of a large polytechnic university, hereafter referred to as the SU. We concentrate on the implementation of the Federal Programme \"5-100-2020\" which aims to boost the process of internationalisation and become one of the 100 top international universities by 2020.\n5. Conclusion: In recent decades, traditional universities have been much criticised for their lack of connectedness with the real life of society, the monopoly of science, and the lack of transparency in distributing state funds. There is a worldwide trend of transforming traditional universities into business-oriented universities based on NPM principles. The concepts of global university, journal and citation indexes have been introduced to enable comparisons of universities and researchers with each other. In such times of change and international competition, the Russian Federation decided to jump on the educational bandwagon and use this political spirit to enforce reforms in Russian universities. Indeed, a package of reforms has shaken up the Russian university landscape in recent years. These reforms are based on the four main goals which are fixed by the Russian state in the strategy for the development of HE in Russia, which are:\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Higher education (HE) institutions worldwide are experiencing fundamental changes, moving from the traditional Humboldt-type model towards an entrepreneurial model. In the context of these global trends, the Russian university landscape is being prepared to undertake a great transformation towards international standards in HE. The Russian State is currently funding a large-scale reform package for universities. The purpose of this paper is to examine trends and institutional reforms in the Russian HE system including the perspectives of universities, governments and business.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Currently, much attention is focussed on increasing the global competitiveness of Russian universities by making Russia's HE system more integrated in international activities. The Programme \"5-100-2020\" launched in 2013 provides funds from the federal budget in order to push selected universities to increase their international rankings. A central aspect of the analysis is the policymaking process based on Kingdon's theory of agenda setting. Furthermore, it is necessary to explore how the reforms of HE are implemented in practice, presented with the help of a single representative case study demonstrating how the Programme \"5-100-2020\" is implemented in a large Russian polytechnic university.\nFindings: The present research shows the ways in which international trends influence educational and research environments in Russia, which provides a better understanding of the evolution of the university landscape in the light of growing marketisation, identifies important policy issues associated with becoming top international universities. The study of the timeline of reforms and reconstruction of the Russian HE system revealed an ambivalent picture which presents contradictions.\nResearch limitations/implications: The data were collected within one organisation only. This is a single representative case study. This means generalisation is only possible for similar organisations.\nPractical implications: The study allows university managers to be more aware of the challenges and opportunities which arise with such organisational change.\nSocial implications: The paper draws attention to HE system reforms in Russia. University is a very important organisation for society with numerous stakeholders. The findings of the study are important for better understanding what is happening in education now.\nOriginality/value: The research adds value to policymaking process in the field of HE, and gives example of transformation process in Russian universities.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Vulnerability and discrimination among women, children and ethnic minorities	[ "Discrimination", "Discrimination in employment", "Women", "Children (age groups)", "Ethnic minorities" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The contributions to this monographic issue were selected from the papers that better fulfilled the intentions of the two thematic sessions of the Conference of the Italian Labour Economic Association (AIEL) held in Naples in 2007 - one on earnings differentials and the other on labour markets in developing countries. This means that the articles in this special issue do not originate from a common research project. They come out of different individual research paths, questions and issues. This notwithstanding, however, they manifest an amazing similarity of issues, methods of analysis, nuances and also policy implications. The findings and conclusions cross each other, forming many knots, which will hopefully become food for thought, in addition to being relevant for policymakers and practitioners. The possible explanation of why different researchers from different parts of the world share common views about the problems experienced by the protagonists of this special issue - namely women, children and ethnic minorities - is that they represent a raw nerve in modern societies all over the world.\nVulnerability and discrimination: decomposing the effects of gender and ethnicity on participation, employment and wages: The first set of papers (Pena-Boquete et al., Maurer-Fazio et al., O'Higgins, Pastore) addresses the problem of decomposing the effects on employment and wages of individual differences not related to productivity. They are all concerned with the problem of extending the seminal Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition approach to the case of multiple discrimination.Discrimination can be experienced on more than one ground - for example being a woman and belonging to the Roma community - a phenomenon that has been labelled by scholars as \"multiple discrimination\". Discrimination may be separable, occurring in separate occasions, or it may be additive (so that a series of attributes are required and if a person lacks one her loss is of a certain amount, but if she lacks two the loss increases additively). Moreover, these multiple aspects may also interact with each other (see Makkonen, 2002; Ruwanpura, 2008). To deal with this problem, the extension of the Oaxaca-Blinder technique consists of applying the decomposition originally used for two groups (for example