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A fuzzy AHP approach to prioritize the barriers of integrated Lean Six Sigma
|
[
"Quality improvement",
"Lean Six Sigma",
"Barriers",
"Fuzzy AHP",
"Failure factors",
"Triangular fuzzy number"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Immense competition from local and global markets pored the attention of organizations toward adoption of several quality melioration techniques to asseverate the gap between the manufacturer and consumer costs. This bipartite pressure directly affects the organization's performance. Hence, the managers insist to practice the most competent techniques that befits to their environs. Among several quality improvement practices, Lean Six Sigma (LSS) as an integrated approach emerges to be highly expeditious in terms of diminution in process variation and defects as well as the removal of non-value-added activities. It has proved to be an enormous vantage for organizations as it renders diminution in costs, melioration in profit margin and ameliorate return on investments. According to Chaplin and O'Rourke (2014), \"Merger of the two quality practices such as Lean and Six Sigma always provides an added input for increasing organizational performance.\" Andersson et al. (2014) and Assarlind et al. (2013) discussed the implementation aspects under manufacturing sectors. Ismail et al. (2014) conducted a case study with the aid of LSS tools to subjugate cycle time in a manufacturing organization and achieve significant improvement in the productivity of the organization. Several authors (Duarte, 2012; Jayaraman et al., 2012; Laureani et al., 2010; Maleyeff, 2012) discussed the LSS applications across various sectors and reported the improvements gained through its implementation. Still, several studies reported the failures of LSS implementation in literature. McLean et al. (2017) explored the root causes for the implementation failures of various quality improvement techniques. They suggested unawareness of barriers as an obstacle for successful LSS implementation. To reconnoiter the barriers of LSS, many studies (Albliwi et al., 2014; Assarlind et al., 2013; Prasanna and Vinodh, 2013) in literature have made significant contributions.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Barriers of LSS\n3. Methodology: For precise prioritization of LSS barriers, the entire structure is divided into two phases where the first phase comprises of conducting a literature review of LSS barriers and second phase includes application of FAHP for ranking the identified LSS barriers. In the initial phase, the extensive literature review of LSS barriers is conducted through articles from only peer-reviewed journals of reputed publishers such as Science Direct, Taylor & Francis, Emerald Fulltext, Inderscience and Springerlink. The majority of literature on LSS is available in the journals of these publishers; hence, the above said publishers are selected for the review purpose. The barriers of LSS identified through literature are further discussed with industrial professionals for their expert opinion. For the above purpose, a group of six industry experts (three project managers and three Six Sigma Master Black Belt personals) and two academia experts are consulted for building the main criteria, creating the hierarchical structure and making the pairwise comparison of the categorized barriers. The above-constructed panel holds expertise in LSS projects; hence, the obtained results would be precise. The outputs, though obtained, will act as an input for the next phase of FAHP application to rank the barriers of LSS. The FAHP method is considered to be one of the globally adopted techniques used for prioritizing and raking purposes. A quick review of the literature reveals the intensity of use FAHP by researchers for solving their problem. Inclusion of fuzzy with AHP has enhanced the accuracy of the solutions. Hence, for the present study, the authors have decided to employ FAHP for prioritizing purpose. Figure 1 describes the methodology adopted in the present study.\n4. LSS barriers prioritization through FAHP method: The FAHP method is employed to prioritize the LSS barriers as discussed in the previous section. The below-mentioned steps are conducted for prioritization.\n5. Discussions: In the present study, the exhaustive literature search and expert opinion from decision group panel resolved 27 LSS barriers for manufacturing environment. The selected barriers are grouped under the umbrella of five defined major criteria, namely strategy-based barriers, technology-based barriers, social-cultural barriers, organizational barriers and individual barriers. Hence, to prioritize the selected LSS barriers, FAHP method is used. The results of applied method are shown in Table XI. Among all the main criteria strategy-based barriers come out to be the most significant with the weight of 0.4497. It speculates that around 45 percent of obstacles for LSS implementation are on account of strategic barriers. Hence, the organization must take prior attention to surmount these barriers. Prime use of technology and communication leads toward smooth implementation of LSS, as technology-based barriers also accumulate to be more eminent in terms of weight (0.2858), followed by organizational barriers with the weight of 0.1694. Surmounting the organizational barriers is a prolonged procedure, so major steps should be initiated in the very beginning in order to achieve the expected results.\n6. Conclusions: To implement LSS effectively, it is very important to identify and prioritize the barriers so that the organization can focus on the high-priority barriers and develop strategies to overcome them. The FAHP methodology as proposed in the study provides a legitimate and authentic approach for prioritizing the LSS barriers. By incorporating the fuzzy numbers in the process, the decision group panel gets the flexibility for reckoning the importance of barriers. The present study identifies 27 LSS barriers through literature search and expert opinion. These barriers are categorized among five major barriers, namely strategy-based barriers, technology-based barriers, organizational barriers, social-cultural barriers and individual barriers. The outcomes of the applied FAHP methodology reflect strategy- and technology-based barriers to be most essential. The \"lack of top management attitude, commitment and involvement\" comes out to be a highly important barrier in terms of weight obtained from FAHP followed by \"lack of LSS project training and education\" and \"lack of strategic planning.\"\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: To endure against the global rivalry, various organizations are espousing several quality melioration techniques, but most of them flunk to implement them in palmiest way; hence, to surmount the failure of implementation, it is very essential to identify and prioritize the impediments of the technique to be implemented. Lean Six Sigma (LSS) has evolved as one of the most efficacious technique implemented by organizations. The purpose of this paper is to identify and prioritize the barriers of LSS for its productive implementation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study initiates from conducting a literature review of peer-reviewed articles concentrating on LSS barriers. The barriers are identified from literature as well as opinion from industry experts. These barriers are categorized underneath the canopy of five major criteria. The final elite barriers are prioritized and stratified by employing the fuzzy analytical hierarchy process approach.\nFindings: The present study identifies 27 critical barriers that obturate the palmy LSS implementation. Further prioritization of these barriers will help the practitioners to develop the strategies to tackle the barriers.\nResearch limitations/implications: The LSS barriers are identified through the literature search and opinions from industry experts, while a survey can be conducted in order to incorporate more barriers related to manufacturing concerns.\nOriginality/value: The main contribution of this paper includes identification of LSS barriers and later prioritizing them to project their intensity in order to make the practitioners comfortable to handle the LSS implementation issues.\n",
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Understanding online shopping intention: the roles of four types of trust and their antecedents
|
[
"Online shopping",
"Trust",
"Perceived risk",
"Antecedent",
"Online group-buying auction"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Nowadays, with the growth and associated advantages of e-commerce, online group-buying auctions (hereafter OGBs) are experiencing what might be described as a boom. Rapid, large-scale development of this simple commercial idea has attracted consumers, as well as vendors, all over the world (Tsai et al., 2011; Underwood, 2010). Offering benefits such as convenience and low prices, OGBs are able to accumulate consumers sharing similar interests and common goals. Moreover, OGBs, offering bargains on everything from gourmet food to travel packages, is catching on all over the world as vendors harness the power of the OGBs to influence consumers' purchasing behavior. Examples of OGB marketplaces include eWinWin (ewinwin.com in USA), Letsbuyit (www.letsbuyit.co.uk in Europe), Vapee (www.vapee.com in China), and ihergo (www.ihergo.com in Taiwan).\n2. Theoretical foundations and research model: In this section, the hypotheses that pertain to the new research model are developed. The first two hypotheses specify the expected relationships among perceived risk, attitude, and intention to purchase. H3a-H3d and H4a-H4d specify the expected relationships among the different types of trust, perceived risk, and attitude. Finally, the rest of the hypotheses specify the expected relationships between the antecedents and their respective types of trust.\n3. Research methodology: 3.1 Data collection\n4. Data analysis and results: In statistical analysis, partial least square (PLS) regression is preferable to other techniques in that it places minimum restrictions on sample size, measurement scales, and residual distributions (Chin, 1998). It also combines the uses of multiple linear regression and factor analysis for measuring model parameters and model structures (Gefen, 2004). Moreover, it is a powerful tool by which to analyze complex relationships and models under development (Fornell and Bookstein, 1982); thus, it is particularly suitable for analyzing the data in the current study. Employing Smart PLS 2.0 M3 (Ringle et al., 2005) to test the research model, we first assessed the reliability and construct validity of the proposed model, following the two-step sequence approach recommended by Anderson and Gerbing (1988). Thereafter, we examined the structural relationships among latent constructs in the second step.\n5. Discussion and implication: 5.1 Key finding\n6. Conclusions and suggestions for future research: Trust has long been regarded as a vital factor in online shopping (Kim et al., 2008), as risks are involved in every online transaction. This study constitutes a significant advance in the research into online shopping. Specifically, it broadens our understanding of the relative importance of the four types of trust, as well as their respective antecedents. This was made possible by a proposed model, based on prior literature, with the analysis of data collected from members of an online group-buying site providing strong empirical support for both the fitness of the model and the findings.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide a better picture of factors influencing behavioral decisions in online shopping by identifying different targets of trust and discussing their antecedents and outcomes.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Online survey data from 242 ihergo members were used to test the proposed model, and structural equation modeling with partial least squares was performed to analyze the measurement and structural models.\nFindings: The findings show that the four types of trust identified in this study are critical determinants of perceived risk and attitude. In addition, the majority of the antecedents are found to be associated with their respective types of trust.\nResearch limitations/implications: The research extends the theory of reasoned action and prior research to discuss four types of consumer trust, as well as their respective antecedents and subsequent consequences. The result is a more descriptive model that better explicates consumers' decision-making processes in online shopping.\nPractical implications: Given the intense competition between online shopping sites, web site managers should strive to provide a safe and user-friendly shopping environment. In addition, the vendor can enhance trust by encouraging satisfied customers to provide positive endorsements.\nOriginality/value: This study is possibly the first of its kind, in identifying the four types of trust and their respective antecedents in the context of an online group-buying auction, and thus serves to enrich the existing literature concerning trust-building factors.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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The effect of quality management on mass customization capability
|
[
"Mass customization",
"Quality management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Mass customization (MC) represents a manufacturing paradigm which aims to provide a variety of customized products with cost, quality, and delivery performance comparable to that achieved by mass production. The emergence of MC involves a fundamental change in the way business is conducted. Customer focus (CF) and operational competence are the two key concepts that are critical to the success of MC implementation. CF indicates a change to customer-driven manufacturing (Murakoshi, 1994). It requires a mass customizer to place their focus on customers, and construct their products, organization, manufacturing systems, and concepts accordingly to fulfill the changing customers' needs (Anderson and Pine, 1997). This notion of CF is also at the core of quality management (QM). The importance of it has been universally acknowledged in the classical work of quality gurus (Crosby, 1996; Deming, 1986; Ishikawa, 1985; Juran, 1992), in the criteria of quality awards (Wilson and Collier, 2000), and in empirical QM research (Saraph et al., 1989; Powell, 1995). For instance, Feigenbaum (1991) claimed that quality is what the customer says it is; CF is embedded in the management of quality. Similarly, Spencer (1994, p. 447) defined quality as \"satisfying or delighting the customer. All quality-improvement initiatives must begin with an understanding of customer perceptions and needs\".Operational competence is another MC success factor. It connotes a manufacturer's ability to excel on multiple operational competitive dimensions including flexibility, cost, quality, and delivery. The concept of operational competence is embodied within the definition of MC, indicating a paradigmatic departure from the classical operations strategy literature which argues that manufacturers should trade off their individual operational competitive dimensions in order to achieve success. Instead, the underlying concept of pursuing multiple competitive dimensions in operational competence is consistent with the notion of cumulative competitive capabilities (Rosenzweig et al., 2003; Flynn and Flynn, 2004). Proponents of cumulative competitive capabilities contend that individual competitive capabilities are combinatorial in the sense that capability in one dimension can enhance capabilities in other dimensions. Notably, quality has often been recognized as a generic competitive capability that should be first developed in the sequential progression towards the building of other capabilities (Ferdows and DeMeyer, 1990; Roth, 1996). Following this line of reasoning, it is reasonable to predict that QM has the potential to contribute to operational competence, and help manufacturers to implement MC efficiently and effectively.The above discussions show that QM is intuitively linked to the success of MC. Yet, empirical investigation of the role of QM in the development of MC capability is largely missing in the current MC literature. In light of this missing link, we launched a systematic empirical investigation of the relationship between QM and MC capability, using large-scale survey data collected from 167 plants located in three industries and eight countries. Drawing upon the existing literature on QM, operations strategy, and MC, we identify six QM practices (top management leadership for quality (TMLQ), small group problem solving (SGPS), information and feedback (IF), process management (PM), supplier involvement (SI), and CF and posit that these six practices represent a holistic view of QM, which in turn, facilitates the development of MC capability. We examined these hypothesized relationships using structural equation modeling (SEM).We believe investigating the role of QM in the development of MC capability is an important research undertaking. Even though QM has been around for decades, most manufacturers now view it as necessity which only helps to improve quality performance, an order qualifier to today's marketplace. We contend that the pursuit of QM has much more than offering order qualifiers. The understanding of production process resulting from the implementation of QM leads to effective process variance reduction and more importantly, develops organizational absorptive capacity. As a result, it forms the foundation for developing other competitive capabilities. A study devoted to QM and MC capability offers important managerial insights to manufacturers - that is, QM can be leveraged to further develop MC capability, and guide manufacturers to effectively employ their QM efforts.In the following sections, we first review the relevant literature and develop our research hypotheses. Next, we describe our data and evaluate their psychometric properties, followed by empirical analysis and discussions. Finally, we conclude our paper with contributions, limitations, and future research.\nLiterature review and research hypotheses: QM practices\nResearch design: Data description\nResults and discussion: In order to assess H1, using SEM, we first estimated the theoretical model that depicts QM as a second-order construct, which is reflected by the first-order constructs of SGPS, IF, TMLQ, SI, and CF (Figure 2).The various fit indices consistently indicate that our second-order theoretical model fits the data well (kh2=430.24, df=264, kh2/df=1.63, IFI=0.93, NNFI=0.92, CFI=0.93, RMSEA=0.06). We report the empirical results of the second-order model in Table III, including the standardized structural (path) coefficients and the error variance of the dependent variables in the model. The significant standardized path coefficients from the second-order construct of QM to first-order constructs that reflect QM indicate that QM is indeed reflected by these first-order constructs.After establishing the second-order nature of the QM construct in order to test H2, we first created summated scales of our proposed constructs (Little et al., 2002). In doing so, we could assess the theoretical relationships among QM and MC capability, while having a sufficiently high ratio of number of observations to number of parameters estimated (N:q=167:111=1.50) to ensure the reliability of the results. Simulation studies have shown that as the ratio of number of observations to number of parameters estimated decreases, the reliability of the estimates also decreases (Bentler and Chou, 1987; Marsh et al., 1988). To address these concerns, we represent the first-order latent constructs of SGPS, TMLQ, IF, SI, CF, and MC capability as summated scales (Figure 3). For our purposes, a summated scale refers to an observed variable constructed by taking the simple mean of several items assumed to reflect that theoretical construct (Kishton and Widaman, 1994; Nasser et al., 2006). Given that we established the validity and unidimensionality of our first-order constructs in the previous section, we can represent these variables as summated scales. Moreover, based on simulation studies, Nasser et al. (2006) showed that the use of summated scales has negligible effects on parameter bias and on the standard errors. With the help of this technique, we considerably increased the ratio of number of observations to number of parameter estimates N:q=167:27=6.19.Finally, to control for potential country and industry effects, we standardized all variables across industries and countries (Huang et al., 2008). Except the control variables (i.e. the number of employees and capacity utilization), none of the variables had missing values. The number of missing values in the control variables was of the order of 10 percent, and thus did not constitute a problem for our statistical analysis (Tsikriktsis, 2005). In Table IV, we present the correlation matrix for the standardized variables.In Figure 3, we show the result of the structural equation model that tests the relationship between QM, number of employees, capacity utilization, and MC capability. Our results support H2, the positive effect of QM on MC capability (g=0.31, p<=0.01). Contrary to the effect of QM on MC capability, neither number of employees (g=0.06, p>=0.10) nor capacity utilization (g=0.04, p>=0.10) has a significant effect on MC capability. The fit statistics also indicate that the theoretical model fits the data well (kh2=46.52, df=27, kh2/df=1.72, IFI=0.95, NNFI=0.93, CFI=0.95, RMSEA=0.07).Winter (1994) asserts that QM should be characterized as searching for product and process improvements through the implementation of problem-solving heuristics and techniques that are based on the active collaboration of all those involved (Escrig-Tena and Bou-Llusar, 2005). The QM practices proposed in this study capture the essence of QM described by Winter. The implementation of SGPS, CF, and SI ensure active cooperation internally and externally. The use of IF and PM provide employees with necessary information and techniques required for problem solving, and the SGPS practice gives employees a formal venue to participate in problem solving. Finally, the construct of top management support for quality, provides an environment where customer needs are fully focused and the development of effective work teams are supported. All these practices lead to an organization's unwavering focus on customer needs and long-term commitment to continually improve all aspects of products and processes (Flynn et al., 1997). More importantly, our findings echo the prediction from multiple OM theories by showing that the integrated QM construct positively contributes to the development of MC capability. These findings provide further empirical evidence supporting the notion of cumulative competitive capabilities.\nConclusions: This study investigated the relationship between QM and MC capability. Building upon the existing QM literature, we identify six QM practices - TMLQ, SGPS, IF, PM, SI, and CF - which reflect the key principles of QM, namely, CF, teamwork, continuous improvement, and systems view of organization. Taken together, this set of practices represents a holistic view of QM, an integrated management philosophy that is supportive of the principles of CF and operational competence embraced in MC. Building upon the existing literature in MC and QM and operations strategy, we argue that the integrated QM modeled as a second-order construct captured by six first-order QM practices contributes favorably to the development of MC capability. The hypotheses were then tested using data collected from 167 manufacturing plants in three industries, located in eight countries. Our results provided empirical support for the proposed relationships described in our theoretical model.This study is one of the first to investigate the role of QM in developing MC capability (Duray, 2006). By doing so, it makes important contributions to both the growing literature in MC and the advancement of the QM literature. Much of the existing literature on MC focuses on defining what it really is, explaining why it is important, and predicting its benefits. The literature on how to develop MC capability is limited. To this end, our paper proposes that QM practices are one of the potential factors influencing MC capability. We understand that other factors such as product modularity and postponement contribute to MC capability. However, these factors have been widely studied. In contrast, we add a new insight in our paper by investigating QM practices - an underexplored antecedent to MC capability. We present an explanation of why and how QM helps to develop MC capability, by emphasizing the key QM principles, namely, CF and continuous improvement. The findings from our empirical analyses complement the traditional, technical view of MC with a managerial view by emphasizing the importance of operational interventions.This research also contributes to the QM field. Our study illustrates the value of QM in the development of other operational capabilities and provides additional support for the concept of cumulative competitive capabilities, in which different operational capabilities are viewed as mutually reinforcing rather than being traded off (Boyer and Lewis, 2002; Flynn and Flynn, 2005).It is important to recognize the scope and limitations of this study and identify potential extensions to this research. First, the dataset for our study is cross-sectional. A natural direction for future research would be to conduct a longitudinal research study that would provide a deeper understanding of these connections. Second, our research utilizes an existing database, thereby limiting the choices of variables analyzed in this study. Nevertheless, the database is very comprehensive and was designed to measure the key variables in both QM and MC. Other conceptual frameworks and variables may also be used to explain how to achieve MC capability. Furthermore, practices other than QM could be proposed as antecedents to MC capability. There is a great need for research on other variables that may affect MC capability either directly or indirectly.Managerial implications\n",
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"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of quality management (QM) in the development of mass customization (MC) capability. QM is modeled as a second-order construct reflected by six QM practices (small group problem solving, top management leadership for quality, information and feedback, process management, customer focus, and supplier involvement). The paper proposes that these six practices reflect the core principles of QM, and in turn QM contributes to the development of MC capability.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Using the survey data collected from 167 manufacturing plants in three industries and eight countries, structural equation modeling was employed to test the hypotheses.\nFindings: - The results provide empirical evidence supporting the proposed relationships between QM and MC capability.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The dataset for this paper is cross-sectional. Future studies should consider a longitudinal setting that would provide a deeper understanding of causal relationships. Second, an existing database was used, thereby limiting the choices of variables analyzed.\nPractical implications: - The findings of empirical support for the positive impact of QM practices on MC capability provide guidance for managers in the allocation of resources for QM efforts in their pursuit of MC capability.\nOriginality/value: - This is one of the first studies to shed light on the effects of QM on MC capability. The paper presents an explanation on how QM helps to develop MC capability and also finds empirical evidence supporting such a relationship.\n",
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The rigorous leadership expectations of autonomous teams: How to be a top leader who adds compounding value to team members
|
[
"Employee commitment",
"Leadership",
"Feedback",
"Job satisfaction",
"Autonomous teams"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Business psychology thinker Daniel Pink said that autonomy is \"the urge to direct our own lives.\" Achieving a healthy balance between the preferred working practices of autonomous team members and the leadership style of an organization can be an artfully complex operation. A research paper by Hess (2018) examines how the involvement of top level leaders affects the work of autonomous teams, as well as the expectations of those team members around the kind of value that top leaders should add for them. Insights were gathered from telephone interviewing three members of six different autonomous teams about their experiences of working at community colleges in the USA's Midwest region.\nSetting autonomous teams up for success: A team works autonomously when its members can make their own decisions and allocate their own workstreams, without having to gain regular approval from a more senior member of the organization. The benefits of autonomous teams are that they boost levels of job satisfaction in their members and promote an engaged working culture that builds employee commitment to an organization. Possible value that a leader can add to improve the experiences of these teams includes imbuing them with an empowering perception that they're safe while reducing any uncertainty that lingers in their work.\nLeadership direction themes: As a result of asking open interview questions such as \"What caused any delays in your team's progress?\" and \"Describe the level of empowerment granted to your team\", the study uncovered three leadership behavior themes that are clearly valued by the autonomous team respondents:\nCornerstones for moving forward: To give leaders clarity on how to work most effectively with autonomous teams the paper advocates, firstly, deploying morale-boosting inclusive recruitment that includes the team members. Secondly, active face-to-face communication with team members on a really frequent basis should be maintained to form a naturally trusting feedback loop. Thirdly, the resources that autonomous teams have become accustomed to should be kept flowing so as not to fall short of their leadership expectations. Providing this kind of certainty will underpin a high performance-focused mindset by the team members, as a result of them feeling connected with their leader and perceiving that their leader has their back.\nCommentary: The review is based on \"Autonomous team members\" expectations for top-leader involvement' by Hess (2018), published in Team Performance Management: An International Journal. This research paper concentrates on the types of leadership behaviors and contributions that can enhance the performance of autonomous teams. By committing to totally inclusive and fair recruitment, giving very regular face-to-face feedback, and maintaining the resources these teams use to deliver their work, leaders stand the best chance of boosting morale and inspiring optimum productive effort by meeting autonomous teams' leadership-based expectations.\n",
