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Costing in the Newcastle Infirmary, 1840-1888	[ "Hospitals", "Nineteenth century", "Accountability", "Decision making", "Morality", "Costing", "Poor", "Newcastle" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This paper examines the nature and function of cost accounting used by management at the charitable Infirmary for the Sick and Lame Poor of the Counties of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Durham, and Northumberland (hereafter the Newcastle Infirmary) c. 1840-1888. The Newcastle Infirmary was one of many provincial hospitals established throughout Britain during the mid-eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries by contributions from wealthy members of the local community, hence their description as \"voluntary\" hospitals. Voluntary hospitals were originally intended for patients who could not afford to pay for their treatment, although there were usually severe moral qualifications attached to eligibility which were consistent with prevailing Victorian beliefs that the poor were either \"deserving\" or \"undeserving\" of help (Holden et al., 2009). The voluntary hospitals were established with strict rules to treat only the \"deserving\" poor, those who wanted and were able to work, as opposed to the feckless and therefore \"undeserving\" poor, for whom possibly the best option was the workhouse infirmaries. The Statutes and Rules of the Newcastle Infirmary in 1801 stipulated that:\nHospitals and the rise of cost accounting: Hospitals in the modern era have attracted the attention of accounting researchers not only because of the vast resources that they consume but, possibly more importantly, they present the most challenging problems for government when evaluating performance (Birch and Maynard, 2006). Unlike many public and private sector services, for example the building and management of roads, hospitals involve the provision of services that have the greatest impact on the well-being of large numbers of the population and, therefore, the source of greatest political exposure to governments should services not be delivered efficiently and effectively. While the public might recognise that matters of finance must be major considerations when managing hospitals, rarely are they prepared to prioritise finance ahead of the alleviation of suffering. A significant part of the efforts of critical accounting researchers with a public sector emphasis has been directed at the National Health Service (NHS) and the management of its hospitals (Broadbent et al., 1991; Laughlin and Broadbent, 1996; Froud and Shaoul, 2001; Broadbent and Laughlin, 2002; Broadbent et al., 2003). Critical accounting researchers have been especially prominent in their examination of the ways in which accounting, and the managerial values and emphases that it promotes, has been used in the public sector as a key element of the new public management (NPM) to supplant previous administrative understandings of accounting and performance measures. Critical accounting scholars have exposed, across myriad government agencies and services, how accounting has been essential in the institutionalisation of a new regime of public sector values, most especially those which result in measurable, auditable and reportable performance, and the social consequences of these changes (Power, 1997; Funnell et al. 2009).\nFunding and managing the Newcastle Infirmary: The revenue of voluntary hospitals came predominately from annual subscriptions made by socially prominent, wealthy members of the community as well as by employers, trade unions and town councils (McCord, 1974, p. 97; Woodward, 1974, p. 38). The subscription income was supplemented by legacies and bequests, one-off donations, interest on investments, poor-box donations and special fund-raising events such as dinners, sermons, benefit plays and concerts. During the period under review each subscription of one guinea to the Newcastle Infirmary entitled the subscriber to recommend one outpatient per year for treatment and two guineas provided for two outpatients or one inpatient per year. For any amount subscribed over two guineas, these ratios remained constant (NUL, Hospital Archives, 72 - Annual Report 1850, p. 27; Annual Report 1867, p. 3; NUL, Hospital Archives, 45 - Statutes and Rules 1855). Patients seeking to be admitted to the hospital would present a letter of introduction, obtained from a subscriber, to the House Committee. This helped to ensure that only eligible \"objects\" of the charity, the indigent poor were considered for admission to the Infirmary. Towards the end of the nineteenth century this letter system of admittance was abandoned by voluntary hospitals to be replaced by a free for all system, funded by small weekly worker subscriptions in addition to the existing large annual subscriptions made by the social elite and corporations. The Newcastle Infirmary itself became free to all in 1888. At the same time, the infirmary was exposed to significant changes in both medical practice and local demographics that were to place ever greater demands on its facilities, services provided and management system.\nOperational costing: By the very nature of the services provided by hospitals, the range of conditions, their susceptibility to treatment and the treatments on offer, it is easier to pronounce upon economy than to assess the effectiveness of hospital management. At the Newcastle Infirmary managerial effectiveness was assessed in two ways. The first criterion was the number of patients restored to health and useful employment, consistent with the hospital's express mission since its inception of affording relief to the indigent sick. Measures in the annual reports such as the number of patients treated, the number of operations, and the death-rate served this purpose. Another essential role the management played was to ensure the financial survival of the institution. Unlike today where a hospital or health authority can potentially be bailed out by additional finance from central government, no such facility existed for the voluntary hospitals. The managers of the Newcastle Infirmary were acutely aware that the finance of the hospital was provided by the local population to service the wishes of the local population and, accordingly, they had to be seen not to be squandering the limited resources at their disposal. As detailed below, operational cost controls were in place at the Infirmary during the period under review to achieve this purpose.\nCapital projects: Throughout the life of the infirmary, the House Committee showed little hesitation in regularly committing itself to heavy expenditure on improvements and new facilities, including: the new Dobson Wing (1855); a Turkish air bath (1860); the purchase of land adjacent to the hospital for the exercise of convalescent patients, and to prevent others building on it (1863); new flooring and fire escapes (1867); a hydraulic lift (1876); new operating theatre and associated ward (1878); refitting the kitchens and dispensary, new drains, floors and cooking range, improving lighting and ventilation (1880); and the temporary Ravensworth Wards (1885). Despite the often significant sums involved in these building improvements and additions, there is no evidence that accounting provided more than a minor contribution to investment decisions when judged from an economic as opposed to social perspective. What mattered most was enhancing the infirmary's ability to meet the medical needs of the local community. Need was the overriding determinant of investment decisions, not funds currently available. Indeed, decisions were taken by the hospital governors to invest heavily in capital improvements before funding had been secured. These were essentially leaps of faith in that they relied upon the continued generosity of the benefactors, who on numerous occasions since the foundation of the infirmary in 1751 had provided the necessary funds. This is clearly illustrated by the following extract from the 1853 annual report:\nConclusion: This study has examined the nature and function of cost accounting within the Newcastle Infirmary, a not-for-profit organisation, in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Based on evidence from the vast store of books and records that have been carefully preserved by the Infirmary, the study found that the costing arrangements were more about creating the right appearance, demonstrating able stewardship, and less about forward-planning and decision making. The hospital relied on voluntary contributions for its maintenance and expansion, and management needed to be able to demonstrate that they had utilised those moneys effectively in order for that support to continue. Partly this was achieved through tracking costs and taking reactive decisions to reduce expenditure wherever possible. Putting contracts out to tender provided an alternative non-accounting means of cost control.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper examines the nature and function of cost accounting at the Newcastle Infirmary, a large voluntary provincial hospital, established in 1751. In particular, the paper adds to the literature on accounting within early voluntary hospitals by identifying the relative contributions of the costing system to planning and controlling the operations, assisting decision making and holding managers accountable for their performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper relies primarily on original documents preserved in the archives of the Newcastle Infirmary.\nFindings: Although evidence was found of quite sophisticated costing systems, the findings suggest that the majority of the information was produced ex post by the hospital management to demonstrate good stewardship and to engender financial support.\nResearch limitations/implications: More cases are needed of other hospitals to ascertain how typical the Newcastle Infirmary was of the voluntary hospital sector in the nineteenth century.\nOriginality/value: Although there are other studies of accounting within British voluntary hospitals, and studies of the use of accounting to drive decision making in profit-making organisations during the nineteenth century, none have investigated the use of accounting as a decision-making tool in a voluntary hospital.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Consumer territorial responses in service settings	[ "Retail", "Service failures", "Frontline service employees", "Dysfunctional customers", "Customer incivility" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The current retail market is highly competitive; retail locations and store chains are closing, with some describing a \"retail apocalypse\" (Barbari, 2019) and industry experts suggesting that managers should be bracing for major disruption (MacKenzie et al., 2013). Therefore, it is critically important for managers to have replete information that helps them identify customer responses that may negatively impact the bottom line. Territorial consumer behaviors are one type of response that can affect a service provider's profitability.\nExploratory studies: Exploratory Study 1: critical incident technique interviews\nStudy 1: Methodology\nStudy 2: Method\nGeneral discussion: Understanding how customers respond to the intrusion pressure that results from employee infringements on his/her territory is critical because the range of potential responses includes actions that can decrease the firm's profitability. Identifying the actions as territorial responses can help managers resolve conflicts around the closing time boundary. Understanding when customers are most likely to engage in territorial responses, such as customers with high levels of rapport with FLEs, can help managers segment customers who shop near the closing time boundary and provide treatment that minimizes the costliest responses.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Customers can be territorial, which results in reactive behaviors that can hurt firm profitability. This study aims to expand the typology of customer territorial responses previously identified in the environmental psychology and marketing literature.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors use a mixture of quantitative and qualitative approaches. The exploratory studies elicit and test a typology of consumer territorial responses using critical incident technique and factor analysis. Two surveys use the typology. Study 1 examines intrusiveness in grocery store settings. Study 2 expands the model with specialty store shoppers to examine how rapport, employee greed, entitlement and time pressure interact with intrusion pressure and relate to customer territorial responses.\nFindings: The results indicate a new category of territorial responses - deferential verbalizations - and show relationships between intrusion pressure and deferential actions, retaliatory verbalizations, retaliatory actions and abandonment. The relationships are affected by the moderators, including rapport, which interacts with intrusion pressure to increase the likelihood of switching.\nResearch limitations/implications: Collecting data near closing time restricted observations and consumer time to participate using self-report data. The results should be replicated with other populations and service providers.\nPractical implications: Managers should monitor customer treatment during closing time. The results indicate consumer responses to closing time cues not only impact their shopping trip but also affect whether they will patronize the store in the future.\nOriginality/value: The study provides an expanded typology of territorial responses, identifies moderating factors that may affect responses and links employee intrusiveness and territorial responses to store patronage.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Analysis of training programs related to quality management system: the Spanish case	[ "Spain", "Education", "Vocational education", "Quality management system", "Education system", "Professional training programs" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The economic globalization and the ultimate financial crisis have drastically altered the world economic order. Organizations have now been pushed toward providing more quality and respond more effectively to consumers' needs and fulfilling customer requirements. To adapt to this new environment, businesses need ways to improve their operations in different frontages including: better gain, serve and retain customers while reducing costs and improving their profit margins. Sound, documented evidence from the academic studies now confirms that implementing management systems (MSs) can help businesses to achieve success on all of these frontages. Given that the majority of extant literature point toward that there is a significant relationship between the implementation of MS and/or management system standard (MSS) and customers' satisfaction, loyalty and business performance.\n2. General education system: Although, the teaching and/or the professional training language(s) depends on each autonomous community, the legislative structure of the education system in general is defined at national level by the Ministry of Education Social policy and Sport (Ministerio de Educacion, Cultura y Deporte). Nevertheless, each autonomous community can develop their own complementary legislation and regulate the non-basic elements of the education system. In addition, they have executive and administrative powers which allow them to administer the education system within their own territory (Santiago et al., 2009). The current Spanish education system followed la Ley Organica de Educacion (LOE) that corresponds to the Fundamental Law of Education in English. As mentioned before, education and training programs in Spain are closely linked to the labor market. Figure 1 mapped and summarized the interrelationships between education, higher education as well as professional training and the world of work.\n3. Primary and secondary education: Generally, education in Spain is compulsory, free from six to 16 years of age and supported by the government in each region. Obviously, obligatory education starts at the age of 6 (primary school). Besides, at the age of 12, children are compulsory enrolled to secondary school Educacion Secundaria Obligatoria (ESO). At this point children are provided with either the basis for further high school studies or professional training. At the end of this stage, Students are often awarded with a certificate called Graduado/o Educacion Secundaria. With this title, students have three options: they can opt for start working, start vocational training or intermediate education and voluntary continue to secondary education. The ultimate option leads to the bachelor level (Bachillerato).\n4. Higher education and tertiary education: According to the Spanish ministry of education of the year 2014 data report, the Spanish higher education is composed of 82 universities spread over 236 campuses with physical presence and 112 with no physical presence. Out of the 82 universities, 50 were publicly owned and 32 private. In 2013, there were about 1.561 million university students in Spain. The figure represents about 1.75 universities per million inhabitants and the equivalent of 24.6 per million inhabitants of the theoretical university population aged from 18 to 24 (Ministerio de Educacion, Cultura y Deporte, 2014).\n5. MSSs: As we previously argued the increased use of QMS is not surprising because of the exponential increase of MS, MSS, total quality management, etc. For example, in 2012, there were over 1.101 million certificates of International Standardization Organization (ISO)[1] 9001 issues across 184 countries. This figure represents a 2 percent increase since 2011 and the number of businesses choosing to adopt ISO 9001 is likely to continue to grow. Following the obvious success of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, additional MSSs have been developed for a variety of applications. A quick look at these new standards shows that they contain many of the basics of ISO 9000 that was used as a catalyst of the existing tendencies. With the purpose to induce organizations toward a structural model based on the logic of strategic quality management that has evolved during the last 100 years or more.\n6. Education and professional training in quality: In general, quality can be defined in different ways. For example, it can mean excellence, zero defects, satisfying customer needs or operational improvement. Moreover, quality assurance, quality management as well as QMS and quality management standard can all be defined in different ways. In this document, all these terminology will be used interchangeably because here they mean anything related to MSS.\n7. Conclusions: Current social and economic conjuncture has caused changes in the labor market, in which most of the people opt for specialization training curriculum as a differentiating factor. In such context, one of the main challenges for the education and professional training is to meet the changing skills needs of individuals and the world of work in accordance with the principle of lifelong learning. While demand for new skilled workers is increasing, it is also necessary to attend to developing and upgrading the skills of the existing workforce and to promoting labor mobility.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identifying, discussing and analyzing the existing education and training programs related to quality management system (QMS) in Spain.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Exhaustive search of the education system database was used to map the multifaceted of Spanish education system and professional training in addition to their relationships with the labor market. Thereafter, a thorough scan of the existing training related to management system standards was used to classify them into different subgroups as well as identifying possible education and the professional trainings related to QMS.\nFindings: The overall results showed that general education in Spain and in particular related to QMS can be classified into four different groups including: official university, unofficial university, official non-university and unofficial non-university. Moreover, this study observed that the general concern about the employment and earnings in Spain has led the local, autonomous communities and national government to launch specific measures designed to both continue to increase the quality of the workforce with the QMS backgrounds and to ease the difficulties encountered when entering the labor market.\nOriginality/value: This study is the first to analyze and map the multifaceted character of Spanish education system and professional training related to QMS. The findings of this study may be useful for organizations trying to evaluate their QMS efforts, thus, engage their people in order to face the competitive challenges that lie ahead.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Understanding olfaction and emotions and the moderating role of individual differences	[ "Emotions", "Individual differences", "Event-related potential", "Olfaction", "Scent" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Popular press accounts of olfaction point toward the fundamental connection between scent and emotions in everyday life. In total, four out of five Americans say they know from experience that scent can have a positive effect on their mood (Johnson, 2013). According to Byron (2013), increased flavor, a greater sense of safety and even happiness are influenced by a keen sense of smell. Estimates maintain that 75 per cent of the emotions we experience on a daily basis are generated by what we smell (Bell, 2006). Indeed, Bosmans (2006) maintains that the primary reaction to scent is one of like/dislike. This is partly attributable to the close connection between olfaction and the limbic part of the brain, which governs the processing of emotions, in contrast to cortex-based connections for our other sensory abilities. Scent also has a close connection to our memories. For example, 84 per cent of Americans believe that scent aids in tapping vivid memories and enables the re-experience of the joy of a specific place, person or event (Johnson, 2013). Although all senses are reported to evoke memories equally accurately, more emotional memories are evoked by scent (Herz, 1998).\nAn analysis of olfactory studies in marketing: A review of olfactory-related papers in the marketing literature confirms the powerful effects of scent on marketing practice and consumer behavior. Scent plays a positive role in increasing customer satisfaction and evaluation of various shopping venues such as stores (Walsh et al., 2011) and malls (Morrin and Chebat, 2005). Scent can also increase consumption levels, such as in-store spending (Herrmann et al., 2012), food intake (Hansen et al., 2006) and gambling (Hirsch, 1995). These increases are reflected by sales (Spangenberg et al., 2006), intent to visit stores (Spangenberg et al., 1996), purchase intentions (Spangenberg et al., 2005), willingness to eat (Hansen et al., 2006) or willingness to pay (Fiore et al., 2000). Scent also is found to have an impact on shopping behaviors such as variety-seeking (Mitchell et al., 1995), product search (Morrin and Chebat, 2005), impulse buying (Matilla and Wirtz, 2001) and choice behaviors (Mitchell et al., 1995). The use of scent further affects other important marketing variables, such as increased brand recall (Morrin and Ratneshwar, 2000, 2003), product recall (Morrin et al., 2011), increased attention (Morrin and Ratneshwar, 2003), haptic perceptions (Krishna et al., 2010a) and time spent in the store (Morrison et al., 2011). Indeed, the overall shopping experience can be enhanced by scent, as reflected in increased positive ratings of brands (Bosmans, 2006) and satisfaction with the shopping environment (Michon et al., 2005).\nLiterature review and hypotheses: Olfactory-associated emotions and information processing\nAn ERP study on olfaction and emotions: Research design, materials and participants\nGeneral discussion: Our results suggest an automatic allocation of attentional resources devoted to olfactory cues in normal individuals, as well as suppressing mechanisms in individuals who have a heightened sensitivity to smell. Our results reinforce earlier findings that emotions automatically experienced by highly olfactory sensitive individuals (hyperosmics) are in fact negative and protective in nature (Cross et al. 2015). Moreover, this regulatory mechanism is absent in normal individuals; perhaps because individuals with a normal ability to smell do not suffer the level of negative consequences (e.g. headaches, nausea, dizziness) from intense odors as do hyperosmics. Consistent with their hyper-vigilant nature, individuals with a high sensitivity to smell report paying more attention to smell and indicate that scent is a more salient sensory factor for them, compared to normal individuals, as evidenced by a questionnaire study investigating individual differences in sense of smell (Lin et al., 2012).\nImplications and limitations: Recognizing that individuals vary in their sensitivity to scent is important to advancing our understanding of the role of olfaction for consumers, which is particularly relevant to marketing and retail managers. The use of ambient scent or scenarios where the consumers are asked to think about \"what\" the particular scents are may trigger cognitive processes in consumers. This may in turn arouse (as in the detection task for normal individuals) or dampen emotions (as demonstrated in the identification task for normal individuals, and in both the detection and identification tasks for sensitive individuals). The latter outcome is concerning, as it may lead to diminished marketplace enjoyment or consumer's disengagement with the store and the brand, counteracting the initial marketing intention - to get potential consumers excited about the product and the brand, while creating positive brand and shopping experiences. Given the differential impact of sensory influences on individual perception, reaction and consumption, the increased use of ambient scent in stores, hotels and other public venues should be prudently monitored. Future practice should also consider the selective use of scratch and sniff inserts in magazines, sample sprays or other tactics, where a focused attention is placed on discerning the scent. Instead, a multi-sensory design without placing an emphasis on scent might be better.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the mediating role of emotions in processing scent information in consumer research, using event-related potential (ERP)-based neuroscience methods, while considering individual differences in sense of smell.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Prior research on olfaction and emotions in marketing has revealed mixed findings on the relationship between olfaction and emotion. The authors review earlier studies and present a neuroscience experiment demonstrating the benefits of ERP methods in studying the automatic processing of emotions.\nFindings: Results demonstrate how emotional processes occurring within 1s of stimulus exposure differ across individuals with varying olfactory abilities. Findings reveal an automatic suppression mechanism for individuals sensitive to smell.\nResearch limitations/implications: Scent-induced emotions demonstrated through the use of ERP-based methods provide insights for understanding automatic emotional processes and reactions to ambient scents by consumers in the marketplace.\nPractical implications: Findings show an automatic suppression of emotions triggered by scent in individuals sensitive to smell. Marketers and retailers should consider such reactions when evaluating the use of olfactory stimuli in promotional and retail strategies.\nOriginality/value: The authors review past literature and provide an explanation for the disparate findings in the olfaction-emotion linkage, by studying individual differences in response to scent in the marketplace. This is one of the first papers in marketing to introduce the application of ERP in studying consumer-relevant behavior and provide technical and marketing-specific considerations for both academic and market researchers.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Moderating role of personal values on managers' intention to adopt Green IS: Examining norm activation theory	[ "Norm activation theory", "Personal values", "Moderating", "Green IS", "Proenvironmental behaviour" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Concerns regarding organisations' sustainability motivated policy makers and decision makers to adopt and diffuse more sustainable strategies and technologies, such as environmental management systems in order to enhance environmental and economic performances of their firms (Melville, 2010; Seidel et al., 2015). Considering the size of information technology (IT) investment within organisations, Green information system (Green IS) gained relevance to support sustainability (Recker, 2016; Wang et al., 2015). Green IS is defined as, 'the initiatives to utilise IT infrastructure to change organisational processes and/or practices to improve energy efficiency and reduce the environmental impacts, and to introduce environmentally healthier products and/or services' (Brooks et al., 2012, p. 19). While Green IS is considered to be one of the dominant technological and strategic solutions to tackle sustainability issues by practitioners (Wang et al., 2015), it was additionally highlighted to be one of the most important strategic technologies in 2008 by scholars (Thibodeau, 2007). It was argued that Green IS has the potential to reduce three per cent of greenhouse gas emission worldwide by 2020 and even more by promoting non-wasteful practices as well as productive use of technology (Brooks et al., 2012; Wang et al., 2015).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Prior studies on Green IS adoption\n3. Theoretical framework and hypotheses development: The cornerstone of the developed model in this study is the NAT (see Figure 2). We postulate that the intention of managers to adopt Green IS was influenced by managers' personal norms (H1), problem awareness (H2a), and ascription of responsibility (H3a). Furthermore, managers' personal norms are also activated by their problem awareness (H2b) and ascription of responsibility (H3b). Moreover, we hypothesise that managers' personal values moderate the relationships between their norms, awareness of adverse consequences, and ascription of responsibility and their intention to adopt Green IS, which means the weightings of these relationships are varied among managers with different value orientations.\n4. Research methodology: 4.1 Sample and data collection\n5. Results: 5.1 Assessment of the measurement model\n6. Discussion: The results of the study suggest that managers who are aware of the adverse consequences of the environmental conditions and feel compelled to take corrective actions develop their obligation to behave proenvironmentally and further view organisation to be a field to materialise their concerns towards the environment, by making appropriate strategic decisions.\n7. Research implications: Regarding the research and practice contributions, we offer implications for Green IS literature and the organisations that wish to maintain high levels of environmental responsiveness.\n8. Conclusion: In light of the growing concern of Green IS as a strategic approach augmenting business processes to enhance their environmental sustainability, we highlighted the importance of values as well as environmental beliefs and norms on the decision-making process of mangers to practice these Green initiatives. The objective of this study was to illustrate to what extent the antecedents of the NAT explain proenvironmental behavioural intention of managers to adopt Green IS. Furthermore, the moderating role of values on the relations to intention was investigated to show how the decision intention varies among managers with different value priorities.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the moderating role of the personal values on the antecedents of managers' intention to adopt Green information system (Green IS) utilising the norm activation theory and the Schwartz's values system.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To examine the effects of the identified factors on the behavioural intention, the survey method was employed. The questionnaire was distributed targeting decision makers of companies in three industries - oil/gas/energy, transportation and manufacturing and construction. With 146 valid questionnaires in hand, the collected data were analysed using the partial least squares structural equation modelling technique.\nFindings: The results revealed that moral obligation (personal norm) of managers influenced their intention to adopt Green IS. While the awareness of consequences and ascription of responsibility are influencing the intention, but the analyses revealed that they are mediated by the personal norm. The moderating role of personal values was further analysed and the results showed that the managers with more orientation towards self-transcendence values have higher intention to adopt Green IS.\nOriginality/value: This study serves as a call to the IS literature to incorporate values, beliefs, and norms into their model of individual-level decision making towards contemporary innovation adoption. By enriching the understanding of the influence of values and attitudinal factors on the decision-making process, the research model sheds light on how managers intend to diffuse IS initiatives in their organisations for the purpose of environmental sustainability.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Lean talent management: a novel approach for increasing creativity in architectural design firms	[ "Knowledge management", "Design", "Innovation", "Architecture", "Integrated practice", "Novel method" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Creative industries are talent-based businesses and depend heavily on individual creativity (Kong, 2014; Jones et al., 2004). The architectural industry was classified as one of the creative industries worldwide (Cunningham, 2003). It is an integral part of the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry (Kamara et al., 2002). It plays a significant role towards delivering sustainable projects that translate the community needs into designs that specify technical characteristics, functional performance criteria and quality standards. In addition, it aims to complete these projects on time, as specified and in the most cost effective manner to produce a product that matches or exceeds end users expectations (Ahmed and Kangari, 1995; Hudson, 1999; Bowen et al., 1999; Othman et al., 2004). This clarifies the vital role of architectural design firms (ADFs) towards developing creative solutions that address social circumstances and achieve higher order needs. In ADFs, motivation is critical for architects to develop novel conceptual ideas (Oyedele, 2010). However, demotivation, which is a reduction of morale or spirit in performing certain tasks, is a barrier for creativity even when motivation exists. Demotivation is not a synonym of lack of motivation as the last means reduction of stimulus or drive for an action (Oyedele, 2013). On the one hand, talent management (TM) is one of the novel approaches that enhances motivation, reduces demotivation, achieves mutual benefits and balances work-life commitments (Deery, 2008; Thunnissen et al., 2013; Khalil et al., 2017a). On the other hand, lack of talents utilisation (TU) and fragmentation of the AEC industry raises other barriers that cannot be dealt with through TM solely (Koskela, 2004). Therefore, lean thinking (LT) is of essence to enhance the TM strategy in order to maximise TU and reduce fragmentation since it is based on the concept of maximising values and eliminating wastes (Womack et al., 1996). As an LT approach, people-centred innovation emphasises on people rather than schedules and budgets (Sanders, 2006). It is a novel paradigm shift, which was successfully related to lean project delivery system (Paolillo et al., 2016). Consequently, LT's positive impact on TM is paramount and gives potential integration with TM framework by Bersin (2010). Lean innovation (LI) proposes specific lean principles (LPs) for knowledge-based industries (Agan, 2014), such as architecture. The aim of this paper is to investigate the role of lean talent management (LTM) as a novel approach to increase creativity in ADFs.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Architecture: a creative industry within a large industry\n3. Research methodology: As the aim of this paper is to investigate the role of LTM as a novel approach to increase creativity in ADFs, a mixed qualitative and quantitative methodology is designed to achieve the above-mentioned aim through accomplishing three objectives:\n4. Case studies: The first three cases include international ADFs that indicated adoption of TM strategy or matching criteria. The fourth case study is an international project that was successfully delivered through LT and LI with emphasis on TM. The last case study is observed by the authors of this research in a local Egyptian ADF in which its name is not mentioned for privacy purposes.\n5. Survey questionnaire summary: One the one hand, methods of scientific enquiry are subject to limitations in which with the control of experiments in a laboratory comes an artificiality that raises questions regarding generalisability of outcomes and results. On the other hand, surveys allow scholars to explore a phenomenon with samples that represent a population about whom generalisation can be made (Visser et al., 2000). Out of the total population of registered 44 ADFs, only 36 ADFs responded and fully completed the survey questionnaire. It represented a response rate of 81.8 per cent. As Babbie (1992) stated as a rule of thumb a percentage of 50 per cent is considered adequate and McNeil and Chapman (2005) and Gillham (2000) stated that a percentage between 30-40 per cent is accepted, the response rate in this research is considered relatively high enough to be relied upon. All respondents held professional positions to have their responses considered. The first section of the survey questionnaire encompassed information about respondents, out of the 36 respondents, 21 were architects, 4 were project managers, 3 were owners or chairmen, 2 were general managers, 2 were team leaders, 1 was a CEO, 1 was a general director, 1 was an HR manager and 1 was a construction engineer. Therefore, validity and reliability is considered and a generalised conclusion from analysed data could be developed.\n6. Analysis and findings: Based on the case studies findings, a LTM model is developed as shown in Figure 4. A summary of how each barrier was eliminated and potential barriers that require future investigation is represented in Tables VII and VIII, respectively. Adoption of TM eliminates lack of motivation as it drives motivation directly through its STM approach. In CS1, CS2, CS3 and CS5, an inclusive TM strategy was used. Although it may seem contradicting with the STM, motivation could be prevented if only a certain key position was considered, which could be the explanation regarding the inclusive-adopted philosophy. The highest two demotivating factors were eliminate successfully with TM. Project induced stress was eliminated in CS1, CS2, CS3 and CS5, through recreational facilities to ensure a work-life balance while the yearly shared rewards in CS2 reduced the organisational injustice. Other demotivation factors as poor interpersonal skills were eliminated as in CS5 and poor organisational culture as in all cases. However, poor co-ordination of design teams was eliminated as in CS4 through LT, which is discussed in following parts.\n7. Conclusion and recommendations: Creativity is the essence of creative industries that are concerned with delivering novel ideas while considering social circumstances. The architectural industry could be classified as one of the highest industries that should consider the social circumstances when delivering novel solutions. Several barriers were identified that prevent creativity in ADFs. They included lack of motivation, demotivation, fragmentation of AEC industry and LTU. As there were seven demotivating factors, TM was privilege in solving six of them. The seventh demotivating factor was fragmentation of the AEC industry, which led to poor coordination between the multidisciplinary design teams and was solved with LT. LTU was through LTM and LI principles. B6 is ready to be solved with the considerations of adopting lean concepts in ADFs. However, two additional barriers, BX1 and BX2, were identified with potential negative impact even after integrating LTM. In addition to the below-mentioned recommendations for future research, policy makers should develop a baseline for the integration of LTM in ADFs through developing programs to enhance awareness about the differentiated creative development in ADFs that did not achieve such development.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Architecture is classified as one of the creative industries worldwide. However, it is plagued with a number of problems that confine its creativity towards developing innovative solutions that fulfil society needs. One of these pressing problems is the lack of creativity due to the non-utilisation of talented architects. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of lean talent management (LTM) as a novel approach to increase creativity in architectural design firms (ADFs).\nDesign/methodology/approach: In order to achieve the above-mentioned aim, a mixed qualitative and quantitative methodology is designed to accomplish three objectives. First, reviewing literature to investigate the concepts of creative industries, motivation, demotivation, talent management (TM), talents utilisation (TU), lean thinking (LT) and lean innovation (LI). Second, presenting and analysing five case studies to explore the integration between TM, LT and LI in real-life context to overcome barriers of creativity. Finally, analysing the results of a survey questionnaire conducted with a representative sample of Egyptian ADFs to evaluate their perception and application of TM as a facilitator for creativity.\nFindings: The five barriers of creativity encompassed lack of motivation in ADFs and demotivation and lack of TU in ADFs and Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry. TM facilitated motivation and eliminated six demotivating factors. The seventh factor was eliminated through LT. In AEC industry, TU was achieved through LI with five considerations. In ADFs, TU can be achieved through LTM. However, two additional barriers have been identified for further investigation. Egyptian ADFs failed increasing creativity with TM solely. Hence, a LTM framework is required.\nResearch limitations/implications: Although the study focussed on architecture as a case for creative industries and targeted Egyptian ADFs, the application of LTM is to be applied at any industry that is talent-based although barriers related to the design process could vary.\nOriginality/value: This paper presents an innovative approach through discussing the integration of lean concepts into TM towards increasing creativity in ADFs. This ideology has received scant attention in construction literature and is the first of its kind in the architectural field. The proposed ideas represent a synthesis that is novel and creative in thought and adds value to the knowledge in a manner that has not previously occurred.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Quietness is sound in the workplace	[ "Noise control", "Workplace", "Health and safety" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Around one-third of employees are exposed to potentially dangerous levels of noise for at least one-quarter of their time at work. This may not only damage their hearing, but also put their employers at risk.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The paper aims to examine the levels of noise in the workplace.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper discusses the levels of noise in the workplace.\nFindings: - The paper emphasizes the health and safety aspects of noise in the workplace.\nOriginality/value: - The paper provides useful advice on the management of noise in the workplace.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The burden and order of proof in WTO claims: evolving issues	[ "WTO", "Dispute settlement", "International trade", "Burden of proof" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Burden of proof, in the context of international adjudication, denotes the party to a dispute who has the greatest risk of loss in the event that a fact or a proposition is not proven (Kurleka and Turunen, 2010). Therefore, the concept of burden of proof allocates the responsibility on the affected party to adduce sufficient evidence to either prove or disprove a claim (Pauwelyn, 1998). The tribunal adjudicating a case will base its decision on the evidence that the affected party puts forth to support or refute a claim. The role that burden of proof plays in determining the outcome of a dispute often implies that it has a direct impact on the procedural aspects of a tribunal's decision. Consequently, the tribunal must always ensure that their decision is based on the facts that each party has presented, rather than on their subjective assessment of each party's arguments.\n2. Development of the World Trade Organization dispute settlement mechanism: The emergence of the WTO as an effective dispute resolution body came against the backdrop of the ineffective The general agreement on tariffs and trade (GATT) dispute settlement mechanism. The provisions in the GATT related to the settlement of disputes were included in articles XXII and XXIII. The principles enshrined in the two articles were based on the notion that formal legal actions were unfriendly and would unnecessarily undermine international trade.\n3. Burden of proof in World Trade Organization law: When instituting disputes under the WTO dispute settlement mechanisms, parties must adhere to the rules set out in article 3(7) and article 3(8) of the DSU. According to the DSU, the member state instituting the action must consider the merits of their case and determine whether it will be fruitful1. The article goes on to state that the primary objective of the DSU is to ensure prompt and fruitful resolution of disputes[1]. Although this provision does not clearly outline the prima facie case, an analysis of its implication indicates that it requires all aggrieved parties to establish a prima facie case before the case can become the subject of a panel hearing.\n4. Burden of proof in World Trade Organization jurisprudence: The burden of proof concept is an evidentiary principle that is important in all legal systems. Under the WTO law, burden of proof usually rests on the state that seeks to prove or disprove a claim related to the violation of GATT 1994[8]. The DSU, under article 3(8), enshrines the principle of burden of proof under WTO law. The article states that the aggrieved member state must adduce evidence to demonstrate that it is entitled to the remedy it is seeking[8]. Once the WTO panel has established that the evidence is sufficient, the burden of proof will shift from the aggrieved state to the state alleged to have committed a violation of GATT 1994[8]. One of the important aspects of the burden of proof enshrined under the DSU is the concept of \"prima facie\". This concept implies that the evidence tabled to support the aggrieved state's claim must meet a given threshold for the tribunal to shift the burden from the aggrieved state to the offending state. The threshold, according to the DSU, is the existence of sufficient evidence that would enable the panel to grant the requested remedy in the absence of a rebuttal from the offending state.\n5. Burden of proof in common law: The cases analyzed above demonstrated that the concept of burden of proof is straight forward, but it might pose a challenge in its application. An analysis of literature on the possible causes of the difficulty demonstrates that it arises from parties' confusion regarding their respective roles in the process of adducing evidence (Pauwelyn, 1998, p. 22). Parties are no longer aware of their evidentiary burden, and the result in certain cases like the one between Japan and the USA is that the parties might just decide to sit on their laurels and wait for the panel to make a determination on the decision that is the most credible. The main cause for this state of affair is the difficulty in WTO litigators' attempts to reconcile the rules of civil law systems and rules under common law systems (Pauwelyn, 1998, p. 227). Under common law system, the phrase burden of proof has two meanings. First, it denotes the rule that the party with the risk of losing the case in the absence of evidence is the one who bears the responsibility of adducing the evidence (Pauwelyn, 1998, p. 22). Second, the phrase \"burden of proof\" denotes the division of labor that arises when a party adduces sufficient evidence for the jury or judge to rule if the other party does not produce sufficient evidence to rebut the claims (Pauwelyn, 1998, p. 22). This second aspect of the definition is what is widely referred to as the prima facie case, and it plays an important role in defining the concept of burden of proof under the common law system.\n6. Burden of proof in civil law: Burden of proof in civil law jurisdictions pursues the same direction as the one outlined in the first definition on burden of proof in common law. Under civil law, the duty of adducing evidence rests on the party who will be at the greatest risk of failure. In essence, it rests on the complaining party and, as such, the party must adduce evidence to back up his claim that a give set of facts is the correct state of affairs (Pfitzer and Sabune, 2009). This understanding of the concept of burden of proof is markedly different from the understanding of the concept under the second definition at common law where the courts placed a burden of production on one of the parties to the case. It is also different from the WTO system where panels rely heavily on the burden of production to undermine aggrieved states' capacity to present their respective cases.\n7. The prima facie standard: WTO panels borrowed the prima facie model from the common law system, but their application of the rule is markedly different from the manner in which common law judges applied it (Grando, 2009). The first time that a WTO panel applied the prima facie concept was in the Shirts and Blouses Case where a common law state (India) argued that it was applicable under the WTO rules[14]. The second time the rule became applicable was in the Hormones Case when the WTO Appellate Body attempted to define it. In the case, the Appellate Body argued that the prima facie case was present in cases where the absence of contrary evidence forces the panel, as a matter of law, to decide in favor of the complainant who has presented the prima facie evidence[15]. This definition demonstrated that the WTO Appellate Body was adopting the common law definitions of the concepts of prima facie case. While the panel's move to define the prima facie concept was commendable, it failed in one respect. The Appellate Body failed to clearly point out the degree of persuasion that claimants must demonstrate before the panel analyzing the case can argue that they have established a prima facie case. This situation has been compounded by the fact that several WTO panel rulings after the Hormones case have held that there is no precise prima facie standard[16]. The prima facie standard will vary from one panel to another depending on the set of unique facts under consideration. Such rulings demonstrate that there is no clear agreement among panels on the factors that constitute the prima facie standard. The absence of a clear agreement leads one to wonder why the Appellate Body in the Hormones Case decided to outline the definition of the term prima facie without outlining the nature of arguments or evidence that would be considered as constituting the prima facie evidence.\n8. Conclusion: The objective of the article was to critically evaluate the burden of proof concept under the WTO dispute settlement mechanism. The DSU does not explicitly regulate how to allocate the burden of proof, but panels and the AB needed to address that issue early in their history. When instituting disputes under the WTO dispute settlement mechanisms, parties must adhere to the rules set out in article 3(7) and article 3(8) of the DSU. According to the DSU, any member state instituting the action must consider the merits of their case and determine whether it will be fruitful. The primary objective of the DSU is to ensure prompt and fruitful resolution of disputes. Although provisions of the DSU do not clearly outline the prima facie case, the analysis indicates that it requires all aggrieved parties to establish a prima facie case before the case can become the subject of a panel hearing. This rule implies that panels will have the responsibility of dismissing frivolous disputes or disputes whose evidence is so insufficient that it does not warrant an award in favor of the aggrieved party. An analysis of the concept demonstrates that it is in need of reform as aggrieved states are losing cases because of their inability to establish a prima facie case.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The World Trade Organization (WTO) is one of the best dispute settlement mechanisms in the world. Under WTO rules, aggrieved parties must establish a \"prima facie\" case before the panel can call on the offending party to respond to the claims. The objective of the present study is to critically evaluate the application of the concept of burden of proof under WTO dispute settlement mechanism.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper examines the rule of \"prima facie\" in WTO jurisprudence. To do so, the first part will focus on the development of dispute settlement within WTO. The second part is divided into several subsections that will focus on the burden of proof concept, burden of proof in common law, burden of proof in civil law and the prima facie standard.\nFindings: The DSU does not explicitly regulate how to allocate the burden of proof, but panels and the AB needed to address that issue early in their history. Despite this, all aggrieved parties to establish a prima facie case before the case can become the subject of a panel hearing. There is a need to adopt a burden of proof standard that assesses evidence on the basis of preponderance of the available evidence rather than on the basis of a party's failure to adduce evidence to back up or dispute a claim.\nOriginality/value: The paper is an attempt to address an important issue on the presentation of evidence and proof in international litigation, i.e. WTO.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Employment and skill mismatch among youth in Lebanon	[ "Employment", "Youth", "Skill mismatch", "School-to-work transition", "Bivariate probit model" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Skill mismatch has been identified to impose a significance drag on economic growth and employment across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), a region that has a large youthful population compared to other economic regions (Bhattacharya and Wolde, 2012; Fakih and Ghazalian, 2015). The skill-mismatch problem arises when there is a divergence between the educational attainment of workers and the skill requirements of prospective jobs (Kiker et al., 1997). Moreover, employability is commonly related to a number of labor supply-side constraints or attributes, which adversely affect the ability of new young job entrants to find jobs in a timely fashion (Fugate et al., 2004). These constraints relate to socio-economic characteristics of youth (e.g. age, gender, education and class) and regional specificities (Pool and Sewell, 2007).\n2. Related literature: Factors affecting employability and skill mismatch have been studied in various labor market settings (Houston, 2005). The two problems constitute a significant constraint especially those young higher education graduates seeking to participate in the labor force. This constraint is especially acute in the MENA region that has seen a number of youth agitations during the period of the Arab Spring. Existing studies report variations across countries in factors affecting employability and in the perception of the skill-mismatch problem. According to Fugate et al. (2004), employability reflects the set of attributes that lead to an active adaptation at the workplace. Among the attributes is a career identity that allows the worker to channel and enhance his/her active adaptation. Bradley and Devadason (2008) find that youth in Bristol, UK are subject to more frequent job rotations, periods of unemployment and lower salaries. In terms of perception, the main finding is that youth perceived their job market difficulties as transitory. In this section, we provide a brief overview of the related literature on the employment-skill mismatch nexus in the context of school-to-work transition.\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Data\n4. Empirical results and discussion: Table IV reports the empirical results from the main estimation, which includes the whole sample as the benchmark case (N=2,000). For robustness, Table V reports again the recursive bivariate probit results by gender (Nmale=1,005, Nfemale=995) while Table VI reports them by region (Ncore=1,124, Nperiphery=876). It should be noted that in the three tables, Columns (i) and (ii) are for the probability that youth is employed (Pr(E=1)) and the probability that youth perceive a skill-mismatch problem (Pr(M=1)), respectively. We control for seven regional dummy variables in Columns (i) and (ii) in Table IV and in Columns (i)-iv) in Table V. The regions are Mount Lebanon, South, Nabatieh, North, Akkar, Bekaa, and Baalbek, while the reference group is Beirut (the capital city).\n5. Concluding remarks: Employment and skill mismatch among the youth constitute a major obstacle for access to the job market, particularly in the MENA region where the divergence between the education and matching employment outcomes is pronounced and coupled with very high youth unemployment rates. This paper explores empirically the perception of Lebanese youth on whether or not the educational system and the labor market are compatible in Lebanon. Thus, this paper contributes to our understanding of the school-to-work transition in particular and to the youth-to-adulthood transition in general.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Employment and skill mismatch among youth constitute a major obstacle for access to the job market in the Middle East and North African region. The purpose of this paper is to explore factors explaining employment and the perception of the skill-mismatch problem among the youth in Lebanon using a novel data set covering young people aged from 15 to 29. The paper provides a set of empirical insights that help in the design of public policy targeting school-to-work transition.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors control for a rich set of youth and household characteristics to jointly estimate the probability of being employed and the likelihood of reporting a skill-mismatch problem. The empirical analysis uses a bivariate probit model where the first equation estimates the employment status while the second estimates the determinants of skill-mismatch perceptions. The bivariate probit model considers the error terms in both equations to be correlated and the model tests for such a correlation. The authors estimate the model recursively by controlling for the employment dummy variable in the skill-mismatch equation since employed youth could be more or less likely to perceive the skill mismatch. The estimation is conducted first over the whole sample of youth, and then it is implemented by gender and region.\nFindings: The authors find that youth employment is mainly correlated with age, being male, being single, having received vocational training and financial support from parents, living with parents and receiving current education. The skill-mismatch perceptions are mainly driven by being male, being single, having received post-secondary education and belonging to upper and middle social classes. The authors also find that employability level and skill-mismatch problems are jointly determined in the labor market for males and in the core region only.\nOriginality/value: The paper covers a country that is neglected in the literature on the employment-skill mismatch nexus in the context of school-to-work transition. The study also uses a novel data set focusing on youth. The paper contributes to our understanding of the school-to-work transition in particular and to the youth-to-adulthood transition in general.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The communicative power of an extreme territory - the Italian island of Pantelleria and its passito wine: A multidimensional-framework study	[ "Focus group", "Sensory marketing", "AGIL scheme", "Census", "Experiential marketing", "Heroic viticulture", "Multidimensional analysis", "Territorial marketing strategies", "Wine identity" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Cultural and social changes have influenced consumer perceptions of food and their appreciation of quality products. Recent research has shown that consumer interest in local food is connected to socially defined food criteria, such as the environmental, social or economic aspects of the product; therefore, the meanings consumers attribute to local food and territory, which in Italy are identified with Protected Designations of Origin (PDO), Controlled Denomination of Origin (CDO) and protected geographical indication certification[1], influence their perception of quality and, hence, meet their desires and/or needs (Telligman et al., 2017). These products take on the role of \"icons of rurality\" and represent a relationship between man and territory, which is mediated by food: the territory becomes an integral part of the product. The quality of goods is a fundamental variable in the competitive market; in fact, quality products, including food, when linked to their territory of origin, become \"typical\", i.e. non-reproducible, and it can enhance both the attractiveness of the territory itself, from a touristic perspective, and the territory's competitive advantage compared to other destinations (Capitello et al., 2017). The territory is definitely the main identity and characterizing component of a wine (Iaia et al., 2014). Wine-growing companies, therefore, usually tend to underline the close link between their products and the territory, adopting for this purpose the origin denominations (CDOs) when possible. Wine is a typical agri-food product, where the link with its own terroir[2] is inseparable (Vaudour, 2002; Demossier, 2004; Dedeire, 1995; Charters, 2010; van Leeuwen and Seguin, 2006). Certainly, the terroir is a fundamental resource for the wine-growing companies, and nowadays, it is increasingly used, by wineries, in marketing strategies to contrast the globalization phenomenon of wines; in fact it is an effective element to communicate local identity and uniqueness of food products (Riviezzo et al., 2017). The island of Pantelleria (a small island off Sicily) is one of the most extreme geographic areas of the Italian territory, which is characterized by an arid and windy climate for many months of the year. Its territory is extreme for agricultural activity, but the sharpness of the conditions also determines the ability to qualify the product, specifically the passito wine (i.e. passito di Pantelleria). Pantelleria is not the only \"extreme\" territory in which \"heroic agriculture\" is practiced; in fact, other wine-growing territories in the world have these characteristics that make them unique, due to the particular difficulty encountered by producers in cultivating local crops. In this study, we observe the case of Pantelleria and its passito wine. In the past decade, thanks to the extraordinary communicative power of the Pantelleria territory, the island has become a destination for elite tourism, and this particular type of tourism has increased, consequently, the economic value of Pantelleria. The history of passito di Pantelleria begins with the Phoenicians, who dominated Sicily from the eighth century BC until the third century BC, and they were the first to produce passito wine. At that time, the island of Pantelleria was an important strategic site for the Phoenicians' commercial routes in the Mediterranean Sea, and ancient texts tell that it was the famous Carthaginian general, Magone, who invented and spread the recipe for the \"passum\" [3], which is still in use on the island to produce the passito wine that acquires unique features in Pantelleria. To cope with the difficult climatic and orographic conditions of this island, over time, particular agricultural techniques have been developed in Pantelleria, namely, the terraces (dry stone walls) and the Giardini panteschi[4] (Motisi et al., 2014); these techniques allowed agricultural activity to be carried out on the island, despite the natural problems. For the cultivation of vineyards, a particular technique was developed to cope with the steep slopes of Pantelleria; this technique uses the \"Alberello\" system[5] (Oliveri et al., 2016), which is a rare system that is now protected by UNESCO and recognized as \"patrimony of humanity\". Besides the cultivation of vineyards in this extreme territory, isolated in the middle of the enchanting Mediterranean Sea, other crops grown in Pantelleria include: capers, olive trees (almost creeping) and citrus fruits (inside the Giardini panteschi). These elements have uniquely characterized the territory of the island and, consequently, its landscape that is a particular touristic attraction. The \"expert\" wine consumer knows how to recognize the quality of wine also through the emotions that it arouses; in fact, the contemplation of evocative vineyards where a wine is produced, during its tasting, results in moods that are reflected in the taste of wine (Bruwer and Alant, 2009) and these emotions are subsequently evoked whenever the product is consumed in other places and contexts (Chironi and Ingrassia, 2015; Sortino et al., 2016). The charm of this landscape thus adds value to the wine and, at the same time, the wine becomes a vehicle to represent the places, traditions and cultures of its territory. This strong synergy between wine and landscape helps the whole geographic territory to enhance its touristic value (Oteros-Rozas et al., 2017). The vineyards of Pantelleria tell the story and the culture of inhabitants, who, adapting to the extreme conditions of the island, made their agriculture \"heroic\" in producing the passito wine and contributed to creating a real treasure for this territory. In this sense, the good reputation of a wine is strongly tied to the good reputation of the territory in terms of tourism; therefore, this reputation must be properly designed and communicated (Mattiacci, 2004; Maizza and Rosato, 2008; Begalli et al., 2009; Ciasullo and Festa, 2012). The objective of this study is to measure the ability of the Pantelleria wineries to communicate to consumers the \"extreme\" territory in which the passito wine is produced, through the wine itself, by the use of a multidimensional framework. The study specifically sets out to understand if the extreme territory is used as leverage to increase the economic value of the passito wine and whether the difficulty in producing this wine is communicated by producers to wine consumers. The analysis is based on the observation of how much Pantelleria's wineries use and exploit the extreme territory of Pantelleria in communications regarding the passito wine to consumers, through their Internet sites and on the measurement of the intensity of the existing link between the passito wine and its \"heroic\" production in the territory of Pantelleria.\nMethodology: Adaptation, goal-attainment, integration and latent pattern maintenance (AGIL) scheme\nResults: From the analysis of the scores obtained evaluating each winery's website for each dimension (Table IV), the following results emerged (the analysis of data were made considering the weighted averages of the scores obtained for each dimension as data were not shown). Adaptation (A) was the predominant dimension of communication; this indicates that communication is strongly oriented to use the territory to attract the consumer. In fact, most of the wineries obtained high scores in the sub-dimensions related to the representations of the territory, which also becomes an element of identity, through the obvious references of the brand.\nSummary of findings: Analysis and interpretation of the results has allowed measurement of how much the wineries communicate to consumers, via their websites, the \"heroics\" of vine cultivation on the island and how strong the link is between the passito wine and the extreme territorial features of Pantelleria. Similar to other studies on the use of websites to communicate wine, in this study, the communication characteristics most used by Pantelleria's wineries were those corresponding to the adaptation (A) dimension. Nevertheless, it is important to pay attention to the results that, in this study, highlighted that, in this \"extreme\" territory, the wineries emphasized their territorial identity even more than their brand name (Chironi and Ingrassia, 2013; Carsana and Jolibert, 2017). Further, results revealed that, in this case, the territory is the main object of communication and, simultaneously, the territory becomes the means of communication itself, strongly linked to the passito (a wine that acquires unique characteristics when produced in Pantelleria). This is a special case, in which the brand of producers is secondary to the union of the product and the territory. Results also suggested that the territory acquires a crucial role in enhancing the economic value of passito and, also, in attracting new tourists, besides wine tourists.\nConclusions limitations and directions for future research: This study is the first application in the agro-food marketing sector of a method that is generally used in sociological studies to investigate communication dimensions.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to examine how Pantelleria's wineries communicate the extreme territory of Pantelleria through its passito wine and whether this may be a value added for consumers. Specifically examines which dimensions of communication are effectively used by wineries to stimulate, in wine consumers, emotions that link passito wine with the territory of Pantelleria.\nDesign/methodology/approach: All websites of wineries producing passito wine in Pantelleria were analyzed using the adaptation, goal-attainment, integration and latent pattern maintenance (AGIL) scheme for measuring communication dimensions.\nFindings: Results suggest that wineries and stakeholders should apply territory-based marketing strategies to add value to passito wine, the symbol of the island. Synergistically, Pantelleria, through the use of its symbolic product, may enhance its touristic activities. This approach provides useful elements to evaluate the potential of communication in other regions with extreme agriculture, with other agro-food products to promote, due to the replicability of the method.\nResearch limitations/implications: A limitation of this study is the application of the AGIL method to a population of wineries located in a small wine region; however, regions where heroic agriculture is practiced are generally small.\nPractical implications: The findings demonstrate a unique approach that provides an alternative form of wine communication strategy, in which the extreme territory becomes the communication tool of the product linked to it, adding value, regardless of the brand, while, simultaneously, the product becomes the symbol of the territory.\nOriginality/value: It contributes to the literature by providing the first application of the AGIL scheme to the wine sector, and it shows a new approach for communication strategies in wine marketing.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Configurations of leadership practices in hospital units	[ "Shared leadership", "Clinical managers", "Health care work", "Hospital units", "Leadership as practice", "Emotional support" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: After the morning briefing, the consultant radiologist is called to give an acute ultra sound examination of a prematurely born boy. She hands over the medical manager phone to another consultant radiologist, who then covers for her in her duties as daily medical manager, while she goes to the paediatric unit to perform the examination, as she is the senior ultra sound specialist. The boy has had several incidents of blood in his faeces during the night, and in premature babies this is severe: he needs to go to a more specialized neonatal unit in another hospital for possible surgery. But before the staff in the neonatal unit can effectuate the transfer, the paediatrician responsible for the boy needs to know how the little boy's bowels look and if it is safe to transport him and this is why he calls the consultant radiologist for a consultation. Arrived at the paediatric unit, she performs the ultra sound examination of the boy's abdomen. The results of the scan did not reveal anything acute, and in her opinion the boy can be transported. The paediatrician thanks her and goes to the work station to arrange the transfer with the receiving hospital (field notes, radiology).\nLeadership of health care work: Leadership practices are contextual (Denis et al., 2010; Fulop and Mark, 2013) and have been shown to be embedded in everyday work and interactions (Larsson and Lundholm, 2013). This applies to health care settings as well. Taking a leadership-as-practice approach to the study of leadership in health care, activities traditionally associated with leadership (e.g. decision making, influence, responsibility; Gronn, 2010) will likely be found in the core, clinical work. However, as health care work is complex, varied and interdependent, we might also expect leadership practices to vary across settings. Leadership practices are not only contextual, the relationship between leadership practices and the social context they take place in is recursive (Endrissat and Arx von, 2013). Following this, an individual clinical manager's interpretation of his/her role and main tasks is likely to influence the way he/she engage in social interactions with colleagues, staff and patients, and thus participate in the co-creation of some aspects of context, while other aspects (e.g. governance structures, severity of illness) are outside individual influence.\nShared leadership practice: Shared and distributed leadership has received growing attention over the years, often focusing on certain empirical settings, such as education or healthcare (Gronn, 2002; Chreim, 2010; Klein et al., 2006; Fitzgerald et al., 2013; Currie and Lockett, 2011). Contributions to shared leadership have primarily been normative or descriptive accounts of how shared leadership should be practiced, leaving the field lacking analytical and critical contributions (Thorpe et al., 2011). Moreover, shared leadership has been perceived as opposed to focused/individual leadership (Gronn, 2009), instead of acknowledging the possible coexistence of both shared and individual forms of leadership practices in the same setting. When categorizing shared leadership practices, Gronn (2002) proposes three different types of sharing: spontaneous collaboration, intuitive work relations and institutionalized practices. The typology is relevant here, because it captures central aspects of interactions in health care work, although institutionalized practices might also be mitigated for instance through protocols or information systems.\nMethod and data: The empirical material consists of data from a field study in four different hospital units; an orthopaedic surgery unit, a radiology unit, a stroke unit and a pulmonary medicine unit. Geographically, the units were located in two different acute care hospitals, on three different hospital grounds in the Central Denmark Region in Denmark[3]. The field studies were carried out between the August 2009 and November 2011. Ten clinical managers participated; five consultants[4], four charge nurses and a leading physiotherapist (Table I). The position as formal manager served as basis for participation, and observations focused on the clinical managers and the broader context of their work in the unit.\nFindings: configurations of leadership practice in the four units: As expected from the literature review, configurations of leadership practices differed in the four settings. In the relatively stable work settings of orthopaedic surgery and radiology, leadership practices were mostly embedded in and carried out through the clinical work: as individual decision making and delegation of tasks and responsibilities within the unit across clinical managers and staff, or as shared decision making or responsibility across organizational boundaries, as shown in the story of the premature baby. Relational leadership practices consisted of building and maintaining relationships as a facilitator for coordination of work, a finding in line with prior research on the significance of relationships in health care settings (Fitzgerald et al., 2013; Gittell et al., 2010; Havens et al., 2010).\nConcluding discussion: In this paper I explored how leadership was practiced in hospital units based on data from a field study of everyday work of clinical managers in context. I paid specific attention to embedded, shared and relational practices, as the literature review suggested that these are central to leadership in health care.\nLimitations: The study draws on data from four hospital units in Denmark and the results are not generalizable to all settings. To elaborate on these results, I encourage further comparative studies of how leadership is practiced at the operational level of health care organizations across multiple cases, as comparative studies may provide a strong foundation for elaborating on existing theory (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how leadership is practiced across four different hospital units.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study is a comparative case study of four hospital units, based on detailed observations of the everyday work practices, interactions and interviews with ten interdisciplinary clinical managers.\nFindings: Comparing leadership as configurations of practices across four different clinical settings, the author shows how flexible and often shared leadership practices were embedded in and central to the core clinical work in all units studied here, especially in more unpredictable work settings. Practices of symbolic work and emotional support to staff were particularly important when patients were severely ill.\nResearch limitations/implications: Based on a study conducted with qualitative methods, these results cannot be expected to apply in all clinical settings. Future research is invited to extend the findings presented here by exploring leadership practices from a micro-level perspective in additional health care contexts: particularly the embedded and emergent nature of such practices.\nPractical implications: This paper shows leadership practices to be primarily embedded in the clinical work and often shared across organizational or professional boundaries.\nOriginality/value: This paper demonstrated how leadership practices are embedded in the everyday work in hospital units. Moreover, the analysis shows how configurations of leadership practices varied in four different clinical settings, thus contributing with contextual accounts of leadership as practice, and suggested \"configurations of practice\" as a way to carve out similarities and differences in leadership practices across settings.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Properties of performance indicators in operations management: A reference framework	[ "Quality indicators", "Operations management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Indicators of performance make it possible to model and to analyse the condition of a generic process. There are many kinds of indicators, commonly used in many different fields. Indicators should represent all the different dimensions of a process, in order to support evaluations and decisions (Hauser and Katz, 1998).To define indicators, it is necessary to identify the distinctive aspects of the system investigated. The success of this operation usually depends on the experience and the imagination of the one performing it (Melnyk et al., 2004).In the literature there are many methods helping to define and analyze indicators. The most diffused are the Balanced Scorecard, the Critical Few method, the Performance Dashboards, the EFQM award (Kaplan and Norton, 1992; PBM-SIG (Performance Based Management Special Interest Group), 2001; EFQM, 2007). The sheer number of approaches can cause confusion in practical applications. The aim of this paper is to analyse the major properties that indicators should satisfy in order to suitably represent a generic process.Two previous papers suggested some basic ideas for a general theory about performance indicators and their properties, and prepared the basis for this work (Franceschini et al., 2006). Particular attention was focused on the condition of \"uniqueness of the representation\". In general, it can be shown that indicators do not match this condition (Franceschini et al., 2006).The main aim of the present paper is to propose a reference framework of the major properties of indicators. Special attention is given to the properties of the set of indicators and derived indicators. The analysis is carried out using the formalism of the Representation Theory (Finkelstein, 2003; Roberts, 1979). The paper finally illustrates an operational method to identify and test the most proper indicators for a given process.\nTerminology background: Definition of indicator\nProperties of sets of indicators: A set of indicators is a way to represent a process or a part of it. Selected indicators should represent the real dimensions of a process, without omissions or redundancies. \"Exhaustiveness\" and \"non-redundancy\", which are discussed in the following paragraphs, are necessary but not sufficient conditions for this purpose.Exhaustiveness\nProperties of derived indicators: Derived indicators aggregate and summarize the information of a given set of sub-indicators. Generally, the more the process is complex, the more the indicators needed are numerous and different (Melnyk et al., 2004). Derived indicators simplify process analysing and monitoring.For example, to estimate the air pollution level, we consider four basic indicators representing the concentrations of four different pollutants. The concentration of each pollutant is mapped into a five-level scale by a single indicator, depending on the health risk (1 - harmless; 2 - acceptable; 3 - unhealthy; 4 - very unhealthy; 5 - hazardous) (Franceschini et al., 2005). Let us suppose to analyse two conditions (1 and 2) as Table II shows.To evaluate the air global condition, it is convenient to define a derived indicator ITOT, aggregating the information of the previous ones.ITOT is defined as the maximum of the four sub-indicator values (Franceschini et al., 2005): Equation 1 Equation 2 So, according to the derived indicator ITOT, the system condition 2 is worse than the condition 1.The aggregation of indicators can considerably simplify the analysis of a system, but sometimes it can also be questionable or even misleading. The effectiveness of a derived indicator strongly depends on the aggregation rules (Franceschini et al., 2006). For instance, the condition 2 in Table II is considered the worst, even if the risk level of three pollutants (INO2,ISO2, and ICO) is much lower than for condition 1. On the next sections we will illustrate some properties, which may assist the aggregation of sub-indicators into derived indicators.Property of monotony\nGeneral properties: The following properties refer to single indicators. They are effective both for basic and derived indicators.Consistency with the representation-target\nAccessory properties: This article has illustrated many properties to support the analysis of indicators. However, before thinking of \"how\" to represent a particular aspect of the process, it is important to think of \"what\" are the process dimensions to represent. In practical terms, before defining process indicators, we should identify representation targets, which are derived from the firm strategy. Indicators direct and regulate the activities in support of strategic objectives (Tapinos et al., 2005). Kaplan and Norton (1993), emphasize this link between strategies, action and indicators, considering four different perspectives (financial, customer, internal business process, learning and growth) (Kaplan and Norton, 1993). Each perspective should be directly linked to reasonable representation targets. The following two accessory properties are introduced to help identifying representation targets which are consistent with the strategic objectives. The properties are defined \"accessory\" because they are helpful for testing process representation targets, rather than indicators:1. Long-term goals. Since indicators should encourage the achievement of process long-term goals, representation-targets should concern process dimensions, which are strictly linked to these goals.2. Customer orientation. In a competitive market, one of the main goals of every company is customer satisfaction. Many indicators focus on internal needs such as throughput, staff efficiency, cost reduction, and cycle time. While these needs are all laudable, they usually have little direct impact on costumers needs. So, it is important to identify process aspects with a strong impact on customer satisfaction. Quality Function Deployment is a valid tool to reach this objective (Franceschini, 2001).\nAn operational method for defining and testing indicators: After illustrating major performance indicators properties, now we suggest an operative method for defining and testing the indicators of a generic process. The method is based on the following steps:1. Definition of the process and identification of the characteristic dimensions.2. Identification of representation-targets.3. Analysis of the representation-targets' time-horizon and impact onto process stakeholders (\"accessory properties\" testing).4. Preliminary definition of indicators.5. For each indicator, check of the \"consistency with the representation-target\".6. Check of \"exhaustiveness\" and \"non redundancy\" properties for the indicators set.7. Definition of the measuring scale and definition of the data collecting procedure for each indicator. General properties testing (\"simplicity of use\", \"economic impact\", \"level of detail\", \"non counter-productivity\", ...).8. Check of derived indicators properties: \"monotony\" and \"compensation\".This methodology is based on a \"top-down\" testing (see Figure 9). First, representation-target should be identified in order to be consistent with firm strategies (\"accessory properties\"). Then, a preliminary definition of process indicators is given. For each indicator, we should make sure it represents a particular process representation-target (\"consistency with the representation-target\" property). Next step is in testing the properties of the indicators set (\"exhaustiveness\", \"non redundancy\"), then other properties of single indicators are tested (general properties\": \"level of detail\", \"non counter-productivity\", \"economic impact\", \"simplicity of use\"). Basically, before evaluating single indicators in detail, it is prior to assess that indicators are well integrated each other. In this phase, one of the major difficulties is identifying or predicting all possible process states.After testing indicators \"general properties\" we should check derived indicators properties (\"monotony\" and \"compensation\"), and the rules with which sub-indicators are aggregated into derived indicators.As illustrated in Figure 9, the procedure requires several recursive steps (definition, test, correction, redefinition, and so on) before developing a proper model. This operational methodology, as opposed to the others presented in literature, is based on a formal mathematical approach derived from the Representation Theory. Analysing indicators from a formal mathematical perspective makes it easier identifying possible drawbacks.The proposed approach mainly focuses on indicators testing rather than an indicators designing. This methodology contributes to making aware of the risk of defining/selecting improper indicators and - in our opinion - it may be also used for integrating other existing approaches.\nConclusions: In the existing literature there is a great deal of methods to model a process using performance indicators (the Balanced Scorecard, the Critical Few, the Performance Dashboards, etc.). However, the success of a model often depends on the experience and the imagination of the one performing it. This paper tries to identify the major properties that indicators should satisfy in order to represent a specific process. In the literature, the organization of properties is given without a precise reference structure and properties are exclusively analysed with a descriptive approach.The first part of the paper provides a brief theoretical background, illustrating the concepts of \"indicator\", \"set\" of indicators, \"basic\" and \"derived\" indicators, \"subjective\" and \"objective\" indicators. Then, the main properties of these categories are explained in detail, and organized into a taxonomy, using a formal mathematical approach derived from the Representation Theory. The paper highlights that, although the aggregation of two or more indicators into a derived one can considerably simplify process representation, it sometimes can produce questionable or even misleading results. A practical tool for testing the effectiveness of the aggregation is given by the check of derived indicators properties.Finally, the paper suggests an operational method to support the selection and the testing of the indicators during the design activities of a performance indicators system. This methodology contributes to making aware of the risk of defining/selecting improper indicators, and may be also used for integrating other existing approaches.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to attempt to provide a reference framework for the major properties of performance indicators, using the formalism of the Representation Theory.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Performance indicators shown are commonly used in many different areas of operations management in order to analyse process evolution. However, in practical applications many questions arise: \"How many indicators should be used for representing a given process?\", \"Is there an optimal set?\", \"How to check whether the indicators used suitably represent the system investigated?\", etc. In the literature these questions have been addressed in relation to a number of different application fields. This has led to a maze of classifications and properties, which may create confusion in both the academic and the practitioner communities. In a previous work, the paper carried out an analysis of the existing literature, examining and comparing different approaches. This present work identifies and analyses the major properties which effective indicators should exhibit, and suggests an operational methodology to choose the \"best\" set of indicators.\nFindings: - The findings in this paper produce a detailed analysis of the properties of indicators and establish a schematic methodology facilitating the selection and verification of indicators. To make the process clearer, properties are explained by the use of practical examples.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Indicators are utilized in many different contexts for a variety of purposes (for example, logistics, business management, manufacturing, sports competitions, etc.). The paper provides a general analysis of the most important properties of indicators, without entering into specific application contexts.\nPractical implications: - The paper proposes an operational methodology to support the selection and testing of the best indicators for a given process. This methodology may also be used for integrating other existing approaches.\nOriginality/value: - Properties of indicators are examined from a mathematical/symbolic point of view, using the formalism of the Representation Theory.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A new male entrepreneur? Media representation of male entrepreneurs before and after #metoo	[ "Gender", "Gender stereotypes", "Media", "Hegemonic masculinity", "Men", "Entrepreneurship", "Masculinities", "Representation", "Hegemony", "#metoo" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The term #metoo was first used to bring attention to violence against black women in the USA (Zarkov and Davis, 2018). The international movement #metoo originated from a tweet by Alyssa Milano about sexual harassment, and it became a social platform for women all over the world that had been subjected to sexual provocation (Gersen, 2017). The global impact in terms of both users and proliferation makes #metoo unique. However, the #metoo movement arrived in Sweden without its American historical context of black feminism. Sweden is particularly interesting in the light of #metoo because it is considered one of the most equal countries in the world and equality ranks high on the political agenda. Gradually, Sweden has politicised gender equality and made it a mainstream issue (Askanius and Hartley, 2019). Consequently, #metoo had widespread popularity in Sweden, receiving extensive media coverage. The public aftermath leads to demonstrations, rallies and other protests (Uimonen, 2019). Uniquely, the movement was organised through sector-specific hashtags in social media.\nTheoretical framework - the masculine entrepreneur: Research has established how entrepreneurship is coded as masculine (Ahl, 2006; Bruni et al., 2004). This is relevant because the masculine coding is restricting people - both women and men - from taking part in entrepreneurial processes (Hamilton, 2013; Verduijn and Essers, 2013). The legitimate entrepreneur is, more often than not, assumed to be a man, therefore linking entrepreneurial identity to masculinity (Hamilton, 2013). The male entrepreneur is then defined by the basis of masculinities where something is constantly being changed and shaped with regard to different hierarchical structures and is thus an ongoing activity (Hamilton, 2013; Connell, 1995). This hegemonic discourse is dictating what is considered proper for a man to do, through authorising and legitimising certain claims, beliefs and practices within the social system (Connell, 1995). Hegemony emerges when assumptions as well as marginalising practices around gender, women and men go unquestioned and thus are silenced (Ozkazanc-Pan, 2014). Masculinity is then both the position and the practice of a hegemonic discourse in the gender system.\nMethod: To investigate the male entrepreneurial identity, we studied how male entrepreneurs are discursively represented in the media. Studies on media and entrepreneurship generally fall into two categories: a focus on women as entrepreneurs and a focus on entrepreneurship in general. Hence, if male entrepreneurs are included in the study, the chosen analytic approach is not connected to gender. For example, Achtenhagen and Welter (2011) conducted a media discourse analysis of women in German newspapers to investigate entrepreneurship. Anderson and Warren (2011) focussed on the media identity of a prominent male entrepreneur, with the purpose to investigate entrepreneurship as a phenomenon. Through studying media, we can see the stability of discursive practices overtime when it comes to gender structures (Lang and Rybnikova, 2016).\nDiscursive success factors of male entrepreneurs: Broadly speaking, our analysis shows five discursive success factors linked to the success of male entrepreneurs represented in the magazine: a driven personality, a high-status leisure activity, a supportive but invisible family, a focus on financial measures and a global outlook. We have visualised the five discursive success factors in Figure 1.\nDiscussion: The discursive success factors from the analysis are a representation of the successful male entrepreneur, the centre position of the hegemony. Only a marginal change has taken place with regard to the representation of male entrepreneurs after the impact of the #metoo movement. Now he is represented as being somewhat humble regarding his entrepreneurship. This could be because subordinate masculinities have a tendency to highlight problems associated with hegemonic masculinities (Connell, 1995). This is apparent, for example, in the way that family has become a more valued aspect of the picture. Nevertheless, the images representing the male entrepreneurs in the articles show no difference before and after #metoo.\nConclusion: The purpose of this study is to investigate how male entrepreneurs are represented in the media and how it has changed in the short-term after the #metoo movement. Both before and after #metoo, the male entrepreneur was represented by different success factors. The ideal male entrepreneur, the centre of the hegemony, is discursively presented as a high-performing man who is successful in both his private life and his entrepreneurship. Before the #metoo movement, the hegemonic successful male entrepreneur was represented by financial success factors such as high growth, turnover and an ability to take over the world. After #metoo, there was a slight change in how financial measures were presented, where turnover became more important than growth. This could be due to the changing economic climate or because subordinate masculinities gained greater acceptance and influence. All in all, we see a small change towards the hegemonic male entrepreneur being depicted as a more humble person. We emphasise small change here since the prevailing representation of the hegemonic male entrepreneurs is for the most part unchanged. A significant change would be that the subordinate and hegemonic male entrepreneur would be more alike.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the representation of male entrepreneurs in the media has changed in the after-effects of the #metoo movement.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors perform a discourse analysis and visual analysis of how male entrepreneurs in the Swedish business magazine Affarsvarlden are represented. A centre-margin analysis is laid out, focusing on who and what constitutes (or endeavours to constitute) the legitimate male entrepreneur.\nFindings: The results of the analysis show that male entrepreneurs are represented with different discursive success factors. These success factors are linked to a driven personality, a high-status leisure activity, a supportive but invisible family, a focus on financial measures and a global outlook. Marginally, there has been a change towards more humbleness, and a shift from financial growth to turnover, in the representation of entrepreneurial masculinities after the #metoo movement.\nResearch limitations/implications: To bring about a more equal norm regarding male entrepreneurial identity, more space and attention must be given in the media to the subordinate masculinities of entrepreneurs.\nOriginality/value: Previous gender research on entrepreneurship has, to a large extent, focussed on female entrepreneurs and research focussed on male entrepreneurs is conspicuous in its absence. However, the male entrepreneur, just like the female entrepreneur, needs to relate to, be compared with and adapt to a norm of how the ideal entrepreneur should be. Therefore, it is important to establish and illuminate who the male entrepreneur is assumed to be, to better understand and question that role.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Capability versus efficiency: contracting out park and road services in Norway	[ "Efficiency", "Parks", "Contracting out", "Local government services", "Capability", "Road maintenance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Contracting out of local public services is commonly expected to contribute to improving economic performance. It is usually assumed that this belief explains the implementation of contracting out. In particular, contracting out is expected to cut costs in sectors, where environments are competitive and the tasks are easy to specify in contracts and therefore easy to monitor and control. These assumptions constitute the efficiency perspective. Since the 1980s, this perspective has guided the bulk of research on the use of and outcomes of contracting out (Donahue, 1989; Hodge, 2000; Bel et al., 2010). Early research on contracting out has mostly found supportive evidence for the assumption that contracting out is an efficient way of organising provision of public services (e.g. Domberger and Rimmer, 1994). Evidence has in particular been established for technical services in contrast to social and welfare services (Hefetz and Warner, 2012). Exploring the conditions under which contracting out is an efficient organisational arrangement, more recent contributions have moderated the efficiency findings (Warner and Hefetz, 2003; Bel et al., 2010). Such contributions also question the dominance of the efficiency perspective. As such, when entangled from ideological or political objectives, contracting out may be carried out with different organisational or pragmatic purposes (see, e.g. Leiren, 2015). On such occasions, the efficiency perspective is less relevant as a framework for understanding and interpreting the use and outcomes from contracting out in local governments.\nTheory on contracting out: Hefetz and Warner (2012, see also Warner and Hefetz, 2012) highlight that policies on contracting out in the public sector have changed from a political or ideological agenda towards a \"pragmatic\" agenda. The political agenda is about withdrawing government intervention in the planning, regulation, finance and provision of public services. In contrast, the pragmatic agenda frames contracting as a question about whether contracting out contributes to improving the performance of public services delivery systems in terms of efficiency, i.e., lowering costs and/or enhancing service quality. Complementing this efficiency perspective, the capability perspective emphasises that certain tasks are specific to the relevant organisation and may not easily be transferred to other organisations.\nMethods: The analysis makes use of qualitative and quantitative data. Background information include research reports and official statistics. Data collection took place in 2014 and 2015 via interviews and a survey. The interview informants include representatives of two key interest groups (Park, Bath and Sports and Norwegian Association of Municipal Engineers) and civil servants in one large (Oslo) and one small municipality (Kvinnherad). Questions included how the park and road responsibilities are organised and why as well as what are the advantages and disadvantages.\nContext and history of contracting out services in Norway: In the 1990s, the Norwegian government started to outsource services and companies as well as increasing the autonomy of agencies and publicly owned companies (Christensen, 2003). The introduction of New Public Management and in particular performance management was part of a thorough process of investigations. In 1984, an official Norwegian report introduced the Norwegian system of performance management (Skagestad, 2015). In 1986, the right-wing government presented a \"modernisation programme\". The year after the left-wing government introduced a \"renewal programme\". They incorporated elements of New Public Management in these programmes, yet only weakly formulated and without obligations. However, the renewal programme put forward to start making use of performance management by the end of 1990.\nFindings: This section provides data on the degree of involvement of private contractors, the purpose for contracting out and effects of contracting out.\nDiscussions: Contracting out of park services has occurred at a slower pace than for roads. While only one municipality, among the respondents, has contracted out all park and road maintenance services to private operators, partial use of private contractors seems to be the most common among Norwegian municipalities. The evidence gives clear indications that there is a larger use of private contractors in the road than in the park sector. However, there has been a clear increase in contracting out during the last 15 years in both sectors. To explain this development, the data suggests interesting findings in light of the efficiency and capability perspectives.\nConclusion: Referring to the research questions, the findings can be summarised in terms of scope of contracting out, outcome and purpose. Starting with the prevalence of contracting out, this study suggests that in the parks and roads services partial use of private contractors is the most common and not \"pure\" models of contracting out or in-house provision. Use of private contractors takes place to a larger extent in the road than in the park sector. Furthermore, there are significant geographical differences in the level of competition and the extent of involvement of private contractors. In particular, regions characterised by lower population density experience less competition and less use of private contractors for park services. However, for road services these municipalities use private contractors to a greater extent.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the extent of, rationales for and outcomes of contracting out in the local road and park sectors in Norway. For understanding the use of contracting out in local governments, it highlights the relevance of the capability perspective in organisational literature as an alternative to the standard efficiency perspective.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper draws on four expert interviews and survey data gathered from park and road managers in Norwegian municipalities in 2015.\nFindings: The study suggests that Norwegian municipalities primarily contract out park and road maintenance services when they do not have the capability to perform these services themselves. Cost concerns are also highlighted but of less importance. Moreover, lack of competition renders the use of contracting out as a potentially costly and less satisfying arrangement for organising service delivery.\nResearch limitations/implications: While the scope is limited to one country, Norway, future research may benefit from the theoretical perspectives, which have been used.\nPractical implications: Policy guidelines should support a flexible use of various arrangements for service provision.\nOriginality/value: The dominating view among proponents of marketisation in the public sector suggests that contracting out to private contractors is undertaken to enhance economic efficiency compared to keeping service production in-house. This study suggests that this is not always the case - even in \"most likely\" sectors such as park and road maintenance.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Governments, markets, and instruction: considerations for cross-national research	[ "Instructional improvement", "Education governance", "Education markets", "Education systems", "Educational infrastructure", "Instructional organization and management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Increasing involvement of non-governmental organizations in public education in many countries has raised many questions for researchers about possible implications for students' educational experiences in classrooms (Kolleck, 2017; Yemini, 2017). The broad scope of these questions is made clear in this special issue on \"Understanding Third Sector Participation in Public Schooling through Partnerships, Collaborations, Alliances, and Entrepreneurialism\" (e.g. Eyal and Berkovich, 2019; Kolleck, 2019; Tamir et al., 2019).\nHistorical context: the architecture and dynamics of US public education: A distinguishing feature of US public education is its dependence on non-governmental organizations as primary providers of resources and services supporting its core educational activity: classroom instruction. This dependence has historical roots in social, political and economic values that drove the establishment and growth of the US as a country, and, consequently, US public education. By the mid-1900s, this dependence was also bound up in a dominant pattern of instructional organization and management that contributed to low-quality and inequitable educational opportunities and outcomes for many students.\nContemporary context: reforming the US public education enterprise: The second half of 1900s to the present has featured efforts to reform the US public education enterprise by maintaining universal access for all students while also pursuing excellence and equity in their educational experiences and outcomes. These efforts have not sought to reform the established architecture of US public education. Rather, these efforts have been advanced within the established architecture, with reforms in governments and markets aiming to affect new patterns of instructional organization and management in districts and schools.\nExploring variability in instructional organization and management: dynamics in two public school districts: The preceding analysis suggests variability among US public school districts as they organize and manage instruction in response to a contemporary press for excellence and equity. To explore this variability, we have been leading a comparative study of six education enterprises whose work includes serving poor and minority children, with a specific focus on how these enterprises organize and manage elementary literacy instruction[6]. Our sample includes:\nDiscussion and implications: considerations for cross-national research: Thus, the US public school enterprise has long depended on non-governmental organizations for educational infrastructure beyond the limited resources provided by federal and state governments. Historically, this dependence was instrumental in the emergence of a default pattern of instructional organization and management in local districts that resulted in low-quality and inequitable educational experiences and outcomes for many students, especially those historically marginalized in US schools and society. Currently, this dependence is instrumental in effecting variation in ways that local districts are organizing and managing instruction in responses to a broader policy press for educational excellence and equity.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine relationships among governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations and the organization and management of instruction in US public education, with the aim of raising issues for cross-national research among countries in which the involvement of non-governmental organizations is increasing.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper is structured in four parts: an historical analysis of the architecture and dynamics of US public education; an analysis of contemporary reform efforts seeking to improve quality and reduce inequities; an analysis of ways that legacy and reform dynamics manifest in two US public school districts; and a discussion of considerations for cross-national research.\nFindings: In US public education, dependence on non-governmental organizations for instructional resources and services is anchored in deeply institutionalized social, political and economic values dating to the country's founding and that continue to function as constraints on educational reform, such that new solutions always emerge in-and-from the same problematic conditions that they seek to redress. The consequence is that reform takes on an evolutionary (vs transformative) character.\nResearch limitations/implications: The US case provides a foundation for framing issues for cross-national research comparing among macro-level educational infrastructures, patterns of instructional organization and classroom instruction.\nOriginality/value: Such research would move beyond reductionist approaches to cross-national research toward new approaches that examine how histories, legacy architectures, contemporary reforms and patterns of instructional organization and management interact to shape students' day-to-day lives in classrooms.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Logistics outsourcing in omnichannel retail: State of practice and service recommendations	[ "Transport", "Logistics outsourcing", "Logistics service providers", "Fulfilment", "Omnichannel retail", "Last mile transport" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Ongoing digitalisation has transformed the field of retailing radically. From a dedicated focus on stores, today's retailers are engaging both their physical (\"offline\") and online presence in attracting and retaining consumers. Ranging from small companies with a single store to multinationals, retailers are moving towards an omnichannel model. In omnichannel retail, both online and offline channels are combined and integrated (Lazaris and Vrechopoulos, 2013). A channel is a contact point or medium through which retailers and consumers interact (Beck and Rygl, 2015). Two most prominent channels are physical stores and web-shops. In this way, the model is distinct from multichannel retail. While the concept of multichannel aims at managing and optimising performance of each channel, the concept of omnichannel focusses on integrating activities across channels (Ailawadi and Farris, 2017). The concept is also termed \"everywhere commerce\" and \"no-line commerce\" (Beck and Rygl, 2015). As there is no distinction between channels, omnichannel retail allows consumers to research product information online, test products in-store, purchase it on the go using a smartphone, get it delivered at home and return it back to the store. Offering such flexible and convenient purchase possibilities creates more loyal and profitable customers (Lewis et al., 2014).\nLiterature: Retailers implement logistics strategies of which they believe they ensure high service levels to customers, while managing efficiencies and staying in control of operational costs. Retailers' logistics strategy is an underexposed topic (Blanquart et al., 2012), particularly for omnichannel retail (Angeles, 2016). To capture the available knowledge, we scanned the literature by consulting several scientific databases (Google Scholar, Scopus and Web of Science) and used the following keywords: \"omnichannel retail\" and \"omnichannel retail\", together with \"logistics\", \"transport\", \"delivery\", \"distribution\", \"last mile\" and \"supply chain\". All information was collected in a spreadsheet file and systematically analysed. To structure the logistics strategies, we categorised the literature according to three representative areas of logistics: \"fulfillment\", \"internal transport\" and \"last mile transport\" (Fernie et al., 2010). Fulfilment entails the process of preparing orders for delivery to stores and end-consumers, internal transport covers the flow between distribution centres (DCs) and stores and last mile transport comprises the way orders reach end-consumers. As emphasised by Wollenburg et al. (2018), these aspects are interrelated in omnichannel retail and need to be analysed together. We discuss the identified logistics strategies for omnichannel retail in Section 2.1.\nMethodology: The research questions require in-depth understanding of key assumptions (McCracken, 1988) and call for empirical exploration (Babbie, 1990; Forza, 2002). To this end, we organised semi-structured expert interviews with respondents from ten non-food retailers and six food retailers. The expert-interview is a suitable data collection method, because the knowledge of the experts stems from their position within the companies (Creswell, 2003). Literature indicates that 6 to 12 interviews are sufficient to describe and explore structures for a homogenous group of participants (Guest et al., 2006).\nFindings: In omnichannel retail, neither consumers nor retailers distinguish between offline and online channels anymore (Wollenburg et al., 2018; Brynjolfsson et al., 2013). This is true for both food and non-food retail. We observed differences in logistics organisation among the retailers, but the clearest distinction was found between these two sectors, which is in line with Marchet et al. (2018). Distinct differences between these sectors have already been found in terms of logistics (Fernie et al., 2010; Hubner, Holzapfel and Kuhn, 2016), consumer behaviour (Cairns, 1996) and online sales. In our sample of retailers, food retailers' online share amounts consistently to a few percentages, while non-food retailers sell on average 14 per cent of their volume online (with considerable differences ranging from 3 to 50 per cent). Nonetheless, in accordance with international predictions (Nielsen, 2015), the expert interviews with food retailers highlight the growing importance of the online channel, both in terms of sales percentage and allocated efforts. Accordingly, the findings section addresses results for food retail in Section 4.1 and results for non-food retail in Section 4.2. We discuss applied logistics strategies and mechanisms for outsourcing.\nDiscussion: This section formulates answers to the research questions:\nConclusion: Retail is moving towards an omnichannel retail model, in which offline channels (e.g. physical stores) and online channels (e.g. web-shops) are combined and integrated. It allows consumers to compose a flexible and convenient shopping journey that fits their preferences and needs. From a logistics point of view, organising an omnichannel retail model is challenging: demand streams are separated, while stores still play a prominent role. Given the importance and complexity of logistics in omnichannel retail, it is unclear if the outsourcing tendency that is dominant in retail, continues. Therefore, the objective of this research is to identify in what ways logistics service providers are involved in the logistics operations of omnichannel retailers. To this end, we carried out desk and field research. First, we analysed the scientific information available on omnichannel retail logistics and second, we conducted semi-structured expert interviews with food and non-food retailers that adopt an omnichannel model. Our findings show various strategies for executing fulfilment, internal transport and last mile transport in omnichannel retail. Distinct differences are observed between food and non-food retailers, both in terms of logistics organisation and in outsourcing strategies. Food retailers are inclined to organise fulfilment and last mile activities in-house, while non-food retailers partner closely with logistics service providers. Nonetheless, the store network of non-food retailers is attracting a growing part of logistics activities, which retailers are building themselves. Decisions to insource or outsource are driven by strategic, operational and financial motivations. To sustain their relevance in the omnichannel environment and strengthen their position for the future, we created a competency recommendation framework for logistics service providers. Recommendations are formulated for each of our investigated sectors (i.e. food and non-food omnichannel retail) and for each investigated supply chain phase (i.e. fulfilment, internal transport and last mile transport), in which service differentiation is proposed as a viable direction for growth. Our findings have strategic importance for retailers that are developing an omnichannel retail model and logistics service providers that (aim to) serve clients and operate activities within the retail sector. Nonetheless, as this research is based on insights from retailers with stores based in the Brussels-Capital Region (Belgium), a future research suggestion entails to test current findings in other contexts and geographical areas.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify in what way logistics service providers are involved in the logistics operations of omnichannel retailers. Given the importance of logistics in omnichannel retail and the complexities that it brings forth, it is unclear if the current tendency towards logistics outsourcing continues, and how logistics service providers should adapt to remain relevant in the omnichannel retail environment.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research draws on both desk and field research. The authors analysed the scientific information available on omnichannel retail logistics and conducted semi-structured expert interviews with food and non-food retailers that adopt an omnichannel model.\nFindings: The research demonstrates distinct differences between food and non-food retailers. While food retailers are inclined to organise fulfilment and last mile activities in-house, non-food retailers partner closely with logistics service providers. Nonetheless, the store network of non-food retailers is attracting a growing part of logistics activities, which retailers are building themselves. To sustain their relevance in the omnichannel environment and strengthen their position for the future, the authors created a competency recommendation framework for logistics service providers, in which service differentiation is proposed as a viable direction for growth.\nResearch limitations/implications: The research is based on insights from retailers based in the Brussels-Capital Region (Belgium) and requires further and wider testing in other contexts and geographical areas.\nPractical implications: The findings have strategic importance for retailers that are developing an omnichannel retail model and logistics service providers that (aim to) serve clients and operate activities within the retail sector.\nOriginality/value: The research provides a holistic view of logistics in omnichannel retail by identifying insourcing and outsourcing mechanisms and developing competency recommendations to fulfilment, internal transport and last mile transport in omnichannel retail.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