males and females or black and white) to the case of more than two groups (for example black males, black females, white males and white females). This involves choosing a group for comparison without discarding information on the groups excluded from the comparison. Also, the traditional Oaxaca-Blinder method, applicable to linear models, has been adapted to the case of probability models (see, for example, Gomulka and Stern, 1990, and, more recently, Fairlie, 2005).The paper by Pena-Boquete et al. focuses on the individual distribution of gender wage discrimination in Spain and Italy, relying upon the development of Jenkins's distributional approach proposed in Del Rio et al. Their hypothesis is that especially when comparing gender wage discrimination in countries that are very similar, like the South Mediterranean EU countries that they consider, looking at aggregate indices of discrimination might be not informative of the differences that do exist. In turn it might be important to assess the effectiveness of policy interventions aimed at promoting gender equality. Italy and Spain are exemplary in this respect, because their labour markets share some general similarities and because their aggregate measures of discrimination (according to European Community Household Panel data) are pretty close. Instead, when comparing the entire distributions, one important difference stands out in the discrimination pattern emerging in the two countries. Some mechanisms inhibit the access of highly educated women to highly rewarding occupations in Italy, especially in the public sector, but not in Spain. The authors attribute this difference to a remarkable institutional divide between the two countries. Powerful political pressure along the lines of gender quotas for public employment has long been in place in Spain, while nothing of the kind exists in Italy. The paper provides prima facie evidence in favour of the hypothesis that differences in appointment and promotion procedures have been effective to prevent the formation of a glass ceiling in Spain. In turn, this is good news for all those interested in knowing the impact of affirmative action in favour of women and other vulnerable groups.The paper by Maurer-Fazio et al. is about differentials in labour force participation by ethnicity in China during economic transition. There is little socioeconomic evidence (mainly the works by Ding, Gustafsson and Li cited in the paper) on this issue, and this paper contributes to its understanding in several ways. The focus is on labour force participation by gender during the transition to a market economy and across regions, and the question is whether the differences in majority and minority outcomes are mainly attributable to local economic conditions or to ethnicity per se. This is a relevant question for policy makers, since measures to reduce gaps in the labour force participation rate should obviously differ in the two cases. Micro data from the three most recent population censuses (1982, 1990, 2000) of China are employed to explore differences in the labour force participation rates of a number of China's important ethnic groups. The authors adopt a decomposition approach to appreciate the inter-group differences. This technique is an extension of the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition and has been developed by Borooah and Iyer (2005). This technique allows conducting pairwise comparisons in the presence of more than two ethnic groups without discarding the information on groups excluded from the comparisons. The adoption of such an approach permits ethnic differences in the participation rates to be decomposed into their region of residence (\"treatment\") and ethnicity (\"endowment\") components.The paper by O'Higgins deals with discrimination of Roma in Southeastern Europe. The analysis is based on data drawn from a unique survey run in 2004 in the countries of Southeastern Europe (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, and Serbia, excluding Kosovo). The survey is an important source of information on an ethnic group almost always ignored in major sample surveys even in developed countries. A peculiarity of the survey is that it includes also as reference group information on majority populations living close to Roma establishments and therefore supposedly experiencing similar economic and environmental conditions.The author uses econometric models to identify the determinants of educational achievement, employment and wages for Roma and non-Roma. He aims to test empirically competing explanations of why Roma fare so badly in the labour market. Such explanations tend to fall into one of two camps, which the author calls the \"low education\" and the \"discrimination\" schools. Comparison of Roma and non-Roma is particularly complex due to the tendency of the former to refuse the ways of living typical of majority populations. Limited information maximum likelihood (LIML) methods are employed to control for endogenous schooling and two sources of sample selection bias in the estimates. First, the analysis is limited to those who are observed as receiving (and report) an income - one source of sample selection. Second, the analysis is limited to working as employees - a second source of sample selection. Moreover, non-linear and linear decomposition techniques are applied in order to identify the extent of discrimination. The analysis suggests that the above explanations have some basis in fact. Moreover, a direct implication of the lower absolute returns to education accruing to Roma is that their lower educational participation is, at least in part, due to rational economic calculus. Consequently, policy needs to address both low educational participation and labour market discrimination contemporaneously.The paper by Pastore studies the determinants of gender differences in early career in Mongolia, one of the 50 poorest countries in the world. It is based on an ad hoc school to work transition survey of young people aged 15-29 years carried out in 2006 by the National Statistical Office with the International Labour Office's financial and technical assistance. This is possibly one of the few sources of individual level data available in the country for the wealth of information on the group object of enquiry, namely young people. The paper attempts to explain the finding that women tend to have the same average wages as men, despite their advantage in terms