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"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: This research paper concentrates on the types of leadership behaviors and contributions that can enhance the performance of autonomous teams. By committing to totally inclusive and fair recruitment, giving very regular face-to-face feedback, and maintaining the resources these teams use to deliver their work, leaders stand the best chance of boosting morale and inspiring optimum productive effort by meeting autonomous teams' leadership-based expectations.\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"
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Learning transfer model: a research-driven approach to enhancing learning effectiveness
|
[
"Learning",
"Human resource management",
"Training",
"Information transfer"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nLearning transfer: enhancing the impact of learning on performance: The fundamental purpose of learning and development is to help people develop skills which, when applied to work, enhance job and organizational performance. While this is widely acknowledged, how we measure the success of learning is not often in alignment with this idea. In fact, the most popular model for evaluating learning and development (the Kirkpatrick model) has three \"levels\" devoted to measuring learning outcomes, and only one measuring performance outcomes.This focus on learning outcomes, rather than performance outcomes, has also influenced how learning has been designed and delivered for most of our industry's history. More recently, it has been widely researched (and largely accepted) that learning and development, as usually conducted, does not create performance change at an acceptable rate. In fact, most estimates suggest that only about 15-20 percent of the learning investments organizations make actually result in work performance changes.For example, Figure 1 (from research conducted by Saks and Belcort, 2006) shows the decline in the use of learning on the job over time. The research clearly shows that for the average training and development program, there is a steady decline in the use of new skills. It is estimated that only about 35 percent of the skills are still in use 12 months after the typical training event.Over the years, a number of people have offered theoretical models for how to enhance learning so that it results in greater impact on performance. This work goes under many names: extended learning, learning transfer, transfer climate, and relapse prevention, to name a few. In this article we will use the term \"learning transfer\", because in our opinion, \"learning transfer\" best represents the desired outcome - transfer of learning to actual job performance.There are several limitations to these theoretical models. First, most of them are rather complex, containing a large number of factors. Second, they are difficult, maybe impossible, to implement in any practical setting. Finally, while some of the models have a basis in research, they all began from a theoretical perspective, rather than from a practical perspective.Therefore, the purpose of this research was to answer two basic questions:1. Can we identify sufficient research that documents the impact of specific learning transfer activities on the use of skills on the job?2. Then, from that research, can we construct a model that captures the essential components that support learning transfer most effectively?\nThe study: The first task of this study was to identify published and unpublished research that met three specific criteria:1. The research compared training alone to training plus one or more learning transfer activities.2. The research reported statistically significant differences between training alone and training plus the learning transfer activities. This had to be more than anecdotal information so we could compare across studies.3. The outcome measures reported in the results needed to be performance outcomes, not learning outcomes.Using a variety of sources, we identified research studies that met these criteria. We reviewed each study to identify the learning transfer action used, and identified how the performance difference was measured between training alone and training plus learning transfer activity. Many of the studies implemented multiple learning transfer activities. As a result we identified 32 studies that examined 66 learning transfer activities.Each study used its own statistical method for calculating the performance impact of the learning transfer activities (regression, ANOVA, t-test, etc.). Therefore, for each learning transfer activity we used the available statistical data and calculated a \"difference score\" which represented the relative contribution of each learning transfer activity to the difference between training alone and training plus that learning transfer activity. That allowed us to compare across studies even though they used different statistical methods. This difference score represented the percentage improvement of training plus learning transfer over training alone. For example, a difference score of 20 indicated that that learning transfer activity improved the performance of the participants 20 percent over training alone.Finally, to create a model that is less complex and easier to implement than the previous theory-driven models, we grouped similar transfer actions into common transfer activity categories. This led us to the learning transfer model described below.\nFindings: In summary, three broad conclusions can be drawn from this research:1. This study provides convincing evidence that learning transfer activities have a meaningful impact on improving the performance results achieved from training alone. Taken together, the research suggests that the impact of learning can be enhanced by as much as 186 percent when all of the learning transfer methods are utilized.2. While learning transfer has a tremendous impact on performance, any one method may have a relatively modest impact. We found that taken alone, most learning transfer activities will improve performance about 20 percent over training alone. While significant, this is much below what others claim will happen.3. Finally, there is tremendous variability from study to study on the impact of learning transfer activities. While all of the studies tended to show significant and positive performance impact, the specific percent improvement varied widely. This clearly shows the need for further research in this area.\nLearning transfer model: As described above, we found that the learning transfer activities researched in these 32 studies can be grouped into three primary categories (see Figure 2):1. Learner readiness activities - These activities focus on ensuring that the learner is prepared for the core learning event. Activities that address motivation, learner goals, self-efficacy, and testing of prerequisite skills are included in this category.2. Learning transfer design activities - These are activities embedded in the instructional design that are intended to support learning transfer. Practice activities, role modeling, setting learning goals, and application review and support are examples.3. Organizational alignment activities - These activities focus on ensuring that the organization supports the use of the skills. Activities here include manager coaching, peer support, connecting learning to the job, and creating a learning culture.Within each primary category, three to four specific learning transfer activities have been subject to research and have been shown to have an impact on performance.Impact of learning transfer on performance outcomes\nLearner readiness: Learner readiness addresses the preparation given to learners prior to engaging in a learning activity. While things like prerequisite skills and pre-work are important, research has focused on activities that prepare the learner psychologically and emotionally to learn. As a whole, the research suggests that addressing learner readiness can increase the effectiveness of learning transfer by as much as 70 percent:* Motivation to learn - Activities that communicate the importance and value of learning to motivate the learner. This includes actions such as promoting lifelong learning, addressing learning anxiety, and overall helping the adult learner appreciate the value of learning.* Intent to use - Of course, motivation to learn has less value if the learner does not intend to use the learning. This includes actions focused on helping learners integrate the learning into their work environment and work systems, and motivating them to practice using the skills they learn.* Career goal alignment - Activities that help learners see how the skills align with their ultimate work and career goals. The more a learner sees the skills as valuable to his or her career progression, the more likely the skills will be used and have a positive impact on performance.* Self-efficacy - Addressing the learner's belief that he or she has the capacity to learn and that the learning will result in a meaningful change in performance.Learning transfer design\nRecommendations: Not all learning transfer activities are needed in every learning environment. However, the research does indicate that all learning events can benefit from additional actions specific to supporting the transfer of learning to the workplace.Our experience indicates that learning transfer activities need to be considered along with all other factors of any instructional design process. In the development and launch of any learning program, organizations should ask questions such as:1. How do we know the learner audience is ready for this learning event, and what is the best way to prepare them to learn and use the skills?2. How is goal setting included in the learning process?3. What forms of practice and modeling are best for this content and this learner audience?4. What kinds of learning review and application support are needed to ensure use of the skills after the learning event?5. What is the best way to align the organization to support the use of the skills learned?6. Are managers and peers prepared to coach and support the application of the learning?7. Will the organization's culture support the use of learning, or will it be a barrier? How can the culture be altered if it is a barrier?One approach we have taken with clients has been to help them build a \"learning transfer balance scorecard\" to identify where they are supporting transfer, what the impact has been, and where they could do more to improve the return on investment of their learning.\nConclusion: Activities that enhance the transfer of learning into workplace performance will have an important impact on an organization's performance and can significantly increase the return-on-investment for training and development efforts. This study provides convincing evidence that learning transfer can have a tremendous impact on the effectiveness of learning. Indeed, results suggest that, if all of the techniques studied above were simultaneously implemented, the impact of learning could be increased 186 percent.This research also suggests that the actions that need to be taken are relatively clear and easy to implement. A few key activities, appropriately timed, can have a tremendous impact on organizational performance and the sustainability of learning.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is determine what direct evidence is available that demonstrates the tangible benefit of learning transfer activities to improve the transfer of training. Further, this research creates an application framework for implementing the most effective solutions to increase the effectiveness of human resource development initiatives.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A targeted meta-analysis process, focused on research that compared training alone with training plus transfer activities, is used. \"Difference scores\", representing the percentage of improvement the transfer activities created over training alone, are computed.\nFindings: - Results indicate that there are 11 specific learning transfer activities showing tangible impact and evidence of effectiveness. In total, 32 studies are found that made this type of comparison. While this may be too narrow to draw specific conclusions, it provides a good basis for development of a learning transfer framework.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The results indicate that there is a great need for more research that directly compares training alone with training plus transfer activities.\nPractical implications: - Nonetheless, the research may help to simplify the complex models of learning transfer presented by others and provide a framework that is more likely to be implemented than previous frameworks and theories.\nOriginality/value: - This is the first ever effort, according to the author, to assess the direct impact of learning transfer activities on performance improvement.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Asymmetric relationships in networked agricultural innovation processes
|
[
"Innovation",
"Supply chain",
"Empirical study",
"Farmers",
"Belgium",
"Competitors"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Over recent years, \"networked innovation\" has become an important theme within the innovation literature. This literature stream emphasises the interactive and collaborative nature of the innovation process (Powell et al., 1996; Omta, 2002; Pittaway et al., 2004; Swan and Scarbrough, 2005; Chesbrough, 2006), which is defined as the ongoing process of learning, searching and exploring, resulting in new products, new processes, new forms of organisation and new markets (Lundvall, 1995).\n2. Methodology: 2.1. Data collection\n3. Results: characteristics of innovation partners and relationships in the agricultural sector: In the following paragraphs, the research question is tackled with regard to each network partner. A distinction is made by subsector where relevant. Results are illustrated with verbatim quotes from the respondents. These were translated from Dutch to English. Although the quotes may have lost some of their original qualities in translation, they do still encapsulate the messages given by the respondents. An overview of the results is given in Table II.\n4. Discussion and conclusions: The findings from our study contribute to the innovation literature, in particular by combining the asymmetric typologies framework of Johnsen and Ford (2008) with the concept of networked innovation within the agricultural sector. The application of this combined framework is rather unique, particularly in the agricultural sector (Colurcio et al., 2012; Colurcio and Russo-Spena, 2013). By using this approach, a deeper understanding is gained as to how farmers experience the asymmetry in their relationships for innovation with colleagues, suppliers and buyers, thereby enabling improvements to the innovation capacity of farmers via networking.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: In innovation networks, asymmetric relationships are both considered as an opportunity and a threat for the enhancement of innovation. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how much asymmetry Flemish farmers perceive in their relationships for innovation with colleagues, suppliers and buyers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In total, 86 farmers active in four different agricultural subsectors in Flanders were consulted, of which 38 via in-depth interviews and 48 in seven focus groups. Data were analysed using NVivo.\nFindings: The authors found that across subsectors, different players in innovation networks play different roles. Furthermore, the authors observed that the majority of farmers see their relationships more as a necessity for the farm to be able to function, than as an opportunity for innovation. If they collaborate for innovation, they often prefer symmetric relationships with similar companies on horizontal level. Vertical collaboration for innovation is not very popular in the sample.\nPractical implications: The findings suggest that farmers should take more actions to gain power in the chain and improve their skills with regards to negotiating with their suppliers or buyers. Furthermore, the authors found which characteristics of asymmetric relationships would foster the development of innovation processes.\nOriginality/value: Empirical work studying the effects and impacts of asymmetric relationships for innovation from the SME's perspective are still limited, especially in the agricultural sector. Furthermore, this sector is of practical relevance to study because the need for networking and innovation is very real.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Development of Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises
|
[
"Small to medium‐sized enterprises",
"Business development",
"China"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: development history of Chinese SMEs: Over the past two decades, Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have gone through roughly three development phases, along with the development of China's reform and opening-up. The first phase was from 1978 to 1992, characterised by the expansion of SMEs in number and scale. This resulted from the government's encouragement of and support for the development of township, collective and self-employed enterprises. The rapid expansion of these enterprises has made great contribution to economic development and improvement of the people's living standards.The second phase was from 1992 to 2002. During this period, the emphasis was reform of state-owned SMEs and the development of non-public sectors. The government adopted various measures, such as restructuring, merger and acquisition, joint partnership, leasing, contracting and sell-off, to speed up reforms of state-owned SMEs and to gradually reduce the state's ownership in SMEs. At the same time private-owned SMEs enjoyed rapid development along with the establishment of the socialist market economy. The phase was an important historical period for the development of Chinese SMEs.The third phase began with 2002. In June 2002, China promulgated the small and medium-sized enterprises promotion law, which symbolised that the development of SMEs have ushered in a new era. The main mission for the government in this period was to implement the SMEs promotion law, which involves the following tasks:* to further improve policies and measures concerning the development of SMEs;* to remove institutional barriers that hinder the development of SMEs, especially private-owned ones;* to create a level playing field for the development of SMEs;* to promote scientific and technological innovations and upgrading;* to optimise industrial structure of SMEs; and* to enhance the overall quality and competitiveness of SMEs.On the whole, Chinese SMEs have gained a fast growth ever since the reform and opening-up, measured in terms of size, number, financial status, or profitability. Two factors played decisive roles in this period. The first factor was the speedy development of township enterprises. Most of township enterprises were small and medium-sized, and thus became a key driving force for the development of Chinese SMEs. The development of township enterprises not only provided solutions for the transfer of rural surplus labour forces to non-agricultural sectors and increase of farmers' income, but also established a solid foundation for the accomplishment of the strategy of gradual reforms and development. The second factor was the rapid growth of non-public sectors of the economy, notably private-owned SMEs. As economic reforms proceeded, more and more people realised the importance of non-state-owned businesses, especially private-owned SMEs. From the very beginning of the reform and opening-up, the government acknowledged that the non-public sector of the economy would be a necessary and favourable supplement to the socialist public economy. In 2004 China amended the constitution to grant the non-public economy a legal status in the socialist market economy. Such a legislative move reflects China's deepened understanding of the non-public sector of the economy, which in turn gives great impetus to the development of private-owned enterprises.\nCurrent status of Chinese SMEs: There were about 2.4 million small and medium-sized enterprises at the end of 2001 in China, accounting for 99 per cent of all registered corporations[1]. If those SMEs such as self-employed businesses, leasehold farm households and individual partnerships that are not legal persons are also included, the number is far larger. Chinese SMEs have played an important role in stimulating economic growth, increasing employment, expanding exports and promoting science and technology innovations.In terms of economic growth, the output value, sales revenues and tax revenues of SMEs in the industrial sector accounted for 60, 57 and 40 per cent respectively of the total of all the industrial enterprises. Since 1990s, SMEs have created 75 per cent of the incremental industrial output value. SMEs also dominated in most industrial sectors: over 70 per cent of the gross output value in the food, papermaking and printing industries, over 80 per cent in the garment tannery, recreation and sports outfit, plastic and metalwork industries, and over 90 per cent in the wood and furniture industries[2]. Despite the limitation of statistic data, in which only sufficient data about industrial sectors are available, it is rather reasonable to extend the conclusion about SMEs to the other sectors according to our common observations. For example, SMEs in the wholesale and retailing industry accounted for about 33 per cent of the total number of SMEs[3] and have played a crucial role in enhancing commodity circulation.In terms of employment expansion, SMEs have created about 79 per cent of new jobs nationwide. Employees in SMEs accounted for a large proportion of the total employees nationwide: above 85 per cent in the industrial sectors, 90 per cent in the retailing industry and over 65 per cent in the construction industry[4]. Especially in recent years, the development of private-owned SMEs has considerably expanded employment and become a major driving force for the employment increase, which plays an active role in absorbing workers laid-off or dispersed from both state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and urban collective enterprises. From 1998 to 2003, nearly 19 million workers laid-off from SOEs were re-employed (Information Office of the State Council, 2004) and most of them went to SMEs.In terms of foreign trade and exports, the total export value of China in 2003 amounted to over US$430 billion and China was ranked fourth place in the world in the total import and export value in 2003[5]. On the list of export commodities, some bulk export commodities are mainly manufactured by SMEs, such as garments, shoes and hats, handicrafts and metal goods, light industry products, textile and toys, which are mainly high-tech or labour-intensive products.In terms of science and technology innovation, SMEs in China have achieved great progress in technological innovation, and become the driving force for the spread and application of new technology and innovation. By the end of 2003, China established over 100 high-tech enterprise incubators, over 30 university science parks, over 20 enterprise parks for returned overseas students, over 40 service centres for SMEs' technology innovation, and more than 500 productivity promotion centres[6]. All these institutions have provided strong support for the technological innovation of SMEs. A great number of technology-oriented SMEs locate in the areas such as Zhongguancun in Beijing, Waigaoqiao in Shanghai, and the innovation and high technology zone in Shenzhen, which contribute greatly to technology innovation in China.\nMajor policies and initiatives: The Chinese government attaches great importance to the development of SMEs and has integrated issues of small business development into its overall strategic planning for national economic and social development. In order to promote the development of SMEs, the government adjusted related legislations and policies step by step, and launched a series of policies and initiatives.Preferential taxation policies\nLessons from the Chinese experiences: SMEs play a significant role in promoting fast and healthy economic and social development. In retrospect of the development of SMEs in China, it is well recognised that the subjective initiative of SMEs should be brought into full play to boost their internal driving force for development on the one hand, and the laws of the market economy should be respected and the institutional barriers hindering the growth of the SMEs should be removed to create an enabling external environment for the common development of all enterprises of varied ownership on the other hand. The following are experiences obtained from the past two decades' practices implemented by the Chinese government.The economic laws and the fundamental role of the market in allocating resources should be respected to guide SMEs to a sound track of industrial development. One important reason for Chinese SMEs to score such a great achievement since the reform and opening-up was launched lies in the right strategy that encouraged SMEs to develop in accordance with their unique nature, instead of following the outdated practices of coercing SMEs to concentrate on heavy industry. SMEs are blessed with such unique nature as small investment, fast yield, flexible operation and quick adaptability to market changes. They can only achieve robust development when the government can abide by the objective laws of the market economy, bring the role of the market in allocating resources into full play, consider the development needs of SMEs and guide them to the sound track centring on the light and tertiary industries.The self-operation status of SMEs should be fully respected, so as to facilitate the establishment of a sound mechanism of self-investment and self-development of SMEs. The fast development of SMEs, especially private ones, has become the most dynamic facet of the Chinese economy. In some areas, private SMEs have become the backbone of the local economy. This should be attributable to the relaxed environment provided by the government to SMEs in the process of reform, opening up and the improvement of the market economy. Meanwhile, the role of SMEs as major players in the market has been brought into full play. They adapt themselves to the requirements of the market economy and adjust their development strategy and industrial structure to formulate a healthy mechanism of self-governance, self-determination and self-development, thus boosting their development initiative and dynamism. This is the overriding reason for the rapid growth of China's SMEs, the private ones in particular, since the reform and opening-up program was started.It is imperative to encourage SMEs to optimise industrial structure and enhance their competitiveness. Chinese SMEs have gained an amazing expansion in terms of number and scale. A group of SMEs have stood out and some of them have even grown into large enterprises or conglomerates. For example, Haier Group, Lenovo Group Ltd (formerly known as Legend Group Ltd), UFSoft Co. Ltd and Wanxiang Group Corp. were all SMEs at the beginning, and now become internationally well-known large enterprises. On the whole, however, most of SMEs still hang around at a low level of development. One important reason is that Chinese SMEs have a short period of development and still pursue the extensive mode of growth. Therefore, their management philosophy, style, industrial structure and product mix do not meet the demands of market competition. It is still a demanding issue confronting SMEs as to how to meet the requirements of the market reform, enhance industrial structure and transform the extensive business mode into an intensive one. Therefore, it is a fundamental way for SMEs to adapt themselves to the WTO requirements and market competition by strengthening institutional capacity in management, technology and personnel training, enhance overall qualification and build up vitality and competitiveness. This is important experience summed up from the rapid development of SMEs since the reform and opening-up.It is important to properly handle the relations between the government and enterprises and bring the role of the government in macro control into the full play so as to create a fair competitive environment for SMEs. Neither private nor state-owned SMEs can develop without government support. SMEs are often in an unfavourable position in market competition, have difficulties in competing with large enterprises and remain vulnerable to market risks, which result from their nature of business, i.e. small size and weak capacity. Taking into account both the nature and important role of SMEs in the economic and social development, the Chinese government has transformed its functions in line with the requirements of the market economy and improved its way to support SMEs. While facilitating the strategic restructuring of the economy and implementing the strategy of nurturing large enterprises and conglomerates, the Chinese government has issued policies to relax control over SMEs and adopted various effective methods, with the ownership reform as the focus, to accelerate the reform of state-owned SMEs. Evidence has proven that the vitality and competitiveness of SMEs and the comprehensive and coordinative social and economic development can be enhanced, only if the government adopts appropriate economic policies that are in line with the nature of SMEs, properly handle its relations with enterprises, exercise macro controls of appropriate intensity and timing, and create a more fair, open and enabling external environment for enterprises of varied ownership.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This article aims to present an overview of the historical development and current status of Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) examine major political initiatives contributing to SMEs' development and draw out some experience from SME development practices in China.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper is exploratory in nature, using archives of government documents and related statistics.\nFindings: - The article argues that the fundamental role of the market in allocating resources and the self-operation status of SMEs should be respected, that it is imperative to encourage SMEs to optimise industrial structure, and that it is important to properly handle the government-enterprise relations and bring the role of the government in macro control into full play so as to create a fair competitive environment for SMEs.\nPractical implications: - The Chinese experience of SME development is of great interest to policy-makers and academics alike.\nOriginality/value: - The article explores entrepreneurship and SME development in China from a policy-making perspective.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Work team effectiveness in organizational contexts: Recent research and applications in Spain and Portugal