DYNER: a DYNamic clustER for education and research	[ "Computer networks", "Education", "Research", "Greece" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A cluster computer is a computing platform, which consists of a collection of interconnected computers working together as a single integrated resource (Buyya, 1999). A node of the cluster may be a single or multiprocessor computer, such as a PC, workstation, or symmetric multiprocessor (SMP). Each node has its own memory, I/O devices and operating system. The nodes are connected via a local area network (LAN) or a system area network (SAN) and communicate using either standard networking protocol such as TCP/IP, or a low-level protocol such as VIA.In general there are two broad categories of clusters:1. Proprietary or specific systems that are preloaded and configured to work as clusters. Such systems are research machines consisting of a number of computing nodes, which are used for massively complex computations, such as weather forecasting, computational protein design, etc. Those systems come ready or they are bundled with whatever is necessary for clustering and they are based on proprietary operating systems or configurations. This category of clusters includes systems, which are usually expensive and dedicated to the specific task they are ordered for.2. Common clusters. These clusters are built from commodity processors and memories that are used in workstations and PCs. Clusters of this category are generally classified as two main types: Beowulf class clusters and network of workstations (NoWs).Beowulf class clusters (Sterling et al., 1995) are dedicated, high performance homogeneous clusters that are deployed when performance is the main priority. The basic feature of a Beowulf class cluster is homogeneity, i.e. all of its computing nodes are identical dedicated nodes with the exception of the \"front-end\" computer, which allows users to submit jobs to the system. The computing nodes are dedicated to executing the processes issued by the front-end node, and usually they are not directly accessible by the users because they do not have keyboards, mice, or monitors.NoWs (Aderson et al., 1955) are heterogeneous clusters that are designed to take advantage of otherwise \"wasted\" computing cycles on unused computers. A master system takes job requests from authorized users, and then submits them for execution on any workstation has the available resources to execute them. The key difference from a Beowulf cluster is that a NoW is an heterogeneous system i.e. its computing nodes are stand alone workstations or PCs with varying hardware resources and sometimes different architectures, connected via a communication network such as a LAN or even a WAN.Since NASA researchers used for the first time PCs (Kaplan and Nelson, 1994) to implement a high performance system (the Beowulf cluster) until today, the High Performance Computing (HPC) community witnessed a diversion from expensive, proprietary parallel systems to complexes of common computing devices. It is important to notice that the cost of building such systems is quite smaller than anything equivalent from the parallel systems' side. Such platforms have also enabled small organizations build or participate in clusters or multinational grids (Foster and Kesselman, 1999). Clusters share conventional technology, they are largely expandable, easier to understand and administer and they offer unrivalled availability (Baker et al., 2002; Baird, 2002). These new platforms of computing have enabled research activities that formerly where beyond technology.Education did not follow the field of research in using such systems. Since clusters and NOWs are made of common computers, there is a feeling that no new courses or material is required, as happened with transputers or vector computers. This view lacks the consideration of idiosyncrasies, stemming from the complexity of such systems. The new paradigm of computing has to be presented to the students of higher education. On the other hand, many educational organizations lack the luxury of large budgets and cooperation with other, larger organizations may not always be feasible. After NASA's dedicated cluster, others have seen existing computing facilities as possible clusters (Chavez et al., 1997). PCs and workstations together permanently or temporary, can realize a costless and powerful computer system. On such a system, students can work and be trained on issues such as distributed computing, HPC, parallel programming and grid computing.Our previous work on clusters and NoWs concluded to a dynamic, high-performance, versatile, multi-computer complex called DYNER, that exhibited dynamically adapted performance, ensured cluster-level minimal performance and availability, as well as an interesting grid resemblance (Kehagias et al., 2003). The complex has been used primarily as an educational platform. Nevertheless, as a dynamic platform, it provides high-performance, that can be used for research purposes, too. Its potentials are valuable, since the minimum cluster ensures availability, but the dynamic, on-demand or when available expansion of performance over the NoW, offers a significant power for several kind of scientific problems.The use of the dynamic cluster as an educational platform for the needs of laboratory work on different courses in our department, gives to the students the opportunity to gain hands-on experience on a not very common to them but useful platform. They are exposed to operating systems, networking, recourse allocation, hardware configuration, problem solving, and trouble shooting issues on a high-performance multi-processor environment. Specifically, through the use of the dynamic cluster, the students are able to:* build a PC cluster;* understand and evaluate high-speed communication techniques and strategies, as well as, architectural design issues in HPC systems;* understand networking issues on a HPC environment; and* understand various HPC development tools and their appropriate usage in the HPC environment.In this paper, we evaluate the dynamic clustering system, as a platform, which is used in the lab to run various courses, (parallel programming, operating systems, distributed computing), as well as various parallel applications in the framework of research which is in progress under different research projects.\nThe DYNER platform: The set-up used in the original form of the dynamic cluster is depicted in Figure 1 (Kehagias et al., 2003). It includes a cluster and a NoW. The cluster is a small-size (eight PCs) Beowulf-class cluster, dedicated to parallel program execution. The communication infrastructure is a 100 Mbps, full-duplex Ethernet network. The NoW is based on the PC equipment of the Microcomputers' laboratory of our department, consisting of 18 PCs connected to a 10/100 Mbps Ethernet. Through a gateway, the laboratory LAN is connected to the Institution (TEI) backbone and to the internet. Both parts (cluster and NoW) are based on single-processor Pentium-4, practically identical PCs. The server is also a PC of the same type, which is the central entity that controls jobs and output. The communication media are physically separated between the cluster and the NoW. Only the server bears two NIC cards to connect to both, but in an independent manner. All workstations are of the same type and therefore, they can be configured in the same way, even with respect to the compilation parameters of the OS kernel. The Pentium processors run in 1,4 to 1,8 GHz and they do not support Hyper-Threading. Workstations' memory is 512 MB DDR.Each PC, both in the cluster and the NoW, has been configured with Linux. As explained in (Kehagias et al., 2003), Linux seems to be the most appropriate, effective and plausible choice, as well as the most frequently used OS for clusters and HPC. There have been several installations, based on different distributions. However, all systems have the same updated kernel 2.6.11, which has been configured and compiled according to our needs. The same happened with the rest of the software elements, such as the compiler (gcc 3.3.4) and MPI library (currently LAM 7.0.6).The NoW PCs and the server bear more software, including X-Windows etc, that are used for the students' workshop sessions (NoW PCs) or for the presentation of the output and the control of the platform (the server). Instead cluster nodes do not allow any memory swap to disk, in order to ensure highest performance and results' validity.Students may use workstations that are members of the NoW. Such use may consist of laboratory operation that can be light, moderate or heavily burdening of the processors nodes. In addition, students may overload the network (downloading large files) or the workstation (complex software, games etc). Last but not least, workstations may stack or reboot any time, without prior notice. Hence, NoW nodes cannot be considered totally available. Instead, they can assist dynamically to increase computing power, especially, when no workshop sessions are taking place.The parallel processing tool is the message-passing interface (MPI) (Lusk et al., 1994) and specifically LAM, an implementation of MPI. The server is one of the cluster PCs that plays the role of the central controller for both the cluster and the NoW. As explained in Kehagias et al. (2003), this configuration ensures high security, availability and dynamic high performance.Within the cluster, the communication takes place without any security measurements, i.e. with plain remote shell (rsh), instead of secure shell (ssh). Packets encoding or cryptography would impose an impediment to performance, introducing higher latencies and limited bandwidth, as well as wasting CPU cycles. On the other side, security is of prime importance on the NoW, where all systems are exposed to internet communications, that imply external and internal attacks. A multi-layered protection scheme in the institution enforces protection and therefore external attacks are hard to happen, but workstations can still be exposed to attacks, intentionally or unintentionally. Using ssh has been proved a feasible and adequate solution that does not degrade severely nodes and network performance. However, again it is beyond this work's scope to probe security issues or the performance impediment imposed by encoding.Kehagias et al. (2005a) showed, though benchmarking, that the DYNER platform provides a powerful high-performance computing environment capable of supporting quite large problem solving.\nBenefits of the DYNER platform in the curriculum: Three distinct groups of the academic community of the TEI of Athens can benefit directly from the dynamic cluster: The students of the Department of Informatics, the faculty members and researchers of the department, as well as the researchers from other departments of the institution.Students\nForthcoming research: Following numerous conversations and exchanging of ideas with colleagues of other departments of the institution, it appears that the research community is interested in using HPC clusters as a tool for their research. Thus we intend to install the dynamic cluster, as a HPC platform that several research groups from other departments will be able to use.Our further objective, though, is to use the dynamic cluster as a compass and forerunner for the implementation of a campus grid. That grid will enable the collaboration of multiple departmental labs and centres within the institution. A campus grid is an important research tool, which brings together computational scientists, students, and researchers across the campus, over and within a common, shared computer platform. Its implementation is easier than that of a larger multi-institutional grid since there are common infrastructure services, such as high-speed networking and naming services (DNS). Towards this goal, we intend to modify the structure of the platform as shown in Figure 2. The new configuration contains two basic parts - the original NoW and the cluster - plus any other system. The front end remains tightly coupled with the original cluster, without any direct connection with the NoW but with a direct connection with the backbone of the institution. The connection with the NoW as well as with any other system (other NoWs, clusters or individual computers) is done throw the backbone.The Department of Informatics plans to run a graduate programme where the dynamic cluster will be the appropriate tool in order to run workshops of courses dealing with topics such as advanced communication and networking in a HPC environment, advanced hardware architecture for a HPC system, grid technologies and distributed computing architectures.\nConclusions: Cluster computing is an emerging answer to several technological dilemmas. The dynamic cluster - an architecture that combines NoWs and clusters- can support HPC in a dynamic way, where any available computer can participate as an additional node. Its versatility and flexibility with respect to configuration and functionality, together with its dynamic, strong computational power, renders it a very helpful tool for educational and research purposes.The platform has already become a useful tool for several courses. The results of its use by the students, especially in the context of the course of parallel computing, are very promising. It comes out that the students, by exploring and working with the dynamic cluster, can apply the parallel programming techniques and build a stronger knowledge background beyond the basic course material being taught. Also, its use by faculty members renders it a very helpful tool for research purposes.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the use of a non-expensive dynamic computing resource, consisting of a Beowulf class cluster and a NoW, as an educational and research infrastructure.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Clusters, built using commodity-off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware components and free, or commonly used, software, provide an inexpensive computing resource to educational institutions. The Department of Informatics of TEI, Athens, has built a dynamic clustering system consisting of a Beowulf-class cluster and a NoW called DYNER (DYNamic clustER). This paper evaluates the use of the DYNER system, as a platform for running the laboratory work of various courses (parallel computing, operating systems, distributed computing), as well as various parallel applications in the framework of research, which is in progress under on-going research projects. Three distinct groups from the academic community of the TEI of Athens can benefit directly from the DYNER platform: the students of the Department of Informatics, the faculty members and researchers of the department, and researchers from other departments of the institution.\nFindings: - The results obtained were positive and satisfactory. The use of the dynamic cluster offers to the students new abilities regarding high performance computing, which will improve their potential for professional excellence.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The implications of this research study are that the students clarified issues, such as \"doubling the number of processors does not mean doubling execution speed\", and learned how to build and configure a cluster without going deeply into the complexity of the software set-up.\nPractical implications: - This research provides students with the ability to gain hands-on experience on a not very common to them but useful platform, and faculty members - from a variety of disciplines - to get more computing power for their research.\nOriginality/value: - This paper presents a dynamic clustering system where, its versatility and flexibility with respect to configuration and functionality, together with its dynamic, strong computational power, renders it to a very helpful tool for educational and research purposes.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
When public services fail: a research agenda on public service failure	[ "Public administration", "Exit", "Public services", "Service failures", "Service recovery", "Voice" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Public service failure comes in many different ways: a passport that is not delivered in time, a permit with wrong information, failure to pay out benefits one is entitled to, an incorrect tax levy, low-quality schools, a hospital that commits a medical error, a bus that does not turn up. Especially in situations where citizens are in a dependent position, such failures can have dramatic consequences, such as being evicted from one's house, losing one's job, going hungry, or even death. Failing public services feature prominently in popular images of the public sector and political discourse (Goodsell, 2003; Haque, 1998), and economic theory has frequently treated service failure as an inherent characteristic of bureaucracies (Caiden, 1991). Despite the omnipresence of public service in people's lives and the potential damage public service failure can inflict on their lives, public service failure has not attracted the same attention in the public management and public services literature as private service failure has in the services management literature (see e.g. Colgate and Norris, 2001; McCollough et al., 2000; Smith and Bolton, 1998; but see also Andrews, 2007). At a time when public sector organisations increasingly approach citizens as customers, the service failure literature offers opportunities both for public management researchers to start paying more attention to service failure using this literature, and for private service scholars to expand their research to include public services. This paper positions the phenomenon of public service failure within the wider public management and services management literature, and formulates a research agenda for the study of public service failure.\nPublic services fail differently: At the level of the service interface, many public services resemble private services: documents are ordered, payments are made, customers and providers meet at a counter, queuing systems are in place, etc. Despite many similarities at the operational level between public and private services, public services fail differently.\nWhy public services fail - a reassessment: Unlike private service management literature, that has tended to treat failures as anomalies or stumbling blocks on the path to service excellence, public management literature tends to consider failure (and perceived failure) as a normal feature of public sector functioning. This is visible not only in the discipline's attention for administrative reform. It is also reflected in the body of work dealing with bureau bashing (Hall, 2002; Goodsell, 2000), and in more general reflections on public perceptions of government performance (Bok, 2001; Goodsell, 2003). The adoption of economic theory and public choice thinking in the 1980s by public management scholars (see e.g. Perry and Kraemer, 1983) strengthened the belief that absent market pressure, incompetent or self-serving civil servants, and politically inspired meddling and micro-management made failure almost inevitable. These criticisms frequently conflate two dimensions of failure: failure to provide what citizens want as customers, and failure to provide service against pre-established criteria. The former has to do with failure to respond to market signals or with a deliberate (policy) decision to go against such signals. The latter brings public services into the realm of the more traditional services management literature, where typologies of service failure have already been developed with a specific focus on certain sectors, such as retailing (Kelley et al., 1993). Below, common types of public service failure are discussed. The first three are based on Boin and 't Hart's (2000) influential work on crises and policy failure in which they were the first to distinguish clear types of general failure: crisis by ignorance, crisis by rigidity and crisis by failed intervention. Three more failure types are added based on recent public management scholarship (see below), reflecting the particular political nature of public service environments: failure by neglect, failure by design, and failure by association.\nHow customers react to public service failure: Public services often operate under the assumption of failure (Ariely, 2011; Van de Walle, 2004). For this reason, attention for failure, and customer reactions to failure has remained fairly limited. Indeed, one could say that low expectations leave little chance for expectancy disconfirmation. Still, customer expectations, also in the public sector, are on the rise (Hodgkinson, 2013). Unlike the private service management literature, public management research is less concerned with reactions such as brand loyalty, customer retention or repurchase intentions. Also, it tends to be less concerned with individual customers' reactions to failure, but rather with collective responses.\nService recovery and repair: Public services may attempt to correct their failures. This is called recovery and repair. Such recovery consists of different strategies such as repairing the failure and resolving the problem, apologising to customers, or compensating them. Unlike the private service literature (see e.g. Van Vaerenbergh et al., 2012), public services scholarship has hardly devoted any attention to service recovery (but see Bjorlin Liden and Edvardsson, 2003).\nStudying public service failure: a research agenda: What should a research agenda on public service failure look like? This research agenda first outlines four areas where the private and public service failure literatures can learn from and complement each other. First, public management scholars should take on board mainstream service failure research from the private service management literature. Second, there are issues that are particularly relevant and important to public services that have hitherto attracted little attention in the service failure literature. Third, comparisons between public and private services are called for. Finally, the consequences of service failure that are specific to a public context need to be studied.\nConclusion: Public services that fail can have dramatic consequences for the people involved. While the private services management literature has developed a substantial body of research on service failure, its antecedents, and consequences, very little of this work has focussed on public services. Now that public organisations increasingly treat citizens as customers, these organisation as well as public management scholarship can benefit from the insights from this private service failure literature. This paper has emphasised that public and private services operate in a different context and that therefore the reasons, types, and consequences of service failure are likely to be different. It has also discussed a number of failure types, as well as different ways in which citizens react to public service failure, both individually and collectively.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on public service failure and develop a research agenda for studying public service failure alongside private service failure. The general services management literature has devoted relatively little attention to public services, whereas developments in the private service management literature have not reached public management.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This is a conceptual paper drawing on the public management literature. Different failure types and causes are discussed, including service failures that are specific to public sector settings. This is linked to the specific public context within which public services operate. Customer reactions to public service failure are then introduced, as well as service recovery.\nFindings: Service failures in a public and a private context are different. There are different failure types and different standards of failure. Public management literature mainly studies collective and political reactions to service failure, whereas the private service management literature tends to focus on individual reactions. Finally, attention for service recovery was found to be very limited in the public services literature.\nSocial implications: Studying public service failure is important because failure can have dramatic consequences for customers, public organisations, and society. Social inequalities that arise as a result of public service failure need to have a prominent role in future research.\nOriginality/value: This paper develops the concept of public service failure and sets a novel research agenda for studying processes, causes, and consequences of such failure, as well as public-private differences.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Organizational learning from customer feedback received by service employees: A social capital perspective	[ "Social capital", "Feedback", "Complaints", "Learning organizations", "Customer satisfaction" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: With the advent of the knowledge economy, organizational knowledge, or intellectual capital has become a main source of competitive advantage (Adler and Seok-Woo, 2002; Levin and Cross, 2004; Walsh et al., 2008). Recent studies in the area of knowledge management have increasingly focused on the concept of social capital (Krause et al., 2007; Merlo et al., 2006; Singh, 2006; Robert et al., 2008). Specifically, researchers have employed Nahapiet and Ghoshal's (1998) categorization of social capital into the structural, relational and cognitive dimensions, and posited their effects on various organizational processes of knowledge management. For example, social capital has been shown to either facilitate or inhibit the processes of knowledge acquisition and knowledge transfer (Collins and Hitt, 2006; Inkpen and Tsang, 2005; Yli-Renko et al., 2001). This study focuses on a particular type of knowledge transfer - that of customer feedback, and specifically, customer feedback that is unsolicited and given informally to frontline employees.Customer feedback collection tools can be generally categorized into two types: active and passive (Sampson, 1996), also called solicited and unsolicited feedback (Berry and Parasuraman, 1997; Morgan et al., 2005; Wirtz and Tomlin, 2000). Active feedback collection tools solicit customer responses (e.g. through satisfaction surveys; Wirtz and Lee, 2003) which can be tied to employee performance evaluation and used to benchmark performance internally as well as externally. In contrast, passive feedback mechanisms (also called unsolicited customer feedback) rely on the customer's own willingness to report his/her experiences through complaints, compliments and suggestions to the service organization (Mattila and Wirtz, 2004).Past work suggests that most unsolicited feedback is made directly to frontline employees rather than through formal channels which typically requires more effort on the part of the customer (Lovelock and Wirtz, 2007, p. 393). Unfortunately, feedback received by frontline employees tends to reside at the front line and is seldom formally recorded or communicated. As such, unsolicited customer feedback often fails to make the transition from tacit to explicit knowledge, thus hindering organizational learning and service improvement efforts (Baker and Sinkula, 1999).It is also likely that there is a qualitative difference in terms of feedback reporting between people-delivered services, where much of the value is delivered through the interpersonal interaction with the service employee (e.g. a consulting or a call-centre service) and services where much of the value is created through interactions with self-service technologies (e.g. the firms' web site) (Lovelock and Gummesson, 2004). For services delivered by people, customers have ample opportunities to provide informal and direct feedback to frontline employees. As such, the present research is primarily relevant for such services.Most extant research in knowledge sharing has focused on knowledge sharing at the aggregate level, thus ignoring the individual level impact (Argote and Inrgam, 2000). However, in people-delivered services, unsolicited customer feedback is typically reported to an individual customer-contact employee. Such knowledge, embedded in individual boundary-spanners, plays a key role in the integration of knowledge throughout the organization (Makela and Brewester, 2009). It has been shown that knowledge transfer from front-line employees to their managers is highly dependent on social relationships (Lang, 2004). Therefore, a social capital perspective to the management of informal and unsolicited customer feedback is employed to explore factors that enhance effective knowledge integration. Social capital theory is a suitable framework as the sharing of information is one of the main tenets of accumulation of social capital (Lang, 2004; Paxton, 1999) and tacit knowledge, such as unsolicited customer feedback, is fundamentally embedded in the forms of social and institutional practices (Brown and Duguid, 1991; Hung et al., 2009).In this paper, we propose that relational social capital (e.g. trust in the company's leadership and SV) and structural social capital (e.g. efficient knowledge transfer systems (KTS) and appropriate rewards) will enhance the sharing of tacit knowledge. Previous research has shown that FV seems to influence employees' willingness to report customer experiences, with negative comments typically not being passed on (Read, 1962). Similarly, employees tend to be less forthcoming with unsolicited feedback when such information is used for evaluation of their colleagues compared to organizational improvements (Toegal and Conger, 2003). Therefore, this present study examines the combined effects of relational and structural social capital, FV and the intended use of feedback on employee willingness to report unsolicited customer feedback.\nConceptual background: Knowledge sharing and social capital\nStudy 1 - qualitative study: As no prior research has explored how service employees respond to and report the unsolicited customer feedback they receive, we first conducted a qualitative study to explore employee perceptions of customer feedback collection systems, including their perceptions of the intended uses of such feedback. We used semi-structured interviews to draw rich insights from the in-depth analysis of a small sample of participants (Bryman, 1999; Jablin and Putnam, 2001; Johns and Lee-Ross, 1998; Kreps and Herndon, 2001).Sample and data collection procedures\nStudy 2 - experiment: Research design\nHypothesis testing: ANOVA was used to test our hypotheses. We had surveyed frontline staff and other management levels in service organizations (note that all management levels in a service organization can receive unsolicited customer feedback). As management level could potentially interact with our independent variables, we controlled for management level by adding this variable into our ANOVA model. As the main effect of management level and all its potential interaction effects were insignificant (p>0.10), this variable was dropped from further analyses.The final results are shown in Table II. As expected, the results of the ANOVA table revealed a significant three-way interaction between relational social capital, FV and feedback usage (FU) [F(1, 416)=6.5, p<0.05]. Similarly, the three-way interaction between structural social capital, FV and FU was significant [F(1, 416)=4.6; p<0.05]. To make sense of these complex interactions, we split the discussion of findings by FV.Negative customer feedback\nConclusions and discussion: Summary findings and theoretical implications\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Customer feedback can help to identify problem areas and strengths, and generate ideas for service improvements. Most feedback is given to frontline employees directly rather than submitted through formal channels. UZnfortunately, employees tend to be reluctant to report such unsolicited feedback. This paper seeks to explore key drivers of employees' willingness to report customer feedback to facilitate organizational learning. Specifically, the paper examines the joint effects of relational social capital, structural social capital, feedback valence (FV) (positive versus negative), and the intended use of information (service improvement versus performance evaluation) on employees' willingness to report unsolicited customer feedback back to the organization.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper used two studies. First, semi-structured in-depth interviews of employees across organizational levels in two service firms were conducted to explore the relationships between the variables of interest. Second, a quasi-experimental study was conducted in which FV and intended use of information were manipulated in a true experimental design, and respondents' organization served as backdrop to measure relational and structural social capital.\nFindings: - FV and the intended use of information moderate the impact of social capital on employees' reporting intention. Specifically, the authors found that social capital had a positive impact on employees' willingness to report negative feedback used for evaluation purposes (social capital was less important when used for service improvements). In contrast, for positive feedback, social capital had a positive impact when feedback was used for service improvements (but less so in an evaluation context where staff were naturally motivated to report positive feedback).\nPractical implications: - Firms need to boost social capital to enhance employees' willingness to report negative feedback that is used for performance evaluation, and positive feedback that is used for understanding and cementing strengths. Social capital can be enhanced through increasing trust and a shared vision (through open and frequent communications), and through providing incentives (rewards and recognition) and improved reporting processes, infrastructure, and training.\nOriginality/value: - Service employees' reporting behavior of customer feedback received is important but under-researched. This paper is a first step into understanding the drivers of employees' willingness to report such feedback.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Information seeking abroad: an everyday-life study of international students	[ "Information studies", "International students", "Information seeking", "Everyday-life information seeking", "Information behaviour", "Cross-cultural adaptation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In 2016, more than 5.1m university students were studying abroad (OECD, 2018). These international students face a foreign educational system in terms of curriculum, teaching approach and norms for student behavior (e.g. Hughes, 2013; Liao et al., 2007; Mehra and Bilal, 2007; Song, 2005). In addition, their uprooting from their home country necessitates cross-cultural adaptation to cope with the transition to the host country (e.g. Jeong, 2004; Khawaja and Stallman, 2011; McLachlan and Justice, 2009; Shafaei and Razak, 2016). As a result, international students contend with a variety of study-related and everyday-life information needs and they experience uncertainty about where to turn for answers. To support the international classroom host universities must appreciate that the international student's experience and performance are influenced by factors that reach well beyond the university (Sin et al., 2011).\n2. Related work: Our review of related work is summarized in Figure 1, which shows how the international student repeatedly experiences gaps that necessitate information seeking to bring things back in order. In the following, we first describe research on international students, which accounts for the gaps they face and the feelings they experience in bridging them. Then, we describe research on everyday-life information seeking, which accounts for the bridging process.\n3. Method: To collect rich empirical data about international students' behavior and experiences in coping with their information needs, we adopted an exploratory and longitudinal approach consisting of diaries and interviews. Each participant contributed ten diaries and took part in three interviews.\n4. Results: In this section, we first analyze the participants' information seeking in general. This analysis is based on the 39 (out of 40) diaries that contained complete responses to the nine questions about the past week in general. Then, we analyze the concrete incidents reported by the participants. This analysis is based on the interviews and the 36 diaries with complete responses to the four incident questions. Finally, we analyze the interrelations between study-related and everyday issues. This analysis is based on the interviews.\n5. Discussion: Going abroad to study introduces a disruption in international students' mastery of their lives, where information seeking can help bridge the gaps between the home and host culture. In the following, we discuss the results in three parts: coping with information needs abroad, framed by the information-seeking elements in the right-hand side of Figure 1; information seeking and cultural adaptation, framed by the left-hand side and outcome elements of Figure 1; and finally implications for research and practice.\n6. Conclusion: International students' information needs and seeking behavior are shaped not only by their host university but also by cross-cultural, personal and situational issues. While the cross-cultural issues set international students apart from domestic students, the personal and situational issues create individual differences that call for more individually tailored support. During the first semester of their stay abroad, the studied international students lacked information about both study-related and everyday issues. These two kinds of issues were intertwined and experienced as equally stressful. In addition, the participants tended to feel on their own when it came to finding needed information. This feeling contributed to the stressfulness but also fed into participants' personal growth and mastery of their lives. Information seeking helps in coping with cultural barriers and breakdowns, but host universities should acknowledge that acculturation starts already before arrival and continues beyond the first semester.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how four international students at a Danish university cope with their study-related and everyday information needs, behaviorally as well as affectively, and how their information seeking blends with their cross-cultural adaptation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Each of the four participants contributed ten diaries and took part in three interviews during the first semester of their stay.\nFindings: International students' information needs and seeking behavior are shaped by their host university but also by cross-cultural, personal and situational issues. While the cross-cultural issues set international students apart from domestic students, the personal and situational issues create individual differences that call for more individually tailored support. The studied international students lacked information about both study-related and everyday issues. These two types of issues were intertwined and experienced as equally stressful. However, study-related information needs were more important, whereas everyday information needs were more difficult to resolve. In addition, participants tended to feel on their own when it came to finding needed information, but studying abroad also had elements of personal growth in meeting life's challenges.\nResearch limitations/implications: More participants are needed to investigate how international students' information seeking evolves over time.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes detailed information about international students' study-related and everyday information seeking during their first semester abroad. The study has implications for everyday-life studies of international students' information behavior and the international classroom in general.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Impact of intellectual capital on corporate performance: evidence from the Arab region	[ "Middle East", "Arab region", "Intellectual capital", "Business performance", "Intangible assets", "Value added intellectual capital" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The growth of most developed economies in recent decades is derived mainly from technologies related to knowledge and information production and dissemination. These technologies, which first appeared in the late 1950s, expanded with the exponential use and production of personal computers, and the widespread use of e-mail and the internet. Organizations soon realized the considerable potential of new technology, which transformed the nature of work and economies in general (Powell and Snellman, 2004). In its 1996 groundbreaking report, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (1996) confirmed the growing importance of knowledge and technology in economic growth. During the second half of the 1990s, the number of countries and industries that shifted from heavy reliance on physical labor to technology increased significantly. According to the same report, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) economies during this period became more dependent on the production, distribution, and use of knowledge. Output and employment were expanding rapidly in industries such as computers, electronics, and aerospace. In the last ten years, the high-technology share of OECD manufacturing production and exports has more than doubled, to reach 20-25 percent. Knowledge-intensive service sectors, such as education, communications, and information, have grown even faster. It was estimated that more than 50 percent of GDP in major OECD economies had become knowledge-based by 1996. An important factor emanating from that statistic is that skilled labor was in highest demand in OECD countries. The average unemployment rate for people with a secondary education was 10.5 percent in comparison to 3.8 percent for people with university degrees. In addition, the employment rate was highest in technology and science-based sectors (e.g. computers and pharmaceuticals). These jobs required highly skilled employees and demanded higher wages compared to those in industries that were less knowledge-intensive, such as textiles or food processing. The need for knowledge-based jobs in service sectors has continued to grow steadily.\nDefinition and categorization of IC: In order to manage and measure a phenomenon, it needs to be clearly defined. IC represents a research topic with conceptual clarity, but great variety and diversity when it comes to developing a precise definition. As the first step in capturing the holistic effect that IC has on existing and future performance, it is necessary to define the term properly. Hall (1992) viewed IC as a company's value driver that transforms production resources into assets with increased value. Stewart (1997) defined IC as a firm's collective brainpower. According to this definition, IC includes various forms of knowledge, important information, intellectual property, and experience (Bontis, 1999). One of the most appealing and influential definitions of IC was established by Sullivan (2000), who advocated that IC represents company knowledge that has the potential to be converted into tangible profit. This definition explains the true nature of IC since it views IC's effect on corporate performance as a potential, depending on whether managers will realize this potential (Dzenopoljac et al., 2016).\nElements of IC: The second important step in capturing IC's diverse and complex nature is to provide a comprehensive categorization. Throughout the last couple of decades, many researchers have made significant contributions to solving the problem of IC categorization. The categorization most used in the literature focuses on either two (dichotomous) or three (trichotomous) elements.\nMeasurement models: The field of IC is considered as one of the youngest management disciplines, and it has quickly gained acceptance in the scientific community (Bontis and Serenko, 2009). Evidence suggests that it is a very attractive field since an increasing number of both academics and practitioners are contributing to the domain's development for firms (Bontis, 2001; Serenko and Bontis, 2004, 2009, 2013b) and nations (Bontis, 2004). The literature offers many quality insights into the definition, significance, categorization, and measurement aspects of IC. In addition, a growing number of researchers are focusing on validating the main assumption in this scientific domain: does IC and its components actually contribute to the performance quality of contemporary companies? (Kristandl and Bontis, 2007).\nVAIC: The VAIC model explains the total value creation efficiency of any organization. IC efficiency is one part of the model; the other part is the contribution of tangible assets to value creation (Kujansivu and Lonnqvist, 2007). The essence of the model is to determine how human, structural, and physical resources affect corporate performance and value creation. Created value is assessed as the difference between total realized value in the market and output, or value added (VA). Ante Pulic defines VA as the sum of operating profits (P), employee costs (C), and depreciation and amortization of assets (D and A). Thus, VA=P+C+D+A. After computing VA, the model calculates HC by summing all employee-related costs. SC is presented as the difference between VA and HC (SC=VA-HC). In this way, Pulic demonstrates that everything within VA is created by the structural component of IC, except for HC.\nIC and firm performance: The impact of IC on firm performance is a phenomenon that is simple and straightforward from the conceptual point of view. When observing the main elements of IC and their individual effect on company performance, many research studies find a strong and positive relationship, depending on how each of the IC element is measured. For example, a study that covered nearly 1,000 US companies investigated the relationship between high performance work practices and company performance and found that the work practices had a statistically significant impact on corporate financial performance (Huselid, 1995; Hitt et al., 2001). On the other hand, the impact of SC has been investigated in many different forms but with consistent results. For example, the impact of strategic planning (Pearce et al., 1987), company networks (Andersson et al., 2002), organizational culture (Saffold, 1988), and other elements of SC on performance are evident. Finally, the literature is also rich with various studies about the impact of different elements of relational capital on performance (e.g. Hooley et al., 2005; East et al., 2008). IC literature, on the other hand, tries to assess the relationship between the combined IC elements and firm performance.\nResearch hypotheses and used variables: The research hypotheses logically follow the asserted research objective. The proposed research model will test four hypotheses that arise from the literature in this field. The present study utilizes approach that extends previews research attempts (e.g. Bontis, 1998; Pulic, 1998, 2004; Firer and Williams, 2003; Mavridis, 2004; Chen et al., 2005; Kujansivu and Lonnqvist, 2007; Zeghal and Maaloul, 2010; Bontis et al., 2015) and investigates the relationship between IC, market value, and financial performance. The context of proposed research hypotheses of the study is presented below.\nSample description: The prior research in the field of IC has produced with extensive geographical coverage, when it comes to analyzing IC and firm performance. Bontis et al. (2000) investigated the relationship between IC and business performance in Malaysian industries. Firer and Williams (2003) covered the South African listed companies. Japanese banking sector and its dependence on IC was researched by Mavridis (2004). Chen et al. (2005) investigated the relationship between IC and corporate performance of listed companies in various sectors in Taiwan. Another interesting research was done in Egypt and the focus was on software companies (Seleim et al., 2007). Kujansivu and Lonnqvist (2007) investigated IC's effect on performance in 11 industries in Finland, while Tovstiga and Tulugurova (2007) analyzed technology-intensive companies in Russia. The research attempts that followed, investigated the nature and intensity of IC on performance in India (Kamath, 2007), Singapore (Tan et al., 2007), Turkey (Yalama and Coskun, 2007), Germany (Moeller, 2009), Great Britain (Zeghal and Maaloul, 2010), Spain (Diez et al., 2010), China (Chiu et al., 2011), Serbia (Dzenopoljac et al., 2016). However, the analysis of companies that operate in the Arab region is very scarce, apart from the research that analyzed IC from the macroeconomic perspective (Bontis, 2004).\nResults and Discussion: The research hypotheses were tested through descriptive statistics, normality tests, correlation analysis, and multiple regression models. The multiple regression models are controlled for three variables: industry, leverage, and firm size, as it was done in research studies with similar research objective (e.g. Firer and Williams, 2003; Chan, 2009a; Alipour, 2012; Mondal and Ghosh, 2012).\nConclusions and avenues for future research: The intangible resources of a company are the foundation of IC, which is one of the main drivers of value creation in the knowledge-based economy. It is conceptually logical and acceptable that IC is the source of competitive advantage and future value creation. The problem is the fact that IC rarely creates value independently from tangible resources. The contribution of this research can be viewed as filling the existing gap in research studies seeking to identify the drivers of success among companies in the Arab region.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to fill a gap in the intellectual capital (IC) literature by providing insights into the relationship between IC and corporate performance among Arab companies and second, to challenge the validity of the Value Added Intellectual Coefficient (VAIC) as a measure of IC's contribution to performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research sample included 100 publicly traded Arab companies selected by Forbes Middle East and ranked as top performers in terms of sales, profits, assets, and market value. The methodology included assessing the impact of IC components on company earnings, profitability, efficiency, and market performance for the period between 2011 and 2015. Research hypotheses were tested through the presentation of descriptive statistics, normality tests, correlation matrix, and multiple regression models.\nFindings: The research yielded ambiguous results. Earnings and profitability were significantly affected by structural and physical capital; efficiency was determined primarily by physical capital; and market performance was mainly influenced by human capital.\nResearch limitations/implications: The main limitation of the research comes from disadvantages of VAIC as the measure of IC's contributions to performance.\nOriginality/value: The paper fills a void in the study of IC and corporate performance among Arab companies.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Enhancing systems integration by incorporating business continuity drivers	[ "Integration", "Systems analysis", "Business continuity", "Computer hardware" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The term, \"business continuity\" (business continuance, business resilience) refers to the ability of a business to continue with its operations even if some sort of failure or disaster occurs. Several factors affect the level of BC such as:* data availability;* application availability;* networking reliability;* operating system's reliability, availability and scalability; and* server hardware reliability, etc.To be truly competitive in today's information era, the business should be able to operate continuously, maintain data available all the time, and be agile in accessing available data.With recent advances in information technology (IT) including the internet and e-business technologies, the need for achieving business continuity based on continuous computing (CC) technologies became even more critical. Therefore, business continuity management (BCM) should be an essential part of any contemporary organization's information management. BCM involves several measures and activities that have to be planned in order to have higher availability ratios of an information system. Most of these measures and activities are inter-dependent, hence an integrated solution is needed.A framework for developing an integrated operating environment (IOE) for business continuity was developed and is presented in this paper. The primary goal of such integration is to enhance the levels of enterprise information systems' availability, reliability and scalability, thus, to achieve CC as a main prerequisite toward business continuity. Important components of the framework are a set of CC drivers (enablers) and the features of contemporary servers and server operating systems (SOS) that need to be integrated.The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 presents a summary of current research on systems integration, system development and business continuity and a brief literature review. Section 3 identifies and discusses main issues in systems integration including main disconnection problems and downtime points. Section 4 presents a framework for integrating business continuity drivers for enterprise information system architecture. The paper concludes with Section 5.\n2 Systems integration and business continuity: 2.1 Systems integration and system development\n3 Issues in systems integration: 3.1 Main disconnection problems\n4 Integrating business continuity into server operating environment: 4.1 Framework for integration\n5 Conclusions: It is common that the application of IT in modern organizations lacks true integration. The question is how to manage and how to integrate several types of technologies, how to integrate today's distributed, heterogeneous IT environments, how to remove numerous disconnection points and, in general, how to align IT with business. Information management must be based on an infrastructure that enables IT-staff to control every IT resource, from desktops to mainframes and UNIX machines, from LANs to WANs, from standard data to knowledge, from databases to applications. At the same time, it should effectively incorporate BCM in order to achieve business continuance.In this work some aspects of systems integration in its broader sense are considered. One of the factors - the server operating environment - is described in more detail by defining a set of systems integration drivers in the form of server-based CC technologies from business continuity perspective.The presented framework can be used to assess current or future information systems as well as accompanying supporting components in a company. Using the framework, the company can avoid the potential problem of developing an integrated information system only for local business continuity. The framework presents a comprehensive set of checkpoints in terms of discontinuity points and necessary tools to address these.The following are some future research directions for practitioners and researchers interested in this field:* High-availability performance measurement of specific IOEs such as proprietary systems, UNIX platforms, Linux versions, Windows Server-based environments, etc.* Models for implementation of IOEs for SMEs, large companies, different industries, etc.* Benchmarking with regard to IOEs for several types of enterprise information systems (ERP, CRM, SCM, business intelligence).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to present a framework for developing an integrated operating environment (IOE) within an enterprise information system by incorporating business continuity drivers. These drivers enable a business to continue with its operations even if some sort of failure or disaster occurs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Development and implementation of the framework are based on holistic and top-down approach. An IOE on server's side of contemporary business computing is investigated in depth.\nFindings: - Key disconnection points are identified, where systems integration technologies can be used to integrate platforms, protocols, data and application formats, etc. Downtime points are also identified and explained. A thorough list of main business continuity drivers (continuous computing (CC) technologies) for enhancing business continuity is identified and presented. The framework can be utilized in developing an integrated server operating environment for enhancing business continuity.\nOriginality/value: - This paper presents a comprehensive framework including exhaustive handling of enabling drivers as well as disconnection points toward CC and business continuity.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Value relevance of human capital information	[ "Human capital", "Content analysis", "Value relevance", "Voluntary disclosure", "Germany", "Annual reports", "Corporate governance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In our knowledge-based economy, successful companies' most important assets are intangible (e.g. Edvinsson and Malone, 1997; Lev, 2001; Stewart, 1997). Especially an organization's human capital can be regarded as a valuable resource and as a key factor for sustainable competitive advantages (Gunther et al., 2003; Huselid, 1995; Pfeffer, 1994; Prahalad and Hamel, 1990; Wright et al., 1994, 2001). However, companies only disclose limited information on this resource. A reason might be incomplete legal regulations in the field of human capital disclosures. Consequently, investors and other stakeholders cannot fully ascertain their investment objects' value-adding potential (Lev and Zarowin, 1999). The results are information asymmetries between internal and external parties, agency and transaction costs, as well as possible market inefficiencies (An et al., 2011; Healy and Palepu, 2001).Efficient capital market theory suggests that share prices always reflect all publicly available information (Fama, 1970, 1991; Fama et al., 1969)[1]. Therefore, investors, analysts, and other capital market participants factor the available information into decisions on whether or not to buy or to sell the relevant firm's stocks (Abhayawansa and Guthrie, 2012; Acland, 1976; Lev, 2001; Wyatt, 2008). Consequently, it can be assumed that investors will use human capital information for their investment decisions if this information will be regarded as relevant and reliable; that is, human capital information will be assumed value relevant.The value relevance of disclosures on intangible assets - and human capital - has been the focus of several previous studies (for an overview see Striukova et al., 2008; Wyatt, 2008). Most of these have focussed on intangible assets in general. Thus, they also considered information on companies' structural (internal) and relational (external) capital (e.g. Abdolmohammadi, 2005; Barth et al., 2001; Canibano et al., 2000; Holthausen and Watts, 2001; Lev, 2001; Maines et al., 2002, 2003; Schiemann and Gunther, 2007; Uyar and Kilic, 2012; Vafei et al., 2011; Wang, 2008). The studies that solely focussed on human capital disclosures mostly considered very special aspects of such disclosures, for instance employee stock option costs or information on managerial skills. As yet, no study has explicitly evaluated the value relevance of the overall (especially nonfinancial) human capital information provided in corporate annual reports.The purpose of this paper is to find out if capital markets value voluntarily disclosed human capital information, and - if so - which specific information is value relevant. Against this background, a human capital disclosure index is constructed. It is based on data which have been extracted from corporate reports by means of content analysis. Subsequently, established valuation models are being used for analyzing whether the disclosed human capital information is reflected in share price. Furthermore, it is investigated if the disclosed human capital information leads to short-term changes in share price.The results of the analysis show that human capital information is value relevant. Especially information pertaining to qualification and competence issues is positively associated with firm value. However, disclosure of human capital information does not cause any changes in share price within the analyzed time frame. Hence, human capital information is value relevant but not immediately.The study at hand contributes to a better understanding of human capital disclosure and its implications for capital markets.First, it contributes to understanding the role that (voluntary) disclosures play in capital markets: the provision of human capital information helps to reduce information asymmetries arising between the firm and the capital market; if investors receive the demanded human capital information, they can better evaluate the disclosing company's financial condition (Healy and Palepu, 2001; Leuz and Verrecchia, 2000).Second, this study contributes to human capital theories by helping to identify human capital's primary components. The positive valuation of qualification and competence issues is in line with human capital theories; they also focus on these issues (see Blaug, 1976).Finally, the study helps to identify the information that such disclosures have to offer their addressees for reducing potential information asymmetries (Healy and Palepu, 2001). This could be of interest to standard setters when they define what information companies should disclose on human capital issues.The paper is structured as follows: in Section 2, the relevant theory is reviewed and the hypothesis to be tested is derived. Section 3 contains the study design and methodology. Section 4 presents the results, as well as a discussion and interpretation of these. The study concludes with a summary, a description of its limitations, and an outlook for further research.\n2. Theory and hypothesis development: Human capital and the resource-based view of the firm\n3. Design of the study and methodology: Sample construction\n4. Results and discussion: Descriptive statistics and correlations\n5. Conclusion and outlook: Human capital can be regarded as an important driver of long-term corporate financial performance. It is often referred to as an organization's most important resource. But most companies do not provide meaningful information about their human capital. Hence, investors cannot clearly determine these companies' value-adding potential. The results are information asymmetries. Human capital disclosures can reduce these information asymmetries by providing capital markets with the necessary information. Investors are assumed to incorporate the available information in their investment decisions. Thus, proactively disclosed human capital information is assumed to be reflected in share price. Accordingly, human capital information might be value relevant.In line with previous research, two established valuation models were applied for determining the value relevance of human capital information. By means of content analysis, the human capital disclosures provided by the 130 largest listed companies in Germany were analyzed. More than 82,000 pages of annual reports were considered by generating four disclosure indices. These indices were used for detecting the provided human capital information's association with firm value.The results show that the provision of human capital information is value relevant, but not immediately. There is a positive association between the disclosed human capital information and share price. Especially information on qualification/competence issues has a positive association with firm value. Capital market participants therefore incorporate the available human capital information in their long-term investment decisions. These findings are in line with recent studies' results which also identified an overall positive relationship between voluntary disclosures and firm value (e.g. Abdolmohammadi, 2005; Anam et al., 2011; Uyar and Kilic, 2012; Vafei et al., 2011). Companies can use human capital reporting to improve their valuation on the capital markets - particularly if they provide information on their workforce's qualification/competence. However, human capital disclosures seem to have no impact on short-term changes in market value. Other information or developments might be better suited to explain such changes in share prices.As with all empirical studies, this study is subject to limitations. First of all, the industry classification is open to criticism. Some industries are represented by only three or even fewer companies. Furthermore, some measures - especially net income per share - were not available for three industries. As a consequence, the sample lacked these industries. This might have biased the results. Further limitations arise from the way content analysis has been applied. Using keywords as units of analysis may be an inappropriate methodology, as words are detached from their contextual backgrounds. Finally, the cultural as well as regulatory aspects should not be generalized since only one country was researched.Despite these limitations, the results provide interesting insights into the value relevance of human capital information. Additional research should consider the information content in more detail. In particular, the relevant aspects in respect of qualification and competence issues might be of interest. There seems to be a substantial value potential from the investors' perspective. Moreover, human capital disclosures and their internal and external effects on all their addressees have to be examined in detail. For example, their effects on (potential) employees or on customers should be analyzed. Merely considering capital market implications might not be sufficient for identifying the opportunities which might arise from such disclosures.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate if human capital information voluntarily provided by German companies is value-relevant.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - By means of word-based content analysis, human capital information is extracted from German companies' annual reports. Subsequently, the value relevance of the disclosed human capital information is analyzed by applying two established valuation models.\nFindings: - The results show that human capital information is value-relevant. Especially, information on qualification and competence issues is positively associated with firm value. Nonetheless, the disclosed information does not lead to short-term changes in market value. Consequently, human capital information is value-relevant but not immediately.\nPractical implications: - First, companies can improve their valuation on the capital market by disclosing information on their human capital. Second, standard setters can use this paper's results in defining relevant information categories for human capital disclosures. Third, the amount of human capital disclosures is increasing over time.\nOriginality/value: - This study explicitly evaluates the value relevance of the overall (especially nonfinancial) human capital information voluntarily provided in corporate annual reports.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Keep the expert! Occupational expertise, perceived employability and job search: A study across age groups	[ "Perceived external employability", "Perceived internal employability", "Job search intensity", "Moderating role of age", "Occupational expertise" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Occupational expertise, i.e., having the necessary competences to perform well in a particular domain of work, is crucial in the current knowledge economy (Van der Heijde and Van der Heijden, 2006; Van der Heijden et al., 2009). For employers, occupational expertise entails possibilities for optimal allocation of labor and enhanced performance and flexibility (Van der Heijde and Van der Heijden, 2006; Van der Heijden, 2002). For employees, especially professionals, occupational expertise may strengthen their employability, not only in the internal but also in the external labor market (Forrier and Sels, 2003; Van der Heijden, 2002).\nTheory and hypotheses: Perceived occupational expertise, perceived internal and external employability, and job search intensity\nMethod: Sample and procedure\nResults: Table I presents means, standard deviations and correlations between the study variables for the total sample and the subsamples.\nDiscussion: The main objective of this study was to study the associations between employees' perceived occupational expertise, perceived internal employability and perceived external employability and job search intensity, including age as a possible moderator. In doing so, we made three important contributions. First, we exposed the management paradox by testing two opposite indirect associations between occupational expertise and job search intensity: a negative indirect association through perceived internal employability and a positive indirect association through perceived external employability. In line with our research model, the results for the total sample provided support for these conflicting dynamics: whilst occupational expertise was significantly and positively related to both perceived internal employability and perceived external employability, perceived internal employability related negatively, yet, perceived external employability related positively to job search intensity. These findings are in line with motivational theories, in particular the model of approach and avoidance achievement motivation (Elliot, 2005) and expectancy theory (Vroom, 1964). Employees base the perception of their value in the internal and external labor market on an evaluation of their personal strengths (i.e. their perceived occupational expertise) and in turn, this assessment will influence their decision whether or not to look for a job elsewhere. These results shed new light on the management paradox (De Cuyper and De Witte, 2011). While employees with occupational expertise are more likely to market their value elsewhere by looking for another job, their value within the internal labor market also ties them to their current organization.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: In the current war for talent employers are concerned about the idea that the best employees are more likely to leave the organization for another employer (i.e. the management paradox). This study tests this management paradox. The purpose of this paper is to advance our understandings of how employees' occupational expertise is associated with job search intensity, through its assumed relationships with perceived internal and external employability in the internal and the external labor market. The authors thereby tested the research model across three different age groups (young, middle-aged, and senior employees).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors conducted a survey among 2,137 professional workers and applied multi-group structural equation modeling.\nFindings: Perceived internal employability negatively mediated the relationship between occupational expertise and job search intensity, whilst there was a positive mediational effect of perceived external employability. Age had a moderating effect on the association between perceived internal employability and job search intensity.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings contribute to the scholarly literature on the management paradox, and the empirical work on employability and age.\nPractical implications: Organizations can recoup their investments in expert workers' employability and enhance their retention by providing opportunities for internal career development.\nOriginality/value: This study is original by including both internal and external employability. By doing so, the authors thereby shedding new light on how occupational expertise might explain job search and how this relationship differs depending on employee age, thereby using a large sample of respondents.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Supply chain strategies in an era of natural resource scarcity	[ "Case studies", "Risk management", "Qualitative data analysis", "Supply chain strategy", "Natural resource scarcity" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Many firms are dependent on their environment for the supply of natural resources, but these resources are becoming increasingly scarce and costly (Cetinkaya, 2011). The term scarcity refers to an observed shortage of natural resources, and a perceived dependency on natural resources due to their global depletion (Passenier and Lak, 2009). The global demand for materials has increased in recent decades. For example, between 1980 and 2009, global domestic material consumption had increased by 94 per cent up to 67.8 billion tons and it is forecasted to rise (Giljum et al., 2014). Resource depletion or scarcity may not only be related to economic or physical scarcity, but also to political issues. For instance, China's dominance of the rare earth elements (REEs) market and also the implementation of tax and export quotas affect the availability, continuous supply, and prices.\n2. Literature review and theoretical background: Christopher (2016) noted several major trends impacting contemporary supply chains including the globalisation of markets, outsourcing, the reduction of the supplier base, shorter product and technology life cycles, fewer and larger production and distribution sites, volatility of trading environment, and vulnerability of supply chains leading to disruption. Several authors including Christopher and Peck (2004), Gualandris and Kalchschmidt (2013), Peck (2005), Sheffi (2005), Svensson (2002), Vlachos et al. (2012), Wagner and Bode (2006), and Waters (2011) focused on supply chain vulnerability. In addition, Peck (2005) explored the sources and drivers of supply chain vulnerability, while Stecke and Kumar (2009) proposed several strategies to mitigate the vulnerability of a supply chain. Other authors analysed the issue of uncertainty and risk in supply chains in general (Simangunsong et al., 2012) and specifically in relation to NRS (Bell et al., 2013).\n3. Methodology and research design: 3.1 Research approach\n4. Empirical findings: This section begins with an overview of the results from the within-case analysis for the six case studies and in the following section, the themes that emerged from the cross-case content analysis are presented. The implications of the natural resource dependence level on supply chain strategies are then discussed along with the derived research propositions.\n5. Conclusions and implications: This research set out to answer the following questions: why and how do manufacturing companies respond to the growing competition for scarce natural resources? This research develops and empirically tests an RDT-based conceptual framework that aims to understand the NRS implications for SCM. In relation to the first question, the seven factors that determine the level of dependence on the natural resource were identified: price of natural resource, quantity of natural resource, availability of alternative suppliers, social forces, legislation, switching costs, and geopolitical risk.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the implications of natural resource scarcity (NRS) for companies' supply chain strategies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Drawing on the resource dependence theory (RDT), a conceptual model is developed and validated through the means of exploratory research. The empirical work includes the assessment of qualitative data collected via 22 interviews representing six large multinational companies from the manufacturing sector.\nFindings: When the resources are scarce and vitally important, companies use buffering strategies. Buffering and bridging strategies are preferred when there are a few alternative suppliers for the specific resource and when there is limited access to scarce natural resources.\nResearch limitations/implications: The research focuses on large multinational manufacturing companies so results may not be generalised to other sectors and to small- and medium-sized firms. Future research needs to examine the implications of NRS for organisational performance.\nPractical implications: This research provides direction to manufacturing companies for adopting the best supply chain strategy to cope with NRS.\nOriginality/value: This paper adds to the body of knowledge by providing new data and empirical insights into the issue of NRS in supply chains. The RDT has not been previously employed in this context. Past studies are mainly conceptual and, thus, the value of this paper comes from using a qualitative approach on gaining in-depth insights into supply chain-related NRS strategies and its antecedents.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The service function as a holistic management concept	[ "Service function", "Service organization", "Industrial services", "Manufacturing", "Management strategy" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Over the past decade, a growing amount of attention has been paid to service offerings in manufacturing, information technology, and other non-service sectors around the world. This phenomenon is often described as a goods-services transition, in which firms such as Caterpillar, Ericsson, Huawei, Siemens, and Tata have increased their provision of services. The phenomenon is often ascribed to industry commoditization, which is characterized by increasing homogeneity of products, higher price sensitivity among customers, and lower switching costs (Reimann et al., 2010); it is also ascribed to opportunities to achieve competitive advantage through closer customer relationships and higher profit margins (e.g. Gebauer and Friedli, 2005; Jacob and Ulaga, 2008; Matthyssens and Vandenbempt, 2008; Raddats and Easingwood, 2010). The increasing strategic importance of service offerings to market-leading industrial firms has made the ability to manage the service business in a manufacturing context ever more vital (Kowalkowski et al., 2011a, b).Furthermore, the differences between an industrial, goods-dominant business logic and a co-production/creation, service-dominant business logic (Kingman-Brundage et al., 1995; Normann, 2001; Ramirez, 1999; Vargo and Lusch, 2008) have made it particularly interesting to investigate the management of firms that produce goods as well as services. As Mathieu (2001) noted, \"because of the specificity of service management, it is not that easy, nor natural, for a manufacturing firm to carry out a service strategy\" (p. 451).It is pertinent, therefore, to investigate the service function within industrial firms that produce both goods and services. In this context, the service function includes not only the service organization, but also other organizational units that, either directly or indirectly, have a role in the service development, sales, delivery, and renewal processes (Kowalkowski, 2008). The rationale for the service function concept is that it is not sufficient to limit analysis of the service management of industrial firms to the service organization only. For example, in order to implement a successful and deliberate service strategy in industrial firms, all areas of the firm affected by service strategy must be involved in the service development process, which integrates competences that exist within the firm, but outside the service organization (Gebauer et al., 2005; Kindstrom and Kowalkowski, 2009). This highlights the need to look beyond the service organization. In this way, the service function parallels Gummesson's (1995) marketing function concept; even if the marketing organization undoubtedly plays a central role, several other organizational entities also play critical roles as part-time marketers of the firm (Gummesson, 1987, 1991). The fact that industrial services span a wide range of offerings, from basic after-sales services to process-orientated solutions that involve services and capital goods (Kowalkowski et al., 2011a), is likely to have consequences on the service function of the firm.Against this background, the present paper focuses on two primary objectives. The first is to describe the service function concept and its components. The second is to discuss why and how the service function can be a useful concept with which to address some of the challenges of managing services in industrial firms.The research inquiry can be characterized as being mainly explorative and comparative. The empirical evidence has come predominantly from case studies of two market-leading firms - i.e. ITT Water & Wastewater and Toyota Material Handling - and some of their European customers. The phenomenon studied is a repositioning in moderately dynamic markets of firms' value propositions towards increased service provision. The case study was chosen as a research design in order to attain a deeper research understanding of the thinking-doing processes of members of the service function (Woodside and Wilson, 2003). The iterative process between theory and empirical data collection made it possible to match theory with reality, thereby taking advantage of the systemic characteristics of both the empirical world and the theoretical models (Dubois and Gadde, 2002; Matthyssens and Vandenbempt, 2003).\nTheoretical background: It has been argued that, in order to achieve successful service management, firms should adopt a multidimensional, holistic approach that does not separate service development from service production and within which the customer interface and new technology are both taken into account (den Hertog et al., 2010; Kindstrom and Kowalkowski, 2009). Thus, even if the service function is generally regarded as the (local and/or central) organizational entity that is responsible for the firm's main service activities, it is not sufficient to only investigate the service organization of the industrial firm. The industrial firm may not even have an in-house service organization. For instance, many firms operate through dealers or collaborate with partner firms responsible for the service production. Likewise, the service function must not be seen in isolation from other organizational functions. As defined in this paper, the service function only concerns the management of services that are offered, locally and globally, to external customers in an industrial business-to-business context. In other words, it does not refer to any internal services and support organizations.In order to better understand the service function concept, the following section outlines Gummesson's (1987, 1991) part-time marketing concept, upon which the service function concept is based.The role of part-time service functions\nIntroducing the service function concept: The literature on the transition from goods to services has noted that new forms of industrial offerings are associated with new organizational requirements (Davies, 2004; Galbraith, 2002; Gebauer and Kowalkowski, 2009). The achievement of competitive advantage through industrial services is largely derived from the firm's ability to create internal alignment among critical organizational elements in order to fit market needs (Kindstrom, 2010; Neu and Brown, 2008). Consequently, the organizational structure will differ depending on the firm's service offering portfolio, as well as on the type of customers, their disposition to participate in the service production process, and their inclination to invest in the customer-provider relationship. In order to manage industrial offerings strategically, it has been argued that firms should employ a holistic approach and look beyond the service organization (Gebauer et al., 2005; Kindstrom, 2010). As suggested above, one way to approach this issue is to use the service function concept.A generic representation of the service function is given based on the empirical findings. This function not only includes the service organization and other internal entities, but also takes into account the role of the customer and the possible roles of various third-party actors in the business network with which the firm has relationships and, in various ways, influence the service offering (see Figure 1 for an example).In analogy with Gummesson's (1995) marketing function, the shaded areas in Figure 1 represent the service function; that is, the service organization and parts of the firm other than the service organization, as well as external actors that are regarded as full-time or part-time service functions. However, the shadings should be seen not as quantified proportions, but rather as rough estimations that serve an illustrative purpose. Consequently, the shaded proportions between entities differ between firms and over time. In many industrial firms, the following distinct part-time service functions play an important role for the service operations.Senior management\nInterdependencies between service function entities: Despite the role that part-time service functions play for service management, the main locus of interdependencies for many services is only one or a few organizational entities of the service function. In line with Larsson and Bowen (1989), depending on the type of service, different interdependencies - and, therefore, different organizational arrangements - are required. With more extensive SLAs, the number of customer interfaces increases and it becomes essential to emphasize other values, such as \"peace of mind\", rather than specifying only the frequency of visits, hourly costs, and spare parts prices. As SLAs become more extensive and process-oriented, pricing tends to move from variable to fixed, based on a certain period of time (Kindstrom, 2010; Kowalkowski, 2008). In order to offer these services, it is necessary to have additional competences that do not reside in the service organization. Consequently, sales, KAM, engineering/consulting, and other part-time service functions will have a more prominent role in the organizational arrangement for bundled, process-orientated offerings, such as ITT Water & Wastewater's customized SLAs and Toyota Material Handling's long-term rental agreements. Rental services, for example, can be organized quite differently depending on factors such as the type of equipment being rented, the size of the agreement, whether any additional services are bundled to it, and the service infrastructure.Depending on the phase, the service development and production processes involve different local and/or central organizational entities (both full-time and part-time service functions). For example, during the development of an ICT-based service at ITT Water & Wastewater, central service managers and central/local engineering teams, such as monitoring and control entities, may be the parties that are primarily involved. During the take-to-market and sales processes, it is mostly the local sales or service organizations that are involved, after initial support, training, and marketing material from the central marketing organization. Once the offering is sold, it is deployed and later serviced by the local service organization, together with local monitoring and control specialists. In the customer relationship between Toyota Material Handling and its major rental customers in the UK, different parts of the service function are involved in different phases of the process. For instance, representatives from the service and sales organizations are generally involved when (re-)selling a rental agreement. After the implementation phase, this responsibility is handed over to the KAM that will be managing the customer relationship, although the customer will also have regular meetings with other full-time and part-time service functions (mainly service and sales).The interdependencies between the entities of the service function not only differ between firms, but they also differ in importance, depending on the firm's service offering portfolio. Particularly in the case of major service development projects for bundled, process-orientated offerings, the adaptation of a multiple and flexible structure is seen as advantageous. This form of \"contingent hierarchy\" encourages reciprocity among service function entities and is likely to lead to better overall responsiveness to customer demand (Tuli et al., 2007). In some situations, a high degree of local responsiveness is decisive, whereas efficient central processes may play a more prominent role in other cases. Therefore, authority and status should be allocated to the entity that knows how to orchestrate organizational resources to best facilitate value creation (Kingman-Brundage et al., 1995).The central-local dimension\nConclusions and implications: This study's main theoretical contribution is the service function concept. The study highlights the fact that it is erroneous to equate services with the deeds, processes, and performances of the service organization. Instead, this paper argues the need for a more holistic approach to the management of service offerings, and that although the service organization is most likely the key entity, it is only one subset of the service function. In addition, with industrial firms offering more than just after-sales services, the capabilities of specific part-time service functions become decisive for the market success of many new service offerings.Hence, the traditional service organization shifts from being the main locus of the service function to simply one part of it. For example, if an industrial service provider changes its business model and become a systems integrator, most of the core capabilities would not reside in the traditional service organization (Brady et al., 2005; Davies et al., 2007). Although the service organizations in the cases studied have remained the main locus of the service function, due to the type of services offered (i.e. most emphasis on maintenance, repair, and related after-sales activities in SLAs and rental agreements), success in the marketplace is increasingly based on factors outside the service organization, and those that are to be formed in other parts of the service function. Thus, in order to have a competitive service offering, the firm must think in terms of wholes and in terms of integration of structure (i.e. service function) and processes (cf. Normann, 1983). It is not enough to limit the discussion to the service organization. The need for increased integration between service function entities is supported by Neu and Brown (2008), who found that an autonomous structural form did not support the intent to satisfy highly complex needs.Unless the service function adapts to new offerings with new requirements regarding competence, there is a risk of a structure-strategy misalignment between the organizational arrangement of the service function and the market strategy (Gebauer et al., 2010). In line with Normann's (2001) thoughts on value creation and sources of competitive advantage, the firm must have a strategic renewal capability in order to reconfigure its service function and service offering. The effective knowledge creation and renewal processes in vertical relations between employees and management, as well as in collaborative horizontal relations between service function entities, require trust and collaboration. An increasing number of offerings, generally the strategically most important ones, depend on efficient horizontal and vertical coordination within the service function. This makes it vital to have a corporate culture that creates and cultivates trust between local and central organizational entities (cf. Gronroos, 2007). For this purpose, formal structures are essential, but so too are various forms of informal forums (Ghoshal and Nohria, 1989). Such informal structures may complement more rigid, formal structures and facilitate socialization between local and central service entities, as well as between local service entities from different countries (Kowalkowski et al., 2011a).Another strategic matter for the firm is how it should manage the service offering portfolio; that is, to say what service offerings and organizational arrangements it should have. The service organization can sufficiently manage many traditional after-sales services on its own, but for more complex services the service organization is likely to either require support from specialist (part-time service) functions or the specialist function may be the main locus of service interactions. The latter would be the case with systems engineering services, where there are few interactions with the traditional (after-sales) service organization. Thus, as firms increasingly compete through (complex) service offerings, the importance of cross-functional collaboration for competitive offerings grows. The firm must make certain choices that have consequences for its competitive advantage and how its service function is organized. These include whether the firm focuses on after-sales services, rental, or consulting, whether it emphasizes customer relationships or product features, and whether it acts reactively or proactively to exogenous changes.Limitations and future research lines\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This article aims to introduce the service function concept, as well as why and how it can be a useful concept for addressing service management challenges in industrial firms.