of educational and employment levels. Analysis of the conditional wage gap in extended and augmented earnings equations shows that although not statistically significant among teenagers (15-19), the gap becomes sizeable, statistically significant and stable for the over-20, around when women establish a household and give birth. The Juhn, Murphy and Pierce decomposition method is applied to disentangle the quantity effect, the price effect and the impact of the residual wage distribution on the pay gap. The results show that despite the remarkable level of inequality and poverty in the country, the residual wage distribution has little impact on the gap. Most of it is due instead to differences in the way the market values the same characteristics of men and women: in fact, quantity effects tend to reduce, whereas price effects tend to increase the gap. Decomposition of the quantity effects shows that if wages were paid equally, women should have 22 per cent higher wages, a substantial gap for the low earnings of Mongolians. Overall, the analysis suggests that the current interventions to help mothers cope with maternity are insufficient and that changing this outcome is important to reach the Millennium Development Goals.\nVulnerability of households and the risk of child labour: The second set of papers (Mehrotra and Biggeri, Francavilla and Giannelli) addresses the problem of child work as a risk associated with the activities of parents or other relatives in the household.The paper by Mehrotra and Biggeri on children in home-worker households analyses the determinants of child labour within a specific segment of the informal sector in Pakistan and Indonesia - households that are engaged in subcontracted work by the industrial sector. Given the \"underground\" nature of the informal sector and the paucity of studies (see, for example, Rani and Jeemol, 2009), that empirically attempts to look at the incidence of child labour within this sector, the paper makes an important contribution. The analysis is based on micro data drawn from two household surveys conducted by UNICEF in Pakistan and Indonesia from 2000 to 2001. Household members working under these conditions are defined by the International Labour Organisation as \"home-workers\". The authors argue that the fixed costs of finding a job are drastically reduced if a household is involved in a small family business. For this reason, children living in households whose adult members are home-workers (the \"treated\") have a higher risk of working with respect to children living in households where no members are engaged in such activities (the \"control group\"). The results stemming from a bivariate probit analysis give support to this hypothesis in both countries.The paper by Francavilla and Giannelli builds on the assumption that, since mothers usually have a direct control on their children's welfare, their disadvantaged economic condition may also have significant detrimental effects on their children's outcomes. There is a growing literature on this topic, examples of which are Behrman et al. (1999) and Basu (2006). The paper studies the relation between child work and the employment of mothers in India. Their model estimates the mother-child states jointly using a unique, rich and representative data survey for all Indian states and for urban and rural India. The results show that the presence of the mother in the family increases children's welfare, in terms of educational opportunities and protection from work activities. Mothers tend to stay home and send their children to school the better fathers' employment position is and the wealthier the family is. If the mother works, since female job quality and wage levels are very low, her children also have a higher probability to work. This is particularly true in rural areas. The policy indication would thus be to improve the condition of women in the labour market to improve also the welfare of their children.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This purpose of this paper is to introduce the special issue on vulnerability and discrimination among women, children and ethnic minorities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper discusses the articles in the special issue which employ a variety of individual-level data, some of which are newly available, and of econometric methods for the analysis of the determinants of labour supply and wages of different vulnerable groups.\nFindings: - The articles manifest an amazing similarity of issues, nuances and policy implications, showing that the causes and consequences of absolute and relative vulnerability are common all over the world. The first set of papers may be framed within the definition of relative vulnerability: in fact, they refer to gender discrimination in Spain and Italy; gender and ethnic wage differentials in China; discrimination against Roma in Southeastern Europe; and the gender gap in early career in Mongolia. The second set of papers deals with absolute vulnerability: in fact, they study different aspects of child labour in India, Indonesia and Pakistan.\nOriginality/value: - The paper introduces a number of articles using little used data and uses a wide range of up-to-date theoretical and methodological approaches to the issues of vulnerability and discrimination.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Intelligent compaction practice and development: a bibliometric analysis	[ "Knowledge management", "Construction", "Project management", "Information and communication technology (ICT) applications" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In recent years, the extensive construction of highways brought great challenges for quality management, because these projects are required to achieve high-standard construction quality in limited time with inefficient quality control (QC) techniques. Traditional compaction QC practice, which relies on on-site supervision and post-compaction spot tests, has the following limitations. First, the manner of manual supervision is prone to yield unreliable results. Second, the spot tests may interfere with the subsequent construction operation. Third, using limited test samples (less than 1 percent) to represent the compaction quality of the entire working zone often leads to biases (Cai et al., 2019).