|
[
"Team working",
"Spain",
"Portugal"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Current research on work teams in organizational contexts stems, in the main, from the development of psycho-social theory and inquiry in the field of group psychology since the 1930s. This body of learning was largely generated in the laboratory using experimental methods (McGrath et al., 2000), and comparatively few studies were performed in real contexts, mostly in the 1950s (Sundstrom et al., 2000). It is no surprise, then, that scholars are divided in their evaluations of the results obtained. Some (e.g. West, 1996) hold that the tradition provides a considerable source of useful findings for our understanding of the way in which teams function, while others (e.g. Bramel and Friend, 1987; Cannon-Bowers et al., 1992; Ilgen et al., 1993) have criticized the data as fragmentary, incomplete, confused and, at times, contradictory, although they recognize its value.Over the past 25 years research on groups and work teams has shifted away from the field of social psychology into the domain of work and organizational psychology (Levine and Moreland, 1990; Simpson and Wood, 1992). As Steiner (1986) remarks:The group is too important to an understanding of human behavior and the knowledge of society to be forever neglected. If social psychologists do not research the group, someone else surely will (p. 283).This resurgence of interest has ushered in a golden age, in terms of both the volume and quality of work. Nevertheless, the limited scope of theory and the absence of any comprehensive conceptual framework, problems traditionally associated with psycho-social inquiry, continue to hinder the accumulation of findings that would represent real progress in our knowledge.The reawakening of interest in groups and work teams is related with wider changes in the world of work and organizations driven by economic, strategic and technological imperatives. The pressures of global competition, the need to consolidate business models in complex and shifting environments and the pursuit of continuous innovation have led to a reappraisal of the team as a key element of the basic organizational architecture (Kozlowski and Bell, 2003). In this context, the joint action of individuals working together in a cooperative manner to attain shared goals through the differentiation of roles and functions, and the use of elaborate communication and coordination systems, are now viewed as essential to effectiveness and competitive advantage. As West (2001) points out, the current enthusiasm for work groups and team working:Reflects a deeper, perhaps unconscious, recognition that this way of working offers the promise of greater progress than can be achieved through individual endeavor or through mechanistic approaches to work (p. 270).The mechanistic approach may, of course, be appropriate when activities are stable, planned and predictable, but the modern organization must respond ever more quickly, flexibly and adaptively to shifting circumstances and demands that are often difficult to foresee. Such situations can only be successfully addressed by combining diverse but interrelated competencies, skills, knowledge and experiences, and through cooperation between the members of the organization (Tjosvold et al., 2003). Teams respond to these needs (Kozlowski and Bell, 2003).Unsurprisingly, research in the past two decades has focused almost exclusively on the effectiveness of work teams in organizational contexts. Given the prevalence and expanding role of teams in organizations of all kinds (Devine et al., 1999) the key research issue is to enable individually competent and skilled people to synergize as a team. To put it another way, the question is how to turn a team of experts into an expert team (Salas et al., 1997).The urgent need to discover the factors involved in work team performance and effectiveness, and to develop powerful training strategies, has, however, thrown up a myriad of theoretical models and applications, which are often insufficiently integrated to be of much practical use (Salas et al., 2004).\n2. Models of work team effectiveness in organizational contexts: With the aim mapping research into work team effectiveness in organizational contexts, Salas et al. (2004) group the dozens of models into two major integrative frameworks.The first comprises models that follow the \"input-process-output\" structure initially applied to groups by McGrath (1964) and subsequently refined by Hackman and Morris (1975). This has been dubbed the functional approach (Wittenbaum et al., 2004, p. 19), and it is defined by three basic assumptions:1. Groups are goal-oriented.2. Group performance varies in quality and quantity, and can be evaluated.3. Internal and external factors influence group performance via the interaction process.It is currently represented by the integrated model of Tannenbaum et al. (1992). The model identifies four types of input variable, comprising:1. Members' attributes (e.g. knowledge and skills, motivation, attitudes, mental models and so forth).2. Work structure (task assignment, team rules and communication structure).3. Team attributes (distribution of power, similarity of members, team resources, climate and cohesion).4. The nature of the task (organization, type and complexity of tasks).These variables relate not only to each other but also to the processes performed by the team over time. Processes stand at the center of the structure and include coordination, communication, conflict resolution, decision-making and problem solving, and boundary spanning.Such processes are, in turn, directly related with performance results or output variables, which are usually classified into three groups:1. Changes in the team (rules, roles, communication patterns and new processes).2. Team performance (quantity, quality, timing, errors and costs).3. Individual changes (changes in the input variables represented by individual attributes such as attitudes, motivation, mental models, etc.).Team results provide feedback, upholding or changing the system.One key aspect of this model is that it accounts for the organizational and situational factors that may impact the structure as a whole, affecting input variables, processes and outputs. These factors include reward systems, resource scarcity, management control, environmental stress, organizational climate, competence, inter-group relations and environmental uncertainty. It also addresses the role of team interventions, basically individual and group training programs, and techniques such as team building and development.Structural input-process-output models usually measure team effectiveness in the wide sense on the basis of triple criteria that coincide with the three types of results obtained (Guzzo and Dickson, 1996). These are:1. Productive results (quantity-quality, cost savings, shorter waiting times, customer complaints, etc.).2. Member outcomes (acquisition of knowledge, skills, etc., changes in attitudes and personal development).3. Viability, or the capacity of the team to continue functioning effectively in the future.A fourth measure sometimes applied to assess effectiveness is the degree of innovation in terms either of outcomes or work processes (e.g. Unsworth and West, 2000; West et al., 1998).As Ilgen (1999) notes, research on work teams in organizational contexts has led to a shift in interest from the center (processes) to the right (results or effectiveness) and/or to the left (input variables). As a consequence, the focus has switched to the role of input and context variables as determining factors of team effectiveness, although the importance of processes is accepted.The second group of models mapped by Salas et al. (2004) includes the theoretical \"meta\" framework for work team effectiveness proposed by Campion and colleagues (Campion et al., 1993; Campion et al., 1996), which integrates and extends numerous earlier models. These scholars define five major categories of team effectiveness variables, comprising job design, interdependence, composition, context and process.Job design refers to self-management, participation and the variety, significance and identity of tasks. Interdependence subsumes tasks and goals, and feedback/rewards. Composition refers to member heterogeneity, flexibility, relative team size and the preference for team work. Context variables include training, managerial support and communication/cooperation between groups. Finally, processes comprise group potency, social support, workload sharing and communication/cooperation between group members.The variables subsumed in both theoretical frameworks are clearly similar. In fact, the only difference is the significance assigned to each and the relationships established. Thus, while input-process-output models structure variables in some kind of order, the theoretical model proposed by Campion and colleagues treats the links between variables and effectiveness more directly.Both approaches highlight the numerous variables influencing team effectiveness, the multitude of interrelationships and, above all, the complex dynamics inherent in the way teams function in contemporary organizational contexts (Cohen and Bailey, 1997; Harris and Barnes-Farrell, 1997; Hyatt and Ruddy, 1997; Jordan et al., 2002; Levi and Slem, 1995; Salas et al., 2004; Zalesny et al., 1995). The two frameworks also provide an overview of the methods used to measure team effectiveness (Gibson et al., 2000; Sawyer et al., 1999; Whiteoak et al., 2004). It seems clear, then, that future research will be based on the variables identified in these models, whatever the approach taken, while the results obtained should help clarify and integrate the determining factors of team effectiveness.\n3. Spanish and Portuguese research on work team effectiveness: The recent histories of Spain and Portugal are in many respects very similar. During the twentieth century both were underdeveloped compared to their more advanced European peers, a legacy in both cases of the slow decay of the great empires established in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. At the same time, long-lasting fascist dictatorships aggravated both countries' marginal role in the modern international order (Telo and de la Torre, 2003) by persisting with protectionist and isolationist policies towards neighboring democracies, which reacted by curtailing political and economic involvement beyond the Pyrenees.After 1970, however, the dictatorships were toppled, first in Portugal and later in Spain, setting in train a transition toward democratic government and a swift process of social, political, economic, cultural and technological modernization. While these developments did not entirely eliminate material backwardness, both countries were accepted into the European Union in the mid-1980s and have since succeeded in closing the economic gap with the richer European states (Pinto and Teixeira, 2002). In a little over two decades Portugal and Spain have seen far-reaching change at every level of society and are now much closer to their true potential than could ever have been achieved under the former regimes.The organizational and social contexts in both countries are now comparable to the conditions found in the UK, France, Germany and Italy, which are similar to those of other advanced nations. These outcomes are, of course, traceable to economic and financial globalization and, particularly, the adoption and spread of the new technologies. At the same time, other cultural and social factors have tended to bring the realities of a large part of the world closer together, at least in the somewhat fuzzily defined West.Scientific research in the fields of work and organizational psychology in both Spain and Portugal thus goes ahead in a similar context to Western Europe, North America and the developed countries of Asia. It is hardly surprising, then, that our concerns have much in common with the lines of inquiry pursued by colleagues abroad. Among these issues, work teams have attracted enormous attention since the 1990s, and a particular interest has emerged in the study of the variables and processes we describe below.Meanwhile, let us briefly explain the current orientation of Spanish and Portuguese research. We shall begin by reflecting on scholarly interest in teams and then go on to discuss the variables (following the models identified by Salas et al. (2004)) that have claimed researchers' attention, as well as the connections between their work and the main trends in international science. Finally, we shall try to explain local preferences by placing team research in its social and cultural context in Spain and Portugal.3.1 The Spanish and Portuguese interest in teams\n4. Monograph issue: This section provides an overview of the papers included in this monograph issue.4.1 Objectives\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This introductory paper aims to provide a contextualization of recent research and applications on work team effectiveness in organizational contexts carried out in Spain and Portugal and to describe connections between this research and the main trends in the international scene.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Since the 1990s, new occupational and organizational realities have deepened scientific interest in work teams in both Spain and Portugal. A range of recently published (1992-2004) works in this area are reviewed. The selected sources are papers published in Spanish, Portuguese and international journals.\nFindings: - Reviewing this work, four major trends are identified that synthesize the key concerns of researches in both countries: work teams and new information/communication technologies; intra- and inter-group conflicts in organizational contexts; definition, dimensions and measurement criteria for work team effectiveness; and teams in innovation and change processes.\nOriginality/value: - This paper fulfils a panoramic vision of this research area in both Spain and Portugal, and provides an overview of the papers included in this special issue and an outlook for the future.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Calling for leadership: leadership relation with worker's sense of calling
|
[
"Transformational leadership",
"Aversive leadership",
"Leadership perception",
"Sense of calling"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In recent years, the study of \"calling\" began to shift away from religion, focusing also on individuals' internal motivation, and search for a professional purpose and a sense of fulfillment (French and Domene, 2010; Wrzesniewski et al., 1997). While moving away from religion, the study of calling became closer to organizational and workplace research, and has shown its potential advantages for workers (e.g. Bunderson and Thompson, 2009; Duffy et al., 2011). The notion of calling seems to be at the heart of a holistic understanding of work in the context of life, highlighting concerns such as job satisfaction, career development, personal growth, and well-being (Dik et al., 2012). According to Hirschi (2011), calling is the ultimate form of subjective career success and an important promoter of career metacompetencies.\n2. Literature review and hypotheses: Leadership\n3. Method: Participants and procedure\n4. Results: Descriptive statistics\n5. Discussion: The purpose of this study was to deepen the understanding of the relation between leadership perception and workers' sense of calling. The results confirmed our first hypothesis, which proposed a positive relation between perceived transformational leadership and workers' sense of calling, in line with previous literature indicating that a mentorship relation with someone's reference figure/manager could facilitate a calling's search and finding (Berg et al., 2010; French and Domene, 2010; Fry, 2003; Larson, 2005). This seems to happen because, contrary to what was historically believed (Hardy, 1990), the sense of calling is not an innate characteristic, and may be developed when the right conditions are present (e.g. Duffy et al., 2014). Through inspirational leadership provided by transformational leaders, followers can develop a higher sense of calling and meaning (cf. Fry et al., 2005).\n6. Conclusion: The goal of the present study was to understand the relationship between leadership perception and workers' sense of calling. Knowing further about how leaders have a critical role in promoting their workers' sense of calling is relevant due to the current knowledge of the positive outcomes workers' sense of calling, such as such as higher job satisfaction, career development, personal growth, and well-being (Bunderson and Thompson, 2009; Dik et al., 2012; Duffy et al., 2011).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand the relation between leadership perception and workers' sense of calling.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Workers' sense of calling has been shown to relate to organizational outcomes such as job satisfaction, career development, personal growth, and well-being. Although recent studies point the sense of calling as a consequent of several organizational variables, the role of leadership in promoting workers' sense of calling is yet to be analyzed. A self-report questionnaire was applied to a group of 325 Portuguese nurses to analyze this relation. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the results.\nFindings: Results indicate a positive relation between a leader perceived as transformational or transactional and workers' sense of calling. Directive and empowering leadership perception were found not to be related to calling. Unexpectedly, a significant positive relation with aversive leadership perception was identified.\nResearch limitations/implications: A confounding relation between aversive leadership perception and sense of calling cannot be excluded. It is possible that an unknown third variable, such as resilience or positive affect, is serving as a mediating bridge between leadership perception and the sense of calling. Further studies are necessary in order to explore this alternative path.\nOriginality/value: The sense of calling is known as a relevant organizational construct. Knowing what kinds of leadership promote workers' sense of calling adds value for the literature and can help managers to learn how to improve their followers' sense of calling.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Service innovation in networks: a systematic review and implications for business-to-business service innovation research
|
[
"Service innovation",
"Business-to-business innovation",
"Innovation in networks",
"Solution development"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Service innovation in the business-to-business context is of vital importance both in the contemporary marketplace and to marketing thinking (Kindstrom et al., 2013), as it provides unique opportunities for developing competitive advantages, increasing profitability, expanding market share, generating employment, and positively influencing the development and growth of other sectors of the economy (Kowalkowski et al., 2013; Gebauer et al., 2008; Miles, 2005). In the European Union, 3.2 million firms operated in the business services market in 2005, generating over 1292 billion euros in turnover, and employing 14.2 million persons (Eurostat, 2008), largely thanks to business-to-business service innovation. In addition, traditional manufacturing firms operating in business-to-business markets are increasingly infusing services with their products to develop offerings that comprise a \"complete solution\" (Spring and Araujo, 2013; Kindstrom and Kowalkowski, 2009), further enhancing the importance of service innovation in this context (Gebauer et al., 2008).\nMethodology: A systematic literature review method was applied to conduct this study, designed based on the literature review guidelines by Denyer and Tranfield (2009) and Gabbott (2004), and review techniques employed by Papastathopoulou and Hultink (2012), and Nord and Nord (1995). Extant publications were located, analyzed, and evaluated in relation to the questions posed, and findings have been presented in such a manner that enables those questions to be answered in a comprehensible and concise manner (cf. Denyer and Tranfield, 2009).\nOverview of the reviewed literature: This section analyses and presents the various descriptive characteristics of the reviewed articles, and thus reveals the overall state of extant SIIN studies and their publication trends.\nTheories and concepts applied to study service innovation in networks: In order to gain a deeper theoretical understanding of extant SIIN research, position the subject in relation to the broader innovation research stream, and explain various SIIN mechanisms and events by postulating associations among the variables, it is important to review the theories and conceptualizations applied in existing SIIN studies. Considering the relative newness of the field, theories applied to analyze and understand different aspects of SIIN are scant. Table VI lists the theories and concepts that have been applied in at least two reviewed articles, and the respective exemplary studies.\nDeterminants of service innovation in networks: Extant studies point towards several determinants that lead firms to engage in SIIN and also affect the possibilities of successful service innovation. This study inductively identified the determinants from the literature review database mentioned in the methodology section. As shown in Figure 5, these determinants are often interrelated and affect each other. Further explanations on the determinants are provided below.\nOutcomes of service innovation in networks: The last query posed by this review asks about the possible outcomes of service innovation in networks. According to the reviewed articles, SIIN may result in both positive and negative outcomes, both of which are presented below.\nDiscussion: As a research domain, service innovation in networks (SIIN) is attracting increasingly contemporary research attention. Business-to-business firms needing to innovate new service offerings or to infuse services with their predominant product offerings are progressively co-operating with other firms, clients, suppliers, R&D organizations, universities, and even competitors to innovate service activities. In this paper, existing knowledge on SIIN has been reviewed against specific predefined questions. Based on the findings, implications are drawn in this section for business-to-business service innovation research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Service innovation in networks (SIIN) is of utmost importance particularly to business-to-business firms for their profitability, growth and long-term competitive advantage. This paper aims to investigate several critical aspects of extant SIIN research: its current state, theoretical standpoints, determinants, and outcomes. Based on the findings, implications for business-to-business service innovation research are drawn.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This is a systematic literature review. Extant publications were located from large electronic databases, analyzed, and the findings have been compiled to answer the predefined questions.\nFindings: The paper illustrates the overall state of extant SIIN research and presents its major topics. It reveals the six key theoretical perspectives that have been applied in SIIN studies. Determinants that affect SIIN, as well as its potential positive and negative outcomes, are shown. In addition, gaps in the existing knowledge-base have been identified and have led to the laying out of paths for future research.\nResearch limitations/implications: The review does not cover publications that were unavailable in the electronic databases employed, or were not written in English. However, the succinct presentation of accessible knowledge provides multidimensional theoretical understandings as well as empirical insights into SIIN research.\nPractical implications: Managers may benefit from this study by understanding the determinants that they may influence, and the potential changes that may accompany the positive and negative outcomes of SIIN.\nOriginality/value: The analytical review provides a concise synopsis of existing knowledge on service innovation in networks, and discusses its implications for business-to-business research and firms, which will be of interest to both academics and practitioners.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Workplace health promotion within small and medium-sized enterprises
|
[
"Small to medium‐sized enterprises",
"Workplace",
"Welfare",
"Health and safety requirements",