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Two in-depth case studies of global industrial firms enabled a thorough understanding of the roles of the service function entities and interdependencies between them.\nFindings: - Although the service organization is most likely the key entity, it is only one part of the service function; other organizational entities are to be seen as part-time service functions.\nResearch limitations/implications: - A finer-grained conceptualization would enable a better understanding of the front- and back-office entities involved in the service processes.\nPractical implications: - The concept can be useful when communicating the importance of services and the inter-relatedness between the service organization and other parts of the firm, which generates a better internal understanding of the service processes. The alignment between service offering and organization can be elaborated by mapping where service development, sales, and production take place, what the ideal configuration would be, and the roles played by different parts of the service function.\nOriginality/value: - The service function is a novel concept and is particularly relevant for industrial firms that offer services. It highlights the fact that it is erroneous to equate services with the activities of the service organization. Instead, a more holistic approach to the management of service offerings is needed.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The effects of satisfaction, opportunism, and asset specificity on consumers' loyalty intention toward internet portal sites	[ "Portals", "Trust", "Assets management", "Loyalty schemes" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Internet portals are gaining popularity as a way to give users ready access to information they need, at the time that they need it, through web browsers. Originally, consumer portal companies positioned their portals as the vital doorways through which consumers would access news and information, and exchange information in the vast digital world. However, recently, internet portal companies decided that they did not want to be just doorways, but rather offer more services. They want to keep the customers using their services, so they can build a large audience for advertisers (Fortune, 1999; Franson, 2000). Popular portals such as Yahoo, Lycos, and MSN are trying to attract web viewers with offerings such as free-email, message boards, online news, online calendars, online shopping sites, etc. The portal companies want the consumers to make the portals an integral part of their daily life. If the consumers are satisfied with the services of a particular portal, they will stay longer with it.Internet portals continue to be the primary tool people use to navigate the web. According to survey on 25 countries by Nielsen/NetRatings (2002), search engines, portals and communities have firmly established themselves as the primary starting point on the web for surfers around the world. Over three quarters of the world's active internet users visited search engines, portals and communities in a month (NetRatings, 2002). Similar study released in 2004 by the organization showed that 39 percent of Americans used a search engine during January 2004 (NetRatings, 2004). Most online shoppers not only turned to search engines to find online stores, but also to do comparison shopping. Therefore, the service of internet portals is very important for the efficiency of internet business.Satisfaction has historically been identified as the major driver for customer loyalty. Building high customer satisfaction is a major goal of most companies (Fornell et al., 1996; Oliver, 1999). Although this proposition is sustained in many situations, it has been challenged by several studies claiming that more than half of the satisfied customers defect eventually (Jones and Sasser, 1995; Reichheld, 1996, 2001). In the internet world, product features are easily copied by competitors. Satisfied users of an internet portal can easily get the same features from other internet portals. More importantly, using the service of an internet portal normally requires no monetary costs. Therefore, consumers are likely to have better brand familiarity and be more open to competitive advances. When consumers are familiar and have experience with multiple alternatives in a category, consumers will use comparative information when judging performance and satisfaction (Wu and Padgett, 2004). Satisfaction and loyalty will more likely become divergent concepts, and their link will be weak when consumers become open to comparative advances (Oliver, 1999). Therefore, there are several other aspects in addition to portal service performance and overall satisfaction that an internet portal should possess to retain customers successfully.Recently, the trustworthiness of a web site has become an important issue for managing consumers' loyalty. As emphasized by McKnight and Chervany (2002), e-commerce represents an excursion beyond the unknown into the unknowable. Therefore, trust is central to exchange relationships in the internet world. More and more internet users are asked to register their personal information on internet sites. In order to protect themselves, many users try not to give web sites information that can be used to identify them, and, most importantly, they hold site operations responsible for ensuring privacy (Internetweek, 2000). Recent cases showed that many portal companies have already used customer lists to send e-mails and make calls to target groups of users on behalf of advertisers. Some companies have rented their customer lists directly to advertisers (Economist.Com, 2002). Furthermore, in order to increase ad revenue, internet portals have handed an even larger bargaining chip to advertisers, which has resulted in more intrusive ads on the portals. One of the most popular new forms of internet advertising is \"pop-up\" ads which appear on the front of a web page whenever it opens. Some pop-ups may even \"hijack\" a browser and repeatedly direct to a specific site, or automatically try to download a promotional file. These behaviors not only annoy the users of the portal sites, but also increase the opportunistic perception of the internet portal. All these may affect trustable image of an internet portal which may eventually affect customers' satisfaction and loyalty toward the portal.Finally, based on transaction cost analysis (Williamson, 1985), asset specificity is another important factor in a consumers' exchange relationship with a supplier. The term asset specificity refers to investments in physical or human assets that are dedicated to a particular exchange relationship and whose redeployment entails considerable switching costs (Williamson, 1985, 1991). If a consumer has already invested many human and physical assets in his/her current service provider, she/he will have less incentive to switch to another provider, because the switching behavior will cause loss of the \"sunk cost\" with the service provider (Joshi and Stump, 1999; Williamson, 1985). In the case of internet portals, users may have less of an intention to switch to other portals if they have already invested many invisible human assets such as their e-mail account, their schedule, and a virtual community sharing in an internet portal. Therefore, asset specificity is one of the important variables for understanding the mechanisms for loyalty intention of an internet portal.In sum, we intend to demonstrate in this study that, in addition to superior portal service features, internet portal companies should:* try to reduce opportunistic perception; and* create exchange-specific assets to secure consumer loyalty.This study will contribute to the e-commerce service studies in two ways. First, we will develop and empirically test a model for examining the antecedents of consumer loyalty intentions toward an internet portal. Second, we will incorporate the concept of transaction cost (i.e. opportunism and asset specificity) into the model and examine the effect on the formation of loyalty intention. This inclusion may improve the theoretical foundation of loyalty formation in an internet connected world.\nConceptual framework and hypotheses: Figure 1 presents a model of consumers' loyalty formation. The model includes attributive service satisfaction, perceived opportunism toward the internet portal, and asset specificity as exogenous variables. Overall satisfaction is modeled a mediator between attributive service satisfaction and loyalty intention, and between perceived opportunism and loyalty intention. The fundamental framework is based on Lazarus' (1991) theory of emotion and adaptation. Lazarus proposed that appraisal processes of internal and situational conditions lead to emotional responses; these, in turn, induce coping activities-appraisal-emotional response-coping framework (Bagozzi, 1992). Attributive service satisfaction is modeled as the appraisal processes because it is the process that a person seeks to evaluate whether the outcome is consistent with his/her desire. When one experiences a pleasant event, an outcome-desire fulfillment is occurred. This experience will lead to satisfaction, pleasure, joy etc. Therefore, overall satisfaction is modeled as the emotional response. Finally, if the experience is satisfactory, specific intention will emerge to take steps to maintain or increase the satisfaction state (coping activities). In other words, one may have higher intention to remain loyal to the specific service provider to maintain or increase his/her satisfaction state. Therefore, loyalty intention is modeled as the coping activities in the framework.Consistent with the theory of emotion and adaptation, we only examine the intentional aspect of loyalty. Therefore, it is termed loyalty intention in this study. There are several different conceptualizations of the loyalty construct (Dick and Basu, 1994; Jacoby and Chestnut, 1978). Among them, intentional aspect of loyalty is one of the most studied aspect of loyalty (Bell et al., 2005; Sing and Sirdeshmukh, 2000; Zeithaml et al., 1996). Loyalty can be psychological or behavioral (Jacoby and Chestnut, 1978). Consistent purchasing as an indicator of loyalty could be invalid because of happenstance buying or a preference for convenience. Our definition is also similar to Oliver (1997) conative aspect of loyalty. Oliver follows the cognitive-affective-conation pattern and argues that consumers can become \"loyal\" at each attitudinal and behavioral phase. Consumers can become loyal in a cognitive sense, an affective sense, a conative manner, or behavioral manner. Cognitive loyalty based on brand belief that one brand is preferable to its alternatives. Affective loyalty reflects the pleasure dimension of loyalty. This level of loyalty is not easily dislodged. Conative loyalty is a loyalty state that contains what appears to be the deeply held commitment to repurchase. Finally, the behavioral manner is described as \"action inertia\".Finally, based on the theory of transaction cost analysis, opportunism and asset specificity are the most important antecedents for an enduring exchange relationship (David and Han, 2001; Williamson, 1985). Therefore, perceived opportunism and asset specificity are modeled as the variables for appraisal process.Attribute satisfaction and overall satisfaction\nMethod: Study goal and sample\nResults: Measurement model\nDiscussions and implications: The results of this study showed that satisfaction with the attributive service performance of an internet portal is a very important factor in generating overall satisfaction. Attributive service satisfaction has a high coefficient loading on overall satisfaction. Therefore, it is very important that an internet portal company frequently evaluate consumers' perceived satisfaction with its individual service performance, to know whether their performance is competitive in the market. Portal site performance is the key for securing consumers' overall satisfaction, and thus loyalty intention.Perceived opportunism on an internet portal was found to have a significant negative effect on loyalty intention. This demonstrates that an internet portal company should restrict its opportunistic behaviors to reinforce the loyalty intention of their users. A user cannot have strong loyalty toward an internet portal if they think that the internet portal is very opportunistic in dealing with its customers. As emphasized by McKnight and Chervany (2002), the need for trust is very important for e-commerce because the environment of e-commerce is characterized as risky, complex, and uncertain. Any opportunistic behaviors of an internet portal, such as selling user lists or making exaggerated claims may earn the portal more revenue in the short term, but hurt the portal in the long run. Gaining new customers in the competitive market is becoming more and more difficult, and the profit gained from a loyal customer grows within the duration of the business relationship. Companies should shift their marketing focus from pure satisfaction generation to loyalty cultivation.This study also demonstrates that asset specificity is important for securing the loyalty intention of a customer. The idiosyncratic assets a user used to support the exchange relationship with a portal site is very important for securing customer loyalty toward the internet portal. Internet portal companies should try to encourage users to use their portal to build specific assets such as an e-mail account, schedule, message board, virtual community, and any other idiosyncratic asset investment. To consumers, these idiosyncratic assets have value when they continue using the portal, but lose most of the value when they switch to other portals. The more idiosyncratic assets a user has invested in the portal, the higher the possibility that the user will stay with the portal.It is somewhat surprising to find that perceived opportunism of an internet portal did not affect users' overall satisfaction toward the internet portal. A possible reason for this result is that consumers may feel that internet portals are only used for their gateway function. The opportunistic behavior of an internet portal is not as serious as the one in a commercial site. Most importantly, most consumers have tried to disguise their identity when registering their personal information. As long as the relationship is not a long-term relationship, the opportunistic behaviors of the portal will not affect the overall satisfaction very much. In addition, since most internet portal services are free, users are more likely to tolerate these commercial opportunistic behaviors in the short run because most of them are multiple internet portal sites users. A recent survey by Nielsen/NetRating showed that majority of online searchers use multiple search engines. For example, nearly 71 percent of those who searched at Yahoo! also visited at least one of the other top two search engines. Among all search engines, Google users showed a higher degree of loyalty than its competitors (NetRatings, 2005). Based on our study, the higher loyalty among Google users may be due to Google's less commercialized image. This image significantly reduces the perceived opportunism image of the internet portal site. Therefore, it should be emphasized that although perceived opportunism does not affect overall satisfaction, it does affect loyalty intention. To be competitive in the market, a firm should try to improve their customers' loyalty in addition to satisfaction.This study had several limitations. The first limitation is the cross-sectional design employed. Cross-sectional data cannot test the proposed causal relationship in the model vigorously. To provide a stronger inference, the model developed and tested here could benefit from being tested in a longitudinal design. Second, the model was empirically tested in a Taiwanese sample. Past research has found that culture plays a significant role in consumer behaviors (Chiou, 2000; Hofstede, 1983; Jarvenpaa et al., 1999). The strength and relative importance of the proposed constructs in this study may differ by culture. For example, Jarvenpaa et al. argue that national culture has an impact on trust. Therefore, more empirical tests of the proposed model in other societies are needed. Third, as mentioned, there are many aspects of loyalty. It is suspected that different aspects of loyalty may have different antecedents. For example, asset specificity may have a stronger effect on behavioral aspect of loyalty, whereas perceived opportunism and attributive service satisfaction have stronger effects on cognitive aspect of loyalty. Future studies can explore these propositions and present a general framework for loyalty formation. Finally, the reason for choosing internet portals as the object for this study is that most internet portals are with no monetary costs, consumers are likely to have better brand familiarity as well as be more open to competitive advances. The relationship between satisfaction and loyalty will be weaker when consumers become open to comparative advances. This study demonstrated that perceived opportunism and asset specificity affected loyalty intention in addition to overall satisfaction. Future study may test the model in different settings to explore the moderating effect of product type or industrial category.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This study aims to develop and empirically test a model examining the antecedents of consumer loyalty toward internet portals.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The data were collected based on an internet survey in Taiwan. Self-administered questionnaires were used for all measures.\nFindings: - The results show that attributive satisfaction is very important in affecting consumers' overall satisfaction toward an internet portal, which in turn affects consumers' loyalty intention toward an internet portal. This study also demonstrates that consumers' specific asset investment on an internet portal exerted a positive impact on loyalty intention, whereas perceived opportunism toward an internet portal exerted a negative influence on loyalty intention.\nOriginality/value: - This study contributes to the e-commerce service studies in two ways. First, it developed and empirically tested a model for examining the antecedents of consumer loyalty intentions toward an internet portal. Second, it incorporated the concept of transaction cost (i.e. opportunism and asset specificity) into the model and examined the effect on the formation of loyalty intention. This inclusion also improved the theoretical foundation of loyalty formation in an internet-connected service world.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A dynamic approach to brand portfolio audit and brand architecture strategy	[ "Brand architecture", "Brand audit" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In a highly competitive arena, brands are striving to stay innovative and agile at the same time they grow through the development of new products or services, or via acquisitions and mergers. Research in branding and marketing suggest that brands are dynamic and require that brand strategies to be adaptable in the long-term perspective (Freire, 2016). This assumption is grounded on the idea that brands are living abstract entities that need to be sustained in a long-term perspective to stay relevant and avoid erosion (Kapferer, 2008). Moreover, different types of branding strategies are associated with different effects on the intangible corporate value (Rao et al., 2004). Consequently, it is argued that the manner that brands are deployed and structured affects the way the companies and their products are perceived by consumers (Laforet, 2015). In this context, a brand audit is pointed out as a holistic management exercise that allows marketers to gain a fundamental understanding of how a brand is currently performing compared to its stated goals (Aaker, 2004b; Hill et al., 2005). Indeed, by performing a brand audit companies can to take a step back and look at the wider landscape to inform longer term brand strategy. Moreover, brand audits help managers to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their businesses; at the same time, it creates opportunities for improvement (Kumar, 2003).\n2. Theoretical framework: Due to the growing recognition of brands as key strategic assets (Laforet and Saunders, 2005; Kapferer, 2008; Keller and Lehmann, 2009), branding emerged as a top management priority among both to academics and practitioners (Aaker, 1991; Laforet and Saunders, 1994; Louro and Cunha, 2001; Keller and Lehmann, 2009; Chailan, 2009). In that sense, the brand management strategy, which \"involves the design and implementation of marketing programs and activities to build, measure, and manage brand equity\" (Keller, 2013, p. 58), shifted from a customer-based approach to a more balanced perspective (Shultz and de Chernatony, 2002) including the companies' stakeholders, ranging from shareholders and staff to even competitors. Notably, a recent study highlights the role of the CEO and the marketing department in both optimizing brand equity and managing across product and corporate brands. Furthermore, employees are said to play a critical role by acting as recipients and expressers of brand identity (Sevel et al., 2018).\n3. Method: Depicting from an extensive review on the brand audit and the brand architecture, we have developed an integrated and dynamic approach to Brand Portfolio Audit and Brand Architecture Strategy. The proposed framework combines \"the Strategic Brand Consolidation Process\" (Aaker, 2004b), \"the Brand-Portfolio Renewal Framework\" (Hill et al., 2005), \"the Brand Portfolio Strategy\" (Aaker, 2004a) and \"the Brand Relationship Spectrum\" (Aaker and Joachimsthaler, 2000) models. Moreover, the criteria behind the choice of these models were:\n4. Results and implications: 4.1 DouroAzul case study\n5. Discussion and managerial implications: The highly competitive arena in which brands are striving to stay innovative and agile implies that brand marketers are able to audit the brands at a regular basis and redesign companys brand architecture to manage their brand portfolio effectively (Laforet, 2017; Nguyen et al., 2018; Asberg, 2018). Extant research has been conducted in the field of brand portfolio and several methodologies have been proposed to assess it (Lederer and Hill, 2001; Kumar, 2003; Aaker, 2004a, 2004b; Hill et al., 2005; Rajagopal, 2008). Nevertheless, most of the studies on brand audits are merely theoretical and focus on the categorisation of brands and its interrelationships. In other words, existent literature on brand portfolio audits does not present any application of the methodologies proposed to real business case studies, neither it shows evidence on their implications in practice. Additionally, the existing studies do not propose diagnosis tools that allow brand auditors to conduct a comprehensive, systematic, independent and periodic examination of the brand as proposed by Baumgarth et al. (2016). Indeed, previous brand audit frameworks are not detailed and present different ways to assess brand portfolios according to the multiple brand definitions, complementing each other. Another important aspect to stress is that those methodologies neglect the growing need to combine the supply-side and demand-side measures of brands. This dual assessment is crucial especially considering that scholars suggest that a successful brand portfolio strategy should be aligned with the business objectives (Uggla, 2015) and with the consumers' perceptions (Nguyen et al., 2018; Asberg, 2018). Consequently, there is a growing call for a detailed and updated framework for brand auditors to assess brand in a regular basis and facilitate the process of retain-or-discard brand decisions (Shah, 2015, 2017).\n6. Limitations and further research: Being one of the first studies to propose a holistic and dynamic framework in the field of brand audit and brand architecture, our study bears some limitations. Firstly, the proposed framework has only been applied and tested in three companies, two in the B2B segment and one in the B2C segment. In this regard, the future research should aim to test the proposed framework in different segments, such as fast-moving consumer goods, luxury, retailing, industry, among many others. Testing the proposed framework in several segments will allow scholars to validate all the steps proposed and/or the need to include additional steps. Moreover, it could also identify the need to develop complementary tools alike the Brand Audit Scorecard that might assist brand auditors in the process of auditing and redesigning brand architectures. Secondly, the study was conducted in Portugal which might create some bias in terms of generalization of the proposed framework. Hence, additional empirical studies are required in different cultural settings. Another perspective that might be of interest to both scholars and practitioners is to conduct a qualitative study to gather insights of the benefits and difficulties that the proposed framework entails in real business settings. Lastly, it might be interesting to conduct a longitudinal study to evaluate if the measures undertaken after the brand audit and brand architecture redesign, using the proposed tool, resulted in increased brand performance.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to propose a dynamic and holistic framework that combines the brand portfolio audit with the brand architecture redesign.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Depicting from an extensive review on the frameworks of brand audit and brand architecture, a dynamic approach to brand portfolio audit and brand architecture strategy was developed, and later applied and tested in three B2B and B2C companies.\nFindings: The paper suggests an eight-step framework to guide practitioners when auditing a specific brand portfolio and designing a revised brand architecture strategy. Additionally, a Brand Audit Scorecard was developed to enable and sustain brand portfolio audits, divided into three dimensions (brand equity, brand contribution and strategic options).\nResearch limitations/implications: Further research should aim at testing the proposed framework in different types of companies and countries.\nOriginality/value: This paper contributes to the brand audit and brand architecture literature by proposing a holistic framework that is not static.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A tool to assess the quality perception of healthcare employees	[ "Employee perception", "Questionnaire validation", "Quality of healthcare", "Validity and reliability" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The quality of healthcare provided in hospitals, dispensaries and other health centers is usually assessed through patient satisfaction surveys. Such surveys typically begin with a statement that quality administrators and hospital staff members intend using patient feedback to understand how well they meet patients' needs. Patient opinion, it is presumed, enables service providers to make sound decisions on improving performance (Allen and Creer, 1998). Nevertheless, in actuality, how far such feedback helps improve certain aspects of quality management, including physician-level improvement in skills, is uncertain.Prior research has shown that there is no dearth of evidence on the effectiveness of using patient feedback, both to improve the knowledge levels of service providers and to facilitate informed patient behavior (Evans et al., 2007). However, as one study points out, the actual improvement in the consulting skills of physicians and other medical staff members that patient feedback surveys bring about is limited (Reinders et al., 2011). One plausible reason for this ineffectiveness is that there are discrepancies between the quality priorities that service providers set for themselves and the expectations that patients have of high-quality medical service. This implies that in addition to obtaining the views of patients, it is also relevant from a managerial perspective to investigate the views of employees since they are the process-owners of quality management. Healthcare employees, especially doctors, when compared to patients and other employee groups, have significantly different perceptions of hospital quality (Willems and Ingerfurth, 2018).Several gaps persist between patient expectations and those of the service provider. Taking into consideration the views of both parties in the planning process may help fix the gap (Brown and Swartz, 1989). Hee Yoon et al. (2004) point out that employee's contribution influences service quality. But they also observe that employees' perception of the organizational support they receive, taken together with customer participation boosts service effort. This, in turn, improves customer perception of the service that the healthcare employees provide. Hence, understanding the perception of employees who handle day-to-day management issues may guide quality managers to attend to factors that hinder quality improvement. A classic example of this has to do with certain commonly perceived difficulties reported by physicians and nurse anesthetists. These relate to barriers to incident-reporting that impede quality documentation during anesthesia (Waker et al., 2015). As such, assessing how hospitals address factors related to employee perceptions on the quality of services could be the initial step in bringing about quality improvement (Kim and Han, 2012).An earlier study suggested that healthcare organizations should promote staff involvement in everyday management issues and keep them fully informed on organizational goals and mission (Ametz, 1999). Further, timely implementation of strategies for quality improvement can influence employee productivity, a factor directly correlated with job satisfaction (De Menezes and Escrig, 2019). Addressing the issue of employee involvement in quality planning, Henker et al. (2018) showed that healthcare workers' opinion supported the view that the quality assurance effort made in the organization as a whole with the involvement of all participants serves as a tool with which to standardize and assess the quality of care. Despite the existence of such studies, current standards in institutional accreditation have not been fully applied to the healthcare setting, with the result that employee satisfaction with accreditation measures taken in their professional setting is observed to be low. Therefore, while developing healthcare quality standards, it is imperative to integrate the perception of the workforce in quality planning to ensure that the objectives and rationale of accreditation are met (Park et al., 2017).What factors contribute to employee perception of quality? One employee perception study indicates multiple factors affect quality, which include intrinsic factors, benefits offered to employees and certain extrinsic factors, such as the availability of infrastructure (Khamis and Njau, 2016). Yet another study on staff perspectives illustrated that knowledge management practices and the ethics of care literature have important contributions to the quality agenda of healthcare (Farr and Cressey, 2015).Though there are studies on the perception of employees on some aspects of quality issues (Yavas, 1995), research on the opinion of employees on the major dimensions of quality management is still sparse. These dimensions of quality include planning and documentation, policies/procedures, employee participation in quality management activities, patient safety management, the perceived outcome of quality improvement, and training and development opportunities. The present study, aims to understand and evaluate the perception of employees on different dimensions of quality management, their knowledge, service involvement, job performance and approach toward quality in the Indian healthcare context.It is paramount to ascertain the reliability and validity of this tool. In order to understand which variables in the questionnaire can become predictive factors on the perception of employees, a theoretical framework (Rich et al., 2015) consisting of a conceptual model was developed, with six different subscales of this questionnaire tool, as shown in Figure 1.The tool was built mainly using closed questions and responses to it on a 5-point Likert-scale, but also comprising a few measurements in ordinal and nominal scales. This questionnaire comprised of 39 items linked to six different attitude-subscales as follows:Planning and documentation (n = 7 items)Quality management begins with planning and recording the process involved in its preparation and execution. Hence, a well-planned quality assurance system directs accurate documentation, quality, and patient safety, and, ultimately, the satisfaction of the stakeholders. Assija (2012) showed that weaknesses in quality were due to a lack of planning specific strategies and inadequacy in providing verbal reminders of appointments.(2)Employee participation in quality management activities (n = 5 items)The central philosophy of quality management, quality assurance and quality improvement revolves around the involvement and participation of employees in quality management activities of an organization. Therefore, assessing employee participation may shed light on organizational performance. Panda and Kondasani (2017) made it clear that employees need to stay involved in quality management activities and take responsibility for the actions of the hospital and strive to improve them.(3)Existence of policies/procedures/guidelines (n = 5 items)Updated policies and procedures and guidelines are an integral component of the smooth functioning of the day-to-day activities of any organization. Updated policies/procedures/guidelines in the hospital can ensure that foolproof systems are in place and lead to desired outcomes. The existence of formal policy/procedure documents not only guides employee behavior and decision-making but also assures consistency in the taking of decisions across the organization. Mensah et al. (2018) demonstrated the need for policy formulation, implementation and learning to strengthen performance measurement, improvement in quality and establishment of linkages between performance areas.(4)Quality and patient safety management (n = 9 items)The level of quality and patient safety is an indication of quality in healthcare, usually supervised by the nurses who are at the forefront of the healthcare team. However, all the employees in the hospital in their various roles contribute to the improvement of patient safety. Their work includes regular auditing for improvement, generating patient feedback and reporting adverse events not limited to providing individualized patient care. Besides, balancing the work and clarifying the active and adaptive role of employees are key principles for enhancing healthcare quality and patient safety (Carayon et al., 2014).(5)The perceived outcome of quality improvement (n = 7 items)Understanding by the employees of the importance of quality and its successful implementation leads to quality assurance. Further, quality is by and large a subjective perception of the employees and the stakeholders and is influenced by compliance with quality standards. Additionally, perceptions about patients' expectations of care and their expectations of service quality also contribute to quality enhancement (Rohini and Mahadevappa, 2006).(6)Training and development opportunities (n = 5 items)Training and development of employees who handle routine activities in healthcare settings is an integral component of quality management and quality assurance. Continuous training and professional development help employees to follow a systematic approach in meeting desired outcomes, satisfying patient expectations and rectifying potential problems periodically. Further, such a process helps employees update their skills and aids organizational efficiency. Sokovic et al. (2010) concluded in their research that any project using an excellence model involving customers, sales, top-management and employee team should preferably be one with adequate training. Among the determinants of healthcare, the development of staff competency is always a predictive factor in the quality of patient care (Hussein, 2014).\nMethods: Participants\nResults: Instrument reliability\nDiscussion: The present study attempted to validate the HQP tool to ascertain the opinion of the healthcare professionals about the quality of healthcare services offered at selected private and public-sector hospitals in India. To facilitate this research work, two specific cities were chosen, namely, Coimbatore and Trivandrum, in South India. The selection of these two cities was based on their very rapid growth regarding the availability of advanced healthcare facilities.From the findings, it is observed that there are high Cronbach's alpha coefficients, thereby confirming the internal consistency and reliability of the extracted factors. The findings of Nunnally (1978); Usrachi et al. (2015a, b) and Bujang et al. (2018) indicated that Cronbach's alpha coefficients are considered to be the most important reliability indices and are based on both the number and the correlation between the variables in the questionnaire. The overall Cronbach's alpha value of the HQP questionnaire was observed to be 0.959, which is considered to be \"excellent.\" The range of Cronbach's alpha coefficients for the subscales of the HQP questionnaire varied from 0.811 to 0.898. An earlier study demonstrated that a Cronbach's alpha value of 0.70 is considered an acceptable measure of internal consistency (Gable and Wolf, 1993; Bolarinwa, 2015).Further, confirmatory factor analysis was carried out to confirm the initial face validity and content validity and studied through construct validity analysis. From the factor analysis of the developed HQP tool, six factors emerged, accounting for a total of 66.4% of the variance. The explained variance of 66.4% is more than the variance observed by Garcia-Pena et al. (1996) at 44 % and Pourmovahed et al. (2018) at 62%. The observation is in line with those explained by Soo Hoo and Ramer (1998) at 68%. However, Al Kuwaiti and Subbarayalu (2019) observed the variance at 93 percent. In the present study, the within-factor a coefficients ranged from 0.506 to 0.745 (Table 7) and were found to be intermediate among 27 other studies where the range reported was from 0.43 (Li et al., 2004) to 0.90 (Beasley et al., 1999; Pourmovahed et al., 2018; Al Kuwaiti and Subbarayalu, 2019).After conducting factor analysis and content validation of the HQP questionnaire, all the following six factors were retained: (1) Planning and Documentation (7 items); (2) Employee Participation in Quality Management Activities (5 items); (3) Existence of Policies/Procedures/Guidelines (5 items), and (4) Quality and Patient Safety Management (9 items); (5) Perceived Effect of Quality Improvement (N = 7 items) and (6) Training and development opportunities (N = 5 items).In addition, the researchers believe that psychometric testing is required to determine the construct, concurrent, discriminate and predictive validity of the HQP scale. Since most instruments are developed in English, the researchers need to translate it and culturally adapt the instrument to fit with the local languages. It is therefore recommended that this tool be used in future research by translating it into other languages to study cross-cultural adaptation. One of the limitations of this study is that this instrument was prepared for all healthcare professionals in common. It can be further refined to suit each category of the healthcare worker to ascertain their opinion in the future.Further, from a statistical point of view, the factor loading analysis under the varimax rotation method produced an observed variance of 66.4%, which implies that 66.4% of participants were well aware of the questions put forward to them. Since the total variance of above 60% is acceptable, the observed variance of 66.4% in the validation study satisfies the requirements of the questionnaire tool. Moreover, 66.4% of conformity may be justified based on the type of questions raised since such tools and studies generating employee perception on the quality of healthcare services are novel to the current study settings.\nConclusion: This research paper validates the HQP scale that measures the opinion of healthcare professionals on the quality of healthcare services offered by selected private and public sector hospitals in Coimbatore and Trivandrum cities. The six factors that emerged from this scale are demonstrated to be suitable for capturing the hidden perception of healthcare professionals on the quality of healthcare services offered in hospitals located in India. The factors included explained variance of 66.4%, the overall alpha coefficient of 0.959 for internal consistency reliability, and were invariably positive, with significant interfactor correlations.Implications for policy, practice and management\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this project was to determine the validity and reliability of the Healthcare Quality Perception (HQP) questionnaire tool designed to capture employees' perceptions of healthcare quality in Indian hospitals.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Two hundred employees in private and public sector hospitals in India were randomly selected and given the HQP tool. It consisted of 38 Likert-scale items and six different subscales: (1) Planning and Documentation (n = 7); (2) Employee Participation in Quality Management Activities (n = 5); (3) Existence of Policies/Procedures/Guidelines (n = 5); (4) Quality and Patient Safety Management (n = 9); (5) Perceived Effect of Quality Improvement (n = 7) and (6) Training and Development Opportunities (n = 5). 156 completed questionnaires were received, demonstrating a 78% response rate. HQP tool subjected to statistical analysis to measure its reliability and validity. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered as \"significant.\"\nFindings: Factor analysis pulled out six factors that conjointly demonstrated 66.4 % of the variance in healthcare professionals' (HCPs') perception of healthcare service quality in selected Indian hospitals. The overall Cronbach's alpha coefficient was measured at 0.959 for internal consistency reliability. This study demonstrates that the identified six critical factors are important determinants influencing HCPs' perception of the quality of healthcare services in private and public sector hospitals in India.\nOriginality/value: This study provides evidence for the reliability and validity of the newly developed HCP Scale for the assessment of employee perception of the quality of services offered in selected hospitals in India, with potential applications in other contexts.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Improving medical personnel selection and appointment processes	[ "Selection", "Appointment", "Medical personnel", "Health services", "Personnel administration", "Performance criteria" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Medical personnel are key members in multidisciplinary health teams and their performance is critical to any healthcare organization's success. Effective appointments will often determine whether clinical objectives can be achieved. Medical staff have a profound effect on: clinical team functions; quality and safety programs; patient and staff satisfaction; healthcare costs and institutional reputations (Weiner et al., 2006). Appointing senior medical staff with the required leadership qualities will affect healthcare staff's ability to achieve their strategic goals (McAlearney, 2005). Thus, it is logical that managers seek to recruit the most suitable and talented people. However, several factors influence selection processes for appointing senior medical staff that often result in unsatisfactory appointments. Many countries are experiencing medical workforce deficiencies that reduce recruiters' ability to be highly selective, especially in those countries with less well-developed healthcare systems and also in rural and remote areas (World Health Organization, 2006). With demand for medical staff outstripping supply, doctors have higher job mobility (Buchan, 2006; Kanchanachitra et al., 2011). The medical profession's relative autonomy and their highly-developed professional organizational systems gives doctors greater independence and bargaining power, individually and collectively, compared to other employee groups (Neale et al., 2007). They are highly developed professional groups, each with their own characteristic socialization requirements, with varying political and industrial power (Filc, 2006). An example of organization power is doctors' ability to force health authorities and hospitals to meet externally-determined requirements such as training accreditation, credentialing (relevant formal qualifications that determine appointment eligibility) and clinical privileging (granting rights to undertake a particular clinical role or practice based on qualifications, prior training, infrastructure, staff and equipment), using health technology, industrial agreements, working conditions, clinical service design and operation, and accrediting clinical service provision. This review focuses on medical staff appointments, particularly specialists, although the principles apply to appointing all healthcare personnel.\nMaking the best appointments: A literature search showed little scientific work aimed specifically at selecting medically qualified personnel. Traditionally, in countries with a public hospital system, a specialist is appointed to a defined position by advertising in relevant media and by selecting from an applicant pool (Hurst, 2000). Sometimes, a recruitment agency will be involved, especially for recruitment to positions that are difficult to fill, or where the applicant field is small (Diallo, 2004). The interview and selection process are usually performed by a committee or panel that recommends to someone with financial authority to appoint. Interview panels tend to be dominated by medically qualified peers in the relevant and related specialties (Glick, 2000). Thus, the panel is usually concerned with selecting a person who has the appropriate credentials and clinical skills. It would be a serious flaw if an applicant were appointed on excellent communication skill grounds but lacked ability to provide effective and safe clinical care. However, it is important not to neglect non-clinical selection criteria. There is also a risk that the non-clinical selection criteria will be overlooked because the applicant appears to be a \"brilliant\" clinician. Even exceptionally talented clinicians must have the ability to work with other professionals or their talents will add little to the organization (Epstein, 2007).Successful appointments often go unnoticed because the appointee fits into the organization so well, work gets done and there are no complaints. The appointments that \"go wrong\" are usually obvious to clinician peers and senior managers after time, but may not be evident in the early stages. Suboptimal appointments are either accepted or managed to mitigate the risks. Few reach the public domain although there are flawed medical appointments that received wide publicity, which illustrate the requirement for a \"due diligence\" process before making appointments. Many lessons can be learned from such cases: accepting referees' reports at face value even with telephone verification, checking primary sources, obtaining corroborative information from institutional and other sources, investigating perceived irregularities, taking care when assessing clinical competency of doctors trained in other healthcare systems, needing thorough credentialing and clinical privileging prior to appointment, professional and government organization staff that are involved in setting standards, supervising specialists in the early appointment stage and the need for a probation period. Senior managers are potentially vulnerable when there are staff shortages and systems problems that make it difficult to recruit appropriate specialist medical staff. Tragically, such cases also potentially damage patients, medical profession's reputation and the public perception of healthcare institutions following poorly made senior health professional appointments.\nSelection based on competencies: Increasingly, medical educators and leaders, and the community have articulated the need for doctors to have broader skills and expertise than performing clinical duties (Davies, 2006). For instance, the Canadian Medical Education Directives for Specialists (CanMEDS) competencies encapsulate qualities that are now considered essential for a competent doctor (Morrison and MacNeily, 2006). These have been adopted, sometimes with minor modifications, by many organization and program staff such as the United Kingdom NHS Foundation Program, USA Specialty Boards, Confederation of Postgraduate Medical Education Council of Australia and other organizations. The CanMEDS competencies can be used as a framework for assessing medically qualified applicants' suitability for appointment (Table I).Most core competencies are related to performing clinical duties and in particular practice scope defined in the position description and duty statement. With non-clinical selection, they are important selection criteria. These competencies should be understood prior to advertising a position and making an appointment - important for selecting the best candidate and assessing an employee's performance after some time in the position (Boscheck, 2005; Brazier, 2005). Performance management will be difficult or even impossible if the employee and employer do not understand the employee's full duties (Michie and West, 2004).It is essential to assess formal qualifications, length and quality of supervised training, experience after completing training and proven ability to perform the required clinical duties to a defined standard. An assessment should also be made in relation to the clinician's capacity to manage case mix and caseload required to address clinical service demands, and his/her ability to consistently meet quality and safety standards (Walker and Dunn, 2006). If this assessment does not occur prior to appointment, or at least during the probation period then hospital managers can hardly blame the clinician when it is discovered later that he/she is unable to perform the required clinical workload to institutional standards.Some doctors are aware of quality and safety in clinical practice and support \"quality improvement\" but do little to incorporate it into their day-to-day clinical practice. In today's healthcare organizations, in which quality improvement is essential to good outcomes and efficiency, doctors who incorporate audit into their clinical practice are preferred (Som, 2005). This can be tested at interview by asking applicants what they personally do for clinical audit, how this has altered their practice and if they actively participate in quality and safety programs. Applicants could also be asked about their treatment complication rates. It will quickly become apparent if applicants are genuine about quality and safety, or if they just pay \"lip service\" to quality management. More advanced applicants may have been responsible for initiating and developing quality and safety programs for themselves and their organizations, and they may have published those results in the scientific literature.Evidence about their communication skills, ability to work in a clinical team, support for the organization's strategic aims and their professionalism, should be actively sought. Applicants can be asked to describe a team with whom they have previously worked, how they contributed to team function and how they resolve conflict. Other ways to test an applicant's collaborating and communication skills are to seek specific information from referees with whom the applicant has worked, or to make a temporary appointment and observe the person functioning within the institutional team.Psychological illnesses and personality disorders can affect an employee's ability to function within a team (Weber, 2004). Without discriminating on health grounds, the panel should be aware that some applicants may have problems that could prevent satisfactory performance and it may be necessary to seek a pre-employment health assessment. Significant personality disorders are more difficult to address because they may be associated with prior achievement and previous successful leadership. Sometimes a closer examination reveals significant dysfunction that leads to disharmony and team break-up.\nObtaining the best evidence: Obtaining valid evidence to assess selection criteria can be a difficult exercise. Many rely on the applicant's resume/curriculum vitae, written or oral statement that addresses the selection criteria and referees' reports (Patterson et al., 2005). A significant weakness is that applicants tend to name supportive referees. Also, referees may find it difficult to be objective in their desire to assist the applicant. Referees may also be concerned about \"Freedom of Information\" legislation that can be used to obtain confidential documents written by them. Thus, references should be obtained from senior clinicians who have worked directly with the applicant, e.g. the department's clinical director and also from a senior manager or a quality and safety committee chair person who knows if there is a significant problem with the applicant's clinical work and professional conduct (Lewis and Gardner, 2000). Such referees should be asked specifically to comment on the applicant's clinical outcomes and also about investigations into underperformance. It is wise to obtain signed permission from the applicant to contact referees including additional referees and this can be incorporated into the application form. It is also important to verify referee reports and to explore concerns by telephone. References addressed \"to whom it may concern\" or references written without mentioning a particular position or duties should not be accepted. It is recommended that the selection panel or other personnel specifically check the curriculum vitae and document accuracy. Qualifications and significant positions held should be verified and cited publications reviewed on Medline. The applicant should be asked to provide data or evidence to support the assertion that he/she is a safe clinician. Table I suggests how each major competency can be tested and how material presented by applicants can be corroborated.\nThe selection panel and interview: The job interview is neither an objective nor a reliable successful selection and appointment predictor. Nevertheless, many managers continue to use interviews in the selection process (Huffcutt et al., 2004) because it is an opportunity to bring the applicants in front of the organization's representatives, which may not otherwise be available (Graves and Karren, 1996). The interview also provides a focus for the selecting panel and ensures that the process involves more than one person (Tran and Blackman, 2006). Panels reduce the chances of making an appointment without consultation and provide opportunities for consensus among those appointing staff. What interviews lack in reliability for assessing clinical competence, they make-up in assessing communication and presentation skills (Ramsay et al., 1997). Perhaps the interview reflects the importance that we place on socialization in the workplace. Interviews also provide an opportunity for key members to inform applicants about the organization's underlying values. Although interviews may be intimidating for applicants, research shows that those wishing to be interviewed feel disappointed if rejected without an interview (Schinkel et al., 2004). Selection panel membership needs to reflect the organization's nature and work and those in the organization who have a significant stake holding in the appointment. Panel membership should balance expertise with representatives from those groups working with the appointee. Large panels should be avoided because they may intimidate candidates (Huffcutt and Woehr, 1999). Whatever questioning is used, it is important that questions are clear to the candidate and relevant to the selection criteria (Hackett et al., 2004). There are also some well-known traps that should be avoided (Table II).\nImproving selection and appointment processes - define position and duties prior to advertising: Carefully define the position description and duty statement, taking into consideration all the major elements for achieving institutional objectives and possible changes to duties that may occur. If teaching, junior medical staff supervision, research, management, clinical audit or other duties are important, as is usually the case; these should be specified in the duty statement, which should be reviewed periodically because duties may change.Align selection criteria to key duties\nConclusion: Processes for selecting senior medical personnel to work in healthcare organizations have a long way to go. In the meantime, good outcomes can be achieved by following basic rules and performing \"due diligence\" for every appointment. It is a privilege to work in a healthcare organization and to have responsibility for patient care and clinical leadership. Carefully made medical personnel appointments are important for building capacity in a health organization. Appointments also have a major influence on: organization culture, education and training, research achievement, and on the organization's standing in the community. Good decision-making will save managers time and money in the longer term and add value to the organization, ultimately providing better healthcare to the community.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper seeks to argue that processes for selecting and appointing medically qualified personnel in some healthcare organizations may be limited, especially those that emphasize qualifications rather than expanding the criteria to include practice scope, person-organization fit and capability to function within a healthcare team.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper is based on the authors' experiences and a literature review.\nFindings: - Selection based purely on academic merit, advanced clinical training, skills and professional achievements may not address other essential selection criteria. Medical personnel need to possess competencies such as ability to give high quality care and work constructively in a clinical team; communication skills; willingness to actively participate in quality and safety programs; teaching ability; management and leadership skills; and support institutional values and corporate aims. These attributes are often over-looked and cannot be assumed from academic merit and achievements.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The study's conclusions are based on the authors' experiences and literature review. Future studies may wish to examine selection technique efficacy and outcomes empirically.\nPractical implications: - Better medical personnel selection and appointment processes are likely to reduce unnecessary costs associated with poorly-made appointments, improve patient outcomes and may have a formative role encouraging medical personnel to take a broader view of their healthcare organization roles.\nOriginality/value: - The authors challenge selection panel members to consider non-traditional with normal selection criteria for medical appointments. Nine recommendations for enhancing selection processes are provided.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Participation in medical college activities: a case study of the Australasian experience	[ "Engagement", "Volunteering", "Focus groups", "Participation", "Medical Colleges", "Fellows" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Australasian Medical Colleges are involved in a number of important functions within the healthcare system. These include the training and examination of candidates for medical specialist designation, the accreditation of training sites, contributing to healthcare reforms and policy debates and developing professional standards. Such institutions are not unique to Australasia, with similar responsibilities held by Royal Colleges in the UK or the American Medical Association in the USA. To ensure their sustainability, Medical Colleges in Australasia and throughout the world require significant support from Medical College Fellows, who volunteer to carry out these professional duties. The process of expert medical specialist training and accreditation that occur under the auspices of the Medical Colleges is essential to the preservation of the quality of the future medical workforce of Australia and New Zealand.\nIndividual-level factors effecting Fellow participation: There is little research which examines the antecedents of participation of Fellows in Medical College activities. The literature on volunteering behaviour suggests that gender, generational, ethnic and religious identities influence the volunteer activities of individuals (Wilson and Musick, 1997). Whilst this literature is a useful starting point, the decision of medical practitioners to participate in Medical College activities is far more complex, given that the identity and careers of medical practitioners are heavily intertwined with their profession (Pratt et al., 2006). Within professions, collective understandings of the purpose, values and culture are developed (Allsop and Mulcahy, 1998). In doing so, professions create norms of loyalty and service (Moore, 1970). Participating in Medical College activities may be perceived as a duty and responsibility as custodians of the quality standards and continued sustainability and advancement of specialist medical practice, as well as a way of giving back to the community.\nOrganisational-level factors effecting Fellow participation: The decision to volunteer may also be affected by other factors, such as the policies and practices of the Medical College. It is critical that Medical Colleges attract, motivate and retain high quality Fellows to foster high-performance outcomes. There is significant evidence to suggest that by managing and developing people through effective human resource policies and practices, individuals reciprocate through positive attitudes and behaviours, such as commitment to an organisation and improved productivity (Becker et al., 1997; Guest and Conway, 2004). Therefore, human resource management is an important mechanism by which individual's attitudes and behaviours can be enhanced to maximise individual and organisational performance (Zacharatos et al., 2005; Bartram et al., 2007; Boxall et al., 2011). However, there is limited research which investigates exchange relationships between professionals and their professional associations. Therefore, little is known about the processes of social exchange within these relationships.\nMethod: In this study, we employed an in depth case study of an Australasian Medical College. A qualitative research strategy enables us to develop a narrative of the perspectives of the participants and non-participants in the Medical College's activities.\nResults: Factors motivating fellows' participation with the Medical College\nDiscussion: The Fellows that participated in this preliminary study provided valuable insight into the factors that promote or hinder their level of participation in Medical College's key activities. Fellows that currently volunteer their time to their Medical College report considerable personal and professional benefits from their interaction with their Medical College, which motivates them to continue to volunteer and is consistent with Meeker's exchange framework. There was evidence of several decision rules in operation, including reciprocity (the notion of \"giving back\"); rationality (deriving benefit from College work); altruism (helping others); status consistency (building and maintaining one's status or reputation); and group gain (individual's benefiting from a strong and robust College).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Medical Colleges rely on the volunteer labour of their Fellows to undertake their key functions. In the Australasian context, there is anecdotal evidence to suggest that Fellow participation is declining. The purpose of this paper is to examine the main factors that influence Fellows' participation in the activities of a Medical College.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors conducted three focus groups with Fellows who exhibit varying levels of participation with the Medical College in 2012.\nFindings: The research identified individual and organisational factors which influence the propensity of Fellows to volunteer their time to the Medical College. At an individual level, Fellows cite a number of factors which motivate them to volunteer their time to the Medical College, including: altruistic reasons; giving back to the profession and community; and the benefits that Fellow's receive from their participation in College activities, including enhancing their status within the profession. However, Fellows also report issues of work-family integration, balancing Medical College and work-related responsibilities as factors precluding them from participating in Medical College activities. Fellows also noted several factors related to the operation of the Medical College which inhibited their participation in the Medical College, including the perceived exclusivity of the Medical College, a lack of service orientation towards Fellows, a lack of recognition of the work of Fellows and a perceived lack of advocacy on the part of the Medical College.\nOriginality/value: This paper highlights that the participation of Fellows in their Medical Colleges is essential to maintaining quality standards and the effective operation of Australasian healthcare. These preliminary results indicate that there are several factors which discourage Fellow participation in Medical College activities, suggesting a need for Medical Colleges to develop strategies to address these issues.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Public value as a framework for reforming publicly funded museums	[ "Public value", "New public management", "Professional corrosion", "Public museum" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The issue of efficiency in museum services recently came to the fore to avoid disproportionate concessions from the needs of the current generation as public museums have no difference from the rest of the public sector in terms of the expectations for clear statements of justifications for public funding, and evidence of policy effectiveness. Hence, New Public Management (NPM) has been the major label of administrative reforms to redesign the public museums in many countries because of its emphasis on efficiency (Gray, 2008, 2011; Caldwell, 2005; Gori and Fissi, 2013; Menezes et al., 2009; Yamamoto, 1999).\nBeyond NPM: public value as a framework for reform in museums: The concept of public value has been a magnet for managers and public policy makers across the world in the last years. In addition, its capacity and significance to symbolize a new approach going beyond the market models in public governance have been articulated by several scholars such as Kelly et al. (2002) or Benington (2011) mainly as a framework of networked community governance and replacement of the NPM to public sector reform. In general, this new concept points to a perception that earlier public sector models have ignored civil society and regarded the public as mere consumers in a quasi-market or passive receivers of public services (Williams and Shearer, 2011).\nAdministrative framework of cultural heritage management in Turkey: Bonini Baraldi et al. (2013) identify the Turkish public museum sector as highly fragmented and centralized despite intensive administrative and legal reforms within the last three decades. Regarding fragmentation, they argue that the Turkish Parliament and even the Ministry of Defence all play roles at different points in the heritage chain other than the many bodies within the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MoCT)[1].\nMajor reform initiatives in the sector: In Turkey, the Act of 1983 on the Cultural and Natural Assets Protection - also known as Act No. 2863 - gives the major role for the protection of cultural heritage to the MoCT, and the protection of the cultural assets has been admitted as the responsibility of central government. Nonetheless, Act No. 5226 of 2004 replaced some articles of the Act No. 2863 of 1983, and local government units (LGUs) have been given broader authority in the administration of cultural issues (Ozel, 2005).\nMethod: Sample and procedure\nMeasures: As previously mentioned, this study is a part of a larger work about public museums. The measurement in this study is based on eight questionnaire items along with the demographic questions. The questions were selected from a study about public museums by Aksoy et al. (2010). A total of eight items were used to measure each concept - i.e., support for volunteering, budgetary discretion, museum foundations, and sponsorship. The questionnaire was pretested with several museum professionals who indicated that the survey instrument was not difficult to complete.\nFindings: Demographic characteristics of respondents are shown in Table I. Most respondents were above 35 years old (63.4 percent). In total, 36 out of 178 were holding an administrative position (20.2 percent). It is noteworthy that the number of males and females in the sample were equal (50 percent each). Totally, 42 out of 178 museum professionals were pursuing post-graduate studies (23.6 percent).\nDiscussion: The key study finding was that the rudiments of public value creation - i.e., volunteers, museum foundations, budgetary discretion, and sponsorship - had a significant support from museums professionals. This signifies that the re-organization of the sector based on public value approach is regarded promising. Another significant finding was that demographic characteristics of museum professionals did not considerably affect their level of support for public value components.\nConcluding remarks: The overarching conclusion of this research is that public value theory may provide a useful balance between efficiency and the primary roles of the museums, because the museum services should not be measured in mere fiscal gains, an approach which causes professional corrosion in public museums.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: In recent years, New Public Management (NPM) has been used as the major framework for administrative reforms to redesign the public museums in many countries. However, some scholars argue that this market-based transformation results in professional corrosion or shortcomings about the public museums' capacity to fulfill their traditional missions. In this regard, this paper maintains that the concept of public value provides a useful way of thinking about the objectives of public services. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide a new framework for administrative reforms in the sector to keep efficiency without falling into professional corrosion or inefficiency problem.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper uses the data collected through 178 questionnaire surveys.\nFindings: The conclusion of the paper is that, for reforming publicly funded museums, public value offers a balance between efficiency and the primary roles of the museums.\nResearch limitations/implications: In the paper, the analysis is based on the views of museum professionals. Thus, further researches based on different sources of data are required to further explain the administrative peculiarities of public museums.\nOriginality/value: There is a scarcity of literature on the administrative issues in public museums. This paper fulfills an identified need to study on this issue.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Heading for new shores: Impact orientation of CSR communication and the need for communicative responsibility	[ "CSR communication", "Reporting", "Impact", "Communicative responsibility", "Internal CSR" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Today, we know a lot about CSR concepts, strategies and performance of corporations, institutions and increasingly also of NGOs and other kinds of not-for-profit organizations (Rasche et al., 2017; Aguinis and Glavas, 2012). The debate about the relevance of voluntary engagement in social and environmental issues has evolved into recognizing and demanding organizations' responsibility toward their stakeholders (European Commission, 2011), and CSR has become an undisputed - yet contested - concept of corporate conduct in a globalized business world (Rasche et al., 2017). Consequently, the European Commission does not see CSR as a voluntary engagement anymore but as \"corporate behavior which integrates social, environmental, ethical, consumer, and human rights concerns into their business strategy and operations\" (European Commission, 2011, p. 6).\nCSR communication under pressure: A recent survey by the UN Global Compact and Accenture (2016) of more than 1,000 CEOs of companies that participate in the UN Global Compact shows growing recognition of the interdependencies between business and societal goals and increasing confidence that awareness and commitment are translating into action. About two-thirds of the surveyed CEOs are of the opinion that business is making sufficient efforts to address global challenges, up from just one-third in 2013. Along with the increasing relevance of CSR, communication practitioners and consultants have been discussing the challenges of CSR communication (Zerfass et al., 2018). It has also evolved into an established field of research in business administration and management and, with a slight delay, in media and communication studies at the intersection to public relations and organizational communication (Jarolimek and Weder, 2017). There is a broad range of research showing that communication about CSR makes sense with respect to stakeholder expectations (Freeman et al., 2017) and stakeholder engagement (Lim and Greenwood, 2017). However, as noted above, three developments challenge organizations in their CSR communication and put pressure on them.\nSustainability as a normative framework for future CSR communication: More and more critical approaches on CSR communication complement the information-focused research in this field. Constitutive approaches to understand paradoxes open up new perspectives on CSR communication in today's media society (Putnam et al., 2016; Schultz et al., 2013; Osburg and Lohrmann, 2017). This goes hand in hand with a conceptualization of CSR communication as sense-making and sense-giving in iterative progressive processes (Morsing et al., 2008; Schoeneborn and Trittin, 2013; Schultz and Wehmeier, 2010), and less as a means to maximize business returns (Du et al., 2010). Consequently, organizations are challenged to engage in dialogues with stakeholders on various issue arenas (Luoma-aho and Vos, 2010) or rhetoric arenas (Coombs and Holladay, 2012). Not only this constitutive perspective, but also the progressively visible, explicit communication practices put the character of CSR communication and related standards and normative frameworks up for discussion.\nHeading for new shores: communicative responsibility: In order for CSR communication to make a difference, it has to be impactful in quantity and quality, and be more than \"just\" information (Chen, 2009). To meet the abovementioned challenges, we need a concept for understanding public discourses and their role in co-constructing the allocation and taking of responsibility in an era of digitalization, which is handled under the umbrella of \"stakeholder responsiveness\" (Lim and Greenwood, 2017), \"interactive CSR communication\" (Eberle et al., 2013; Saxton and Waters, 2014; Cho et al., 2017) or \"virtual corporate social responsibility\" (Korschun and Du, 2013). Here, issues like accountability and disclosure, consequences and normative frameworks like sustainability (Golob et al., 2013) as well as the integrated concepts of CSR communication as interaction, co-creation and the significance of connectedness become significant (Golob et al., 2017; Diehl et al., 2017; Crane and Glozer, 2016; Schultz et al., 2013).\nOverview of the papers in this special issue: This special issue of Corporate Communications: An International Journal features the latest knowledge, research and insights on CSR communication as presented at the 4th CSR Communication Conference held in Vienna September 21-23, 2017. The conference included more than 70 presentations altogether and was conceptualized as building a bridge between academic research and experiences from CSR communication practice. The ten most inspiring papers were selected for this special issue following a rigorous peer-review process. Nine were presented at the conference, and one paper was added because of its good fit with the focus of this special issue.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This editorial is an introduction to the special issue on CSR communication related to the 4th CSR Communication Conference, held in Vienna (Austria) in September 2017. The purpose of this paper is to critically reflect on the state-of-the-art in academic research on CSR communication concepts, strategies and future scenarios.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The editorial critically evaluates existing academic research dealing with CSR communication in the digital age. More precisely, it analyses established theories and concepts of CSR communication in terms of their fit to meet future challenges.\nFindings: It can be noted that CSR communication practice is heading for new shores. Economic pressure, legal and political requirements, reputation risks in a digital media ecology and a new civic-minded and well-being-oriented generation of employees require a reorientation of CSR communication from information to impact orientation. Thus, the authors complement the approach of communication about CSR with the concept of communicative responsibility as a normative framework for corporate communication in the future.\nOriginality/value: The analyzed literature as well as the papers of the CSR Communication Conference indicate that the authors are heading toward a future of impact- instead of information-oriented communication. Here, communicative responsibility comes in as a fourth dimension of corporate responsibility, offering a normative framework for strategic, impact-oriented sustainability communication, integrated reporting and internal CSR.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Relationships of collapse: network brokerage, opportunism and fraud in financial markets	[ "Financial markets", "Financialization", "Social networks", "Embeddedness" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the 1990s, the market value of domestic telecommunications companies skyrocketed, peaked, and then nosedived. In the years preceding the collapse, market intermediaries and other key players in the finance sector presented falsified information to investors in an attempt to safeguard profits. Assuming them to be well informed about the dealings of domestic telecom companies and evolving market structures, the growing new generation of individual investors made financial decisions based on flawed or fabricated information. Devastating consequences ensued, thwarting economic advancement and growth. In 2002, Fortune Magazine called telecom's fall \"the biggest wreck in corporate history\" (Mehta, 2002).\nResearch approach: We employ a mix of historical qualitative analysis and a network theoretic framework to outline the structure of \"cozy\" relationships that existed on the Wall Street in the late 1990s. This research is less concerned with hypothesis testing, but rather elaborates the qualitative aspects of seemingly rational relationships in a market setting and connects empirical facts into existing theory to generate new empirically sound theory. The rich data that qualitative and historical analysis generates assist in \"developing theories and applying existing concepts to a new context\" (Weischedel et al., 2005). This research follows an inductive approach which uses empirical observations to \"allow the construction of explanations and theories about what has been observed\" (Carson et al., 2001, p. 12).\nNetwork brokerage: A central aspect to network theory is brokerage. Brokerage is commonly conceptualized as an actor that connects two otherwise disconnected groups, cliques, or individuals (Burt, 2005; Borgatti et al., 2013). Brokers are important in larger networks as they serve as gatekeepers, they assist in access to unfamiliar markets, and they facilitate the transmission or flow of information and other assets from one group to another. In doing so, the broker gains access to novel information and increased opportunity to control said information between the groups being brokered. Brokers' loyalties are often fleeting as brokerage frequently spurs conflict, exploitation, the pursuit of personal profit, accumulation of power, corruption, and can exacerbate inequalities (Stovel and Shaw, 2012). In this sense, the broker acts as the gatekeeper and has increased control over who receives what information, or if information is transferred at all.\nFinancial markets, financial analysts, and asymmetric information: Since the 1980s, the nature of financial markets has changed substantially. The importance of financial markets to the functioning of modern day capitalism is unquestioned (Abolafia, 1996). However, there is some tension within the literature as to the characteristics that define financial markets. Abolafia (2006) concisely suggests that financial markets are made up of buyers and sellers. While this crude definition suffices as the fundamental idea, it understates the role of numerous actors involved in securities trading. To illustrate, a recent recruitment booklet lists fourteen different sectors in which one may choose to work within financial markets, ranging from wealth management to quantitative analytics (published by www.efinancialcareers.com) and the range of occupations within each sector is vast. Buyers and sellers are, however, essential to financial markets as they occupy two distinct structural locations within the overall network and analysts play a brokering role between the two parties.\nCase study: the telecommunications market: The telecommunications industry gained significant recognition and visibility due to its exponential growth and increased market capitalization in the 1990s. Wireless technology emerged, ownership of home computers flourished, and the internet became common and widely used. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 allowed for widespread competition in a sector that had been legitimately monopolized by AT&T since the 1920s. AT&T was highly regulated as a protected monopoly until 1975 when telecommunications was partially deregulated for long-distance competition. Talk of widespread deregulation began in 1985 when multiple domestic companies lost significant amounts of capital due to accounting irregularities in international calling. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 deregulated telecommunications and widespread competition was permitted. The stated purpose of the Act was to \"create a regulatory platform that would permit broad competition among different kinds of telecommunication service providers, encourage innovation, and recognize rapid technological change\" while preserving the strength and vitality of an already established industrial sector (Aufderheide, 1999, p. 8). Later, the Federal Communications Commission (2011) stated that an additional goal of the law was \"to let anyone enter communications business - to let any communications business compete in any market against any other\".\nThe social nature of investment banking: While an entire market collapse cannot be reduced to the behavior of a few individuals, in some circumstances individual contributions cannot be ignored. Indeed, financial markets are embedded in their social environments, and are susceptible to norms and values as well as human error, greed, and self-preserving impulses. The neoclassical model of perfect competition suggests that individuals are too few and insignificant to affect market price. However, we argue that status and prestige coupled with individual motivations and strategic network positions gives certain individuals increased power and influence within financial markets and networks in general. Specifically, we focus on the content of ties, the role of the larger market context, and the functions of underlying socio-political mechanisms (Erikson, 2013; Gross, 2009).\nThe current state of Chinese walls: continuing problems on Wall Street?: In the late 1990s, investors trusted analysts to release impartial and unbiased information about the potential earnings of investing in specific corporations. However, \"professional go-betweeners, such as investment and business brokers, are the least [...] trusted channels for information\" (Baker and Faulkner, 2004, p. 92). As a result of the conflicted investment system outlined above, in October of 2000 the SEC adopted Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD) which was meant to address conflicts of interest in financial markets[1]. In April 2003, the SEC added supplementary regulation analysts certification (Reg AC) which requires analysts to include certifications that research reports accurately reflect their personal views and, more importantly, disclose whether or not they received compensation or other payments in connection with the recommendation[2]. In April 2003, federal prosecutors settled with ten of Wall Street's biggest investment banks and Grubman and Blodget in which they would re-erect the Chinese walls separating investment bankers and analysts (Carney, 2013). However, a study conducted by Brown et al. (2015) suggests that ten years after the Global Settlement, significant portions have been ignored.\nConclusion and extension of research: In this paper, we apply network theory and network brokerage to analyze the structural position and role of security analysts in financial markets. We argue that analysts, acting as network brokers, contributed to the telecommunication market collapse in the early 2000s by brokering relationships with top management and members within their firm, both of which led to biased and conflicted research analysis. In contrast to the efficiency view (Fama, 1965), which undermines the role of market intermediaries in financial markets, our contribution using a network theoretic approach reveals that security analysts can significantly influence the market through the selective disclosure of information and the echo mechanism (Burt, 2005). The network view highlights that the information transmitted through the social structure is more easily accessed by key individuals in strategic structural positions in social structure (Burt, 1992). Furthermore, similar to the literature on opinion leaders and attentive publics (Converse, 1964; Devine, 1970; Krosnick and Telhami, 1995), financial intermediaries who are dedicated to one specific domain present information to an attentive (investing) public. Due partially to the structural location of the intermediary, there is an increased potential for the analyst to distort information and influence others' investing behavior. Furthermore, because of the erosion of Chinese walls in banking at the time, it was likely increasingly difficult to provide independent research reports. The structural location of the broker only further complicates the independence (or at least its outward appearance) of banking and investing.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper explores the social-behavioral aspects of financial markets. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of social relations and networks which contributed to the market crash in the US telecommunications sector in the late 1990s.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A network theoretic approach is used to examine historical qualitative data. The authors suggest that the network characteristics of financial intermediaries allowed security analysts to control and manipulate information that was disclosed to the investing public.\nFindings: The authors find evidence that brokerage locations in the network of actors within the telecommunications market allowed select individuals opportunities to engage in unethical behavior and malfeasance. The authors further highlight the harmful effects of over-embeddedness by illustrating that strong and dense network ties within the financial sector were exploited to distort the flow and reliability of information. The paper concludes with a note on the generalizability of this study and an examination of the current economic-legal structure of Wall Street.\nOriginality/value: Recently, some economists and network scholars have begun examining social relations more thoroughly in the financial sector. This paper is one of the first that focuses specifically on the role and network location of research analysts prior to a market collapse.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Professional discourses and resistance to change	[ "Discourse", "Resistance to change", "Organizational change", "Professional groups", "Linguistics", "Attitudes" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Organisations change and adapt continuously to remain competitive (Balogun and Hope Hailey, 2008), and yet effective organisational change seems to be rare (By, 2005; Meaney and Pung, 2008). Recent statistics reveal that only one-third of organisational change efforts were considered successful by their leaders (Meaney and Pung, 2008; Beer and Nohria, 2000). Apparently, implementing successful change programs in organisations is quite problematic. The low success rates of change programs are often attributed to resistance to change on the part of employees (Ford et al., 2008). However, a more nuanced view on resistance to change and its determinants might be more appropriate (Piderit, 2000).Change processes are driven by several strategic considerations (Schilling and Steensma, 2001), including the need for more integrated ways of working (Rugman and Hodgetts, 2001) and the need to improve business performance (Balogun and Hope Hailey, 2008). These considerations typically result in structured change programs based on the assumption that change management consists of a (limited) set of interventions, which are regarded as objective, measurable and linearly manageable programs that can be realised in a relatively short time. However, scholars on resistance to change point out the need for research beyond top-down organisational change. Studies should pay attention to the dynamics of change processes (Jones et al., 2004; Dibella, 2007) and thereby contribute to the understanding of resistance, which is paramount to the high failure rate of change programs (Quinn and Dutton, 2005; Di Virgilio and Ludema, 2009).Influenced by the previous literature, we analyse change program dynamics. We approach change processes from a discourse perspective and argue that every change program contains subjective dimensions involving informal sensemaking interactions (Ford et al., 2008). The way in which people interpret a change project is reflected in the language they use, hence, in their discourses (Barrett et al., 1995; Boje, 1991; Di Virgilio and Ludema, 2009; Garzone and Archibald, 2010). When different professional groups that cooperate in a change program give different meanings to the change situation, these differences can result in resistance to change of those involved. Impaired mutual understanding can lead to negative affections towards members of other professional cultures, resulting in decreasing motivation to cooperate. Hence, we argue that the way people make sense of the change program has important implications for the effectiveness of change programs (Weick, 1995; Homan, 2010), and problems in change programs can be attributed to subjective sensemaking dynamics (Ford et al., 2008; Ford and Ford, 2010).The objective of this paper is to shed light on the way language use among participants in change programs affects resistance to change. We draw from two literatures, namely change management literature about sense-making processes and linguistic literature about professional discourses and the role of language in interaction between different professional cultures. Our study's contribution lies in the linguistic analysis of a case involving the implementation of an ICT system for the technical department of a European low cost airline. The case provides empirical data on the dynamics of resistance to change. The data bring out the clash of professional discourses between different groups of professionals. Our outcomes indicate the importance of making explicit the implicit definitions, assumptions, beliefs and expectations from groups of professionals involved in change projects. Paying attention to the language used during processes of sense making can reduce resistance to change.The organisation of the paper is as follows. First, we will review the literature on change management and the place of the resistance to change theme therein. Discourse-related aspects of change that are generally underexposed in traditional change management literature are shown. Subsequently, we discuss the research methodology and present the results from our case study. Finally, we offer conclusions, limitations and issues for further research.\nLiterature review: Resistance to change is a recurring theme in the change management literature (Cummings and Worley, 2005; Senior and Swailes, 2010). The way in which it is defined depends on the chosen theoretical perspective. Two main perspectives can be identified:1. conventional change management literature; and2. critical perspectives on change management.For excellent overviews of the conventional perspective, see Armenakis and Bedeian (1999), Pettigrew et al. (2001), and Beer and Nohria (2000). Shared core assumptions in the conventional perspective are that change is imperative (change is good, stability is bad) and that change should be managed and controlled (Weick and Quinn, 1999). Furthermore, the models and approaches for managing change are framed in the interest of management (Sturdy and Grey, 2003).In contrast, critical change management literature questions whether change and stability are two mutually exclusive and objective states. The interpretation might depend on the perspective and position of the person defining it. Stability might be \"unnoticed change\" (Kanter et al., 1992). Also, change is not idealised, as it is unlikely that all organisational members will be enthusiastic about the nth change project (Brown and Humphreys, 2003).Conventional change management literature\nMethodology: Data collection\nCase study: The case involves the implementation of an ICT system, TRAX, for the technical department of a European low-cost airline. The need for a new ICT system emerged when the supplier of the existing application could no longer support it. In January 2008, a project organisation was assembled to select a new system. A group of key users, consisting of employees from every department of the organisation, did the initial mapping, design and construction of a test environment. Testing was finished in September 2008. Subsequently, the group developed training material and organised training schedules for about 200 end users. The application would go live on 29 January 2009. A consultancy firm was involved in September 2008; at that time management experienced serious resistance to change on the part of employees and started doubting the chances of successful implementation.Note that historic events might have fuelled resistance to change. Two years earlier a reorganisation program offered several employees other, less interesting jobs. These painful experiences still resonated in the organisation. In this study we solely focus on the differences in discourses between professional groups and their role in the experienced resistance to change.The following professional groups are distinguished:* end users of the new ICT system;* key users who are delegates of the end users and responsible for the development and testing of the ICT system; and* (project) management, responsible for the overall implementation.The key users consist of employees from several professional backgrounds, namely engineering, aircraft maintenance, and purchasing and logistics.Discourse contains both spoken and written language. We divide the description of the discourse analysis into four sections:1. discourse in written project documentation;2. discourse in formal interviews with individual employees;3. discourse during informal conversations between employees; and4. discourse during and after formal team sessions.Written project documentation\nConclusion, discussion and recommendations: As an addition to the contemporary literature on resistance to change, the case study illustrates that resistance to change and difficulties in cooperation in a specific change project can be related to unarticulated non-alignments of professional discourses.The theoretical contribution of this study is that we combine change management literature with linguistic literature about professional discourse. In this way we provide an original approach to analyse resistance to change in change projects. We also add to the literature on professional cultures in organisations (e.g. Bloor and Dawson, 1994) by concluding that in interactions between professional cultures unarticulated differences in discourse can be related to resistance to cooperation and change. Whereas studies about discourse analysis of organisational change have been undertaken mostly from a \"vertical\", hierarchical perspective (e.g. Dunford and Jones, 2000; Knights and Willmott, 1992; Brown and Humphreys, 2003; Doolin, 2003; Grant et al., 2006), we additionally investigate the horizontal dimension of interaction, involving peer groups. We contribute to the discourse analysis literature concerning change management by analysing actual speech acts, which is typical of linguistic studies.The methodological contribution of our study lies in the simultaneous use of different discourse measurement tools (Singleton and Straits, 2010; Jick, 1979). We performed discourse analyses on speech acts, negotiation styles as well as conversation styles. Using these tools together and analysing the research data in a quantitative way enabled us to uncover the dynamics of the sense makings processes among different professionals and the problems they had in cooperating and coming to agreements. The speech acts analysis showed that some professionals predominantly resort to assertives, while other professionals mainly use different speech acts, namely general and meta-communication. A lack of reflection upon these differences probably caused the relationships among the professional groups to deteriorate; this finding is in line with findings of Hardy et al. (2005). Professional groups scorned each other in informal conversations, leading to difficulties in reaching performing and closing conversational styles. The analysis of the negotiation styles indicated that formal conversations predominantly showed cooperative styles, while in informal settings the utterances were identified as non-cooperative. This non-cooperation might be another reason for the fact that many discussions did not extend beyond the understanding phase.This study has some limitations. First, the formal discourse analysis was based on transcripts from only two sessions with the group of (project) managers. However, the observed patterns in these two sessions were clearly recognisable in other meetings and informal conversations and hence can be considered as characteristic. Second, the selection of utterances in the discourse analysis was somewhat subjective. However, these utterances represented the most crucial turns in both meetings and reflect the overall gist of the discussions.With regard to future research, we plead that studies on resistance to change should incorporate linguistics and discourse analysis, as this can result in new perspectives on the causes of resistance to change. Research on resistance to change could pay more attention to differences in professional cultures in cross-functional or even virtual teams in order to provide a comprehensive analysis of the situation. It appears to be difficult for different professional groups to develop a shared mental model when not being aware of and sensitive to their own professional discourse and the professional discourses of others. In this respect, our case study illustrates the statement of Jones et al. (2004) that it is paramount to analyse the perspectives of \"all stakeholders and to go beyond the top-down advice to managers\" (p. 741). With a focus on inter-group relationships, the dynamics of organisational change might be better understood leading to redefining and resituating the role of \"resistance to change\" in change management.As to the managerial implications of our study, we find that differences in professional discourse should be made explicit and be a constant point of attention in (project) teams. Managers typically think that it is not their role to interfere in the details of change projects. Yet, by adhering to this perspective, managers will use a specific discourse, specific kinds of speech acts and certain negotiation styles, which might not be understood by other professional groups. Thus, an explicit reflection on their own style and its effects on the interaction dynamics could help managers to develop a broader view on the implementation of change and possible resistance on the part of employees, thereby creating more and new options for action.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate how resistance to change might be a consequence of differences in professional discourse of professional groups working together in a change program.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper uses discourse analysis and rubrics to study the implementation of a new ICT system for an airline. Data for this case study were collected in semi-structured interviews, desk research, participant observations and a diagnostic workshop.\nFindings: - The data suggest that the non-aligned interaction between different professional discourses can be a source of resistance to change, in addition to other well-known sources of resistance to change in the change management literature. Future research regarding change management should incorporate linguistics and discourse analysis. Investigating resistance to change could be done comprehensively, paying attention to differences in professional cultures in cross-functional (project) teams. A managerial implication of the study is that making differences in professional discourses explicit is a constant point of attention in (project) teams.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The authors' choices with regard to the sample size and methods limit the generalisability of the results. However, these choices were instrumental in reaching a rich set of data, which enabled the authors to get an understanding of the conversational dynamics in the case.\nOriginality/value: - The paper argues that change programs contain subjective, informal and linguistic dimensions which might give reasons for understanding resistance to change in new ways. The theoretical contribution of the paper is that it integrates change management literature with linguistic literature about professional discourse.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Studying coopetition in a wine industry context: directions for future research	[ "Coopetition", "Wine industry", "Empirical management research" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The wine industry has been a popular empirical context across the broader management literature, with scholars using this setting to study a range of theoretical issues. In the International Journal of Wine Business Research, studies have examined numerous scholarly and practical issues across multiple countries, finding that the wine industry is an interesting context for empirical management research (Taplin, 2010; Bamberry and Wickramasekara, 2012). Moreover, the wine industry has also been used as an empirical context used to study the notion of \"coopetition\", i.e. the interplay between cooperation and competition (Crick, 2015). Coopetition is defined as \"a dynamic and paradoxical relationship, which arises when two companies cooperate in some areas, such as strategic alliances, but simultaneously compete in other areas\" (Bengtsson and Kock, 2000, p. 411). According to Crick (2018), the wine industry (specifically, that in New Zealand) is an effective empirical context to examine coopetition activities because of it being a highly competitive and cooperative market.\nThe facets, antecedents and consequences of coopetition: Coopetition is an activity, in which organisations (or more specifically, managers) collaborate with their competitors, in terms of the sharing of resources (e.g. equipment and hardware) and/or capabilities (e.g. knowledge and experience) (Bengtsson and Kock, 2000). As such, coopetition is a business strategy used to improve company performance (e.g. sales) in ways that would be considerably more difficult if managers did not have access to competitors' resources and/or capabilities. Further, coopetition-oriented behaviours allow organisations to access opportunities (e.g. new markets) that would be unobtainable, if some firms competed on an individualistic-level (Telfer, 2001). Despite coopetition being a well-studied area, there are nevertheless some key research gaps. Specifically, there is scarce research surrounding the antecedents of coopetition activities (please see Figure 1). Thus, there is ample scope to develop the coopetition literature, by uncovering the drivers of coopetition activities (e.g. corporate cultures and organisational capabilities), to build upon the few studies that have explored such themes (Crick, 2018). This is important for managers, as it is currently difficult to recommend to practitioners what assets are needed to engage in coopetition. In this current paper, the benefits of using the wine industry to better understand the under-researched area of the antecedents of coopetition-oriented behaviours are explained. The empirical contexts used in wine business research are expanded upon in the following section.\nWine business research and empirical contexts: The global wine industry is divided into two over-arching groups: Old World countries (i.e. established wine markets, such as France, Italy and Spain) and New World countries (i.e. newer entrants to the wine sector, such as Australia, South Africa and New Zealand) (Crick and Crick, 2015). Furthermore, some studies have studied specific regions of certain wine-producing countries; for example, Telfer (2001) explored the strategic alliances of vineyards and wineries in Canada's Niagara region and found that cooperation with vertical (e.g. supply chain partners) and horizontal (e.g. competitors) partners can improve firms' wine tourism offerings. The wine industry provides scholars with an empirical context to study certain phenomena, with such a setting allowing researchers to build and/or test broader management theories (Bamberry and Wickramasekara, 2012).