\n2. Bibliometric statistics: Bibliometrics is a powerful tool to explore the knowledge domains and reveal the hot topics of emerging technologies. On one hand, this tool can yield a quantitative assessment for the researched domain by analyzing the provided literatures with statistics, which can overcome the subjectivity brought by manual investigation. On the other hand, the knowledge map generated by the method can provide an intuitive manner for researchers to better understand the inner structure and the evolvement of the research domain. This research performed a bibliometric analysis on IC-relevant publications in the past twenty years based on CiteSpace (Chen, 2016) and ArcGIS.\n3. Existing problems: 3.1 ICMV applicability\n4. Conclusions and recommendations: Although the IC has been developed for many years, the technology still needs to be further promoted to mitigate its uneven applications in different countries and regions. Currently, the IC practice is confronted with the issues of ICMV applicability, autonomous control, specifications and applications. To address the above issues, potential solutions are recommended as follows:\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the current practice, challenges and future development trends of intelligent compaction (IC) technology from a bibliometric perspective.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A bibliometric analysis on IC-relevant studies is presented. Through this quantitative manner, insights into the current IC research practice and development trends have been derived from the perspectives of publications and citations, spatial distribution, knowledge construction, structural variations, existing problems, and conclusions and recommendations.\nFindings: Currently, IC applications are confronted with the issues of intelligent compaction measurement values (ICMVs) applicability, autonomous control, specifications and applications. To address the issues, three potential research directions are identified: a comprehensive ICMV measurement system that is designated for single layer analysis; autonomous control mechanisms with integrated management capabilities that can efficiently collaborate all stakeholders; and a standardized application workflow and the cost-benefit evaluation of IC in the context of the full life cycle.\nResearch limitations/implications: The literature used in this paper is collected from the Web of Science. Although the database covers almost all the important publications in IC field, studies not indexed by the database are not considered.\nOriginality/value: This research quantitatively analyzes the current IC practice and development trends from the perspectives of bibliometric analysis. It provides an overview of the knowledge construction and development of IC technology. The discussions about the problems and the suggested solutions can be useful for those interested in this field.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Facets of brand equity and brand survival: a longitudinal examination	[ "Wines", "Winemaking", "Brands", "Brand equity", "Brand awareness", "Quality", "United States of America" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Research on brands and brand equity has become important for both marketing practice and marketing theory in recent years (Aaker, 1991; Berry, 2000; Keller, 1993, 2003). It is widely recognized that brands can provide value and strength in the market well beyond that which is provided by the intrinsic characteristics of the products. Indeed, strong brands stand the test of time, are leveraged for decades and provide increases in revenue streams for the products sold under those brands (Aaker, 1996; Kapferer, 2004; Keller, 2003). However, brands in the wine industry face a particularly difficult market environment. The globalization of wine markets has resulted in consumers being offered a larger number of brands than ever before. For instance, there are approximately 10,000 brands of wine available in the US market alone (O'Connell, 2006). In such competitive markets, survival of a brand can be particularly challenging.Clearly, if a brand is not strong enough to survive, it does not generate equity either in financial terms (e.g. net present value of future revenue streams associated with the brand) or in terms of the expected behavior of customers (e.g. it is difficult for customers to be brand loyal if the brand has died). As a result, an understanding of how brand equity is related to brand survival is a significant issue for wine business. Although brand equity may be viewed as a result of brand survival, it may also be a significant influence on brand survival, especially when it is viewed in terms of customer behaviors. This research investigated how two key facets of brand equity influenced brand survival in a wine market with a brand mortality rate of over 50 per cent in sixteen years.\nTheoretical background: The concept of brand equity\nHypothesized relationships: Marketers typically want their brands to be recalled by customers and included in their evoked set when considering a purchase (O'Guinn et al., 2006). Of course, this is a necessary (but not a sufficient) condition for eventual purchase. Esch et al., (2006) found a positive correlation between brand awareness and brand survival. Brand awareness allows a brand to more easily become part of the set of options that customers will consider when making purchase decisions. This significantly increases the likelihood that the brand can be chosen for purchase. Additionally, perceptions of product quality have been found to positively influence many important marketing variables including sales, market share and profitability (Jacobson and Aaker, 1987). If a customer's perception of a brand's quality is positive, then there is a greater likelihood that the brand will be chosen from within the consideration set. The greater the likelihood that a brand will be chosen for purchase, the greater the likelihood that the brand will be a business success and that it will survive in the market.Of course, sometimes brands do disappear despite success in their customer markets. This can occur for many reasons; including poor management of other aspects of the business (e.g. costs of production, channel relationships, etc.). Conversely, some brands survive in spite of a lack of success in their customer market. For instance, wine markets sometimes include \"hobby brands\" whose primary reason for existence is not to be \"successful\" in the traditional business sense, but instead to fulfill some other purpose, such as an identity or ego need on the part of the owner. Recognizing that both types of \"errors\" are possible, we still expect both brand awareness and perceived quality to have positive influences on the likelihood that a brand will survive.