"Northern Ireland"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) managers are being encouraged by the European Union (European Network for Workplace Health Promotion, 2001b), UK (Department for Work and Pensions/Department of Health, 2008) and Northern Ireland (NI) public health policy (Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety (DHSSPS), 2002; Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI), 2003), to take the initiative in improving employee health. This is substantiated by:* the belief that the workplace provides an ideal setting to target individuals given the amount of time they spend there (Wynne, 1998);* the growing economic and social importance of SMEs (KPMG Consulting, 2002; Hamalainen, 2007);* increasing levels of occupationally related ill-health and injury (European Network for Workplace Health Promotion, 2001b; KPMG Consulting, 2002; Department of Health, Department for Work and Pensions - Dame Carol Black, 2008); and* the view that workplace health promotion (WHP) activities can lead to improvements in SME efficiency and competitiveness (European Network for Workplace Health Promotion, 2001a).Despite these assertions, a lack of research exists on SME managers' experiences of WHP activities in context. The majority of research conducted on WHP activities has taken place within larger organisations using quantitative outcome evaluation approaches (Wynne, 1998; European Network for Workplace Health Promotion, 2001b; Hamalainen, 2007). The multi-faceted nature of SMEs, and associated access issues, has limited conduct of methodologically sound research on this subject area (Bradshaw et al., 2001; Eakin et al., 2001; European Network for Workplace Health Promotion, 2001b; Stephens et al., 2004; Griffin et al., 2005; Antonelli et al., 2006).The Luxembourg Declaration (European Network for Workplace Health Promotion, 1997) outlines areas of WHP activity directed at improving an organisation's working culture and environment, preventing the development of occupational diseases and addressing employee lifestyle issues. Within each area, the potential exists for prevention of ill-health, health protection and health education approaches to be taken, dependent upon targets for change and expected outcomes. Whilst this framework has offered stakeholders specific direction for the marketing and development of WHP activities, its translation into policy and practice across Europe has been patchy (Hamalainen, 2007). In order to develop effective programme planning methods for all areas of WHP activity, the reality that exists for SME managers needs to be fully explored. More specifically, the meaning of managers' experiences of WHP activities within the SME context needs to be understood.This study aimed to explore managers' understanding of WHP and experiences of WHP activity within SMEs in a Health and Social Care Trust area of NI. This paper focuses on engagement with activities within the context of prevention of ill-health and health protection, lifestyle issues and working culture and the environment as defined in the Luxembourg Declaration on WHP (European Network for Workplace Health Promotion, 1997) using a Heideggerian interpretive phenomenological approach with a purposive sample of 18 SME managers. The study findings will contribute to an understanding among strategists, practitioners and educationalists of what constitutes as WHP activity for the SME manager within the context of their workplace. In addition, the findings will be useful in deciding how best to increase SME managers' engagement with WHP activity, leading to collective benefits for both employees and the SME business.\nMethods: Given limited research within this area and SME access and recruitment issues (Bradshaw et al., 2001; Stephens et al., 2004; Griffin et al., 2005; Antonelli et al., 2006), maximising opportunities to gain meaningful data becomes important. Heidegger's (1962) philosophical focus centres on \"describing the meanings of the individuals' Being-in-the-world and how these meanings influence the choices they make\" (Lopez and Willis, 2004, p. 729) rather than looking for purely descriptive, narrative accounts of individuals perceived worlds. Adopting a Heideggerian interpretive phenomenological approach, therefore, offers a way to move beyond reductionist views of WHP activity to explore the unique meaning of SME managers' experiences, interpreting their practical understanding of experiences within their situational context as the study unfolds.Sampling and recruitment\nResults: Findings revealed \"levels of awareness of WHP activity\" as the central theme, including \"high awareness activities\" and \"low awareness activities\". Each activity's relevance was tightly bound to their understanding of WHP. \"High awareness activities\" identified by participants included: health and safety, lifestyle and occupational health. Collectively these addressed their concerns to:* preserve and protect employee health and safety;* prevent ill-health and injury; and* promote employees quality of daily living.Further probing revealed an additional three distinct WHP activities: provision of training and development, human resource management and environmental considerations. These \"low awareness activities\" revealed participants' unforeseen attempts to directly and indirectly improve organisational management of employee health issues, and address community environmental concerns.High awareness activities\nDiscussion: Despite recent strategic efforts to re-direct attention to the effects of environmental and organisational factors on shaping employees health (Hamalainen, 2007; Department for Work and Pensions/Department of Health, 2008), findings suggest health and safety, and lifestyle approaches remain dominant (high awareness activities). Activities engaged in at organisational and environmental level (low awareness activities) only became perceptible as being relevant to improving workplace health through further probing.Based upon the findings, the \"Iceberg\" principle (Figure 1) illustrates seven \"practical activities\", identifying the perceived relevance and untapped meaningfulness of each activity to WHP. Metaphorically, the \"Iceberg\" depicts the focused attention on mainly legislative health and safety, occupational health and lifestyle-related activities and a lack of awareness of prospective effects of other activities, including employee training and development, human resource policies and procedures and environmental considerations. The depth of \"hiddenness\" shows the potential power and strength that exist for improvement in the marketing and development of WHP initiatives.High awareness activities\nConclusion: Evidence from the study draws attention to the lack of awareness of the importance organisational and environmental activities play in addressing the wider determinants of workplace health within the SME context. Based upon the findings, the proposed \"Iceberg\" model suggests that, when marketing WHP activities, strategists, practitioners and educationalists need to focus not only on legislative health and safety, occupational health and lifestyle activities, but also the benefits both for SME businesses and their employees from human resource policies and procedures, training and development and environmental practices.The untapped significance of these activities suggests the need to move from the present focus on mainly legislative health and safety, occupational health and lifestyle-related activities, to bring to light the full potential of WHP for SMEs from organisational and environmental measures, many of which SMEs may already have in place.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to explore managers' understanding of workplace health promotion (WHP) and experiences of WHP activity within small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in a Health and Social Care Trust area of Northern Ireland. The paper aims to focus on engagement with activities within the context of prevention of ill-health and health protection, lifestyle issues and working culture and the environment as defined in the Luxembourg Declaration on WHP.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A Heideggerian interpretive phenomenological methodology is adopted, using in-depth telephone interviews with a purposive sample of 18 SME managers. Data are analysed using Benner's strategy for data analysis.\nFindings: - \"Levels of awareness of WHP activity\" are revealed as a central theme and interpreted as \"high awareness activities\", including the need to: preserve and protect employee health and safety, prevent ill-health and injury and promote employees' quality of daily living, and \"low awareness activities\", including the provision of training and development, human resource management and environmental considerations.\nOriginality/value: - An \"Iceberg\" model, grounded in the data, draws attention to the limited awareness of what constitutes WHP activities and the untapped meaningfulness of organisational and environmental activities.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Campus sustainability governance in Canada: A content analysis of post-secondary institutions' sustainability policies
|
[
"Education",
"Campus sustainability",
"Policy",
"Canada",
"Sustainability",
"Sustainability in higher education"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The year 2014 was the end of the United Nations' Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) (2005-2014, herein the DESD). In creating the DESD, the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) sought to mobilize countries around the world to improve educational resources to help create a more sustainable future (UNESCO, 2014). In Canada, the Canadian Commission for UNESCO took a lead in coordinating DESD initiatives. As such, they engaged in a range of activities including the development of a report documenting education for sustainable development (ESD) initiatives in Canada (Council of Ministers of Education of Canada, 2010). In this report, the Commission indicates that ESD is widely represented in policy documents, action plans and frameworks established by provincial governments across Canada. They suggest it is harder to ascertain the degree to which sustainability or sustainable development has then been incorporated into the policies and practices of formal education institutions. Responding to this gap in knowledge, the Sustainability and Education Policy Network[1] was created to provide pan-Canadian documentation and analysis of sustainability-related educational policies from early childhood education through to post-secondary education (PSE) across Canada.\nResearch methods: Sample selection\nData collection: The two main document types were \"sustainability policies\" and \"sustainability plans\". Whereas sustainability policies are usually brief policy statements on an institution's commitment to sustainability, sustainability plans are more in-depth, lengthier documents with a stronger focus on policy implementation. To identify existing sustainability policies and plans at each of the 50 selected institutions, several search methods were used. First, a Boolean search was conducted on the website search engine of each institution using the terms \"sustain\" or \"environment\" or \"ecological\" or \"green\" or \"Aboriginal\". If term variations were not included in the initial results, these variations on the terms were included in a subsequent query. The term \"Aboriginal\" and its variations were included as sustainability issues can be addressed using different language depending on cultural context (Tuck et al., 2014). Parallel searches were conducted in French within the search engines of all francophone institutions' websites. Second, the Google search engine was then used for all of the terms and term variations to search along with each institution's name (e.g. Capilano University and sustainability) to ensure that all relevant content was captured. Third, policy archives on institutions' websites were also reviewed to help ensure that sustainability policies were not missed. Fourth, if an institution's website had a sustainability-related page or section, this portion of the website was also examined. Finally, if information was unavailable on an institution's website, phone calls were placed to staff members who were designated as contact points on sustainability issues to help identify any sustainability policies at the institution[3]. All policies were collected during the period of October 2012 to October 2013.\nData analysis: Following the collection of documents from the sample institutions, an in-depth content analysis was undertaken using a collaborative thematic coding process. The data were uploaded into networked NVivo 10 qualitative data management software, allowing for shared access by the team of researchers. The documents were coded using a team-based collaborative coding method informed by MacQueen et al. (1998) which included: individual pilot coding; the collaborative creation of a codebook with code definitions and inclusion and exclusion criteria; and inter-coder reliability checks. Codes were developed based on key concepts from the sustainability in higher education literature (Figure 1), as well as according to themes that emerged inductively through analysis.\nResults: Of the 50 institutions selected, 40 had some kind of sustainability policy document. Of the 40 institutions with a sustainability document, 17 had documents referred to as policies, 5 had only plans and 18 institutions had both sustainability policies and plans, for a total of 59 documents (Table II). For the purposes of this analysis, we have grouped these together and refer to them collectively as policies[4]. When referring to institutions throughout the text, if an institution had both a policy and a plan, it is only counted once as having a policy to avoid double counting institutions. The results of the content analysis are organized into seven major themes, including orientations to sustainability, policy intertextuality, governance, education, operations, research and community outreach. While not a comprehensive overview of all of the material coded, this overview provides a high level summary of significant themes and absences in the data.\nOrientations to sustainability: The sustainability policies suggested particular orientations to sustainability, both through the definitions of sustainability (or related terminology) that were provided, as well as in where responsibility was placed for achieving greater sustainability.\nPolicy intertextuality: References were made in many of the sustainability policies to other institutional documents, and in some cases, to external municipal, provincial, federal or international documents.\nGovernance: We use the term governance to refer to overall, institution-wide aims or policy, versus those specific to a particular unit or topical focus. Governance discussions or documents often highlight institutions' overarching purpose(s), where institutions' situate themselves in society and in relation to their peers and how they represent their own cultural and historical identity. They can also include content related to institutional accountability, institutional finance and long-term planning. Inclusion of sustainability in governance discussions in the policies focused on the institutions' purpose, leadership and, in a few cases, in relation to tradition and land.\nEducation: Although the development of curricula on sustainability was often encouraged in the policies, it was not mandated and the operationalization was typically vague. Where sustainability curricula were discussed, they were often linked to interdisciplinarity. The majority of the content that was coded in relation to education was focused on co-curricular activity, or in other words, campus activities not part of the regular curriculum. To a lesser extent, public awareness campaigns seeking to change behavior were also discussed in the policies.\nOperations: While most sustainability policies touch on all identified domains of campus sustainability activity (general governance, education, research, operations and community outreach), much of the content of the policies was focused specifically on operations, both in terms of total amount of text and amount of detail relating to implementation. All institutions discussed operations in their policies. Although content within most policies tended to be very high level in relation to education, research and community engagement, discussion of operations is characterized by a high degree of specificity. While institutions may not agree on what teaching or researching for sustainability may look like, how they conceptualize operating sustainably emerges clearly in our analysis (Figure 3).\nResearch: The topic of research was typically addressed in vague and undefined ways within the sustainability policies. As with the institutional activity of education, few institutions prescribed what faculty members should research, but they were keen to report that research on sustainability was occurring.\nCommunity outreach: Typically, community groups discussed in the sustainability policies included the \"general public\" (usually referring to the urban community the institution was nested in) or the \"campus community\" (entailing an institution's students, staff, faculty and administrators). Campus communities were constructed in almost all policies as being separate from the general public. While institutions refer to both the public and the campus community in their sustainability policies, the campus community receives more focus.\nDiscussion: Based on the above findings, there are several key conclusions highlighted here for further discussion. First, there is a clear preference in the policies for understandings of sustainability which use three pillar and/or Brundtland definitions. Over double the number of policies included these definitions versus environment-specific ones. This would seem to reflect a movement away from the language of environment and toward the language of sustainable development and sustainability over the past several decades. Advocates suggest these broadened conceptualizations better addresses how environment is necessarily interwoven with social and economic considerations (McKeown and Hopkins, 2003). However, others are wary that three pillar definitions can at times undermine action on environmental issues by justifying a prioritization of economy through the \"floating signifier\" of \"sustainability\" (Gonzalez-Gaudiano, 2005) or by enabling actors to think they are \"doing sustainability\" if they address any one of economic, social or environmental considerations (see McKenzie et al., 2015).\nConclusion: It is promising to realize the number of PSE institutions which have developed sustainability policies over the past several decades. With 110 of the 220 accredited institutions having policies in place (Beveridge et al., 2015), in this paper we report on a qualitative content analysis of data from 40 of these policies. This research offers a snapshot in time of the current focus of Canadian institutional sustainability policies. In the area of operations in particular, policies outline steps institutions are taking to further sustainability on their campuses, including in the areas of waste, energy, consumption, transportation, landscape, building design, greenhouse gas emissions, water, food and technology. We suggest that other institutional domains would benefit from the development of additional detail in terms of plans and timelines for implementation, particularly in the domains of education and research. The results section of the paper also points to other interesting findings which could benefit from further analysis: for example, to what extent is student recruitment or retention playing a role in whether and how institutions engage with sustainability; what could be possible implications of increased recognition of the Indigenous and settler histories of the land in sustainability policies; and what is the role of intertextual references (e.g. to signing of declarations or provincial policies) in providing authority or impetus to sustainability policies (and in relation to recent findings that there is little relationship between signing a sustainability declaration and having a sustainability policy in place, Beveridge et al., 2015). Finally, this research lays foundations for future comparative research examining the implications of and responses to these policies on the ground, as well as in relation to other national contexts. The next steps in the research of the SEPN are to undertake a national survey as well as a series of site analyses focused on the origins and impacts of institutional sustainability policies in communities across Canada. We are optimistic about PSE institutional policy being able to play a positive role in the transition to more environmentally sustainable societies and look forward to further research and action in this area.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to provide an overview of a content analysis of sustainability policies from Canadian post-secondary education institutions. The paper reports findings on the orientations to sustainability evident in the policies; references to other policies within the documents; and other key themes on how sustainability is engaged in the policies in relation to overall governance, education, operations, research and community outreach.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A sample of 50 Canadian colleges and universities was selected based on representativeness across a range of criteria. A qualitative thematic content analysis of these policies was conducted using a collaborative coding approach.\nFindings: Results suggest that most sustainability policies described a Brundtland (i.e. intergenerational) and/or three-pillar (e.g. economic, environmental and social) orientation to sustainability. Many sustainability policies also connected to other external municipal or provincial policies. In terms of various domains of sustainability, campus operations was discussed by all of the policies and in the most detail, while discussions of sustainability in education (i.e. the curriculum) and in research were vague, and discussions of sustainability in relation to community outreach were included less frequently.\nOriginality/value: This comparative study provides a broad view of sustainability policies from post-secondary institutions across Canada. It deepens our understanding of the institutions' conceptualizations of, and priorities for, sustainability. This paper has practical implications for institutions seeking to create or further develop their own policies, and it contributes to the comparative scholarly literature on the institutionalization of sustainability in higher education.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Hegemonic masculinity or masculine domination: Toward a comprehensive social theory of gender
|
[
"Gender",
"Masculinity",
"Hegemonic masculinity",
"Masculine domination",
"Material feminism"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The question of gender is unsettled in research as well in practice. In social sciences, gender is expected to explain what sex failed to do (Budgeon, 2014). However, the study of gender continues to be mystified by a variety of definitions, theoretical perspectives and political programs (Andersen, 2005; Lorber, 1997). As Clatterbaugh (1998) avers, the problem of conceptual clarity is more acute in case of constructs of men and masculinities, similar to debates on intersectionality (Walby et al., 2012) that continue to grapple with the \"problem that has no name\" (Friedan, 1963, p. 11), in case of women and femininities. The objective of this paper is to compare the concepts of hegemonic masculinity (Carrigan et al., 1985; Connell, 1987, 2005) and masculine domination (Bourdieu, 2001), with regard to their efficacy in understanding and transforming the gendered social order, adopting a materialist feminist perspective (Delphy and Leonard, 1980). The paper has three sections - the first section provides an introduction to the concepts of hegemonic masculinity and masculine domination; the second section reviews a few criticism of the hegemonic masculinity and the third section evaluates the notion of positive hegemonic masculinity vis-a-vis the concept of masculine domination.\n2. Hegemonic masculinity; critique, reformulation and open questions: Connell and Messerschmidt (2005) review five major criticisms mounted against the concept of hegemonic masculinity. The first criticism pertains to the role of body in the concept of hegemonic masculinity. Connell and Messerschmidt (2005) state that masculinity is not a set of characteristics embedded in the body rather varied practices accomplished in a specific social context of gender relations. On the other hand, an individual can be thought of as a combination of socially made body as a result of somatization of the gender relations (Bourdieu, 2001; Krais, 2006). In spite of transformations that have occurred in the conditions of women in social and economic spheres, the relative position of women vis-a-vis men in terms of access to all life chances is still subject to sexual division of labor and masculine privileges (Beechey, 1979; Lerner, 1986; Walby. 1990). The sources of inequalities among men, and between men and women are not mere hegemonic practices, rather an institutional order (Smith, 2005), that privileges the masculine (Bourdieu, 2001).\n3. Examining positive hegemonic masculinity: Connell and Messerschmidt (2005) envisage a possibility of a thoroughly positive hegemonic masculinity that is open to equality with women. The relations of domination between men and women are interwoven in the entire spectrum of social structure and social spaces, public and private, reinforced continually through the economy of symbolic goods. Some visible changes in the position of women in the society sometimes mask the invisible, permanent and enduring structures of differentiation and masculine domination (Bourdieu, 2001; Ridgeway and Shelley, 2004). Hence, the notion of a positive hegemonic masculinity that is open to equality with women undermines the gendered social system built on masculine domination as the operating principle (Bourdieu, 2001). The following sub-sections attempt to compare the concepts of hegemonic masculinity and masculine domination.\n4. Conclusion: Bourdieu was critical of the approaches that study gender only discursively and cautioned against the feminist politics that resemble \"campus radicalism,\" based on a delusion that \"one changes the world by changing words\" and that \"subversion of terms, categories and discourses\" are sufficient \"to subvert or dent objective structures of domination\" (Bourdieu, 1996, p. 201). It is the women's collective movements that got them rights to study, work, vote and equality in the eyes of law (Krais, 2006) and not due to any good intention on the part of hegemonic masculinity to ameliorate women's condition in society. Kimmel (2011) would agree that studying gender using Bourdieu's construct of masculine domination can answer the two questions pertaining to difference and dominance. Kimmel sets the agenda that any explanation of gender must address two questions - \"why is that virtually every single society differentiates people on the basis of gender and why is that virtually every known society is also based on male dominance\" (Kimmel, 2011, p. 2). The concept of masculine domination can help in answering these questions.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that Bourdieu's concept of masculine domination offers a comprehensive social theory of gender as compared to Connell's concept of hegemonic masculinity through examining the proposition of positive hegemonic masculinity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This is a conceptual paper that argues that Bourdieu's concept of masculine domination offers a comprehensive social theory of gender as compared to Connell's concept of hegemonic masculinity.\nFindings: The findings demonstrate that Bourdieu's concept of masculine domination incorporates both discursive and material structures of the gender system that privileges men/masculine over women/feminine, making it a comprehensive social theory of gender.\nResearch limitations/implications: The concepts of hegemonic masculinity and masculine domination have not been reviewed in the light of emerging perspectives on hegemony, power and domination. The future research could focus on a review of research methods such as institutional ethnography, in examining masculine domination.\nPractical implications: Using masculine domination perspective, organizations could identify specific managerial discourses, aspects of work organization and practices in order to eliminate gender-based discrimination, harassment and unequal access to resources.\nSocial implications: Public policy interventions aimed at inclusive development could examine women's condition of continued disadvantageousness, through masculine domination perspective.\nOriginality/value: The authors seek to provide a comparative view of the concepts of hegemonic masculinity and masculine domination, using the categories of comparison that was not attempted earlier.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A study of knowledge management systems processes and technology in open and distance education institutions in higher education
|
[
"Distance education",
"Knowledge management",
"Higher education",
"Open data sources"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Open and distance learning have a great contribution to educational processes in today's intensive efforts in quality improvement and internationalization (Courtney and Wilhoite-Mathews, 2015). The philosophy of widespread life-long and open and distance education has provided equality in education and access to information (Altinay et al., 2016). Open and distance learning applications forming the basis of strategic competitiveness concept among institutions are necessary for changes in education and following innovations to adapt to today's world. When both institutional and pedagogical productivity in applications in open and distance education are considered, knowledge management and designing principles for every individual should be integrated into the system (Latchem et al., 2006; Edwards, 2015). In creating a sustainable equality in education for improvement in the light of quality indications, institutional support and awareness of individual roles are known as the most important success factors. In this respect, the research study contributes to analyze the availability of higher education institutions on the new pedagogy and knowledge management.\nMethodology: Research model\nFindings and interpretations: Demographic information about research participants\nConclusion: A big majority of the participants expressed positive views about the future of distance education applications and believed that they would develop and be more prevalent at universities. However, as the participants stated, in order to reach this target, academicians needed to be well informed and trained in technology network (it has been stated that among today's developed societies distance education applications at universities are needed more than ever). The participants commonly agreed that new technologies in high schools would first save time to a great extent and add to fast and better improvement of education at universities. In addition, developed technologies at universities would make access to information easier and quicker, facilitate doing research and teaching and learning would be faster. Another finding revealed that new technologies at universities there would be permanent learning and would help more develop \"learning by doing\" strategies.\nDiscussion: In the light of these findings, it can be suggested that steps are taken by sound and radical decision to develop and widespread distance education (Baykan et al., 2018). The practice of distance education is needed for the higher education policies in order to get universal values and actions for the quality.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to focus on the implementation and evaluation of knowledge management and e-transformation strategies of higher educational institutions in distance education. After an evaluation of higher educational practices in different countries, distance education was considered a different strategy and was emphasized as an advantage in competitiveness.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study reflects a case study in the context of qualitative research. A written view report was conducted to evaluate the awareness of digital efficiency and roles of the teachers in learning environments and evaluation processes in the organizational structure. The qualitative data were evaluated through Nvivo qualitative data analysis. When the literature is overviewed, it can be observed that there are limited studies in this field.\nFindings: As a result, distance education contributes a lot to providing equal opportunities in education. It is of great importance that individuals are aware of their roles in the process of accessibility, institutional support, technological infrastructure, support provided for students, learning-teaching environments and evaluation of distance education programs based on equality and life-long learning. In applications of different countries evaluated by Salmon et al. (2014) based on Carpe Diem Model, it is argued that knowledge management and sharing, the role of teachers and digital capability in distance education applications are crucial.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study is limited to 35 research participants.\nPractical implications: Internationalization has become an important issue in higher educational activities.\nSocial implications: Diffusion of the uses of knowledge management practice in distance education is important.\nOriginality/value: The study has a great value on the use of international perspectives and the Carpe Diem Model for the evaluation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Knowledge management capability and organizational memory: a study of public sector agencies
|
[
"Public sector management",