\nThe interplay between cooperation and competition in the wine industry: Wine industries across the world (i.e. in both Old World and New World wine markets) have been found to be highly cooperative and competitive. Regarding the degree of cooperativeness in the wine industry, as mentioned earlier, Telfer (2001) explored how strategies alliances have played vital (i.e. performance-driving) roles for vineyards and wineries in the Niagara wine region. That is, Telfer (2001) considered vertical and horizontal networks (i.e. where managers have collaborative links with suppliers and competitors) and the performance consequences of such activities (e.g. through wine tourism). Cooperation in the wine industry has also been studied at the functional-level, through value co-creation strategies, whereby employees (such as those working in cellar doors) cooperate with their customers, to create a value-added experience through wine tourism (Crick, 2015). In addition to cooperation helping mitigate the chances of vineyards and wineries becoming rogue (i.e. producing poor-quality wine), it allows small firms to survive in their market, by having access to resources and/or capabilities that could be inaccessible or unaffordable, if owner-managers were to compete on an individualistic basis (Crick, 2018).\nDirections for future research: As described in the prior section, wine industries throughout the world have been found to be highly cooperative and competitive. To stress an earlier point, it is rather uncommon for broader management scholars to find sectors with high degrees of cooperativeness and competitiveness; thus, when studying coopetition (i.e. the interplay between cooperation and competition), scholars should therefore take advantage of the wine industry as an empirical context. As there are some research gaps pertaining to the coopetition literature, such as the lack of research surrounding the antecedents of coopetition (Crick, 2018), the wine industry is a highly suitable empirical context for such work. Henceforth, it is recommended that future studies should not only explore coopetition (particularly, its antecedents) but also should use the wine industry as an empirical context to develop such theory.\nConclusions: The objective of this study was to outline the theoretical and methodological benefits of using a wine industry context (for empirical research) to study coopetition. This research objective was achieved through conducting a review of key publications surrounding wine industries across multiple countries. As such, the three conclusions from this paper are as follows. First, it is concluded that the wine industry is a unique business environment (and thus, empirical context) for broader management researchers, as high degrees of cooperation and competition exist - something that it is rare for most industries. Second, it is also concluded that because of the cooperative and competitive nature of the wine industry, researchers should use such an empirical context to study some of the research gaps pertaining to the coopetition literature (e.g. the antecedents of coopetition). Third, it is concluded that the dimensions and organisational performance outcomes (e.g. sales) of coopetition-oriented behaviours have been well-studied, but there is a need for research surrounding the antecedents of coopetition activities (to help scholars and practitioners understand the best ways to manage such business strategies). In closing, the wine industry is proposed to be an empirical context used to develop the coopetition literature (and study the various research gaps associated with the topic).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to highlight the theoretical and methodological value of studying coopetition (the interplay between cooperation and competition) in a wine industry context.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Key publications surrounding wine industries across multiple countries were reviewed to understand how the wine industry is a highly appropriate empirical context to investigate coopetition.\nFindings: The findings revealed that the wine industry is a highly suitable empirical context for researchers to explore coopetition. Specifically, being a highly cooperative and competitive market, the wine industry provides a unique outlook into how coopetition is managed.\nOriginality/value: This paper helps scholars to appreciate the theoretical and methodological benefits of using a wine industry context to evaluate coopetition. Hence, scholars should use the wine industry to obtain rich empirical data surrounding coopetition. The paper ends with a set of recommendations for future research.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A multidimensional approach to the outcomes of perceived value in business relationships	[ "Business relationships", "Perceived value", "Economic satisfaction", "Non-economic satisfaction", "Behavioural loyalty", "Attitudinal loyalty", "Banking", "South Africa" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In an exceedingly competitive business environment, with increasingly demanding and value-conscious business customers, how customers perceive value is of growing interest to scholars and practitioners alike (Nguyen et al., 2019; Eggert et al., 2018). This is not surprising when considering that the contribution of customer perceived value to the maintenance of business relationships is well-recognised (Jayashankar et al., 2018; Lam et al., 2004; Lapierre, 2000), with customer value regarded as the cornerstone of business market management because of the predominant role that functionality or performance plays in business markets (Jensen et al., 2018; Chiu et al., 2018). This holds especially true where customers rely on the products and services they acquire from organisations to improve their own market offering and to increase the overall profitability of their business (Ulaga, 2001).\n2. Theoretical background: The value creation process and its performance indicators such as satisfaction and loyalty, can be explained by social exchange theory (Blau, 1964; Homans, 1958). Derived from social psychology and sociology, social exchange theory explains how relationships are initiated and sustained through the reliable exchange of rewards and the imposition of costs between parties in a relationship, resulting in either positive or negative relational consequences (Kingshott, 2006).\n3. Methodology: To assess the conceptual model, this research was set in a single industry, namely the business banking industry. This service sector was chosen, as the complexity and intangibility of the offerings in the business banking industry and the high level of customer involvement highlight the importance of building closer banking relationships - which can be achieved through higher perceived value, enhanced customer satisfaction and loyalty. While scholarly articles on customer value have increased within the retail business industry over the past few years, research specifically within the business banking industry remains limited. Furthermore, as most empirical studies on relationship banking were conducted under small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), an opportunity was identified to conduct this research among micro-enterprises, which to date have been the focus of only a handful of relationship marketing studies (Neuberger and Rathke, 2009) and thus, SMEs and micro-enterprises in particular, are an under-researched target group (Billore and Billore, 2019; Saarela et al., 2017).\n4. Empirical findings: 4.1 Assessing the measurement model\n5. Theoretical implications: The developed model was based on key variables identified in the literature as the main outcomes of business customers' perception of value. Regarding the causal sequence, this study shows that micro-enterprises' perceived value of services is an explanatory factor in their loyalty intentions.\n6. Managerial implications: The findings of this study offer useful guidance to providers of business banking and other high credence services on how to build and maintain customers' relationships and increase revenue and market share; providing a comprehensive model with perceived value as the foundation for the realisation of satisfaction and loyalty behaviours.\n7. Limitations and suggestions for future research: Despite the important findings reported here, this research is nevertheless bound by some limitations, which in turn open exciting possibilities for future research. For instance, due to the cross-sectional nature of this research, this study does not capture long-term perceptions of value, satisfaction and loyalty. Using longitudinal data in the future could provide a stronger case for causality.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study aims to explore the relationships, direct and indirect, between business customers' perceived value, satisfaction and loyalty.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study was set in the business banking industry, with data collected from 381 micro-enterprise business customers of a large South African bank by means of a self-administered, internet-based questionnaire.\nFindings: The results reveal that business customers' perception of value results in both economic and non-economic satisfaction. The results further indicate that non-economic satisfaction mediates the relationship between economic satisfaction and behavioural loyalty.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study contributes to business services marketing literature by taking a multidimensional approach to the traditional value-satisfaction-loyalty chain.\nPractical implications: The study contributes to business services marketing literature by emphasising the importance of perceived value in driving both economic and social outcomes, which, in turn, drives behavioural outcomes. By providing evidence of the outcomes associated with higher perceived value, service providers gain insights into the importance of focussing on value creation and the building of personal connections with micro-sized businesses to ensure future repurchase behaviour.\nOriginality/value: This research expands on current value research by positioning economic and non-economic satisfaction and attitudinal and behavioural loyalty as outcomes of business customers' perceived value. This is possibly the first study to investigate satisfaction and loyalty as outcomes of perceived value where both comprise two distinct dimensions.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Entrepreneurship education and job creation for tourism graduates in Ghana	[ "Ghana", "Job creation", "Curriculum", "Entrepreneur", "Incubator", "Tertiary", "Unemploment", "Tourism graduates" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: One of the major problems facing developing countries especially those in Africa including Ghana, is youth unemployment (Bwisa, 2004). Every year, thousands of young men and women who complete tertiary education are added to those already in the field seeking mostly for non-existent white-collar jobs. No wonder there is an Association of Unemployed Graduates in Ghana. In addition to this multitude of job-seekers are dropouts from the country's junior and senior high schools, who could not make it to any of the tertiary institutions, due to poor performance at their final examinations or lack of access to higher education. One way of solving this problem has been found in the intensification of entrepreneurship education at all levels of education to provide skills to the youth to make them employable or employers of labour, by creating their own jobs after graduation (Otuya et al., 2013). It is believed that if entrepreneurship education is intensified at the tertiary level, it could help in the development of tourism in the country.\nPurpose of the study: Few studies have been undertaken on the outcomes of entrepreneurial education received by tourism graduates, especially in developing countries. Moreover, no comprehensive tracer studies have been carried out on employment distribution of polytechnic graduates (Afeti et al., 2003). This present study was undertaken to examine how effective entrepreneurship education received by tertiary tourism graduates has helped them to create their own jobs. The purpose of this study is therefore twofold:\nEntrepreneurship education and job creation: In Ghana as in most African countries such as Kenya, entrepreneurship is not taught at the pre-tertiary level (Bwisa, 2004; Otuya et al., 2013). Although basic education can be terminal for students who are unable to continue their education at the tertiary level, such graduates are not given any entrepreneurship education. At the senior high school level in Ghana, the subject that was closest to entrepreneurship was Life Skills, which is no more on the curriculum. That subject covered such important areas as self-management, home management, time management, career awareness and importance of investment. Although most of these areas could be viewed as important for entrepreneurship, it fell short in preparing students to start their own businesses after graduating from college. This lack of entrepreneurship education for basic education graduates limits their abilities to start and manage their own businesses later.\nMethodology: Population and sample selection\nDiscussion: Demographic profile of the respondents\nFindings: The following findings emerged from the study.\nLimitations and future research: To know whether the course entrepreneurship that graduates studied had helped them to start their own businesses, respondents for the study were selected only from graduates who had completed their studies between 2003 and 2008 from the Department of Tourism, but not all graduates of the Department. A comparative study involving graduates of other cognate departments in the School of Applied Sciences and Arts, where Tourism is located, such as Catering or Fashion Design Technology could have provided results that could be generalized.\nRecommendations: Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations are made:\nConclusion: This paper has highlighted the importance of entrepreneurship education for job creation to expand the private sector of Ghana to help speed up the country's development. It provided insight to problems inhibiting entrepreneurship development among tertiary tourism graduates. It is clear that the short duration of entrepreneurship education in polytechnics as well as its absence in most pre-tertiary curriculum has some policy implications. There is also the need to train more entrepreneurship teachers so that the course will be taught by professionally trained entrepreneurship teachers with some industrial experience. This will enable them train students who will be able to start their own businesses. In addition, start-up capital for the graduates should be provided by financial institutions created by the government to help young entrepreneurs to help expand the private sector of the economy, which has been touted as the engine of the country's economic growth.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present a report on a tracer study conducted to find out the extent to which entrepreneurship education received by tertiary tourism graduates had been beneficial to them.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Application of mixed methods research to collect data from 205 tertiary education graduates by the use of snowball sampling techniques and two entrepreneurship teachers selected purposively.\nFindings: The study revealed that <3 per cent of the graduates were operating their own businesses. Among the reasons given for the low level of entrepreneurship practice among the graduates included their inability to access initial capital, absence of entrepreneurship spirit in the graduates and the unrelated nature of entrepreneurship education studied at the polytechnic to the tourism and hospitality industry.\nResearch limitations/implications: The main limitation with this study was sampling bias associated with the snowball sampling technique. This was, however reduced by initially selecting respondents to represent the various year groups of the alumni. In addition, it would have been more appropriate to have included present students in the study to find out their perception of the entrepreneurship education that they are receiving.\nPractical implications: The practical implication of this tracer study is the need for educators to evaluate the entrepreneurship programme to make it subject specific. The work will therefore help tourism educators to prepare syllabi and teach entrepreneurship education that will be relevant and beneficial to tourism and hospitality graduates. Another implication is the need to start teaching entrepreneurship as a course at the basic school level.\nSocial implications: The social implications of this study is that it would enable managers of tertiary education institutions to find appropriate means to increase the number of its graduates who will be able to create their own jobs. These entrepreneurs will be able to create more employment avenues.\nOriginality/value: The novelty of the work is in the use of a tracer study to obtain occupational distribution of graduates of a tertiary programme that enabled the author to ascertain the percentage of graduates who have started and are managing their own businesses.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Managing conflict with emotional intelligence: abilities that make a difference	[ "Conflict management styles", "Emotional intelligence abilities" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Emotions \"consist of neural circuits (that are at least partially dedicated), response systems, and a feeling state/process that motivates and organizes cognition and action\" (Izard, 2010, p. 367). Traditionally, emotions in the workplace have had a negative connotation and were expected to be concealed (Putnam and Mumby, 1993). A more realistic perspective is that emotions have a direct impact on individual choices and decision making, and thus should be acknowledged for their part in navigating relationships and human interactions. Emotions can be helpful mechanisms for individuals to manage their relationships with others (Kumar, 1997).\nMethod: Participants\nResults: Before inferential statistics were computed, descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations were calculated on all relevant measures. They can be found in Table I.\nDiscussion: Individuals in a conflict situation require the skills and ability to make informed judgments in order to effectively manage the conflict. Emotions are a contributing factor to an individual's conceptualization of a conflict and their decision-making capability to effectively manage the conflict. Our study identifies specific relationships between EI abilities and different styles of conflict management. These results contribute to our understanding of which EI abilities are important to leverage in various approaches to managing conflicts.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the critical relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) abilities and conflict management styles in the workplace.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Totally, 126 participants completed a measure of EI and an assessment of conflict management styles. Regression analyses were then performed.\nFindings: Results of regression analyses indicate several significant relationships between EI abilities and participants' conflict management styles. The EI abilities of problem solving, social responsibility, and impulse control were the most directly related to how participants managed conflict at the workplace.\nResearch limitations/implications: Future research should attempt to replicate these findings in other samples. In addition, researchers should investigate other significant variables that explain people's choices in conflict management styles.\nPractical implications: Implications of these findings suggest that for management development purposes, people should attempt to improve on the EI abilities of problem solving, social responsibility, and impulse control in order to manage workplace conflict effectively.\nOriginality/value: This investigation contributes to the literature by identifying specific EI abilities, rather than a macro measure of EI, that are associated with different styles of conflict management.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Human capital, service innovation advantage, and business performance: The moderating roles of dynamic and competitive environments	[ "Innovation", "Service" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The importance of service innovation to the global economy has grown steadily over the past few decades (Johannessen and Olsen, 2010); however, it has attracted less attention in the literature compared with product innovation in manufacturing (Gopalakrishnan et al., 1999). Generally, service innovation provides value to a firm resulting in strategic advantages to the firm (Storey and Kahn, 2010). To the extent that this value represents a superior innovation performance and provides a competitive advantage for the firm within its industry, we define the value as service innovation advantage (SIA). Thus, a firm's SIA can be defined as the firm's new service features, new processes, new technologies, and new methods or ways of delivering services that help to give the firm competitive advantage or superior performance relative to competitors (Den Hertog, 2000). Put simply, SIA is the superiority that firms have over their major competitors in the industry in the area of service innovation.\n2. Theoretical framework and hypotheses development: 2.1 SIA\n3. Methods: 3.1 Sample and procedures\n4. Result: 4.1 Scale validity and reliability\n5. Discussion and implications: In this study, we investigate the relationships between HC, innovation advantage, and BP along with the moderating effects of ED and EC in these relationships. Below, we elaborate on these results and discuss the study contributions and practical implications.\n6. Limitations and future studies: As in all research, this piece of empirical work has its limitations and therefore several points for future research direction are suggested here. It is worthwhile to examine the effects of other external factors as moderators in the relationships investigated including market size, barriers to market entry, regulatory factors, and economic factors. In addition, the interaction between other internal and external factors as they contribute to or impede SIA is worth investigating since firms are typically faced with internal and external factors other than HC and dynamism and competitiveness. For example, the interaction effect of internal factors such as strategic orientations (e.g. Porter's generic strategies or Miles and Snow's strategic typology), organizational capital (Subramaniam and Youndt, 2005) and other external factors on innovation advantage is worth investigating. The competition faced by the firms in our study appears to be mainly in the local market (Australia). Furthermore, a cross-sectoral analysis was not possible because of the relatively small proportion of firms spread across many different sectors which is characteristic of Australian industries. The information about the population size and sectoral distribution of firms within the population were not available. Thus, caution must be exercised in generalizing the results relating to the influence of competitiveness on the studied relationships. Also, cause and effect relationships may be better established using longitudinal data rather than a cross-sectional one. Future studies in this area will benefit from the use of longitudinal data. Finally, although we carefully performed the Harman test to mitigate the issue of common method bias, future studies will benefit from the use of multiple respondents, objective BP measures, or temporal separation in collecting data for independent variables and dependent variables.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of human capital (HC) on service innovation advantage (SIA) and business performance (BP) in service sector firms, and how external environmental factors influence these relationships.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study utilized a cross-sectional mail survey of a random sample of Australian service firms with the unit of analysis being at the firm level. In total, 228 usable responses were received.\nFindings: The overall findings of this study show that HC is positively related to the creation of value or SIA which in turn results in rent generation for firms. The results further show that the effect of SIA on BP is influenced by environmental dynamism and competitiveness with dynamic environments enhancing the effect while competitive environments weakening it.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings demonstrate the complementarity between the resource based theory and contingency theory as they clearly shows that the value of innovation as a firm's capability is enhanced or weakened within a business environment that is more dynamic or competitive.\nPractical implications: The findings demonstrate the importance of HC, and, thus, encourage managers to seek ways to harness and leverage HC for improving innovation and BP. In addition, the study also helps managers to understand the contingency effect of business environment on the effectiveness of innovation, hence, helping them in deliberating firms' strategy in different business environments.\nOriginality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study which examines the effectiveness of HC as organizational resource for building SIA as a source of organizational competitive advantage.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Expecting "the Arab world": imaginative geographies as dominant diversity frames	[ "Religion", "Arab", "Muslim", "Tunisia", "Imaginative geography", "Orientalism" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: No one today is purely one thing. Labels like Indian, or woman, or Muslim, or American are no more than starting-points, which if followed into actual experience for only a moment are quickly left behind(E. Said, 1993, Culture and Imperialism: 407).\nIntroduction: Workplace diversity involves matters of difference, inclusion and exclusion, and, from a critical perspective, these mechanisms are not power free (Prasad et al., 2006; Zanoni et al., 2010). In a diverse setting, social identity - that is: who we are in relation to others (e.g. Tajfel and Turner, 1986) - emerges from the interrelated processes of how others view us (ascriptions made by others) and as \"who\" we perceive ourselves (self-referencing). This involves potential discrepancies across these two processes (Weedon, 2004; Lawler, 2008; e.g. Mahadevan and Zeh, 2015). If these processes are shaped by majority-minority relations or imbalances of power, dominant perspectives and categorizations of certain minority individuals might emerge (Eriksen, 2010). This finding is problematic, as it disadvantages, marginalizes or excludes minority members for no individual or objective reason whatsoever (Mahadevan, 2017, Ch. 4).\nTheoretical background: In this section, we link the concepts of imaginative geographies (Said, 1979/2003) and framing (Goffman, 1974/1986) and introduce our understanding of them as a dominant diversity framing. We also establish the contribution of our study in relation to the literature.\nResearch design: In this section, we present the context of our study, formulate our research question and highlight our methods of data collection and analysis.\nPresentation and interpretation of findings: In this section, we present and interpret our findings. We intend to show how and to what extent the imaginative category \"the Arab world\" framed social identity processes. As it is common in qualitative research, which requires circular processes of interpretation (Flick, 2009), presentation and interpretation of findings go hand in hand.\nSummary of findings and interpretations: Our findings highlight \"the Arab world\" as an imaginative geographical frame in a German-Tunisian research team. At the same time, our findings also show potential discrepancies between dominant frames and social identity processes. In particular, Younis' and Soraya's perceived competitiveness and strong personality seemed perplexing for the German researchers who employed dominant framing. Providing the counterview, the Tunisian researchers perceived an imbalance of knowledge and a lack of reciprocity. This points to Orientalist practice and imaginative categories as inscribed in social relations in context.\nDiscussion and wider implications: Social identity processes are often subject to in-group biases and negative perceptions of other groups (Tajfel and Turner, 1986). Still, in a diverse workplace, they offer an opportunity: by working together and \"making sense\" of themselves and others in interaction, individuals might be enabled to experience \"others\" as less different than they used to seem. The requirement for such inclusive processes to emerge is a sufficient flexibility of frames (Goffman, 1974/1986). Frames based on imaginative geographies, however, are a dominant mechanism, and our study highlights this.\nLimitations: The first limitation of this study lies in the small sample size and the fact that the findings might only apply to the specific context studied. On the other hand, this is also the strength of this study, as it traces framing in context. On a structural level, the project set up itself was characterized by imbalances of power, as generally reported in EU-projects (Ahonen and Tienari, 2009) and dominant \"developmental discourses\" (Mahadevan, 2017) which implicitly assume a transfer of knowledge from the German \"center\" to the Tunisian \"periphery.\" We can therefore say that dominant frames are partly institutionalized in the project guidelines and the project set-up, and that also the authors participating in the project must be understood as part of these unequal frameworks. By the mentioned methodology, we tried to mediate this bias. Nonetheless, our findings suggest that it is the Tunisian partners which are constructed as the more \"different\" and the \"ethnic Other.\" This points to dominant biases identified by the anthropology of social identity and ethnicity, namely the tendency to ascribe ethnicity only to marginalized others (in this case: the Tunisian \"periphery\"), to perceive these \"others\" as opposite to oneself and to not reflect upon the fact that also the mainstream majority (in this case: the German \"center\") is characterized by ethnicity (also see Jenkins, 2008, p. 15). This way, the imaginative category \"the Arab world\" also reflects the structural imbalances of the project. This implies that, due to structural power-inequalities, our research was more suited for uncovering dominant framing by the German side and not counter-framing or resistance from both the German and the Tunisian side, and this can be considered the second limitation of our study. It is linked to the implication that we cannot equal sense making regarding framing during the interviews with actual practice.\nSummary, conclusion and further research: Focusing on a German-Tunisian research team, this study investigated how and to what extent individual experience is framed by imaginative geographies such as \"the Arab world.\" Our findings suggest that even though the outcome of such framing cannot be prescribed, frames might strongly pre-structure and dominate individual experience. For critical diversity studies regarding Muslim individuals, this implies that researchers and practitioners alike should reflect upon and question dominant frames. Only then will individuals in actual interaction be enabled to move beyond dichotomist categories, to recognize multiple and intersecting life-experience and to utilize the benefits of diversity. This is not to say that something like \"Muslim identity\" or \"Western history\" do not exist, but to question their imagined nature as absolute and dichotomist demarcation lines which create insurmountable difference and \"otherness.\" It also implies becoming aware that an \"Arab world\" is imagined to \"construct\" the West. To move further, we therefore need to consider identities beyond single labels, and to relate others to ourselves. In the words of Edward Said (1993, p. 408):No one can deny the persisting continuities of long traditions, sustained habitations, national languages and cultural geographies, but there seems no reason except fear and prejudice to keep insisting on their separation and distinctiveness, as if that was all human life was about [...] It is more rewarding - and more difficult - to think concretely and sympathetically, contrapunctually, about others than only about \"us\".\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to highlight the dangers of Orientalist framing. Orientalism (Said, 1979/2003) shows how \"the West\" actually creates \"the Orient\" as an inferior opposite to affirm itself, for instance by using imaginative geographical frames such as \"East\" and \"West\" (Said, 1993).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Qualitative interviews were conducted with the members of a German-Tunisian project team in research engineering. The interview purpose was to let individuals reflect upon their experiences of difference and to find out whether these experiences are preframed by imaginative geographical categories.\nFindings: Tunisian researchers were subjected to the dominant imaginative geographical frame \"the Arab world.\" This frame involves ascribed religiousness, gender stereotyping and ascriptions of backwardness.\nResearch limitations/implications: Research needs to investigate Orientalist thought and imaginative geographies in specific organizational and interpersonal interactions lest they overshadow managerial theory and practice.\nPractical implications: Practitioners need to challenge dominant frames and Orientalist thought in their own practice and organizational surroundings to devise a truly inclusive managerial practice, for instance, regarding Muslim minorities.\nSocial implications: In times of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim sentiment in \"the West,\" this paper highlights the frames from which such sentiments might originate, and the need to reflect upon them.\nOriginality/value: The theoretical value lies in introducing a critical framing approach and the concept of imaginative geographies to perceived differences at work. For practice, it highlights how certain individuals are constructed as \"Muslim others\" and subjected to ascriptions of negative difference. By this mechanism, their inclusion is obstructed.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Barriers to implementation of IT in educational institutions	[ "Higher education", "Barriers", "India", "Interpretive structural modelling", "Information and communication technology", "MICMAC analysis", "Indian higher education" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Today information technology (IT) has become an indispensable element of our lives and totally changed the way we accomplish the day-to-day tasks. Be it banking, manufacturing, architecture, retail, healthcare, travel, marketing, agriculture, entertainment, etc., IT has totally transformed the way these businesses are conducted. IT is known to lower operational costs, reduce cycle time, and enhance operational efficiency (Bardhan et al., 2007), productivity (Brynjolfsson and Hitt, 2003), performance (Melville et al., 2004; Duh et al., 2006), customer satisfaction, quality (Grover et al., 1998), and profitability (Hitt and Brynjolfsson, 1996; Mithas et al., 2012). Subsequently, almost all organizations have adopted IT to procure such benefits and gain competitive advantage (Mata et al., 1995; Breznik, 2012). There are numerous success anecdotes of various sectors. However, the education sector has not been able to acquire equivalent benefits from its IT implementations. Despite the adoption of IT, the sector is continuously accused with crudely managed operations, impoverished coordination among departments, inadequate utilization of resources, lack of accountability and transparency, outdated curriculum, and poor educational quality (Altbach, 2009; Agarwal, 2009; Carnoy and Dossani, 2013). Moreover, the educational institutions continuously grumble with shortage of funds and resources. The important concern is that when educational institutions are investing in IT then why they are not able to benefit the same way as their counterparts. If we compare the applications of IT by various sectors and its implementation in the education sector, the latter has not, and is not used IT to its full potential. The sector has lagged behind in exploring IT for improved operational efficiency and organizational effectiveness. According to Mudaliar et al. (2009) educational institutions face problems similar to a various organizations, and, therefore, tools used by them for organizational management could be used by educational institutions to overcome issues of coordination, control, etc. Therefore, it is vital to identify the reasons why despite IT investments, educational institutions are not able to successfully leverage from implementations of IT.\nBackground: Barriers to implementation of IT\nISM methodology: Introduction\nDiscussion: We can conclude from the ISM model and MICMAC analysis that the lack of technical expertise (shortage of trained staff on existing and new technologies, insufficient skills, lack of confidence, and lack of competence) forms the major barriers preventing successful implementation of IT. Lack of technical expertise has the highest driving power and the lowest dependence power forming the key obstruction influencing all the other barriers. Therefore, it is essential for HEIs to overcome it so that its overall effect can be reduced and they can have more productive IT implementations. Henceforth, HEIs should seriously focus on the aforementioned factor and take appropriate measures to conquer it. Rather than investing on other factors with the aim of having more productive IT, it would be worthwhile for HEIs to have more technically trained capabilities.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the most significant barriers to successful implementation of information technology (IT) in higher educational institutions (HEIs) of India. Although, educational institutions are investing in IT, they have been not been able to leverage it the same way as other business organizations. The present investigation will assist the management of HEIs to distinguish the key barriers affecting productive IT implementations and further take appropriate measures to deal with it.\nDesign/methodology/approach: For the purpose of the study, focus group and semi-structured interviews were conducted with academicians, administrators, functional heads, and IT staff from various HEIs of India. This research attempts to discover the major barriers to successful implementation of IT in HEIs using an interpretive structural modeling (ISM) methodology. Furthermore, structural analysis and classification of barriers is done using MICMAC analysis.\nFindings: The results identified the key barriers that if dealt with can help overcome or lower the effect of other barriers preventing successful IT implementation in HEIs. It will provide roadmap to managers and administrators of HEIs to take appropriate measures to overcome the major barrier to effective implementation of IT.\nOriginality/value: Several authors have been studied barriers to implementation of IT in industry and educational institutions, but none have found the most significant barriers that affect successful implementation of IT and may drive other impediments. This research draws inspiration and is being carried out for Indian HEIs.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Brand love in progress - the interdependence of brand love antecedents in consideration of relationship duration	[ "Identification", "Perceived value", "Brand love", "Hedonic and utilitarian products", "Inner and social self", "Relationship duration" ]	[ { "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: \"I will always love you\" directed at your partner, expressing these \"deepest and most meaningful of sentiments\" (Rubin, 1970) makes perfect sense. But in this day and age, it seems plausible that we feel passionate about an object such as a brand or even consider a brand to be a relationship partner (Fournier, 1998; Carroll and Ahuvia, 2006; Hwang and Kandampully, 2012, Albert et al., 2013). But this tendency is even more interesting in light of the fact that most of us do not even know what this feeling is made of or what the reasons are why we feel this way (Sternberg, 1986). In an interpersonal setting, as well as in a consumer-brand partnership, intense feelings are widely seen as a prerequisite for a long-lasting relationship (Shimp and Madden, 1988). But just as within an interpersonal relationship, little is known about what are the mechanisms within a consumer-brand relationship that turn an ordinary brand into a loved brand, and moreover, what keeps this feeling alive in the long run (Batra et al., 2012; Albert and Merunka, 2013).\nConceptual background and hypotheses: Early research on consumer-brand relationships focussed on satisfaction as one of the main predictors of loyalty towards a brand. But a satisfied customer is not necessarily a loyal customer, as even a satisfied consumer might switch to another brand for different reasons. Even more, satisfaction can be perceived for many brands (Roy et al., 2013). Similar to interpersonal relationships, consumers can even build emotional connections with certain consumption objects such as brands (Fournier, 1998). As consumers get in touch with many different products and brands every day, they feel an intense emotional bond only for a limited number of products and brands (Thomson et al., 2005). These strong affective constructs serve as a fundamental grounding for long-lasting and close relationships - in an interpersonal as well as in a consumer-brand context (Belk, 1988; Fournier, 1998). In addition, just as within a person-to-person relationship, the most intense emotion one might perceive for a brand is the feeling of love for a brand (Rubin, 1970; Shimp and Madden, 1988). Relating to the consequences of brand love, several studies have explored that high levels of brand love subsequently lead to several outcomes favourable for brands, such as positive word-of-mouth (Carroll and Ahuvia, 2006), a higher willingness to pay a price premium (Thomson et al., 2005; Albert et al., 2013) and higher brand loyalty (Fournier, 1998; Bauer et al., 2007; Agrawal et al., 2012).\nEmpirical study: Sample\nDiscussion: Knowing that affective constructs such as passionate love play a central role within strong consumer-brand relationships, we focussed on a more detailed perspective regarding the underlying mechanisms that drive passionate feelings for a brand. For the most part, recent studies dealing with the antecedents and outcomes of brand love address this issue from a snapshot point of view. The central shortcoming of this static approach is that it neglects the obvious assumption that relationships between consumers and brands just as between individuals inevitably change over time. In addition, just as any long-term relationship matures, so do the central drivers such as the experienced emotions that underlie this partnership (Johnson et al., 2006). Thus, our study provides far-reaching contributions en route to achieving a better understanding of the dynamic nature of this particular construct and, as a consequence, of consumer-brand relationships in general. Against, the background of the complexity and motion of these relationships, our priority was to gain further reaching insights into which benefits of a brand a consumer appreciates, and more specifically, how their emphasis conducts themselves over the course of a long-term relationship. This knowledge can be essential for marketers trying to get hold of potential and also existing customers by exciting and increasing a passionate feeling for a brand - one of the core elements of consumers' relationships with brands, and to improve these relationships at long sight (Batra et al., 2012).\nImplications and further research: It has become more and more difficult for marketers to differentiate their brand from other brands. For this reason, knowledge on which parameters should be adjusted to create stronger emotional bonds with customers is essential. Moreover, Customer Relationship Management teaches us the importance of maintaining long-term relationships with customers (Reinartz and Kumar, 2000; Palmatier et al., 2013). In addition, to strongly benefit from such relationships, it is of importance to know how to manage these consumer-brand relationships in the long run. Therefore, knowing what a customer appreciates is only a good starting point. But from a marketer's perspective, it is more important to know what are the differences between customer's preferences at different stages of a relationship. Knowledge about the benefits that create value for customers over the entire course of a long-term relationship enables marketers to align products as well as communication more purposively by highlighting and targeting these desired assets at the right time to build and maintain strong emotional and long-term bonds with customers.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the dynamic nature of consumer-brand relationships and, in particular, the passionate dimension of brand love. It explores the relevance of the two dimensions of the identification construct (inner and social self) for the creation of passionate love for a brand. More precisely, it attends to the possible mediating character of identification between the perceived utilitarian or hedonic value and passionate brand love. These effects are analysed in consideration of the moderating effect of relationship duration taking a further-reaching perspective and contributing to the understanding of the transformation of the brand love construct within a long-term consumer-brand relationship.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A survey on universally known brands representing both a hedonic and a utilitarian concept was conducted. The model has been tested using the partial least squares approach to structural equation modelling.\nFindings: The effects of the antecedents of passionate brand love in general vary with increasing relationship duration. Inner self has a stronger effect on passionate brand love than social self and becomes even more important as the relationship matures. Hedonic and utilitarian value both show substantial direct and indirect effects, but the importance of utilitarian aspects grows with time, substantiating the rational nature of brand love within a long-term consumer-brand relationship.\nResearch limitations/implications: As we assessed the perceived duration of an intimate relationship, longitudinal analysis should provide even more profound results.\nPractical implications: Inasmuch as emotional attributes drive passionate feelings for a brand, the core utilitarian assets of a brand also evoke passionate love and should be highlighted, especially in long-term relationships with customers.\nOriginality/value: This paper investigates the interdependent effects of identification and customer perceived value (hedonic and utilitarian value) as antecedents of passionate brand love. This paper adapts a dynamic perspective on consumer-brand relationships by taking into account the moderating effect of perceived relationship duration.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A knowledge-based innovation assessment system for small- and medium-sized enterprises: adding value with cognitive mapping and MCDA	[ "Cognitive mapping", "Multiple criteria decision analysis", "Innovation capability", "Decision EXpert", "Knowledge-based assessment system", "Small- and medium-sized enterprises" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have assumed a critical importance in the European and world economies. According to the European Commission (2015, p. 3), \"nine out of ten companies are SMEs and SMEs generate two out of three jobs [...] they stimulate job creation and economic growth and ensure social stability\". SMEs also play a key role in economic development because they stimulate innovation (European Commission, 2015).\n2. Related literature and research gap: Given the current globalized competitiveness, companies have increasingly been forced to accept that innovation is a key factor in delivering differentiated products and services and lowering costs to achieve long-term goals (Porter, 1998; Yang et al., 2015; Scuotto et al., 2017a). In today's challenging markets, the ability to innovate is vital (Saunila, 2016) and an essential condition for competitiveness, economic wealth and good business performance (Caird, 1994). Francis and Bessant's (2005) findings have reinforced this idea by highlighting the fundamental role of organizations' innovation capability in their growth and survival.\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Background on cognitive mapping\n4. Application and results: As mentioned earlier, this study's objective is to develop a system that facilitates decision-making in innovation measurement and business performance evaluation. A further aim is to assess the applicability of a combined use of the SODA and DEX methodologies in this context.\n5. Conclusion: SMEs have long been recognized as a driving force in economic development. Thus, the methods used to evaluate SMEs' innovation capability need to be as integrative and realistic as possible to ensure accurate results in the current rapidly changing economic environment.\nAcknowledgement: This work was partially funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (Grant UID/GES/00315/2013). Records of the expert panel meetings including photographs, software output and the study's non-confidential information can be obtained from the corresponding author upon request. The authors gratefully acknowledge the outstanding contribution and limitless willingness of the panel members: Bruno Costa, Pedro Oliveira, Pedro Ramos, Vitor Martins, Vitor Ribeiro and Samir Daud. The authors also wish to thank the ISCTE Business School, University Institute of Lisbon, Portugal, for providing the necessary facilities.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The 2008 global financial crisis showed that the ability to innovate is a key management skill and that approaches to assessing the innovation capability of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) need to be as realistic as possible. This study aims to address the latter practical need through a sociotechnical approach.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on a combined use of cognitive mapping and the Decision EXpert (DEX) technique, and grounded on the insights generated by a panel of SME managers and entrepreneurs in two intensive group meetings, a knowledge-based assessment system for evaluating SMEs' innovation capability was created, tested and validated.\nFindings: The knowledge-based assessment system identified the most innovative SMEs in a sample of companies. The \"plus-minus-1\" and dominance analyses carried out provided further support for the results.\nResearch limitations/implications: The proposed system is extremely versatile but process-oriented and idiosyncratic in nature, meaning that extrapolations to other contexts need to be done with due caution.\nPractical implications: The panel of SME decision makers agreed that the system improves the current methods used to evaluate SMEs' innovation capability, contributing to a more informed perspective on management issues. The panel members also noted that the proposed system functions as a learning mechanism, facilitating the development of well-focused suggestions for improvements SMEs can make.\nOriginality/value: The integrated use of cognitive maps and rule-base decisions contributes to a better understanding of how to assess SMEs' innovation capability. No prior work reporting the integrated use of these two techniques in this study context has been found.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Failure to attend out-patient clinics: is it in our DNA?	[ "Did not attend", "Neurology", "Outpatients", "Outpatient attendance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The did not attend (\"DNA\") stamp features frequently throughout the out-patient department (OPD) notes of many public hospital patients. It is a universal problem affecting many different healthcare clinics (Goldbart et al., 2009; Cusini et al., 2008) and produces significant inefficiencies and waste (Moore et al., 2001). A patient who fails to attend means that precious resources allocated to that patient is not available to other patients. High non-attendance rates place an unnecessary strain on already over-burdened healthcare resources.The national figure of 12 per cent for non-attendance at out-patient clinics in the UK hides large variations between specialties and between regions. Studies report figures that range from 5 to 34 per cent. The rates in general practice are far less; figures of 3 and 6.5 per cent have been reported (Sharp and Hamilton, 2001). Overall, the cost of missed appointments to the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK has been estimated at PS360 million per year. Non-attendance figures for two of Dublin's largest public hospitals recently revealed that almost 25,000 did not attend appointments at St James's Hospital and almost 27,000 did not attend their out-patient appointments at St Vincent's University Hospital in 2008 (McGreevy, 2009). A single default is estimated to cost PS65 (EUR97) per incident (Geraghty et al., 2008).According to the HSE strategic review of neurology and neurophysiology services (National Hospitals Office, 2007), over 700,000 people in Ireland are affected by a neurological condition. With 20 public consultant neurologists in Ireland to treat these people, this is one of the lowest number of neurologists per head of population in Europe. Our ratio approximates to one public neurologist per 280,000 population (Crowley, 2007). Neurology has moved to a more out-patient and community-based specialty so it is vital that Neurology out-patient departments function efficiently.In some Irish hospitals the DNA rate at OPDs is of the order of 20 per cent, and up to 30 per cent or more for some specialties (Lynch and Hedderman, 2006). While many patients have very good reasons for being unable to attend on a given day, the majority of non-attenders fail to notify hospitals in advance. Unfortunately, this means that the opportunity to reschedule an appointment and utilise the wasted clinic time for other patients is lost. Most patients will cite clerical or hospital administration errors or simply say that they \"forgot\" as their reasons for missing clinic appointments (Murdock et al., 2002). It has been shown that the implementation of simple reminder systems, such as text messages or phone calls, can make a difference (Reti, 2003; Downer et al., 2006; Haynes and Sweeney, 2006). In fact, it is frequently exactly what patients themselves want when they are asked (Casey et al., 2007).Charging a fine for non-attendance, which has recently been suggested in Denmark and UK, has been analysed in few studies (Bech, 2005). There are few studies exploring whether patients agree with penalty fines for absenteeism and how much they feel is appropriate. How much more fastidious would patients be about keeping their appointments if they had to pay a nominal financial sum for non-attendance without prior notification.We conducted a survey at the Department of Neurology in St Vincent's University Hospital, Dublin over a period of three months. The Department of Neurology runs two public clinics each day (general and specialist clinics) and in a single year period (April 2008-April 2009), of 6,736 appointments made, 1,447 people were marked as \"DNA\" (a 21.5 per cent non-attendance rate).\nMethods: We conducted a questionnaire-based study, involving 204 consecutive patients attending any of the neurology out-patient clinics in the Department of Neurology. These included general neurology clinics, demyelination clinics, a parkinson's disease clinic and a dystonia clinic. Participants were informed that the questionnaire was anonymous and were invited to complete it in an effort to help us improve services in the Department of Neurology. The questionnaire, on a single page, took only a few minutes to complete while the patient waited to be called by a doctor (Figure 1).\nResults: A total of 204 people took part. The patients age ranged from 25-75 years (mean 31 years). A total of 191 of the 204 respondents provided information on whether they had ever missed an appointment - 9.4 per cent had missed an appointment in the past. Forgetting their appointment was the most common reason (28 per cent) (Figure 2). Other reasons included being too ill, being happy with their neurological symptoms or not having received notification from the hospital. Over half of the participants (55 per cent) said they would like a pre-appointment reminder by text message; 19 per cent said they would prefer a telephone reminder while another 19 per cent said they would prefer a reminder by e-mail (Figure 3). A substantial proportion (47 per cent) reported that they would be willing to pay a fee upon booking that would be refunded when they attended for their appointment (Figure 4). Fee options offered for consideration ranged from EUR20 to EUR100. Many considered EUR20 to be the most appropriate amount (39 per cent) but the ratio of patients who suggested higher fees was proportional to the age range of respondents, indicating that fee selection was independent of patients' age (Figure 5). Over half (52 per cent) would agree to a proposed \"buddy\" system whereby a nominated friend or relative would also receive a reminder prior to the patients' appointment.\nDiscussion: Why do patients not attend?\nConclusion: The non-attendance problem requires attention and more in-depth analysis is necessary. Simple interventions, as listed above, could be a cost effective means of encouraging compliance. As is often the case, education may be the key. Many patients are unaware of the consequences of their actions. An obvious observation is that this is a time of global economic downturn and budget slumps. People are now less likely to squander money than in previous years. It may seem drastic, but perhaps the most logical thing to do is to hit non- attendees where it hurts the most, their back pocket ... this might just be the most powerful deterrent.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to determine the reasons why patients miss clinic appointments and to ascertain patients' views on the implementation of reminder systems and penalty fees to reduce the rates of did not attend (DNAs). Overall, the paper seeks to establish novel ways to run a more efficient out-patient department (OPD) service to improve waiting times and access for patients to limited neurology resources.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A questionnaire-based study was approved by the audit committee and was offered to 204 out-patients attending the neurology clinics over a three-month period (July to September 2009). The patients' demographic details and non-attendance records were reviewed. The paper aimed to ascertain, from the patients' perspective, why people failed to attend clinic appointments. Each participant was asked their views on how they felt their public hospital service might reduce the number of DNAs at their neurology OPD.\nFindings: - A total of 204 patients took part. Participants had a mean age of 31 years (range 25-75 years) with a modal peak in the 26 to 35 age bracket. Almost 10 per cent of those surveyed admitted to missing a hospital out-patient appointment in the past. The most common reason was that they simply \"forgot\" (28 per cent). DNA rates by age range were proportionally similar to the overall age profile of attenders. Over 55 per cent said they would like a pre-appointment reminder via a mobile telephone text message, 19 per cent preferred a pre-appointment telephone call, and 19 per cent an e-mail. Of those surveyed, 47 per cent said they would be willing to pay a fee on booking that could be refunded on attending for their appointment. The majority of these felt EUR20 was the most appropriate amount (39 per cent). The rate of acceptance for various fee amounts was uniform across age ranges. Over half (52 per cent) said that they would agree to a \"buddy\" system whereby the appointment reminder was sent to the patient but also a nominated friend or relative.\nOriginality/value: - Non-attendance rates at the neurology clinics in our institution are high with almost 10 per cent of attendees admitting to missing an appointment. One of the main reasons why people did not attend was because they simply \"forgot\" that they had an appointment and the patients favoured a text messaging reminder system to help reduce non-attendance. Almost half of the respondents said that they would be willing to pay a refundable booking fee.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Better leadership, higher work engagement? Comparative study on Finnish and Russian private sector employees	[ "Work engagement", "Feedback", "Employee voice", "Leadership", "Trust" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Work engagement (WE), defined as a persistent, positive, affective-emotional state of fulfillment with one's job (Hallberg and Schaufeli, 2006), is one of the most important dimensions of employee well-being. It has positive outcomes for both employees and organizations (Bakker and Demerouti, 2008), and it thus plays an increasingly important role in global competition. WE is connected to the effectiveness of the work (Rich et al., 2010; Kahn, 1990), lower turnover intention (Schaufeli and Bakker, 2004) and employee proactivity (Salanova and Schaufeli, 2008). It is also a predictor of the financial success of the organization (Bakker and Demerouti, 2008; Harter et al., 2002; Wefald and Downey, 2009). Therefore, it may give organizations a competitive advantage, so organizations should be aware of the antecedents of engagement. WE is especially needed in private sector companies since, due to competitive pressures, working in business organizations is more demanding in terms of workers' job skills, workload, task and extra-role performance, compared to public sector.\nWork engagement and its facilitators in Finnish and Russian contexts: For a long time, work life studies concentrated mostly on the negative aspects of work, but in the last decades, the positive work-related feelings, attitudes and behaviors have gained more attention (Luthans and Avolio, 2009). Among these \"positive\" constructs, WE has thus become a very popular field of study. WE is defined as a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind (Bakker et al., 2006; Schaufeli et al., 2002). It was originally described by Kahn (1990, p. 694) as the harnessing of organization members' selves to their work roles. Being engaged in their role performances, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally. In turn, Kahn's theorizing on WE has its roots in sociological perspectives of structural functionalism (Merton, 1957) and especially of symbolic interactionism, namely in Erving Goffman's works on people's attachment to and detachment from their roles (Goffman, 1959, 1961a, b). Kahn extrapolated Merton's and Goffman's ideas on individuals' social roles to organizational life. WE is seen as opposing to employees' robotics, burnout, or detachment (Bakker et al., 2006; Goffman, 1961a; Hochschild, 1983; Kahn, 1990; Maslach et al., 2001; Schaufeli et al., 2002; Rich et al., 2010).\nJob resources as facilitators of work engagement: A number of studies have investigated individual-, group- and organization-level antecedents of WE in the past decades. Since the present study was conducted in two societies with different social and economic background, we focus on job resources that reflect main differences in working conditions between Russia and Finland and thus might have a considerable explanatory power for our understanding of the cross-cultural differences in WE.\nLeadership and work engagement: cultural context: Leadership is highly important for the organizations' competitiveness and for employee well-being. It is one of the key components of job resources since leaders' support can counterbalance pressures and complexities at work and thus help employees cope with the job demands in general (Bakker and Demerouti, 2007; Taipale et al., 2011). First-line supervisors are believed to be especially important for building engagement (Frank et al., 2004; Hakanen et al., 2006).\nResearch design: The empirical analysis of this study is based on survey data collected in Finland and Russia. These data include the Finnish Quality of Work Life Survey (QWLS) and the Russian QWLS. The analysis focuses on private sector, full-time employees with permanent contracts who have no managerial responsibilities themselves. The data are analyzed using descriptive methods and binary logistic regression analysis.\nMeasures: The questionnaire was administered in Finnish in Finland and in Russian in Russia. The original version of the questionnaire was first developed in Finnish. Its official translation into English is available on the Finnish QWLS web-page (www.stat.fi/meta/til/tyoolot_en.html). The questionnaire was, first, translated from English to Russian by a native Russian speaker, second, back-translated to English by another native Russian speaker and, third, the items were reviewed by the authors to see if the back-translated items match their original meanings.\nAnalysis and results: Both descriptive analysis and regressions were performed in the Finnish and the Russian subsamples separately in order to focus more effectively on the special characteristics of WE in each country. In so doing we followed studies with similar design (e.g. Salanova and Schaufeli, 2008) where the analysis was made in each of the two countries investigated (namely, Spain and the Netherlands) separately.\nDiscussion: The current study researched the cross-cultural variations in the level of WE; components of leadership as predictors of subordinates' engagement. Our results show that the JD-R model is relevant in analyzing WE in both Finnish and Russian contexts. The current study addresses several gaps in the literature.\nPractical implications: The results of this study have important implications for organizations. Our findings show that good leadership is positively connected to WE and suggest some behaviors and processes that managers can follow in order to create, maintain and enhance employee WE. It is clear that organizations should invest in leadership quality to enhance WE, and therefore, to get a competitive advantage. Taking important roles leaders play in promoting engagement of their followers into account, we would agree with Blomme et al. (2015) that the level of WE may well be indicative of the effectiveness of a manager's leadership style. Finnish organizations should also develop further the leadership practices. Finnish employees seem to be happy about personal interaction with their superiors, but as far as organizing the work and giving feedback, there is still work to do in Finland, as well as in Russia.\nLimitations of the study and directions for future research: Our study has a number of limitations, which we see as opportunities for future research. These limitations concern data and methodological choices made. First, the Russian sample may not be totally representative of the population since is relatively small, and the city-area-centered. This limitation did not allow performing the comparative analysis of different professional sectors and professions. Second, because of the cross-sectional design of the current study, we cannot provide information about the stability of the relationships between job resources and WEWE. Third, we relied on single source self-reported measures thus making our study prone to common method bias. For future research, longitudinal studies would be necessary, but there are no suitable data available as of yet. Fourth, our measures of WE were restricted to three items. We had to follow general research design of the nation-wide Finnish QWLS that did not allow us including more measures into the questionnaire. Fifth, departing from the idea that cultural and socio-economic context works as a \"shaper of meaning\" (Johns, 2006) it would be very informative to conduct a qualitative research on WE in these two countries in order to provide a comprehensive understanding on the nature of WE in two cultural contexts. Although the fact that combining quantitative and qualitative methods provides much more convincing empirical evidence on social phenomena is often mentioned both by Western (Judge et al., 2001; Bakker and Demerouti, 2008) and Russian (Balabanova, 2002) scholars, studies on WE using mixed methods research design are still rare. Nevertheless, the strength of this study is the unique data that enable the comparison of different components of leadership as WE predictors. Cross-national studies on WE are still rare, and comparisons between Finland and Russia have just begun. The differences between Finnish and Russian working life and WE should be studied further and within different sectors of work.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper focuses on the relationship between leadership and work engagement (WE) in Finnish and Russian private sector organizations. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how Finland and Russia differ in the level of WE; in the level of satisfaction with leadership and in specific components of leadership as most important antecedents for WE.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The empirical analysis of this study is based on survey data collected in Finland and Russia. The analysis focuses on 1,570 Finnish and 490 Russian private sector, full-time employees with permanent contracts, who have no managerial responsibilities. The data are analyzed using descriptive methods and binary logistic regression analysis.\nFindings: The results show, first, that both satisfaction of leadership and WE are higher in Finland than in Russia. Second, WE in Finland is facilitated by nearly all components of leadership - both materialistic- and relationship-based - while in Russia WE is predicted by rewarding good performers and such relationship-based practices as feedback, delegating responsibility, discussing work matters, and building trust. Contrary to the hypothesis, such materialistic-based components as providing equal treatment turned out to be insignificant for WE in Russia.\nPractical implications: Organizations should invest in leadership quality to enhance WE and thus, to get a competitive advantage.\nOriginality/value: This study adds to the limited comparative research on WE and its predictors.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Top versus leading journals in marketing: some challenging thoughts	[ "Research work", "Serials", "Education", "Marketing decision making" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nDefinitions and limitations: The definitions of what characterises a top marketing journal are generally vague in the literature. They are often based upon single-item measures, such as perception (Luke and Doke, 1987) and citation (Jobber and Simpson, 1988). We have undertaken a longitudinal literature review of how marketing journals are perceived and how they have been ranked by different sources. Doing so, the Journal of Marketing (see www.marketingpower.com), the Journal of Marketing Research (www.marketingpower.com) and the Journal of Consumer Research (www.journals.uchicago.edu/JCR/home.html) are all considered to be top journals in marketing by various authors (e.g. Bakir et al., 2000; Clark, 1985; Fields and Swayne, 1991; Ganesh et al., 1990; Niemi, 1988; Petry and Settle, 1988; Pol, 1991; Polonsky and Whitelaw, 2005; Spake and Harmon, 1998; Trieschmann et al., 2000). By using Harzing's (2000-2006) compilation of journal ranking lists, a few other marketing journals may be added, such as the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (see www.j-ams.org), the Journal of Retailing( see www3.babson.edu/publications/jr), and Marketing Science (see www.mktsci.pubs.informs.org). We do not suggest that the aforementioned journals comprise a complete list of top journals (e.g. re sub-disciplines of marketing), but that they are used merely as a fundament to support the topic addressed in this article.There is an underlying quest for identifying and verifying the top academic journals in different research disciplines. In extension to the discussion of top versus non-top journals, we raise another crucial issue, namely the criteria to differentiate that which constitutes a top or a leading journal in marketing. Therefore, we discuss three groups of criteria to distinguish between top and leading journals:1. journal;2. article; and3. research.They have been derived from a variety of sources (Czinkota, 2000; Day, 1996; Easton and Easton, 2003; Homburg, 2003; Perry et al., 2003; Rosenstreich and Wooliscroft, 2005; Svensson, 2005, 2006, 2007). Each group of criteria is discussed based upon a set of dimensions:* journal criteria - the editor, the editorial board, the editorial objective and the author affiliations;* article criteria - research implications, practice implications, readability and originality; and* research criteria - process, paradigm, representation, readership and contribution.The criteria are described and explained in detail later in the article. We raise two explicit questions to contribute to the discussion and debate of academic journals and academic publishing in marketing:1. What are the criteria to distinguish between top and leading journals in marketing?2. To what extent do the top journals in marketing belong to the category of leading journals in marketing?We hope that this discussion will stimulate and widen debate in respect to what constitutes a leading academic journal in marketing. We believe that this topic is an important issue for the future wellbeing of the marketing discipline and its research community across the world. The top journals have an immense responsibility to preserve and strengthen the reputation of the marketing discipline in relation to other research disciplines and their research communities. In fact, the top marketing journals serve as a showcase, benchmark and/or flagship for scholars and practitioners of the marketing discipline. They are also the gateway to marketing theory and thought for other research disciplines and their research communities.\nTop versus leading journals in marketing: We suggest a group of criteria to distinguish between top versus leading journals in marketing. This suggested list should be seen as a trigger for further discussion and debate. Consequently, the list of criteria does not aspire to be complete, but a complement to the ongoing discussion of academic journals and academic publishing in literature. In fact, it may be seen as a multi-item measure. A framework of criteria is introduced in Table I. It is based upon our examination of the editorial descriptions and overall contents of the selected top journals in marketing. It is also derived from a review of the literature on academic journals and academic publishing. Note that our underlying frame of reference and literature review may be partly found in Svensson and Wood (2007).The criterion sample in Table I is divided into two categories. One of the categories refers to the characteristics of the examined top journals in marketing. The other category refers to the characteristics of research published in these journals. In addition, these two categories underpin the criteria to distinguish between top and leading journals in marketing.Our aim is not to focus on a specific journal, but rather to stimulate the debate of the adequacy of those issues that dominate in the top marketing journals. The idea is also to let the readers reflect and decide on their own perceptions without the explicit influence or arguments provided. The reader can verify the basis for the discussion undertaken by performing an independent review of the selected top marketing journals, as we have done.Journal criteria\nProvocative and challenging thoughts: Finally, we provide some thoughts based upon the introduced framework of criteria in Table I. A crucial thought is that the selected top journals in marketing tend in part to be far from the leading journals, even though some of them explicitly aspire to be the leaders in the field. Therefore, we cannot state that all selected top journals in marketing match our suggested framework of criteria for leading journals. On the contrary, we contend that most of these so-called top journals in marketing may not fulfil the criteria to enable them to be judged as leading journals (see Table II).When it comes to the journal criteria of our top marketing journals they are limited to an intra-continental and general focus. Homburg (2003) writes that the most prestigious US-based marketing journals are to some extent predisposed against manuscripts from outside of the USA. Furthermore, Pecotich et al. (1996) state that country of origin affects the evaluation of research quality. When it comes to the article criteria of our top marketing journals they are often limited to intrinsic research implications, weak practice implications, low readability and rare originality due to the writing and format requirements, technicalities and the use of complex quantitative methods. The content of the articles and the method of their expression mean that many non-academic readers would find the intent of the article hard to grasp, let alone be able to absorb its philosophical underpinnings. When it comes to the research criteria of our top marketing journals, they are limited to quantitative processes, dogmatic or mainstream paradigms, intra-continental representation, academic readerships, and make a contribution to the academic research community only (Svensson, 2005, 2006).Some of these criteria are more or less pronounced. For example, Easton and Easton (2003) argue that non-US authors cannot compete on an equal basis since they face implicit and explicit barriers. Czinkota (2000) also believes that to get published in US journals, the author needs to move to the USA or work in the USA for some time. This reality seems not to have dawned on many non-American authors who strive for \"the prize\" of the ever-elusive publication in a North American journal. It is even more worrying when one's performance appraisal as a top academic researcher is predicated on being published in an \"A\" journal in one's field. Tenure and promotion opportunities can be adversely affected by not achieving a \"prestigious\" publication. This type of requirement is almost impossible for the non-American author to satisfy and one could surmise even extremely difficult for the majority of North American academics. Yet as academics we promote this myth amongst ourselves of the \"golden fleece\" of achieving a top American journal publication. How well academics across the world have conditioned themselves to the \"worth\" of these journals and by default they reinforce the lack of worth of their own academic insights that are exclusive to North American thinking and context.Speculatively, the specialized journals may be the leading ones in reality (i.e. beyond reputation, prestige and citation-indexes) as they consciously have targeted a specific sub-area of the marketing discipline and as such make a substantial contribution to the theory and the practice in that field. Some of the lower ranked/quality journals in specific sub-areas may actually be characterized as leading journals even though they often are overlooked or even ignored in the general discussion and the debate of identifying the top academic journals in the discipline. We argue that general-oriented journals may never be the leading ones whatsoever as they have too heterogenic an editorial objective - that is, they want to cover everything - and as a consequence their leading role is blurred or minimized.We propose a few issues to be stressed for some of the selected top journals in marketing to be able to claim genuine leadership in the discipline. These issues are summarized in Table II. Hopefully, the issues raised may contribute to remedy the stated myopia, inertia and ethnocentricity reflected in the top journals in marketing.The key to this transformation is the journal criteria, such as the editor, the editorial board, the editorial objective and the author affiliations. For example, the editorship should be based upon delegation of responsibility and authority to an intercontinental team of editors that possesses the competence and understanding of the cultural sensitivity in the underlying research values around the world. The editorial board composition should be based upon a multi-methodological and intercontinental team of reviewers. Both these issues have to be done and followed up thoroughly to avoid cosmetic and superficial actions. In addition, the positioning, segmentation and targeting of the editorial objectives of the top journals have to be re-evaluated and re-phrased. Furthermore, a worldwide author affiliation should be part of the process to restructure the journal criteria towards it being the leading one in its field. Worldwide contributions should be a matter of course for a leading journal in order to be able to reflect the worldwide research community and its diverse research efforts in marketing.Another key in this transformation is article criteria. These issues can be framed into four groups (Emerald Management Reviews, 2005):1. research implication;2. practice implication;3. readability; and4. originality.The research implications should move from intrinsic to extrinsic ones. The potential group of interest should be widened - that is beyond academia. The practice implication should be strengthened towards the practitioner arena to gain further extrinsic research implications in terms of applicability and usefulness in and to business. The readability of research has to be improved as the current focus on technicalities and the use of complex quantitative methods limits the likelihood of the dispersion of the contribution achieved among practitioners. Finally, originality should be stressed beyond repetitions and nuances of previous research. Groundbreaking - and to some extent counter-intuitive - contributions should be encouraged and provided in evidence beyond empty words of pronouncement from editors. The editorial boards should be given encouragement to widen their gaze. There is a world of active academic research out there outside of North America, which may be able to contribute to a deeper, more diverse and challenging debate about the issues at the forefront of marketing thought.The issue of research criteria is somewhat more diffuse to categorise. A debatable intent is provided. A crucial change should be the movement from mostly quantitative research processes as the final stage towards incorporating qualitative research processes as potentially part of the final stage. The outcomes of quantitative research processes have repeatedly indicated non-validity and unreliability across contexts and over time, therefore the generalizability of quantitative findings has turned out to be very rare. Qualitative research has not been given the chance to be the final stage in the process. There appears to be a strong conviction emanating from the top journals that human behaviour, human perception and human phenomena are always able to be quantitatively measured. Are they? The paradigmatic boundaries have to be extended beyond the current focus on dogmatic and mainstream approaches. In addition, the representation of research in top journals has to be re-oriented from the restrictions of being North American focussed towards worldwide accessibility and openness. The readership should also be broadened beyond the research community to include parts of the business community. There should be an evident relevance to business and its practices too.In fact, there is a similar discussion going on regarding the failings of some business schools. For example, Bennis and O'Toole (2005) describe how prestigious business schools in North America lost their way by discussing the scientific model versus the professional model. We do not want our top marketing journals to lose their way too! We argue that it is not too late, but these journals may be at risk in the eyes of the worldwide research community in marketing. The editors (and their editorial boards) of our top marketing journals have the responsibility to avoid this happening.The reputation as a leading international journal in marketing will not and should not be able to be achieved and/or maintained by the journal being prescriptive, format-driven and/or by having a geo-centric alignment with one part of the world. In the long run, an exaggerated self-confidence in its own excellence of that which constitutes a top journal may be harmful to the marketing discipline. Consequently, a different and scrutinized re-evaluation of the top journals in marketing should be performed to avoid a continuous myopia, inertia, and regimentation in the development of marketing theory and its application in practice. A diffusion of worldwide research knowledge surely would benefit the marketing discipline, than just \"knowledge\" entrenched in one dominant cultural paradigm. Therefore, we argue that there is a crucial difference between the top and the leading journals in the field. The top journals if they remain inert may well belong to the past, while the leading journals should be the future of the discipline.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The objective of this paper is to discuss some criteria in order to distinguish between top versus leading journals in marketing. The aim is to stimulate the debate of the adequacy of those issues that dominate in the top marketing journals.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The authors discuss three groups of criteria, namely journal, article, and research. Each is discussed based on a set of dimensions: journal criteria - the editor, the editorial board, the editorial objective and the author affiliations; article criteria - research implication, practice implication, readability and originality; and research criteria - process, paradigm, representation, readership and contribution.\nFindings: - While the top journals in marketing are named, the analysis is meant to be of a more general nature rather than to question or lambaste a specific journal.\nResearch limitations/implications: - There is an underlying quest for identifying and verifying the top academic journals in different research disciplines. As an extension to the discussion of top versus non-top journals, the authors raise another crucial issue, namely criteria to differentiate between top and leading journals in marketing.\nPractical implications: - These criteria are based on the authors' examination of the editorial descriptions and overall contents of six top journals in marketing. The criteria are also derived from a review of the literature on academic journals and academic publishing.\nOriginality/value: - The discussion may stimulate and widen debate with respect to what constitutes a leading academic journal in marketing. The suggested list of criteria should be seen as a trigger for further discussion. It does not aspire to be complete, but a complement to the ongoing discussion of academic journals and academic publishing in marketing.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Team working: part I - an evaluation of current thinking	[ "Team working", "Performance management", "Motivation (psychology)", "Culture (sociology)" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Teams have been around for a very long time and it is part of the received wisdom that teamwork is a good thing and that executives should operate in teams. Employers stress the importance of employees working as a team and advertise for staff with evidence of team working competencies. Indeed, there can be few organisations that have not used the terms \"team\" and \"team working\" in one sense or another. So we must inevitably conclude that there must be something in the concept of team working, otherwise it would have been abandoned years ago as just another managerial fad or fashion. The fact that it has not been must signal something in its favour, but what exactly?\nWhy move to team working?: The argument put forward for moving towards team work is that it can increase competitiveness by improving productivity, improve quality, encourage innovation, take advantage of the opportunities provided by technological advances and improve employee motivation and commitment. To remain competitive organisations need to make optimum use of equipment and people if they are to thrive or even survive.Research carried out by ACAS (2005) in conjunction with the Tavistock Institute suggests that team work is used by organisations for improvements in four key areas:1. productivity;2. quality;3. the use of new technology; and4. motivation.\nImproving productivity: Team working can make more effective and efficient use of labour and can improve productivity by:* Maximising the different strengths and skills of team members so that a greater variety of tasks may be tackled.* Delegating the order and allocation of tasks to the group, thus avoiding day-to-day problems such as bottlenecks.* Devolving some managerial control to the work group or the team leader and so reduce the number of levels of management.* Encouraging employees to undertake a wider range of tasks.* Making team members more directly accountable to customers - whether external or internal.These all seem desirable but equally we know from the experience of British industry over the last 20 years that team working can also create individual and organisational difficulties as traditional promotion paths and demarcation lines are threatened. These difficulties are sometimes compounded when the pressure to drive down costs to maintain competitiveness leads to the need for reductions in the workforce at the same time as team working is introduced. If the full benefits of team working are to be gained, its introduction must be carefully and sensitively handled.\nImproving quality and encouraging product innovation: The establishment of quality and customer satisfaction at the top of the agenda of most organisations has been a major driving force behind many team working initiatives. The evidence of self-managed teams and the involvement and empowerment of employees and their representatives suggests that team working, can make a major contribution to improved quality. The temptation to regard quality as a management only issue, or worse as a quality manager only issue, still continues in many organisations and means that many opportunities to improve quality are lost.A survey by the Institute of Personnel Management (IPM) found that about two-thirds of organisations in the UK that were well advanced in the introduction of total quality management (TQM) programmes, had identified various kinds of team work as vital tools for its implementation. The fact that it is TQM means of course that everyone is involved and this does tend towards a need for greater and greater team work, much of it based in and around problems for the organisation. Increased autonomy together with training in diagnostic and problem solving techniques, such as statistical process control, allows teams to take more responsibility for quality. This can lead to reductions in waste, a move towards continuous improvement and product or process innovations. Where teams develop their own recommendations for improvements or solutions to problems, they are much more likely to implement them successfully, because they were invented here.The increased knowledge of the process or service that goes hand in hand with successful team working seems inevitably to encourage teams to take a broader perspective. This can help teams to appreciate the wider implications of ideas they may have for changes or improvements.\nTechnological advances: Advances in technology in all fields have opened up new possibilities for increasing the range of services. New technology enables the production of solutions tailored to individual customer requirements or at least, the emphasis on customer focus requires an educated workforce and for workers to be more flexible and adaptable, able to co-operate with other workers, supervisors and managers throughout the organisation, in addition improving their ability to operate sophisticated technology. In addition, the sheer complexity of operations in most organisations nowadays, and the multi-disciplinary nature of many services or products place them beyond the expertise and control of any one individual. In these circumstances some form of team work or joint working becomes not just desirable but essential and inevitable.\nMotivation: Many organisations have traditionally been characterised for many by monotony and boredom with jobs often structured in ways that do not always make the most of an individual's full range of skills. This tends to minimise job satisfaction with a consequent reduction in motivation. In such situations, alternative means of production, e.g. robotics or out-sourcing to a lower cost organisation or countries occurs at the expense of the traditional workforce.As a reaction to this, many organisations have required workers to become multi-skilled and more flexible in the way they operate. It implies that they need to be better trained but also increasingly able to take many of their own decisions. To do this properly, it is far better for workers to be motivated by the desire to do a good job and to be recognised for their contribution to a successful organisation. This has led to a new emphasis on redesigning jobs to provide greater job satisfaction and improved quality of working life.The organisation of work into teams provides an opportunity to fulfil many of the principles of good job design. These include:* Variety of tasks - requiring the use of several skills.* Autonomy - of the individual in deciding the order or pace of work.* Identity - the task forms a whole job or larger part of the whole job.* Responsibility - individuals accountable to each other for what is produced.* Feedback - constant information on how the operator is performing.* Social contact - constant opportunity for interaction with colleagues.* Balanced workload - team members can help each other to even out peaks and troughs in their work.* Minimal role ambiguity or conflict - the team has the opportunity to deal swiftly with any problem of \"who does what\".\nIntroducing team work: So how do you go about introducing team working and by extension use team work to increase competitiveness? There are a number of key points to consider:* Study what is involved in team working by carrying out research and visiting organisations operating in teams.* Be sure that senior managers know how team working will contribute to the business strategy and are fully committed to team working.* Adopt a participative style of management in partnership with employees and their representatives.* Seek to improve employee motivation and commitment.* Respond positively to any fear among managers and the workforce caused by devolving decision making and fewer levels of management.* Plan team work as a continuous process where plans are regularly adjusted as changes are introduced and subsequently evaluated.* Give high priority to good communications and consultation when introducing and subsequently when maintaining team work.* Identify and meet training needs.* Concentrate the appraisal process on employee development.* Consider whether to make the reward system compatible with team working.\nPreparing for change: The first step is to consider what is involved and what the advantages and disadvantages might be which might include reading some of the available literature on the subject (like this article for example) or to attend conferences on team working where you can hear first hand about the experience of other organisations and make contacts with other companies.\nSenior management commitment: The introduction of team working is a major change that will affect the whole organisation. Before embarking on such a change, senior managers must be satisfied that they know how it will contribute to their overall strategy. Most commonly, as discussed earlier, organisations introduce team working as part of a strategy of organisational development to give them competitive advantage through reducing costs, improving quality or encouraging service innovation often linked to the introduction of new technology.Senior managers will need to demonstrate a firm commitment to team working throughout its introduction. This commitment is especially important if problems arise and middle managers and or employees start to question the change and lose motivation. Until a strong commitment by senior management exists there should be no move to establish team working because it just will not work and furthermore to start a team working initiative and then abandon it or allow it to run out of steam is likely to be seriously damaging. The lack of senior managerial commitment is often seen as the reason that quality circles for example, tend to wither on the bough.\nChanging the culture: An organisation considering the introduction of team working must acknowledge that it will involve a long-term transformation. This will comprise not only concrete changes such as selecting teams or altering the layout of the work area, but also changing less tangible factors like the attitudes of supervisors, managers and employees - or the \"culture\" of the organisation or as it is often more succinctly put - the way it is around here. In this connection we need to be aware of the difference between espoused culture or the way we say it should be and actual culture or the way it really is. Ideally the two should be the same but this is rare. It is more likely to occur where there is genuine commitment at both senior managerial levels and throughout the workforce, which is where team working comes into its own.Team work requires a participative style of management where employees have a significant degree of control over their own work. The more authoritarian the managerial style the longer the change of culture will take. Employees and managers will be suspicious of and unprepared for an overnight change from authoritarianism to full participation.For the change to team working to be effective, the practices and beliefs of management must actively support the new environment. The manager's role should move from controller to initiator, counsellor and facilitator. Particular managerial tasks should aim to provide the right support and environment for effective team working and co-operation.These tasks include:* providing a vision and communicating it;* encouraging the free flow of ideas and initiative;* training and developing employees to take increased responsibility; and* over-seeing teams and ensuring they meet objectives.The need to initiate and manage change will place increasing emphasis on leadership skills and a style of management where authority comes from competence rather than status. Most managers are however, capable of adapting to the new style with training, encouragement and guidance.\nChanging the management structure: For many organisations the changed role of managers and the devolution of decision-making, leads to a need for fewer levels of management and often for fewer supervisors and managers. This process can lead to fear and obstructive behaviour at all levels. Managers may be frightened of relinquishing power for fear of losing their jobs while employees may be fearful of the prospect of taking on more responsibility. People are generally antipathetic to change because it is intrinsically difficult and tends to change the way it is around here, which we may belly ache about, but at least we know where we are. A voluntary approach can encourage co-operation and provide an escape route for those who are uncomfortable with the changes. The options to consider include:* offering a new role to those managers displaced - for example, using them as trainers or to lead special projects; and* setting out clearly the new vision and culture and offering voluntary alternatives for those who do not feel that they will fit in.A clear strategy will be needed which deals with the issue honestly and openly. Where redundancies are being considered organisations should ensure appropriate consultation and selection. Even when a new management structure has been established, difficulties may still arise. Problems can arise where middle managers delegate power to lower levels, but senior managers are reluctant to relinquish any of their power to middle managers. This can leave middle managers without a clear role and they may become a negative influence on the progress of team working. Middle management must be involved in the change process and convinced of its role in making it work.\nPlanning for change: The pace of change must be considered. Whether an organisation goes for a dramatic overnight organisational change or a gradual introduction of team working will depend on factors such as the existing culture and the circumstances in which it is operating. Many organisations like to begin a change to team working on a small scale - for example, starting with a pilot exercise. This can help demonstrate the benefits of team working and, depending how it is handled, provide a pool of \"champions\" to spread the word or a \"favoured few\" who may be resented by the rest of the workforce. It can also flag up potential mistakes that can be corrected as the project is expanded. In other circumstances rapid change may be considered imperative if the organisation is to survive.The development of team working cannot be viewed as a finite project with a beginning and an end. It is important to have an overall vision but in working towards the vision it will be necessary to adopt a number of interrelated initiatives. Frequently team working itself will be one of a range of strategic initiatives. It is better to see all change initiatives as part of a continuous process where progress and interrelationships are constantly planned, monitored and replanted. When dealing with major change it is not possible to devote equal energy and resource to everything at once.Managers may use a mixture of formal and informal methods to decide objectives and priorities, ranging from meetings and working parties to chats and intuition. Those who have a stake in the proposed changes may try to influence events so that their initiatives gain approval and resources. There is an obvious danger that groups can influence events out of self-interest rather than to serve the wider interests of the organisation.An open participative organisation where issues are fully discussed can help to ensure that all points of view are heard before decisions are taken. A steering group to oversee the process and help to order priorities is used by many organisations. Organisations may go further than this and attempt to formulate a more structured way of planning change.In the next article the issues of establishing and running teams will be addressed.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The received wisdom is that team working is a good thing and is spoken about positively as a means of promoting co-operation and of making the best use of employees' strengths. This article seeks to examine why this may be and to address the four areas highlighted by ACAS where improvements are made, i.e. productivity, quality, the use of new technology, and motivation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper explores here in the light of the current organisational environment.\nFindings: - The study outlines the lessons learned in introducing teamwork, the need for managerial commitment, the changes in culture that can be promoted by team working and how to go about planning for change.\nOriginality/value: - The paper presents a practical and realistic view. This is the first of two articles on the subject. The second will deal with the issues of establishing and running teams.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The sustainable agenda and energy efficiency: Logistics solutions and supply chains in times of climate change	[ "Supply chain management", "Energy management", "Sustainable development", "Distribution management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nEnergy-climate era: important and inter-dependent implications: The aim of this editorial is to stimulate further the academic debate on the two contemporary concepts presented in the papers in this special issue in the context of logistics and supply chain management (SCM). First, the \"sustainable agenda\", which in the present context refers to the inter-relationship between industrial activities in supply chains and climate change. Second, \"energy efficiency\" has not received much attention in business and management although it might be an \"old hat\" within some branches of engineering sciences including transportation research. The concept of energy, broadly defined as any usable source power (e.g. fossil fuels, electricity, wind and solar power), has already gained considerable attention in transportation (Browne, 2005). Transportation is certainly an important factor for energy efficiency in the supply chain, but a review of supply chain management (SCM) oriented journals reveals that energy efficiency is yet to be conceptualised into a more comprehensive framework (managerial or theoretical) in the context of business logistics and SCM. Still, scarcity, prices and security of energy sources are among the most immediate challenges society is facing (Giddens, 2009), not to forget the fundamental role the generation and distribution of energy has played for innovation in the industrial revolutions (Castells, 2000). The argument developed here is that scholars and professionals in logistics and SCM should take direct interest as regards climate change and energy efficiency; not only as separate issues, but also more importantly as convergent agendas.