\nMethod: Study design\nMeasures: The questionnaire used in the surveys included items addressing a variety of general issues related to wine purchase and consumption behaviors, as well as respondent demographic information. Specific questions were included to determine the respondents' perceived brand quality for each specific regional brand, as well as their perceived brand quality of domestic and imported wines as groups (rather than by individual brands). At the time, approximately 85 per cent of wine sales in the region were accounted for by California and imported wines (other markets, such as Oregon, New York, Washington and Texas accounted for the rest). Each respondent was asked to indicate their awareness of the listed Texas brands. Respondents who indicated that they were aware of a particular brand were then asked if they had tried that brand. If so, they were asked to report perceived brand quality. The perceived brand quality responses were scaled on a five-point semantic differential scale indicating excellent quality to poor quality as the end points. The survey instrument was pre-tested and then modified as a result of the pretest (Hunt et al., 1982). The questionnaire items used to determine brand awareness and perceived quality are presented in Appendix.Sample\nAnalysis and results: The unit of analysis for this research is the brand, so despite the fact that over 900 responses were available from the survey, there were only 27 brands available for the analysis. This small number of degrees of freedom restricts the power of the tests for relationships regarding the brands. Unfortunately, this is a common characteristic of studies where competing brands are the units of analysis. For instance, Gerstner's study (1985) of the relationships between the price and quality among brands used 145 different markets (e.g. dish washers, television sets, laundry detergents, etc.) with an average of 13.7 brands per market. With such small sample sizes it is not surprising that the price-quality correlations were significant in only 43 of the 145 markets. Indeed, in the 43 markets where the correlations were significant, the average number of brands was 17.8. So even though 27 brands used in this study is a relatively large number for the typical study of competing brands, it does not afford a great deal of power for the analysis of the data.The brand survival variable (which was coded 0 = alive, 1 = dead) was regressed on percentage of brand recognition and average perceived quality (for each brand from the survey data) in a logistic regression. The overall chi-square test was barely significant at p = 0.10 (kh2 = 4.46, df = 2). Sixty-eight per cent concordance (of 180 pairs) was achieved, with only brand recognition achieving significance at the 0.10 level (p = 0.06).The estimated probabilities of survival generated by the logistic regression were plotted against perceived brand quality and recognition in Figures 1 and 2, respectively. Notice that in Figure 1 the points are widely scattered suggesting only a slightly positive relationship between the probability of brand survival and the perceived brand quality of the wine; high ratings were not related to survival. We invite the reader to contrast these results with those in Figure 2, which show a strong positive relationship between recognition and probability of survival. Clearly, having a higher brand awareness level is preferable to having a higher perceived quality in predicting the survival of these brands.Further evidence of these relationships is provided in Figure 3. In this figure, the averages of the original perceived brand quality and the original recognition levels are plotted for the surviving brands in each of the 16 years that were studied. Across the years, the average recognition score rises as the brands with lower awareness levels died. Alternatively, after an initial rise, the average perceived brand quality scores actually decline.\nDiscussion: Perceived quality\nLimitations and future research: This research addressed a number of questions regarding the influence of two components of brand equity on brand survival. However, there is considerable room for further investigation of the issue and readers should consider several limitations with respect to the study presented here. First, the data were gathered for a broader purpose than this study. This imposed limits on what data were collected, how they were collected and on subsequent findings. For instance, a broader definition of brand equity including such concepts as loyalty, association, or image could have provided additional insights in this study. Second, the unit of analysis for this study was the brand itself. Third, the data were collected using single item measures limiting our ability to explore their psychometric properties. Therefore it would be reasonable to view these as secondary data, with all of the limitations that would imply. Additionally, if the data regarding brand had been collected in each of the 16 years of the study, it may have provided additional depth to the study by allowing the tracking of changes in brand equity as well as survival. However, it may not have provided any additional insights into the ability of brand equity to predict survival years into the future. Finally, the ability to generalize to other industries is also limited. This research focused on one industry, it focused on one segment of consumers, and on one specific regional market. Therefore, the inferences drawn here may be region or industry specific. Additional research is needed to strengthen the generalizations to other regions, segments, or industries or stages of market development.\nNote: 1. The Institute was established in 1988 to gather and report data regarding the wine industry, with specific emphasis on the consumption and production markets in Texas (www.depts.ttu.edu/hs/texaswine).Opens in a new window.Figure 1.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to explore how brand equity influences brand survival in the wine industry. Specifically, the aim is to investigate the influence of two key facets of brand equity (brand awareness and perceived quality) on brand survival.