"Organizational memory"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This study explores organizational memory (OM) building in three public agencies in a developing country. Public sector organizations are increasingly focusing on knowledge management (KM) as a competence for delivering on their mission (Sandhawalia and Dalcher, 2011). It is important that any knowledge that is developed be retained for later use to be of any value. OM, the ability to remember and learn from experience, is an important asset (Gammelgaard and Ritter, 2005). Prior research suggests that an organization's knowledge and experience are stored in its memory (Walsh and Ungson, 1991; Fiedler and Welpe, 2010).\nLiterature review: Public agencies in Ghana and Sub-Saharan Africa have embarked on service improvements and KM is becoming important in this respect (Acheampong, 2014). Although public sector KM is important, not much research exists on this topic generally (Chiu and Chen, 2016). Yet, many organizations in the public sector are knowledge-intensive organizations and poor KM practices might lead to high costs, loss of institutional memory, knowledge gaps and poor decision making (Luen and Al-Hawamdeh, 2001).\nHypotheses: Knowledge management (KM), Knowledge management capability (KMC) and OM\nData and methods: Study context and data set\nData analysis and results: Table I provides descriptive statistics. All dependent and independent variables have means slightly lower than the midpoint of 2.5, except physical environment, which has a mean at the midpoint. Table II presents the correlation between the variables. The table shows that all independent variables (KMC, acquisition capacity, storage capacity, retention capacity and retrieval capacity) are positively correlated with the dependent variable of OM. The results in Table II show that the control variables age, status and experience, are not significantly correlated with OM indicating these control variables had no influence on OM. Education and agency had a significant correlation with OM (p<0.05 level).\nDiscussion and conclusion: Our test results indicate that KMC and its components have significant effects on OM. All dependent and independent variables have means slightly lower than the midpoint of 2.5, except physical environment, which has a mean at the midpoint. This means the respondents' answers for questions for independent and dependent variables were slightly toward \"strongly disagree.\" This implies that respondents believe there is room for improvement in KMC and OM components in the agencies we studied. Structure and individual variables have the highest standard deviation, suggesting they captured a wider variety of the answers from the respondents. We found that the participants' education level, a control variable, was negatively associated with OM. One possible explanation may be that respondents that are more educated have a higher threshold for what they consider as developed OM structures and capabilities.\nTheoretical implications: The study contributes to the existing literature in a number of ways. First, the study responds to calls for diversifying research in KM to Africa. Massaro et al. (2015) note that Sub-Saharan Africa is a completely neglected area when it comes to studies on KM in public sector organizations. This is important, given that results of studies from developed country public institutions may not apply to Ghana and Sub-Saharan Africa (Massaro et al., 2015). Second, the findings build on and extend the literature on KM and OM. The results of the study support earlier Fiedler and Welpe, 2010). Most studies of OM are conceptual studies and this research extends the limited empirical tests of OM generally, and more specifically in public agencies (see Fiedler and Welpe, 2010 for a notable exception). Third, the finding that knowledge acquisition and retention variables add the most contribution to the study is consistent with existing research. Prior research has documented that knowledge acquisition is the first critical task in building OM (Waterman, 1985; Probst et al., 2000). The contribution of knowledge retention in explaining memory also validates the critical role knowledge retention plays in memory (Gioia and Poole, 1984).\nPractical implications: There are some implications of the study for Ghana and perhaps Sub-Saharan Africa. First, the study, to our knowledge, is the first to explore the links between OM and KM in Ghana. The data from the descriptive statistics indicate that the agencies we studied had just about below-average capabilities and structures for memory building. This means that there is room for improvement in developing the structures and processes associated with building OM. Agencies desirous of building their OM will need to adopt a capabilities-based approach. Capabilities range from the most basic to sophisticated IT infrastructure. Public agencies in the resource-starved environments may want to start developing their capacity for building OM by focusing on doing the least costly things first. For example, the adequacy of storage boxes, files and folders that are properly cataloged, preserved and stored and easily accessible can all be done at minimum cost, compared to the acquisition of sophisticated electronic data management systems. Although rudimentary, such low-tech approaches may be vital in resource-starved environments of Ghana and Sub-Saharan Africa. Developing the infrastructure for KM in the four vital areas of knowledge acquisition, retention, storage and retrieval would go a long way in building OM.\nLimitations and future studies: The study has a number of limitations that need to be taken into account in interpreting the study results. First, we relied on self-reports as is often the case with studies on OM (e.g. Fiedler and Welpe, 2010). Although previous research supports the reliability and validity of self-reported measures (Rogelberg et al., 2001), we cannot completely rule out social desirability and consistency biases in the present study. Second, we used a cross-sectional research design and the use of cross-sectional, single-source data should be considered a limitation of this study (Jakobsen and Jensen, 2015). Finally, our study focused on a limited number of agencies in a particular context and both limit the generalizability of the results. Future studies that examine how these agencies build on OM over time will be interesting as capabilities need to be dynamic (Teece et al., 1997; Nielsen, 2006). Also, because OM is associated with performance outcomes (Kmieciak and Michna, 2018), future studies should link OM to performance outcomes in the public sector.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore organizational memory (OM) in three public agencies in a developing country context. Research suggests that knowledge management (KM) can build a nation's intellectual capital and improve the effectiveness of public sector management. Therefore, how knowledge is preserved is important.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study targeted three large public institutions in Ghana. The study used a survey of 756 individuals in managerial and operational level positions in institutions to test the hypotheses in the study.\nFindings: The findings confirm that knowledge management capability (KMC) has a positive and significant impact on OM. Knowledge acquisition and retention capabilities, in particular, are critical variables in building OM.\nResearch limitations/implications: The research relied on self-reports and so one cannot completely rule out social desirability and consistency biases. Using cross-sectional data also makes it difficult to make inferences about the causality.\nPractical implications: Public agencies desirous of building their OM will need to build critical KMC and infrastructure.\nOriginality/value: This paper links KMC to OM in public institutions in an emerging country context.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The development of new sponsorship deals as new business-to-business services
|
[
"Professional services",
"Sport",
"Business-to-business marketing",
"New service development",
"NSD process",
"Sponsorships"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Sponsorship is a practice followed by firms around the world. Sponsorship expenditure is rising rapidly on a global basis and is expected to rise even more in the coming years (International Events Group (IEG) report, 2010). Sport sponsorship dominates the global sponsorship market (Shannon, 1999; Gronkvist, 2000) and is used extensively for marketing communications purposes. Among sports, soccer is considered to be the most heavily sponsored sport (Rosson, 2001; Chadwick and Thwaites, 2005).\nLiterature review: Corporations of all sizes invest billions of dollars in sponsorship globally. One estimate suggests that companies spend 22 per cent of their marketing communications budget to target prospects through sponsorship (Sneath et al., 2005). Sponsorships are now one of the fastest growing marketing communications vehicles in the world (Cunningham et al., 2009). A June 2008 report by PricewaterhouseCoopers on the global entertainment and media market 2008-2012 (Wilkofsky Gruen Associates, 2008) predicted that global sponsorship expenditure will increase from US$42.7 billion in 2007 to just under US$60 billion by 2012. These figures represent only the price associated with the purchase of rights fees necessary to become an official sponsor or secure an event, and do not include the almost equal amount spent on leveraging or developing the sponsorship investment (Meenaghan, 2001).\nMethodology: This study is qualitative in nature. This approach was selected for many reasons. First, as research in the area of developing new sponsorship deals is limited and inconclusive regarding the stages followed and the structure of the process, it was deemed appropriate to use qualitative research to analyse the processes used by both sides of the dyad, the sponsor and the sponsee, and determine the stages they follow in developing new sponsorship deals and the extent of agreement between the processes used by the two sides. Second, qualitative studies are an appropriate means of knowledge production where the subject area is broad and complex (Zaltman et al., 1982) like the one investigated here. Third, a method that develops deep insights to uncover participants' tacit knowledge was required.\nFindings: Results showed that both in the case of the renewal and in the case of the new sponsorship deal, the development process of the new service includes three main phases (Tables I and II show the process followed by both dyads).\nManagerial implications: The findings of this study present many implications for managers in business-to-business services. First, results show that new sponsorship deals seem to be developed the same way with other complex, relationship-based, business-to-business services. As a result, firms can develop their sponsorship agreements like any other similar service. This is especially helpful for potential sponsors that are big service providers (e.g. telecommunications providers) and can probably use the same or a slightly different process than the one they use for developing their main services. This can help in creating synergies between NSD of their main services and the development of successful sponsorship deals and as a result decrease costs associated with sponsorships and increase the effectiveness of new sponsorship deals.\nLimitations and suggestions for future research: The results of this study respond to the need for more formalisation in sponsorship decision-making. The three stages identified and analysed here can help managers to apply a more systematic and strategic approach to the development of any type of sponsorship deal. However, this study involves only four cases and has limited generalisability. Also, the study is limited to one sport and one country and, thus, it is not possible to account for differences between sports, or between football management practices across different countries. Future research should substantiate results by expanding the number of cases, conducting multi-country studies and use the theory developed for survey-based studies.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the process followed by sponsors and sport properties in developing their sponsorship deals as seen from a new service development (NSD) perspective. Sponsorships are expensive and can be a source of sustainable competitive advantage if managed appropriately. Therefore, the authors need to approach sponsorship strategically and formalise sponsorship decision-making. Sponsorships are considered to be complex, relationship-based, business-to-business services, and the development of such services has been analysed in the NSD literature. As past research on the development process of sponsorship deals is limited, the use of an NSD perspective can help in formalising sponsorship decision-making.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Four case studies were conducted involving two professional, premier league football clubs and two sponsoring organisations, one major sponsor for each club. One of the dyads involved a brand new sponsorship deal and the other a renewal.\nFindings: Results showed that in both dyads, the development process of the new service follows the NSD process of other complex, relationship-based, business-to-business services and involves three main phases, namely, information collection, proposal preparation and presentation or receipt and analysis, and negotiations and contract sign. All four firms use a semi-formal and flexible process, whereas the actors in each stage vary. Also, the new deal requires a more lengthy process than the renewal, following the example of really new and me-too services. Multi-functional teams are not present, and top management involvement is important only in the last stage of the process.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper helps in analysing the development process of new sponsorship deals, as new business-to-business services. However, it involves only four cases and has limited generalisability. Future research should substantiate results with more cases or quantitative research.\nPractical implications: Results can help sponsors and sponsees to structure their processes for successful development of new sponsorship deals. Also, as new sponsorship deals seem to be developed the same way with other business-to-business, complex services, potential sponsors that are big service providers can probably enjoy synergies from using the same or a slightly different process than the one they use for developing their main services. Finally, the use of a semi-formal and flexible process in sponsorship development can be helpful in dealing with customised services and rapid NSD that is critical for new service success.\nOriginality/value: It is the first time that the development process of sponsorship deals is approached from an NSD perspective and analysed as a new business-to-business service.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Destination marketing: competition, cooperation or coopetition?
|
[
"Tourism",
"United States of America"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Understanding the working relationships among tourism businesses in a destination is a critical prerequisite to the success of many collaborative destination-marketing programs (Terpstra and Simonin, 1993). When tourism stakeholders/businesses in a destination participate in collaborative marketing, there are many relationship forms they can choose, ranging from loosely connected to more formal and integrated relationships (Bailey and Koney, 2000). For example, informal affiliation manifested by loose linkages and connections may represent the least developed and integrated working relationship since this type of relationship only requires organizations involved to demonstrate similar interest and sometimes good faith of mutual support (Bailey and Koney, 2000). At the other end of the relationship continuum, joint venture might represent a more developed and integrated relationship in which two or more members work together on a separate project (Ring and van de Ven, 1994). Other forms of working relationships might also appear in this continuum of arrangement (Bailey and Koney, 2000). In the tourism context, what is more common is the loosely formed alliance of tourism organizations, such as regional or local tourism associations and other marketing alliances initiated and organized by local destination marketing organizations (Henderson, 2001; Prideaux and Cooper, 2002; Saxena, 2005; Wang and Fesenmaier, 2007; Wang and Xiang, 2007).Though there is a significant and growing number of theoretical and empirical research devoted to understanding the formation of these relations (Watkins and Bell, 2002), a systematic definition and description of relationships as seen by the tourism industry would contribute to the understanding of how businesses perceive their relationships with their counterparts and how they move from one existing mode of relationship to another (Watkins and Bell, 2002). Relating to this, an understanding of the driving factors behind the dynamic configuration of the business relationships will not only provide theoretical contribution but also offer practical guidelines to the successful and sustainable operation of destination marketing alliances (Palmer, 2002). In addition, the fragmentation of the tourism industry and the complexity of destination marketing call for a collective approach to destination marketing, and how the tourism industry in a destination keeps the balance between cooperation and competition determines, to a great extent, the effectiveness of their destination marketing efforts as well as the long term competitiveness and success of the destination (Palmer and Bejou, 1995). However, a review of the related literature indicates that answers to the above questions are either too indefinite or anecdotal to offer theoretical contribution or provide practical direction. Such research is even scarcer in the tourism literature. Identifying the significance of the issue and taking a case study approach, this paper is aimed at achieving the following objectives:* examine the forms of business relationships among tourism industry stakeholders in a destination in their collaborative destination marketing efforts;* identify the factors contributing to the different business relationship configuration in a destination; and* understand the relationship between cooperation and competition from the eyes of local tourism industry stakeholders in a destination.\nTheoretical background: An extensive and critical review of the literature in the general business area indicates that different terms have been used to describe the working relationships between and among businesses. For example, Fyall and Garrod (2004) used the term coordination and described it as a process whereby two or more organizations create and/or use existing decision rules that have been established to deal collectively with their shared task environment. Others use the term cooperation to refer to the links that bring organizations together, thereby enhancing their ability to compete in the market place (Lynch, 1990). Palmer (2002) applied the cooperative concept to marketing stating that cooperative marketing groups are groups of independent businesses that recognize the advantages of developing markets jointly rather than in isolation.Beyond coordination, collaboration is a commonly used term to describe a more formal type of working relationship between businesses and organizations (Selin, 1993; Wood and Gray, 1991). Wood and Gray (1991), p.146) defines it as a process \"when a group of autonomous stakeholders of a problem domain engage in an interactive process, using shared rules, norms, and structure, to act or decide on issues related to that domain.\" They argue that collaborative interaction is considered as a relatively more formal process involving regular, face-to-face dialogue. This view is supported by other researchers who argue that collaboration is an intensive form of mutual attachment in which actors are bound together by the mutually supportive pursuit of individual collective benefits (Huxham, 1996). Jamal and Getz (1995) applied the concept of collaboration to community-based tourism planning and defines it as a process of joint decision-making among autonomous, key stakeholders of an inter-organizational, community tourism domain to resolve planning problems of the domain and/or manage issues related to the planning and development of the domain.Other researchers use the term strategic alliance to refer to a more formal and structured working relationships between organizations (e.g. Parkhe, 1993; Terpstra and Simonin, 1993). Strategic alliance is defined as organizational arrangements and operating policies through which separate organizations share administrative authority and form social links through more open-ended contractual arrangements as opposed to very specific, arm's length contracts (Witt and Moutinho, 1989). Strategic alliances are concerned with issues of how to obtain resources through partnership (Henderson, 2001; Witt and Moutinho, 1989). The concept has been applied to tourism marketing alliances which are contractual relationships undertaken by tourism businesses whose respective products complement each other in the marketplace (Fyall and Garrod, 2004; Palmer and Bejou, 1995).As can be seen, the majority of the literature describing inter-organizational relationships tends to focus on the cooperative aspect of the relationship; the competitive aspect of the relationship is usually neglected. In addition, there is limited evidence to provide systematic and empirical support as to why organizations switch between the different modes of relationships, particularly in relation to cooperation and competition. Doz (1988) attempts to make a link between the various relationship configuration with exogenous environmental dynamics, arguing that a shift in the strategic priorities of a firm, or a loss of leadership which makes a partner less attractive than it was earlier, are all drivers to shift the balance from more cooperative to more competitive mindset. Koza and Lewin (1998) try to understand the issue from a market perspective. They believe that the proximity of an activity to its customer seems to be of importance for the division between cooperative and competitive interactions. That is, the cooperative or competitive relationship are divided due to the closeness of an activity to the customer, in that firms compete in activities close to the customer and cooperate in activities far from the customers.This leads to another term \"coopetition\" introduced by other researchers (e.g. Bengtsson and Kock, 2000; Gnyawali and Madhavan, 2001) who argue that organizations do not always engage in either competitive or cooperative relationships with each other; rather, both relationships can oftentimes co-exist. In this stream of literature, the term coopetition is defined as simultaneous cooperation and competition (Brandenburger and Nalebuff, 1996). However, the two traditional research perspectives of competition and cooperation have evolved as different research streams. In competition, the focus is on value appropriation strategies whereas in cooperation, the focus is on collective strategies for value generation (Gnyawali and Madhavan, 2001; Moore, 1993). In the tourism context, in order to provide the products and services for consumption, destinations have to effectively coordinate resources and capabilities between participating businesses, which require both cooperation and competition. However, there is no coherent theoretical basis for understanding the balance between competition and cooperation in management literature, as well as how tourism businesses in a destination can engage in coopetitive relationships supported by tourism literature.\nResearch method: Study setting and data collection\nStudy results: The purpose of the study is three-fold: to understand the business relationships among tourism organizations in a destination when they conduct collaborative destination marketing activities; to identify the factors contributing to the different business relationship configuration in a destination; and to understand the relationship between cooperation and competition from the eyes of local tourism industry in a destination. Interviews with five staff members of ECCVB and 32 industry representatives from the local tourism industry generated a large amount of text data. For the purpose of the study, the information obtained from the 37 informants is organized and presented following the order of the study objectives.Forms of business relationships in collaborative destination marketing\nDiscussion and implications: Adopting a case study approach, this study intends to understand the business relationship in the context of destination marketing. Compared with previous frameworks describing business relationships, the proposed framework in this study includes competitive, cooperative as well as coopetition arrangements, which represents an encompassing range of possible relationships. This is an improvement over previous studies in which such arrangements are more characterized as typologies of discrete business relationships of competition and cooperation, emphasizing only the structural entities in which particular ways of relating are facilitated (Bengtsson and Kock, 2000). Indeed, today's business networks are complex gatherings of different kinds of relationships, which means that the traditional neoclassical way of analyzing competition and cooperation is no longer valid (Gnyawali and Madhavan, 2001). In the tourism context, the destination products are produced in a way that different elements are assembled at the time of consumption in order to provide the total customer experience (Palmer and Bejou, 1995). This value creation network, which requires simultaneous coordination and cooperation among various stakeholders, is different from the value chain production process evident in the manufacturing industry, which follows a more linear, step-by-step production approach (Porter, 1985). A tourism business can be involved in several different relationships at the same time in order to defend its position in the business network. Some relationships consist of pure competition; others of pure cooperation; and between the two extremes, there are relationships consisting of a mix of both. Cooperation is important for utilizing the destination's limited resources in the most efficient way, whereas coopetition can be regarded as an efficient way of handling both cooperation and competition between businesses.From a cooperative perspective, it was found that their relationships could be demonstrated in four types arranged in a continuum based on the level of formality, integration, and structural complexity:1. Affiliation.2. Coordination.3. Collaboration.4. Strategic networks.In affiliation, two or more tourism organizations loosely connected with each other, usually informally, because of their similar interest or interests. In coordination, otherwise autonomous tourism organizations aligned activities, sponsored particular event, or delivered targeted services in pursuit of compatible goals. In collaboration, parties worked collectively through common strategies. In strategic networks, all the tourism organizations involved in the network had a shared vision and took a system orientation to achieve group objectives through consistent strategy and concerted efforts. These terms clarify the extent to which tourism organizations work together to achieve their goals and describe much of the interorganizational activity occurring among the tourism industry.The findings on the factors affecting the relationship configuration are also interesting. In order to nurture a more cooperative environment among the tourism industry in the local destination, the following factors were found to play important roles: focus of strategic thinking; locality of marketing campaign; maturity of destination marketing approach; and leadership of local DMOs. First, a macro business perspective is required for the tourism industry to focus on the competitive advantage of the destination in order to create a win-win situation for all the stakeholders involved. Given the priority of individual businesses on their own benefits, this educational responsibility have to fall on the shoulder of certain organizations who can represent all the stakeholders in the destination, such as the local CVB/DMO. This educational process has to be long term and continuous in order to reinforce the cooperative mindset within the destination so that they are able to see both the \"forest\" and the \"trees\". In addition, given the observation that the level of cooperation from the industry in collaborative marketing programs is sensitive to distance of the marketing campaign, CVBs may take advantage of this mentality and facilitate more activities in the peripheral markets involved in creating and maintaining competitive advantage against other destinations. These types of activities/programs can eventually contribute to a more mature approach of destination marketing, which in turn leads to a more competitive destination. In order for this to happen, the CVB, as expected by the local tourism industry, has to take the leadership responsibility to lead the destination to future success. CVB has to be knowledgeable enough about the destination, has the communication skills and political savvy to coordinate the diverse interests of the tourism stakeholders in the destination. CVB needs to take this leadership role by not only providing knowledge to direct the tourism-related activities, but also to be politically astute to balance the interests of all constituents, including industry-members, government officials, and local residents so that the benefits of tourism activities are seen as being equitably distributed to all affected parties.The findings about the tourism industry's perceptions about cooperation and competition are also interesting as well as encouraging. The relationship between cooperation and competition is vital with reference to the marketing of a tourist destination, as it often takes place on a number of different levels (Grangsjo, 2003). From the tourist's point of view, the tourist destination offers a unified tourist product in relation to other destinations on the one hand, but on the other hand, within the destination there is competition between the different elements of the tourist product. The development of the destination can be affected by whether the different companies work with, or against, one another. There is a lack of existing theories and research on the relationship between competitors, while it is claimed that \"coopetition\" is, in fact, the most mutually advantageous relationship for competitors (Bengtsson and Kock, 2000). Coopetition means that competitors can both have a competitive and a cooperative relationship with one another at the same time (Brandenburger and Nalebuff, 1996). It seems that this coopetition mentality is occupying the tourism stakeholders' mindsets when they approach the issue of destination marketing.As reflected by the interview results, this paradoxical coopetition relationship may emerge when tourism businesses cooperate in some activities in a collaborative destination-marketing context, and at the same time compete with each other in other activities (Bengtsson and Kock, 2000). The cooperative behavior and the competitive approach adopted by some of the tourism organizations depending on the distance of the marketing campaign is a good illustration of the coopetition relationship. This behavior of coopetition involves two different logics of interaction. On the one hand, there is hostility due to conflicting interests of getting a bigger piece of the business once the visitors are in the destination; on the other hand, it is necessary to pool resources and develop mutual commitment to achieve the common goal of attracting the visitors to the destination. It seems that creating value, a bigger pie, is fundamentally a cooperative activity that a business cannot accomplish alone. On the other hand, the act of dividing up the pie is fundamentally competitive. A business has to keep its eyes on both balls and creating and capturing at the same time. The coopetition perspective recognizes the need for more complex descriptions of markets and business models where cooperation and competition merge together, and actors' roles, processes and objectives become more complex. CVB needs to manage this process to make sure that the local tourism industry understands that the well being of the destination is more important than one business' profit maximization from a long term perspective, and a win-win relationship is possible when each contributes to the total value creation for the destination, giving rise to a partially convergent interest and goal structure where both competitive and cooperative issues are simultaneously present and strictly interconnected.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to understand the business relationships among the tourism industry stakeholders in conducting collaborative destination marketing activities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This research takes a case study approach by focusing on the investigation of the business relationships among tourism industry stakeholders in Elkhart County, Indiana. Interviews with five staff members from the Elkhart County Convention and Visitors Bureau as well as 32 tourism industry representatives were conducted in order to answer the research questions.\nFindings: - The interview results indicate that different relationships of cooperation, competition and coopetition coexist among the tourism stakeholders. Four cooperative relationships with various degrees of formalization, integration, and structural complexity are involved. In addition, four factors have been identified as affecting this relationship configuration. The perceived relationship between cooperation and competition was also found to be vital with reference to the marketing of a destination.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Given the exploratory nature and case study approach of the research, caution is required in interpreting the results of the study, particularly in generalizing the study results to other destinations.\nOriginality/value: - The paper provides practical implications to tourism businesses in their efforts to collectively market their destination, particularly in relation to how they balance the relationship between cooperation and competition, individual benefits and common benefits in order to achieve success for both the destination and their individual businesses.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Knowledge management for Chinese medicines: a conceptual model