\nTangible and immediate reasons to take a closer look: It is not merely logical reasoning but rather a fact that the \"energy-climate era\" (Friedman, 2008) is challenging the nature of business and management activities. Since the launch of the call for papers for this special issue - \"The sustainable agenda and energy efficiency, logistics solutions and supply chains in times of climate change\" - sustainability (and climate change) and energy (including use of natural resources) have received increasing attention amongst various groups of stakeholders; managers, researchers, policy makers and consumers. The need to revisit logistics performance is not only stimulated by the importance of environmental concerns or rising oil prices. Supply chains and energy security are the two out of four emerging issues that World Economic Forum (2008, p. 6) has identified as areas that will \"fundamentally shape\" our future and that are \"central to the functioning of the world economy and to the well-being of global society\". Furthermore, immense regulatory pressure from governmental bodies (e.g. directives issued by the European Union) as well as the media's social regulation on issues like product recalls and supply chain disruptions require this subject to be dealt with in a more distinct manner than has been the case so far.The consequences of rising energy prices and climate change are more tangible (impact on performance and strategic position) and immediate and (supply chain disruptions) for the individual company than ever. These issues do, moreover, not only stand out in terms of importance, it is evident in our context that they should be approached as being causally inter-dependent; there are energy costs involved in the way materials are moved through the supply chain, which in turn has an impact on carbon emissions. The transition towards a low carbon economy aims to reduce emission of greenhouse gases amongst other things through the use of renewable sources of energy and by reducing the need for energy.Figure 1 shows what we regard as a tension between use of natural resources, such as fossil fuels and the eco-system, and relates this to emerging research agendas within logistics and SCM. Starting at the top from left to right, natural resources (1), such as water and non-renewable fossil fuels, are used for industrial production and movement of goods across various stages of the supply chain. In this context, the pattern of the usage of natural resources is shaped by the key performance objectives of strategies (e.g. time and cost) and structures (e.g. degree of centralisation, nature of inter-organisational relationships, geographical location) of the supply chain. The consequence is emission of greenhouse gasses and use of landfill space for waste disposal which influences the balance of the eco-system (2). This imbalance can have further influence on the scarcity of natural resources; deforestation caused by industrial production can trigger flooding, which in turn can influence forestry. These tensions, commonly referred to as climate change, are considered as being the root cause of natural disasters (3) such as flooding and hurricanes. Such events in the eco-system have had severe disruptive impact on industrial operations, and the knock-on effects on the wider supply chain are not uncommon.Impact of climate change: natural hazards\nEnergy: important but supply chain assumptions need re-thinking: Acquisition of natural resources and the effects of their use are similarly often treated as \"costs\" and \"quality\" of materials. Energy is of the utmost importance in logistics and SCM but has not received corresponding attention. Road freight transport is causing some of the problems of energy use (Browne and Allen, 1998). More specifically, worldwide transport counts for about 20 per cent of global primary energy consumption (Assmann and Sieber, 2005). The fact that supply chains are highly dependent upon energy that is generated by fossil fuels has become a matter of concern. Falling demand and high oil prices are eroding profitability in the air cargo industry, and reports suggest that the costs of fuel can make up to 30-35 per cent of total costs of some carriers (Thuermer, 2008). The rising costs of energy have direct impact on operating expenses of transport providers and costs of goods sold (Tanowitz and Rutchik, 2008, p. 34). These numbers refer primarily to the actual movement of physical components, but other operations that also influence the time and location of products are warehousing and storage at retail level; both require heating of space and water, as well as electricity for, e.g. sorting packages in distribution centres and keeping products cool in the food supply chain until they are consumed, which is the case of vending machines for soft drinks.Longevity of current frameworks of \"supply chains\"\nFinal remarks: This research note is not intended to be conclusive, but has rather aimed to stress the importance of sustainability (and climate change) and energy efficiency. Sustainability and energy in the context of logistics and SCM are not only a challenge through their novelty (need to integrate these into our understanding of, e.g. \"performance\") and importance (large and immediate implications), but further research and practice must also understand their implications through their inter-dependent nature. Based on this advancement, we can start developing further research agenda that cross with natural resources and eco-system. This raises, however, a number of questions. How radically must we go about this development? Provided that theoretical models and approaches in logistics reflect the industrial context in which they are generated, would it not be fair to say that business solutions considering sudden emphasis on sustainability and energy efficiency would need a shift in the theoretical mindset? Are current theories and solutions in logistics and SCM suitable to address the current challenge of sustainability and energy efficiency? Are the time-based distribution strategies with small-size shipment deliveries at flexible dates still environmentally and economically sustainable? And what about global sourcing - is the next step local sourcing? Perhaps theoretical approaches and practices need to change? Or more radically, are current theory and practice the root causes of the problem, not (only) a key to the solution? Our proposition is that logistics and SCM definitely have a role to play in the transition to low carbon economy. But it probably needs to undergo transition itself to be able to cope with the emerging agenda.\nThe articles in this special issue: Focus and process\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This double special issue called for logistics solutions and supply chains in times of climate change. The purpose of this editorial is to investigate the current and future implications of climate change, and in particular, energy efficiency for logistics and supply chain management (SCM).\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Against the backdrop of climate change, a conceptual framework is constructed that reflects on the immediate and tangible effects of a sustainable agenda on logistics and SCM.\nFindings: - Energy efficiency has been largely neglected in logistics and SCM. At the same time, considering energy efficiency requires considerable rethinking on the operational level (from transportation emissions to the cold chain) as well as even the conceptual level. The energy agenda needs a further development of logistics theory and practice.\nOriginality/value: - The editorial highlights the challenges of sustainability and energy in the context of logistics and SCM pertaining to their novelty, importance and interdependence. SCM needs to develop new performance measures that include measures of energy efficiency, in order to adapt to an environment where the old assumption of low fuel costs does not hold stand.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Exploring the attractiveness of manufacturer brands and retailer own-brands in supermarket context	[ "Attachment", "Image", "Brand attitude", "Credibility", "Familiarity", "Retailer own-brands" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Supermarket retailers have been actively pursuing innovation in order to respond to the consumers' demands for low prices and high range and quality of grocery products (Nielsen, 2016). Consumers tend to purchase increasingly own-label brands ever since the economic downturn (PLMA, 2015). In Portugal, retailers have also started to distribute their own-brands within other small retail companies. Own-label brands (private labels, house brands, retailer brands and store brands) are products that stores put their own names or brands on and they have one element in common: they are manufactured and brought to the market in much the same way as the familiar national brands (Oxera, 2010; Helmefalk, 2016). Nielsen's (2016) study reveals that the Portuguese consumer tries to save money when shopping in supermarkets. About eight out of ten Portuguese buy (especially when it comes to grocery items) based on the price, but they also consider that the quality of retailer own-brands has improved over time. This perception is higher in Portugal than the European average, which reaches 62 per cent. Previous studies have proven that consistency in brand positions over time, including consistency in the attribute (e.g. quality) levels of products, increases the credibility of a brand as an indicator of a product's position, which, in turn, may decrease the perceived risk (variance of consumer quality perception), information costs, as well as increase the perceived quality (by consumers) associated with a brand (e.g. Erdem et al., 2004; Erdem et al., 2006; Patterson, 2016). Yet, one question arises: can the strength of the influence of brand credibility, image and familiarity on the consumers' overall evaluation and attachment to a brand be affected by the grocery product category and the perception of the quality of an own-label brand vs a manufacturer brand?\nTheoretical background: Brand attitude and brand attachment\nMethodology: Sample and data collection\nResults: The proposed model of this study has a second-order formative construct, and the PLS path modelling allows for the conceptualization of higher order factors through its repeated use of manifest variables (Chin et al., 2003; Kleijnen et al., 2007). A PLS model should be analysed and interpreted in two stages. First, the measurement model or the adequacy of the measures is assessed by evaluating the reliability of the individual measures, the convergent validity and the discriminant validity of the constructs. Then, the structural model is evaluated.\nConclusions and implications: The current study attempts to contribute to the understanding of the effect of brand credibility, brand image and brand familiarity on brand attitude and brand attachment. We also test whether the grocery product category and the perception of quality of own-label brand vs manufacturer brand moderate the inter-relationship of brand credibility, familiarity and brand image on brand attachment and brand attitude. The relationships between constructs emerge from previous studies, but as far as we know, they have not been empirically tested.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purposes of this paper are to explore the effects of brand credibility, brand familiarity and brand image on brand attachment and brand attitude; and to test how a grocery product category and the perception of quality of own-label brands vs manufacturer brands moderate the inter-relationship of brand credibility, brand familiarity and brand image on brand attachment and brand attitude.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A survey is administered to a quota sample of Portuguese supermarket shoppers via a face-to-face personal interviewing method. The survey was conducted in Lisbon, Amadora and Sintra. The three municipalities were chosen for being the most densely populated and for having the largest number of grocery retailers in Portugal. From a total of 800 questionnaires collected using a face-to-face personal interviewing method in low-, medium- and high-peak shopping days, 756 were usable for data analysis. The respondents' profile is according to the last Censos in Portugal conducted by the National Statistical Institute of Portugal, representing a quota sample.\nFindings: Credibility and familiarity seem to be more important to enhance attachment in the case of the manufacturer brands and image for retailer own-brands. Brand image is more effective in attach customer in the case of manufacturer brands. Grocery store (supermarket) brand managers should be more effective in communicating the extension of the store image to the image of the products; they should develop a consistent and differentiating brand image.\nOriginality/value: This paper provides an important contribution to supermarket retail service by shedding light about how consumers' overall evaluation and attachment to a brand are affected by the grocery product category and the perception of the quality of an own-label brand vs a manufacturer brand.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Value co-production through external communication consulting	[ "Value co-creation", "Strategic communication", "Value co-destruction", "Communication consulting", "Public relations consultants", "Value co-production" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This paper focusses on the prerequisites of value formation in the communication consultant-client interaction. Marketing researchers in particular have been interested in how value is formed between the firm and its clients (Echeverri and Skalen, 2011). Today, consumers engage in the processes of both defining and creating value and the conventional, distinct roles of production and consumption are disappearing, and the \"co-creation experience of consumer becomes the very basis of value\" (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004b, p. 5). Therefore, the paper examines how value was co-created (Frow et al., 2015; Gronroos and Voima, 2013; Ind and Coates, 2013) - or co-destroyed (Echeverri and Skalen, 2011; Smith, 2013) - during a communication improvement programme carried out at a medium-sized family firm specialising in electricity distribution systems. Prior research into value co-creation draws mainly from the disciplines of marketing and management (Ranjan and Read, 2016). However, this perspective is fruitful also for the field of strategic communication because it enables us to assess, for example, the work of external consultants in companies too small to recruit communication professionals. Strategic communication can be defined as the \"purposeful use of communication by an organization to fulfil its mission\" (Hallahan et al., 2007, p. 3), including both public relations and corporate communications (Frandsen et al., 2013). Communication consultants are used by organisations to help them fulfil their mission; therefore, it is crucial that consultants follow through.\n2. Theoretical background: The broad framework of the study draws from a socio-constructivist view of organisational learning wherein new knowledge is produced in social processes and wherein collective communicative practices are key elements (e.g. Hakkarainen, 2009; Wenger, 2003). Cole and Engestrom (1993) define learning as a participatory social process wherein multi-stranded interpersonal transactions mediate the exchange of knowledge. Traditional definitions of consulting include elements such as advisory activity, intentional intervention from outside, and deliberate changes (Clegg et al., 2004). However, when taking a socio-constructivist stance, the linkages and similarities between consulting and educating are powerful and, therefore, organisational learning can be seen as the ultimate goal of consulting. Accordingly, a participatory and collaborative process is a path towards this goal.\n3. Research context: The research context involves the medium-sized family firm, a supplier of electricity distribution systems based in Eastern Finland. The company, which operates in both B2B markets and customer markets, was founded in the 1970s and now has about 100 employees and ambitious visions of growth. The company's CEO is a 30-year-old man who took the helm from his father, the company's founder. It is essential to pay attention to the special setting of family businesses. Miller et al. (2003) found three distinct patterns of succession: conservative, wavering, and rebellious. The conservative succession pattern is characterised, for example, by stagnation, risk aversion, and insularity, while the rebellious pattern includes a revolutionary change. The strategy of the wavering pattern can be indecisive and inconsistent, and cause confusion and conflicts in the organisation. The case firm was wavering between the conservative models of its founder and the renewals undertaken by the current CEO, which included communication improvement. The conservative approach was also reflected in internal communication. As Hallahan et al. (2007, p. 20) express, some managers had adopted a view that \"superior-subordinate communication was all that was necessary to communicate with employees, who would obediently comply\".\n4. Methodology: The qualitative research approach chosen for this paper is case study. Case studies can be divided into intensive and extensive on the basis of the number of cases examined. Intensive case study research concentrates on one or few cases in-depth, whereas extensive case studies map common patterns across several cases (Eriksson and Kovalainen, 2016, pp. 133-138). This intensive case study aimed at the understanding of the case through a holistic and contextualised description. It focussed on the communication development process of a specific company and on the consultant-client interaction in this process. The data for the study came from different sources: expectations and needs written by the management team of the company prior to the communication programme, a video recording of one of the five communication development workshops, insights noted in writing by the participants in the workshop, and a reflexively oriented research diary written by the consultant during the communication improvement programme. Prior to the programme, the management team was asked to write about their experiences with communication (including eventual education in the field), about different communication situations they face in their work, including challenging situations in particular, their view of themselves as communicators, and their development needs. The workshop recorded was held on 5 February 2015 on the theme of interdepartmental communication. This specific workshop was chosen because its topic was one of the key communication issues targeted for attention at the firm and because of its work methods - the teams prepared short role plays on tricky communication situations and acted the situations out. The workshop was expected to offer rich data and reveal some tensions both between departments and at the consultant-client interface. Immediately following the workshop, the participants had the opportunity to discuss their insights and also share them in writing. The role of the reflexive research diary in this paper was to enrich the research context by providing reflections on the communication development programme from the consultant's point of view.\n5. Results: In the following sections, the results of the study are reported upon from two points of view. For the first, I explain the expectations and communication development needs expressed by the management team of the case company before the programme commenced. I compare these expectations and needs to the insights of the participants in the communication development workshop. In doing so, I clarify the context of the study and draw attention to the expectations and needs amidst which the workshop took place. For the second perspective, I focus on the main theme of this paper, the consultant-client interface during the communication development workshop. I report the results of the study and link them to the theoretical framework presented in Section 2 of the paper.\n6. Discussion: In qualitative studies, the research context is essential (e.g. Eriksson and Kovalainen, 2016). Therefore, I have addressed not just the description of the research context but also the initial expectations for the development programme and the insights produced right after the communication improvement workshop. The firm's managers emphasised the value of a strategic communication plan and the customer interface. On the other hand, the development needs were related to the various communication tools throughout the company, and the themes discussed in the workshop reflected this need. However, when talking about electronic communication tools, we must remember that these channels cover only 30 per cent of the employees of the firm: none of the modern tools can reach the production personnel.\n7. Limitations and future research: Naturally, the study has its limitations. First, a technical limitation was evident in that the video recording was of poor quality at times because of some disturbing noise from neighbouring premises. A second, more fundamental, issue is that the value produced cannot be properly evaluated unless the value is determined by the client in the long run (Ranjan and Read, 2016). Examining the outcomes of the whole communication improvement programme is beyond the scope of this paper; therefore, these were discussed only briefly. The analysis of the workshop video recordings has revealed that there is much more to consider - for example, the various ideas for the improvement of communication practices developed during the workshop. Therefore, next, a voice should be given to the customers, the company representatives, to reveal how they are using the knowledge produced during the programme, and to understand their evaluation of the success of the programme. The preliminary outcomes reported are very positive and included, for example, a practical communication handbook for the personnel.\n8. Conclusion: The study was able to illuminate the challenges of communication development in a firm too small to recruit communication professionals but large enough to have ambitious visions of growth and to struggle with issues of managerial, employee, and customer communication. Several authors have pointed out the growing communicator role of all members of an organisation (Juholin et al., 2015; Zerfass and Franke, 2013). This is particularly true for SMEs, which seldom can recruit communication professionals. Moreover, communication consulting may become an increasingly significant part of management consulting (Engwall and Kipping, 2013), and consultants will be contributing to strategic communication in organisations to a greater degree. The study highlighted the various roles of consultants as organisers, transcoders, re-interpreters, co-creators, and dialogue facilitators. The value of confusing or even destructive episodes was emphasised as a source of new perspectives.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the prerequisites of value co-production by a communication consultant and workshop participants during a communication improvement programme carried out in a medium-sized family firm.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper draws from a socio-constructivist view of learning that emphasises participatory processes. It utilises the value co-production concept, referring to collaborative, dialogic activities between the consultant and the client. The theoretical framework includes the transcoder, re-interpreter, and free creator roles of a consultant as realised in a consultancy process characterised by dialogic interaction and equity. The approach is qualitative, and the data come from the expectations of the management team, a video recording of a communication improvement workshop, insights produced in the workshop, and a research journal.\nFindings: The roles of a consultant were found to be those of organiser, transcoder, re-interpreter, and co-creator. Additionally, a dialogue facilitator role was highlighted as a central prerequisite of value co-production. The importance of a positive spirit in consultancy sessions was questioned because problems can thereby be hidden behind positivity. The value of confusing or even destructive episodes was emphasised as a source of new perspectives.\nResearch limitations/implications: There are limitations related to the quality of the video recordings, and that the company employees did not yet evaluate the value gained in the long run.\nPractical implications: This paper shows that a communication consultant gains insights from company representatives' insider views in conflict-management situations, and that these conflicts can be useful for organisational learning.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to research into strategic communication because it provides new knowledge about the consultant-client interface, particularly in value co-production, in the few studies conducted in the context of SMEs. The study utilises the novel research methodology of video analysis.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Two dimensional efficiency measurements in vocational education: Evidence from Australia	[ "Efficiency", "Productivity", "Effectiveness", "Input/output analysis" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In Australia, the vocational education and training (VET) sector accounts for approximately A$8 billion of public spending, of which around A$6.6 billion is spent on government providers that include Technical and Further Education (TAFE) institutes (NCVER Financial Information, 2014). The TAFE institutes in Australia are large, public VET providers, generally funded and managed by state government. They are geographically dispersed, providing important access to tertiary education in regional and remote areas, as well as in urban locations.\n2. Review of Literature: The contemporary approach to analyse the productivity of public institutions is based on the work done by Farrell (1957). In his seminal paper, he argued that the measurement of efficiency is necessary to ascertain whether additional inputs are needed to increase desired outputs or if such outputs can be increased by raising efficiency alone. Farrell also developed a generalisable production function which enabled the computation of efficiency measurements under multiple input scenarios.\n3. Method of analysis: We will be estimating \"teaching hours\" efficiency and \"employment outcome\" efficiency based on the stochastic frontier methodology developed by Aigner et al. (1977). The main contribution of these authors was the introduction of a new approach to the specification of the error term, namely, its separation into a normal \"noise\" term and a one sided inefficiency term. Stochastic frontier production functions are an extension to the classic Cobb-Douglas (1928) function which can generally be expressed in this form:(1)\n4. Results: 4.1 Teaching load model\n5. Conclusion: In this study we have applied stochastic frontier models to estimate two types of efficiencies of Australian TAFE institutes, focussing on the transformation of financial and administrative inputs into teaching load outcomes on one hand, and the transformation of institutional resources into employment outcomes on the other.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: In Australia, the vocational education and training (VET) sector accounts for approximately A$8 billion of public spending, of which around A$6.6 billion is spent on government providers that include Technical and Further Education (TAFE) institutes. The TAFE institutes in Australia are large, public VET providers, generally funded and managed by state government. Measuring the efficiency and effectiveness of TAFE institutes is of great interest to policy makers, regulators, consumers and to the institutions themselves. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In this study the authors use data relating to student cohort demographics, institutional characteristics and educational outcome data, while employing stochastic frontier analysis, to develop two distinct efficiency measures and models. The first model examines institutional efficiency in the transformation of financial resources into teaching loads. The second model evaluates efficiency in the transformation of institutional resources into post-study employment outcomes. K-means cluster analysis is used to establish groupings of similar institutes and subsequent canonical discriminant analysis is employed to develop a typology of these clusters.\nFindings: In both models the authors find significant inefficiencies in the Australian TAFE system. The relationship between both efficiency measures is then assessed. While there is no direct linear relationship, a distinct pattern could be detected. Finally the authors develop a typology of efficient institutions.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to the existing research by defining efficiency in vocational education in two distinct ways and by the utilisation of the derived efficiencies in the development of a typology of efficient institutes. In doing so, this research makes an original contribution to the understanding of the drivers of efficiency in vocational education.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Endogeneity of Brazilian corporate governance quality determinants	[ "Corporate governance", "Corporate ownership", "Brazil" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: What motivates firms to improve voluntarily their corporate governance practices? We employ a corporate governance (CG) practices score based on practices recommended by the Brazilian codes of best practices as a proxy for the actual quality of CG of the firm. We investigate an extensive sample of listed firms in Brazil, where there is no \"comply or explain\" requirement. This line of research presents a new perspective because it seeks the determinants of CG practices while a large number of academic papers deal with the impact of CG practices on the value of the firm. We also use a longer time period (1998 to 2004) while most studies use cross-section samples over one or a few years and a more robust and little used econometric procedure designed to eliminate or substantially reduce the problems generated by the endogeneity among the variables that plague the typical panel analysis research. We believe that our research helps to understand what leads firms to voluntarily improve their CG practices. Theoretical arguments and empirical evidence strongly suggest that the quality of CG practices may influence some of the variables commonly used as its determinants just as much as they may be influenced by them.Studies that employ large multi-country samples that include only the largest firms in each country provide broad insights but may lack depth. For example, Klapper and Love (2004) include data of only 24 Brazilian firms from 2000 and Lins (2003) includes data of 59 Brazilian firms from 1995. Single-country studies may be narrow in scope but may offer the potential of deep and detailed insights by way of larger and more representative samples and possibly better measured variables. Ownership structures and CG practices of firms may be seen as an equilibrium response to the legal environment in which they operate (see La Porta et al., 1998, 2000; Claessens et al., 2002; Beck et al., 2001). Himmelberg et al. (1999, 2004) argue that the level of protection offered to investors has two components: an external one, related to the legal environment in which the firm operates, and an internal one, related to the type of activity carried out by the firm and to other observable characteristics of the firm. Himmelberg et al. (2004, p. 2) also say that \"investor protection refers collectively to those features of the legal, institutional, and regulatory environment - and characteristics of firms or projects - that facilitate financial contracting between inside owners (managers) and outside investors\". Thus, it is possible that firms within a country offer different levels of protection to their investors because of their operational specificities and their motivation to voluntarily adopt better CG practices. Motivation varies because the potential gains from better CG may not be the same for all firms. This article belongs to a body of literature in corporate governance that investigates why firms within the same contractual environment choose voluntarily different levels of quality of their corporate governance practices.\nPotential determinants of firm-level quality of corporate governance practices: We review selected papers that we see as the closest to our work and that suggest the potential determinants of CG practices we employ. Klapper and Love (2004) indicate three main potential determinants of firm-level CG quality: the \"utility\" of CG, the nature of the operations of the firm and its size. They hypothesize that firms with greater needs to finance their growth opportunities would derive more \"utility\" from the adoption of good CG practices. The expropriation of investors may depend on the nature of the operations of the firm, according to Himmelberg et al. (1999, p. 358). Firms that invest mostly in tangible assets face more difficulty to divert or steal those assets because they are easily monitored and hard to be channeled to other uses. On the other hand, firms investing predominantly in intangible assets have more incentives to adopt good CG practices because they may need to signal that they do not intend to divert or use them inadequately. The size of the firm is the third potential determinant of firm-level CG. Large firms may adopt good CG practices in order to mitigate the agency costs of free cash flow. Firms with large free cash flows may not use them in the best interest of all shareholders. Small firms may grow faster than large firms and will need more external financing. Both large and small firms could have incentives to adopt good CG practices voluntarily (Klapper and Love, 2004).Durnev and Kim (2005) analyzed potential determinants of the quality of firm-level CG practices. They investigated how certain attributes of firms influence their choice of CG practices and how they interact with the legal environment in which they operate. Their theoretical model yields three predictions confirmed by their empirical evidence:1. The three main attributes that make firms adopt good CG practices are their growth opportunities, their need for external funding, both debt and equity, and their concentration of ownership.2. The market value of firms increases with good CG practices.3. The adoption of good CG practices is most relevant in countries where investor legal protection is poor.Anand et al. (2006) empirically examined the adoption of recommended CG guidelines in Canada and found an increasing voluntary adoption and convergence of good CG practices over time. Their results suggest that the presence of a majority shareholder or an executive blockholder is negatively associated with good CG practices. Significant investment opportunities and research and development expenditures are positively associated to a proxy for board quality. The authors argue that the need to obtain external financing is a major motivation to adopt good CG practices.Cash flow rights are defined as the amount of the total equity capital held by a shareholder. Control or voting rights are as the amount of the voting equity capital held by a shareholder. The ratio between the proportions of control rights to cash flow rights is called the wedge. The wedge reflects the leverage achieved by the controlling shareholders by way of indirect control structures, cross-holdings, and non-voting shares. The average wedge for the controlling shareholder in Brazil was approximately 2. This asymmetry may be a source of conflicts of interest between controlling and minority shareholders. Lins (2003) reports an average wedge of 2.68 for 719 firms in 18 countries.The ownership structure deserves more discussion (see Claessens et al., 2002). A large concentration of control rights by controlling shareholders or managers entitles them to have little need to secure the votes of minority shareholders in order to manage the firm. Firms with such dominant shareholders may be less likely to adopt good CG practices voluntarily. Alternatively, firms with dominant shareholders could adopt good CG practices voluntarily to reduce the perception of its minority shareholders that they are more exposed to expropriation. Thus, the influence of the concentration of control rights over the presence of good CG practices is ambiguous.A large concentration of cash flow rights by dominant shareholders may align their interests with those of minority shareholders. The probability of expropriation of minority shareholders could be reduced by such alignment of interests. The presence of good CG practices could be positively associated to a large concentration of cash flow rights by the dominant shareholders. Alternatively, if a large concentration of cash flow rights by the dominant shareholders is seen as a substitute for good CG practices then there would be no need to adopt more good CG practices voluntarily. Thus, the influence of the concentration of cash flow rights over the presence of good CG practices may be ambiguous as well.We employ a dummy (N2NM) to indicate if the firm is listed in the most demanding premium listings of the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange (Bovespa). Bovespa has four listing levels. The listing levels differ in terms of the requirements for liquidity, disclosure and accounting practices, conflict resolution practices, and CG practices. Companies may migrate between listing levels voluntarily. The traditional listing level has no requirements. Level 1 is the first premium level and requires a minimum liquidity and certain corporate disclosure and accounting practices. Level 2 encompasses all level 1 requirements and requires many additional CG practices, dispute resolution through arbitration, and the use of international accounting standards. Novo Mercado (NM) is the most demanding premium listing and includes all level 1 and 2 requirements plus a ban on non-voting shares. Levels 2 and 3 ADR programs require that firms comply with Sarbanes-Oxley Law and file a 20-F form annually. We employ the ADR23 dummy for the presence of level 2 or level 3 ADR programs. We also use control dummies for the type of controlling shareholders (family, foreign, state-owned, and control blocks). The operational definitions of all variables are presented in the Appendix.\nMethodology: Sample and corporate governance practices score\nAnalysis of results: Evolution of corporate governance practices in Brazil\nConcluding remarks: Firm-level CG practices are improving at a slow pace in Brazil. The voluntary adoption of good CG practices is increasing the dispersion of CGI scores rather than inciting convergence, leading to more CG practices heterogeneity throughout the period. Decreasing the number of or eliminating non-voting shares appeared as a strong determinant of good CG practices. Adherence to rigorous listing requirements by way of levels 2 and 3 ADRs or the two most demanding of the premium listings at Bovespa are positively related to the CGI scores and it appears that firms that upgrade their listing environment subsequently improve their CG quality. There is no clear evidence that the ownership structure influences CG quality but for the trivial fact that ownership structure itself can be regarded as a CG mechanism. This same conclusion applies to other potential determinants of the quality of CG practices such as growth opportunities, size, and value. We cast doubt on most potential determinants of CG practices, including value and ownership structure measures, claiming that they are likely to be endogenous. We employ a robust GMM-Sys panel data procedure that explicitly addresses the main sources of endogeneity and our results suggest that ignoring this problem will lead to incorrect coefficient estimates and conclusions.Some cautionary notes are warranted in spite of our efforts. Our results should be interpreted with caution because our variables, including the CGI, may not be suitable representations of their associated theoretical constructs. Moreover, not even the most sophisticated econometric method can completely assure that researchers have controlled all sources of spurious correlation.If the results from Brazil are valid for other emerging countries, policies directed to reduce the use of shares with inferior voting should be implemented. Stock exchanges may consider creating premium listing requirements that may be voluntarily adopted by firms. Many times, changing legislation is not an easy and quick task and this voluntary private contracting arrangement with the stock exchange could be a feasible solution to improve the quality of CG. Actually, many exchanges in emerging markets have been implementing this inspired by the successful experience of Bovespa. Firms that find that issuance in the USA became too expensive or demanding may offer a substitute listing environment with credible requirements to investors, especially foreigners. Premium listings may partially compensate emerging market exchanges for their loss of trading to major markets.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to investigate the determinants and the evolution of voluntarily adopted firm-level corporate governance practices in Brazil from 1998 to 2004 using broad corporate governance scores.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The authors employ a robust panel-data procedure that accounts for the main sources of endogeneity to a very representative panel of Brazilian firms over a six-year period. They address the endogeneity that arises from the simultaneous determination of the quality of corporate governance practices, the dependent variable, and possibly several firm attributes that are commonly employed as the determinants of such practices and are supposedly independent. Specifically, theoretical arguments and empirical evidence strongly suggest that the quality of corporate governance practices may influence some of the variables commonly used as its determinants just as much as they may be influenced by them.\nFindings: - The paper finds that firm-level corporate governance practices are steadily improving but there is much room for improvement. Heterogeneity has increased. Voluntarily adhering to new stricter listing requirements is associated positively with improvements in firm-level corporate governance practices. Reducing or not using non-voting shares improves corporate governance practices.\nResearch limitation/implications: - The authors found no clear evidence of the influence of other potential determinants of the quality of corporate governance, such as growth prospects, firm size, firm value, and ownership structure. Thus, they doubt previous findings that suggest a causal relationship from value and ownership to corporate governance practices because value and ownership seem to be determined endogenously.\nPractical implications: - Policies directed to reduce the use of non-voting shares should be implemented. Creating strict listing requirements that may be adopted voluntarily by firms could be a feasible solution to improve the quality of corporate governance practices in emerging market countries. Firms in an emerging market that find that issuance in the USA became too expensive or demanding may offer a substitute listing environment with credible requirements to foreign investors. Premium listings may partially compensate emerging market exchanges for their loss of trading to major markets.\nOriginality/value: - The paper examines the evolution of the voluntary adoption of corporate governance practices in Brazil from 1998 through 2004 while most studies use cross-section samples over one or a few years. Further, this is one of a few papers to analyze the impact of ownership structure on the quality of corporate governance practices by segregating control and cash flow rights.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The impact of agricultural extension on households' welfare in Ethiopia	[ "Development", "Agricultural economies", "Developing countries", "Ethiopia", "Propensity score matching", "D1", "C14", "C21", "Q18", "H41" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: During the second half of the twentieth century, most developing countries had public extension systems that were funded by donor agencies, often with very limited resources, and organized top-down (Swanson, 2008). The main focus of agricultural extension was on the transfer of technologies from central research units and increasing agricultural production in the interest of national food security and foreign exchange earnings. Some positive impact on agricultural output has been registered, although, resource-poor and food insecure farmers were often neglected because they were considered less likely to adopt the promoted technologies as compared to resource-richer farmers (Feder et al., 1985; Birkhaeuser et al., 1991).\n2. Literature review: The literature can be broadly categorized into: distant and recent years. Research works which fall under the distant years are works conducted before 30 years and most of them focussing on the T\n3. Data sources and methodology: 3.1. Data sources\n4. Results and discussion: 4.1. Descriptive analysis\n5. Conclusions: This study examined the impact the IHEP extension program in the Tigray region in Ethiopia. Since this program concerns a new extension approach that tries to move toward decentralized, integrated and participatory, understanding the impact on local farm households is important. After controlling the differences in the observed covariates; we found that the program importantly contributed to rising household income and investment in the region. Effects on income diversification were small. We can conclude that the IHEP program had an important positive welfare impact and extending to program further to reach the majority of rural households in the Tigray region will likely benefit rural households further.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of the Integrated Household Extension Program (IHEP) on participant households' welfare and see the policy effectiveness. The government of Ethiopia - in contrast to the majority of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa - invests heavily in agricultural extension but very little empirical evidence is available on the impact of the services on farm performance and household welfare that could justify these investments. The IHEP program is a particularly interesting case as it is an example on how agricultural extension systems in developing countries changed during the past two decades, from centralized top-down technology-transfer-orientated approaches to decentralized, participatory and more integrated approaches.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors use household survey data from 730 farm households (361 treated and 369 control) in the Tigray region of Ethiopia and propensity score matching methods to estimate the impact.\nFindings: The authors find that the extension program had a large positive impact on household welfare - increasing income with about 10 percent - and on investment but have not impacted on income diversification. In addition to the main variable of interest (extension), household characteristics, such as household head age, gender, adult labor availability in the household, asset holdings and social capital variables were found to have an influence on income, investment and income diversification.\nOriginality/value: The paper has tried to assess the impact of a program which claiming substantial public money using primary data. Hence, the findings will serve to inform policy makers as how the program is running.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The contribution of VSA and SDL perspectives to strategic thinking in emerging economies	[ "Emerging economies", "Service-Dominant Logic", "Emerging markets", "Inclusive business", "Viable Systems Approach" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Emerging economies (EEs) (emerging markets, developing markets/economies/countries), and BRICs - Brazil, Russia, India, and China are increasingly relevant to the world economy; it is estimated that by 2035, the gross domestic product of EEs will permanently surpass that of all advanced markets (Sheth, 2011). In addition, EEs house two-thirds of the world's population (Prahalad and Hart, 2002); a fact that makes them particularly interesting. As a result, multinational corporations are beginning to acknowledge the relevance of EEs due to their untapped potential. At the same time, because of EE markets' economic and social deficiencies, philanthropic, mission-driven organizations are also present there. However, their actions, directed at reducing global poverty, have not been effective (Karnani, 2011).\n2. Characteristics of EEs: This section builds on Pels and Kidd (2012) and reviews the market environment literature to suggest an overall framework to portray the EE-LIS (EEs - low-income sectors) relationship. Marketing is \"context dependent\" (Sheth and Sisodia, 1999, p. 72); therefore, it is not always possible to translate strategies and practices from developed markets into emerging markets. This is particularly true when adopting market-based approaches to address LIS because macro-environmental conditions are often dysfunctional and consumption habits differ from those in advanced markets (Sheth, 2011). Additionally, EEs include countries as diverse as Peru, India, China, and Ghana. Not only do these countries show heterogeneity in different aspects of their market constitutions, but also we observe that the four billion people who constitute the LIS are not a \"monolith\" (Prahalad, 2010, p. 6). As Portocarrero and Delgado (2010) have highlighted, the LIS population living in remote regions in the Andean Plateau differs from that in the thick Amazonian rainforest or densely populated neighborhoods located around urban areas. Thus, understanding EEs' environmental characteristics is important because it allows scholars to assess the \"generalizability of marketing theories and the extent to which they are bounded by the institutional context of HIC\" (high-income countries/consumers) (Burgess and Steenkamp, 2006, p. 341).\n3. Four market strategies for EEs: Based on an exhaustive literature review on how to address the low-income markets in EEs, Pels and Sheth (2013) classified the identified business models into four market strategies. A 2x2 matrix helps visualize these strategies. One axis reflects two types of marketing mindset toward the EE-LIS market (i.e. whether it is seen as a constraint or an opportunity). The other axis reflects the strategic approach (i.e. whether it starts from the company or from the community). The four resulting cells become the alternative market strategies: Market Adaptation, Mission Focus, Disruptive Innovation and Inclusive Development. Of particular interest to this paper is the Inclusive Development strategy because of its market-making nature (i.e. transforming the potential market into actual market) and because the process involves interacting with non-market actors such as: public-private partnerships between commercial firms, NGOs, LIC communities, and government agencies (Figure 1).\n4. The VSA perspective: The VSA research stream was born in a context of uncertainty regarding the correct approach to business. In particular, due to a sense of discontent in the belief that there is always \"one best way\" to solve problems. When dealing with complexity, the VSA argues that the models, techniques, and tools developed on the basis of the dominant analytical reductionist approach by focussing on the micro level of observation of phenomena, show to be of no use (Barile, 2009; Barile and Saviano, 2010; Badinelli et al., 2012). The habit of facing complexity by trying to reduce it by analyzing in depth the perceived elements of observed phenomena, has shown an inadequate interpretative capacity (Capra, 2002; Golinelli, 2010). This view does not imply rejecting the reductionist approach; rather it suggests its valorization within a general methodology where its adoption is coherent with the nature of the problem it is looking to solve. To deal with complex decision-making issues, like those of entering an EE market, the VSA argues that there is a need to elicit more general schemes capable of offering an overall view of the interaction dynamics that typically emerge from such decisions (Saviano and Di Nauta, 2011), overcoming the limits of consolidated specific schemes which reveal their ineffectiveness when the problematic scenario changes, subsequently generating complexity (Barile et al., 2013).\n5. The SDL perspective: SDL is a theoretical approach that initially focussed on marketing whereas today it has a broader reach. It highlights a paradigm shift away from the goods-dominant (G-D) logic that has dominated mainstream management thinking since the advent of the industrial era. SDL is founded on the co-creation of value, service, and resource integration, based on interaction and networked relationships (Vargo and Lusch, 2006, 2008). The traditional G-D logic, which is based on clear distinctions between producers and consumers and between goods and services, has been described as the \"logic of the past\" (Drucker, 1993). In contrast, the contemporary service economy is based on networked relationships, continuing interactions, and value co-creation (Rust, 2004; Gronroos, 2008).\n6. How VSA and SDL contribute to strategic thinking in EEs: Links between the VSA and SDL have already been established (Gummesson and Polese, 2009; Barile and Polese, 2010b; Saviano et al., 2010; Golinelli et al., 2012; Barile et al., 2012a; Wieland et al., 2012). This paper aims to show how the VSA and SDL literature provide a different view of inclusiveness that can be useful for supporting strategic reasoning when considering whether to enter, or rather, to begin to market with EEs.\n7. Managerial implications: Several implications emerge from the proposed reflections which suggest that managers question their basic way of thinking if they aim to begin to market with EEs.\n8. Future research: The proposed approach opens interesting avenues for further research on EEs and the business model to achieve higher inclusiveness. One possible area of research is related to the multiplicity of objectives that characterize the approach discussed here. These objectives are not only multiple but are also generally in conflict because they tend to draw on a pool of limited resources, while conventional approaches see them as a set of impossible tradeoffs, often leading to unsuccessful business initiatives. The paper has shown that the VSA provides a valuable approach to study environments characterized by high complexity, such as the EEs. Thus, a possible future research question is:\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to reflect upon strategic marketing in emerging economies (EEs). It tries to answer the research question: what new business models are enabled by the Viable Systems Approach (VSA) and Service-Dominant Logic (SDL) perspectives?\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper is developed by integrating two well-established perspectives - VSA and SDL - and applying them to inclusive businesses.\nFindings: The integration of these perspectives allows the authors to recognize a convergence toward business models that seem to be consistent with the principles of inclusive capitalism. The authors claim that by shifting between a reductionist/static and a holistic/dynamic view, these perspectives can be integrated, thus revealing an interesting contribution to the understanding of inclusive business. Specifically, they contribute by highlighting how the economic and social dimensions are intertwined and by highlighting that the management-thinking perspective, which has dominated in recent decades, should shift toward a more inclusive vision.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper represents an attempt to address an inclusive capitalism perspective in the context of marketing. Nevertheless, the conceptual reasoning developed in the paper should be further supported by empirical research carried out in the context of EEs.\nPractical implications: The paper has relevant managerial implications that suggest a rethinking of the business model to market with EEs.\nOriginality/value: The paper contributes to the research on inclusive capitalism by linking it to well-grounded conceptual approaches to business that recapture a harmonious relationship between the economy and society.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Instrument development and evaluation for measuring USA apparel product design attributes	[ "Clothing", "Design", "Market position", "Product attributes" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Consumers' perceptions and preferences regarding product features affect purchase choice and ultimately a product's profitability for the company. The purpose of this research is to develop and evaluate an instrument for empirical gauging of consumer perceptions of garment design characteristics. Findings, generated from consumer input, provide diagnostic information for the product development process, including market positioning strategy decisions for enhanced product adoption.\nApparel product characteristics and positioning research: Apparel design characteristics research\nMethods: In order to address the two research questions, a scale to measure design characteristics was conceptualized concurrently with stimuli development. The stimuli consisted of computer-generated, Indonesia-inspired women's garments. Garment dress designs were based on both current dress styles in the US and traditional Indonesian garment design elements. Identifying a broad set of competing items was considered crucial to determining perceptions or acceptance preferences[1].Stimulus development\nAnalysis and results: Evaluating instrument performance\nConclusions and implications for application and future research: The two research objectives formed the basis for evaluating results, forming conclusions, and addressing implications for future research derived from this study. In determining how well three attributes typically used in garment design evaluation perform as variables in empirically measuring product similarities and acceptance, findings from this initial testing determine that consumers can differentiate similarity and evaluate levels of acceptance for garment style, fabric print, and color. Results of both hierarchical cluster analysis and classical MDS offer support for this statement.There appeared to be three product attribute clusters or dimensions that respondents used when evaluating the garments. These clusters or dimensions were labeled style, fabric print, and colorways. Table II offers clarity in evaluating relationships and relative values among the MDS dimensions numerically. Style (x-axis) and fabric print (z-axis) were both very clearly defined with fabric print constant in the positive or upper section of the Euclidean plane. Colorway (y-axis) was more often lower in relative value and more frequently in the lower section of the respective Euclidean plane. Examination of Figure 6 with both the x- and z-axis, provides the strongest picture of overlap in similarity MDS dimensions 1 and 3, with the clustering attributes of style (horizontal positioning), fabric print (vertical positioning), and colorway (pairings).The stimulus instrument performed well in simultaneously collecting subjective and objective data for apparel product market positioning. Areas of convergence and divergence were revealed. Differences between the hierarchical clustering results suggested that garments evaluated as similar were not necessarily considered similar in acceptance. While grouping by style attributes appeared in both clustering results, groupings based on low, medium and high acceptance of garments by fabric print was more evident in the subjective clustering. In terms of convergence, it is notable that cluster 1 in both the acceptance and the similarity cluster analyses group together the same eight garment designs. For cluster 2 in similarity and cluster 2 in acceptance, each contained four garments, though not the same four, and cluster 3 was made up of the remaining six garments with garments 15 and 18 appearing in both acceptance and similarity groupings. It was also interesting to find in cluster 3 that the non-similarity of these six sundress-style 3 garments to garments featuring style 1 and 2, dominated evaluations of fabric print and color pairing.A moderate level of disparity between objective and subjective evaluations suggests the importance of not restricting analysis to purely objective data. When viewed objectively, style is the dominate design characteristic evaluated by subjects in terms of garment similarities; however, when viewed subjectively, fabric print dominates as the design characteristics in terms of garment acceptance. One perspective may better satisfy designers' or producers' specifications, but manufacturers and users may view the product or the positioning very differently. Crossing cultures from producer to user may further compound those differences. In neither subjective nor objective evaluations were color of fabric prints dominant, contrary to what is often proposed in the literature (Fehrman and Fehrman, 2004).Apparel marketing and managerial decisions can be aided by the use of statistical tools for market analysis. Attempts in determining which design elements to incorporate in developing new apparel products can be guided by structured, analytical measurement of consumer preferences and perceptions. A consumer research approach based on scientific method increases the likelihood of company profitability. The instrument developed in this exploratory study offers potential for studying consumers' perceptions of similarity and acceptance based on garment illustrations. We acknowledge the small segment of US consumers involved in this initial exploration and the need for further study; however, we do offer the following important reasons for incorporating statistical tools in generating a better understanding of today's consumer wants and needs:1. Garments perceived as similar are not always uniformly acceptable to the consumer; thus, generating an adaptation of a previously popular garment will not assure profitability.2. Consumers tend to group attributes first by style and then by fabric print in determining both similarity and acceptability; thus, merchandising apparel in a similar manner, by style and then print, could enhance wholesale and retail customers' shopping and purchasing behavior.3. Color did not dominate consumers' acceptance of garments; thus, attempts to emulate or incorporate the season's top color palette should not receive priority over style and fabric print for garment design or buying decisions.4. Garment styles replicated in a variety of fabric prints are suggested for cost-effectiveness; however, the wrong choice in fabric print can decrease consumers' level of acceptance.5. Culturally-inspired design attributes impact consumers' acceptance of apparel products; however, some attributes such as borrowing a culture's fabric print appear to have a stronger impact followed by style and then color attributes.Suggestions for future use of this instrument include additional refinement. Evaluating 18 garments for similarity required more time than the typical consumer would be willing to offer, despite incentives; thus, deletion of the less acceptable garment designs is warranted. Further testing of the instrument on diverse consumer groups in differing US geographic locations and of different ages is warranted. Additionally, testing design attributes inspired by other cultural groups is advisable.Policy implications stemming from the clustering aspects of this study offer suggestions for directing distinct sales promotion appeal though emphasizing or de-emphasizing specific product attributes. When determining not only what, or how much, but also where products might be sourced, the country of origin might offer aesthetic design features and production technologies that are deeply enmeshed in local traditions (Littrell and Dickson, 1999). Differentiation of apparel products through infusion of culturally-inspired design attributes may provide merchants with an enhanced market position. Knowing what attributes to adopt and which to keep similar to existing or competing brands is currently risky for both merchant and producer without a vehicle for measuring potential consumer responses. This study's findings established that asking consumers for their level of acceptance regarding specific product attributes does generate information that could be used for product modification throughout the design process. Specific information generated from this study would guide designers that they could contemplate adoption of color inspired by the sourced country but would need to maintain or match the accepted current style of the consumers' country. In marketing to consumers in multiple countries, it appears from this initial study that style and fabric print should be standardized across cultures; whereas color can follow regional aesthetics in the producing culture. If similarity and acceptance measures continue to show areas of convergence across diverse samples, industry practitioners would find a version of the instrument provides rich and meaningful feedback regarding specification buying or sourcing.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The research goal is to develop, analyze, and evaluate an instrument measuring perceptions and preferences of garment design characteristics, and to evaluate interpretability of results for ease of use by scientists and industry practitioners.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This study focused on female garment attributes that were culturally inspired by Indonesia. A sample of 115 US college-age females was targeted to test 18 garments varying in attributes of three styles, three fabric prints, and two fabric colorways. Attributes were used as stimuli in generating evaluations of garment similarities and acceptance.\nFindings: - Stimuli and questions performed well in collecting data, and convergence validity for the instrument was demonstrated through hierarchical cluster analyses and multidimensional scaling analysis. Findings from this initial testing determined that consumers can differentiate similarity and evaluate levels of acceptance for garment style, fabric print, and color.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The small segment of US consumers involved in this initial exploration and the need for further study is acknowledged. Research-generated analytic information summarizing targeted consumers' responses can be used in industry and in future product development research.\nPractical implications: - Findings, generated from consumer input, provide diagnostic information for the product development process including market positioning strategy decisions for enhanced product adoption. Understanding which product attributes should remain similar to existing or competing products and which attributes can uniquely deviate from those currently accepted in the consumer culture is also clarified.\nOriginality/value: - Research instruments are needed that advance measurement of consumer responses in evaluating apparel design characteristics for national or international product development and market positioning.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Children's literature in the digital world: How does multimodality support affective, aesthetic and critical response to narrative?	[ "Teaching literature", "Critical literacy", "English language arts", "English teaching", "ICT and English", "New literacy" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Children's literature in education has been an established field of study for some time (Chambers, 1985; Huck, 1968; Saxby, 1987; Nodelman, 1988; Rosenblatt, 1978), with significant research and theory developed around the ways literature can evoke affective, aesthetic and critical responses from young readers at different stages of their development. The evaluation of reader response to literature was dominated by analysis of language until research into the grammar of images (Kress and van Leeuwen, 1990, 1996) added to the purposeful exploration of visual texts with young children (Arizpe and Styles, 2003; Callow, 1999). Subsequent research around multimodality has led to scholars analysing picture books (Unsworth, 2001, 2006; Doonan, 1993), cartoons (El Refaie, 2009), websites (Lemke, 2005) and film (O'Halloran, 2004). Now, with the renewed emphasis on literature in the Australian curriculum and the incorporation of digital texts in the teaching of English, it is clear that research should consider the value of focussing on the explicit teaching of meaning making practices in digital literary texts. Research shows that the link between children's literature and improved student learning outcomes should be explored (Krashen, 2004; Cremin, 2007; Ewing, 2010; Roche, 2015) due to the potential of literary text to provoke aesthetic response. As students are now reading far more texts on screens in schools (Honan, 2009; Mills, 2010), it is therefore timely to ask the research question: how does the multimodal nature of digital texts evoke the affective, aesthetic and critical responses that have been associated previously with print literary texts?\nReview of the literature: Our conceptual framework is informed by research from the field of narrative studies, reader response theory, multimodality and linguistics. The interweaving of these different approaches is necessary to help us investigate student responses to the digital reframing of narrative texts. Whether we agree with the view that narrative is a \"primary act of the mind\" (Hardy, 1977), there is no doubt that for centuries stories have engaged and inspired listeners and readers. The common features of narratives, such as setting, character, plot and aspects such as \"theme\" or \"moral\", are now recognised as archetypal. As Meek (1988) contends, these texts \"teach\" young readers who learn to interpret meaning through the way a story is revealed, constructed, shaped and layered. Once children understand the schema of a story, they are able to respond to varieties of structures and language that authors play with to create humorous, realistic or fantasy stories. So children's literature is considered as an important part of the school curriculum, especially English, because of the way literature invites cognitive, affective and aesthetic response (Cairney, 1990; Iser, 1978; Nodelman, 1988; Rosenblatt, 1994). Teachers in Australia are now required to explicitly teach young children the basic forms of narrative through quality children's literature as well as encourage reflective response (ACARA, 2014).\nThe study context: The study took place in an independent boys school in Sydney, Australia. Just before the study commenced, the school had introduced the use of iPads to all their Grade 5, Stage 3 classes. One class of 28 students was selected to take part. All students in the class took a survey on their use of technology to establish their comfort levels with using touch pads. The survey showed that the students could access etexts at home and at school but preferred as a group to read print text (68 per cent participants) rather than etexts (32 per cent participants). The teacher of the class was a willing participant as he wished to critically examine changes in his teaching practices as aligned with learning outcomes.\nThe literary text: The text chosen for the comparative reading exploration was a digital narrative, The Pedlar Lady of Gushing Cross, a modern version of a traditional tale by a contemporary author adapted as an app for iPads. http://moving-tales.com/the-pedlar-lady-of-cushing-cross/ O'Rogers (updated 08 August 2011, iTunes) created the tale as a digital narrative for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch as a storytelling app. It is one of a series of apps from a \"Classic World Tales\" series (www.moving-tales.com). This story is described on iTunes as \"a digital mash up of epublishing, graphic novels, film and interactive media\". It incorporates text, film, music, voiceover (English or Spanish) and sound effects and includes options for readers to record their own voices in the voiceover.\nMethod: The study was a small-scale qualitative, interpretive research study that focussed on recording the range of modal interactions incorporated in reading and learning through touch technology. The researchers were invited by a school to carry out an evaluation project of the introduction of touch pads into a classroom. The team of two researchers visited the participating class once a week during morning literacy sessions, where video data and other classroom artefacts were collected. Ethics permission was gained from the school, parents and students to observe, record and collect data. Twenty-eight students took part in the study over a period of three school terms, which is equivalent to seven months. The larger study has been reported in a number of papers (Simpson et al., 2013; Simpson and Walsh, 2014; Walsh and Simpson, 2014).\nAnalysis: We examined students' written and spoken responses to print and digital versions of the same traditional tale. By analysing the linguistic data, it is possible to investigate how students' response to the narrative was encouraged through their interaction with the two textual forms as well as the teacher prompt questions. Two forms of analysis were adopted. The first analytical process coded students' use of specialist terms relating to the literary features of texts and terms naming multimodal affordances of digital texts. This coding system highlighted vocabulary that students used to refer to character development, descriptive language, animation and sound effects.\nFindings: Responses of students to the print version of the narrative\nDiscussion: Meaning making or comprehension has been conceptualised as the means by which readers are able to \"fill in the gaps\" (Iser, 1978) that writers and illustrators leave between words, behind concepts and amongst images to create meaning from a text. Research into children's literature has demonstrated that the work readers do to make meaning may be made more or less difficult depending on the availability of information provided by the author or illustrator/designer (Kress, 2010; Pantaleo, 2013). In addition, following Rosenblatt, as a reader reads a text, if he or she \"adopts an attitude of readiness to attend to what is being lived through during the reading event\" (Rosenblatt in Pantaleo, 2013, p. 126), then they are taking up an aesthetic position in response to the text. For example, the boy who commented on the \"courageous music and the getting there visuals\" provided an interpretive reading of the text that is unique to his affective and aesthetic appreciation. Our research investigated how the complexity of reading the digital text in the classroom context provoked awareness of the \"textual\" nature of the reading event. The findings have shown that literary texts presented on digital platforms, such as The Pedlar Lady, evoke complex reading experiences. The students' responses reveal a number of important issues that we have chosen to discuss due to their relevance to teaching English. One is that teachers need to consider the semiotic importance of design components in relation to supporting meaning making with print and digital texts (Hadjioannou, and Hutchinson, 2014; Callow, 2010; Bezemer and Kress, 2008). Another is the importance of explicit scaffolding so that all students can build meta-awareness of narrative features in multiple forms to encourage affective and aesthetic response.\nConclusion: The responses of the students to the digital text showed that it gave them \"images to think with\". Even though these images were visually created on the screen with colour, sound and movement to support the written text of the story, they evoked affective and aesthetic responses. The range of responses to the digital narrative showed that the students were engaging imaginatively with the literary nature of the digital text. In some cases, the responses suggest students had begun to merge their knowledge of literary features with their emerging awareness of digital affordances. That is, there was a synergy between the literary features of characters, setting and action and the digital features of the app. At the same time, affect and empathy were evident in their responses, as is expected in response to literature, but were triggered in different ways by the multimodal text. The results suggest that in this study the reading of literature in digital form was not undermining the students' traditional response to literary texts. Rather modal layering as found in digital texts, such as The Pedlar Lady of Gushing Cross, gave the students opportunities to experience narrative text interpreted through a wide number of modes such as sound, movement, text, image and music. The results also suggest that when the students' were explicitly directed to attend to literary features with digital affordances, their affective and aesthetic responses were enhanced so that their critical awareness expanded.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to interrogate the place of literature in the digital world and the way a narrative is represented in digital spaces. In the changing landscape of digital, mobile and virtual texts, the authors aimed to examine how multimodal and animated elements in digital narratives engage young readers and encourage affective and aesthetic reader response?\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study was an exploratory, interpretive qualitative research study undertaken in a classroom of 28 10-year-old boys in grade 5. The investigators analysed data recorded during a lesson where students responded to the textual conventions and literary features of a traditional story read in print and multimodal digital format. Two coding systems were used to identify students' understanding of textual conventions along with the nature of their responses.\nFindings: The results suggested that when students are prompted to attend to the impact of multimodal layering in digital literature, affective, aesthetic and critical responses, they are encouraged in their interpretations. The responses emphasised the importance of teacher scaffolding and development of meta-language in teaching literature in both print and digital form.\nResearch limitations/implications: Because of the small sample and limited data set, the research results lack generalisability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed implications further.\nPractical implications: The paper includes implications for teacher pedagogy, while teaching reading with multimodal narratives in digital form.\nOriginality/value: This paper offers insight into the differences between print and multimodal literary texts; it codes students' responses to multimodal texts and offers a method for analysis.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Impact of Kashmir floods on the libraries	[ "Collection management", "Disaster recovery", "Disaster response", "Disaster management and libraries", "Floods and libraries", "Preservation measures" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Like any other institution in the society, libraries are prone to different kinds of disasters. A disaster is an unexpected event that puts every resource in any institution (including libraries) at risk. Disasters in libraries and other related information centers have become a common occurrence in the recent past in all parts of the world. Disasters are broadly classified into two categories: natural and human-made (Alegbeleye, 1993). In one such natural disasters, the flooding of the Arno River in November 1966 damaged 1,200.000 volumes and pamphlets in the Bibliotheca National central in Italy (Feather, 1991). Other natural disasters may include flooding, hurricanes, blizzards, storms and land slide. The dropping of atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Chernobyl nuclear emulsions are examples of manmade disasters. Other human disasters may include theft and criminal damage, fire, contamination, war/conflict/terrorism, etc.\nLiterature review: Researches pertaining to various aspects of disaster management in libraries have been conducted all over the globe. Here, an attempt has been made to review the literature regarding different facets of disaster management in libraries.\nProblem: The libraries are important social institutions that support teaching, learning as well as research activities through their valuable collection, thereby helping in forming a knowledge-based society. However, as no institution can practically remain unaffected from a disaster, there is a need to plan some response and recovery measures before it strucks, to minimize the damage and protect the resources in libraries. With this background, the present study investigates the disaster response and recovery measures being taken by the prominent libraries of Kashmir during and after September 2014 floods.\nScope: As far as the scope of the study is concerned, it is confined to the prominent libraries (on the basis of collection, clienteles and significance) of Kashmir:\nObjectives: The objectives of the study include:\nMethodology: A thorough review of literature was made, and relevant studies were identified and scanned for useful information pertaining to the disaster preparedness, response and recovery.\nResults and discussion: The collected data have been analyzed with the help of tables and charts, and the interpretation and discussion have been presented below.\nConclusion: Disasters have changed the course and face of many civilizations. No period in history and no existing creature can claim to be immune to disasters and such catastrophes. Libraries express same ideas. No library can claim to be resistant to disasters. Thereby, there is a need to ensure preparedness in these institutions to minimize the damage to their resources. Libraries and other information centers are nerve centers of current knowledge-based societies, but the resources in these centers are not safe from any disaster like flood. It is important for the managers of these institutions (libraries) to use comprehensive preparedness, response and recovery measures to minimize the loss or damage of the resources of a library or any other institute. There are various library-specific disaster management models that have been prescribed by well-reputed national and international organizations like IFLA, UNESCO, ALA, etc., which if reviewed properly and then adapted and adopted in tune with local variation can go a long way in mitigating the losses and help libraries tackle future disaster with much more pragmatism and well-defined strategy. This is not the need of the hour only for libraries of disaster-prone regions (which are prone to some kind of natural disasters) but for all hues of libraries considering manmade disaster are now emerging greater threat to the repositories of knowledge than ever before.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to highlight the damage suffered by the prominent libraries of Kashmir during September 2014 floods. The work provide an insight about the response and recovery measures being taken during and after the floods respectively in ten prominent libraries of Jammu & Kashmir [six Academic libraries (S.P. College Library, Women's College Library, Govt. Degree College Library - Bemina, Amar Singh College Library, Gandhi Memorial College Library and College of Education Library); three Special libraries (J&K Academy of Art, Culture & Languages Library - Srinagar, Govt. Medical College Library - Srinagar and J&K High Court Library) and one Public library (Sri Pratap Singh library)].\nDesign/methodology/approach: A variety of data collection tools and techniques such as interview, questionnaire, observation, etc., were used to collect the data. The collected data have been tabulated and analyzed to derive meaningful conclusions and findings as per the set objectives of the study.\nFindings: The results reveal that although libraries in Kashmir are prone to disasters like floods; yet, none of the library seems to be prepared to bear or cope such a disaster. The findings provide a gloomy picture of libraries when it comes to the measures being taken by these libraries during and after the floods to protect their resources. The paper highlights the inefficiency and incapability of libraries (in terms of disaster management) by finding that most of the libraries are without a disaster response and recovery plan as well as a disaster response and recovery team. The study recommends that some tangible measures if taken can save precious resources hosted in libraries.\nPractical implications: The current study can help the stakeholders to chalk out scientific and systematic policy and plans for library and information centers that can be executed with minimum of fuss and anarchy.\nOriginality/value: The study offers working knowledge to library professional on ground for effective management of assets and resources in pre- and post-disaster scenario.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Effects of retail organisation design on improving private label merchandising	[ "Outcome-based control", "Centralized merchandizing authority", "Private label competitiveness", "Private label merchandizing improvement", "Store cooperation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The success or failure of private label (PL) merchandise, often referred to as private brand, own label, or store brand merchandise, is of interest to retailers worldwide (Burt, 2000; Dhar and Hoch, 1997; Martenson, 2007; Sarkar et al., 2016). While the penetration of PL merchandise varies across categories, markets and nations (Sethuraman and Gielens, 2014), it is strange that PL merchandising performance also varies across retailers (Dhar and Hoch, 1997). To achieve higher sales and profits, retailers need to make PL merchandise more competitive by effectively managing their merchandisers (Huang and Huddleston, 2009).\n2. Conceptual framework: 2.1 The philosophy of continuous improvement\n3. Development of hypotheses: 3.1 The effect of centralised merchandising authority\n4. Methodology: 4.1 Research context and data collection\n5. Analysis and results: 5.1 Construct validity\n6. Implications and limitations: 6.1 Theoretical implications\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to examine empirically whether and under what organisational design conditions retailers can benefit from private label (PL) merchandising improvement.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study tests hypotheses using a structural equation model and data obtained from general merchandise managers at 190 supermarket retailers in Japan.\nFindings: The results reveal that both centralised merchandising authority and store cooperation between merchandising and store divisions motivate PL merchandising improvement, which strengthens PL competitiveness. In addition, outcome-based merchandiser control strengthens the positive relationship between store cooperation and PL merchandising improvement. However, regarding centralised merchandising authority, it is found that outcome-based control had no significant moderating effect.\nResearch limitations/implications: To generalise the findings, it may be desirable to reflect data from store divisions for at least two constructs of interdepartmental structure and coordination. Also, it will remain a challenge to produce objective financial outcomes, such as sales, profits or market share, of PL merchandise to empirically test PL contributions to a retail store or company.\nPractical implications: It is important for retail managers to understand their merchandisers' efforts and behaviours to continuously improve PL merchandising activities. It is strongly recommended that retail managers continue to find ways to motivate their merchandisers.\nOriginality/value: Drawing on the philosophy of continuous improvement, this study suggests a novel approach to retail merchandising management that investigates how organisational design can influence better PL merchandising. To highlight the growing role of retail merchandisers, often ignored in the PL literature, this study advances this knowledge about the organisational design-strategic behaviour linkage by empirically testing interactions between different aspects of retail organisation design.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Beyond the formal/informal economy binary hierarchy	[ "National economy", "Economic development", "Public policy", "Ukraine" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Conventional binary hierarchical discourse depicts informal employment as a residual and marginal form of work that has largely negative consequences for economic and social development and needs to be deterred if \"progress\" and \"advancement\" is to be achieved (Castells and Portes, 1989; Gallin, 2001; Grabiner, 2000). This paper evaluates critically this representation. To do this, the first section reviews how, although its portrayal as residual and marginal has been widely refuted in the contemporary literature, there has been so far little empirical evaluation of the assumption that it has largely negative impacts on economic and social development despite the growing number of commentaries alluding to the fact that it may play a more positive role than so far considered. The second section therefore reports the findings of a survey of informal employment conducted in Ukraine during 2005 and 2006. This not only further refutes the conventional representation of informal employment as a residual and marginal sphere but also begins to unpack the specific ways in which such work can positively contribute to economic and social development. The final section then briefly evaluates the public policy implications of this re-reading of informal employment.At the outset, however, it is necessary to define what is here meant by informal employment. Reflecting the broad consensus of both academics and policy-makers, informal employment is defined as the paid production and sale of goods and services that are unregistered by, or hidden from the state for tax and/or benefit purposes but which are legal in all other respects (European Commission, 1998; Grabiner, 2000; ILO, 2002; Portes, 1994; Thomas, 1992; Williams and Windebank, 1998). As such, it includes only paid work that is illegal because of its non-declaration to the state for tax and/or social security purposes. Paid work in which the good and/or service itself is illegal (e.g. drug trafficking) is excluded, as is unpaid work.\nRepresentations of informal employment: A useful starting point for understanding the conventional representation of informal employment as a marginal realm that has largely negative consequences, as well as for comprehending the changes and continuities in thought on this sphere, is to view the formal/informal employment dualism as a binary hierarchy. For Derrida (1967), western thought is characterized by a hierarchical binary mode of thinking that, firstly, conceptualises objects/identities as stable, bounded and constituted via negation and secondly, reads the resultant binary structures in a hierarchical manner whereby the first term in any dualistic opposite (the superordinate) is endowed with positivity and the second term, the subordinate (or subservient) \"other\" with negativity. The outcome is to establish a relation of opposition and exclusion, rather than similarity and mixture, between the two sides of any dualism and to overlay onto it a normative narrative of \"progress\" which privileges the superordinate \"us\" over the subordinate \"other\".Viewing the formal/informal employment dualism, and specifically informal employment, through this lens is a useful heuristic device. It becomes immediately obvious that the vast majority of literature over the past three decades or so has been contesting various facets of the formal/informal economy binary hierarchy. To see this, the conventional hierarchical binary depiction of informal employment as a subservient other is here outlined followed by the various ways in which this representation has been so far deconstructed.Informal employment in binary hierarchical thought\nInformal employment in Ukraine: Using various proxy indicators, the size of the informal economy in Ukraine has been estimated to be equivalent to 47.3-53.7 per cent of GDP using physical input proxies (Schneider and Enste, 2000) and 55-70 per cent using currency demand (Dzvinka, 2002). Indeed, official Ukrainian government estimates, drawing upon such indirect proxy methods, assert that some 55 per cent of Ukraine's GDP is produced in the informal economy (National Radio Company of Ukraine (NCRU), 2005). However, both OECD experts in their handbook on measurement methods (OECD, 2002) and the most recent European Commission report on informal employment (Renooy et al., 2004), as well as a host of academic evaluations (Thomas, 1992; Williams, 2004, 2006; Williams and Windebank, 1998) conclude that these indirect measures using proxy indicators are very limited in their usefulness, especially when seeking to understand the nature of informal employment.In consequence, a direct survey approach was here adopted to evaluate the extent and character of informal employment in Ukraine. In late 2005 and early 2006, interviews were conducted with 600 households. Given that previous studies reveal significant disparities in the level of informal employment between affluent and deprived populations (Van Geuns et al., 1987; Leonard, 1998; Renooy, 1990), maximum variation sampling was used to select four localities. Firstly, and in the capital of Kiev, an affluent area was chosen, namely Perchersk, along with a deprived neighbourhood, namely Vynogardar. Continuing the process of maximum variation sampling, a deprived rural area near Vasilikiv was then chosen, and finally, a town on the Ukrainian/Slovakia border was selected, Uzhgorod. Within each locality, a spatially stratified sampling methodology was then employed to select households for interview (Kitchen and Tate, 2001). In each of the four localities, 150 households were interviewed (600 in total). In consequence, if there were 3,000 households in the area and 150 interviews were sought, then the researcher called at every 20th household. If there was no response and/or the interviewer was refused an interview, then the 21st household was visited, then the 19th, 22nd, 18th and so on. This provided a spatially stratified sample of each area.Given how previous research indicates that respondents find it difficult to recall instances of such work when open-ended interviews are used, and that the resultant data is often not comparable (Leonard, 1994; Williams, 2004), the decision was taken to use a structured interview schedule. Besides, gathering background data on gross household income, the employment status of household members, their employment histories, ages and gender, firstly, respondents were asked about the forms of work that they most rely on to maintain their living standard, secondly, the sources of labour that the household last used to complete 25 common domestic services, third, whether they had undertaken any of these 25 tasks for others (either in a paid or unpaid informal basis) during the past year, fourthly, open-ended questions about other informal employment that they had conducted and its relative importance to their household income and fifth and finally, and using five-point Likert scaling, attitudinal questions concerning their ability to draw upon help from others and their views of the economy, politics, everyday life and their future prospects. Below, the findings are reported with regard to firstly, the extent of informal employment, secondly, the separateness of the formal and informal economies and third and finally, the nature of informal employment in contemporary Ukraine so as to evaluate whether there are some more positive characteristics of such work that have so far gone largely unrecorded in the literature.Informal employment: a weak sphere?\nConclusions and policy implications: This paper has revealed that although informal employment is now recognised as being far from a marginal, dwindling and separate realm, there has been so far little attempt to empirically evaluate the binary hierarchical depiction of informal employment as a largely negative phenomenon and hindrance to economic and social development that needs to be deterred. Drawing upon a survey of informal employment in Ukraine, however, this paper has begun to show the many varieties of such work and how this sphere represents not only a \"hidden enterprise culture\" but also a major sphere for the delivery of community self-help in contemporary Ukraine.Until now, however, based on a depiction of informal employment as composed of largely negative attributes, the assumption in public policy has been that such work should be deterred. Here, we question whether this is the appropriate public policy approach given the more positive features identified above. To do this, we take each of the two types of informal employment that might potentially positively contribute to economic and social development in turn.Starting with self-employment, nearly all self-employed people interviewed in this survey asserted that they had started-up their enterprises operating on a cash-in-hand basis and that it was only once they had become more established that a portion of their trade had sometimes shifted into the legitimate sphere. This has important policy consequences. Given the focus in economic development on facilitating new business start-ups, any policy of deterring cash-in-hand work will result in governments stamping out with one hand the vast majority of the entrepreneurship and enterprise that with another hand they are so desperately seeking to nurture. How, therefore, can this hidden enterprise culture be harnessed?Until now in Ukraine, the tendency has been to pursue a neo-liberal approach based on regulatory simplification and tax reductions (Novoseletsky, 2000; Mission of Ukraine to European Communities, 2005; NCRU, 2005), leading to a \"low-road\" approach that seeks to de-regulate the formal economy. This is in stark contrast to the emerging \"high road\" approach in most European Union member states that seeks to both push such enterprise out of the informal economy using deterrents and pull this hidden enterprise culture into the formal economy using incentives to encourage such ventures to legitimise their operations. These incentives range from supply-side initiatives (i.e. to encourage suppliers to formalise their informal work) including society-wide amnesties, individual-level amnesties and advisory and support services to help micro-enterprises formalise, through demand-side initiatives to encourage customers to use formal rather than informal labour such as voucher schemes, to replacing direct (compliance) control methods with indirect control methods that seek to nurture a \"high commitment society\" by enhancing transparency so as to improve tax morality (Williams, 2006).Even if Ukraine were to switch to this emerging high-road approach, however, this would still be insufficient. This study reveals that the majority of undeclared work is composed of paid favours by what we here call informal social entrepreneurs. This cannot be transferred into the formal economy. What, therefore, is to be done about this work? One option is to turn a \"blind eye\" to such endeavour by adopting a laissez-faire approach. Although this might seem superficially appropriate, there are some major problems associated with this option. Firstly, public policy-makers involved in tax collection would find it difficult to distinguish between profit-motivated informal employment (which they are seeking to encourage to \"go formal\" using a combination of deterrents and incentives) and paid favours (which they would be asked to tacitly condone). A second important issue regarding the tacit condoning of paid favours relates to the resultant continuation of the uneven distribution of such work. At present, that is, higher-income households receive and undertake such work far more than lower-income households, as shown above.Another option, therefore, is to seek to facilitate its legitimization but into the realm of legitimate mutual aid (rather than formal employment) using policy initiatives that also facilitate the inclusion of those unable to draw upon such social support networks. This could be achieved by developing mutual exchange systems that reflect the tendency for payment when people conduct favours for each other, such as local exchange and trading schemes (LETS), and exempting \"favours\" in these systems from being counted as income for tax and social security purposes. Indeed, one evaluation has found that some 35 per cent of exchanges on LETS would have been previously undertaken on an undeclared basis if the LETS did not exist (Williams et al., 2001).If pursued, the result would be a move beyond deterrence alone and towards an approach which combines deterrents with a twin-track enabling approach that both provides incentives to help the hidden enterprise culture move into the formal economy and mechanisms to transfer paid favours into a realm of legitimate mutual aid. Whether or not this is deemed the way forward, deterrence cannot continue. Governments, if they continue with such an approach, will with each new initiative to deter informal employment destroy not only the entrepreneurship and enterprise but also the active citizenship that they are seeking through other policies to nurture to promote economic and social development.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to evaluate critically the conventional binary hierarchical representation of the formal/informal economy dualism which reads informal employment as a residual and marginal sphere that has largely negative consequences for economic development and needs to be deterred.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - To contest this depiction, the results of 600 household interviews conducted in Ukraine during 2005/2006 on the extent and nature of their informal employment are reported.\nFindings: - Informal employment is revealed to be an extensively used form of work and, through a richer and more textured understanding of the multiple roles that different forms of informal employment play, a form of work that positively contributes to economic and social development, acting both as an important seedbed for enterprise creation and development and as a primary vehicle through which community self-help is delivered in contemporary Ukraine.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This survey reveals that depicting informal employment as a hindrance to development and deterring engagement in this sphere results in state authorities destroying the entrepreneurial endeavour and active citizenship that other public policies are seeking to nurture. The paper concludes by addressing how this public policy paradox might start to be resolved.\nOriginality/value: - This paper is one of the first to document the role of informal employment in nurturing enterprise creation and development as well as community exchange.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Examining the interactive effects of accountability, politics, and voice	[ "Organizational politics", "Felt accountability", "Proactive voice", "Uncertainty management theory" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Personal accountability is a foundational characteristic of interpersonal activity. It manifests across environments, and serves as a defining feature of all collective entities (Frink et al., 2008). At work, the effects of accountability impact the design, execution, and evaluation of many employee job behaviors (Breaux et al., 2009). Despite its recognized pervasiveness and significance (Lerner and Tetlock, 1999), only recently has research examined processes associated with accountability phenomena in employment contexts (Hochwarter et al., 2007).\nTheoretical foundations for accountability, politics, and voice: Felt accountability\nInteractive dynamics accountability, politics, and voice: Because of its ambiguity-reducing effects (Van Prooijen et al., 2007), proactive voice behavior is argued to evoke the positive attributes associated with high levels of both accountability (Lanivich et al., 2010) and politics perceptions (Fedor et al., 2008). Conversely, because of its association with powerlessness, alienation (Sani and Todman, 2002), and ineffective resource accumulation (Ng and Feldman, 2012), a lack of voice is expected to have a negative effect on accountability-outcome relationships in political settings. Uncertainty management theory (UMT; Lind and van den Bos, 2002) supports voice's ambiguity-reducing effects by transforming potentially threatening environments (i.e. those marked by increased accountability and increased politics) into opportunity-nurturing contexts with fewer associated negative outcomes (Ellis and Van Dyne, 2009). As argued, UMT contends that individuals are motivated to increase certainty in threat-laden work setting (Lind and van den Bos, 2002). Further, Grant et al. (2011, p. 531) argued, \"When environmental uncertainty is high, there is widespread recognition that employees need to be more proactive in order to anticipate and act upon threat and opportunities.\"\nMethod: Plan of the research\nResults: Means, standard deviations, and intercorrelations among all variables are presented in Table I. Bivariate relationships for perceptions of politics are comparable with previous research in terms of direction and magnitude (Chang et al., 2009). Moreover, the relationship between accountability and both job satisfaction and tension is consistent with recent reports (Wallace et al., 2011). Finally, consistent with prior results that showed individual initiative predicted stress (Bolino and Turnley, 2005), voice was correlated with tension. Dependent variables were only modestly correlated.\nDiscussion: Unquestionably, accountability is a complex phenomenon (Yang, 2012). As a remedy to this confusion, calls repeatedly have been made for the investigation of potential moderators to help explain when and how accountability can elicit either positive or negative outcomes (Hochwarter et al., 2005). In response, the present two-sample investigation examined the three-way interaction of accountabilityxpolitics perceptionsxproactive voice behavior on employee work performance and well-being (i.e. job satisfaction and job tension). To date, research has failed to adopt such an expansive approach when examining reactions to felt accountability in contemporary work settings.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Research has shown accountability can produce both positive and negative outcomes. Further, because of inherent environmental uncertainty, perceptions of organizational politics often interact with accountability to produce negative effects. However, using uncertainty management theory, the purpose of this paper is to argue that employees can use proactive voice to exercise control in the ambiguity of highly accountable and political environments.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This two sample study of graduate school alumni (n=211) and insurance employees (n=186) explored the three-way interaction of felt accountabilityxpolitics perceptionsxproactive voice on work performance, job satisfaction, and job tension.\nFindings: As hypothesized, high levels of felt accountability and politics were most strongly associated with favorable outcomes when coupled with increased voice behavior. Conversely, felt accountability and politics were related to negative outcomes in settings associated with low proactive voice. Results supported in Sample 1 were then constructively replicated in Sample 2.\nPractical implications: All employees are held accountable to some degree, and all work in potentially political settings. Often, these environmental features are dictated to employees, leaving only employee reactions in direct control. One possible response is voice. As demonstrated in the present research, employees who engage in proactive voice appear to exercise some degree of control over their environment, resulting in more positive outcomes than their less active counterparts.\nOriginality/value: The present research extends understanding regarding the effects of accountability in organizations by demonstrating that contextual factors (e.g. politics) and individual difference variables (e.g. in levels of proactive voice) differentiate favorable vs unfavorable outcomes of accountability.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Going the extra mile: How human resource practices can lead to increased organizational citizenship behaviors	[ "Work engagement", "Psychological climate", "Human resources", "Organizational outcomes", "Effectiveness", "Behavior" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nAbove and beyond: organizational citizenship behaviors: Organizations can increase effective outcomes and gain higher competitive advantages if employees are willing to go beyond their job role activities. Increased engagement in the workplace can lead to positivity throughout the organization in terms of improved attitudes and increased employee satisfaction, performance and behaviors. Engaged employees demonstrate increased effectiveness and productivity. One such positive organizational outcome is organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs).\nEmployee needs: work engagement and psychological climate: Work engagement (WE) is a strong predictor of an employee performing OCBs. Increased engagement relates to higher motivation - the employee has positive mental, emotional and physical energy, which is encapsulated in vigor, dedication and absorption. Engaged employees are dedicated, engrossed and involved in the work. They are altruistic and conscientious. Increased motivation leads to a more positive state of mind, which can lead to an increased chance of performing OCBs. Finding out what leads to WE can demonstrate what leads to OCB.\nInvesting in human capital: high-performance human resource practices: Human Resource Managers can help to increase WE by increasing human resource practices that are focused on human capital. Employees feel they are being invested in, cared for, valued and respected. Examples are effective recruitment, development and growth opportunities, team working opportunities, learning and development programs in place, appraisal, feedback, reward and compensation policies. High-Performance Human Resource Practices (HPHRPs) can lead to more engaged, developed, empowered and motivated employees which in turn leads to a higher potential for OCB and increased reaching of organizational goals. HPHRPs are systems, policies, procedures, practices to increase skills, commitment, motivation and productivity. They are enablers of employee attitudes.\nInvestigating the relationship between HPHRPs, PC, WE and OCBs: Kataria et al. (2019) investigated the relationships between HPHRPs, PC, WE and OCBs in IT professionals. They took a sample of 464 questionnaires from participants in 29 global organizations located in India. Work is more knowledge-based in the IT industry. The Indian IT industry is large and is leading in the market. Globalization leads to ambiguities and complexities in the workplace - more is thus expected of employees. In return, Indian IT companies are aiming to improve and enhance the work experience of employees.\nConclusion: It can be seen that HPHRPs are hugely beneficial to organizations. They are a demonstration that the company is invested in their employees. They can lead to increased good conditions, a positive work environment and a positive sense of well-being for employees; employees feel invested in, involved and supported. The work experience needs to be holistic.\nComment: The review is based on \"Do high-performance HR practices augment OCBs? The role of psychological climate and work engagement\" by Kataria, A., Garg, P. and Rastogi, R. published in International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management.\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: Employees are increasingly demanded to perform beyond their daily role expectations, in order to create effective organizational outcomes and gain competitive advantage. Performing organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) can lead to positive outcomes. To increase such behaviors, HR managers can use high-performance human resource practices (HPHRPs) which demonstrate investment in employees. Employees then perceive a more positive psychological climate (PC) in the workplace and are likely to reciprocate by investing more of themselves and increasing work engagement (WE) and motivation.\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" } ]