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Two types of data were used: consumer survey data and longitudinal data on brand survival over a 16-year period. Perceptions of quality and brand recognition data were collected via survey at the beginning of the time frame (1991), longitudinal data regarding the brand survival were obtained for the years through 2006 and survey data were again collected in 2006. Twenty-seven brands from wineries of a specific region were used for the study. Brand survival (measured in years) was analyzed using logistic regression with brand recognition and perceived quality as the predictors.\nFindings: - A slightly positive relationship between consumer ratings of perceived quality and the probability of brand survival was found. However, a strong positive relationship was found between brand recognition and probability of brand survival.\nOriginality/value: - The results offer insights into long-term brand management and what marketers can do over time to reinforce brand equity and brand survival. Specifically, brand awareness is a better predictor of brand survival than perceived quality for these emerging brands.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
How reputation creates loyalty in the restaurant sector	[ "Corporate reputation", "Trust", "Value", "Satisfaction", "Loyalty", "Customer satisfaction", "Catering industry", "Taiwan" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Today, a steadily increasing number of people choose to dine out rather than to cook (Unilever Food Solutions, 2011). Despite strong demand, the restaurant industry is highly competitive, so the ability to attract customers is vital (Wang and Chen, 2009). However, restaurants do not sell merely food; they sell an experience. Nelson (1970) has distinguished between the search and the experience attributes of products, and dining out at a restaurant is considered to be an \"experience attribute\" product. Experience products/services are those that customers can evaluate after the purchase or consumption (Hsieh et al., 2005). Thus, to inform customers about the quality of their product/service offerings, service providers (e.g. cafeterias) use a range of cues (e.g. rankings and word-of-mouth) to reduce the customer's perceived risk and uncertainty at the time of consumption (Tarn, 2005). Corporate reputation is itself a cue that affects customers' perceptions of a company's product/service quality (Devine and Halpern, 2001). In other words, corporate reputation serves as a form of market-validated information (Hansen et al., 2008) that can signal the underlying quality of a firm's products/services to customers (Rose and Thomsen, 2004). Because the restaurant industry offers its customers the experience of a product/service, a restaurant's reputation can be a very important consideration for customers when choosing a restaurant.It is also crucial for restaurant managers and employees to identify the effect of corporate reputation on customers' post-purchase responses, such as customer satisfaction and loyalty (Helm et al., 2009). Previous researchers have found that corporate reputation can directly affect customer satisfaction and lead to customer loyalty (Loureiro and Kastenholz, 2011). This study aims to further clarify the relationships between corporate reputation and the related variables that affect customers' post-purchase behaviors in the restaurant sector. This paper introduces two variables - perceived trust and perceived value - that, together with corporate reputation, exert a joint influence on customers' post-purchase behaviors. Because perceived trust and perceived value are proposed as mediating variables, we explore both of these variables to verify their roles in the relationship between corporate reputation and customers' post-purchase behaviors.Clarifying customers' perceived trust in a firm is important because trust relates to an individual's positive expectation about the intentions and/or behaviors of the exchange partner (Singh and Sirdeshmukh, 2000). For example, a customer's trust in a firm is facilitated by the firm's reputation, which is derived from its service quality performance in the market and/or reports in media such as Fortune (Fombrun, 1998). In other words, customers have more trust in a firm's product/service offerings if the firm has a positive reputation as a result of good quality performance because each factor complements the other. Consequently, the greater the customer's perceived trust in a firm is, the greater the customer's satisfaction (Doney and Cannon, 1997) and loyalty (Flavian et al., 2006) will be.Furthermore, as proposed by Roig et al. (2006), the reputation of a firm and its products and services play an important role in creating a desirable value for its customers. Only the customer, not the seller or the service provider, can determine whether a product or a service offers value (Roig et al., 2006). Thus, value is created if customers perceive the benefits of the product or service to exceed the costs, a situation that is termed \"value for the money\" (Nasution and Mavondo, 2008). Therefore, the customer-perceived value is also believed to be a key contributor to the customer's post-purchase behaviors, which include customer satisfaction (Wang et al., 2009) and customer loyalty (Lai et al., 2009).Although previous research has demonstrated the effects of trust, value, and customer satisfaction on customer loyalty in the restaurant sector (e.g. Kim and Han, 2008; Haghighi et al., 2012), the interrelationships between these factors and corporate reputation have not yet been investigated, and in particular, some of the inconsistent results about the relationships between these factors need further examination. For example, although Kim and Han (2008) concluded that trust is significantly and positively related to loyalty intentions, this linkage appears insignificant in Haghighi et al.'s (2012) study. Therefore, from an academic point-of-view, the current study contributes to the hospitality literature by developing an S-O-R (stimulus-organism-response) conceptual model to analyze the hypothesized relationships between corporate reputation (stimulus), perceived trust and perceived value (organism), and customer satisfaction and customer loyalty (response) in the restaurant sector. From a practical standpoint, this study adds to the existing knowledge by providing restaurant managers with a further understanding of customer perceptions and the behaviors associated with corporate reputation, confirming that it is worth the effort to build a strong reputation because it will allow the restaurant to be competitive in the market.