|
[
"Knowledge management systems",
"Pharmaceutical products",
"China",
"Computer software"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The concept of knowledge management emerged in early 1990 s of the last century. For the last decade, especially by the end of the twentieth century, knowledge management had gained such significant attention that much research and development, as well as implementations, have been done. Information technology, with its success in manipulating data and information in the previous century, has been regarded as an effective tool to actualize knowledge management. There are also a lot of information technology products claiming to be knowledge management systems available in the market. Nevertheless, the application of knowledge management to Chinese medicines is not common, although there are some pharmacological databases and literature collections online on the internet or on the computer systems of private organizations. On the internet, there are some Chinese medicines web sites recently created, which move closer to the area of knowledge management. A significant amount of these sites are, unfortunately, not matured in comprehensiveness of information, provision of knowledge management services, internet programming techniques and even network speed and reliability. They also seem to lack the support of a system and theory[1]. This article tries to tie up the knowledge management theories, information technology and Chinese medicines requirements and propose a conceptual information technology model of knowledge management for Chinese medicines.\n2. Concepts in knowledge and knowledge management: Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) presented his concepts about knowledge and an evolution model, which has become an important theory of knowledge management. Thereafter, many scholars have further developed this concept. According to their views (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Marwick, 2001; Grover and Davenport, 2001; Satyadas et al., 2001), the concepts of knowledge and its management can be summarized as follows:2.1 Explicit knowledge\n3. Knowledge management requirements for Chinese medicines: 3.1 Basic attributes of Chinese medicines\n4. Transformation of knowledge of Chinese medicines with the help of information technology: 4.1 Externalization of tacit knowledge of Chinese medicines\n5. A conceptual knowledge management model for Chinese medicines: After the analysis from the above sections, a proposed conceptual model of knowledge management for Chinese medicines is proposed as follows. It is composed of four layers, namely, the network and computer system layer, data layer, knowledge services layer and application layer. However, it should be noted that there is no clear divide between data and knowledge services layers, and between knowledge services and application layers (Figure 2).5.1 Network and computer system layer\n6. Conclusion: There are many commercial products of knowledge management system available in the market. A significant amount of them are actually in the stage of information management only. As a matter of fact, information technology has not yet developed to a mature stage for knowledge management. Finding a knowledge management system that is especially suitable for Chinese medicines will be more difficult. An ideal one should integrate the special characteristics of Chinese medicines, the information technology as well as theories in management and social sciences.The model of knowledge management is a very brief one. Its implementation has to be adjusted according to the needs of different entities in the Chinese medicines industry. Some of the modules are indeed optional, while additional ones can be added as required. Owing to the rapid development of information technology and its products, it is not recommended to self-develop the modules in the lower layers, namely, the network and computer system layer, data layer and even the knowledge services layer. Instead, compatible off-the-shelf products should be purchased and integrated together. Those in the application layers, especially the ERP and CRM, which usually are tailored to suit individual needs, can be developed according to the real situation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - In the twenty-first century and under the knowledge economy, knowledge is regarded as an important asset for many organizations. In the area of Chinese medicines, be it a research center, a pharmacy, a drug manufacturer, a government supervision authority, a medical doctor or even a patient, the mastering and application of knowledge are an essential factor for success. However, there is very little research on knowledge management for Chinese medicines, which has its own special characteristics. This paper aims to study this problem and to propose a conceptual model for knowledge management of Chinese medicines.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper first analyses the requirements of knowledge management in Chinese medicines. Then, making reference to Nonaka's knowledge transformation model, the application of information technology in different stages of knowledge transformation for Chinese medicines is reviewed. Based on the above studies, a conceptual model of knowledge management for Chinese medicines is recommended.\nFindings: - The requirements of knowledge management in Chinese medicines are analysed and specified in basic attributes, prescriptions and formulae, rules of ingredients combination, and pharmaceuticals management. The information technologies that can be used at different stages of transformation are also reviewed. Finally, a four-layer model, containing the network and computer system layer, data layer, knowledge services layer and application layer, is described.\nPractical implications: - At present, there is no knowledge management product in the market that is designed for Chinese medicines. This paper helps to initiate studies for solutions in this area.\nOriginality/value: - The primary new idea here is to propose a conceptual knowledge management model for Chinese medicines. The model can be used as a framework to further develop a practical knowledge management system for Chinese medicines.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Dynamic implications of customer order decoupling point positioning
|
[
"Supply chain management",
"Assembly",
"Order systems",
"System dynamics",
"Customer order decoupling point",
"Assembly to order"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Supply chain management is concerned with balancing the availability of products with the cost of ensuring availability. Recognising that demand is characterised by variability, it becomes desirable to create buffers which can allow a supply chain to operate under uncertainty. The most important of these buffers is located at the customer order decoupling point (CODP), which represents the point where a supply chain stops producing to forecast and instead starts producing directly to order, meaning that every product becomes assigned to a specific customer (Olhager, 2003). By definition, the CODP, sometimes also called the order penetration point, is a different entity from the information decoupling point (Mason-Jones and Towill, 1999), which instead is concerned with the purity of demand information, rather than the actual mode (make-to-stock (MTS)/make-to-order (MTO)) of production.1.1 Glossary of terms\n2 Supply chain trade-offs: To understand the effects of CODP placement, it becomes necessary to consider some fundamental properties of processes and how they relate to the CODP.Within supply chain management, typically three types of buffers are considered: inventory, capacity and time. Inventory uses safety stock to ensure availability when demand is greater than expected; capacity allows for stocks to be duly replenished, while time reduces variability by spreading it out over time (Hopp and Spearman, 2000; Jammernegg and Reiner, 2007).These buffers explain the difference between the two basic building blocks of any supply chain: the MTS pipeline and the MTO pipeline (Vollman et al., 2005).MTS pipelines ensure availability by delivering directly from an inventory, which is replenished by a materials pipeline. Replenishment volumes are determined by a forecast plus corrections for deviations from target stock levels. In this kind of system, there is no time buffer, meaning that buffering of demand variability occurs only between inventory and throughput.MTO pipelines cannot offer instant delivery, but instead gain the ability to use time as a buffer. While customers expect a delay from MTO supply chains, the promised time from order receipt to delivery must be reasonably short (tD). Comparing tD to the pipeline time tP, we get the expected time orders spend in the order book (tPLAN), before being sent to production (equation 1): Equation 1 Using the order book as a buffer means that the demand rate can be smoothed somewhat before being released as production orders; with no constraints present, this can be represented by a first order exponential delay.\n3 Effects of CODP placement: Placement of the CODP must be done so that products can be delivered to the customer within an acceptable time (tD). If tD is shorter than the total pipeline time (tP), it becomes necessary to decouple the supply chain, so that customers can get their orders filled within an acceptable time. Decoupling the supply chain means that it is broken into two parts: one part that produces directly to customer orders (the pipeline time for this part we call (tMTO), and another part, which produces to a strategic inventory located at the CODP (with a pipeline delay of tMTS), from which the MTO supply chain then initiates its production. Based on this, we formulate the relationship as shown in equation (2): Equation 2 Inserting (1) into (2) we get (3): Equation 3 Considering tP and tD to be constant, a direct relationship between tMTS and tPLAN becomes evident, meaning that moving the CODP affects the time available for smoothing; placing the CODP far upstream results in unstable production for the MTO system, while placing it far downstream results in a longer tMTS, which implies higher stockholding. The schedule stability also affects materials withdrawals at the CODP buffer, meaning that a longer planning time will allow for more stable inventory levels.\n4 System dynamics model: To assess how the placement of the CODP affects a supply chain, a system dynamics model was created, describing a generic assembly-to-order system at an aggregate level. The model consists of two production pipelines, one MTO, which faces the customer and one MTS which supplies the CODP buffer with materials. Figure 1 shows the feedback structure.The MTS system uses forecasts that are based on customer demand, rather than on consumption of buffer stock; this means that the model studies the CODP phenomenon with full demand visibility.Demand is used to make a forecast (single exponential smoothing, a-1=20), determining the expected average consumption. This is then used to calculate the target pipeline and buffer stock. To get the required compensation for pipeline and buffer stock levels, the difference between target stock and actual stock is divided by a smoothing parameter, ti=20. These values were chosen as they represent a level scheduling approach for the MTS system (Zhou et al., 2010). The total replenishment amount is then (equation 4): Equation 4 where TINV=target inventory, AINV=actual inventory, TWIP=target WIP and AWIP=actual WIP. In our experiment, TINV is set to ten times the forecast, while TWIP is the forecast multiplied by tMTS.This replenishment rule can be considered a Deziel-Eilon automatic pipeline and inventory order-based production control system (DE-APIOBPCS) with variable pipeline and inventory target levels (Disney and Towill, 2003). Ordered goods arrive at the buffer stock after a pure time delay of tMTS.The MTO part of the supply chain starts with registering pure customer orders in an order book. Releases from this order book are done by releasing a fraction of the orders in the order book, as shown in equation (5); this makes the order release rate smoother than the demand rate: Equation 5 After orders are released, inventory is detracted from the CODP buffer stock; orders leave the MTO pipeline after a pure time delay of tMTO.Model output is measured by monitoring the total variance of WIP levels, indicating the variance of order releases for both the MTO and MTS supply chains. The buffer stock level variance is also an important output, describing the need for safety stock.\n5 Experiment design: To test the system dynamics model three configurations, testing different locations of the CODP, were designed as shown in Table I. The only difference is that tPLAN, which determines the CODP position is changed. Config. 1 represents a CODP placed far upstream, while Config. 3 represents one far downstream. Config. 2 is a compromise solution, which we use as a reference point.Two demand patterns were tried for each configuration; the first one being a sine wave with a period of 50 time units (high frequency), the other having a period of 250 time units (low-frequency).\n6 Results: The first case, with a high frequency signal, provides some interesting insights. As Figures 2 and 3 show, the longer planning time configuration is the most stable one. The stability brings benefits to the CODP stock, as it indicates a lower safety stock requirement. In the case of total WIP, for both the MTS and MTO pipelines, stability is desirable because smooth utilisation often allows for low production costs.The low-frequency demand does, however, provide a different result for both CODP stock and WIP levels, indicating that the shorter planning time configuration is preferable. Though the benefits are smaller than compared with the high-frequency demand signal, they still allow for a significant reduction in variance (Figures 4 and 5).Table II presents a summary of the experiments, while Table III compares variances of the configurations with Config. 2 as a reference point. Of particular interest are the experiments for high-frequency demand, indicating what seems to be decreasing returns in variance reduction from extending the planning time.Considering that the different demand frequencies do not favour the same configuration, it is reasonable to assume that there is a breakpoint where the variances of the different configurations are equal. Through a hill-climbing optimisation algorithm, this point was found at f-1[?]167. At this point the placement of the CODP does not affect the dynamic performance of the supply chain.\n7 Discussion: Though only a limited set of experiments was conducted, they provide some insights into the dynamic consequences of the placement of the CODP. Most important is that the frequency of the demand signal alone can determine where the CODP should be placed, given that no other system parameters change.For high-frequency demand signals, supply chains benefit from a late CODP position (by this we mean a CODP located far downstream) as the order book smoothes out much of the variation, leaving a stable order release rate for the MTO component of the supply chain. Owing to the stable release rate, the inventory buffer at the CODP does not suffer from severe swings, implying that less safety stock would be required. Finally, the MTS component of the supply chain swings with nearly identical amplitude and frequency for all tested placements of the CODP. As a late CODP position causes a longer tMTS than an early CODP position, it follows by Little's law that the former has a higher average work-in-process level. Having a higher average value, but identical amplitude, it follows that the late CODP scenario has a smaller coefficient of variation, as well as a smaller coefficient of variance than the earlier CODP scenarios, indicating a more stable system.Low-frequency demand signals provide a rather different result, indicating that the CODP should be placed early (far upstream), not utilizing the order book for smoothing. This is the result of the average time orders are kept in the order book being too short to allow for smoothing of low-frequency signals. In fact, keeping orders in the order book for longer makes the system lag, when there is no real benefit to be gained from this. In this case, the early CODP outperforms other configurations to a small degree; while significant, the benefits to be gained from strategic CODP positioning under low-frequency demand are very small in comparison to the ones gained under high-frequency demand. We, therefore, suggest that the positioning of the CODP is of strategic importance for industries with highly volatile demand, while more stable industries may have smaller benefits to gain from an elaborate CODP placement.Our model does not consider diverging supply chains, although this may readily be done by inclusion of the square root rule (Maister, 1976) in the formula concerning the base requirements for CODP stock (equation 6): Equation 6 While (equation 6) is intended for comparing discrete cases, the function could be implemented continuously. As the rule favours an early CODP position, we would expect that an interesting trade-off would occur for the high-frequency case, implying an ideal CODP position that would not be extremely far upstream or downstream. Knowing that production stability will likely conflict with requisite safety stock levels, approaches such as multi-objective optimization may be necessary to evaluate this scenario.\n8 Conclusion: We have shown that the placement of the CODP can have a significant influence on the dynamic performance of a supply chain, especially in cases of high-frequency demand. Placing the CODP far downstream allows the use the order book as a buffer. This makes it possible to filter out high-frequency variations in demand. Doing this reduces the stress on the physical supply chain, effectively reducing the need for safety stock, spare capacity and overtime work.For low-frequency demand the ability to filter out noise using the order book is lost. In this case, a downstream placement of the CODP causes the supply chain to lag, which slightly increases variations in safety stock and WIP levels. As a CODP placed downstream provides superior performance in the case of high-frequency demand while also giving acceptable results for low-frequency demand, we conclude that this is the preferred supply chain configuration.Our work suggests that the notion of pushing the CODP as far upstream as possible may be ill-advised, as it passes demand variability directly to the physical supply chain, leading to excessive inventory and capacity requirements. The consequences of placing the CODP far downstream can be increased safety stock requirements due to a more complex distribution network structure. Companies wishing to utilise the CODP concept to its fullest must carefully identify the trade-off between safety stock requirements and stable production rates.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The positioning of the customer order decoupling point (CODP) is an important strategic consideration for supply chains. Recently, research has focused only on the static effects of CODP positioning. The purpose of this paper is to expand the body of knowledge by describing the dynamic consequences that arise from shifting the CODP upstream or downstream.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A generic assembly-to-order system dynamics simulation model is developed and used to evaluate the dynamic consequences of shifting the CODP.\nFindings: - Placing the CODP downstream allows for short-term fluctuations in demand to be absorbed by the order book, leading to a stable production rate and inventory response. This benefit must, however, be weighed against any additional safety stock a CODP placed far downstream may require.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The paper demonstrates the importance of considering the dynamic aspects of CODP positioning. Further research should investigate the phenomenon for different demand scenarios and supply chain configurations.\nPractical implications: - Downstream shifting of the CODP has been identified as a powerful way to reduce variability in assembly-to-order systems.\nOriginality/value: - This paper introduces the dynamic consequences of CODP location, providing a new perspective that should be considered when positioning the CODP.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Marketing of postgraduate education in Taiwan: issues for foreign universities
|
[
"Taiwan",
"Universities",
"Marketing strategy",
"Postgraduates",
"Perception",
"Postgraduate education",
"Destination choice",
"Quality",
"Potential benefits",
"Partial least squares"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Provision of educational services is a major industry for countries such as Australia, Canada, the UK and the USA (Larsen et al., 2002). The largest component of international trade in educational service is accounted for by students traveling abroad to study. As with goods, an international trade in services is restricted by barriers to trade, mainly in the form of government restrictions. In the area of education, these restrictions can take several forms including quotas, immigration restrictions or language requirements (Lawley, 1993). Smart and Ang (1995) suggest that in Taiwan, despite the rapid expansion in the higher education sector, the number of graduates who wish to further their education far exceeds the number of postgraduate places available in local universities. A study done by the New Zealand Trade Development Centre in Taipei (2004) indicates that postgraduate programs conducted in Taiwan are generally perceived to be of relatively low value and quality. Hence many students, who obtain their undergraduate degrees locally, seek to undertake their postgraduate studies overseas, so as to differentiate themselves in the job market.\nLiterature review: Internationalisation and globalisation became key themes in the 1990s, both in higher education policy debates and in research on higher education (Enders, 2004). Currently, there are a wide range of collaborative activities taking place across borders of countries in various sectors including education. Not only are exchanges of students and faculty becoming increasingly common, but also universities are striving to respond to the heavy demand of a rapidly globalising economy. The huge potential in the overseas market for a wide range of training and education services has become increasingly recognised by governments as well as education institutions in many developed countries during the last decade (Bennell and Pearce, 2001). As the English language is accepted globally, education institutions in English speaking countries do seem to have a stronger comparative advantage in exploring and expanding the rapidly growing trade in educational services (Agarwal and Winkler, 1985). There is a high demand for English language education in the Asia-Pacific region, both by developed economies of countries such as South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore and also by emerging economies such as Malaysia, China and Thailand (Marginson, 2003).\nConceptual model and hypothesis development: From the literature review, we identified four constructs, namely: quality of available information, overseas country characteristics, potential benefits and perceptions of overall education quality. Following from Lawley (1998), we posited that the first three constructs would directly affect the perceptions of overall education quality, which in turn will influence Taiwanese students' final intention of choosing a particular overseas destination for their postgraduate studies.\nResearch design: The data required for this research was collected by means of a consumer-type survey. A questionnaire was developed with 40 items adapted from previously validated scales. Respondents were required to indicate the importance rating for each of the 40 items using a seven point Likert-type scale, anchored at 1 (most important) and 7 (least important). The survey instrument was pre-tested using a focus group comprising of eight Taiwanese undergraduate students and necessary changes were made accordingly to the wordings of some of the 40 items. It was also translated into Chinese in order that respondents were able to comprehend it. The back translation technique was later adopted to analyse the data. A non-probabilistic sampling procedure, i.e. convenience sampling was adopted owing to the unavailability of a satisfactory sampling frame. Final year undergraduate students from four universities in Taiwan were targeted. There was upfront a screening question which eliminated students who were not knowledgeable about overseas postgraduate education from continuing the survey. A total of 312 survey questionnaires were administered by trained interviewers during a two week period and 301 completed questionnaires were collected. Of this number, five questionnaires were rejected because of errors in the interpretation of questions by respondents. Hence, 296 usable questionnaires were included in the analysis. The demographic characteristic of the sample was 49 percent female and 51 percent male.\nResults: Exploratory factor analysis\nDiscussion and conclusion: This study has investigated the determinants of Taiwanese students' perceptions of overall quality of overseas education. The PLS analysis has provided evidence of the catalytic need for intermediation by potential benefits accrued in ascertaining perceptions of overall education quality. Hence the key determinant which prospective Taiwanese students perceive to be important is potential benefits, which include prospects of Western acculturation, migration and job. These findings are similar to those determined by Bao (1997) and Lawley (1998). The quality of information obtained by prospective students from their families, overseas universities and host countries was inadequate and did not directly contribute in enhancing their perceptions of overall quality. However, this construct together with country characteristics influenced their perceptions of overall quality when mediated by potential benefits. The findings of this study in relation to characteristics of host country are similar to those obtained by Ledwith and Seymour (2001) and also by Kemp et al. (1998). Generally these characteristics include safety, cost and geographic location.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors which influence Taiwanese students' destination choice for their overseas postgraduate studies. Constructs elicited from the literature were overall perception of education quality, available information, country characteristics and accrual of potential benefits.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper takes the form of a literature review, from which the authors identified four constructs: quality of available information; overseas country characteristics; potential benefits; and perceptions of overall education quality. The data required for this research were collected by means of a consumer-type survey. A questionnaire was developed with 40 items adapted from previously validated scales. A non-probabilistic sampling procedure, i.e. convenience sampling, was adopted owing to the unavailability of a satisfactory sampling frame. Final-year undergraduate students from four universities in Taiwan were targeted. There was upfront a screening question which eliminated students who were not knowledgeable about overseas postgraduate education from continuing the survey. A total of 312 survey questionnaires were administered by trained interviewers, during a two-week period, and 301 completed questionnaires were collected.\nFindings: The research findings revealed that the overall perception of education quality in host country influences the choice of the destination country. Path analysis has shown the catalytic need for intermediation by potential benefits accrued. Postgraduate Taiwanese students, having a better appreciation of western acculturation and potential migration and job prospects, together with the constructs of quality of information and country characteristics, have a better overall perception of education quality of destination country.\nResearch limitations/implications: Universities targeting Taiwanese postgraduate students need to highlight aspects of potential benefits in their marketing literature and promotional materials. The results of this study will certainly benefit overseas educational institutions and their marketing departments.\nOriginality/value: This is one of the very few studies which uses partial least squares to address a complex situation associated with the hierarchy of determinants in the selection of a foreign university.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