A multidimensional approach to multilevel security	[ "Data security", "Information systems" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Both military and civil systems need to separate information into different levels of security and to control information flow between levels. Military security policies have emphasized multilevel confidentiality. The objective is to prevent information from flowing from higher to lower levels of confidentiality. The set {UNCLASSIFIED, CONFIDENTIAL, SECRET, TOP SECRET} is familiar. Similar confidentiality levels exist in most commercial organizations, either formally or informally. Financial businesses have emphasized multilevel integrity. These policies aim at preventing information flow from lower to higher levels of integrity.There are models that combine confidentiality and integrity requirements, but several current multilevel architectures classify information according to confidentiality only. Integrity properties may follow implicitly, so that high confidentiality classification implies high integrity. This assumption may, however, not be valid: An unverified observation is probably less trustworthy than an observation reported by several independent sources. The observations may have the same confidentiality level but different integrity levels.Multilevel security (MLS) describes an information system which is trusted to contain information classified into different security levels and to maintain separation between the levels. Concurrent users may have different permissions with respect to the security levels.During the 1970s, Bell, LaPadula, Denning and Biba developed lattice-based MLS models. The core ideas are still valid, but systems built from these models turned out to be complex, expensive and impractical. For example, present implementations comprise a large number of security classes (SC). Verifying that read or write operations between any two is secure is time consuming and costly. As a result, actual security policies deviate from the formal axioms. This may in turn lead to over-classification and a need for cumbersome reclassification involving review and release functions, which even today may be manual.The contribution of this paper is a MLS concept, which may deal with some of the difficulties while preserving the fundamental rules from the classic models. First, the classic models provide complex structures of SC. We presume there are applications where such structures are not required and propose a simpler class structure. Second, we integrate different mutually independent MLS aspects. Third, we propose an efficient and verifiable method for verification of rights (read and write permissions).The next section provides some basic definitions and explains our assumptions. The following section gives an overview of the concept. A security evaluation follows before we describe key implementation issues. We summarize the work with some concluding remarks.\nDefinitions, fundamental concepts and assumptions: Confidentiality, integrity and availability are the three basic aspects of information security. The literature provides numerous definitions (Shirey, 2000; NIST, 2006). A more formal definition is (Bishop, 2003):Let X be a set of entities and I some information (or a resource). Then:* I has the property of confidentiality with respect to X if no member of X can obtain information of I.* I has the property of integrity with respect to X if all members of X trust I.* I has the property of availability with respect to X if all members of X can access I.Role-based access control (RBAC) is an alternative to the traditional access control models, discretionary access control and mandatory access control (MAC). Under RBAC, users are assigned one or more roles. Roles are assigned rights or permissions (Sandhu et al., 2000). Lattice-based MLS models assume MAC. RBAC can be combined with MAC (Osborne et al., 2000; Kuhn, 1998).Security labels express the security levels at which the information is classified in MLS systems. Operating systems and database management systems may label data according to local security policies and formats. Security labels tell communication protocols how to handle the data transferred in order to preserve the condition of security (Housley, 1993; Hoffman, 1999). Similarly, access labels may be associated with subjects and indicate the level at which they are cleared.Based on definitions and descriptions above, we assume:* Confidentiality, integrity and availability are independent properties of a generic information object.* Information in a MLS system is stored at its proper security level. For example, a high-confidentiality level does not hold information that should been classified to a lower level.* Security labels are assigned to information objects and access labels to roles.* RBAC enforces one-directional information flow as well as appropriate discretionary controls.* Procedures outside the model authenticate legitimate entities and check security and access labels for data integrity.\nConcept overview: Multilevel confidentiality\nConcept security: The model forms a universally bound lattice, and can as such not reach an undefined state: consider two linear ordered lattices (X_,-x,[?]x) and (Y_-y,[?]y) where X_={x1, ... ,xm} and Y_={y1, ... ,yn}. Figure 3(a) shows such a lattice where m=n=4. Using vector notation, the 2D lattice is described by:* [xi,yj]=xi[?]yj.* [xi,yj]-[xi',yj']=[xi-xxi',yj-yyj'];* [?]=[[?]x,[?]y].Since (X_,-x) and (Y_,-y) are partially ordered sets, then ([X_,Y_],-) is a partially ordered set. Further, since (X_,-x,[?]x) and (Y_,-y,[?]y) satisfies the lattice properties, then ([X_,Y_],-,[?]) must satisfy the lattice properties. By extension, this holds for any finite number of disjoint linear ordered lattices.Thus, proven techniques for verification and certification of computer processes utilizing the lattice properties may be employed. The lack of interdependencies may facilitate this assurance.\nChecking all dimensions within a few clock cycles: Solaris TE handles confidentiality. Sensitivity labels on objects are compared numerically with corresponding access labels on subjects. Similar pairs of labels representing compartments are compared bitwise. Access to an object requires that the subject's level is sufficient and an exact match between the subject's and object's compartment labels. Solaris TE allows 255 classification levels and 240 compartments. While these numbers may seem large in view of the discussions here, they are insufficient for large RBAC-systems if each role requires a unique privilege. Hence, Kuhn proposes an algorithm for mapping roles in a large RBAC system to a two-dimensional lattice with confidentiality levels and compartments in different directions (Kuhn, 1998). Security is maintained by an existing and assured MLS-system.The MLS-systems above are designed for large applications, in which hundreds to hundred thousands of users/subjects are to be assigned roles, and each role may have a unique privilege. They enforce BLP policy, but do not address integrity aspects and other security dimensions. The number of levels and compartments in these applications are excessive, at least for practical lightweight applications. Figure 3(b) shows a lattice involving an unordered set S={A, B, C} and a set of three ordered levels {1, 2, 3}. To impose ordering, the lattice involves the set of all subsets of S, also called the power set of: Equation 10 All products involving the empty set O are omitted from the lattice, because they are empty by definition. In general, if a set S has \|S \|=n elements, then \|P(S)\|=2n, and its contribution to the number of nodes in a lattice is a factor (2n-1). See Figure 3(b), where there are (23-1)=7 subsets of S={A, B, C} on each level {1, 2, 3}.The independence of security dimensions may be enforced by assigning disjoint security labels, one per linearly ordered lattice. Further, n independent simple linear ordered lattices may be verified in sequence, rather than verifying all flows in a Cartesian product of the classes. The benefits are especially apparent when compared to a lattice involving the power set of a set of compartments or categories.We assume that 2-8 levels per security dimension are sufficient and propose a set of labels. Each label represents one security dimension. Let security label denote the labels on object and access label represent the clearance of subjects. Implementing one-directional information flow requires separate labels for read and write access. Further, let indices C, I and A denote confidentiality, integrity and availability, respectively, and levels be defined so that a higher numerical value means higher confidentiality, integrity or availability. We also require rules (1)-(9) to be valid.Since the labels represent mutually independent security properties, it is possible to compare labels representing one dimension independently of the other labels. We use logical operators for the comparison. As a non-limiting example, consider the confidentiality levels {UNCLASSIFIED, CONFIDENTIAL, SECRET, TOP SECRET}. Four bits represent the levels, and a 1-bit is shifted one position to the left for each level, as shown in Table I.The security label for UNCLASSIFIED is intentionally non-zero. Evaluation utilizes the fact that zero values evaluates to FALSE, and non-zero values evaluates to TRUE, as shown in the last row. Thus, access label 0011 grants access to the lowest two levels.In general, access labels starting with 0s and ending with 1s may be used for confidentiality read access and integrity write access. Access labels starting with 1s and ending with 0s may be used for confidentiality write access or integrity read access. This prevents downwards information flow along the confidentiality axis and upward flow along the integrity axis. In both cases, an access label of all 0s denies all access, and an access label of all 1s allows full access.It may be advantageous to distinguish the levels by more than one single bit. It is possible to shift left an arbitrary number of bits in a security label, as long as an equal number of bits expand the corresponding access label.The security labels for C, I and A may be placed beside each other in one data word, SECURITY LABEL. Access labels for C, I, and A may be placed beside each other in another data word, ACCESS LABEL, as shown in Figure 4. Then, performing all partial tests (bitwise ANDs) security labelj and access labelj would require one clock cycle only. The subsequent logical AND-operations between partial test results require only a few additional clock cycles. This requires that all axes are mutually independent. It is also clear that a two-level logical circuit, using for example logical port circuits, may evaluate access.\nConcluding remarks: Some applications benefit from more security dimensions and fewer security levels than traditional MLS systems. Verification of the lattice properties is simplified. by requiring each security dimension to be a simple linear ordered lattice. In particular, we have shown that the compartments and categories of traditional models may be modeled as one or more linearly ordered availability classes.Our concept does not provide the richness and granularity of traditional MLS-systems, but may adapt better to practical lightweight applications.The concept enables a scheme that controls information flow along several axes within a few clock cycles. This simple and efficient verification method works with resource-constrained systems, such as sensor and ad hoc networks. Simple logical port circuits may implement the method, and may in turn be used in tamper proof devices immune to any software-based attacks.Possible applications include databases, OS security, information flow control on programs, secure access to web services and MLS routing in IP networks. Formal in-depth studies of potential appliances will follow this work.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to propose and describe a concept for multilevel security (MLS) that may be advantageous in information systems with a limited number of security levels. The concept should also adapt to information systems with limited capacities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Assuming that confidentiality, integrity and availability are mutually independent security attributes of a generic information object, security requirements are modelled as a multidimensional vector space. Each axis represents one dimension of security. An axis is divided into an arbitrary number of levels. The paper shows how rules from the classic MLS models may enforce one-directional information flow simultaneously and independently along each axis. By controlling flow this way, insecure or undefined states cannot be reached.\nFindings: - Handling different MLS properties independently enables an effective verification algorithm based on simple logical or binary operations. Verification of rights can be executed within a few clock cycles.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Future research includes formal in-depth studies of potential applications in databases, sensor information, operating systems and communication networks.\nPractical implications: - Simple logical port circuits may implement the proposed verification method. The method is well suited for tamper proof devices immune to software-based attacks.\nOriginality/value: - The paper describes a MLS concept that combines dimensions of security, like confidentiality, integrity and availability. The concept intends to be a \"light-weight\" alternative to classic MLS models.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The "Interacted" actor in platformed networks: theorizing practices of managerial experience value co-creation	[ "Value creation", "Practices", "Agencial assemblages", "Co-creation paradigm", "Interactive platforms", "Managerial experiences" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The interacted economy has been at the core of research in industrial marketing and purchasing (IMP) studies (Ford, 2011; Ford and Hakansson, 2006a; Ford and Hakansson, 2006b; Hakansson, 1982; Hakansson and Ford, 2002; Hakansson et al., 2009; Hakansson et al., 2013; Hakansson and Snehota, 1995; Hakansson and Snehota, 1989; Hakansson and Snehota, 2017a, 2017b; Turnbull et al., 1996) conceptualized as \"an economic process through which all of the aspects of business, including physical, financial, and human resources, take their form and are changed or transformed\" (Hakansson et al., 2009, p. 33)[1]. Business interactions have become more complex with rapid technological advancement, increasing specialization and the global pursuit of both efficiency and innovation, making enterprises ever more interdependent in an interactive business world (Hakansson and Snehota, 2017a, 2017b; Snehota, 2014; Waluszewski et al., 2018) with new sources of value co-creation via offerings as digitalized interactive platforms (Ramaswamy and Ozcan, 2018a, 2018b). IMP research has increasingly recognized and emphasized the growing importance of interactivity and interdependencies in business networks (Freytag et al., 2017; Hakansson and Snehota, 2017a, 2017b). Interactivity implies a \"propensity to use interaction in business as a major means in development processes\", and businesses must:\n2. Theoretical development: We begin by motivating our theoretical development based on the work of Deleuze, Callon, DeLanda, and Law (Callon, 2008; DeLanda, 2016; Deleuze and Guattari, 1987; Law, 2004, 2009). We show how these theoretical notions can be related to the recent IMP literature on theory development from a mixed network and system ontology position (De Boer and Andersen, 2016; Olsen, 2013; Prenkert, 2017).\n3. Practices of managerial experience value creation via interactive platforms: Our theorization provides for a richer and flexible means of conceptualizing the complex and multidimensional nature of interactional flows that characterize interactivity and interdependencies in business networks over space and time. Now, we connect it with managerial value creation practices by discussing how it provides the theoretical underpinnings of a broader \"co-creation paradigm\" (CCP) of experience value creation through interactive platforms (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004a, 2004b; Ramaswamy, 2009; Ramaswamy, 2011; Ramaswamy and Gouillart, 2010b; Ramaswamy and Ozcan, 2014, 2016 #2144; Ramaswamy and Ozcan, 2018a; Ramaswamy and Ozcan, 2018b).\n4. Discussion of conceptual research contributions: The CCP of interactive experience value creation builds on the IMP tradition by explicitly recognizing that actors, activities and resources are in the business networking reality of IMP studies, interactively defined (Ford, 2011). Our theorization explicitly formalizes platformed networks as entailing resourced capabilities in the framing of interactional flows of interactivities at various sites of interactional creation entailing \"interacted actors\". In this manner, the CCP makes several important conceptual research contributions in understanding practices of experience value co-creation.\n5. Management implications: There are several management implications of a CCP-based perspective of practices of managerial experience value co-creation. First, consider an illustrative case of managers at Mahindra, a large automotive manufacturer in India, who embraced a CCP-based perspective in transforming their management practices (see the account by Ramaswamy and Chopra, 2014 that inspired early theoretical development). What makes this example unique is that it provides a glimpse of how interactivity and interdependencies in business networks can be potentially developed and changed in positive ways through CCP-based practices of interactive experience value creation. Naveen Chopra, then Head of Quality at Mahindra, decided to experiment with the application of CCP thinking by bringing it to bear in business network interactions in the broad area of total quality management, seeing it as an opportunity to break \"silos\" within and across management functions, both internally in the company and in interactions with suppliers. The goal was to enhance practices to create better value together through co-creation in business networks. Chopra's core executive team, along with specialist automotive engineers who took on the role of trainers, were both organizing actors and engaging actors with the trainers being persons in a training-based engagement platform that was conceived.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize the \"interacted\" actor and connect it with practices of managerial value creation in an interactive business world. In doing so, it accounts for the interactive agency of actors via dynamics of the creational process across increasing technological \"platformization\" of interactions of heterogeneous (human and non-human) sociomaterial entities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study discusses a foundational theoretical framework of a co-creation paradigm (CCP) while connecting it with recent industrial marketing and purchasing (IMP) literature on mixed network and system ontology. It then elaborates on conceptual research contributions and key business management implications in advancing IMP studies through CCP.\nFindings: The framing of interactional flows across interactive system environments in business networks is related to both stability and developmental change in the enactment of creation via interactive agencies-structures in the ongoing pursuits of both business efficiency and innovation of value creational opportunities.\nPractical implications: By effectively configuring platformed networked interactions of experience value creation in their business contexts, managers (and stakeholding individuals in general) can better cope with the complexity of interactivity and interdependencies.\nOriginality/value: Managerial experience value co-creation through CCP builds on the IMP tradition by explicitly recognizing actors, in addition to activities and resources as being interactively defined. Because the relational logics are applicable at varying levels of scale across system-environment boundaries, it can be applied at both the individual and company levels or more generally at any level of agglomeration.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Bond liquidity, risk taking and corporate innovation	[ "Innovation", "Risk taking", "Feedback effects", "Bond liquidity" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Together with bank loans, corporate bond makes up more than half of corporate capital structure. To date, the US corporate bond market amounts $10 trillion, accounting for approximately 60 percent of non-financial firm debt financing (Contessi et al., 2013). Arguably, the market constitutes a formidable force in influencing firm policy. The direction of impact, however, may be suboptimal. Both shareholders and bondholders are major stakeholders who want the firm to perform. Nevertheless, their objectives and interests determining firm's policy on risk taking may often diverge. This conflict of interests can lead to bondholders' intervention that is inconsistent with maximizing shareholder's wealth value (Dewatripont and Tirole, 1994; Aghion and Bolton, 1992).\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 Shareholder-creditor conflicts in risk taking\n3. Data and variables: 3.1 Bond liquidity\n4. Results: 4.1 Baseline results\n5. Conclusion: This paper investigates how market liquidity condition of corporate bonds can affect firm investment policy, specifically its risk taking. Building upon theoretical foundation from the literature on feedback effect and shareholder-creditor conflict, we hypothesize that bond liquidity can affect a firm's risk taking via the disciplinary function of trading. Indeed, we document a positive relationship between bond illiquidity and firms' risk taking, specifically a one standard deviation increase in Amihud illiquidity measure is associated with nearly 20 percent increase in RD-to-CAPEX investment ratio. Evidence using the introduction of Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine (TRACE) in 2002 as an exogenous shock to bond trading infrastructure confirms that the relationship is likely causal. The paper also finds that the effects of bond liquidity on risk taking are stronger for more information-transparent firms and for firms with less bank financing, suggesting that effects are likely information driven. Finally, we document that the shift in risk taking increase the volume but not necessarily the quality of innovation output.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how market liquidity condition of corporate bonds can affect firm investment policy, specifically its risk taking, via the disciplinary function of trading.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper uses fixed-effects OLS and Poisson regression for the baseline specifications. It also employs the introduction of TRACE in 2002 as an exogenous shock to bond trading infrastructure in a difference-to-difference framework to address endogeneity concerns and establish causality.\nFindings: The paper documents a positive relationship between bond illiquidity and firms' risk taking, specifically a one standard deviation increase in Amihud illiquidity measure is associated with nearly 20 percent increase in exploratory investments compared to CAPEX. The shift in risk taking in turn increases firms' innovation output to some extent.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings have important implications on firm's risk taking and growth. The paper identifies a new channel through which firm's choice of risk can be influenced, namely, bondholder disciplining. The study also has implications about externalities of trading beyond liquidity cost for regulators in designing market microstructure.\nOriginality/value: This is the first to study the disciplinary role of bond trading. Conventional wisdom holds that bondholders are passive creditors who do not engage in costly monitoring such as banks. The findings in this paper imply that this may not be the case.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Right people, right project? Maximizing skills allocation in the project management environment	[ "Competences", "Decision-making", "Organizational effectiveness", "Team management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nReview: Much has been made in recent years of the so-called agile ways of working and how they benefit all kinds of process-based working practices. First promoted in the 1990s in tech startups and communities, it has rapidly taken hold of digital development teams, and has begun to be adopted outside these as the most effective, efficient way to \"get stuff done\". And even if you ignore the evangelists with their Post-It notes and Sharpies, it is hard not to be swayed by the sheer logic of breaking tasks down and working on them as teams in an intense, focused manner until the task is complete, and then moving on to the next one.\nRight people at the right time: Trying to understand the issue of who the right person is at the right time to work in the right team is a constant headache for any major firm managing multiple talents across potentially hundreds of teams. This problem is where authors Leite et al. (2017) come in with their research article \"A trap of optimizing skills use when allocating human resources to a multiple projects environment\". Their article takes an objective view of how team forming as an exercise can be optimized by understanding that the logical way of going about the challenge of team forming may not necessarily produce the best results.\nA new project management?: So what are the expectations of the industry when it comes to managing multiple projects with multiple teams? Essentially there are three different critical success factors agreed on:\nThree-stage process for success: To find a solution to these difficult questions that business change functions in major corporations face every day, Leite et al. (2017) used a three-stage process to test their ideas. First, a simulation was run with visualizations of different staffing scenarios to provide some data to analyze. Second, different allocation strategies were assessed using four different staffing algorithms, and finally different metrics were created and used to measure the success or otherwise of all the different tests that were run.\nComment: The article \"A trap of optimizing skills use when allocating human resources to a multiple projects environment\" by Leite et al. (2017) is one of those rare research articles that not only includes theoretical engagement, but also practical engagement and ultimately adoption in the business world. It is a very clear exposition of both a research and business problem, and is able to put together a tool that has demonstrable use for project management, and as such is a very worthwhile venture.\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: Much has been made in recent years of the so-called agile ways of working and how they benefit all kinds of process-based working practices. First promoted in the 1990s in tech startups and communities, it has rapidly taken hold of digital development teams, and has begun to be adopted outside these as the most effective, efficient way to \"get stuff done\". And even if you ignore the evangelists with their Post-It notes and Sharpies, it is hard not to be swayed by the sheer logic of breaking tasks down and working on them as teams in an intense, focused manner until the task is complete, and then moving on to the next one.\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" } ]
Political skill reduces the negative impact of distrust	[ "Affective commitment", "Job satisfaction", "Distrust", "Political skill", "Perceived job mobility" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Most individuals prefer a certain level of predictability (Lind and van den Bos, 2002). For this reason, uncertain workplaces (e.g. political environments and unjust workplaces) are typically a strong predictor of negative attitudes and behaviors (Ferris et al., 2002; Levy and Williams, 2004; Rosen et al., 2011). One reason for this relationship is that uncertainty is considered a weak situation that can be difficult to navigate (Andrews et al., 2009) relative to strong situations, which provide a greater level of predictability.\nBackground and theoretical development: Political skill\nMethod: Sample\nResults: Means, standard deviations, and intercorrelations for our study variables are provided in Table I. Overall, measured via seven-point scales, mean levels of distrust were low (2.32), but the means of political skill (6.16) and job satisfaction (6.17) were high, although these means are not dissimilar to those found in other studies. As expected, distrust in management had negative bivariate correlations with job satisfaction (r=-0.40; p<0.01) and affective commitment (r=-0.55; p<0.01), and political skill had positive associations with both job satisfaction (r=0.52; p<0.05) and affective commitment (r=0.51; p<0.05).\nDiscussion: In general, our results showed that distrust in management and political skill interacted to predict affective commitment, job satisfaction, and perceived job mobility. These results are in line with uncertainty management theory as the negative impact of distrust in management on job satisfaction and affective commitment was strongest when political skill was low. Essentially, distrust in management had less of a negative impact for the politically skilled, as those high on political skill are able to reduce the uncertainty that results from distrusting management. Thus, similar to prior research (Harvey et al., 2007; Meurs et al., 2010; Perrewe et al., 2004), political skill was able to buffer the deleterious effects of distrust on attitudinal outcomes. Furthermore, for job satisfaction and affective commitment, our results highlighted that not only does political skill buffer negative effects (i.e. by reducing uncertainty), but it also shows that a lack of political skill is detrimental. Our findings revealed that being politically unskilled is less of a concern when distrust in management is low (i.e. when management is able to provide greater certainty). However, for employees with a high level of distrust in management, those low on political skill had the worst job satisfaction and affective commitment outcomes, which could lead to detrimental workplace behavioral outcomes (e.g. lower job performance and counterproductive work behaviors).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: A number of studies have explored the benefits (e.g. enhanced job performance and reduced strain), of being politically skilled. Within the framework of uncertainty management theory, the purpose of this paper is to explore the benefits of high political skill to affective commitment, job satisfaction, and perceived job mobility, under conditions of distrust in management.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Sales representatives were surveyed and moderated multiple regression analyses were conducted to analyze the data.\nFindings: The authors found that as distrust increased, affective commitment decreased for all persons, but was most pronounced for persons low on political skill. However, distrust in management had no impact on job satisfaction for those high on political skill, allowing persons high on political skill to enjoy their jobs despite high levels of distrust (an intrapsychic benefit of political skill). Finally, as distrust in management increased, persons high on political skill had increased perceived job mobility.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study is cross-sectional, limiting conclusions about causality in the relationships studied and leaving open the possibility of reverse causation.\nPractical implications: This research has important implications, such that, under conditions of distrust, persons low on political skill are less committed, more dissatisfied, and feel a sense of job immobility, which could lead to poor work outcomes, such as decreased job performance.\nOriginality/value: The study is the first to examine how being politically skilled benefits employee outcomes when the employee distrusts management.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The effect of service convenience on post-purchasing behaviours	[ "Customer satisfaction", "Customer loyalty", "Service levels", "China", "Individual behaviour" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Since their rapid growth in numbers beginning in the 1980s, dual-wage families have been seen as seeking products and services that can save them time and effort (Brown, 1990). This phenomenon indicates that the service convenience a business offers may reveal market opportunities that can lead to higher returns and competitive advantages (Seiders et al., 2000). Colwell et al. (2008, p. 165) note that, \"In homogeneous markets, where service offerings are similar and therefore not key competitive differentiators, providing greater convenience may enable a competitive advantage\". Previous researchers have proposed certain important relationships linked to service convenience; for example, service convenience can directly affect customer satisfaction (Seiders et al., 2000; Berry et al., 2002; Colwell et al., 2008) and lead to customer loyalty (Fornell et al., 1996; Chow et al., 2007). Therefore, understanding the relationships between service convenience and the related variables that affect customer behaviour is the main concern of this study. This study will introduce two variables - perceived service value and perceived service guarantee strength - that combine with service convenience to exert a joint influence on a customer's post-purchasing behaviours. Perceived service value is proposed as a mediating variable while perceived service guarantee strength is proposed as a moderating variable. Both are explored to verify their roles in the relationship between service convenience and customers' post-purchasing behaviours.Clarifying perceived service value is crucial because perceived value reflects the perspective of the customer. Only the customer, not the seller or the service provider, can determine whether a product or a service offers value (Roig et al., 2006; Cockrill et al., 2009). That is, customer-perceived service value appears as a trade-off between the benefits and the sacrifices perceived by the customer in a supplier's offerings (Ulaga and Chacour, 2001). Thus, a customer-perceived service value is created when the customer perceives that the benefit of consuming products/services (e.g. quality) exceeds the sacrifice (e.g. price) (Zeithaml, 1988; Slater and Narver, 2000; Sweeney and Soutar, 2001; Nasution and Mavondo, 2008), which, in turn, is believed to be the necessary variable that gives rise to behaviours such as satisfaction (McDougall and Levesque, 2000; Lee et al., 2005; Chen and Tsai, 2007; Wang et al., 2009). Although researchers have identified the major driving factors of customer satisfaction (such as service convenience and perceived service value), the interrelationships among these constructs have not yet been investigated. Therefore, this study takes the construct of customer-perceived service value into account to verify its mediating role in the relationship between service convenience and customer satisfaction.Moreover, the role of customer-perceived service guarantee strength is important because, as Hays and Hill (2006, p. 753) argue:[...] service guarantee strength measures the strength of the firm's commitment to offering consistent, high quality service to its customers and recovering customers who experience a service failure, with or without a written service guarantee.Thus, unlike previous studies that have treated service guarantees as explicit operation strategies or activities used to credibly signal high quality to customers (Tucci and Talaga, 1997) and studies that have mainly focused on such guarantees' direct effect in promoting service offerings (McDougall et al., 1998; Hays and Hill, 2001; Marmorstein et al., 2001), this paper aims to explore the role of perceived service guarantee strength as an implicit moderating variable in the relationship between service convenience and customer satisfaction. In other words, this paper treats service guarantee strength as implicit and perceived by customers no matter whether there is an explicit service guarantee expressed (Hays and Hill, 2006). Therefore, this study concerns the customer's perception of a firm's service guarantee strength, which should be understood as part of the relationship between service convenience and customer post-purchasing behaviour.In light of the current gaps in the literature, understanding the relationships that exist between the constructs of service convenience, perceived service value, and perceived service guarantee strength and their effects on customer post-purchasing behaviours is a key concern in this study that requires further investigation. The remainder of the paper is organised as follows. First, with the purpose of creating a service convenience causation model, the relevant literature on the relationships among service convenience, perceived service value, perceived service guarantee strength, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty are reviewed. Then, the hypotheses with the conceptual model relating the constructs studied in this research are presented and discussed. The research method and main results are examined in the third and fourth sections, respectively. Conclusions, implications, and future research directions are presented in the last section.\nTheory background and hypothesis: Post-purchasing behaviour\nResearch method: Sample\nData analysis and results: Descriptive analysis\nConclusions and managerial implications: The study contributes to a conceptual model that, reflecting the mediating role of customer-perceived service value and the moderating role of customer-perceived service guarantee strength, indicates the effect of service convenience on customers' post-purchasing behaviours (i.e. customer satisfaction and loyalty). Therefore, the service convenience-related constructs combine to offer restaurant managers important information about managing and improving service quality in their restaurants.First, regarding the relationship between service convenience and customer satisfaction, the results are in line with Colwell et al.'s (2008) findings that service convenience has a positive effect on customer satisfaction. Based on the results, it would seem that restaurant managers should ensure that customers can easily and quickly access the benefits of the services they are seeking to obtain. Berry et al. (2002) have proposed that customers' perceptions of service convenience influence their perceptions of service quality and satisfaction. To put it simply, when customers can easily and conveniently experience the benefits of a restaurant's services, they are more likely to be satisfied with that restaurant. Following this pattern, another important finding is that customer satisfaction directly influences customer loyalty toward a restaurant. That is, as concluded by Kim et al. (2007), attitudinal and behavioural aspects should be considered in measuring the \"true\" concept of loyalty. Specifically, customer satisfaction does not guarantee customer repeat purchasing behaviour, which should pass through the phase of attitudinal and behavioural conformity towards the restaurant.Second, regarding the role of perceived service value, the empirical results clarify that perceived service value works as a mediating variable in the relationship between service convenience and customer satisfaction. That is, service convenience will positively influence customer satisfaction, and this relationship will be strengthened through customer-perceived service value as it relates to the service offerings. This implies that the value that a restaurant offers its customers in relation to the price asked must truly reflect a successful give and receive exchange (Zeithaml, 1988; Lee et al., 2004). Specifically, as claimed by Ryu et al. (2008), price is one of the important tangible cues that can enhance a restaurant's image and influence customers' perceived value of the restaurant. In other words, value for money is an important attribute that helps customers evaluate service quality in the food service industry (Chow et al., 2007). From a managerial perspective, a firm should focus more on delivering the right quality of service at the right price and treating the customers fairly rather than focusing on competitor's prices (Martin-Consuegra et al., 2007). In particular, chain restaurant management should give this phenomenon special consideration because the chain's brand identity is established based on the consistent value that customers receive at each branch.Third, the findings of the present paper complement the extant literature by demonstrating that customer-perceived service guarantee strength has a significant moderating effect on the service convenience-customer satisfaction relationship. For instance, the results indicate that when restaurants offer acceptable service convenience and emphasise the improvement of customer-perceived service guarantee strength, they will enjoy higher customer satisfaction than will occur when they offer a higher level of service convenience but demonstrate low-perceived service guarantee strength. The findings also yield managerial insights that restaurants can use to save customers time and effort when they are dining at a restaurant, including offering an acceptable level of service convenience and improving the quality of the services. The result of these improvements will be an increase in customer-perceived service guarantee strength and, therefore, an increase in customer satisfaction or even loyalty to the restaurant. In sum, when customers' perceptions of provided service guarantee strength is high, they are more likely to experience satisfaction because they will feel more conscious of the benefits associated with the services (i.e. service convenience). Hence, it is critical for restaurants to actively manage and supervise the quality of their service offerings and the process of service delivery to make customers feel as confident in their service offerings as possible, thereby earning customers' trust.\nLimitations and directions for further research: The limitations of this research provide direction for future study. First, as discussed by Kim et al. (2007), because loyal customers and frequent visitors are significantly different, future researchers should note and distinguish between their perceptions regarding service convenience, perceived service value, and perceived service guarantee strength as linked to post-purchasing behaviours. Second, this study did not research how perceived service value works as a moderator of the effect of the relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty (Chang et al., 2009). This limited understanding of the relationships among service convenience, customer satisfaction, and loyalty would be interesting to consider in future research. Third, the findings of this study should not be generalised because the sample used in this study was limited to domestic-brand restaurants located in the same geographic location. Replication studies should be done in different areas using various restaurant segments (e.g. foreign-brand restaurants) to compare and validate the results of this research. Finally, the use of some socioeconomic variables could shed further light on how customers react to aspects of restaurant service offerings such as service convenience, as discussed in the paper. For example, Kim et al. (2003) have found that gender, average spending, and different dining occasions differently impact perceptions of service quality. Therefore, future research should consider how restaurant service convenience, service value, and service guarantee strength, as perceived by customers, might significantly differ based on demographic characteristics such as education, income, and profession.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper attempts to investigate the casual relationships among service convenience, perceived service value, perceived service guarantee strength, customer satisfaction, and loyalty. Although previous studies have addressed the importance of these variables, the understanding of the mediating effect of customer-perceived service value and the moderating effect of customer-perceived service guarantee strength on customer post-purchasing behaviours still remain key issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A statistical analysis of the collected questionnaires was computed based on the 498 usable responses from the four branches of the selected Chinese chain restaurant. Structural equation modelling is the essential analysis methodology used to examine the hypothesised relationships among the variables.\nFindings: - Analysis confirms that customer satisfaction is positively influenced by service convenience, whereas customer loyalty is positively influenced by customer satisfaction. Furthermore, customer satisfaction is indirectly influenced by service convenience through perceived service value. Finally, another key finding is the relationship between service convenience and customer satisfaction, which is stronger for customers who perceive high service guarantee strength than for those who perceive low service guarantee strength.\nOriginality/value: - The study contributes to a conceptual model that, reflecting the mediating role of customer-perceived service value and the moderating role of customer-perceived service guarantee strength, indicates the effect of service convenience on customers' post-purchasing behaviours.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The impediments to the competitiveness of the rail industry in Australia: The case of the non-bulk freight market	[ "Logistics management policy", "Transport economics" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The freight sector provides a substantial contribution to Australia via economic growth and employment and accounts for fourteen per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) (Infrastructure Australia, 2011). Therefore, a properly functioning transport market that is free of barriers and distortions is a key element of growth and competitiveness for the Australian economy (ARA, 2010c). Of interest is that the total interstate non-bulk freight task is forecast to grow much faster than the rate of population growth and the average national GDP growth (BITRE, 2010)[1]. However, in spite of the significant recent and forecasted growth of this task, productivity improvements of rail freight have lagged behind those of road (NTC, 2008b; Visser and Hassall, 2010).\n2. Literature focus and industry challenges: Australia faces many challenges to remain internationally competitive, including the need for significant improvements in productivity and performance (ARA, 2010c). The impacts from population growth, increasing urban congestion, elevated energy security risks and the need to move towards a carbon constrained economy have already affected the nation's productivity, international competitiveness, liveability and the sustainability of local communities (ARA, 2010a). In this context, freight transport is key factor for enabling growth and competitiveness for the Australian economy. The total value of the non-bulk supply chains equated to approximately 2 per cent of Australia's GDP in 2008[2], of which the interstate corridors comprised 61 per cent, international chains 34 per cent, and the intrastate chains 5 per cent, of the total value (Booz & Co, 2008a).\n3. Research method: According to Kitchenham and Charters (2007, p. 5), \"a systematic literature review is a means of evaluating and interpreting all available research relevant to a particular research question, topic area, or phenomenon of interest\". SLR follows a well-defined methodology that reduces bias while the meta-analysis provides a comprehensive analysis that conventional literature reviews are unable to attain. The main stages to performing a SLR are planning, conducting and reporting the review (Kitchenham and Charters, 2007). In this section the SLR protocol is developed. The planning procedure, however, consists of a number of subsets that include justifying the rationale for performing the SLR, developing the research question that the review is intended to answer, undertaking searching strategies, deciding on the selection criteria and selection procedure, undergoing a quality assessment, realising the data extraction strategy, and synthesising the extracted data.\n4. Result of SLR and meta-analysis: This section presents the results of the SLR and analyses patterns of the results using a meta-analysis approach. Figure 4 presents the year-based distribution of selected studies. A growing number of publications can be seen between 2003 and 2008 that contains impediments faced by the rail industry. This can be explained as a result of three key trends in this period:\n5. Discussion and concluding remarks: The literature on the impediments facing the rail industry in Australia is scarce and until now was unsystematically generated. This highlights the need for consistent, timely and reliable information to identify the constraints for both government and industry to target the areas requiring improvement. This paper identifies \"infrastructural inefficiencies and the need for further integration\" as a major concern for the rail industry. This can be evidenced by the underinvestment in rail infrastructure over the past three decades that has resulted in an ineffective network, thus preventing rail from becoming an efficient mode of transport in spite of its cost advantages and greater socio-environmental benefits when compared to road (ARA, 2010d). From the integration perspective (Imp15, Imp23, Imp27 and Imp32), rail infrastructure such as intermodal terminals, signalling facilities and tracks have been generally planned and constructed by network operators with no consultation with infrastructure users to assist in understanding the interactions with other tasks and modes. Hence, greater integration of infrastructure planning and investment is needed to improve productivity and responsiveness for future freight demand.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify current impediments to the competitiveness of the rail industry in the Australian non-bulk freight market.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A systematic literature review was adapted to identify the impediments and challenge themes from 1,081 studies available on the Australian rail industry. To select the studies relevant to the research question, a tollgate criterion was then deployed. Impediments were identified by a structured data synthesis process and a heuristic algorithm was developed to explore the possible relationships between the impediments and challenges.\nFindings: Four major themes are apparent, each of which presents the rail industry with challenges in the non-bulk freight market. \"Infrastructural inefficiencies and the need for further integration\" was ranked as the main rail industry challenge, while \"environmental concerns and the associated costs of externalities\" was the least. In addition, across the four themes data synthesis identified 43 impediments from purely policy related to technical and operational aspects.\nResearch limitations/implications: The major implication of this review is the identification of impediments that have no linkage to the four industry challenges as revealed by stakeholders in the literature. That means that the rail industry has been dealing with a number of issues that have not been explored and studied in depth either by practitioners or academics. The underlying elements of impediments in this group are perceived as managerial, organisational and leadership factors. The rail industry has failed to manage its organisational ties across the system, both horizontally and vertically. This issue has been intensified as the result of complex interactions between different transport modes and operators associated with the non-bulk freight sector.\nOriginality/value: For the first time in the Australian context, this study provides an en masse and summarised picture of impediments to the competitiveness of the rail industry in the non-bulk freight market by systematically reviewing the reports generated by different stakeholders in the last ten years. The outcomes will assist the rail industry and government to understand impediments impacting on the quality of rail freight services that may lead to collaboration on decision-making and investment strategies.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Antecedents and outcomes of perceived organizational support: a literature survey approach	[ "Perceived organizational support", "Antecedents", "Consequences", "Meta-analysis" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction and study development: 1.1. Introduction\n2. Method and preliminary analysis: 2.1. Literature search\n3. Meta-analysis results: 3.1. Results for RQ1-RQ6\n4. Discussion of the key findings: Results of the current study indicate the level of importance of POS, its antecedents and expected outcomes. The results suggest strong relation of POS with employee engagement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Thus it could be concluded that an organization where employee feel supported makes them reciprocate it favorably by offering attitudinal and behavioral outcomes, as they show satisfaction with job, psychological congruence with organization and its goals (commitment), and psychological and mental attachment with organization (engagement). These results are, largely, generalizable in all sectors, thus highlighting the value of organizational support at work. These findings are consistent with previous studies, e.g. both Riggle et al. (2009) and Rhoades and Eisenberger (2002) meta-analyses also reported strong association of POS with job satisfaction and organizational commitment. POS was also noticed to explain 53 percent of the variance in employee engagement, 49 percent in organizational commitment, and around 41 percent of job satisfaction. Thus it could be inferred that POS is strong predictor of the aforesaid attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. Comparison of current results with previous studies clarifies that the wide range of results reported by previous studies could be because of some additional factors, e.g. type of organization, age, gender, educational level, designation, that might not have been considered for investigation. Contrarily, this study shows the real contribution of POS in depicting these outcomes.\n5. Limitations and future directions: Although this research endeavor is based and the true and fair efforts made by researchers, yet it is subject to few limitations. The first one is about the selection bias, though a thorough investigation was made to identify the relevant study, and this study was ratified by selection biasness test, yet it is possible that a study may have been overlooked in investigation. Second, there are number of other variables which act as an outcome of POS, those could also been investigated. Furthermore, this study contained only studies from 2007 to 2013. Both OCB and engagement, specifically, have not been investigated in previous meta-analysis, so these two variables are still under investigated and should be investigated thoroughly. Future researchers should also validate the findings by adding more literature and including studies from previous meta-analyses. Additionally, future studies should the reasons of low variance accounted for, by POS, in predicting OCB and turnover intentions. The results for moderation also should be probed further by bringing other economic sectors under investigation. This study valued only employee's attitudinal and behavioral outcomes but organizations are always looking for organizational level outcomes, e.g. performance, returns; therefore, future studies should entail such issues.\n6. Implications of the study: This study offers valuable theoretical contributions. First and the foremost is the strengthening the view of organizational support theory of Eisenberger et al. (1986), which proposes that support offered by organization makes employee reciprocate positively. Baran et al. (2012) further highlighted the value of OST by adding the four main contribution of the theory in shape of employee well-being, nontraditional workers, cross-cultural and international issues, and development of multilevel modeling. This study adds value to the comments of Baran, as it shows that organizational care for well-being can pay off in shape of positive employee attitudes and behaviors (e.g. commitment, engagement, and reduced turnover intentions); these findings are expandable to various disciplines (e.g. educational sector, public sector, service organizations); having representation from assorted locations; and helps in modeling (identification of both antecedents and consequences of POS). Offerings from organization in any shape makes employees feel that they are supported and taken care by organization. Resultantly, employee reciprocate commitment offered by organization with their commitment and better attitudinal outcomes. This study proves that support offered makes employee mentally and psychological attached with organization (engagement), where they are willing to sacrifice their personal goals for organizational goals (commitment), they love and like their job (job satisfaction), are willing to work for the sake of organization even it is beyond their job and duty (citizenship behavior), and like to stay long with the current organization (turnover intentions). Furthermore, this study proves that type of organization has significant role in explaining the association of POS and attitudinal outcomes. These results also strengthen the view of Paul and Phua (2011) and Rhoades and Eisenberger (2002), who inferred that job and organization makes significant difference while investigation the association of POS with various attitudinal outcomes.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Riggle et al.'s (2009) and Rhoades and Eisenberger (2002) literature surveys are the latest available studies on antecedents and outcomes of perceived organizational support (POS). Riggle et al. work considered studies on outcomes of organizational support (1986-2006), while Rhoades and Eisenberger worked on both antecedents and consequences (1986-2002). There are seven years since no work has been done on the outcomes and almost 12 years since no work has been done on the antecedents of POS. Considering the gap, the paper aims to investigate the antecedents and outcomes of POS.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In total, 170 studies were included in meta-analysis containing at least one of the antecedent or outcomes. Riggle et al. included 167 studies, while Rhoades and Eisenberger study covered 70 studies in their literature survey studies for the period of 1986-2006. This study adds value to the work of Riggle et al., by looking at the studies conducted from January 2007 to September 2013; and Rhoades and Eisenberger by investigating the antecedents of POS from January 2003 to September 2013.\nFindings: Findings of the study revealed that POS is largely influenced by justice, growth opportunities, supervisor support, and coworker support. While having a profound look at the outcomes it is evident that POS significantly influence employee engagement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment; while its impact on organizational citizenship behavior and turnover intentions is moderate.\nPractical implications: This research endeavor leaves a valuable message for management as POS is noticed to have profound effects on employee attitudes and behaviors at work.\nOriginality/value: This study adds value by offering meta-analysis of the antecedents and outcomes of POS for latest available literature (i.e. 2003-2013 for antecedents and 2007-2013 for outcomes).\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Sorting out evaluation of learning and development: making it easier for ourselves	[ "Learning", "Return on investment", "Training", "Costs" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nWhat is wrong with evaluation approaches: The Kirkpatrick approach to evaluation has been around since the late 1960s and has been the most quoted by writers and practitioners. It proposes four \"levels\" for the evaluation of learning, which are roughly:1. reaction - reaction of participants;2. learning - acquired knowledge/skills;3. behavior - behaving differently; and4. results - business results.The model is interpreted by most of its supporters as requiring evaluation at each of these levels and that there is a logical progression going up the levels. That is, you evaluate the reaction to a learning program and if that is positive go on to evaluate what people learned. If that proves positive you then see if the learners behave differently and if they do you may (if you are lucky) get the chance to evaluate the business results of the changed behavior.In most organizations learning and development (L and D) staff using this approach have tended to hope that they can get to level 3 at best. They put quite a bit of energy into what they call levels 1 and 2 evaluation and then see if they can find evidence at level 3.A simple error in the way organizations use this notion of levels is to assume the linkage between them. I have many examples where participants in a program were unhappy (at level 1) but went on to change behavior (level 3). Research studies going back to the 1970s confirm this with the most important work being on T-groups. Such groups often shook up people and they expressed negative feelings about being confronted with the evidence of their behavior. But having been challenged to change, many did. Evaluations straight after a program (reactions) proved negative but behavior change occurred (level 3 evaluation) when studies were made of participants many months later.Trainers and developers routinely accept that \"happy sheets\" (instant reaction questionnaires) are limited but most continue to use them as that is the only level of evaluation they have. And if the politics of their organization requires that people are entertained in training events and go away feeling good then that is what many trainers are prepared to do. The organization may also use so-called motivational speakers to stir up people and they usually get good ratings from such sessions. However, evaluation of behavior change six months later is mostly negative.\nOur approach: The organization with which I work has a different view about evaluation. For a start we focus on development programs that operate over time - usually at least nine months. Organizations often ask to get reactions to the program before it ends and we resist this as we know that some participants will be challenged to change their behavior (often as a result of a 360-degree feedback process), and they need time to make changes. Even at the end we refuse to use \"happy sheets\". Instead we insist that participants present back to their managers and the program sponsor (ideally the CEO or someone at that level) the changes they have made in their own behavior and the contribution this has made to the business.This approach could be labeled as going straight to levels 3 and 4 in the Kirkpatrick model - except that we do not see a value in the model if the first two levels can be ignored (which they can be). Our approach is quite simple - we expect participants to demonstrate the value of their learning to the key stakeholders in the organization. And the reality is that these people (managers, sponsors, etc.) are the ones that matter. They need to see the results of a learning program and the judgment of the value of the program has to be joint decision with the participants.We sometimes find that participants can get hung up on trying to prove the return on investment (ROI) of the program before their final presentation. Below I will give some simple responses to this issue. Before doing that I should say that I usually find that most top level leaders in organizations are far too sophisticated to get hung up on mechanistic ROI calculations, provided they see both concrete evidence of value and the more subjective responses from participants.At one recent event participants presented back at the end of a nine-month leadership program for high potential middle managers. Their line managers were present along with directors and the sponsor, the chief finance officer (CFO). The latter responded to the presentations by both praising participants for the hard evidence of value and also for \"speaking from the heart\" (her words) about their learning. She went on to say that she was almost moved to tears by the way participants had talked about the impact of the program. As a sophisticated CFO she understood the value of hard and soft evidence and she was delighted to get that balance - and she did not expect the evidence to be presented as ROI.\nBeating the ROI problem: In one international company I asked a country general manager to attend a senior HR meeting and to come with challenges to HR (which includes L and D) about improvements they needed to make. One of these was his concern about the cost of wasteful meetings. He challenged senior HR leaders about their understanding of this business cost - and if they were prepared to play a role in reducing this cost. We calculated that a typical meeting might be costed at $10,000 (using the employment costs of participants as a basis for such calculations). He was clear that L and D activity was not an issue. A program might cost $5,000 and even adding the opportunity cost of the person being away from the job this kind of sum did not figure as needing significant attention compared with the cost of the interminable wasteful meetings that he observed in the business.This is just one example of the problem of looking at costs in a company and attempting to calculate ROI. Meetings probably come up as quite poor on ROI in most companies but how often are they asked to be justified in ROI terms? And we can look at other business activity. Do marketing departments always calculate ROI for their expenditure? More centrally it could be argued that managers typically do not actually produce anything of value per se. They manage others who do the real work. So what is the ROI of employing a manager?One could go on with numerous examples of how to cost activities in a business. Furthermore, any costings are not objective truths - they are always based on subjective judgments as to what to allocate to an activity. The real problem seems to be the inability of L and D professionals to make a convincing business case for their work and the disconnnection of much training from central business needs. My experience is that if L and D, as a function, is working close to the business, talks the language of business (and not HR jargon) and genuinely responds to real needs, then there is no problem about justifying L and D work - and no-one asks for ROI calculations. On the other hand, where the opposite applies (training based on what trainers want to deliver, use of HR jargon, etc.) then there may well be a demand from senior leaders for justification of the role of L and D and its cost to the business. Quite right too.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to expose the errors of existing common evaluation frameworks such as Kirkpatrick and to suggest superior approaches.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper is based on work done in a variety of organizations as well as existing research evidence.\nFindings: - The paper finds that evaluation of learning and development can be both more rigorous and simpler.\nPractical implications: - The paper has real practical implications for leaders/managers and learning and development professionals, as it shows how to overcome the limitations of existing approaches to evaluation. By proposing an alternative approach to Kirkpatrick's model it encourages practitioners to be clearer about evaluation activity.\nOriginality/value: - The paper will be of value to managers and learning specialists as it raises important issues about how to evaluate learning and development activity.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Vietnamese teachers' self-efficacy in teaching English as a Foreign Language: Does culture matter?	[ "Culture", "Identity", "English teaching", "Literacy teaching", "Teacher efficacy", "EFL teaching" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the Vietnamese context, research has indicated that the language ability of Vietnamese learners is limited despite many years of learning the language (Dang, 2006; Nguyen and Vo, 2004). Reasons for learners' low levels of English competence, such as teachers' \"old-fashioned\" teaching methods or learners' inappropriate learning strategies are widely acknowledged (Dang et al., 2013; Duong, 2012; Khoi and Iwashita, 2012). A few studies have been done to explore factors contributing to teachers' adherence to traditional teaching approaches (Le and Barnard, 2009; Tomlinson and Dat, 2004) or to suggest how to help Vietnamese students learn the English language better (Phan, 2011; Tran, 2007). However, few studies have investigated the factors influencing teachers' self-beliefs around their competence to teach English and what should be done to help them to be more self-efficacious, despite the acknowledged relationship between teacher confidence in teaching and student learning (Guo et al., 2011; Klassen et al., 2011).\nLiterature review: Teacher self-efficacy\nThe Vietnamese cultural context: The Vietnamese sense of belonging\nMethods: The study reported on here was conducted by the first author (sometimes termed \"the researcher\") and aimed to understand the relationship between the Vietnamese cultural context and the self-efficacy in teaching EFL of a group of university teachers. The participants in this study were eight university teachers, one male and seven females, who teach General English and International English Language Testing System for students who have failed the National Entrance exam for other universities and register to study at Faculty B for one of three specialized training programs: Business Administration, Information Technology, and Accounting and Auditing. The university where the teachers were working is a technical university in the South of Vietnam. Faculty B was newly formed and participating teachers moved to it from Faculty F, which had been established when the university was founded.\nFindings: The salience of other-oriented feedback\nDiscussion and conclusion: In this study, certain Vietnamese cultural values appeared to influence the formation of teacher self-efficacy beliefs. The findings support Oettinggen and Zosul's (2006) hypothesis that cultural values determine the selecting, weighting and integrating of sources of efficacy appraisal and the forms these sources take.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of culture on the sense of self-efficacy in teaching English as a Foreign Language of a group of university teachers in Vietnam. Research exploring the relationship between culture and self-efficacy is extremely rare despite the acknowledged importance of culture in the formation of self-efficacy beliefs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study took the form of qualitative research with diverse, data collection instruments: individual interviews, focus group discussions, observations and journaling.\nFindings: Findings indicate that certain features of the Vietnamese cultural context impacted on the way the study teachers constructed their sense of self-efficacy. Specifically, under the influence of a Vietnamese sense of belonging, the study teachers tended to rely more on efficacy-building information from other people rather than from themselves. The perception of inequality in power may have heightened negative emotional arousal, thus contributing to a negative sense of self-efficacy among the teachers. The Vietnamese concept of face and the high status of teachers in the social hierarchy in part mediated teachers' sense of self-efficacy.\nSocial implications: The perceived burden of performing both parenting and teaching roles and responsibilities may have diminished the self-efficacy in teaching of female teachers.\nOriginality/value: The contribution and implications of the study are discussed.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Outsourcing extra-curricular activities: a management strategy in a time of neoliberal influence	[ "Hong Kong", "School management", "Extra-curricular activities", "Neoliberal values", "Outsourcing" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The education of Hong Kong has been criticized for its focus on rote learning and examination orientation at the expense of students' personal and social development for the last 20 years. Since 2001, the Hong Kong Education Department has implemented the curriculum reform in which students are expected to be equipped with five core values including \"perseverance, respect for others, responsibility, national identity and commitment\" and nine generic skills such as \"communication, study, critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, information technology, numeracy, problem solving and self-management\" through eight key learning areas in basic education (Curriculum Development Council, 2001). The outcome of the reform is to facilitate students' all round development through both formal curricula and other learning experiences as reiterated in the vision statement. The government, therefore, has encouraged school principals to organize more extra-curricular activities (ECAs) for students so as to develop their social and moral attitudes and help them acquire necessary life skills in times of globalization where the notion of competition, collaboration and innovation is of paramount importance (Cheng, 2009; Lo and Wang, 2014). Through participating in ECAs, students can learn to communicate effectively and cooperate with other people and can also enrich their life experience. If students are provided with opportunities to organize ECAs, they will be benefited from the first-hand experience of program planning and leadership training. It can help strengthen students' personal and social capacities in the era of globalization (Simoncini and Caltabiono, 2012). In addition to traditional classroom activities, the Education Department has encouraged teaching professionals to offer various types of ECAs for students. Nowadays, students' participation rate in ECAs has become one of the key performance indicators in the external school review exercise in Hong Kong (Education Bureau, 2002). Nevertheless, organizing such varieties of activities may increase additional teachers' workload in a school. In view of the influence of neoliberalism on education in the era of globalization, it is noticed that using external agencies and companies to replace teaching professionals to run educational activities for students is becoming a trend and widely practiced in schools. Both the scale and intensity of such outsourcing activities differ between schools to a great extent. There have been a lot of views regarding pros and cons of outsourcing activities such as complaints from parents concerning the expense of the activities and from teachers with regard to increase in workload and conflicts with providers (Chan and Ng, 2015; Huber, 2003). The quality and the outcome of such practice are also subject to arguments. How to effectively manage outsourcing activities in school becomes one of the concerns of the school management. Since there is a lack of research findings concerning outsourcing educational services and activities in Hong Kong, it is worth exploring the complexity of outsourcing ECAs in regard to its issues, concerns and dynamics between teaching professionals and service providers in a time of neoliberal influence. This paper aims to report on a qualitative study which illuminates the complexity of outsourcing ECAs in the primary school settings. The finding of this study does not attempt to come to any generalization but is expected to contribute to an illuminative and interpretive analysis of the issues and considerations of outsourcing ECAs in school. Ultimately, it can help inform teaching professionals of its impact on school administration, improve the way to effectively manage outsourcing activities and provide equal opportunities for students of different social backgrounds to participate in the activities.\nManagement of outsourcing activities in a time of neoliberal influence: Neo-liberal values have pervasive influence on education around the world. Rizvi and Lingard (2010) envisage that the neo-liberal social imaginary of globalization has underpinned education policy shifts around the world. With education being regarded as a global positioning device (Hartley, 2003; Tang, 2015), education policy objectives have become closely tied to economic goals to make education meet the needs of the global economy and to ensure the competitiveness of individuals and the national economy. Influenced by neoliberal values of economy, efficiency and effectiveness, there has been an increasing commercialization and marketization of educational services in the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors in Hong Kong (Ng, 2012). Recent research on privatization of education has demonstrated that schools are being conceived of undergoing significant change in a time of neoliberal influence (e.g. Ball, 2007; Burch, 2009). Privatization is envisaged as a way to shift most of the cost from the government to the users. Currently, privatization has penetrated into many sectors of the economy and society, including education, because it has been widely advocated as a mechanism to improve efficiency, and make educational organizations more accountable to their clients (Chan and Tan, 2008). Indeed, the student/parent-as-customer approach and entrepreneurial orientation have widely been adopted as one of the strategies with regard to effective management and sustainable development in many institutions at various levels in today's rapidly changing educational context on which neoliberal values exert tremendous impact (Abou-Warda, 2015; Watjatrakul, 2014). In the business sector, customers as the primary generators of sales and revenue are the most important partners of the company, whereas students and parents can be viewed as the most important stakeholders in the school sector. Their views toward the performance of schools in management of outsourcing activities will affect their reputation the school (Skallerud, 2011).\nOutsourcing ECAs in Hong Kong: ECAs in schools refer to classes and programs not considered to be part of the core curriculum; they are perceived as peripheral programs of study and education (Keser et al., 2011). The core curriculum traditionally includes such class programs as reading, writing, language instruction, social studies, general science, mathematics, civics and history (Eccles and Barber, 1999). Extra-curricular programs include, but not limited to, art and craft courses, athletics, music and drama, scholastically oriented clubs, recreational sports, outdoor trips and excursions, and various types of other out-of-classroom activities. In Hong Kong, the Education Department (1997) defines ECAs as follows:Extra-curricular activities are activities that take place outside regular class teaching and yet are related to student learning. As such, they fall within the scope of the school curriculum (p. 11).\nMethodology: The purposes of this paper are to report on an exploratory study designed to illuminate the complexity of outsourcing ECAs in primary schools and to examine the views of teaching professionals on the reasons, issues and considerations of outsourcing ECAs such as the dynamic relations between ECA coordinators and service providers, and between teachers and parents. The qualitative research that informs this paper is conceptualized within the interpretive paradigm since it aims at understanding the thoughts of 20 respondents with regard to the outsourcing of ECAs in times of promoting other learning experiences in schools. This interpretive paradigm emphasizes naturalistic methods of inquiry. Interpretive approach is a qualitative research method. Radnor (2001) reiterates, \"Qualitative information is the essence of interpretive research\" (p. 29). She adds, \"The interpretive approach rests on the premise that in social life there is only interpretation\" (p. 4). Lincoln and Guba (1985) envisage it \"naturalistic inquiry.\" According to them, naturalistic inquiry is appropriate for handling data \"where there are multiple constructed realities that can only be studied holistically\" (p. 37). The essence of interpretive approach is to capture the participants' points of view (Denzin and Lincoln, 1998; Radnor, 2001). The interpretive investigators think that the unique quality of mankind can be found in the naturalistic setting where social phenomena make meaning in the contexts of everyday lives (Denzin and Lincoln, 1998). The perceptions of the respondents on issues concerning outsourcing ECAs constitute \"multiple constructed realities.\"\nFindings: Two major themes with regard to \"parameters for outsourcing ECA activities\" and \"issues and considerations\" which demonstrated the driving forces for outsourcing educational activities as well as the dynamic relationship among teaching professionals, parents and service providers arising in the process of outsourcing had emerged from the interview data. The names of respondents were pseudonymous.\nDiscussion: The finding of this study illustrates the issues of the neoliberal impact on the management of outsourcing ECAs and the dynamic relationships among stakeholders which are shaped the local educational context in Hong Kong. With reference to the objectives of the study, the finding also informs us that efficiency and economy are primarily two fundamental principles to rationalize the strategy of outsourcing. Nevertheless, it reveals that the views of teaching professionals, demand from parents, performance of the tutors and how outsourced ECAs link to school curricula should be taken into consideration prior to contracting out ECAs to service providers. Indeed, educational ideologies and values upheld by primary school teachers in Hong Kong are not always shared by the employees of ECA providers on the one hand, while parents sometimes bring pressure to bear on the teachers out of client-oriented perspectives on the other, thus creating the complicated triadic relationship among outsourced agents, teacher professionals and parents. For example, influenced by the global neoliberal atmosphere of market orientation, views of the school professionals have tilted toward business values and they have failed to address ethical importance of personal and moral development of students which is the primary aim of education dominated by traditional Confucian values. Student discipline is considered by teachers as an important personal and moral value. It is obvious that these business-oriented service providers may not necessarily hold the same beliefs as the teachers. Thus, a well-planned strategy for effective management of outsourcing ECAs is recommended as discussed later in this section.\nConclusion: While neoliberal trend around the world has shaped education reforms and policies in Hong Kong, this paper illustrates that the impact on outsourcing ECAs needs to be envisaged as a complicated and dynamic process. In Hong Kong, public schools are being given additional funding to be spent in a number of areas including student activities. For quality of these activities, cost should not be the only concern. School managers should also take into consideration how to free teachers up to concentrate on their primary function of teaching and learning. Most importantly, outsourcing ECAs should not deprive students from under-privileged families of the right for participation. On some occasions, charges of outsourced ECAs will be much higher than those conducted by teacher professionals when more options of quality activities can be provided for parents and students. In this regard, school organizations should think of offering grants to subsidize the students in need so as to create the educational environment where provision of equal opportunities is of vital importance.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report on an exploratory study designed to illuminate the complexity of outsourcing extra-curricular activities (ECAs) in primary schools in a time of neoliberal influence and to examine the views of teaching professionals on the reasons, issues and considerations of outsourcing ECAs such as the dynamic relations between ECA coordinators and service providers, and between teachers and parents.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The qualitative research that informs this paper is conceptualized within the interpretive paradigm since it aims at understanding the thoughts of 20 teaching professionals including 16 teachers and four principals with regard to the outsourcing of ECRs in times of promoting other learning experiences in schools. This interpretive paradigm emphasizes naturalistic methods of inquiry.\nFindings: Two major themes which demonstrated the driving forces for outsourcing educational activities as well as the dynamic relationship between teaching professionals and service providers arising in the process of outsourcing emerged from the interview data. This paper illustrates that the neoliberal impact on the implementation and quality of ECAs needs to be understood as a much more complicated process shaped by the local context.\nResearch limitations/implications: A major limitation is the small number of samples in primary schools in this qualitative study. Another area of possible investigation is the noticeable extension of the study area to the sectors of kindergartens and secondary schools.\nPractical implications: From management perspectives the finding carries the implication that outsourcing must be carefully planned have explicit goals and systematically implemented.\nSocial implications: The finding enriches the understanding of how neoliberal thinking creeps into management of outsourcing ECAs in schools.\nOriginality/value: The study does not aim at generalization of the findings but it attempts to illuminate the phenomenon of outsourcing ECAs in primary schools in Hong Kong. To support the empirical findings of the present qualitative study, it is recommended that follow-up quantitative studies be conducted, with larger sample sizes and more diverse sample groups included in the population.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Perceived value dimension in repetitive fish consumption in Indonesia by using an extended theory of planned behavior	[ "Structural equation modelling", "Perceived value", "Extended theory of planned behaviour", "Repetitive fish consumption" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Fish, as one of the major sources of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), has been shown to protect human health against coronary heart disease and stroke. The research results by Burr et al. (1989) show that fish consumption lowers the mortality rate caused by coronary heart disease. Several studies have shown that consuming fish can help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease (Haimeur et al., 2019). The results of research by Alhassan et al. (2017) also show that there is evidence that consuming fish oil provides a significant improvement in levels of triglycerides and HDL that help reduce cardiovascular risk. Unfortunately, the level of Indonesian fish consumption per capita is lower than that of some other ASEAN countries, reaching 41.11 and 43.94 kg/capita in 2015 and 2016, respectively (Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, 2018). This level of consumption is lower than those of Malaysia and Singapore. Data from the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries show that Malaysian fish consumption per year reaches 70 kg/capita, and Singapore's fish consumption per year reaches 80 kg/capita (Detik, 2017). To improve fish consumption and policy in society, there is a need to understand repetitive fish consumption. The repeated consistency of fish consumption is needed to form a healthy society.\nLiterature review and theoretical background: The TPB approach has been widely used in food consumption research (Brug et al., 2006; Kothe and Mullan, 2014). The TPB, according to Ajzen (1991), involves internal (within the individual) and external (outside the individual) aspects. The internal factors include attitude antecedents and behaviour control, while the external factors include social norms antecedents. All three factors form the intention to perform an action. Intentions capture the motivational factors that influence behaviour.\nMethodology: This study was conducted over eight months, from June 2017 to February 2018, in Indonesia. The respondents were consumers who consumed fish for at least one year. In total, 500 questionnaires were distributed to the respondents. The conceptual framework of the study illustrated the links among perceived value, behavioural planning theory intentions and the repetition of fish consumption.\nMeasurement: All variables except attitude are measured using the Likert scale (five-point scale). The perceived value in this study includes one's perceptions concerning health and monetary value. The health value describes the benefits a person considers regarding health, adapted from a concept proposed by Sparks et al. (2001), which defines the identity of health as the awareness of health values, an essential component of one's self-concept. According to Yang and Peterson (2004), Agarwal and Teas (2016), Dunstan et al. (2008) and Lund (2013), monetary value is a benefit obtained by a person compared with the sacrifice (price) he has to make (Zeithaml, 1988). The monetary value in this study is based on Yang and Peterson (2004), Wu and Liang (2009) and Sullivan Mort and Drennan (2005).\nResults: Sample\nData analysis: The evaluation of the construct under investigation is estimated by confirmatory factor analysis, to confirm the relationship between variables has no regression. In the result for confirmatory factor analysis, significance probability reached 0.001, RMSEA reached 0.043, GFI reached 0.933, AGFI reached 0.911, CMIN/df reached 1.676 and RMR reached 0.025; all achievements meet the standard fit for CFA (Hair et al., 2006). The next step is to do structural testing of the fit model. This analysis is carried out by the model fitness test (goodness-of-fit test) to examine the significance of factor weight. The significance of the regression coefficient was calculated using the t-test, it was called the critical ratio test in AMOS. CR is a parameter estimate divided by the standard error. Parameters that are not significant indicate that the variable has less role in the model developed; the minimum test statistic is>+- 1.96 based on probability level 0.05, as shown in Table II (Byrne, 2010; Singh et al., 2018).\nDiscriminant validity: Discriminant validity has the function to evaluated variables to examine whether the constructs are indeed different from another construct; the standard for discriminant validity is not more than 0.85 (Kim et al., 2015; Hair et al., 2014; Kline, 2005). This research uses correlation below 0.85. Based on Table II, the relationship between attitude and perceived value reached 0.823; relationship between subjective norms and perceived value reached 0.478; relationship between subjective norms and attitude reached 0.553; and relationship between intention and perceived behaviour control reached 0.550.\nResearch results: Discussion\nImplications: This research is beneficial for the government, entrepreneurs in the fisheries sector and academics. The results of this study can help develop the TPB on the importance of perceived values in shaping attitudes. Positive attitudes are not directly related to action, so other factors, such as perceived behaviour control, should be considered to actualise behaviour.\nLimitation and future research: Research that is only conducted in one place cannot be used as a basis for the results of research to be generalised. This research has delved into the frequency of fish consumption in society, but not the distinguished types and variety of prices of fish consumed. High levels of fish variation will boost fish consumption. By contrast, low levels of fish variation can lower fish consumption.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study aims to establish the findings by confirming the extent to which an extended version of the TPB estimation relates to repetitive fish consumption. This study is important for the sustainable consumption of fish in society. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship that explains perceived value, consisting of monetary and non-monetary values, in shaping attitudes on repetition of fish consumption.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The sampling of this study was conducted for eight months of 365 people who consumed fish for at least one year. This research was conducted in Malang City, Indonesia. Data analysis applied structural equation modelling by measuring perceived values, attitudes, social norms, behaviour control, intentions and frequency of fish consumption.\nFindings: It mostly follows the extended theory of planned behaviour (TPB) sections, with exception on the relationship of subjective norms to intentions and attitudes, subjective norms and perceived value towards repetition of fish consumption. The results of the study indicate that attitudes are preceded by the formation of perceived values. The perceived value significantly affects attitude formation. The perceived value of fish consumption is explained by health and monetary values. A positive attitude does not always precede consumption. Subjective norms provide a weak role in the repetition of fish consumption, while behaviour control plays an important role in realising action on repetitive fish consumption.\nOriginality/value: This study helps explain the extended TPB, and intentions towards the behaviour of repetitive fish consumption. Attitudes are preceded by the formation of perceived values in the TPB in intention repetitive fish consumption.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Investment, adoption, attitude and extent of participation of farmers in soil conservation projects in the Western Ghats of India: Revised topic	[ "Contingent valuation", "Conservation compliance", "People’s participation index", "Soil conservation", "WTP" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Land is a precious gift that nature has bestowed on mankind. It is a natural resource, which is limited in supply but has multifaceted usage. Land occupies a pre-eminent position among all kinds of resources and forms the very basis for every economic activity and crucial for human existence. The world's population continues to rise from the present seven to about nine billion by 2050 AD. By that time, another one billion tonnes of cereals would be needed to meet the challenge of additional food demand from the burgeoning population (Anonymous, 2011). The need for such agricultural growth is strong in developing countries, where the challenge is not just to produce food but to ensure that families have access that will bring them food security.\nThe problem of land degradation: Growing demand for more food production and the increasing need for additional cash forced the people to cultivate all kinds of land, resulting in the denudation of land resources and hastening of soil erosion (Rawat et al., 1996). There is a strong linkage between poverty and the lack of access to land and water resource. Hill areas have serious problems of landslides, torrents, slips and thoughtless encroachment. They suffer from the hazards of shifting cultivation, floods and stream bank erosion (Sudha, 2012). In the mountain areas, erosion is caused primarily by landslides. This form of erosion is common on steep hill slopes, which are subjected to heavy rainfall during monsoon seasons. All over the globe, particularly in developing nations, land degradation is one of the major challenges in agricultural production (Sekar, 2001).\nWatershed conservation technologies: A watershed or catchment is an area from which all water drains to a common point, making it an attractive unit for technical efforts to manage water and conserve soil for improving production and conservation. In the mountain regions, the soil conservation technologies promoted under watershed approach are staggered trench, bench terracing, stone wall, waterways, Gabian check, collection well, contour stone wall, loose boulder checks, etc. Depending upon the land slope, type of crops and soil, the above conservation technologies are adapted. For instance, in tea gardens, staggered trenches are commonly used as conservation technologies and tea is cultivated in lands having more than 10 per cent slope. For annual crops, like potato and carrot, bench terracing is normally followed to minimize soil erosion. In common property resources (CPRs) and community lands, check dams, stream training works and retaining walls are constructed by both public and NGOs to control soil erosion and land degradation.\nProblem focus: In the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu State in India, soil erosion is caused largely by frequent landslides. This form of erosion is not uncommon on steep hill slopes of the Nilgiris, which receives heavy rainfall during south west monsoon seasons. In the Nilgiris, unprecedented rains stimulate landslides causing loss of life and severe damage to natural resources. The implementation of conservation compliance programmes by both institutional and non-institutional organizations is irregular and the outcome is not encouraging (Sekar, 2001). Besides, the community structures constructed by institutions and NGOs are not monitored properly due to free riding behaviour.\nWhy this study?: Soil and water conservation activities in the Nilgiris are carried out by both institutions as well as by farmers but they are intermittent. Conservation activities, of course have brought a number of positive externalities; nevertheless results have not been so encouraging for the resources that were invested both by the farmers and institutions. Many of the governmental programmes concentrated only on technical aspects and engineering structures. Despite heavy investments, the data on costs and benefits of various conservation technologies are limited, incomplete and insufficient. A principal reason for conservation compliance programme short lived is that the farmers have been ignored or instructed, rather than trained or consulted properly.\nObjectives: The specific objectives of the present study are:\nMethodology: For this study, multistage purposive sampling was followed. At the first stage, the Nilgiris district was purposively selected. In the second stage Lower Bhavani catchment located in the district was chosen purposively. In the third stage five priority watersheds were identified based on the implementation of compliance programmes by the RVP and HADP units of Agricultural Engineering Department of Government of Tamil Nadu. Respondents were selected from the priority watersheds in consultation with the development department officials and Water Users' Association of the concerned watersheds. From the identified villages, farmers were randomly selected for field level data collection. The sample respondents were identified in all the five categories of watersheds (very high, high, medium, low and very low priority watersheds) at the rate of 50 in each category and thus the total farmers contacted for the study were 250. It is important to understand that a particular watershed would cover more than one village and often three to four villages and hence the samples were drawn on watershed basis. The distribution of sample farmers in the selected watershed is detailed in Table I.\nMultinomial logit model for farmers' perception towards the soil conservation technologies: Most adoption studies treat the use of soil conservation measures as a discrete all-or-nothing adoption decision of a single practice. Generally, studies do not supply information on how multiple practices can fit together into an overall conservation package. Adopting multiple soil conservation practices is common in Nilgiris because of variation in topography even within farms and farmers usually diversify crop production based on steepness of the slope. For a given plot of land, a farmer was assumed to have preference over a discrete set of alternative soil conservation systems, a choice problem that requires application of multinomial discrete choice models.\nResults and discussions: For this study, five categories of watersheds (namely very high, high, medium, low and very low priority watersheds) were considered to understand whether there had been any significant differences in the investment pattern on the conservation structures among the sample respondents of various priority watersheds and also to know the significance of the attributes like physical, social, cultural, economic and biological factors on the investment decision-making behaviour of farmers. After making analysis of data through ANOVA, it was found that there were no significant differences existed among the five categories of watersheds. So, the sample farmers were post stratified based on the land holding pattern of the farmers, since there were significant differences in the adoption of conservation technologies among various categories of farmers. The distribution of sample respondents based on land holding pattern is detailed in Table II.\nCosts and returns of conservation structures and investment analysis of various soil and water conservation technologies: Productivity of crops\nMultinomial logit model for factors influencing the choice of adoption towards the soil conservation technologies: Multinomial logit model was used for the factors influencing the choices soil conservation technologies by the farmers. In the sample farms, the choice of soil conservation adoption is influenced by various socio-economic factors. The Chi-square test statistic estimated for the multinomial logit model was 1,245. The null hypothesis stating that the non-intercept co-efficients were jointly zero was rejected at the 0.0001 probability level. This mean that the empirical multinomial logit model was highly significant in explaining the choice of soil conservation practices by farm respondents. Clustering the data allowed the choice of technologies like none, staggered trench, stone wall and bench terrace, which were the dependent variables. The estimated co-efficient and results of multinomial logit model are presented in Table XIX and the marginal effects of coefficients are presented in Table XX.\nConclusion and policy implications: Staggered trench, stone wall and water ways were the promising conservation technologies for perennial crops. Hence the government should formulate strategies and programmes to extend technical and financial interventions and promote these technologies on large scale where ever perennial crops are grown. The status of the staggered trench was by and large stated to be good and the maintenance of other farm level structures like stonewall, waterway and bench terrace were only average because of high maintenance cost. Efforts should be made on the part of the government to improve the maintenance of the above structures in a better way through technological and financial interventions.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the investment pattern, adoption behaviour, attitude of farmers towards conservation compliance programmes and the extent of participation of farmers in soil conservation projects in the Western Ghats of India.