\nTheoretical background and hypotheses: Conceptual framework\nHypothesis development: Corporate reputation, perceived trust, satisfaction, and loyalty\nResearch method: Sample\nData analysis and results: Descriptive analysis\nConclusions and managerial implications: Because customer loyalty is one of the most important subjects in hospitality marketing research (Yoo et al., 2011), this study contributes to the hospitality literature by developing an S-O-R model that includes reputation, trust, and value to provide a more comprehensive understanding of their effects on both customer satisfaction and loyalty in the restaurant sector. The findings provide several theoretical and managerial implications as follows.First, the effect of corporate reputation must be considered. This study's results support previous studies that indicate that corporate reputation significantly affects customer-perceived trust (Keh and Xie, 2009), customer-perceived value (Cretu and Brodie, 2007), and customer satisfaction (Loureiro and Kastenholz, 2011). Although previous studies individually explored the relationships between corporate reputation, trust, value, and satisfaction, no existing studies integrated these variables into a single model. The contribution of this study therefore lies in the combination of these variables and the exploration of their effects exerted in the model. Thus, in addition to providing a deeper understanding of the influence of corporate reputation on these variables (e.g. reputation has the strongest effect on perceived trust, followed by perceived value and by customer satisfaction), this study further reveals the combined influence of these variables on customer loyalty (e.g. the linkage of reputation with trust and satisfaction affects loyalty more strongly than the linkage of reputation with value and satisfaction).Because corporate reputation is important in shaping customers' perceptions of the firm, it is important that the reputation be consistent with the firm's products or service quality. For example, Hilger et al. (2011) proposed that it is particularly important to inform customers about the product or service quality of experience goods (e.g. restaurants), though it should be further noted that customers can fully determine the quality only after purchase. Nevertheless, Helm et al. (2009) suggested that while corporate reputation works as a signal of quality to some extent, reputation is believed to be less important in the case of search goods (e.g. cake) because the direct product experience can outweigh the importance of firm reputation. For example, in Crane and Clarke's (1988) investigation, reputation is one of the most important top-of-mind evaluative criteria used to assess doctors; however, it is not used by customers when selecting banks. Accordingly, one implication for restaurant marketers is that while reputation might not be a \"panacea\" that can determine customers' perceptions of services or products, it is necessary to have an understanding of some important evaluative criteria that are used by customers to assess the offerings.Second, ongoing customer trust is important throughout the service process. The empirical results show that customer-perceived trust and customer-perceived value function as important mediating variables between corporate reputation and customer loyalty. Thus, trust and value have been found to be fundamental in enhancing customer loyalty in relationship exchanges (Sirdeshmukh et al., 2002). Service companies in particular can benefit from the effects of a good corporate reputation (Michaelis et al., 2008) because the reputation of a company can create a halo effect that allows customers to make more favorable evaluations (Jin et al., 2008). However, just as trust in the pre-encounter phase that affects the customer's performance expectations toward a business, trust that occurs in the post-encounter phase again influences a customer's ongoing relationship with the business (Singh and Sirdeshmukh, 2000). For example, as confirmed by Kim et al. (2012c), trust in the wake of service recovery activities is indispensable to the building and strengthening of a relationship commitment with the service provider. Thus, trust is a crucial variable that affects the customer's perceptions and behaviors in both the pre- and the post-purchase process. For restaurants, extending the reputation-based pre-trust to create customer loyalty should be an ongoing concern of the managers. The customer/employee interaction, as perceived by the customer, is critical to the success of the service experience (Devlin and Dong, 1994) with respect to earning the customer's post-trust in the post-purchase process.Furthermore, the value recognition of customers must be clearly established. Corporate reputation in the form of goodwill can reflect the monetary value of reputation (Rose and Thomsen, 2004); that is, the value that a restaurant offers its customers in relation to the product price must reflect a successful give-and-take exchange (Lee et al., 2004). From a managerial perspective, rather than focusing on competitor prices, firms should focus more on delivering a fair or superior service at the right price and on treating their customers fairly (Martin-Consuegra et al., 2007). As suggested by Jani and Han (2011), in creating a favorable perceived price, restaurateurs (e.g. family style, casual, or upscale) can use comparative marketing strategies that will lead customers to perceive the restaurant's food prices as reasonable and appropriate compared to other restaurants. In particular, because it is more difficult to gain than to lose a good reputation (Casalo et al., 2007), the chain restaurant management should be particularly attentive to the aforementioned issue regarding fairness and superior service because the business identity of a chain restaurant is established through the consistent value received by the customers at each branch.Finally, create innovative product/service offerings. While the customer-perceived value is an important organism variable in our S-O-R model, it has a weaker effect on customer loyalty than perceived trust. The certainty effect concept proposed by mental accounting theory can help to explain customer behavior toward a business