State substitution for the trade union good: the case of paid holiday entitlements
|
[
"Trade unions",
"Vacation",
"Holidays",
"Working time"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Empirical studies of the impact of trade unions on the terms and conditions of employment have been one of the mainstays of labour economics for decades. Yet their scope is surprisingly limited, with the vast majority focusing on a single facet of the reward package, namely, the hourly wage. A recent review of the evidence on this particular issue suggests that unions do still typically deliver a wage premium, at least in the USA and UK, but that this premium has declined in magnitude in recent years (Bryson, 2014).\n2. Theory and prior evidence: Theory suggests that unions might affect the provision of paid holidays in two ways. The first arises if unions have some monopoly over the labour supplied to a firm and seek to utilise this power to increase the provision of paid holidays above the market-clearing rate, in the same way as they might for the pecuniary element of the overall compensation package. The second route arises if unions use their collective voice to bring about a change in the balance of compensation in favour of greater paid holiday entitlements (perhaps at the expense of money wages). Such an outcome may occur if unions follow a median voter model, in which they seek to persuade the employer to meet the preferences of the average member, rather than those of the employee on the margin of quitting the firm[2].\n3. Policy context: Before going further, it is worth pausing to outline the context around union representation and the provision of paid holidays in the UK.\n4. Data and methods: 4.1 The UK Quarterly Labour Force Survey\n5. The union premium on paid holiday entitlements in 2017: We begin our analyses by focusing on the provision of paid holiday entitlements in 2017 - the latest year of QLFS data available to us. In 2017, some 97 per cent of permanent employees in Britain aged 18-74 reported at least some paid holiday entitlement[8]. The mean entitlement among those who report some paid holidays was 5.7 days for each weekday worked: just above the statutory minimum. Once those reporting zero entitlements are included, the mean falls to 5.5 days for each weekday worked, with the median worker reporting an entitlement of five days. The average worker's entitlement thus falls just short of the statutory minimum[9]. Some 30 per cent of employees have an entitlement that is estimated to be above the statutory minimum.\n6. Estimates of changes in the union holiday premium over time: Estimates of the union wage premium suggest that it is now around one-third of the size that was observed in the mid-1990s (Forth and Bryson, 2015). In this section, we examine whether the union holiday premium has also declined over the past two decades, again using data from the QLFS. Of course, this period saw a major policy intervention in the form of the introduction and subsequent extension of the WTR (summarised earlier in the paper). To the extent that the Regulations provided a minimum floor of entitlement for employees with insufficient bargaining power to secure such an entitlement by their own means, one might expect their introduction to have reduced the advantage experienced by unionised over ununionized employees. This is indeed what we observe.\n7. Estimates of the union premium from workplace data: As noted earlier, it is possible that these estimates of the union premia may be biased through our inability to observe more than just a narrow set of employer characteristics within the QLFS. We are unable to perform comprehensive sensitivity tests, due to the absence of a linked employer-employee data with an employee-level measure of holiday entitlements. However, the WERS provides a workplace-level indicator of entitlements - as described in Section 3 - alongside a host of employer characteristics which can serve as controls.\n8. Discussion and conclusions: Once studies of union wage premia have been set aside, there are relatively few studies of the effects of union representation on other aspects of the wage-effort bargain. We contribute to this small body of literature through a study of the union premium in paid holiday entitlements, using large-scale survey data for Britain covering the period 1994-2017.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The literature on the union wage premium is among the most extensive in labour economics but unions' effects on other aspects of the wage-effort bargain have received much less attention. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature through a study of the union premium in paid holiday entitlements.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors examine the size of the union premium on paid holidays over time, with a particular focus on how the premium was affected by the introduction of a statutory right to paid holidays. The data come from nationally representative surveys of employees and workplaces.\nFindings: The authors find that the union premium on paid holidays is substantially larger than the union premium on wages. However, the premium fell with the introduction of a statutory minimum entitlement to paid leave.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study to examine explicitly the interaction between union representation and the law in this setting. The findings indicate the difficulties that unions have faced in protecting the most vulnerable employees in the UK labour market. The authors argue that the supplanting of voluntary joint regulation with statutory regulation is symptomatic of a wider decrease in the regulatory role of unions in the UK.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Ontologies for e-document management in public administration
|
[
"Electronics industry",
"Government",
"Public administration",
"Document management",
"Socio‐technical theory"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: the challenge of e-document management in public administration: Document processing is at the core of administrative performance in several respects: documents are the basis for almost all of the administrative processes, they are the most valuable resources to exploit as they are the main carriers of information and represent a large portion of the overall administrative knowledge base. Additionally, administrative document handling has to meet high standards regarding authenticity, confidentiality, and long-term accountability. These requirements related to document processing persist as administrations are entering the e-age: new types of electronic documents (e.g. e-mails) and other informational resources (e.g. websites), new technical devices and media for document processing (e.g. optical scanners, intranet, e-form submissions) as well as demands for new types of interactivity (e.g. one-stop shops for citizens) and cross-organizational cooperation (e.g. e-procurement) are forcing administrations to rethink their strategy and infrastructure for document management.Owing to this development, the management of electronic documents (e-documents) has become a major concern within public administration, and a number of IT solutions have been presented on the market. But these are mainly \"closed\" systems, they do not yet support open cross-organizational e-document management and/or are not comprehensive enough to include all kinds of e-documents. At the same time, storage and retrieval of e-documents based on internet technologies has progressed significantly, opening up new ways for e-document management. For those in charge of document management in public administration, the main question is: How can we organize and present e-documents so that users and/or machines will be able to retrieve the document needed, or at least the information indicating the document? And regarding possible technical solutions: What is the most effective and adequate way to proceed in a given administrative environment?To provide answers to these strategic questions, this research explores the potential of ontologies for reorganizing e-document management in public administration. The starting point is that storage and retrieval require solidified metadata based on comprehensive domain knowledge. The idea is to create some kind of virtual \"world of documents\" representing the main ontological aspects of the domain, in particular its taxonomy. Within this contribution ontologies are referred to as explicit specifications of a conceptualization on the basis of a well-structured vocabulary. Since ontologies are suitable for organizing metadata for annotation of informational resources, the research question is: How can public administrations make use of ontologies for organizing and improving their e-document management? The aim is to gain insights into what kind of ontology-based IT solutions are suitable for e-document management in public administration, as well as to provide the practitioners involved with advice on how to proceed in their organizational context.This paper mainly takes up the perspective of a project in the state administration of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, for which action research (Avison et al., 1999; Baskerville, 1999) was chosen as the method to investigate the case and reflect the author's involvement. Action research may be considered as \"an iterative process involving researchers and practitioners acting together on a particular cycle of activities\" (Avison et al., 1999, p. 94). The so-called action research cycle includes problem diagnosis and action planning, action taking and learning. The research reported on here involved one researcher (the author) and a student from Hamburg University as well as several actors from the state administration of Schleswig-Holstein, mainly from the department of the interior. The collaboration was framed by a contract between the state administration and the technology transfer center of the university's informatics department.The paper is organized as follows: Section 2 explains the issue of document management from several perspectives; Section 3 introduces ontology concepts and presents the main results of a comparative study on ontology usage in e-document management; Section 4 traces the project activities within the state administration of Schleswig-Holstein according to the action research cycle, and the lessons learned include some general guidelines for administration; Section 5 concludes and points to further research in this area.\n2 Document management: dealing with resources, information and records: In computing (McDaniel, 1994), a document is a named, structured unit of text, images, sound or other formats that can be stored, retrieved, and exchanged among systems and users as a separate unit. The Commonwealth Government's Information Exchange Steering Committee (IESC, 1995, p. 6) has defined a document as \"recorded communications with recognizable structure, on any medium, intelligible without further processing except for presentation on screen or on the printed page.\" With the advent of SGML and other markup languages, research has scrutinized the structure of administrative documents, especially of legislative documents (Salminen et al., 2001; Biagioli et al., 2003). Operations on documents can be manifold. From the technical point of view, document processing includes capturing, storage and retrieval as well as manipulation of content.Addressing the challenge of document management requires an understanding of document processing within an organizational context. Electronic documents comprise a major portion of any agency's information resources and serve a number of purposes. Actually, document management can be regarded as a service, supporting the organization's core functions at every level, by meeting the needs of managers and workers and, where necessary, of clients and external bodies. In the literature, we find different perspectives on how to approach document management, related to treating documents as resources, information and/or records.2.1 Resource management\n3 Ontology-based approaches for e-document management: Ontology-based approaches seek to define common domain terminologies. For ages, the term \"ontology\" has been used in singular mode, relating to a long tradition of philosophical discourse on metaphysics. With the beginning of the construction of artificial (virtual) worlds, research within Artificial Intelligence has focused on exploring and producing \"ontologies\", each of these applying to selected domains (Gruninger and Lee, 2002).The most frequently quoted definition of ontology is provided by Gruber (1993): \"An ontology is an explicit specification of a conceptualization.\" While this sounds much as conceptual modeling, the metaphysical background is still somewhat relevant:The subject of ontology is the study of the categories of things that exist or may exist in some domain. The product of such a study, called an ontology, is a catalog of the types of things that are assumed to exist in a domain of interest D from the perspective of a person who uses a language L for the purpose of talking about D. (Sowa, 2000).Following that definition, ontologies are means for communication. Other definitions even more underline the intersubjective nature, e.g. an ontology is a formalized model of (a part of) the world, which includes concepts and their relations agreed on by a group of experts and/or users (Oppermann et al., 2001).The degree of formalization may differ significantly which has consequences for the options of automation. Basically, it is important to distinguish between (Sowa, 2000):* Informal ontology. May be specified by a catalog of types that are either undefined or defined only by statements in a natural language.* Formal ontology. Specified by a collection of names for concept and relation types organized in a partial ordering by the type-subtype relation.Lately, ontologies have also attracted researchers in the field of business systems integration and corporate semantic webs. There, the challenge of integration spans the interrelated dimensions of people, organization and technology, and the key issues identified are concerned with effective communication and coordination within and across these dimensions and the definition of common business semantics. It needs a common ground for communication, a virtual world structured and shared between those who know and those who want to know, to support storage processing and retrieval of any informational resource.This applies also to the field of e-government and the usage of IT in public administration (in fact, it is a general issue which needs to be taken into account while trying to improve cross-organizational cooperation). From the point of view of administrations, ontology-based approaches seem to promise support for at least the following objectives:* systematic management of dealing with (electronic) records and other resources, based on standards;* support for administrative processes crossing organizational borders; and* responding to requests, information retrieval and knowledge management with respect to different actor perspectives.3.1 Concepts for controlling vocabularies\n4 Schleswig-Holstein: in search for an e-document solution: Schleswig-Holstein is the most northern of the 16 German states with less than 3 million people living on about 16,000 km2 (less than 5 percent of Germany's area). The state is structured in 11 counties, each with a number of municipalities, and four cities. The state government is located in Kiel (the state capital), it consists of nine departments with about 60,000 employees altogether. Each of the departments runs its own technical infrastructure.From October 2001 until May 2003 a project named \"ParoPlus\" was conducted to explore the potentials of and to suggest solutions for document management cutting across all of the governmental departments. The project leader was allocated at the department of the interior, the project group (6-8 persons) included employees of other departments and of the state owned computing service center as well as the researcher from the informatics department. During the first year, the project group met every 4-8 weeks (reports of these meetings have been shared among all members). After presenting the main findings at a working conference on IT projects in the state of Schleswig-Holstein (November 2002) project activities narrowed down to compiling the final report (issued May 2003). This section traces the project activities according to the action research cycle, and the lessons learned include some general guidelines for municipalities.4.1 Problem diagnosis and action planning\n5 Conclusion and further research: One of the main motives of the research presented here was to support the state government of Schleswig-Holstein in finding a solution for their e-document management. The main findings indicate that:* structuring documents and information through ontologies requires an infrastructure consisting of a number of regularities, services and support on the level of organization as well as information technology; and* a rather small government must be aware of its strategic goals and step ahead carefully in order to avoid the risks of misinvestment.However, the case of Schleswig-Holstein is only one among many others, typical for a multitude of administrations trying to enter the information age without having the power and resources to be on the leading edge. Since the recommendations presented above are not grounded on insights which are unique for Schleswig-Holstein, the results may support the strategy development and solution finding in other administrations as well.Research in the field of IT enabled public administration seeks (among other things) to reflect the state of the art in implementing and using new technologies, to analyze the IT demands of public administration, and to support the adoption of IT in manifold ways. In this action research, the power and ability to set up and control a set of interrelated elements which support the application of ontology-based approaches have turned out to be critical success factors. The lesson learned is that the greater the expectations are from using ontology-based approaches the greater the need for a socio-technical infrastructure to support the application of ontologies.As we increasingly investigate the cross-organizational usage of internet-based technologies in public administration (e.g. for supporting process management, Klischewski, 2001), we may learn from the field of business networking (Osterle et al., 2001) that an arrangement of agreements and regulations (e.g. standards) is always needed prior to any successful internet-based collaboration across organizational borders. There are strong indications that the actors' strategies for the adoption and implementation of new technologies always heavily depend on their options for implementing and controlling the necessary infrastructure.However, public administration is a unique domain of IT application. For example, the \"worldviews\" (ontologies) and the systems of rules and regulations which have an impact on (cross-organizational) administrative processes are quite different from those framing processes in and across business units. Therefore, research and practice should focus more on the conditions of cross-organizational IT adoption in public administration, in particular on the power and ability to set up and control socio-technical infrastructures.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This research seeks to explore the potential of ontologies for reorganizing e-document management in public administration with the aim of supporting administration in organizing cross-organizational document and information management.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Since ontologies are suitable for organizing metadata for annotation of informational resources, the research question is: How can public administrations make use of ontologies for organizing and improving their e-document management? Findings, based on an action research project in the state administration of Schleswig-Holstein (Germany).\nFindings: - The research findings indicate that structuring documents and information through ontologies requires a socio-technical infrastructure consisting of a number of regularities, services and support on the level of organization as well as information technology.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Since the case of Schleswig-Holstein is typical for governments trying to enter the information age without having the power and resources to be on the leading edge, the recommendations based on this research may support the strategy development and solution finding in other administrations as well.\nPractical implications: - A rather small government (such as that of Schleswig-Holstein) must be aware of its strategic goals and step ahead carefully in order to avoid the risks of misinvestment while reorganizing its e-document management.\nOriginality/value: - The paper systematically addresses the question \"How can public administration make use of ontologies for organizing and improving their e-document management?\".\n",
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Seeking specific relief in cases of Islamic banking in Malaysia - an analysis
|
[
"Law",
"Islamic banking",
"Islamic banking law",
"Sharīcah",
"Specific relief"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Islamic banking is a concept with a universal meaning to it in the world today. However, though its meaning is uniform and the lex loci applicable to it is the same, the substantive and procedural laws operating in the jurisdictions where it works is still applicable to it. As such, though in the product offering stage and the documentation signing stage, Sharicah compliance certainty can be easily assured, in the dispute resolution stage, especially in the case of litigation, it is impossible to restrict the courts applying only Sharicah, which is often unwritten laws of the countries.\nTypes of specific relief: SRA 1950 provides various types of specific relief that could be granted by the court, including their scope and limitation of application. Prior to analysing the application of specific relief to the Islamic banking cases specifically, understand the types of specific relief that are available to a party in case where the damages to a breach of contract is insufficient is important. According to Section 4 of SRA 1950, specific relief can be given in five ways: by taking possession of certain property and delivering it to a claimant, ordering a party to do the very act which he is under an obligation to do, preventing a party from doing that which he is under an obligation not to do) and determining and declaring the rights of parties otherwise than by an award of compensation or appointing a receiver. It shall also be noted that specific relief cannot be granted for the mere purpose of enforcing a penal law (Section 6, SRA 1950). It is also stated in SRA 1950 that specific relief provided by preventing a party from doing that which he is under an obligation not to do can also be called preventive relief (Section 4, SRA 1950).\nApplication of Rules of High Court 2012: Procedures for the application for specific relief are provided in Rules of High Court (2012). Order 53 of the Rules of High Court (2012) specified the procedure to apply for judicial review. It is expressly stated in Order 53 Rule 1 that this Order shall govern all applications seeking the relief specified in Paragraph 1 of the Schedule to the Courts of Judicature Act (1964) and for the purposes therein specified, and that this Order is subject to the provisions of Chapter VIII of Part 2 of the Specific Relief Act (1950).\nSeeking specific relief in Islamic banking cases in Malaysia: Analysis of the reported case laws in Malaysia on Islamic banking proves that specific relief is invoked in Islamic banking disputes. Court has applied the principles by referring to the SRA 1950, English law and equity and case law sometimes from India, where the Indian statute on the matter and the Malaysian statute on the matter are in pari materia.\nAnalysis of provisions on granting of mandatory injunction and specific performance from Sharicah perspective: Granting of mandatory injunction is not a problem from the Islamic perspective. This is because preventing harm for individuals and society at large is something which shall be inherent in an Islamic judicial system, and the validity of equitable principles in Islamic law is derived from the principles of Istihsan [7] and Maslahah[8]. Hence, there is no legislative conflict here.\nSharicah remedies for breach of contract: Wohidul Islam (1998) stated that Niazi identified that a contract under Islamic law can be discharged via performance; express agreement; operation of the doctrine of frustration; and breach. Breach of contract is generally described as the inexcusable rejection or failure by one party to a lawful and enforceable contract to enforce any of the express or implied responsibilities obligatory on that party under the contract, normally by refusing to perform, failing to perform, performing late or performing badly.\nConclusion: When it comes to Islamic banking, federal legislations dealing with commercial matters are applicable. For example, in Islamic banking products, if the land is the subject matter, then National Land Code 1965 shall be applied, and when dealing with Islamic banking agreements, the provisions of Contracts Act 1950 shall be followed. This has been highlighted as a problem faced by Islamic financial services in the case of Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim v. Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad & Another Cases [2011] 1 LNS 1259; [2012] 3 CLJ 249, where the judge referred to Engku (2008) and quoted that in Islamic banking transactions:\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: Often, the application of specific relief to Islamic banking is unspoken and unwritten. However, few studies suggest that legislation on specific relief needs amendment to cater for the effective application of Islamic banking and finance in the country and proposing the idea to introduce an Islamic Specific Relief Act. This paper aims to understand the application of specific relief to Islamic banking in Malaysia. This paper will look at the application of specific relief in Malaysia and discuss the extent of its application to Islamic banking cases reported in Malaysia from 1983 to 2015. The study will shed light on the general types of specific relief from Malaysian and Islamic law perspectives to conclude whether the provisions of Malaysian specific relief law invoked in courts in Islamic banking cases are in line with the general principles of Sharicah. To further support this, evidence from various commercial civil codes of Muslim countries have been discussed to analyse these provisions from a more practical perspective.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This is a legal exploratory study primarily focussed on library research.\nFindings: When it comes to Islamic banking, federal legislations dealing with commercial matters are applicable. For example, in Islamic banking products, if the land is the subject matter, then National Land Code 1965 shall be applied, and when dealing with Islamic banking agreements, the provisions of Contracts Act 1950 shall be followed. This has been highlighted as a problem faced by Islamic financial services in the case of Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim v. Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad and other cases where the judge referred Engku Rabiah and quoted that in Islamic banking transactions, \"the transactions entered by the parties may be Sharicah-compliant in the first place, but upon enforcement of the contracts, the court may make orders and decisions that may side line the Islamic legal principles\". This happens when the substantive laws applicable to Islamic banking are incompatible with Islamic law. Fortunately, the analysis of the relevant sections of Specific Relief Act 1950 in this research proves that the provisions reviewed are in line with Sharicah. However, to further enhance the operation of specific relief, the granting of specific relief could be made a general rule rather than an exceptional rule available with stringent rules. The research revealed that Specific Relief Act (1950) is expressly referred and discussed only in three cases reported from 1983 to 2015. There are only two specific sections of Specific Relief Act (1950) that have been deliberated in the reported case law on Islamic banking: provisions related to granting of a mandatory injunction and specific performance of contracts.\nOriginality/value: It is anticipated that this paper will assist to comprehend the importance of converging law and Sharicah in legislations to attain Sharicah compliance and will help to realise that not all conventional legislations are Sharicah non-compliant.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Corporate social responsibility terminologies in small businesses: insights from Malaysia