\nDesign/methodology/approach: For the present study, multistage purposive sampling was followed. The sample respondents were identified for the survey in all the five categories of watersheds (very high, high, medium, low and very low priority watersheds) in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu at the rate of 50 farm respondents in each category. Since the investment among the five categories of watersheds did not show any significant differences, the sample farmers were post stratified as marginal, small, medium and large farmers based on farm size for further analysis.\nFindings: The investment analysis showed a benefit cost ratio (BCR) of 1.03 for staggered trenches for tea to 1.40 for bench terrace for carrot. For annual crops, the BCR for bench terrace varied from 1.03 for cabbage to 1.32 for carrot. Among the soil conservation technologies, in tea plantation, stone wall had the highest net present value (NPV) of Rs. 74,335. Staggered trench had the lower NPV Rs. 19,237 among all conservation structures. The results of the contingent valuation showed that cropped area, farm size, on-farm income positively and significantly influenced the willingness to pay (WTP) towards soil conservation. Family size and age of the farmer negatively influenced the WTP of the respondents significantly. The multinomial logit model indicated that staggered trench had direct impact on productivity. In tea plantation, staggered trench adoption was influenced by area under plantation crops, farm size, educational level and land slope. The participation index was very low (<30), indicating the poor participation of farmers in soil conservation programmes.\nResearch limitations/implications: The results of the study reveal the appropriateness of the soil conservation technologies for the select soil type as well as the specific socioeconomic conditions of the farmers undertaking conservation compliance programs in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu. Understanding the farmer's perceptions and adoption behaviour is important in making the whole programme a successful one. Hence the results of the study may not be generalized for other study zones, unless otherwise, the agro-ecological zone is similar to the site where the study was conducted.\nPractical implications: The study suggested that adoption of conservation technologies should be promoted in a big way to conserve natural resources like soil and enhance economic returns. It is also advocated that institutions should provide only guidance for community participation not on community governance and the role should be involving the real stakeholders/beneficiaries under participatory mode to achieve the goal of soil conservation. The bottom-up approach should be adopted to address the real issues involved in conservation compliance programmes.\nSocial implications: The outcome of the study advocates the economic viability of conservation technologies adopted by the crop farmers. The project results also advised the farmers, institutions and the enforcements authorities, the strategies to be adopted to minimize soil loss and increase crop productivity by adopting the appropriate conservation compliance programs. The results also revealed that conservation of soil and water not only conserved the precious natural resources but also had far reaching effect on the yield of croplands, which would be reflected on the food and nutritional securities of the local communities at the micro level and the nation as a whole at the macro level.\nOriginality/value: The research outcome is based on the field level research done by the authors in the Western Ghats of India. The primary data collected from the respondents were analysed and used for drawing inferences and conclusions.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The effects of platform as a technology standard on platform-based repurchases	[ "Critical incident technique", "Platform", "ICT ecosystem", "Lock-in", "Repurchase", "Technology standard" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Efforts to lead the information and communications technology (ICT) ecosystem have caused competition among firms to intensify. Among many technologies, the advent of the smartphone (i.e. smart technology) has induced many innovations in terms of technology, organization, culture and society. While each layer of the value chain within the ICT industry - content, platform, network and device - is emphasized independently and interdependently (Fransman, 2010), the smartphone, as a representative product, has been at the center of the fierce competition for the leadership of the ICT ecosystem (Cecere et al., 2015). Smartphones can be a direct point of contact and an interface between ICT firms and customers. As a result, many studies have been conducted on the factors influencing smartphone adoption, diffusion and customer satisfaction (Chen et al., 2011; Lee, 2014; Shin, 2014).\n2. Theoretical background: In general, a standard can be defined as a definitive specification or the criteria for a procedure, set of requirements or a particular technology (Jakobs, 2000). A standard is widely adopted and used at the firm, national or international level. Therefore, standardization is a necessary or mandatory process of negotiating and forming a consensus for the standard to be adopted (Blind, 2004). Similarly, a standardization process can be led by an alliance of national organizations, international organizations or private firms (Shin et al., 2015).\n3. Critical incident technique: The CIT is a qualitative methodology consisting of a set of procedures in which human behaviors and experiences are observed (Flanagan, 1954). People are inclined to recall special experiences that are unusual or that are out of the ordinary, called critical incidents (Archer and Wesolowsky, 1996). Because critical incidents have a positive or negative effect on a product or service, as well as on individual satisfaction or dissatisfaction, respondents are asked to fully express their experiences via open-ended questions. The CIT is useful because respondents' answers are not categorized deterministically in advance according to the survey design. After qualitative data are collected, the researcher classifies them into several practical problem units, based on the interests of the study. This procedure helps to gather reliable responses and leads to objective analyses (Turunen et al., 2004).\n4. Methodology: 4.1 Research framework\n5. Empirical analysis: Table V shows the estimation results for the effects of platform critical incidents on platform-based purchases. Independent variables are ordered by the frequency of critical incidents. For all dependent variables, positive compatibility attribute is positively significant, while negative compatibility attribute shows insignificance. It means that consumers mainly consider only positive aspect in terms of compatibility attribute. Likewise, positive quality attribute is also positively significant for all dependent variables, with the exception of the current platform-based service, while negative quality attribute is not statistically significant. While platform vendor shows a significant positive value in general, positive complementary attribute shows significance in terms of future platform-based service. This implies that complementarity may have more of an impact on platform-based service purchases than the platform vendor does at present, and that emerging applications and services will be more critical than brand value or the reputation of the existing platform.\n6. Discussion: According to the reported incidents in Table II, there were 1.5 times more positive than negative incidents for platform and device. However, many negative incidents for quality, compatibility and hardware attributes were reported in particular. This represents that users easily and frequently recognized such attributes as negative experiences. In addition, for the display of device attribute, ten times more positive incidents than negative incidents were reported, which means that current platform-based services were mainly dependent on the display attribute. This argument is supported by the fact that positive display attribute was significant for current platform-based service and insignificant for other dependent variables, as shown in Table VI.\n7. Conclusion: The smartphone, as a representative innovation, has been at the center of competition; in particular, firms with smartphone platform leadership are leading the ICT ecosystem. With the emergence of new platform-based applications, a way to lock customers into the current platform is expected to be essential. This study uses the CIT to identify the attributes of the platform as a technology standard and to investigate their effects on platform-based repurchases. Smartphone users' experiences and levels of satisfaction or dissatisfaction were collected and categorized into technology standard attributes to estimate the factors affecting consumers' intention to purchase platform-based products and services. Our findings show the importance of understanding which attributes are important to promoting future platform-based purchases and maximizing positive experiences when using platform-based products and services. Furthermore, given the effect of the platform vendor on repurchases, and that various lock-in strategies are being implemented, firms attempting to be leaders in the ICT ecosystem should seek appropriate strategies to lock-in their installed base.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Using the critical incident technique, this study aims to identify the attributes of a platform as a technology standard and to investigate their effects on platform-based repurchases.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Smartphone users' personal experiences and levels of satisfaction or dissatisfaction were collected and categorized into technology standard attributes to estimate those factors affecting consumers' intention to purchase platform-based products and services.\nFindings: The study findings show the importance of understanding which attributes are important to promoting future platform-based purchases and maximizing positive experiences when using platform-based products and services.\nResearch limitations/implications: Given the effect of the platform vendor on repurchases, and that various lock-in strategies are being implemented, firms attempting to be leaders in the information and communications technology (ICT) ecosystem should seek appropriate strategies to lock-in their installed base.\nOriginality/value: Including discussions on the competition in the ICT ecosystem, this study also provides some policy suggestions and contributions for applicability to an integrated approach.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Public opinion dissemination on mobile internet- a case of Ebola	[ "Disaster management", "Social media", "Public opinion", "Ebola", "Mobile internet", "Microblog" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Public opinion is:\n2. Background: 2.1 Public opinion on the internet\n3. Research method: To figure out structural features and explain different social phenomena related to public opinion dissemination, this study applies different techniques, including feature extraction, community detection, key member identifying and evolutionary analysis. Our specific approaches involve analyzing social network, modeling social network with graphs, calculating degree, centrality, cluster coefficient and other indicators. To establish healthy and helpful mobile network environments for all internet users, it is necessary to monitor and guide the behaviors of essential community members, analyze public opinion's evolution phases, predict the development of public opinion, lead and control public opinion at the right time and through right nodes.\n4. Results and discussion: 4.1 Results\n5. Conclusion: Social media users are often actively involved in discovering, producing, sharing and distributing information (Zou et al., 2015). As a result, information tends to spread quickly and widely on social media, particularly on microblog. When a large number of microblog users forward messages and discuss certain topics, public opinions naturally form and spread. Although the literature on microblog is growing, few studies have been done to explore the structure of public opinions, the approaches of disseminating public opinion and the results of public opinion dissemination in the context of mobile internet for the purpose of improving disaster management. Accordingly, this paper chooses Ebola as the research topic and extracts data from Sina Microblogs to examine the information nodes of public opinion and the characteristics of propagation paths on mobile internet. Specifically, nodes of public opinion between mobile terminals and non-mobile terminals are compared. The results reveal the characteristics of public opinion propagation on the mobile internet and verify the effectiveness of public opinion propagation on mobile internet. The main contribution of this paper is that it provides method-related guidance and insights for studying public opinion dissemination in the context of mobile internet. The government agencies and other relevant organizations can use these methods to monitor public opinions, identify issues and problems proactively and develop strategies in a more efficient manner to improve disaster management. A limitation with this study is that it only chooses Ebola as the research topic and the amount of data extracted from Sina Microblog is not very large. To generalize the findings, future research should choose more varieties of topics and extract a larger amount of data from multiple sources.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study aims to improve disaster management. Social media, particularly microblog, has become a new platform for public opinion dissemination. However, few studies have been conducted to explore the structure of public opinions, the approaches for facilitating the spread of public opinions and the results of public opinion dissemination in the context of mobile internet for the purpose of improving disaster management.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper chooses Ebola as the research topic and extracts 14,735 Ebola-related data items from Sina Microblogs to examine the information nodes of public opinion and the characteristics of propagation paths on mobile internet. Particularly, nodes of public opinion between mobile terminals and non-mobile terminals are compared.\nFindings: The results of this paper reveal the characteristics of public opinion propagation on mobile internet and verify the effectiveness of public opinion propagation on mobile internet. This study shows that public opinions propagate quickly, widely and efficiently and further generate great impacts on mobile internet.\nResearch limitations/implications: The methods used in this study can be useful for the government agencies and other relevant organizations to monitor public opinions, identify issues and problems proactively and develop strategies in a more efficient manner to improve disaster management.\nPractical implications: The results of this paper are helpful for related departments to monitor public opinions and to further improve disaster management.\nOriginality/value: This paper explores the mechanism of public opinion dissemination on mobile internet and further investigates how to improve disaster management through a case study related to Ebola.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Restrained by design: the political economy of cybersecurity	[ "International relations", "Political economy", "Intelligence", "Conflict", "Data security" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: President Obama wrote, \"the cyber threat to our nation is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face [...]. In a future conflict, an adversary unable to match our military supremacy on the battlefield might seek to exploit our computer vulnerabilities here at home. Taking down vital banking systems could trigger a financial crisis. The lack of clean water or functioning hospitals could spark a public health emergency. And as we've seen in past blackouts, the loss of electricity can bring businesses, cities and entire regions to a standstill\" (Obama, 2012). Indeed, cyber catastrophe cannot be eliminated as a technological possibility so long as every aspect of modern life depends on interconnected and reconfigurable machinery (Borg, 2005; Clarke and Knake, 2010; Kello, 2013; Peterson, 2013; Rattray, 2001; Weiss, 2010).\nCyberspace as an institution: In the paradigm of new institutional economics (North, 1990; Ostrom, 1990; Stiglitz, 2002; Williamson, 1981), \"Information processing by the actors as a result of the costliness of transacting underlies the formation of institutions\" (North, 1990, p. 107). We should, thus, expect devices designed expressly for improving information processing to have a particularly institutional character. Historically, there has been a close co-evolution between information technologies and social institutions to improve people's ability to measure behavior and resources, coordinate collective action and enforce their intentions (Beniger, 1986; Crosby, 1997; Scott, 1998). The vernacular of computer science abounds with bureaucratic nomenclature (code, procedures, routines, programs, protocols, files, folders, registries, etc.), and a key intellectual insight of the cybernetics movement was that feedback machines worked like governors, both the automated and political kinds (Agar, 2003; Deutsch, 1963; Dupuy, 2000; Medina, 2011).\nHacking a sociotechnical institution: Hackers can only move through doors accidentally left open or unwittingly opened for them. Because code is mere logic, it cannot use brute force to break down doors. \"There is no forced entry in cyberspace\" (Libicki, 2007, p. 31). If a door is closed by a software patch, a changed configuration setting, or user vigilance, then no amount of typing will pry it open. The complete substitution of information for mass in cyberwarfare entails total reliance on stratagem instead of material power. If cyberspace is an institution, then cyberattack is a form of cheating within it. Cheating within the rules is like speeding up at a yellow light: the warning is intended to slow cars down to improve safety, but driving through the intersection is still legally permitted, even as it degrades safety. Cyberattacks, likewise, play within the rules but achieve unintended results. They are inherently deceptive because they instruct perfectly obedient (i.e., deterministic) machines to behave in ways that are harmful to people who trust them to behave helpfully.\nInstitutional limits on cheating: Cyberspace creates many new opportunities to deceive developers and users, but effective deception can be difficult and hackers can be deceived; after all, hackers are developers and users, too. Deception becomes a liability when compromise is dangerous, and a deception is harder to maintain in complex situations. Moreover, the defender can use deception as well through active monitoring, investigation and hunting techniques (Bejtlich, 2013; Bodmer et al., 2012; Gartzke and Lindsay, 2015). The costs of deception may outweigh the benefits against some targets. Reliance on deception also complicates political objectives that depend on credibly conveying information to an adversary.\nCybersecurity as institution building: Despite all the attention to cyber insecurity, social trust in the internet continues its long-term increase as a constellation of institutional mechanisms stabilizes social and economic transactions at ever greater scale, speed and precision. The strongest indication of increasing trust is the online implementation of more and more economic functions - manufacturing, retailing, service, transportation, utilities, finance, etc. - together with new architectural and institutional innovations that emerge to span them or create wholly new functions (Chandler and Cortada, 2000; Cortada, 2012, 2008). Government administrators, corporate managers, advertising firms, factories and utilities, and the entertainment industry are all increasing the scope and predictability of their operations. The universal improvement of control, however, creates control contests. The overlap and interference of different types of control systems with one another, and the intrusion of public control mechanisms into private realms where they were once absent, cannot help but generate controversy. Such are the politics of regulatory architecture and resource distribution in a maturing institutional system.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The empirical record of cyberattacks features much computer crime, espionage and hacktivism, but none of the major damage feared in prevalent threat narratives. The purpose of this article is to explain the absence of serious adverse consequences to date and the durability of this trend.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper combines concepts from international relations theory and new institutional economics to understand cyberspace as a complex global institution with contracts embodied in both software code and human practice. Constitutive inefficiencies (market and regulatory failure) and incomplete contracts (generative features and unintended flaws) create the vulnerabilities that hackers exploit. Cyber conflict is a form of cheating within the rules, rather than an anarchic struggle, more like an intelligence-counterintelligence contest than traditional war.\nFindings: Cyber conflict is restrained by the collective sociotechnical constitution of cyberspace, where actors must cooperate to compete. Maintenance of common protocols and open access is a condition for the possibility of attack, and successful deceptive exploitation of these connections becomes more difficult in politically sensitive situations as defense and deterrence become more feasible. The distribution of cyber conflict is, thus, bounded vertically in severity but unbounded horizontally in the potential for creative exploitation.\nOriginality/value: Cyber conflict can be understood with familiar political economic concepts applied in fresh ways. This application provides counterintuitive insights at odds with prevalent threat narratives about the likelihood and magnitude of cyber conflict. It also highlights the important advantages of strong states over the weaker non-state actors widely thought to be empowered by cyberspace.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A typology of logistics at work in collaborative consumption	[ "Content analysis", "Collaborative consumption", "Sharing economy", "Consumer logistics", "Crowd logistics" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The term \"collaborative consumption\" was first introduced into the marketing literature by Felson and Spaeth (1978), inspired by the theory of human ecology (Hawley, 1950), to depict collaborative forms of consumption where \"one or more persons consume economic goods or services in the process of engaging in joint activities with one or more others\" (p. 614). Since then, the increased role of technology, leading to the rise of a \"computer-mediated economy\" (Harvey et al., 2017) and to the development of online communities, coupled with an enhanced concern for the environment and a declining world economy have shaped new forms of practices which tend to expand the original perimeter of collaborative consumption into a fast-growing phenomenon (Sundararajan, 2016). Airbnb, Uber, Fab Labs, and the Food Assembly are just a few of the best known platforms exemplifying the boom in such \"collaborative\" schemes, considered as one of the most remarkable (r)evolutions of contemporary business trends and embracing a great variety of activities including open-source software, file sharing, crowd funding, collaborative education and finally, collaborative consumption. According to Botsman and Rogers (2010), who popularized the term, collaborative consumption includes consumer practices in which people value access to goods via collaboration rather than ownership. Apart from access-based consumption (Bardhi and Eckhardt, 2012), a great variety of exchanges are also part of collaborative consumption, such as second-hand purchasing, reselling or swapping, considered as collaborative as access (Ertz et al., 2016). All these exchanges are facilitated by the massive spread of information and communication technologies (internet, smartphones, etc.). Using online platforms, collaborative consumption entrepreneurs can identify and activate idle resources (Botsman and Rogers, 2010) through the engagement/involvement of \"prosumers\" (Toffler, 1980), i.e. consumers with the capacity of acting as both \"providers\" and \"obtainers\" of resources in a given \"resource circulation system\" (Ertz et al., 2016, p. 197).\nLogistics, a forgotten dimension of collaborative consumption?: Whilst collaborative practices are thriving, no stable terminology exists. Academics and professionals use a wide range of terms: sharing economy, crowd practices, collaborative consumption, etc. In this section, we first define collaborative consumption, then review the emerging literature on the subject, and finally investigate the scarce research that has developed at the intersection of logistics and collaborative consumption.\nMethodology: As the aim of this research is to develop an initial conceptual approach to logistics in collaborative consumption, we follow Ketokivi and Choi (2014), who argue that when the research context is \"novel and unfamiliar\" (p. 134) explanations can be derived from mere explorations. In line with their recommendations, we did not rely on a given theoretical framework, which might have introduced unjustified theoretical bias into our analysis of a completely new field. Instead, our general research approach was inductive and relied on the observation of specific instances (here website content) in order to seek generalizations (Spens and Kovacs, 2006). We adopted an exploratory qualitative research method, which was all the more appropriate as the collaborative economy is an emerging phenomenon.\nThe four types of logistics in collaborative consumption: As mentioned, our data analysis revealed two central variables on which we base our typology of the logistics solutions involved in collaborative consumption: By combining these two key dimensions, the role of logistics (support vs purpose of the collaborative consumption initiative) and the type of management of physical flows (centralized. i.e. operated by the platform vs decentralized, i.e. operated by the individuals), we distinguish four types of logistics at work in collaborative consumption (Figure 1) that we call peer-to-peer logistics, business logistics, crowd logistics, and open logistics. These four types of logistics must be considered as ideal types (in Weber's sense). They have been shaped by our comparison of the initiatives and are meant to help to understand and theorize phenomena, following the conceptual theory building approach (Meredith, 1993). No claim is made that the characteristics of each ideal type are always and perfectly found in the observed phenomena. The next sections briefly describe each of the types.\nDiscussion and managerial recommendations: Our results can be discussed at three levels. First, they broaden the existing research on collaborative consumption by proposing a logistics-centered analysis to complement the prevailing approaches, mainly focused on consumer behavior, business models and ideological issues, as previously noted. Second, they contribute to the literature on collaborative practices by identifying and characterizing two practices: crowd and open logistics. Finally, they have managerial implications for collaborative consumption entrepreneurs and logistics service providers.\nConclusion: The purpose of this paper is to identify the logistics at work in collaborative consumption. While research has until now largely neglected this topic, our results show that four types of logistics coexist in collaborative consumption systems. Two of these types emphasize the central role logistics can play in the development of dedicated collaborative experiments. While this exploratory study offers significant first insights in this area, our work clearly needs to be extended and replicated with initiatives from all over the world.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The growth of collaborative consumption is beginning to stimulate management research on this phenomenon. However, so far, few scholars have studied the logistics aspects related to these developments. The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual approach to the logistics at work in collaborative consumption.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors adopt an inductive, exploratory research method, based on a content analysis involving 32 collaborative consumption initiatives screened through their websites and other secondary sources.\nFindings: Based on the way logistics is organized in these initiatives, the authors identify and describe four types of logistics: peer to peer, business, crowd, and open logistics.\nPractical implications: The paper makes recommendations for improving the management of collaborative consumption logistics.\nOriginality/value: Our results enrich the literature about crowd practices and collaborative consumption by conceptualizing alternative roles played by logistics and revealing its specific organizational forms.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The social impact investment race: toward an interpretative framework	[ "Thematic analysis", "Market infrastructure", "Impact investing", "Social finance", "Social impact investments" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: About ten years ago, many related factors triggered some innovations in the social finance's spectrum. Indeed, even though blended strategies of capital allocation cannot be traced back, recently the spotlight has been turned to a more proactive approach (Nicholls and Emerson, 2015). The dissatisfaction with the bad habits of the financial system, the ineffectiveness of charitable models and the inefficiency of public spending, together with the worsening of the most urgent problems of our time, called for higher effectiveness in capital allocation for the provision of social services. That is how some pioneering foundations and financial intermediaries (Hochstadter and Scheck, 2015) started to envision what is now labelled as social impact investment (SII). SII is a strategy of asset allocation to intentionally finance projects that combine a measurable social and environmental impact with economic sustainability and financial returns (Clarkin and Cangioni, 2015; Oleksiak et al., 2015). SII has its place within the social finance spectrum, distinguished by three features: first, social and environmental returns are not incidental, but a priori defined and ex post measured; second, proactive approach is used in the search of social impact (Ngoasong et al., 2015); and third, the expectation of at least the repayment of the capital sets it apart from philanthropic activities (Nicholls and Emerson, 2015). SII is different and narrow than the broad notion of social investment intended as new paradigm for social policies rooted in the neoliberal discourse (van Kersbergen and Hemerijck, 2012); thus, scholars have added the term impact to distinguish it and stress the primacy of the social mission as investors' motivation (Daggers and Nicholls, 2016). Therefore, under the label of SII scholars include all investments made through private equity, debt, guarantees, deposits and new innovative instruments in organizations (no matter the legal form they have), funds and public equities market - based both in developed and developing countries and operating in different sectors - where the investors' overarching motivation is the achievement of a social impact (Hochstadter and Scheck, 2015).\n2. Infrastructural elements in social finance's evolution: The literature review was conducted analyzing the academic works on SII identified by Daggers and Nicholls (2016) and enlarging their list through a snowball approach and a replication strategy focused on years 2015 and 2016.\n3. Methods: This paper is based on a thematic analysis (Marshall and Rossman, 1999) of the documents written by the G8 SII Taskforce and its NABs during the period 2014-2016. In June 2013, during the UK's presidency of the G8, Prime Minister David Cameron announced the launch of an independent Taskforce aiming at \"catalysing a global market in impact investment in order to improve society\". It has engaged more than 200 people across seven countries (the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the USA), plus the European Commission. They were representatives from the social sector, private sector, government officials and representative of development finance institutions, as well as mainstream financial institutions, academia and Australia and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as observers. The group was organized into NABs, composed by domestic members from within each country, and working groups (WGs), focused on specific topics, namely, impact measurement, asset allocation, mission alignment and international development. Both NABs and WGs, during their works, wrote several documents and, in September 2014, published some final reports. These documents represent the result of a collective effort to depict the most comprehensive picture of SII worldwide. Currently, the Taskforce has been transformed into the Global Steering Group on SIIs, with the function to monitor the implementation of the Taskforce's recommendations. This transition has entailed the entrance of new countries in the membership, namely, Brazil, Israel, India, Portugal and Mexico.\n4. Results: During the analysis, six main themes were identified. They are presented in this paragraph according to the theoretical framework of Schwartz et al. (2015), which drove us during the analysis. The different initiatives and players that we report have been identified within the coded documents and help us to describe the different themes.\n5. An interpretative framework of social impact investment evolution: The results of this paper, whose aim is to develop an interpretative framework of SII evolution at the global level, come out from a thematic analysis of 75 documents. They consist of reports including experts' considerations, reflections on practitioners' experience and meetings' minutes. Documents were selected because they resulted from the effort of hundreds of experts coming from different professional areas and depict the most comprehensive information about the state of evolution of SII in 12 countries worldwide. The use of thematic analysis was coherent with our objective to identify the main themes related to the SII market development and identify analogies and differences in the way countries face them. Indeed, our investigation unveils many signals of an increased advancement of the SII market in terms of general interest from investors and economic value of the initiatives; however, they are countervailed by a significant prudence and heterogeneity in instruments and approaches. We isolated six themes, which can be useful to draw an interpretative framework of the SII advancement, namely, market regulation, public financing, information asymmetry, private capitals, private intermediation and financial instruments. Concerning the government infrastructure, which refers the instruments available to governments to support the SII development, we identified the themes market regulation and public financing; as for the services required to ensure the social investees and investors readiness, i.e. the facilitative infrastructure, the two themes emerged from the analysis are information asymmetry and private intermediations. Lastly, the themes private capitals and financial instruments are related to the infrastructure needed to lower transaction costs, thus source of capital for SII, labeled as transactional infrastructure.\n6. Conclusions: Moving from the themes identified during the analysis, this paper has drawn an interpretative framework to evaluate the SII evolution by comparing the industry's progress in different countries. We have used the concept of infrastructure to identify the facilities needed to let the market grow and then we have isolated six themes that refer to those facilities. These themes are the dimensions of the interpretative framework resulting from the analysis. Considering how these dimensions translate differently in the countries included in the analysis, we have been able to assess the evolution of the SII market.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to develop an interpretative framework of the evolution of social impact investment (SII) in different countries. SII is a strategy of asset allocation, which combines financial profitability with a measurable social and environmental impact.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Through a thematic analysis of 75 documents, i.e. reports, experts' considerations, reflections on practitioners' experience, meetings' minutes, written by the SII Taskforce of the Group of Eight and the relative National Advisory Boards, the authors identify the main themes connected to the topic of SII development and recognize four main elements useful to segment the market, namely, information asymmetry, financial instruments, source of capital and market intermediation.\nFindings: They map the ongoing practices in the Group of Eight's members and distinguish two speeds in the evolution of SII: on one hand, there is a group of roadrunners, which pave the way to SII and in which SII activities have being institutionalized; on the other hand, there is a wider group of chasers, where the SII infrastructures lack any systematization.\nOriginality/value: Although some authors provide preliminary interpretations of the SII evolution, they mainly focus on the national level and do not provide any cross-countries analysis. The findings of the present work contribute to overcome the lack of evidence characterizing the SII field and the absence of comparable and consistent data at the global level by filling the academic literature about SII, through a structured interpretative framework.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Administrative assistants' informal learning and related factors	[ "Informal learning", "Leader-member exchange", "Empowerment" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the field of human resource development (HRD), employees are mainly educated through traditional methods such as collective training. However, these methods are not easily deliverable to employees in a timely manner. Such training is limited in that the rate at which it transfers effectively to a work environment is very low and may not appropriately reflect the differences in individual learners (Rothwell, 2002). For this reason, informal learning has received a lot of attention recently for its usefulness in the workplace. In most enterprises, learning actually takes place through informal and unstructured activities more often than through formalized and structured training (Dobbs, 2000; Marsick, 2006). In addition, 70-90 per cent of workers have received informal training in the workplace through activities associated with their jobs (Conlon, 2004; Loewenstein and Spletzer, 1999; Marsick and Watkins, 1990; Swanson and Holton, 2001). Specifically, in a knowledge and information society, collective training or formal education alone limit creativity and professionalism, stifling the development of effective human resources. As a result, informal learning in the workplace has increased as a way to overcome the limitations of the traditional education system.\nReview of the literature: Informal learning\nDesign of the study research model: Structural equation modeling (SEM) is a general statistical modeling technique and can be regarded as a combination of factor analysis and regression or path analysis. In brief, SEM provides a structure for covariance between the observed variables, so its alternative name is \"covariance structure modeling\". SEM enables specific confirmatory factor analysis models, regression models and complex path models (Hox and Bechger, 1998). In this research, SEM was used to examine the causal relationships among informal learning, LMX, empowerment, job characteristics and job self-efficacy of administrative assistants in Korean companies.\nSample and data collection: According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor (2014), in 2007, the total number of assistants in office for businesses with at least five employees was 94,949. Among this, 11,660 were administrative assistants. In 2008, the total number of assistants for businesses with at least five employees was 118,508, and among this, 11,367 were administrative assistants. Starting 2009 and onwards, the Ministry of Employment and Labor only disclosed the total number of assistants in office and no specific number of administrative assistants. Considering that the total number of assistants in office in 2012 was 125,624 and in 2013 was 128,548, it is estimated that the number of administrative assistants is approximately 12,000.\nMeasures: The survey questionnaire was conducted to measure variables, which included scales of informal learning, LMX, empowerment, job characteristics, job self-efficacy and demographic items. In this study, existing five-point Likert scales were used for informal learning (IL), LMX, empowerment (EM), job characteristics (JC) and job self-efficacy (JS). The informal learning scale was adopted from Choi's (2009) study. The LMX scale was based on Liden and Maslyn's (1998) study. Empowerment was measured according to the scale developed by Park and Choi (2009), which was developed specifically for administrative assistants. Job characteristics were measured by the scale proposed by Hackman and Oldham (1975). Job self-efficacy was defined according to the scale devised by Han and Choi (2011) for administrative assistants.\nData analysis: To ensure the reliability and validity of the questions, statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 18.0. AMOS 18.0 was also used to estimate the causal relationships of the proposed research model. The statistics were calculated based on a significance level of 0.05.\nTesting for mediating effects: To verify the statistical significance of mediating effects, the Sobel test and bootstrapping are generally used. This study utilized bootstrapping (Cheung and Lau, 2008; MacKinnon et al., 2002, 2004; Preacher and Hayes, 2004).\nResults: Both measurement and structural fit were verified using various fit indices. The need for various indices was as follows: in determining the structural model fit, because of the sensitivity of the sample size and severity of the null hypothesis, the research could not depend on the kh2 test results but needed to be determined by other fit indices (Kim, 2007, 2008). In addition, kh2 is influenced by the sample and creates a problem that can be calculated in any situation (Kim, 2013) and was, therefore, not applicable in this study. Specifically, goodness of fit (GFI), incremental fit index (IFI), Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) and comparative fit index (CFI) were above 0.8; parsimony ratio (PRATIO), parsimonious NFI (PNFI) and parsimonious CFI (PCFI) were above 0.5; root mean square residual (RMR) was less than 0.08; and a root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) of less than 0.08 is required (Anderson and Gerving, 1988; Arbuckle, 2006; Bagozzi and Yi, 1988; Browne and Cudeck, 1993; Kim, 2013; Hox and Bechger, 1998).\nConfirmatory factor analysis: To validate the proposed factor structures for each latent variable, such as informal learning, LMX, empowerment, job characteristics and job self-efficacy, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted and proved an acceptable fit for the data. Results were as follows: absolute fit index (RMSEA 0.07, RMR 0.03, GFI 0.87), incremental fit index (IFI 0.89, TLI 0.86, CFI 0.89) and parsimony fit index (PRATIO 0.80, PNFI 0.65, PCFI 0.71).\nStructural equation model assessment: The purpose of the SEM is to determine whether the theoretical relationships specified at the conceptualization stage are supported by the collected data. Model fit was evaluated using the maximum likelihood. The SEM was assessed, and the hypothesized model yielded an absolute fit index (RMSEA 0.07, RMR 0.03, GFI 0.88), an incremental fit index (IFI 0.89, TLI 0.86, CFI 0.89) and a parsimony fit index (PRATIO 0.80, PNFI 0.65, PCFI 0.71). Therefore, the hypothesized SEM provides an acceptable fit for the data (Table I).\nHypothesis testing: LMX did not have a positive or significant effect on informal learning; therefore, H1 was not supported. Empowerment did not have a positive or significant effect on informal learning; therefore, H2 was not supported. Job characteristics did have a positive and significant effect on informal learning; therefore, H3 was supported. Job self-efficacy had a positive and significant effect on informal learning; therefore, H4 was supported (Table II).\nThe mediating effect of empowerment and job self-efficacy on the relationship between LMX and informal learning: In the relationship between LMX and informal learning, empowerment had a mediating effect (-0.322, p < 0.05); therefore, H5 was supported. In the relationship between LMX and informal learning, job self-efficacy had a mediating effect (0.371, p < 0.05); therefore, H6 was supported.\nThe mediating effect of job self-efficacy and job characteristics on the relationship between leader-member exchange and informal learning: In the relationship between empowerment and informal learning, job self-efficacy had a mediating effect (0.394, p < 0.01); therefore, H7 was supported. In the relationship between empowerment and informal learning, job characteristics had a mediating effect (0.480, p < 0.01); therefore, H8 was supported.\nThe mediating effect of job self-efficacy and job characteristics on the relationship between job characteristics and informal learning: In the relationship between job characteristics and informal learning, job self-efficacy did not have a mediating effect (-0.086); therefore, H9 was not supported (Table III).\nDiscussion and conclusion: Based on the findings, the main conclusions of the study were as follows. First, administrative assistants' informal learning and a hypothetical causality model on LMX, empowerment, job characteristics and job self-efficacy validly predicted the causal relationship among variables and was suitable for an empirical data analysis on administrative assistants.\nImplications for practice: There are three two implications for HRD practices. First, when considering informal learning, planners should consider both individual characteristics and organizational characteristics. From the research, LMX, empowerment, job characteristics and job self-efficacy could be important predictor variables for the informal learning of administrative assistants. However, informal learning is not directly correlated to the impact of factors related to the executives and organization itself, but rather linked to individual and job characteristics. As research about informal learning has shown more interest in the status or context of the work, HRD planners should consider the individual and job characteristics of learners.\nImplications for further research: Further research needs to be conducted to overcome some of this study's limitations. First, the target of this study has been one-to-one administrative assistants, which avoids the difficulties confronted when measuring LMX among team assistants and joint assistants reporting to multiple superiors. However, the trend for administrative assistants is such that team and joint assistants are increasing, thus, a study that accounts for informal learning within such relationships will be required.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify the causal relationship among informal learning, leader-member exchange (LMX), empowerment, job characteristics and job self-efficacy and the impact on administrative assistants in corporations. The study aims at providing information for administrative assistants who have worked with their current supervisors for more than one year in a one-to-one administrative assistant role in corporations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To ensure the reliability and validity of the questions, statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 18.0. AMOS 18.0 was also used to estimate the causal relationship of the proposed research model.\nFindings: The analyses show the following results. Indirect factor loading of LMX and empowerment to informal learning and direct factor loading of job characteristics and job self-efficacy were observed. In the relationship between LMX and informal learning, empowerment had a negative mediating effect and job self-efficacy had a positive mediating effect. In the relationship between empowerment and informal learning, job self-efficacy and job characteristics both had a mediating effect. However, job self-efficacy did not have a mediating effect in the relationship between job characteristics and informal learning.\nOriginality/value: When considering informal learning, planners should consider both individual characteristics and organizational characteristics. However, informal learning is not directly correlated to the impact of factors related to the executives and organization itself, but rather linked to individual and job characteristics. Hence, promoting job self-efficacy not only requires the individual efforts of employees but also a systematic strategy at the corporate level.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Language and communication issues in HIV/AIDS intervention management in the South African construction industry: Interview survey findings	[ "South Africa", "Communication", "Construction industry", "HIV/AIDS management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) disease continues to be pandemic in Sub-Saharan Africa, with prevalence in South Africa estimated to be 12.2 per cent of the population nationally in 2012 (Shisana et al., 2014). This translates to about 6.4m people living with the disease in South Africa, approximately equal to the entire population of either Singapore or New Zealand.\nContextual background and literature review: In this section, the medical understanding of HIV/AIDS is first described, followed by its impacts. A construction industry context is presented in terms of intervention management approaches. Aspects of relevant communication studies are then discussed, with particular emphasis on language, in order to provide a framework for subsequent discussion of the research findings.\nResearch design and administration: Method and justification\nResults: Interviewee demographics\nFindings and discussion: The survey findings are presented separately for the construction employee sample and for the service provider counsellor sample. Where appropriate, interviewees and their organisations are referred to by coded identities (see Table I) extended as appropriate to each interviewee.\nConclusions and recommendations: We draw several conclusions from this research that we believe together make an important contribution to our field of study. We hope they will lead to improvements in practice. In that sense we would describe the work as contributing to \"theory of practice\".\nLimitations: The small size of the interview sample is acknowledged, together with the technical problems encountered with some of the digital audio-recording. However, we believe that the research outcomes support our justifying argument made earlier: communication shortcomings found among construction organisations that lead best practice HIV/AIDS intervention management in South Africa are likely to proliferate even more among firms that are less thoroughly engaged.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Effective communication is a key factor in presenting Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) awareness and prevention campaigns, and delivering treatment programmes, particularly in South Africa where different ethnic groups and a diversity of languages and educational attainment levels are encountered. Language is an important element of such communication. The purpose of this paper is to examine the communication effectiveness of AIDS-related intervention messages.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Case-based semi-structured interviews, with 42 employees from three construction organisations, and with six telephone counsellors from a service provider, were used to explore language in the HIV/AIDS context in the construction industry in the Western Cape region.\nFindings: Workers' knowledge about HIV (a key element in prevention and willingness to engage in treatment regimes) tended to align with their level of education. African cultures may inhibit the use of plain language about AIDS. Graphic posters with text in different languages were the most preferred communication media, but need periodic refreshment to remain effective. For toolbox talks and other company presentations, a comprehensive approach to language differences is limited, and appropriate confirmatory feedback loops are not used - the message sent is not always the message received. The recruitment and training processes for service provider counsellors ensure a more comprehensive grasp of HIV knowledge and a more consistent approach to communication.\nPractical implications: Construction organisations should be more careful in their HIV/AIDS campaigns and programmes, ensure better targeting of audiences and pay more nuanced and sensitive attention to language needs, gender differences and cultural contexts with respect to communicating with workers in ways that engage them more fully about HIV/AIDS, stigma and disclosure.\nOriginality/value: Communication effectiveness is pivotal in the provision of intervention management by construction firms. Ineffective language and communication processes directly and adversely influence HIV/AIDS intervention management success.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Developing employee expertise through structured on-the-job training (S-OJT): an introduction to this training approach and the KNPC experience	[ "Structured on‐the‐job training", "Employee competence", "High‐skilled training", "Engineer development", "Job analysis", "Workplace training", "Training", "Employees" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The classroom has been the preferred location for most training programs in companies. But the reality is that employees learn most of their knowledge and skills in the work setting while actually doing their jobs. How to develop and implement effective on-the-job training programs, or structured on-the-job training (S-OJT), is a continuing challenge for many organizations and, in particular, for human resource staff members.\nEmployee competence: Ensuring that employees have the competence to meet current and future work expectations is an especially critical issue for managers today. As a result, more and more organizations have adopted training approaches such as S-OJT (Jacobs, 2003).\nS-OJT: S-OJT was originally introduced in the 1980s to help organizations respond to new demands for greater levels of quality and productivity. Many of the same fundamental issues exist in organizations today. Recent advances have greatly expanded how S-OJT is being used across a range of organizational settings and in combination with other training approaches. S-OJT is defined as the planned process of having experienced employees train novice employees on units of work in the actual work setting (Jacobs, 2003). From this definition, S-OJT benefits from providing a greater degree of predictability in the training outcomes, and from being conducted mostly by experienced employees.From a practical perspective, S-OJT offers some apparent advantages for managers because the training might be conducted when the employee need arises and without demanding any special resources from the organization, such as a classroom internet connection. Of particular relevance to S-OJT is the understanding that the match between the learning setting and the work setting for facilitates the transfer of training (Jacobs, 2003). Since S-OJT is conducted in the work setting, or a setting that approximates the features of the work setting, and managers or supervisors often serve as trainers, the need to address transfer of training as a specific issue appears to be less critical. The characteristics of S-OJT inherently address transfer of training issues that would otherwise require attention if some other training approach might be used.Facilitating the understanding of S-OJT is to view it as a type of training system (Jacobs, 2003). Similar to all training systems, a system view includes the inputs, processes, outputs, and the context of the system in relation to other systems. The S-OJT system shows that the inputs are comprised of the novice employee, or trainee, who is expected to have the motivation and readiness for the training. The experienced employee serves as the trainer and who is expected to have sufficient knowledge of the task and is qualified by the organization to deliver the training.The training location identifies the criteria for selecting the exact location of the training. Often times, S-OJT is intended to be conducted in the work setting, but there are constraints that do not allow this to occur as planned, so an alternative setting needs to be identified without sacrificing the critical attributes of the work setting. The work to be learned is the unit of work that is being presented in the training, as represented by a training module format. S-OJT modules do not present an entire job per se, but only a defined task, assignment, or project that the trainee is expected to perform. Finally, the inputs include whatever communications technology that may be necessary to manage or even help deliver the training. More and more S-OJT programs are relying on some use of technology because the trainee and trainer may not be in the same location.The processes include the activities that are done for the trainer to get ready to train, the training events used by the trainer when actually delivering the training, and the means used, such as performance ratings, follow-up observations, and periodic feedback, to ensure that the trainee has learned the content.The outputs of the S-OJT system are the results that occur in terms of accomplishing the training objectives, the impacts on the work, and the contribution that the training makes to the individual's own development progress. Finally, the organizational context includes the factors in the work setting that facilitate or constrain the system's components, such as the resources - time, people, and equipment - allotted to the training.As shown in Figure 1, viewing S-OJT as a system is practical. The components show what needs to be attended to when developing such a system. And, the components also guide troubleshooting when seeking to improve the system once it is implemented.Numerous examples of S-OJT programs have been reported in the literature. Table I presents a listing of published S-OJT case studies. Table I identifies the organization, the job-level involved, and the reported results.Regardless of the context, the various S-OJT case studies have some aspects in common. The training is conducted in the work setting not a classroom or some other formal setting. The training is delivered either by an experienced peer employee or manager. The training is accompanied by a set of materials that document the unit of work being presented during the training. Finally, the training connects to a large extent with specific work expectations.Research on S-OJT is just in an emerging status. Arguably, the first research study related to the effectiveness of OJT was the Lens Grinder Study (Dooley, 1945; Reprinted in Jacobs, 2003) that was conducted in 1941. The study sought to establish the effectiveness of a planned approach to training on the job. The results showed that the length of time to train apprentice lens grinders could be reduced from five years to six months. The Lens Grinder Study was reported as part of the final report authored by Channing Rice Dooley, as he was closing the Training Within Industry (TWI) project during the last months of the Second World War. Most observers suggest that the TWI project influenced much of current understandings of S-OJT.Much of the early research on S-OJT focused on determining the financial benefits of S-OJT (Jacobs and McGiffin, 1987; Jacobs 2002a, b, 2005). Two areas of focus came from these various studies: training efficiency and training effectiveness. Training efficiency addresses the question whether S-OJT took less time to deliver and whether the investment made to reduce the training time was more or less than the value of the outcome of the training. In general, the results related to training efficiency suggest that S-OJT takes less time to conduct and achieve the objectives when compared to unstructured OJT, classroom training, and blended versions of the training. In addition, the results suggest that the reduction in training time is accompanied by greater financial benefits. The proportion of the time savings and the financial benefits depend on the individual situations.Training effectiveness addresses the question whether S-OJT leads to better training outcomes when compared to other training approaches and whether the investment to achieve those training outcomes results in financial benefits in terms of improved work outcomes. An illustrative study in this regard was reported by Jacobs (2003), who compared the value of the work defects (leaks found in windshields in a truck assembly plant) when employees had received unstructured buddy training and S-OJT. The results are reported in the cost of defects reduced when using S-OJT, but also taking into consideration the cost of the training.\nKNPC experience: Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) is a subsidiary of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC). KNPC was established in 1960 as a shareholder company owned by the government and private sector. In 1968, the company commissioned its first refinery and in the May of that year the first shipment of refined petroleum products was exported. In 1975, KNPC became a wholly owned state company. After the establishment of KPC in 1980, KNPC became wholly owned by KPC, which itself is owned by the state of Kuwait. KNPC was specifically entrusted with the responsibilities of oil refining and gas liquefaction as well as with the distribution of petroleum products to the local economy. KNPC now has three refineries in addition to a liquid petroleum gas plant. Most of the facilities suffered severe damage during the Iraqi invasion, but the repair and restoration program was completed by the end of the 1993-1994 fiscal year.As an ongoing policy, KNPC seeks to maximize its employment of Kuwaiti nationals among its approximately 6,000 employees. Each year it hires approximately 100 recently graduated engineers to replace retirees, account for expansion, and continue local employment Kuwaiti nationals. In 1999, faced with the challenges of increasing productivity, maintaining international safety and quality standards, and reducing turnover among the skilled workforce, KNPC conducted a large-scale analysis to determine the skills and competencies of engineers in selected departments. The study showed the following results:* Existing efforts to develop engineers lacked a suitable structure and were inconsistent across the refineries.* No competency inventory existed to identify the expectations of newly-hired engineers.* Most training occurred off-the-job in a classroom setting, focusing on background information rather than on specific job information.* No management accountability system existed to ensure that new-hires actually were trained and there was any documentation of that training.* Workloads of experienced engineers were assigned without taking into consideration that these individuals might be training the new-hire engineers, if only in an unstructured manner.In 2001, S-OJT was selected as the basis for addressing these flaws in the current way that new-hire engineers were developed (Al-Muzaini et al., 2002). In 2002, a total of 31 engineering specialities were identified to be included in the project. An external consultant, Ronald L. Jacobs, was asked to help guide in the development of the first eight disciplines. The process used for the project was in conformance with the ISO 10015 Guidelines for Training standard. The following briefly discusses each of the major phases of the project.1. Conduct an analysis of the engineering disciplines\nLessons learned: We wish to share the following lessons learned for consideration:* In the context of how organizations have used S-OJT, this project had at least two unique aspects. First, the project focused on entire jobs instead of specific tasks within a job. Second, the type of job was a professional position, which had not been addressed in previous S-OJT projects. We did not realize the importance of these aspects at the beginning, but they made the project all the more challenging. We now have templates and an understanding how to address these aspects in the future.* For organizations considering a similar project, it might be advisable to conduct a pilot project first. In that way, the organization could help the various stakeholders understand what is being planned. For instance, while the HR staff may be the primary clients, there are numerous issues that need to be considered along the way and decisions made to help make the project a success. Also, managers need to understand more fully the resource requirements of the program, especially during the development and implementation phases.* The S-OJT project required the development of HR staff competence. This issue was made more important given the preferred role of the consultant. Specifically, the consultant and KNPC agreed that the consultant and his team would complete eight disciplines, with the internal staff being trained along the way to complete the remaining disciplines. In addition, the consultant assisted the HR staff in developing skills in the DACUM process. To have staff development as a project outcome can be viewed from two perspectives. On the one hand, this approach may be viewed as placing an added burden on already busy HR professionals. On the other hand, this approach may be better viewed as an opportunity to carry advance in the HR profession and to acquire new skills. In addition, such an approach makes the company less dependent in the future on the consultant.* All individuals involved came to realize the need for a continuing commitment of time, finances, and staffing to complete the program. This was especially apparent when subject-matter experts were asked to participate in the task analysis while developing the S-OJT modules. Of course, it can be expected that refinery management might be hesitant to allow some of their most knowledgeable engineers to work off-the-job to participate in this activity. However, managers should keep in mind the potential long-term benefits of the program. That is, in the future, they might not have such lean staffing levels once the S-OJT program is underway. And HR staff should prepare as much as possible to ensure that the experienced engineers' time will be used as effectively and efficiently as possible.* Finally, we learned again the importance to support any HR project based on its potential to contribute to tangible organizational benefits. That is, while the S-OJT project has some intrinsic interest from an HR perspective, the project must be justified through its potential to help improve organizational performance. And these outcomes must be of value and tangible so that a return on investment calculation might be done both before the project is started and after the program is implemented.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to describe how structured on-the-job training (S-OJT) was implemented to develop new-hire engineers at the Kuwait National Petroleum Company.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper describes a case study on the development, implementation, and evaluation results of an extensive case study in an organization.\nFindings: - The results show a reduction in development time and increased confidence in the skills of the new-hire engineers, among other outcomes reported.\nPractical implications: - The case study can assist other advanced training and human resource development practitioners to develop high-skilled technical employees who may require different approaches to ensure a depth of conceptual and job-related information.\nOriginality/value: - The intent of the case study is to assist other advanced training and human resource development practitioners in developing high-skilled technical employees. Such employees require different approaches to ensure a depth of conceptual and job-related information. The case study shows how one organization addressed this issue.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Innovation starts at the storefront: Modelling consumer behaviour towards storefront windows enriched with innovative technologies	[ "Decision making", "Consumer behaviour", "Consumer innovativeness", "Interactive technologies", "Innovation theory", "Storefront windows" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The importance of storefront windows in terms of consumer behaviour has been recognised by previous academics and practitioners (Cornelius et al., 2010; Jain et al., 2014; Lange et al., 2016; Oh and Petrie, 2012; Pantano, 2016; Sen et al., 2002). Storefronts are the first contact point between consumers and retailers and a means of persuading consumers to enter a particular store (Jain et al., 2014). Hence, storefront windows and their basic features efficiently create a visual impact, differentiate retailers from other competitors and anticipate a further exceptional experience in the store (Lange et al., 2016; Oh and Petrie, 2012; Pantano, 2016).\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 Consumer innovativeness\n3. Research methodology: 3.1 Data collection and sample\n4. Data analysis and results: The preliminary research measurement items were subjected to a series of factor and reliability analyses as an initial examination of their performance within the entire sample. This research followed a measure validation procedure through a two-step approach based on Anderson and Gerbing (1988). The analysis was run employing analysis of moment structures (AMOS). To deal with the measurement model's validity and reliability, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) as a statistical procedure was ran through SPSS to attain the theoretically expected factor solutions and to describe such variables in terms of their common underlying factors (Hair et al., 2006). In this stage, five items (CIN1, CIN2, ATS1, ATS2 and SFED1) were excluded for multiple loadings on two factors, and the total correlation was less than 0.50 (Hair et al., 2006). The Cronbach's a measures the consistency of each component with its relevant items and confirmed that the items in each factor were internally consistent and reliable (Cronbach's a <0.905) (Nunnally, 1978). The sampling adequacy was tested from KMO (0.922>0.6), which proposes appropriateness for EFA; furthermore, the associations among the items are statistically significant and provide a parsimonious set of factors (Tabachnick and Fidell, 2007). Also, Bartlett's test of sphericity shows the relationship between the research measurement items (higher than 0.3) and the appropriateness for EFA (Hair et al., 2006).\n5. Discussion and conclusion: A huge deal of research investigated the extent to which interactive and entertainment technologies provide useful solution to attract more consumers (Bertacchini et al., 2017; Chou et al., 2016; Demirkan and Spohrer, 2014; Hagberg et al., 2016; Padma and Wagenseil, 2018; Pantano, 2014, 2016; Roy et al., 2018). However, these studies mainly focus on the effect of technology when consumers are already in the store. In the present research, we make a step back trying to understand the effect of the technology on consumer behaviour out of the store. The aim of this paper was to investigate, through a quantitative approach, the effect of innovative technologies directly at the storefront window on consumers' behavioural attitude and on store image. To date, retailers are clearly not conscious of how using innovative interactive technologies could represent an opportunity to develop consumer interest and gain a competitive advantage directly at the storefront (Hagberg et al., 2017; Pantano, 2016). Despite some examples of temporary interactive storefronts around the world (i.e. Hugo Boss and the \"Black Magic\" at the store in Sloane Square in London in 2009; Kate Spade and eBay in New York (USA) in 2013), there are no retailers consistently offering interactive technologies at their storefront windows. Our empirical study on the effect of these innovations on consumer behaviour in terms of behavioural attitude, store image building aim to help retailers better understand the technological opportunities from shifting from static windows to interactive ones. In conclusion, our results quantitatively verify that storefront windows can positively affect consumers' behavioural attitude to a store, while underlining the importance of integrating innovative technologies to enrich the decision. Also, the findings confirmed that customer innovativeness has a significant moderating effect between the attitude towards a storefront window and the SFED, and attitude towards retailer and the SFED. In other words, our results demonstrate the extent to which consumer innovativeness influence consumers appreciation of a window enriched with interactive technologies, while acting as a moderator of the store entry decision.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Research into the introduction of innovative technologies directly at the storefront window is limited. The purpose of this paper is to model the behavioural attitudes and the subsequent benefits of, introducing innovative technologies to the storefront, while also considering the role of personal innovativeness in the decision process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study employed a sample of 341 consumers who approached this new kind of storefront in two well-known apparel stores in the centre of New York City. A self-administered questionnaire was used as a tool for data collection.\nFindings: Findings empirically demonstrate that when consumers sense that there are innovative interactive technologies in the storefront windows, they are willing to enter the store, generate positive word-of-mouth communication (sharing the positive experience with friends).\nOriginality/value: This study is the first to investigate the combination of consumer innovativeness and storefront window on the behavioural attitude, supported with quantitative evidence.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Standardized ICU to OR handoff increases communication without delaying surgery	[ "Process design", "Patient safety", "Organizational performance", "Quality improvement", "Health and safety", "Medicine" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Ineffective handoffs may lead to an increased risk of patient harm (Saager et al., 2014). The Joint Commission has reported that communication errors contribute to two-thirds of all reported sentinel events, with more than half of these related to handoffs (Joint Commission Perspectives on Patient Safety, 2007). The Joint Commission requires providers to implement standardized handoff communications that include an opportunity to ask and respond to questions as stated in National Patient Safety Goal 2E. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Institute of Medicine have also recommended standardized handoffs to improve patient safety (Institute of Medicine, 2001; Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2012). As previously reported by other industries that have high emphases on safety such as aviation and Formula One racing, standardized protocols create models of efficiency that maximize information transfer while minimizing process duration (Catchpole et al., 2007). Similar to these industries, standardized patient handoffs have been shown to increase the transfer of information, decrease adverse events, and increase provider satisfaction without affecting the duration of handoff (Agarwala et al., 2015; Bigham et al., 2014; Petrovic et al., 2012; Starmer et al., 2012; Starmer et al., 2014).\nMethods: Study design and setting\nResults: Handoff and patient readiness\nDiscussion: This is the first study we are aware of describing the effects of implementing a standardized ICU to OR handoff process. In this study, we have shown that implementation of a reliable process for preoperative ICU to OR transfers increased the frequency of face-to-face, standardized handoffs, improved patient readiness for ICU to OR transport, and increased anesthesia provider satisfaction without delaying surgery timeliness. This study adds critical information to enhance safety during the high-risk perioperative timeframe, augmenting the multiple OR to postoperative setting handoff studies that have shown improved information transfer and provider satisfaction and decreased technical errors and omissions of information in the OR to ICU and OR to PACU settings (Petrovic et al., 2012; Catchpole et al., 2007).\nConclusion: Transitions of care pose a high risk to patients especially when handoffs involve complex, critically ill patients in the perioperative setting. This risk can be mitigated by standardized handoffs between providers. Implementation of a face-to-face handoff process between the ICU and anesthesia providers prior to transfer from the ICU to the OR provides standard handoff information and improves patient readiness for transport. This shifts the focus from basic, preparatory tasks to higher level thinking necessary for quality patient care, and improves satisfaction with patient handoffs. Additional research is needed to optimize the effectiveness and efficiency of these handoffs.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: No studies have examined preoperative handoffs from the intensive care unit (ICU) to OR. Given the risk of patient harm, the authors developed a standardized ICU to OR handoff using a previously published handoff model. The purpose of this paper is to determine whether a standardized ICU to OR handoff process would increase the number of team handoffs and improve patient transport readiness.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The intervention consisted of designing a multidisciplinary, face-to-face handoff between sending ICU providers and receiving anesthesiologist and OR nurse, verbally presented in the I-PASS format. Anticipatory calls from the OR nurse to the ICU nurse were made to prepare the patient for transport. Data collected included frequency of handoff, patient transport readiness, turnover time between OR cases, and anesthesia provider satisfaction.\nFindings: In total, 57 audits were completed. The frequency of handoffs increased from 25 to 86 percent (p<0.0001) and the frequency of patient readiness increased from 61 to 97 percent (p=0.001). There were no changes in timeliness of first start cases and no significant change in turnover times between cases. Anesthesia provider satisfaction scores increased significantly.\nPractical implications: A standardized, team based ICU to OR handoff increased the frequency of face-to-face handoffs, patient readiness and anesthesia provider satisfaction within increasing turnover between cases.\nOriginality/value: Although studies have identified the transition of patients from the ICU to the OR as a period of increased harm, the development of a preoperative ICU to OR handoff had not been described. This intervention may be used in other institutions to design ICU to OR transitions of care.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Alignment between business environment characteristics, competitive priorities, supply chain structures, and firm business performance	[ "Strategic alignment", "Competitive strategy", "Supply chain management", "Performance management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Since the 1980s, accelerated advances in production, communication, information, and transportation technologies, combined with established free-market ideology, have made business environment progressively more turbulent, through more rapid and unpredictable change, greater diversity, increased complexity, and intensified competitive pressures. Today, firms are confronting unprecedented radical changes to which they must adapt to survive and prosper (Dicken, 2007). Given the increasing challenges in the competitive environment, it is evident that successful firms not only have to perform better than their competitors, but they also have to constantly adapt to changing conditions (Handfield and Nichols, 1999). These changes have been widely felt across many sectors of industry and commerce. There is a broadly accepted view that the success or failure of a firm is ultimately determined by the competitiveness of its supply chain structure (SCS) (Chopra and Meindl, 2007; Fisher, 1997).In recent years, there is an increasing effort devoted to the study of alignment (a.k.a. congruency, consensus, or fit) between SCS and other key factors using conceptual or empirical methods. The literature embraces that an important corollary of achieving alignment is presumed to be enhanced business performance of a firm, just as misalignment is expected to undermine its performance (Chopra and Meindl, 2007). Among the published research on alignment issues, business environment characteristics (BEC) and firm competitive priorities are two most-considered factors (e.g. Fine, 1998; Randall et al., 2003; Ward et al., 1996). The theoretical support for a model linking BEC, competitive priorities, SCS, and firm business performance has been well established. However, the formal development of a conceptual model and simultaneous empirical investigation of relationships between all these aspects has been lacking in the literature. This study aims to fill this gap.Based on a structured survey instrument, four constructs - BEC, competitive priorities, SCS, and firm business performance were quantitatively measured by managerial perceptions in the US textile manufacturing firms. The statistical analyses using structural equation modeling (SEM) were conducted to examine the proposed conceptual model and test the relationships (Hypotheses) between these constructs. Overall, this study provides recent evidence of the links between these four constructs from a sample of US textile manufacturers and identifies the nature of these relationships and the effect of alignment.The remainder of this article is organized as follows. The next section reviews the related literature to provide theoretical foundation for this study, and proposes the hypotheses to be tested and a conceptual model. Then, in the methodology section, the survey subjects, data sets, assessment criteria, and analytical methods used to test the hypotheses are described in detail. Thereafter, the testing results are presented and discussed. The following section presents the conclusions from the findings and the implications for both academia researchers and industrial practitioners. Finally, we address the limitations of this study and offer extensions for future research.\nLiterature review, hypotheses, and conceptual model: Business environment characteristics\nCompetitive priorities: Over the last two decades, the acceptance and use of strategic approaches to manage manufacturing organizations has enjoyed a constant growth. The term \"competitive priorities\" has been widely used to describe firms' choice of their competitive capabilities (Hayes and Wheelwright, 1984). There is a broad agreement that competitive priorities can be generally expressed in terms of low cost, quality, delivery performance (speed and reliability), and flexibility (Sarmiento et al., 2008). These items are closely related to the idea of generic strategies from the business strategy literature (Porter, 1980).With regard to low cost, although today's firms are increasingly concerned with cost, most do not compete solely on this basis. Companies that emphasize cost as a competitive priority focus on lowering production costs, improving productivity, maximizing capacity utilization, and reducing inventories (Ward et al., 1995). Design, production, distribution, marketing, and service functions have often been used to measure the quality possessing a firm. Delivery reliability is the ability to deliver according to a promised schedule. For some types of customers, delivery speed is also imperative to win the order. Although these two dimensions are separable to some extent, long run success requires that promises of speedy delivery be kept with a high degree of reliability (Ward and Duray, 2000). Flexibility in manufacturing firms has traditionally been achieved at a high cost by using general purpose machinery instead of more efficient special purpose-built machinery and by deploying more highly skilled workers than would otherwise be needed (Ward et al., 1998). In recent years, the implementation of advanced manufacturing technologies has effectively reduced the cost of achieving flexibility.The measurement variables selected were originally developed for use in the Boston University Manufacturing Futures Survey (Miller and Vollmann, 1984). These measures have been successfully employed in the following studies (e.g. Vickery et al., 1994; Ward et al., 1996) and have exhibited good reliability. The measurement variables and corresponding scales for competitive priories are summarized in Table II.The literature reveals that competitive priorities have close and strong relationships with the business environment. Traditional contingency literature suggests that the business environment influences firms' decisions on competitive strategy (Burns and Stalker, 1961; Hambrick, 1983). Ward et al. (1998) indicated that the notion of competitive priorities has long served as a foundation for strategy research. Therefore, in order to statistically identify how BEC affects firm competitive priorities the first hypothesis is advanced to test the relationship between BEC and firm competitive priorities.H1. There is a significant causal relationship between BEC and firm competitive priorities.\nSupply chain structures: A supply chain will exist whether a firm actively manages it or not (Mentzer et al., 2001). In general, the SCS of a firm influences the nature of supply chain activities, the efficiency and effectiveness of the supply chain, and relationships with other members within the entire supply chain. Based on the review of literature, research in SCS issues has been largely independent of research in organizational structure and design. Previous research primarily focused on the management improvement, such as logistics and inventory cost minimization (e.g. Stock et al., 2000). There is little published research on the design of organizational arrangements in SCS, although Porter (1985) has indicated the importance of appropriate organizational structure for the value chain and for the firm's overall competitive position.This study defines and justifies three types of SCS: lean, agile, and hybrid, and identifies the organizational components associated with each individual structure. Organizational theory suggests that firms organized to deal with a mature and stable business environment will not be as effective in a complex, rapidly changing, and unpredictable environment (Gordon and Narayanan, 1984). This classification characterizes the overall state of SCS and is also consistent with the mainstream studies on supply chain typology and characteristics (e.g. Fisher, 1997; Huang et al., 2002; Naylor et al., 1999).A lean SCS is organized to maximize operational efficiency and minimize overall cost. An agile SCS is organized to achieve flexibility and speed in responding to dynamic market conditions and customer needs. A firm need not choose to be exclusively lean or exclusively agile in its SCS. A hybrid SCS combines features of the previous two. Typically, lean organizational arrangements in a supply chain are used for higher volume product lines that have stable demand and standardized technologies, while agile arrangements are used for the lower volume product lines subject to more uncertain demand and innovative technologies (Fine, 1998; Fisher, 1997; Naylor et al., 1999). The measurement variables and corresponding scales for SCS in this study were developed based on previous studies of supply chain characteristics and organizational structure and design, which are summarized in Table III.Compared with the recent intense discussion of the factors that determine what kind of SCS a firm should implement, Skinner (1974) had conceptualized the need for \"strategic consensus\" or \"alignment\" of competitive priorities throughout an organization. Fine (1998) advocated that the concurrent selection of the SCS and competitive priorities should be based on specific business environment conditions. He addressed that when business environment changed firm SCS and competitive priorities have to be adjusted accordingly. Randall et al. (2003) empirically proved that the fit between business environment and firms' supply chain selection affects overall performance. Chopra and Meindl (2007) used the term \"strategic fit\", which they say exists only when both competitive priorities and supply chain have the same goal. Doz and Kosonen (2008) indicated that in order to maintain continued growth firms need to make efficient and effective adjustment on organizational strategies and structure to changing business condition. This study proposes that certain SCS are more appropriate, given the particular characteristics of the business environment, and that the SCS implemented should be aligned with competitive priorities on which the firm is focused. In order to statistically determine how BEC and firm competitive priorities affect firm SCS respectively, H2 and H3 are proposed to test the relationships between BEC and firm competitive priorities, respectively, with SCS.H2. There is a significant causal relationship between BEC and SCS.H3. There is a significant causal relationship between firm competitive priorities and SCS.\nBusiness performance: Typically, firm business performance is measured using financial metrics. Venkatraman (1990) advocated measures of business performance by return on assets (ROA), operating income, cost per sales, and sales per number of employees. Jahera and Lloyd (1992) proposed that return on investment (ROI) is a valid performance measure for midsize firms. Morash et al. (1996) measured firm performance relative to competitors using ROA, ROI, return on sales (ROS), ROI growth, ROS growth, and sales growth. Tan et al. (1999) linked certain SCM practices with firm performance. Performance in their study was measured by senior management's perceptions of a firm's performance in comparison to that of a major competitor's.In summary, various key measures of business performance have been used in the literature to assess the impact of business environment, strategic decisions, and supply chain practices on firm performance. Based on prior research, in this study, business performance is measured using the respondent's perception of performance in relation to competitors. The measurement variables are comprised of market share, sales growth, profit margin, ROI and ROA, which are summarized in Table IV.It has been broadly embraced that an important effect of achieving alignment is presumed to enhance the business performance of a firm, just as misalignment is expected to undermine its performance (e.g. Tarigan, 2005). Therefore, in order to statistically determine how the alignment affects firm business performance, H4 is proposed to test the effect of alignment between BEC, competitive priorities, and SCS on firm business performance.H4. The alignment between BEC, competitive priorities, and SCS has a significant effect on firm business performance.\nConceptual model: Based on the review of literature, it is proposed that there is an underlying theme or alignment between BEC, competitive priorities, and SCS, and this alignment influences firm business performance. This study focuses on a single time period in which competitive priorities can be viewed as an antecedent of SCS and BEC are the antecedent to both. The superior business performance is derived from the achievement of the alignment between these constructs.A conceptual model is presented for illustrative purposes in Figure 1. It represents the proposed relationships (hypotheses) between latent constructs: BEC, competitive priorities and SCS of a firm and, ultimately, the firm business performance. BEC are captured by four first-order latent constructs: diversity, complexity, dynamism, and hostility. Firm competitive priorities are also represented by four first-order latent constructs: low cost, quality, delivery performance, and flexibility. Each of these eight first-order latent constructs is measured by multiple measurement variables. SCS is a first-order latent construct measured by ten measurement variables. Firm business performance is also a first-order latent construct measured by five measurement variables. These ten first-order latent constructs compose the conceptual model.In purpose to reveal the effect of alignment between BEC, competitive priorities, and SCS on firm business performance, the survey respondents were divided into two equal sub-samples in terms of business performance: high performing firms and low performing firms. Hambrick (1983) suggested that dividing the sample into separate high and low performance sub-samples in this manner is a practical analytical technique for strategy research. In this study, the statistical analysis was conducted respectively for high and low performance sub-samples.\nMethodology: Subjects\nResults and discussion: Measurement model testing results\nDiscussion: Relationships between BEC and firm competitive priorities\nConclusions and implications: Conclusions\nLimitations and future research: This study overcame some limitations exhibited in the previous research by using a well-developed survey instrument, an effective industrial survey strategy and the application of SEM techniques for data analysis; however, there are still several limitations that need to be addressed.First of all, one of most obvious limitations is that the data analyzed in this study is based on managers' self-perceptive answers. Although most respondents were senior executives and the questions were articulately designed, bias, arising from respondent subjectivity and misunderstanding could not be completely avoided. In future studies, more objective measures based on secondary evidence may be included as complementary information. Second, this study presents an analysis of relationships at a single point in time. Since the business environment is constantly changing, longitudinal follow-up studies should be designed to identify these changes and re-examine whether and how these relationships are changing. Third, although the sub-sample analysis is within the acceptable range for SEM (the model is still over-identified for both high and low performers groups), the sample size is relatively small. This is moderated to some extent by the approximately normal distributions of most measurement variables. While the results derived from SEM analysis are promising and exciting, the inferences should be viewed with some caution until further empirical studies confirm these findings. Finally, since a firm has less control over its suppliers' and customers' supply chains, compared to its own supply chain, this study addressed the issues of a firm's intra SCS, competitive priorities and performance, rather than its extended SCS, which also includes the firm's suppliers' and customers' SCSs. It is true that the overall alignment across a firm's extended supply chain would be very desirable and help researchers and practitioners understand the full picture. This extension will pose significant difficulties for statistical analysis but case study could be a possible method.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to analyze the relationships between four constructs - business environment characteristics, competitive priorities, supply chain structures, and firm business performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - By establishing a conceptual model and conducting structural equation modeling analysis using collected industrial survey data, the study provides a systemic understanding of the relationships between the individual business environment characteristics, the individual competitive priorities and supply chain structures, and the impact of alignment between these elements on firm business performance.\nFindings: - Results of the study reveal that the differences in both strategic and supply chain responses to business environment between high- and low-performing firms in the US textile manufacturing industry are striking. The findings provide evidence to corroborate the impact of the alignment between business environment characteristics, competitive priorities, and supply chain structures on firm business performance.\nOriginality/value: - A conceptual model linking business environment characteristics, competitive priorities, supply chain structures, and firm business performance is first proposed and empirically investigated. The appropriate strategic responses and supply chain structures designed to the specific business environment characteristics are quantitatively identified. The nature of these relationships and the effect of alignment are revealed.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The impact of corporate finance decisions on market value in emerging markets	[ "Turkey", "Brazil", "Market value", "Panel data analysis", "Corporate finance decisions" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Market value, which is one of the most important indicators of corporate profitability and success, is in interaction with corporate finance decisions. Capital structure and investment decisions are among the main areas of corporate finance. Reducing the cost of capital by examining the capital structure and maximizing the market value consequently, the formation of effective asset composition plays a decisive role in the future performance of firms. In this context, corporates' desire to increase their profitability, to make their operations sustainable and to protect their competitive advantages, increased the importance given to the market value. This situation necessitated the investigation of the impact of corporate finance decisions on market value. When the literature is examined, a large number of studies have been detected which examine the relationship between market value and capital structure and investment decisions.\n2. Literature review: In the literature, a number of studies have been carried out to determine the effect of corporate finance decisions on market value, and in these studies, the relationship between capital structure and investment decisions and market value has been examined. The reason for investigating these two countries is that Turkey and Brazil are both developing countries and are also in the same class with having similar economic structures. This situation brings similarities in the studies done in the literature. The main theoretical approaches that examine the relationship between capital structure and market value are the net income approach, the net operating income approach, the traditional approach and the Modigliani-Miller approach.\n3. Methodology: 3.1 The purpose of the study and methods\n4. Research findings: Models constructed within the scope of the analysis are tested with panel data analysis method. Findings obtained from the examination are presented in this section.\n5. Conclusion: This study is conducted to test the country differentiation in the influence of corporate finance decisions on the market value in the developing countries for Turkish and Brazilian firms and to examine the results comparatively by determining how these decisions affect the market value.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the conformity of the impact of corporate finance decisions on market value with the basic theoretical approaches in the two emerging economies, which show great similarities in terms of the economic structures, and to examine the results obtained by determining how these decisions affect market value comparatively.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In this study, the effect of corporate finance decisions on market value is tested empirically with panel data analysis method by using data of 274 real sector firms traded in BIST and 249 firms in BOVESPA industry index, between 2010 and 2014.\nFindings: The analysis results show that the increase in the borrowing level of firms operating in both countries reduces the market value; the increase in the level of profitability in the firms has a positive effect on the market value. In addition, it is possible to say that the effect is different in terms of investment decisions for Turkish and Brazilian firms.\nResearch limitations/implications: The limitations of the study are that the non-financial sectors between 2010 and 2014 in Turkey and Brazil including the company data, and the companies with missing years are removed from the data set. The findings show that more effective and balanced management of the variables by the financial manager affects these rates and have an impact on increasing the market value.\nOriginality/value: In this study, a fundamental subject in finance is addressed by analytical methodology and comparative tests for countries are conducted.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Life course, diet-related identity and consumer choice of organic food in Taiwan	[ "Organic food", "Life course", "Diet-related identity", "Food choice", "Vegetarianism" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: With an eye on the continuous growth of the global organic food market, previous studies have examined various physiological, social, psychological, economic and cultural contexts to interpret individual consumption of organic food. Although evidences show that a variety of factors could be associated with organic food consumption, the factors in line with one's life course have been scarcely investigated.\nLiterature review: Life course and food choice\nMethodology: Research design and sampling\nResults: Sample description\nConclusion and discussion: Summary and discussion\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to establish an understanding of choices of organic food in relation to life course by taking into account of age and two indicators of diet-related identity, vegetarianism and healthful attribute preference for agricultural produce. The stated variables tend to reveal how consumer attitudes and consumption of organic produces relate to life course factors across diet-related identities and age groups.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study takes adult consumers of Taichung City in Central Taiwan as the target population. A survey data by personal interviews collected through systematic sampling of four supermarkets and one farmer's market was employed to obtain a sample of 322 adult consumers in February, 2010.\nFindings: This study finds that the level of individual vegetarianism is significantly correlated with organic food attitude. Individuals who live with young children and possess healthful preference for agricultural produce demonstrate more positive attitudes toward organic food. In addition, being in poor health or taking care of acutely or chronically ill family members, living with a spouse, in favor of vegetarianism, and approval of healthful attributes in choosing agricultural produce all contribute to an individual's intake of organic food. Along with age, living with young children is found to have joint effects in influencing an individual's choice of organic food.\nResearch limitations/implications: Since the stages of life is interwoven with various factors such as age, marriage, child-raising and other life events and spans a long period of time, the authors suggest that a longitudinal study may be carried out in future studies to reveal more detailed and valid information. The formation of life course indicators should be more specified to include all possible stages or conditions. Mixture of qualitative analysis with quantitative analysis, will be a better approach to obtain more detailed and meaningful information. Future studies should apply more complicated designs to obtain further theoretical implications.\nPractical implications: First, taking the family rather than individuals as the marketing unit is a more effective strategy for organic food marketers, producers and policy makers. Second, more educational activities or training events in food preparation that simultaneously target both parents and children at the same time should be held. Third, extension agencies of organic agriculture and organizations affiliated with vegetarianism should seek to establish more bilateral educational or commercial cooperation in order to strengthen the development of organic agriculture.\nOriginality/value: Previous studies have rarely explored the issue of organic food choice and life course and its possible moderating effects with diet-related identity. In this survey of Taiwanese consumers, there are sufficient evidences to confirm the connection between life course factors and the consumption of organic produces, either by the figures of main effects or interaction effects.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Network-facilitated green innovation capability development in micro-firms	[ "Resource", "Green innovation", "Capability development", "Facilitated networks", "Micro-firms" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This research focuses on green innovation capability development in micro-firms (those firms with less than ten employees), with a specific focus on the Canadian and Irish micro-firm environments. Ireland and Canada were chosen based on their comparative urban/rural divide, the economic importance of micro-firms and the comparative green legislation and regional support mechanisms including facilitated networks evident in each country. A cross-country approach allows for data analysis within each setting, and across settings, as well as the opportunity to identify similarities and differences between cases in Ireland and Canada (Eisenhardt, 1989). This approach offers the potential for new insights into whether cultural and perceived regulatory differences impacted upon experiences and outcomes of green innovation capability development within the studied micro-firms.\nMicro-firm innovation activities in the emerging green economy: Micro-firms are described as simple, informal organisations where the O/M has direct control over decision making (Kelliher and Reinl, 2009; Greenbank, 2000). Owing to the company size, the O/M has to manage all the resources and functions of the business (Devins et al., 2005) and has comprehensive knowledge of their resources, capabilities and local markets. Human capital, most notably the O/M's experience, education and expertise are key factors in innovation capability development (De Mel et al., 2009; Khan and Altaf, 2015). However, the O/M has certain managerial shortcomings (Faherty and Stephens, 2014; O'Dwyer and Ryan, 2000) as capabilities tend to be developed by \"trial and error\" and in response to market change. On a more positive note, as the O/M tends to work at both management and operational level they can acquire market information easier (Greenbank, 2000) and as a result can react to market changes faster. This adaptive capability is inimitable and allows the micro-firm to implement innovation strategies faster and respond to competitive positions more rapidly than those around them (De Mel et al., 2009). Yet, some micro-firms experience barriers to innovation (Faherty and Stephens, 2014) including lack of management motivation (Bello, 2017; Kearney et al., 2014), lack of resources and assumptions of high cost of innovation.