in terms of monetary concerns (Kim et al., 2012b). In Kim et al.'s (2012b) empirical study, they implied that customers are sensitive to monetary savings in their purchase decisions and that the certainty of a transaction with a vendor increases the desirability of gains, which are achieved in the form of a lower perceived price, especially in the case of repeat customers. That is, the lower the perceived price and the higher the received benefits, the higher the customers perceive the value to be.In this respect, if the product or service quality of a restaurant has been recognized by the restaurant's customers (e.g. derived from their good reputation), the certainty effect can, to some extent, subtly negate the customers' perceptions of value for money unless a higher or superior product/service is provided. As such, the perception of value for money with respect to the firm would probably decrease over time as the number of transactions with the firm increases. Thus, because customers are always seeking better product or service quality and because it is always necessary to increase the customer-perceived value to achieve customer satisfaction and loyalty, restaurant managers should engage in product/service innovations for their market segments (Crick and Spencer, 2011). In practice, for example, as suggested by Hyun and Han (2012), it is essential that restaurants continue to develop new menus to please patrons' palates. Restaurants can award bonuses and host contests to encourage their chefs to develop menu items of highest quality. Such competitive strategies have proved effective in enhancing menu innovation. Thus, the innovation of products/services becomes a restaurant's \"competitive weapon\" with respect to exceeding expectations.\nLimitations and directions for further research: This study's limitations provide directions for future study. First, in this study, we selected two restaurants with good corporate reputations to verify the proposed hypotheses in the proposed model. Although the statistical analysis indicates that corporate reputation exerts significant influence on trust, value, and satisfaction, these results further stimulated some concerns regarding data collection. We therefore calculated the coefficient of variation (standard deviation/mean) for each variable in the descriptive statistics from 529 valid questionnaires to observe the extent of dispersion in the data. The coefficients of variation derived for corporate reputation, trust, value, satisfaction, and loyalty were 0.199 (1.035/5.192), 0.175 (0.948/5.406), 0.188 (0.905/4.807), 0.179 (0.954/5.319), and 0.184 (0.945/5.144), respectively. These results show that dispersion is more prominent in corporate reputation. In other words, customers did not consistently rate the corporate reputation of the chosen restaurants highly. Despite our attempt to confirm our hypotheses by using two restaurants with good corporate reputations, the respondents did not consistently express higher positive feelings in the question items regarding corporate reputation. In fact, customer responses regarding corporate reputation of the selected restaurants appeared to be in disagreement. Future studies should consider this phenomenon in the data collection. Note that the corporate reputation of a restaurant may not entirely depend on reports or ratings provided by external media but on the overall perceptions held by customers. In particular, customers may not be aware of positive information that might influence their internal perceptions of the restaurant's corporate reputation (such as participation in environmental protection, care for the interests of employees, or focus on the quality of customer service). Therefore, future studies should administer a preliminary test to examine customer perceptions of the corporate reputation of the targeted restaurants. As such, restaurants with varying corporate reputations could be identified, and the effects of customer perceptions of corporate reputation on customer behavior could then be compared.Second, although our results successfully verified that perceived trust, value, and customer satisfaction are instrumental in creating corporate reputation, it is important to realize that other factors can also play a critical role in the relationship between corporate reputation and customer loyalty. For instance, future research can investigate how other factors, such as customer identification and commitment, affect this relationship. Finally, because frequent customers might have different perceptions of a business than less frequent customers, future research could better distinguish between the decision-making process and post-purchase behaviors of the different types of customer.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This study attempts to investigate the causal relationships between perceived trust, perceived value, customer satisfaction, and corporate reputation to understand how customer perceptions evolve into customer loyalty in the restaurant sector.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This study develops a research model and empirically examines the model by collecting data from two different chain restaurants. Based on the aggregated responses (n=529) from surveys conducted in the two selected chain restaurants, structural equation modeling was used to examine the hypothesized relationships between the variables.\nFindings: - The results reveal that corporate reputation creates loyalty through trust and value, two factors that act as important mediating variables in the model. Another key finding, based on a comparison of the total effects, is that perceived trust affects customer loyalty through customer satisfaction and that it has a stronger effect than perceived value.\nPractical implications: - Along with the reputation-loyalty linkage, which is mediated by trust and value, the minor influence of customer-perceived value implies that restaurant managers should consider enhancing their diners' perceived value by providing innovative products and services.\nOriginality/value: - This study develops a conceptual stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model that reflects the mediating role of trust and value to indicate the effect of the customer perceptions of the corporate reputation on customer loyalty in the restaurant sector.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]

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