\nMicro-firm network engagement: Based on prevailing wisdom, network supports are often put forward as a suitable catalyst so that micro-firms can comply with green regulations, actions and requirements and build green innovation capabilities to successfully contribute to the green economy. Acknowledging micro-firm managerial and resource shortcomings, many of these firms align and realign with others to accomplish goals that cannot be achieved in isolation (Chell and Baines, 2000). Such alignments allow for the enhancement of innovation capability (Faherty and Stephens, 2014; Simpson, 2001), ultimately playing an important part in contributing to the micro-firm's green innovation process (Morant et al., 2016).\nMethodology: As stated in the introduction, the research question posits:\nResearch context: This research focuses on green innovation capability development in micro-firms with a specific focus on the Canadian and Irish micro-firm environments. In Ireland, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) monitors the implementation of Irish and European environmental legislation in Irish businesses. EPA responsibility encompasses licensing, waste permits, water including discharge authorisation and dumping at sea, air (covering quality, emissions, solvents, and ozone depletion), strategic environmental assessment and general environmental protection legislation. Environment and Climate Change Canada monitors the implementation of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA, 1999), environmental agreements and regulations on behalf of the Government of Canada. Canada Business Network consults these resources for information on Canadian guidelines, regulations, permits and agreements related to the environment. Those permits and licenses needed to start and run a business are listed at federal, provincial/territorial and municipal level. Enforcement officers in each country examine suspected environmental violations and take actions consistent with the relevant legislation breach.\nFindings: By carrying out a cross-country study of Ireland and Canada, it was possible to examine activity at multiple levels (individual, firm, network/industry and country) to identify the drivers and influencers of green innovation guided by O/Ms within the studied micro-firms.\nDiscussion: This research shows that facilitated networks provide supports in terms of social interaction, provision of information and generation of new ideas. Specifically, the networks provide a platform for knowledge transfer and facilitated innovation (Kelliher et al., 2014; Nejati et al., 2014). In some cases where a direct benefit was not visible, O/Ms still benefited from network membership. The knowledge required for innovation (Kearney et al., 2014) was acquired internally and externally, although the network generated knowledge was found to be a key resource. The O/M's background and previous experience, along with their attitude towards learning and collaboration were found to be assets in maximising the knowledge obtained in the facilitated network and when transforming that knowledge into internal capabilities. This dual continuous relationship is believed to be improved by continuous engagement to improve the adaptive innovative process and as a result it becomes a valuable resource for continuous green innovation capability enhancement in the studied micro-firms. The original conceptual framework offered a boundary device through which this study could be considered. This framework was subsequently refined based on the current study's findings, as presented in Figure 2.\nConclusion: This study offers a contribution to knowledge in the areas of green innovation, micro-firm capabilities and facilitated network engagement (Table III). It builds on prior research, exhibiting a gap between the goals and perceptions of O/M and policy makers (Duarte-Alonso and Bressan, 2014; Kearney et al., 2014; McGrath and O'Toole, 2013). The current study revealed that an openness to engage with other micro-firms, and the influence of regulations are two further external driving forces in the adoption of green initiatives. Observed O/Ms assisted each other in achieving regulatory requirements through network engagement, guided by the network facilitators or invited specialists. Micro-firm O/Ms also helped others within the network in pursuit of green innovation and regulatory compliance.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate key criteria underpinning network-facilitated green innovation capability development in micro-firms.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Micro-firms, those firms with less than ten full-time employees, need to continuously innovate in order to sustain their business in the emerging green economy. This study uses an interpretive multiple case approach to explore micro-firm owner-manager (O/M) green innovation activities, encompassing O/M views on facilitated network engagement in Ireland and Canada over a 12-month period.\nFindings: The findings show that proactive implementation of green innovation is influenced by the O/M's natural environment orientation and the potential for economic gain, while facilitated networks provide an additional resource that the O/M can draw from that allows the O/M to test new ideas, comprehend new and existing legislation and identify potential supports in pursuit of green innovation capability development within the micro-firm.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study offers a contribution to knowledge in the areas of green innovation, micro-firm capabilities and facilitated network engagement. However, the sample size is small and distance was a challenge, yet data and case protocols are in place which allow for replication of the study. As the research is embedded in the resource and capability theories, alternative theoretical frameworks may shed a different light on the research question.\nOriginality/value: Prior studies have found that facilitated networks have a positive impact on micro-firm sustainability as these networks enhance the firm's constrained resource base. The proposed framework can be used as a guideline for support organisations including facilitated networks in assisting micro-firms in reaching their green innovation goals and objectives. It can also be used by micro-firms in the attainment of the green innovation capability.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Municipal challenges in managing a building with noted health symptoms	[ "School", "Condition assessment", "Management", "Health effects", "Building-related symptoms", "Moisture damage", "Mould", "Case study" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In many countries, municipalities own a substantial amount of building stock, including public buildings, schools and day nurseries. In all respect, management of extensive building stock is challenging, as in recent years, serious and widespread problems concerning municipal properties have arisen. In several countries, building-related symptoms, indoor air problems, mould and water leaks are considered common problems in public buildings such as schools and day nurseries (Borras-Santos et al., 2013; Cai et al., 2011; Dangman et al., 2005; Ebbehoj et al., 2005; Jurelionis and Seduikyte, 2008; Kielb et al., 2015; Meyer et al., 2004; Park et al., 2004; Saijo et al., 2010; Savilahti, 2009; Taskinen et al., 1997; Zhang et al., 2013, 2011).\nChallenges in managing building-related symptoms in a school and day nursery environment: In Finland, municipal building stock covers about 35 million sq. m, which is over 7 per cent of the country's entire building stock. Most of those buildings require refurbishment because the majority of the stock was built before the early 1990s, and health complaints are relatively common, especially in school buildings (Korhonen et al., 2018). Overall, the prevalence of building-related symptoms in municipal buildings has increased in recent years, and the condition of the buildings is deteriorating (Korhonen et al., 2018).\nMethod and material: A participatory case study approach was adopted to identify the current challenges related to the municipal management practices of the building-related symptoms in a municipality-run school and a day nursery. The data used for the analysis was based on documents including reports from investigations, surveys and questionnaires as well as building documentation. In addition to this, the authors of this article attended project meetings with municipal authors and condition assessment consultants, as the municipal authors were purchasing a new condition assessment.\nResults: The surveys implemented\nDiscussion: The investigations purchased show that municipalities have tended to respond to failures and observations actively. However, because the failures have been repeated and the symptoms have persisted, the responses have been relatively ineffective. The study found several challenges in the management process for building-related symptoms, as well as multiple factors that have caused the indoor air problems and complicated the management of the building. The findings can be summarised as follows:\nConclusions: This study highlights the importance of proper maintenance, as well as an in-depth understanding of condition assessments in the management of building-related symptoms. The research aimed to identify property management challenges that municipalities have encountered regarding a public building with noted building-related symptoms. The study revealed multiple reasons for the failure of municipal attempts to manage the building-related symptoms in the building occupied by the public school and day nursery. The main findings can be summarised as follows:\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study aims to present property management challenges that municipalities have encountered regarding a public building with noted building-related symptoms. The study goes on to provide reasons for the failure of attempts to manage the symptoms and discusses the current challenges concerning the process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A participatory case study was used as the research methodology to identify the current challenges concerning a municipal approach to managing the building-related symptoms in a case-study building. The researchers scrutinised the history of the health symptom management process and attended the project planning meetings focused on the investigation of the condition of the building.\nFindings: Multiple challenges concerning maintenance and omitted or postponed repair actions, as well as vagueness in the management process were found. In addition to this, it was noted that the complexity of the initial design of the building and vandalism have resulted in challenges for the maintenance and moisture performance of the building structures. According to the study, more orderliness and a more systematic process is needed when managing a municipal property.\nPractical implications: The identified property management challenges may be of practical value for the facility managers and the property owners, especially when managing the building-related symptoms and a damaged building.\nOriginality/value: This study highlights the importance of having an in-depth understanding of condition assessments as well as proper maintenance and timely repairs for the successful management of the building-related symptoms in a municipal building. This is a pilot project in a larger project of management of building refurbishment.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Vision effects: a critical gap in educational leadership research	[ "Educational planning and administration", "Leadership", "Higher education", "Performance management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The higher education sector is characterised by immense change (Apps, 1988; Bensimon and Neumann, 1993; Greene, 1988; Leslie and Fretwell, 1996; Lucas, 1994; Millard, 1991; Munitz, 1995; Tierney, 1993.), influenced by external pressures (e.g. demand for improved business practices, distance learning and virtual universities, competition for students). Moreover, nature of the student body is changing in many ways. Among others, university students are generally older and students demand creative use of technology in instruction. In such a fast-changing context, the question is what kind of leadership strategy is needed for universities and colleges to survive and remain competitive. To many leadership scholars, leadership with vision as a core component is the answer (Bass, 1990; Conger, 1991; Conger and Kanungo, 1987; Tichy and Devanna, 1986). Educational leaders can no longer be passive, but will need to look ahead to the future and scan the environment for change forces coming from the outside, a CEO-like function called \"visioning\" (Bolman and Deal, 1992; Deal and Peterson, 1990; Leithwood, 1994).\nVision concepts: In this section, the literature relating to vision definitions, attributes, content and realisation factors is summarised.Defining vision\nRealizing visions: Developing a vision is the first step, but the literature review reveals that leaders need to realise their visions through the following four common themes: vision communication, organisational alignment, empowerment and motivation. Since these themes have been extensively scrutinized and discussed elsewhere, I do not discuss them in great length here. Visionary leaders:1. Communicate their visions to promote changes (e.g. Bass, 1985; Bennis and Nanus, 1985; Conger and Kanungo, 1987, 1988; Cowley and Domb, 1997; House, 1977; Kouzes and Posner, 1987; Larwood et al., 1995; Levin, 2000; Locke et al., 1991; Nanus, 1992; Tichy and Devanna, 1986; Williams-Brinkley, 1999). Visionary leaders communicate their visions to promote changes and seek support for the visions, since follower involvement through a vision communication process is core to many charismatic leadership theories (e.g. Bass and Avolio, 1993; House and Shamir, 1993). Leaders communicate their visions in various ways including written statements and personal communication (Kouzes and Posner, 1987). Kantabutra (2003) proposes that the seven vision attributes facilitate the vision communication process between leader and followers. Obviously, a brief, clear and inspiring vision aids in getting members to act consistently with the vision. Accordingly, vision communication is operationally defined as the extent to which a faculty leader is perceived to communicate his/her vision by his/her faculty members through any or all of (a) spoken, (b) written and (c) technology-mediated channels.2. Align people and supporting systems, including the recruiting system, reporting lines, incentives, teamwork versus individual focus, and job design, to support their visions (e.g. Priem and Rosenstein, 2000), to suit their visions (Kotter, 1990; Kouzes and Posner, 1987; Locke et al., 1991; Nanus, 1992). Not only do visionary leaders align people and supporting systems to suit their visions (Kouzes and Posner, 1987; Locke et al., 1991; Nanus, 1992), but good visions also align people in organisations (Parikh and Neubauer, 1993), emphasizing the importance of vision quality. Such an alignment frees energies that up to then may have been consumed by internal friction and political infighting. The process of developing vision and strategies, aligning relevant people behind those strategies, and empowering individuals to turn the vision into reality, despite obstacles, is seen as leadership (Kotter, 1999). Clearly, a clear and future oriented vision that points directly at a prime goal and a future environment in which the vision functions assists in rallying people and organisational systems behind the unified vision (Kantabutra, 2003). Organisational alignment is operationally defined as the extent to which a faculty leader reassigns his/her faculty members as needed to support his/her new vision, and sets up new faculty evaluation criteria according to the new vision.3. Empower their people to act consistently with the new vision and to help sustain their commitment to it (e.g. Conger and Kanungo, 1987; Cowley and Domb, 1997; Nanus, 1992; Robbins and Duncan, 1988; Sashkin, 1988; Srivastva, Suresh and Associates, 1983). While an alignment of organisational systems concerns structural changes, empowerment is regarded as the genuine downward distribution/relinquishment of power and control over circumstances. To empower employees, visionary leaders shape social contexts in their organisations in many ways, to suit their visions (Nanus, 1992). They do so largely through their decisions about and commitments to the following:* whom they choose to assign to groups and tasks;* the amount and types of resources and support services they make available to work groups;* the design of incentive systems;* the way jobs are structured and allocated among workgroups;* their choice of people to head the teams; and* the goals and expectations they associate with each organisational unit.Together, the vision and the redesigned social contexts help to direct the energies of the people toward a common, audacious goal. In relation to vision quality, an abstract vision allows people throughout the entire organisation to creatively interpret the vision as to what is needed to be done within their roles and responsibilities to turn the desirable vision into reality (Kantabutra, 2003). Accordingly, empowerment is operationally defined as the extent to which a faculty leader is perceived by his/her faculty members to:* delegate work to his/her faculty members;* provide resources and support services to his/her faculty members; and* encourage his/her faculty members to make more decisions regarding daily operations.1. Motivate their followers (e.g. Awamleh and Gardner, 1999; Bass, 1985; Conger and Kanungo, 1988; Cowley and Domb, 1997; Kotter, 1990; Kouzes and Posner, 1987; Locke et al., 1991; Nanus, 1992; Tichy and Devanna, 1986; Tvorik and McGivern, 1997). Many scholars (e.g. Chia, 1998; Goleman, 1998) have even associated motivation with performance outcomes. Highly motivated followers help to work toward a desirable or inspiring vision. Effective leaders motivate their followers through devices such as the use of formal authority, role modeling, building self-confidence, creating challenge through goal-setting, delegating, and rewarding and punishing (Locke et al., 1991). Certainly, motivation of followers is related in some sophisticated ways to performance outcomes. Since vision represents a perspective from the leader, it tends to be within the latitude of acceptance, notwithstanding the extreme discrepancy. By having a challenging vision, employees will also be able to raise their self-esteem in their attempts to achieve the vision (Gecas and Seff, 1990), which in turn motivates and satisfies the employees (i.e. Maslow, 1943). Effective visions also motivate employees by inspiring them with a better future and creating a spark of excitement that lifts the organisation out of the mundane (Parikh and Neubauer, 1993), nurturing a more pleasant workplace for employees. Motivation is operationally defined as the extent to which a faculty leader is perceived by his/her faculty members to:* act as a role model for his/her faculty members;* build his/her faculty members' self confidence;* create challenges for his/her faculty members; and* reward his/her faculty members who act consistently with the vision.\nMeasuring performance in higher education: Higher education institutions have been working towards establishing performance indicators to measure progress towards their goals and objectives. A plethora of measures and other efforts has flooded the literature of higher education. However, Kaplan and Norton (1992) developed the balanced scorecard as a model which was aimed at translating vision and strategy of an organisation into objectives, measures and targets in four different areas: the financial perspective, the customer perspective, the internal process perspective, and the innovation and learning perspective. They argue that the financial measures show the results of actions already taken, and suggested that these financial measures need to be complemented by operational measures on customer satisfaction, internal processes, and the organisation's innovation and improvement activities; these operational measures being the drivers of future financial performance.Although there is little empirical evidence available concerning the use of balanced scorecard approaches in an academic environment, Kaplan and Norton (2001) refer to its use in the administrative service units of the University of California. The balanced scorecard concept was also strongly supported by academic participants in the cases of Bailey et al. (1999), and O'Neil et al. (1999). Both studies comment that the approach satisfied the need for a simple and multi-dimensional measure that could guide and focus efforts to improve performance (Cullen et al., 2003). Therefore, the balanced scorecard concept is adopted in this paper for measuring the performance of higher education institutions.According to Cullen et al. (2003), the following measures are suggested for the four balanced scorecard perspectives. The financial perspective covers the main area of financial stability. Suggested measures for this area are income and remaining budget at year end. The customer perspective covers the main area of student satisfaction and growth, suggested measures of which are enrolment targets, new partners, student registrations, and number and quality of business/commercial contracts. The internal process perspective covers the area of process improvement, suggested measures of which are elimination of non-core courses, simpler reporting mechanisms, successful review of academic programmes, and student recruitment figures. The learning and growth perspective covers the area of learning and faculty member satisfaction. Suggested measures are publications, registered PhD students, awarded bursaries, seminars and conferences, international journal articles, and peer review of teaching.\nResearch model: Since higher education institutions are frequently structured around faculties, a model is proposed for the relationships between vision components and faculty performance. Although relationships among the various characteristics of visions and higher education institution performance are not yet well understood, Figure 1 depicts a model proposing a link between vision - faculty performance, derived from the vision, business strategy, leadership, and higher education institution performance literature.Relationships among vision attributes, vision content, vision communication, organisational alignment, motivation and empowerment, and the four outcomes of learning and faculty satisfaction, process improvement, student satisfaction and growth, and financial stability are not yet well understood. Based on the literature review, Figure 1 depicts a structural model showing hypothesised relationships among vision attributes, vision content, vision communication, organisational alignment, motivation and empowerment, and the faculty outcomes of learning and faculty satisfaction, process improvement, student satisfaction and growth, and financial stability.Initially, vision attributes can be postulated to have direct positive effects on vision communication, which in turn creates direct positive effects on motivation. Motivation then can be postulated to have direct positive effects on learning and faculty satisfaction, which in turn creates direct positive effects on process improvement. Process improvement then can be postulated to create direct positive effects on student satisfaction and growth, which eventually creates direct positive direct effects on financial stability.Similarly, vision content can be postulated to create direct positive effects on organisational alignment, vision communication and empowerment. Vision communication, organisational alignment and empowerment then can be postulated to each create direct positive effects on motivation. Empowerment and motivation can then be postulated to each create direct positive effects on learning and faculty satisfaction, which in turn creates direct positive effects on process improvement. Process improvement then can be postulated to create direct positive effects on student satisfaction and growth, which finally creates direct positive direct effects on financial stability.While vision communication is probably the most widely recognized vision realisation factor, by including other three additional realisation factors of organisational alignment, motivation and empowerment, the proposed model is comprehensive.Based on the model, the following directional hypotheses can be developed.H1. Vision attributes is indirectly predictive of enhanced learning and faculty satisfaction.H2. Vision content is indirectly predictive of enhanced learning and faculty satisfaction.H3. Vision communication is indirectly predictive of enhanced learning and faculty satisfaction.H4. Organisational alignment is indirectly predictive of enhanced learning and faculty satisfaction.H5. Motivation of faculty members is directly predictive of enhanced learning and faculty satisfaction.H6. Empowerment of faculty members is directly predictive of enhanced learning and faculty satisfaction.H7. Vision attributes is directly predictive of enhanced vision communication.H8. Vision content is directly predictive of enhanced organisational alignment.H9. Vision content is directly predictive of enhanced vision communication.H10. Vision content is directly predictive of enhanced empowerment of faculty.H11. Vision communication is directly predictive of enhanced motivation of faculty members.H12. Organisational alignment is directly predictive of enhanced motivation of faculty members.H13. Empowerment of faculty members is directly predictive of enhanced motivation of faculty members.H14. Learning and faculty satisfaction is directly predictive of enhanced process improvement.H15. Process improvement is directly predictive of enhanced student satisfaction and growth.H16. Student satisfaction and growth is directly predictive of enhanced financial stability.\nFuture research directions: Clearly, research is needed to test the 16 hypotheses. One critical area is to test whether visions characterised by brevity, clarity, abstractness, challenge, future orientation, stability, and desirability are associated with improvements in financial stability, student satisfaction and growth, process improvement and learning and faculty member satisfaction than visions without these attributes. Similarly, one can also test whether visions containing images about financial stability, student satisfaction and growth, process improvement and learning and faculty member satisfaction are associated with improvements in financial stability, student satisfaction and growth, process improvement and learning and faculty member satisfaction than ones without. It would also be interesting to examine the extent to which vision creates such effects on higher education institutions' financial stability, student satisfaction and growth, process improvement, and learning and faculty member satisfaction through any or all of the proposed vision realisation variables, namely vision communication, organisational alignment, empowerment and motivation. One could also test the relationships among these vision realisation variables, and identify their relative importance.If supported by future research, the proposed model will have important managerial implications, in particular for institutions of higher education. Once effective vision components are known, higher education institution administrators can apply them to develop their visions to maximize their overall faculty performance via financial stability, student satisfaction and growth, process improvement, and learning and faculty member satisfaction. Higher education institution administrators can also apply the four realisation factors of vision communication, organisational alignment, empowerment, and motivation in maximizing their overall faculty performance via financial stability, student satisfaction and growth, process improvement, and learning and faculty member satisfaction. The uncovered relationships among the vision realisation variables and their relative importance will also help to set priority in terms of budget allocation.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Although leaders are widely believed to employ visions, little is known about what constitutes an \"effective\" vision, particularly in the higher education sector. This paper seeks to proposes a research model for examining relationships between vision components and performance of higher education institutions, as measured by financial stability, student satisfaction and growth, process improvement, and learning and faculty satisfaction. The model proposes that vision attributes of brevity, clarity, abstractness, challenge, future orientation, stability, and desirability, and vision content relating to financial stability, student satisfaction and growth, process improvement, and learning and faculty satisfaction can affect performance through four vision realisation variables.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Based on a critical review of existing theoretical concepts and empirical evidence, a new research model, as well as research hypotheses, are developed for future research.\nFindings: - With future empirical support, the model will help university and college administrators to effectively improve their institutional performance.\nOriginality/value: - While vision is core to the prevailing vision-based leadership theories, little is theoretically and empirically known about attributes for effective visions, particularly in the education sector. The paper proposes a model for future research to fill this gap.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Withdrawal of overseas subsidiaries from Asia: the case of the Japanese food industry	[ "Japan", "Asia", "Food industry", "Overseas subsidiary", "Subsidiary withdrawal" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Regional economies are becoming more integrated owing to the expansion in global economic activity. In particular, foreign direct investment (FDI) does not merely lead to an increase in trade but is also strongly linked to economic globalization and regional economic integration. East Asian economies have continued to grow as the region has become increasingly integrated, with Japan being one of the major investors. According to statistics presented by the Japanese Ministry of Finance and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the Japanese FDI stock in Asia in 2013 was USD310.3 billion, accounting for 27.8 percent of its global stock and 6.9 percent of the inward FDI stock in this region. Indeed, the Japanese FDI stock in Asia increased rapidly after the Asian financial crisis, standing almost five times higher in 2013 compared to 2003.\n2. Data overview: This study gathers data from Toyo Keizai Inc.'s \"Directory of Japanese Companies Abroad and Overseas Japanese Companies Data\" during the time period 2003-2014. These publications define \"overseas expansion\" as pertaining to a capital relationship between a Japanese company and its overseas subsidiary. \"Overseas expansion\" slightly differs from the definition of FDI in that the former includes investments amounting to less than 10 percent of Japanese ownership and indirect investment by the local subsidiaries of Japanese companies.\n3. Econometric analysis: The data set presented in Section 2 is used to perform an econometric analysis, using the LPM as well as the logit model[2]. The dependent variable is whether the company has withdrawn or not. Companies confirmed to have withdrawn are assigned 1, and those continuing to operate are assigned 0.\n4. Discussion: The estimated results in Tables IV and V, together with the findings of existing studies on FDI by Japanese companies, suggest a number of implications.\n5. Conclusion: This study conducted a quantitative analysis of the withdrawal from overseas (Asian) markets of Japanese subsidiaries in the food industry. The results clarified that strong relationships between overseas subsidiaries and parent companies contribute to business continuity. In addition, the study found that the probability of withdrawal significantly increases as the subsidiary ages. The present analysis suggests that to increase the stability of overseas expansion in the food industry, it is necessary to strengthen the relationships among the subsidiary, parent company, and related investors. The results also clarified that investment aims such as establishment of an international production network and acquisition of host country markets affect the probability of withdrawal. This finding suggests that the inability to adjust to changing investment aims, such as the local-oriented activities of overseas subsidiaries in the food industry, leads to subsidiary withdrawal. This paper provides similar results when different specifications and sub-samples are used, showing the robustness of the analysis, but there are differences regarding subsidiaries' histories and investment aims. Hence, the originality of this study is that it shows the effects of investment aims on subsidiary withdrawal, representing various aspects of overseas subsidiaries, and compares the estimation results with the recent trends in food markets in Asia.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the factors that have influenced the withdrawal of Japanese overseas food industry subsidiaries from Asia.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The data refer to Asian subsidiaries of Japanese companies engaged in food production activities. The data set covers 545 overseas subsidiaries from 2003 to 2014, and the total number of observations is 3,513. A linear probability model examines the factors influencing the probability of a subsidiary withdrawing.\nFindings: The results show that strong relationships between parent companies and overseas subsidiaries, specifically in terms of personnel and capital, reduce the likelihood of withdrawal. The number of years in business has a positive effect on withdrawal. Additionally, investment aims, such as the establishment of an international production network and acquisition of host country markets, affect the probability of withdrawal. The results are similar for subsidiaries in China and other countries, but there are differences regarding subsidiaries' histories and investment aims.\nOriginality/value: There is limited research on food companies withdrawing from overseas markets. This study bridges the gap in the literature by compiling micro-level data and conducting a quantitative analysis of such withdrawals from overseas markets. The originality of this study is that it shows the effects of investment aims on subsidiary withdrawal, representing various aspects of overseas subsidiaries, and compares the estimation results with the recent trends in food markets in Asia.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Measurement of enterprise architecture readiness within organizations	[ "Organizational change", "Change management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In order to lead and manage organizational change, managers need accurate information regarding the organization's current situation, a realizable vision of the desired future, and a clear program to move from the current condition to a desirable state. \"Enterprise architecture\" is a relatively new approach that can help managers to move on issues from an abstract and ambiguous state and display it in a clear and technical format. It can be said that \"Enterprise architecture\" means management art and leading the organizational change. Government, large organizations, and successful companies have all had organizational models, determined and clear operational processes, methods and rules. Presently, managing these complex organizations is not possible without having a far sighted vision of managing the enterprise (Samadi Avansar, 2005).Enterprise architecture is an ongoing process after inception. The deployment of such a process involves interacting with various dimensions of an organization. Thus, the cultural, humanistic, technical, structural and procedural dimensions all over the organization are essential issues in the successful execution of enterprise architecture. Given that executing enterprise architecture is expensive, poor execution results in numerous problems for the organization.The purpose of this study is to identify key factors which are affective in evaluating enterprise architecture readiness in these organizations, derived from effective elements, requirements and key prerequisites of success in executing this process, and finally present a model to assess the readiness of the organizations in implementing enterprise architecture. Thus, organizations will be able to measure the amount of their readiness in this regard before implementing enterprise architecture in practice, and if not ready, to better understand the gaps in order to address the issues.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Definitions and concepts\n3. Research model: Research model's structure includes two dimensions:1. Dimension of critical success factors. In this dimension, critical factors and indexes of enterprise architecture's success in organizations are extracted based on the literature. To implement enterprise architecture in each organization there are two main stages (Figure 3):* Organization's preparation to define and implement the project.* Executing the project.Therefore the extracting base is on the above stages and the following criteria:* Those issues which are important in \"A\" stage will be noticed.* Issues in stage \"B\" that relate to the organization structure and are not specific for enterprise architecture project are noted and extracted.2. Dimension of assessing the readiness indexes. This paper utilized questions to assess the indexes for calculating the factors score and determining the readiness level of the organization.\n4. Research methodology: This study is an applied research because the survey instruments evaluate an organization based on descriptive data.The statistical population for this study included academics, experts in the field, research centers and private companies engaged in the enterprise architecture subject. For executing and assessing model in a real environment a non-profit organization (managers and experts) is considered. From a population of 60 potential respondents, 50 experts were identified to respond to the research questionnaire: Equation 1 where:N the number of statistical community.P variable assessment=0.5.Z normal variable of correspondent unit with confidence level 1/96=0.95.e the amount of allowed error=0.05.Reliability of the research questionnaire was validated by 15 experts and for stability measurement of the questionnaire, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was utilized. The stability was measured in two stages, first stage pre-test and second stage post test which the resulted numbers were from 0.7 to 0.9 that shows appropriate and acceptable stability for the questionnaire (see Appendix, Table AI).\n5. Executive steps of research: Please refer to Figure 4.\n6. Final structure of enterprise architecture readiness model:: 1. The model has two main components as follows:* The basis of model founded on critical successful factors.* Readiness indicators can be measured in an organization with a questionnaire.1. The research model contains some requirements of an ideal EA readiness model: first of all it tries to take into consideration the perspective of those who act as partners in enterprise architecture functions in an organization.It is clear that the common features characterizing the readiness scale focus on the different members of the organization. For example, it characterizes features such as management/leadership, defines requirement and improves EA readiness scale. Secondly, by using an evaluation tool, it offers a structural and systematic approach in order to assess process reliability. Thirdly, proposes a foundational structure based on change management and strategic planning.2. This model focuses largely on the importance of prioritizing the factors and benchmarks and takes them into consideration.3. The model offered has this reserved advantage that it permits the organization to discriminate its positions from other factors and indicators compared to other models. Identifies the indicators required for recovery and improvement of any factor.Figure 5 displays the finalized developed model of knowledge management maturity.\n7. Assessing the maturity level of knowledge management in the observed organization: To provide the applicability, this model was tested in a non-governmental organization with results presented below.The questionnaire included: eight questions related to chief management factor, nine questions related to operational managers factor, four to enterprise leading factor, four questions to change management, two questions to accessing to sources, nine questions to enterprise structure factor, four questions related to information technology factor, seven questions related to enterprise culture factor, and five questions related to human source factor. In this questionnaire, the respondents were asked to determine their organization adjustment to each of the opinions based on a five-scale Likert from very little (1) to very much (5).Thereafter the scores of indexes and finally the factors' were calculated (Appendix, Table AII), with respect to these scores weak points and strengths of the intended organization were investigated in each of the elements compared to ideal score (5) and minimal acceptable score (1).By investigating the score of indexes and the final score, it was identified that the target organization in one factor from nine factors and in eight indexes of 34 indexes has higher than a score of 3 thus displaying a desirable condition in these indexes and factors.The highest score of this company is in the factor of access to sources and the least score is in human resources. Regarding the priority ranking for indexes in this research, the target organization regarding realized its strengths and weaknesses in the indexes of every factor and thus based on the priority ranking proceeded to engage in improvements.By having the final score of nine factors (Figure 6), we will start to determine the readiness rate of enterprise architecture in the intended organization.To do this we will apply the following method:1. To identify the general (total) level of enterprise readiness in enterprise architecture it is sufficient to multiply the factors to their weight (result of weighted mean) and calculate the sum. If the amount is more than 3, the organization has the necessary readiness in enterprise architecture unless it needs to be improved.2. With respect to the gained priority for the factors we investigated the score of factors.3. The organization has a score between 3 and 5 in the investigated factor. Thus, this organization has the requisite readiness in the investigated factor and does not need improvement in this regard. It must pay attention to maintaining this factor in desirable readiness level.4. The organization in the investigated factor has a score less than 3. This organization in the investigated factor does not have the required preparation and therefore needs improvement. To be improved, the indexes of that factor must be noted:* Indexes that have score higher than 3, do not need improvement.* Indexes that have score lower than 3, must be noted in organization improvement planning (result of Friedman test) based on their priorities.Based on the above discussion a readiness rate of intended organization in enterprise architecture generally less than 3 show lack of readiness of the organization.Furthermore, in the study of the factors and indexes it was specified that the organization in information technology and operational management have a better condition (the score near to 3). However, the organization strategy indexes and human resources do not have a good condition and needs more attention.Therefore regarding the scores of factors and indexes, and their priorities, the organization can embark on a comprehensive plan to improve the factors and indexes in a specific time, based on which it can achieve the necessary readiness. During execution of the plan, the assessment can be performed again in order to investigate its state of readiness and can make the necessary adjustments in its executive plan.\n8. Conclusions: * Enterprise architecture is a program that must be constantly managed in organizations and cannot merely be considered as a project that can be done all at once. Enterprise architecture must be updated based on the enterprise needs and changes.* Because enterprise architecture is a permanent program for an organization, it must be adjusted to other processes and foundations of the organization. For example, a company that has weakness in structure and culture, does not have appropriate educational process or its chief management is not committed to enterprise architecture cannot be successful in enterprise architecture. Therefore, organizations must be aware of the gaps before embarking on enterprise architecture.* This research's model can imagine a model of enterprise architecture before entering to it.By applying the research model, the current state of organization's readiness can be evaluated and thus the desirable state (factors and indexes) can be managed to transition from the current state to the desirable state.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to present a model for measuring enterprise architecture (EA) readiness in organizations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper reviews the literature of enterprise architecture, defines and extracts factors and indicators of enterprise architecture readiness with factor weighting and indicators. Thereafter the authors propose a model to measure organization EA readiness in practice.\nFindings: - In this paper nine factors and 34 indicators that affect enterprise architecture are defined and an enterprise architecture readiness model is constructed. The model of research is practical, because it specifies readiness of organization in enterprise architecture and helps to define current state of organization via factors and indicators, and from priorities of factors and indicators, alerts organization of an optimization strategy.\nResearch limitations/implications: - In order to increase the utility of the model for use in other organizations, further studies can help to refine the model.\nOriginality/value: - The essence of extracting and choosing factors and indicators in this study is from enterprise architecture processes and key success and failure factors of enterprise architecture in organizations. In addition selected factors and indicators related to organization infrastructure not related only to enterprise architecture project planning and executing are examined through the use of a questionnaire. The model derived from this study can be utilized as a multi-dimensional and practical model because of its complexity and examination of organizational infrastructures.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Probing social media harassment: How firms can effectively investigate the bullies	[ "Bullying", "Misuse", "Social media", "Harassment policy" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Bullying and harassment can create serious problems for an organization, including poor performance, lost productivity, absence, resignations, damage to company reputation and, in severe instances, could lead to tribunal and other court cases and payment of unlimited compensation.\nEmployer's right of access to content on its own computing hardware: Typically, sexual harassment is one of the most common forms of workplace harassment in the UK, but other examples may include: spreading malicious rumors, picking on someone or regularly undermining a competent worker. Harassment relating to age, sex, disability, gender, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief or sexual orientation is unlawful under the UK Equality Act 2010.\nFramework for organizations investigating employee harassment: Organizations are becoming increasingly aware of the problems that may occur when employees use social media inappropriately both within and outside the physical workplace, and within and outside normal working hours. In addition, the actual posting of material concerning employee harassment on social media sites could take place almost anywhere due to the availability of social media on tablets and smartphones.\nComment: This review is based on \"Investigating employee harassment via social media\" by Taylor et al. (2015). The paper examines the computer forensic process and legal aspects of the investigation of employee harassment via social media to provide management guidance for corporate investigations in such cases.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the process of investigation of employee harassment via social media to develop best practices to help organizations conduct such investigations more effectively.\nDesign/methodology/approach: It reviews the technical, managerial and legal literature to develop guidance for organizations conducting investigations of employee harassment via social media.\nFindings: Organizations may not have effective procedures for the investigation of social media misuse, in general, and employee harassment via social media, in particular. This paper provides guidance for organizations to conduct investigation of employee harassment via social media more effectively.\nOriginality/value: The paper consolidates the fragmented discussion of investigation of social media misuse with regard to employee harassment via a literature review across technical, managerial and legal disciplines. The paper provides guidance to support organizations for conducting investigations of employee harassment via social media more effectively.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Success in the management of crowdfunding projects in the creative industries	[ "Community", "Small-to-medium-sized enterprises", "Crowdsourcing", "Engagement", "Crowdfunding", "Creative industries" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) within the creative industries have a critical role to play in UK economic growth. In the UK 84 per cent of creative companies employ fewer than ten people, yet the industry as a whole accounts for 1.5 million jobs and 10.6 per cent of the UK's export earnings, making it the third highest contributing industry (Skillset, 2012). Despite their economic importance, such SMEs struggle to access resources (Tucker and Lean, 2003; Hussain et al., 2006; Boyles, 2011), making it difficult for them to bring original content to market (De Buysere et al., 2012; Kenny and Broughton, 2011), and forcing them to focus on immediate commercial imperatives rather than creativity (Powell and Ennis, 2007). These structural problems have been worsened by the 2008 financial crisis that led to more conservative attitudes from banks regarding SMEs (De Buysere et al., 2012). One result is that the \"crowd\" has become regarded as a valuable source of surplus energy (Howe, 2009; Brabham, 2008) and in the form of \"crowdfunding\" a potential new source of finance (Belleflamme et al., 2012a; De Buysere et al., 2012).\nUnderstanding crowdfunding: Jeff Howe (2009) coined the term \"Crowdsourcing\" to describe the phenomenon of utilizing the crowds' surplus energy. The term defines the practice of initiating an open call (usually online) to an undefined network of people, for the provision of needed services, ideas or content. The basic premise is that the small input of many is better than the large contribution of a few (Howe, 2009). Following crowdsourcing we have witnessed the rise of crowdfunding, which utilizes similar characteristics to collect small financial contributions, thus tapping the crowd's surplus finances rather than energy (Howe, 2009).\nMethods and data analysis: Our study aims to determine significant predictors of success in crowdfunding campaigns and to investigate differences between successful and failed campaigns.\nNetwork management: Number of backers\nCampaign management: Pitch quality\nConclusion and recommendations: Filmmaking campaigns are often wrapped in ambiguity and uncertainness due to the various contingencies involved in the production process, for example a product specification is easier to imagine than the creative conclusion to a film. This means that approaches to film crowdfunding may be different from other successful campaigns. Our findings demonstrate the drivers of success, relevant to the filmmaking campaigns studied here, but with possible application to crowdfunding campaigns as a whole. We have identified the significance of a range of predictors that increase the likelihood of success. Here crowdfunding is presented not as a quick fix solution to funding shortfall, but a significant investment of time and resources, which are not dissimilar to those required in traditional sources of funding that crowdfunding is proposed to circumvent. Our findings have both theoretical and practical implications that add to the existing body of crowdfunding work.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Crowdfunding has become a significant way of funding independent film. However, undertaking a campaign can be time consuming and risky. The purpose of this paper is to understand the predictors likely to produce a film campaign that meets its funding goal.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study analyses 100 creative crowdfunding campaigns within the film and video category on crowdfunding website Kickstarter. Campaigns were analysed in relation to a number of variables, followed by a discriminant analysis to highlight the main predictors of crowdfunding success.\nFindings: This study finds key predictors of crowdfunding success and investigates differences between successful and failed crowdfunding campaigns. The attributes of these predictors lead us to question the long-term ability of crowdfunding to aid companies poorer in terms of time, financial and personnel resources, and therefore arguably in the greatest need of crowdfunding platforms.\nPractical implications: The findings provide insight to practitioners considering the crowdfunding approach and offers knowledge and recommendations so as to avoid what can be naive and costly mistakes. The findings highlight that crowdfunding should not be considered lightly and can be a considerable investment of resources to be successful.\nOriginality/value: The analysis of crowdfunding campaigns provides details on the significant predictors of crowdfunding success particularly relevant to creative campaigns. The findings provide a critique of previous claims about the benefit of crowdfunding for creative SMEs.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Reducing emotional exhaustion and increasing organizational support	[ "Sales force", "Emotional dissonance", "Stress", "Work psychology", "Family" ]	[ { "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.\nIntroduction: Emotional exhaustion (e.g. Babakus et al., 1999; Jaramillo et al., 2006) and perceived organizational support (e.g. Eisenberger et al., 2002; Piercy et al., 2006) have received increased attention in the sales and marketing literature within the last decade. In these studies, researchers have linked emotional exhaustion to important salesperson job attitudes and behavior intentions such as satisfaction (Babakus et al., 1999; Jaramillo et al., 2006), organizational commitment (Babakus et al., 1999) and turnover intentions (Boles et al., 1997). Research also has linked perceived organizational support to organizational commitment, job satisfaction, organizational citizenship behavior (Babakus et al., 1999) and employee turnover (Boyle, 1997). Thus, emotional exhaustion and perceived organizational support are important constructs in sales management settings.While previous research has examined the relationships of emotional exhaustion and perceived organizational support with a variety of important job place attitudes and behaviors, our understanding of the inter-relationships between these two constructs is limited. This study contributes to the existing body of research in marketing by examining the inter-relationships between these constructs and three types of stressors:1. role conflict;2. role ambiguity; and3. work-family conflict.With a better understanding of the relationship between emotional exhaustion and perceived organizational support and their possible antecedents, firms may be able to:1. reduce emotional exhaustion;2. increase perceived organizational support;3. ultimately increase employee job satisfaction as well as organizational commitment; and4. reduce employee turnover intentions.This has very important implications for relationship marketing and business-to-business practitioners, as recent research has shown that salespeople who feel fulfilled and are happy with their job tend to perform significantly better in achieving customer satisfaction and customer loyalty (Homburg and Stock, 2004).The purpose of this study is to explore stressors that may influence salesperson emotional exhaustion and their perception of organizational support. To accomplish this, the current study uses conservation of resources theory to assess:1. the effects of role conflict and work-family conflict on emotional exhaustion;2. role conflict and role ambiguity's effects on perceived organizational support; and3. whether perceived organization support is directly or indirectly linked to emotional exhaustion.\nConservation of resources theory: Conservation of resources theory has been used to examine the effects of stress and potential burnout in work-family studies (Grandey and Cropanzano, 1999) and in salesperson failure studies (Mallin and Mayo, 2006). The theory predicts that resource loss is a principal ingredient in stress (Hobfoll, 2001). In addition to predicting stress when resource loss occurs, the theory indicates that when resources are gained they can be used to compensate for previous resource losses (Hobfoll, 2001). Wright and Hobfoll (2004) claim that burnout can occur in situations where there are:1. resource losses;2. the potential for resource losses; and3. inadequate resources to meet work demands.When individuals have resources available; they try to protect, retain and build on those resources.Perceived organizational support\nMethodology: Sample\nDiscussion: The positive relationship between work-family conflict and emotional exhaustion was expected. If a salesperson cannot satisfy the needs of his/her job without sacrificing family needs or vice versa, it is likely to create an emotionally charged situation that can be stressful and exhausting. Often, a salesperson may fail to meet the needs of both their family and their job, likely due to a lack of resources to adequately handle both situations, creating a tense and possibly deteriorating situation on both fronts (Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985). Problems with meeting demands of work affect performance at work, causing the salesperson to become detached, less driven and less concerned for customers and their needs. This will reflect in decreased productivity. Decreased productivity on the job will create an entirely different category of stressors. The salesperson already lacks the adequate cognitive and physical resources to deal with their existing stress. Additional stress can begin to influence his/her family life.The relationships between the role stress variables and other model constructs were basically as expected. Role conflict was negatively related to perceived organizational support. When a salesperson receives two conflicting sets of orders, this creates tension in the workplace. No matter which choice is made, one set of orders will not be followed, and the salesperson will have to deal with the fallout. A salesperson may feel an organization that puts them in a position where they experience high levels of role conflict has no concern for their well being and does not value the contributions they make to the firm. This likely will result in a decrease in perceived organizational support. Also, role conflict can occur when a salesperson receives conflicting directions from an internal source, for example the sales manager, and an external source, for example the customer (Weitz et al., 2007). The salesperson must decide which set of directions to follow. While ignoring the customer can result in loss of an account, ignoring the internal firm directions can result in a loss of employment. This can directly affect customer satisfaction and loyalty.Role ambiguity also was found to be negatively related to perceived organizational support. Employees who are unclear about their job responsibilities and/or their role within the firm may feel that the organization does not appreciate them. Salespeople may feel that if the organization did value them, it would make more of an effort to clarify their job and role responsibilities. Some of a salesperson's duties involve doing things for their clients. If a salesperson is unsure exactly what their responsibilities are, both internal and external, they may not live up to customer expectations, injuring that client's relationship with both the salesperson and the firm.Perceived organizational support is negatively related to work-family conflict. Salespeople working for organizations with an understanding that employees have an outside family life should experience less conflict between work and home domains. These types of firms develop policies and procedures such that an employee's family will not always be \"second\" to work. These firms will also tend to hire and train managers that are more attentive to employees needs to manage their home life as well as their work responsibilities. If an employee feels happy at home, and feels like they have sufficient resources to devote to family responsibilities without taking away from their job performance, this will result in a more driven employee who is better able to perform the duties they are tasked with in their job role. This will result in customers receiving better service and getting their demands met in a timely and efficient manner, strengthening a firm's overall relationships with their clients.Interestingly, perceived organizational support has no direct relationship on emotional exhaustion. It is possible that salespeople view their job and the organization for which they work as two separate entities. Even if a salesperson feels that their firm is supportive, there are still many aspects of their job that are separate from the firm, such as customers and competing salespeople. A salesperson could feel that even though their organization is supportive, the nature of their job is still stressful and tense. So, while the salesperson is thankful for his firm's attempts to decrease the amount of conflict encountered, the potential for some level of emotional exhaustion is always present.The insight that can be gleaned from these results is that in order for sales forces to adequately reduce and/or eliminate emotional exhaustion, firms must be proactive. Companies cannot wait until they see signs of emotional exhaustion influencing their sales force because it may already be too late - the damage may have been done. Failure to be proactive can result in reduced levels of responsiveness to customer needs, lowering the customer base's perception of the firm's overall service quality. Firms must expect that emotional exhaustion will become an issue, and should do things to prevent it, rather than deal with it once it has already permeated the sales force.Additionally, the finding that perceived organizational support does not affect emotional exhaustion ties directly into this line of thought. Firms must recognize that it is not just corporate culture and/or company regulations/practices that can influence emotional exhaustion. The nature of the sales position inherently leads to a great deal of emotional exhaustion. Firms that intend to be proactive should consider how one can prevent emotional exhaustion that is caused by the job as well as the company. A major problem here may be when salespeople with previous experience are hired. Even though the salesperson is now at a new firm, and can leave all the old triggers to emotional exhaustion caused by their old firm behind, the triggers inherent in a sales position may still have influence. This can cause the salesperson to feel that they cannot escape their exhausted state, driving them even further into lethargy.\nManagerial implications: This research provides evidence to organizations that there are proactive methods to deal with salesperson burnout and other negative issues such as sales force turnover. Most of the relationships in the structural model have been examined before on an individual level or as part of other, larger models. However, there have been very few attempts in research to integrate all three types of conflict prevalent in the sales profession with both negative and positive job outcomes.The finding that perceived organizational support has no effect on reducing emotional exhaustion is important. As discussed earlier, salespeople may feel that no matter how supportive a firm may be, there is still going to be emotional exhaustion associated with a sales job. It is inherent in the nature of the task. This is important for managers because firms need to not only rely on the approach that emotional exhaustion can be decreased or eliminated by taking actions that increase an employee's perception of the support they get from their organization. Firms and the sales managers within them need to start taking the approach that emotional exhaustion is going to exist to some degree in a sales job. Instead of taking proactive steps to eliminate or reduce emotional exhaustion, the firm is better served to focus on reactive steps that help employees cope with emotional exhaustion. Allowing salespeople to change territories and/or client bases from time to time can help reduce the monotony associated with any job. Training employees to work smarter instead of harder will put less of a strain on their physical and cognitive resources. Another possible approach, blasphemous as it may sound, might be to require every sales person to take a long weekend off every month, to allow time for the batteries to recharge.Management should foster an environment of open communication among sales managers and between sales managers and salespeople. Many sales forces tend to have environments of secrecy, uncertainty and interpersonal conflict (Dubinsky et al. 1986, Jackson et al. 2006). Creating an environment in which the sales force interacts and works as a whole, i.e. members of the same team, will likely result in much lower levels of role conflict than the traditional culture with separate camps and clicks that most sales forces tend to gravitate toward.There also needs to be some kind of regular, formally structured meeting so everyone can be on the same page concerning who has what duties and responsibilities, discuss and resolve issues that arrive when members of the sales force receive two conflicting sets of directions from two different sources of authority, as well as give both salespeople and sales managers an opportunity to air any concerns in an open forum. While this may seem like obvious advice, the high levels of both role conflict and role ambiguity found in most industrial sales jobs (Behrman and Perreault, 1984; Skinner and Kelley, 2006) would indicate that this advice is not being heeded. Skinner and Kelley (2006) find that, while largely ignored by sales forces, open and positive communication has been successful in bringing about change of this type in other business disciplines and functions.The sales organization needs to create official company materials that explain both the responsibilities of each job and what is expected by the organization in terms of behavior and performance. Allowing potential new hires to ride with current salespeople and/or provide some form of realistic job preview is one way to make sure that new hires understand the tradeoffs between work and home that are required. It also may help to develop increased role clarity among these salespeople. Taking these steps may create a more uniform culture, formalized expectations and clearly understood job responsibilities; decreasing the amount of ambiguity salespeople experience in the workplace. Flaherty et al. (1999) found that when employees have a clear understanding of what their responsibilities and/or orders of action are, they exhaust significantly less of their cognitive resources trying to interpret and decipher exactly what they are supposed to be doing and for whom, and spend more time focusing on fulfilling their role responsibilities and assigned tasks. This ties directly into conservation of resources theory.The firm should take steps to allow salespeople some flexibility to handle their family responsibilities along with the responsibilities associated with their job. This can be done through the use of flexi-time in scheduling and call quotas, as well as rotating travel schedules and/or telecommuting with both clients and firm personnel. Allowing salespeople to work from home on occasion may cut down on work-family conflict by allowing salespeople to handle responsibilities on both fronts simultaneously. Regardless of the approach taken, it is important for firms to let salespeople, and other employees, know that their family is also important and that the firm understands the importance of non-work issues.The adoption of such policies has the potential to significantly increase an employee's overall satisfaction by increasing some or all of the seven facets of satisfaction. Work-family conflict lowers an employees' satisfaction with their supervisor and company policies (Boles et al., 2003); role ambiguity negatively affects satisfaction with promotion opportunities; and role conflict negatively impacts satisfaction with company policies. In addition, perceived organizational support has been shown to increase satisfaction (Foley et al., 2005), while emotional exhaustion is negatively related to satisfaction (Babakus et al., 1999).This research is useful because the job outcome variables included in the model have been linked directly to turnover in several research studies. Perceived organizational support has been shown to be negatively related to turnover (Bishop et al., 2000) and positively linked to organizational commitment (Whitener, 2001). The inverse results have been found for emotional exhaustion (Fogerty et al., 2000) and work-family conflict (Boyar et al., 2003). This ties directly into a firm's ability to establish and maintain mutually-beneficial, long-term relationships with their customers. When a sales force has a high degree of turnover, it is a competitive disadvantage because the firm will experience both an increase in hiring and training costs; as well as a decrease in levels of customer service, because it will take new salespeople time to get up to speed concerning product/service knowledge and the development of the skills necessary to efficiently and effective sell products/services in their particular category (Stan et al., 2004).\nLimitations and future research: This research, like all research, has some limitations. The first issue encountered was that this study only examined results from the perspective of the salesperson. With additional insight from sales managers, more information can be obtained as to how the relationship between conflict/stress variables and both positive and negative job outcomes manifest themselves. These relational dyads would allow researchers to search for gaps in congruence across the constructs and relationships presented in this study.Generalizability may also be an issue, due to the fact that only one firm was used in the data collection. The salespeople in this study worked in the South Central USA. Additional research on sales forces in other areas of the country would strengthen claims of generaliziability. The company used in the study was an outdoor advertising company that sold what can be considered a hybrid product/service. Further research is needed to determine whether these effects carry over when dealing only with products or services.This study also opens some avenues for future research. Researchers should investigate what happens beyond the presented model. How does the model affect the seven facets of job satisfaction? While research has shown that the negative and positive job outcome variables presented in the model are related to organizational commitment and turnover intentions as part of larger models, further research is needed to determine how they are affected by the model presented in this research.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to explore stressors that may influence salespersons' emotional exhaustion and their perception of organizational support.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Structural equation modeling is used to assess: the effects of role conflict and work-family conflict on emotional exhaustion; role conflict and role ambiguity's effects on perceived organizational support; and whether perceived organization support is directly or indirectly linked to emotional exhaustion.\nFindings: - Findings from the study suggest that work-family conflict and role conflict both significantly affect emotional exhaustion. Work-family conflict also was found to impact on the relationship between perceived organizational support and emotional exhaustion. Finally, role conflict and role ambiguity were found to have a negative impact on perceived organizational support.\nOriginality/value: - This study provides a foundation for reducing salespersons' emotional exhaustion and provides a method of increasing a salesforce's perception of organizational support.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
An examination of the online service-profit chain	[ "Customer value", "E-Commerce", "Service quality", "E-Loyalty", "Customer satisfaction", "E-Retailing" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: E-commerce occupies a position of ever-increasing importance on the retailing landscape. The internet, which initially attracted young, male, technophile, urban consumers, has become more and more accessible, more mainstream, and is used widely by most demographic sectors. There is, however, a time lag between the increase in the number of internet users and those users actually transacting online (eMarketer). This delay occurs as consumers change the way they purchase and become accustomed to the internet and gain the confidence to buy online. Even though online retailing activity is growing significantly, many B2C web sites do not always meet customers' expectations and therefore fail to fulfill customers' needs (Nantel et al., 2005). Indeed, online conversion rates are still very low (less than 5 percent according to eMarketer) compared to traditional retail outlets. Having an online presence and low prices are not sufficient to ensure success because they alone do not guarantee service quality. Some consumers consider online transactions are unnecessarily complex, prone to missed delivery dates of products, or fail completely to deliver, suffer from a lack of response to e-mails, and do not provide sufficient information about products. This could have a negative influence on customer value (CV) and satisfaction with the online experience and loyalty. As with traditional retailers, service quality plays a crucial role in the success and survival of online retailers (Parasuraman et al., 2005).\nConceptual framework: In response to the growing importance of services to the global economy, many researchers have examined problems involved in measuring and managing service quality and have attempted to establish links between service quality, CV, satisfaction, and loyalty constructs. Recent internet and online retailing developments have led researchers and practitioners to re-evaluate these traditional service concepts in the context of the internet. The internet is not only a way of presenting information but also an opportunity to create dialogue, transact, build relationships (Adam et al., 2001, 2002), and add value through service. Consumers actively participate in service delivery by contributing their own effort and time. Consumers also contribute by taking part of the responsibility for service delivery. This aspect of online buying can affect perceptions of service quality, CV, and satisfaction (Zeithaml and Bitner, 2000).\nModel and hypotheses: Service quality is an important antecedent of CV perception, and many studies have validated a strong, positive, and significant effect of a product's or a service's quality on CV perception (Agarwal and Teas, 2002; Bolton and Drew, 1991; Chen and Dubinsky, 2003; Dodds et al., 1991; Grewal et al., 1998; Monroe and Krishnan, 1985; Sweeney and Soutar, 2001; Zeithaml, 1988). Studies of online contexts have shown that CV is the link between online purchase/repurchase and perceived e-service quality (Chang and Wang, 2008; Parasuraman et al., 2005; Bauer et al., 2006). However, these researchers have, for the most part, addressed the overall relationship between e-service quality and CV. Bauer et al. (2006) found that, by taking into account utilitarian and hedonic e-service quality aspects, all five dimensions of the eTransQual scale have an impact on customer perceived value at a macro level. In this study, the focus is on the effects of e-service quality dimensions on customer perceived value dimensions and the following hypothesis is proposed:\nMethodology: For this research, e-commerce wine web sites were chosen for testing the model and the hypotheses. Online wine sales are experiencing growth throughout the world. Purchasing does not tend to be the primary motivation for visiting a wine web site: Bruwer and Wood (2005) state that comparing prices and obtaining information are the principal motivations. They note security of personal and financial information is the most important factor for online wine buying. Other important considerations include fair pricing, product content, web site functionality, and e-mail or digital receipts (Bruwer and Wood, 2005). The main factors that could explain consumer behaviors on wine web sites are not related to the product but to the evaluation of the online experience moderated by aspects of e-service quality.\nResults and discussion: First, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to verify the factorial structure of each construct. The structure of the e-service quality scale is identified as having five dimensions: information, aesthetic, ease of use, security/privacy, and reliability. Five items (out of 18) were deleted because of bad quality of representation or a gap in the loadings between other items of the factor considered. The results of the EFA of the online CV scale revealed only three factors, the first of which mixed items from the functional and the emotional value dimensions. There was a gap in the loadings between the items from functional and emotional dimensions. In order to achieve a better construct validity, a three-dimension structure for online CV with social, functional, and economic value dimensions is retained. The deletion of the emotional dimension of online CV in this context could be explained by the fact that the respondents were asked to perform a utilitarian task (i.e. buying wine with a specific budget) and not a hedonic one. e-Satisfaction and e-loyalty revealed a one dimension structure with three items each. Then, the reliability, and the convergent and discriminant validities of the constructs were tested using an EFA procedure (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). Reliability is assumed when all indicators measure the same construct with loadings of comparable level. The r indicator (Joreskog, 1971) was used to measure the internal coherence of the constructs. To measure the reliability of the constructs, the Joreskog r rather than the Cronbach\nConclusion, managerial implications, limitations, and future research: This study set out to better understand online consumers' shopping behavior with an emphasis on the role of e-service quality and online CV. Previous studies found obvious factors influencing consumer loyalty, such as service quality, CV, and customer satisfaction, but neglected to explain the influence of the dimensions of those concepts.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study the service-profit chain (SPC) on e-service quality dimensions, online customer value (CV) dimensions, e-satisfaction, and e-loyalty in an e-commerce context.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A total of 2,813 internet customers filled in an online questionnaire after completing a specified task on one of 28 wine web sites from seven countries.\nFindings: The results highlight the impact of the dimensions of e-service quality (information, aesthetics, ease of use, security/privacy, and reliability) on the dimensions of online CV (functional, economic, and social value) as they affect e-satisfaction, which in turn influences e-loyalty. The results validate the SPC in an e-commerce context and also stress the partial mediating role of the dimensions of online CV between the dimensions of e-service quality and e-satisfaction.\nResearch limitations/implications: The sample may not exactly match the customer profile of the web sites analyzed. In order to generalize the results, future research should replicate this study with a customer sample from each web site. Future research could also take into account other variables that may have an influence on the relationships identified. Additionally it would be interesting to replicate the study in other industries and undertake longitudinal studies in one or more industries.\nPractical implications: From a managerial point of view, online retailers, especially in the wine sector, can positively affect CV, satisfaction, and loyalty by focussing on information, aesthetics, ease of use, security/privacy, and reliability.\nOriginality/value: This paper is the first to study the SPC by examining service quality dimensions, CV dimensions, satisfaction, and loyalty in an online context. It extends the knowledge of online retailing by validating the SPC on the dimensions of traditional service concepts, such as service quality and CV. The findings can assist online retailers to better understand the dynamics of online customer relationships and the implications for customer satisfaction and ultimately loyalty.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Artificial intelligence and policy: quo vadis?	[ "Artificial intelligence", "Machine learning" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: From the demonstration of an artificial intuition with DeepMind AlphGo Zero to reviewing legal documents and screening through heaps of medical images to detect diabetic retinopathy more efficiently than humans can, artificial intelligence (AI) is progressing at a very fast rate. If implemented consequently by companies, AI touches every aspect of organizational culture while empowering employees to independently make decisions based on real-time data. It amplifies weaknesses as well. If many conflicting goals compete within corporate silos, AI is used just for the efficiency game or for cost cutting. We cannot neglect that a one-sided focus on AI in businesses can have a big societal impact, e.g. loss of jobs through automation or failure to add new building blocks to education systems.\nArtificial intelligence concepts shaped by social sciences: Artificial narrow intelligence\nAI technology stack: Machine learning technologies\nCentralized and decentralized artificial intelligence: competition: There is no reason to support the idea that everything in AI is about a race. It implies, there is a finish line, which either decides about winners and losers among nations, industries, companies, or - if we think in terms of AI definitions influenced by social science - General Artificial Intelligence or Singularity. The concept of a finishing line would dilute the importance of many R&D efforts to develop automation and cognitive technologies and diminish intangible quality of networked knowledge.\nArtificial intelligence and policy: With any technology, there is a certain latency between its adoption and the development of a regulatory regime around it.\nSelected national artificial intelligence strategies: Potentially, AI might widen gaps between countries, reinforcing the current digital divide. Some emerging markets will need to pursue AI to capture higher productivity, while they need to cope with the challenge of their aging populations. In contrast, the developing world might leapfrog several technology cycles while embedding AI technologies into their industries and therewith improving their place in the global supply chain. So far, the author does not see any national efforts to systematically enhance use of AI to address environmental issues and inequality. This need to change, partly with help of international programs, partly through private-public sponsorships and initiatives. AI for Good is one of the programs under the umbrella of the UN to scale tangible AI use cases throughout different countries. Their second conference, scheduled for May 2019 in Geneva, promises insights on underlying technologies and new ways to collect and handle data to avoid data monopolization and abuse.\nUSA vs China: a quest about global leadership: AI is at the top of the agenda of national policies. President Obama's White House pioneered the development of a national AI strategy in September 2016 through three reports, though the task remained incomplete. \"Preparing for the Future of Artificial Intelligence,\" recommended frameworks around AI regulations, public R&D, automation, ethics and fairness, and security. The second report, \"National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan\", outlined a strategic plan for publicly funded R&D in AI. The final report, \"Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and the Economy\", focused on the impact of automation and which policies are needed to increase the benefits of AI and to mitigate its costs.\nArtificial intelligence ethics and social governance: some recommendations: For the French philosopher Paul Virilio, technological development is tightly linked to the idea of the accident. If you invent the plane, you also invent the plane crash. ,,The ethical concerns of innovation thus tend to focus on harm's minimization and mitigation, not the absence of harm altogether\" (Chatfield, 2014).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to inform policymakers about key artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, risks and trends in national AI strategies. It suggests a framework of social governance to ensure emergence of safe and beneficial AI.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper is based on approximately 100 interviews with researchers, executives of traditional companies and startups and policymakers in seven countries. The interviews were carried out in January-August 2017.\nFindings: Policymakers still need to develop an informed, scientifically grounded and forward-looking view on what societies and businesses might expect from AI. There is lack of transparency on what key AI risks are and what might be regulatory approaches to handle them. There is no collaborative framework in place involving all important actors to decide on AI technology design principles and governance. Today's technology decisions will have long-term consequences on lives of billions of people and competitiveness of millions of businesses.\nResearch limitations/implications: The research did not include a lot of insights from the emerging markets.\nPractical implications: Policymakers will understand the scope of most important AI concepts, risks and national strategies.\nSocial implications: AI is progressing at a very fast rate, changing industries, businesses and approaches how companies learn, generate business insights, design products and communicate with their employees and customers. It has a big societal impact, as - if not designed with care - it can scale human bias, increase cybersecurity risk and lead to negative shifts in employment. Like no other invention, it can tighten control by the few over the many, spread false information and propaganda and therewith shape the perception of people, communities and enterprises.\nOriginality/value: This paper is a compendium on the most important concepts of AI, bringing clarity into discussions around AI risks and the ways to mitigate them. The breadth of topics is valuable to policymakers, students, practitioners, general executives and board directors alike.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The impact of national stereotypes on the country of origin effect: A conceptual framework	[ "Country of origin", "National cultures", "National standards", "Product image", "Marketing strategy" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A recent advertising campaign for Singapore Airlines stated, \"In this ever changing world, Singapore Girl, you're a great way to fly,\" re-introducing the warm and affectionate, \"Singapore Girl\" to a contemporary audience. This advertising campaign, positioning Singapore as a relatively warm, tender and friendly nation, exemplifies the use of national stereotype dimensions to influence country perceptions in marketing practice. While academic research has recognized the importance of the country of origin (COO) effect in a variety of domains, its antecedents have received surprisingly little attention (see Heslop and Papadopoulos, 1993 for an exception). This lack of investigation is all the more startling given the strong impact of COO effects on the marketplace. The current paper seeks to address this shortcoming. For instance, despite potentially large differences in price, consumers are likely to prefer French to Austrian champagne; Italian to Finnish fashion; German to Chinese cars; and Japanese to Mexican electronics.In particular, we propose an original conceptualization regarding the relationship between national stereotypes on the one hand and COO-based consumer evaluations of products on the other. Stereotypes represent individuals' cognitive associations and expectations about any societal (i.e. national) group (Fiske and Taylor, 1991), while national stereotypes are qualities (whether accurate or not) perceived to be associated with a nation's people (Schneider, 2005).The study of national stereotypes and their contents has generated a considerable amount of attention, particularly in the area of social cognition, while a broad array of research in the areas of consumer behavior and international marketing has investigated the effects of COO on consumer evaluation. This paper attempts to merge these divergent research streams, by proposing a comprehensive conceptual framework that delineates the impact of the contents of national stereotypes on COO effects. In particular, based on the stereotype content model - SCM (Fiske et al., 1999, 2002), we propose that two independent and continuous dimensions of national stereotypes (i.e. perceived warmth and competence) influence COO effects. We advance a series of research propositions with important theoretical and practical implications.The next sections are organized as follows: first, we present a brief review of prior research on COO effects. Next, we concentrate on the construct of national stereotypes by introducing the SCM, integrating it with past findings in the COO area, and arguing for its applicability in future COO work. Then, we propose research propositions that include implications of the contents of national stereotypes for COO effects, as well as suggest product type and consumer characteristics as moderators of national stereotype effects. The final section reviews the conceptual framework and discusses its theoretical and practical implications along with its limitations and directions for future research.\nCountry of origin effects: overview: While a product's COO has shown robust effects on its evaluation, the conceptualizations of COO effects are more diverse. These range from the extent to which the place of manufacture influences product evaluations (Gurhan-Canli and Maheswaran, 2000), to intangible barriers to entering new markets in the form of consumer biases toward imported products (Wang and Lamb, 1983). However, specifying a product's COO is becoming even harder, because global sourcing and manufacturing have resulted in many products having dual or multinational origins. For example, a Toshiba television may be assembled in Mexico, but include Japanese, Mexican, or even American parts. At the same time, the Toshiba brand name is associated with Japanese origin.Following Zhang (1996, p. 51), we define COO simply as \"information pertaining to where a product is made,\" which is usually operationalized and conveyed with the phrases \"Made in\" and the country name (Amine et al., 2005).Next, Table I provides a brief summary of past research and the findings are outlined in this section. Given the large amount of COO-related literature, this is not meant to be a comprehensive review but rather an overview that provides the background for the subsequent development of our conceptual framework and research propositions.Single-cue versus multi-cue COO effects\nNational stereotypes and the stereotype content model (SCM): Regardless of the significant interest in investigating the COO phenomenon, there has been relatively sparse effort to integrate the findings of the consumer behavior and international marketing literature with those of the social cognition literature on stereotypes. In an influential work in political science, Boulding (1956) conceptualized the \"image\" of a nation as a perceptual structure consisting of cognitive, affective and evaluative components. This conceptualization mirrors the previously discussed cognitive, affective and normative mechanisms for COO effects. The evaluative component of national image in particular, provides a connection between the cognitive and affective aspects of national stereotypes and the COO effect.One model that decomposes the specific dimensions of national stereotypes is the recently advanced SCM by Fiske et al. (1999, 2002). The SCM partitions stereotypes into two orthogonal and continuous dimensions, perceived competence and perceived warmth. According to Fiske et al. (2002, p. 881):... out-groups are perceived as more competent to the extent that they are perceived as powerful and high status ... (and) as relatively warm and nice to the extent that they do not compete with others.It follows that a nation's perceived status predicts its competence ratings and its level of perceived competitive threat predicts its warmth ratings. The Fiske et al. (2002) study utilized a continuous measurement scale composed of six \"competence\" traits (competent, intelligent, confident, efficient, competitive, and independent) and six \"warmth\" traits (friendly, well-intentioned, sincere, good-natured, warm, and trustworthy).Although the two dimensions are assumed to be independent, the model posits that stereotype contents are frequently mixed between these two dimensions, resulting in stereotypes that combine higher warmth with lower competence or higher competence with lower warmth. Only members of a perceiver's in-group (defined as a group that the evaluator perceives to be a member of) and its allies are ascribed stereotypes with higher scores on both independent dimensions, as a result of in-group favoritism (Tajfel, 1981).In this paper, we propose that the SCM is a useful tool in exploring the relationship between national stereotypes and COO-based evaluations as it represents a major theoretical advance in the systematic study of stereotype contents. The SCM proposes qualitative differences in stereotype contents based on perceptions of the evaluated group's relative status and level of competitive threat, with perceived status predicting higher competence and perceived competition predicting lower warmth. Applied to a consumer context, perceived warmth may represent the more affective dimension of consumer attitudes toward a nation's peoples and its products, whereas perceived competence may represent the more cognitive component.The empirical testing of the SCM confirms that most out-groups receive mixed stereotypes (Fiske et al., 1999, 2002). In the case of stereotypes toward \"Asian-Americans\" for example the perceived high status and competitiveness of this group, resulted in higher perceived competence but lower perceived warmth scores (Fiske et al., 1999, 2002). The chief implication of these studies is the existence of diverse stereotypes of two minds toward out-groups; namely, that most stereotypes tend to be positive on one dimension, competence or warmth, but generally not on both.In a COO consumer context, a study by Heslop and Papadopoulos (1993) investigated the relationship between views of countries and their people with views of products. Their empirical study included an 11-item scale that combined questions on country as well as national image. Exploratory factor analysis indicated three underlying constructs showing the following scale items loading on each factor:1. \"affect\" (refined taste, trustworthiness, role in world politics, and likeable people - analogous to the perceived warmth dimension;2. \"belief\" (industriousness of the people, management of the economy, and technological advancement - analogous to the perceived competence dimension; and3. \"behavioral link\" (more investment, closer ties).Furthermore, the Heslop and Papadopoulos (1993) study found that both the belief and affect factors significantly correlated with product performance evaluations as well as with consumers' willingness to buy. The authors (p. 67) state that:... overall then, good products come from countries whose industrial prowess we respect [a trait clearly akin to competence] and whose people we like [a trait clearly akin to warmth] and admire.The SCM findings add conceptual and empirical support to the Heslop and Papadopoulos (1993) exploratory findings regarding the dimensionality of national stereotypes. However, the SCM as put forth in this paper is a more useful tool in exploring the relationship between national stereotypes and COO-based product evaluations as it represents a theoretical advance in the study of stereotype contents, in contrast to the exploratory nature of the Heslop and Papadopoulos (1993) study.The SCM lends itself as a tool for COO research is that it posits that societal stereotypes are often mixed on competence and warmth, as defined by low ratings on one dimension coupled with high ratings on the other. Consequently, mixed stereotype contents could be expected to have differential effects across product types, with significant managerial implications. This is a crucial theoretical advance from the Heslop and Papadopoulos (1993) conceptualization that stereotypes are uniform and consistent in nature, with no distinction between the relative effects of their belief and affect factors, arguing for a general attitude consistency explanation instead. From a COO effect perspective, the SCM represents an intriguing theoretical advance, holding a number of important implications for future research that will be explored in the following sections. These research propositions are shown in Figure 1 (conceptual framework and research propositions).In the next section, we propose that the dimensions of perceived warmth and competence positively affect the COO effect on product evaluation. In subsequent sections, we argue that product type, and the consumer characteristics of cultural orientation, expertise, involvement and ethnocentrism are determinants of how national stereotype impacts the COO effect on product evaluation. Although previous research has shown that these factors may also determine the influence of COO effects on product evaluation, our paper's propositions focus on the direct influence of national stereotypes and their contents as antecedents of COO effects.\nImplications of the perceived competence and warmth dimensions of national stereotypes for the COO effect on evaluation: research propositions: National stereotypes are perceptual representations often employed in evaluations pertaining to members of that nation. Although there has been little empirical work on the origins of stereotype contents, most of our prevailing stereotype perceptions are formed based on a combination of at least some direct and indirect (i.e. through education or the media) experience with relevant national groups (Schneider, 2005). In this paper, we assume that consumers are able to position any country somewhere on the warmth/competence dimensions based on some prior knowledge or familiarity with a nation. By default, relatively unfamiliar countries are expected to receive neutral to lower attributions. Building upon the reviewed stereotyping literature in social psychology and specifically, the SCM, it is expected that positive (negative) national stereotypes (both perceived competence and perceived warmth) will lead to objects or products associated with the evaluated country's people to be positively (negatively) evaluated. Thus, it is proposed that:P1. The perceived competence and perceived warmth dimensions of national stereotypes influence the COO effect on the evaluation of products.Product types as determinants of the effects of national stereotypes contents on COO effects on evaluation\nDiscussion: Although it is well accepted in the COO literature that national stereotypes play a leading role in product evaluation, insufficient light has been shed on the applicability of their components in a consumer context. The conceptual framework advanced in this paper significantly extends our knowledge of the COO effect on consumer evaluations of products by partitioning the contents of national stereotypes, investigating the dynamic relationship between their components and tracing out relationships between their dimensionality and evaluations of products of different type, based on theoretically-important consumer characteristics such as cultural orientation, expertise, involvement and ethnocentrism. As such, the paper contributes to a more holistic understanding of the COO phenomenon by focusing on the antecedent effect of the national stereotypes construct.The advanced propositions make a theoretical contribution to the literature in international marketing by first, conceptualizing the contents of national stereotypes as antecedents of COO effects and then, by suggesting relationships between national stereotypes and attitudes toward products, as moderated by a number of product and consumer characteristics. Further, with its focus on the bi-dimensionality of stereotype contents, our conceptual framework extends important concepts from consumer behavior - such as the utilitarian and hedonic dimensions of product experience - to an original context, that of national stereotype and COO effects.Managerial implications\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to advances a conceptual framework in which the impact of national stereotype dimensions on country of origin (COO) effects is explicitly modeled and decomposed.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper proposes that the perceived warmth and perceived competence dimensions of national stereotypes underlie COO effects. The conceptual framework posits research propositions on the potential interactions of these dimensions with product type (such as hedonic versus utilitarian and high- versus low-contact services), while the effects of consumer characteristics (such as cultural orientation, expertise, involvement, and ethnocentrism) are explored.\nFindings: - The Stereotype Content Model is a useful tool in exploring the relationship between national stereotypes and COO-based evaluations as it represents a major theoretical advance in the systematic study of stereotype contents.\nPractical implications: - The advanced conceptual framework holds significant practical implications for the international marketing strategies of corporations as well as nations.\nOriginality/value: - This paper proposes an original conceptualization and testable research propositions regarding the relationship between national stereotype contents and COO-based consumer evaluations of products.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Antecedents of marketing integration in cross-border mergers and acquisitions: Evidence from Malaysia and Indonesia	[ "Mergers and acquisitions", "Marketing integration" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are a very intricate phenomenon compared to domestic M&As (Sinkovics et al., 2014a, b, c; Stahl and Mendenhall, 2005). High levels of commitment and patience are required from M&A players starting from day one of the unification. Close relationships between the parties that foster cooperative behavior on an ongoing basis are critically important in facilitating successful M&A outcomes. Ways to nurture these close relationships include open communication and transparent policies at both ends of the acquirer/acquired dyad. However, the use of M&As as strategic vehicles for the bundling of resources from different organizations may encounter a number of challenges. First, acquirers are required to have the \"capacity to learn about the environment and the business world\" in the acquired firm's home country (Meschi and Metais, 2006, p. 445). Second, integration processes frequently lack strategic rationales and are subject to unrealistic expectations in terms of the synergies that can be created (Aguilera and Dencker, 2004). Thus, acquiring firms need to have the willingness and the capacity to learn about the acquired firm's internal and external environment. They also need to develop skills and the necessary strategic insights to successfully manage the integration process.\nTheoretical background and hypothesis development: The extended RBV on capabilities\nMethodology: Sample and data collection\nResults: Assessment of measurement model\nDiscussion and conclusion: Theoretical implications\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine operational-level implementation issues regarding mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in general, and resource combination and integration at the functional marketing level in particular.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper introduces four factors (i.e. collaboration, interaction, marketing synergy, and the realignment of marketing resources) that support successful M&A marketing integration and enhance overall M&A performance.\nFindings: The results indicate that marketing synergy and the realignment of marketing resources contribute significantly to the extent of integration. At the same time, the authors find a significant but negative relationship between the interaction dimension and the speed of integration.\nOriginality/value: The cultural integration of firms that feature different management styles and organizational cultures has been recognized as a particularly challenging aspect of cross-border M&As. This study explains factors that contribute to effective marketing integration in M&As.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]

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