|
[
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Terminology",
"Small business",
"SME",
"Malaysia",
"Small to medium‐sized enterprises"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Corporate social responsibility which came in existence in the 1950s, with Bowen's \"Social responsibilities of the businessman\" as the first published material on CSR (Bowen, 1953), developed in the 1970s, got increasing attention since 1990s, and appears to be moving fast speed forward to a higher level of global attention at full throttle since the new millennium. Despite its significant growth, CSR is mostly practiced and applied by large companies and small businesses appear to be large ignored in this regard. This might be associated with the perception that large multinational companies play the major role in world economic and social arena. Although the Public Draft of the Australian Corporate Social Responsibility Standard (Standards Australia, 2003) asserts that the term \"corporate\" should be understood in a broader sense and argues that it is applicable to organizations regardless of type and size, it appears to be a paradox in using the term CSR for small businesses, as the word \"corporate\" seems to be more associated with large companies and evokes social responsibilities of big organizations toward society. This lack of connection between the term \"CSR\" and small businesses might cause some problems while investigating social practices of SMEs. Many small businesses do not tend to report their social practices and it is argued that even those SMEs that communicate such practices do not use the official CSR terminology in communicating with stakeholders (Spence, 2007). Thereby, understanding the CSR practices of small businesses in any country requires investigating the terminologies used by their small businesses for such social practices, as well. To this end, this paper strives to gain an understanding of the common terminologies used by SME owners/manager/directors in a developing country, namely Malaysia. The remainder of this paper consists of literature review, empirical study, findings, and conclusion.\n2. Literature review: Various definitions have been provided for CSR, which could be because the concept of corporate social responsibility is a fuzzy one with unclear boundaries (Talaei and Nejati, 2008). However, overall, most of the provided definitions, share some similarities in their essence. EC (2001, p. 8), defined CSR as \"a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis\". Besides, Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) also defines global CSR as \"business decision-making linked to ethical values and respect for people, communities and the environment\" (cited in Tsoi, 2010).Many businesses practice CSR as a strategic tool to gain competitive advantage, while others still consider it as a cost burden to their organization. The field of CSR has been accompanied by a number of theories and models. While these theories will help to better understand the responsible business behavior of large companies, it is naive to assume that the same theories and models will explain social practices of small businesses. The underlying difference between small businesses and large companies in terms of size, available resources, and managerial style makes the pattern of their social responsibilities different from each other. While large companies might be actively involved in generous philanthropic activities, it is not the same for small businesses struggling with lack of sufficient financial resources to maintain adequate cash flow.According to Crowther and Aras (2008, p. 13), the effect of firms on their surrounding environment can take the following forms:* the utilization of natural resources;* the effect of competition between the firm and other organizations in the same market;* the enrichment of a local community through the creation of employment opportunities;* transformation of the landscape due to the raw material extraction or waste product storage;* the distribution of wealth created within the firm to the owners of that firm (via dividends) and the workers of that firm (through wages) and the effect of this upon the welfare of individuals; and* climate change and the emission of greenhouse gases.While the above-mentioned issues seem to be more significant for large corporations, this does not deny the importance of social responsibility in small firms. Indeed, small businesses might be individually small, but their total aggregate impact of the community and society is significant. Besides, some of the previous studies have even shown that majority of investigated SMEs perceived social responsibility concept to be important and they have welcomed it (e.g. Nejati and Amran, 2009; Longo et al., 2005). But it the general understanding and awareness about CSR in small businesses is much lower than large companies which are more exposed to social and environmental practices and scrutiny. Furthermore, SMEs have their own way of communicating CSR. As part of the study of 24 small business champions for corporate social responsibility in UK, Jenkins (2006) investigated CSR terminology used by SME owners/managers and showed that although some companies expressed difficulty in understanding the concept of CSR, all could define what it meant specifically in the context of their company in their own language.\n3. Empirical study and findings: In order to empirically investigate the most common CSR terminology by SMEs in Malaysia, a sample of 100 small businesses, which were mostly based in Northern states of Malaysia, were examined using a survey. Majority of investigated SMEs were involved in business and professional services or manufacturing and construction (45 percent of the participants).As the findings show, the most common terminology for CSR among Malaysia SMEs is \"Responsible business practice\" followed by \"Corporate social responsibility\", \"Social/ societal engagement\" and \"Environmental involvement\" (Table I). These findings support Southwell's (2004, pp. 100-101) discussion, who applied the term \"responsible business practices\" to explain the social responsibilities of small and medium-sized enterprises.The findings suggest that while conducting CSR studies among Malaysian small businesses, it is better to use the term \"responsible business practice\", which is more comprehensible by these firms. Overall, regardless of the term applied for such social activities, they all share the common ground, which involves economic responsibility, legal responsibility, ethical responsibility, and discretionary responsibility, which is based on Carroll's CSR model (Carroll, 1998). Economic responsibility, which requires firms to be profitable, seems to be one of the major responsibilities and objectives in smaller firms since majority of SMEs are simply content to survive (Baker, 2003). Legal responsibility also refers to working in a legal framework, while respecting the rules and regulations. While the first two types of responsibilities discussed above (economic and legal) are obligatory for most of the firms, there are also ethical responsibility, which refers to obeying moral standards and discretionary responsibility, which refers to companies' voluntary actions to benefit the communities in which they operate. The two latter discussed responsibilities (ethical and discretionary) are voluntary and aim to respect stakeholders and improve the wellbeing of society.\n4. Conclusion: A growing number of researchers are conducting research and publishing papers on corporate social responsibility. While majority of authors label it as CSR, literature includes other terms such as responsible business behavior, social practices, social behavior, green practices, etc. While a variety of synonym terms might be confusing, it might be due to the nature of the context where the term is applied. This research showed that the term \"responsible business practice\" was the most common one among a group of Malaysian SMEs studied and warns researchers to be cautious in selecting the appropriate CSR term for different contexts. From a business perspective, this research provides business authorities and managers in large companies with some insights about CSR terminologies. This will enable them to use the appropriate term in their future communications with SMEs with regard to CSR. Finally, as for small businesses, it is recommended that they improve their understanding about CSR, as a good business is the one, which is ethical and committed to respecting people and environment.This study is not without limitation. The main limitation of the study is related to sample size and distribution. A sample of 100 SMEs might not be generalizable to the whole Malaysian SMEs. Besides, majority of participating SMEs are based in Northern states of Malaysia, which limits the geographical distribution of our samples.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: - Since understanding the corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices of small businesses in any country requires investigating the terminologies used by their small businesses for such social practices, the aim of this paper is to gain an understanding of the common terminologies used by SME owners/manager/directors in a developing country, namely Malaysia.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This is a quantitative study which used a sample of 100 small businesses is its survey. Most of the investigated SMEs were based in Northern states of Malaysia.\nFindings: - This study showed that the most common terminology for CSR among investigated Malaysia SMEs was \"responsible business practice\" followed by \"corporate social responsibility\", \"social/ societal engagement\" and \"environmental involvement\".\nResearch limitations/implications: - The main limitations of this research are associated with its sample size and geographical distribution of samples. Findings of the study warn researchers to be cautious in selecting the appropriate CSR term for different contexts, specifically in SMEs' context.\nPractical implications: - Findings of this study enable authorities and managers of large companies to use the appropriate term in their future communications with SMEs with regard to CSR.\nOriginality/value: - Being among the first of its kind to tackle this issue in SME contexts in the developing countries, this paper can provide new insights for both researchers and practitioners and change their outlook on CSR in small businesses.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The survey thinking style and its relation with creativity in physical education teachers
|
[
"Innovation",
"Creativity",
"Individual characteristics",
"Physical education teachers",
"Thinking style"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The study of learning styles, cognitive styles and thinking styles is derived from studies related to psychological and social aspects as well as physiologic instruction. The ability to recognize and understand models related to thinking and learning styles is one of the fundamental developments in psychology in twentieth century (Cassidy, 2004). Although there are some differences among theorists in terms of terminology, all of them emphasize that individuals have a consistent and distinct method of coding, storing and processing information which is basically independent of intelligence (Atkinson, 1998). People can, regarding how much their study and occupation environment is consistent with or different from their thinking style, have a powerful or weaker role in different stages of their study or occupation (Zhang, 2007). Besides various definitions of ability, thinking styles are important and useful because the social, emotional and functional background of intelligence, or in other words, intelligence's various aspects, make our conceptions close to that which individuals prefer (Sun et al., 2005). When there is consistency between individuals' thinking styles and environments there will be progress and development, but when there is no consistency people will be damaged. Different levels of instruction and different areas of lessons require different styles of thinking. These cause either the better or weaker function of individuals during various study or periods of occupation (Sternberg, 1988). In this case, one of the elements related to thinking style is creativity. Creativity is the capacity and ability of individuals to produce innovative and useful works (Grigorenko and Sternberg, 1997), and, today, big or small organizations and agencies in developed countries are doomed without continuous, quick and timely creativity (Charyton and Snelbecker, 2007). Gestalt and psychology theories help to study creativity in areas of psychoanalysis in useful ways. Theories of gestalt psychologists such as Wertheimer for solving problems through insight represent creative thinking (Wertheimer, 1945) and the traditional psychoanalysis view defined creativity as a way of divergent thinking (Karademas and Kalantzi-Azizi, 2004).\nProblem statement: Studies show that people think beyond what others may understand their thinking style to be, and this is the reason for misunderstandings between spouses, parents, teachers and students and the directors and staff. Proper understanding of thinking styles can help people prevent such misunderstandings and reach a better understanding of themselves and others (Lubart, 1994). Schools can be constructive in the growth and development of creativity in the community, or, on the contrary, in destroying or causing it to vanish. Educational content and curricula are affected by teachers, managers and other employees as well as educational facilities and the environment. The effect of teachers in this area will be comprehensive and direct. The lack of adequate understanding of thinking styles and creativity among teachers not only caused their failure to promote creativity among students but also attenuated this ability among students. However, thinking has been emphasized in new educational perspectives. Creativity, like justice, democracy and liberty has a different meaning for different people, but there is a common factor in all creativities. Creativity means addressing new factors among which the creativity factor will be available and acts as cultural heritage, but what is new is the combination of these factors in a new pattern (Palaniappana, 1998).\nSignificance of the study: Organizations are encouraged to change individuals' actions, and also to make critical changes within organizations to continue their lifespan, and these changes are increasing as new and useful thoughts emerge rapidly (de Flieth et al., 2002). The evaluation shows two policies of attracting creative people in Iran and that it is not proper to support studies. In other words, the local Ministry of Education has not been a place to attract creative people or their education. Teachers in physical education face large numbers of male and female students to be trained who have numerous physical and mental needs, and, on the other hand, coordinating these changes requires the creation of new ideas and the creation of an environment based on creativity coupled with rapid changes and advances in the field of sports science. This caused those teachers who are creative in sports schools to be identified, and physical education teachers can earn them by identifying methods of creativity and promoting them in on-the-job courses and, in this way, the rise and growth of creativity can be promoted among physical education teachers.\nReview of related literature: In this section, the researchers review and studies the work of other researchers on the topic of this paper. Sternberg (1998) in a study entitled, \"Styles of thinking and learning\" states that the thinking styles of males and females may be varied and different as special styles may be encouraged between men and women. Sternberg's findings shows that males' scores are higher than the females' scores in legislative, global and local styles but lower in the judicial style (pp. 15-40).\nThe hypothesis of the research: H1. There is a significant correlation between thinking style and individual features of teachers.\nThe research method: In this study the authors investigated the relationship between thinking style and creativity. The research methodology was descriptive-collection and was functional in terms of purpose. The study's statistical community included all physical education teachers of the middle period in the Kurdistan province in Iran and at the time of the research they numbered 600 individuals. Among these people, 322 were male and 278 were female. The statistical sample using the Morgan table was elected to be 235 individuals (Krejcie and Morgan, 1970).\nResearch variables: Inserted variables in this study consisted of individual characteristics that included gender, education, work experience and the dimensions of the thinking style included global, local, judicial, legislative, executive) and creativity, where the individual characteristics and dimensions of thinking style are criterion variable, and the rate of creativity was predictor variables.\nMeasurement tools: To measure the study's variables, two questionnaires were included: first, Sternberg thinking style questionnaire containing 40 questions with five options scale (very low, low, medium, high, very high), respectively, and second, creativity questionnaire (Torrance, 1972), which contained 39 questions.\nValidity and reliability of questionnaires: The validity of the questions used, including the validity and accuracy of the questionnaires' questions, was confirmed by a number of experts, and by the standardization of the questionnaires and their normalization in other studies which proved the validity of the test. To calculate the reliability of the test's questions, a Cronbach a test was used, styles and creativity that obtained the a for the questionnaire of thinking style and creativity were 0.86 and (0.89), respectively, and they were confirmed in (0.001) level.\nMethods of statistical analysis: Descriptive and inferential statistics were used in this study, descriptive statistics were used to describe the research data and in inferential statistics, Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) test, Pearson correlation coefficient, Spearman correlation coefficient, Friedman ranking test and t-test were all used. The significance level of this study was considered to be 0.05 and the SPSS software 18 was used for data analysis.\nResults: Results of descriptive statistics\nDiscussion and conclusion: The survival of educational organizations in today's complex world of international competitiveness basically depends on creativity and innovation strategies, and all forces should act to create innovation and creativity in educational organizations. To generate creativity in educational organizations, employees and teachers must become accustomed to thinking more, because creativity will be initiated by thinking, and they have direct correlation with one another. Thinking is one of the most important issues which have a particular interest in education, to such an extent that, nowadays, the growth, development and evaluation of thinking are some of the basic functions of education. In management studies, discussions of thinking and managers' perception methods are allocated to a particular place. In terms of thinking, creativity is also a subject of considerable debate. Creativity is an intellectual activity; in fact, the final product of action is creativity. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to survey creative thinking and its correlation with physical education teachers in Kurdistan province. The results of all hypotheses were similar to the results of the studies by Zhang (2004, 2006), Cheng (2005), Zhu and Zhang (2011), Diliello et al. (2011), Scibinetti et al. (2011) and Abdi (2012). According to the collected data and the findings, it can be concluded that for the H1, there is a significant correlation between thinking style and individual features of teachers, and the study's statistical results showed that there were no correlations between thinking styles (legislative, executive, global, judicial and local styles) and teachers' gender. Based on the study's results, 100 per cent of employees had an academic education, and around 90.1 per cent held a bachelor's, master's or PhD degree, but no correlation was found between thinking style and teachers' education level. Besides, teachers' resumes were the same in different cases, but no correlation was found between teachers' resume and thinking styles. These findings around gender were not consistent with the studies of Sternberg (1998) and Zhang (2004).\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to survey the relationship between thinking styles with creativity in physical education teachers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research method is descriptive - applied and based on related purpose it was applicative. The study's statistical community includes all physical education teachers in the middle period in Iran and their numbers at the time of the study were 600 individuals. The statistical sample using a Morgan table was selected to be 235 individuals. To measure research variables two questionnaires (Sternberg thinking style and creativity, Torrance, 1972) were used. To calculate the validity of the questionnaire questions, Cronbach's a test was used, and the obtained a for the thinking style questionnaire and creativity were equal to 0.86 and 0.89, respectively. Descriptive and inferential statistics were also used in this study, which in statistical inference section (Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Pearson correlation coefficient, Spearman correlation coefficient, Friedman ranking test and t-test) were used.\nFindings: The results showed that there is no significant relationship between individual characteristics (gender, education and work experience) and styles of thinking, but there is significant relationship between creativity and thinking style. Besides, there is a meaningful difference between creativity with thinking style. In the ranking between thinking style factors, significant differences were observed and at the end some proposals were stated.\nOriginality/value: The theoretical framework provides a new direction for conceptualizing research, development and practice, designed to promote thinking, creativity in education and other sectors in a new era of globalization and great transformation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Regulating emotions in response to power distance in meetings
|
[
"Leadership",
"Social comparison",
"Meetings",
"Leader-member exchange",
"Emotional Labour",
"Power distance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Calendar invite after calendar invite, meetings are a part of many individuals' work week. In fact, employees spend an average of six hours each week in meetings - a number that is higher for employees at large organizations (Rogelberg et al., 2006). Managers in large organizations spend around 69 percent of their time in planned and unplanned meetings (Romano and Nunamaker, 2001) and greater than 25 million meetings are held in the USA each day (Newlund, 2012). Although meetings are a pervasive work task, research on meetings has lagged behind; in particular, relationships and behavior within meetings are rarely studied.\nWorkplace meeting context: Meetings occur when two or more people come together to discuss work-related activities with a bit of structure (Rogelberg et al., 2006). Meetings are the primary outlet used to make changes, generate ideas, accomplish goals, and display power (Tracy and Dimock, 2004). The most prevalent purposes for meetings are to discuss projects or routinely discuss the state of the business (Allen et al., 2014). They are a pervasive business practice that make up about 75 percent of manager's time in preparation for and attendance of meetings (Allen et al., 2014). In addition, employees spend about six hours each week in meetings (Schell, 2010) and senior managers spend upwards of 23 hours in meetings each week (Rogelberg et al., 2007). In fact, it is likely that managers may spend more time in or preparing for meetings than they do on any other work task (Allen, Lehmann-Willenbrock, Rogelberg, 2015).\nEmotional labor: When an individual works to influence the emotions they have, how they feel them, and how they express them, they are engaging in emotion regulation (Gross, 1998). Emotion regulation (i.e. suppression and reappraisal) is called emotional labor (i.e. surface acting and deep acting) when it is tied to display rules in a work setting. The difference between emotional labor and emotion regulation is purely semantic (Grandey, 2015) indicating that they can be used to study the same phenomenon interchangeably. Research using emotion regulation in place of emotional labor leads to similar conclusions (Grandey et al., 2004; Rupp et al., 2008). Thus, this study utilizes emotion regulation measures in a work context to study emotional labor.\nPower distance in meetings: Meetings are a unique environment that may pose a trigger for emotional labor. They are composed of meeting leaders and meeting attendees. Power dynamics exist between meeting leaders and attendees due to the varying levels of authority inherent with their job position. In addition, meetings are an avenue in which power is put on display (Tracy and Dimock, 2004). The varying power dynamics between individuals will lead to varying degrees of acceptance and expectations of authority over their own authority. This is called power distance (Hofstede, 1980). When there are high levels of power distance, individuals may edit their behavior in various ways.\nThe moderating role of LMX: We propose LMX as a moderator of the relationship between power distance and emotional labor. LMX refers to the relationship that leaders form with subordinates (Bauer and Erdogan, 2016). A strong LMX relationship involves trust, affect, respect and a closer, friendlier, more inclusive, and more communicative relationship (Bauer and Erdogan, 2016). The LMX relationship is extremely influential and is linked to decreased cynicism, increased empowerment, and increased job satisfaction (Lee, 2011; Schermuly and Meyer, 2015; Volmer et al., 2011). Additionally, previous research has found that LMX is a buffer for emotional labor in employees high in negative affectivity, a personality trait related to higher surface acting in general (Medler-Liraz and Kark, 2012). However, it has not been determined how LMX will impact emotional labor in employees in general. In addition, despite the benefits of strong LMX, these relationships are somewhat limited and truly strong LMX relationships are rare (Erdogan and Bauer, 2014).\nMethod: Sample\nResults: Means, standard deviations, correlations, and internal reliability coefficients are provided in Table I. As expected, correlations suggest a significant positive relationship between power distance and both surface acting and deep acting. Correlations also suggest a negative relationship between LMX and surface acting, but no significant relationship between LMX and power distance or deep acting. Given these preliminary results, we proceeded with hypothesis testing using regression analysis. However, before testing our proposed hypotheses and given the cross-sectional nature of the data, we performed confirmatory factor analysis to verify our measurement model and mitigate concerns for common-method bias (Conway and Lance, 2010). Results of our CFA indicate adequate model fit (CFI=0.93, kh2=595.49 p<0.001, TLI=0.92, RMSEA=0.05) suggesting that the measures are distinct and hypothesis testing can proceed while mitigating common method bias.\nDiscussion: Power distance in meetings is indeed related to emotional labor, both surface acting and deep acting, as predicted. The positive relationship between power distance and surface acting was not changed by LMX, indicating that the relationship between the meeting leader and attendee does not impact the power distance to surface acting relationship. Although this relationship was not predicted, it is logical as surface acting is not actually felt, but just a change in outward appearance (Hochschild, 1983). Since surface acting is \"faking it,\" the quality of the LMX relationship has no impact on how surface acting occurs.\nConclusion: Meetings are a substantial part of organization's budget and time. When meetings are used effectively, they are a strong venue to create organizational change, establish trust, and share information. However, these outcomes may not be possible if a meeting is not led effectively. If an organization seeks to have productive meetings, it is essential for meeting leaders to be aware of the perceived power that may be present in meetings. When the perceived power distance is high, meeting leaders should strive to form strong relationships with the meeting attendees as it can enhance the relationship between power distance and deep acting.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Meetings are a necessary part of work. The purpose of this paper is to focus on how power distance in meetings affects emotional labor, including whether leader-member exchange (LMX) serves as a moderator for this relationship. It is hypothesized that power distance in meetings would lead to higher levels of emotional labor in meeting attendees, and that higher levels of LMX would make this relationship even stronger.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors used a panel sample of full-time working adults from a variety of industries who regularly attend meetings. Participants completed a survey with items related to power distance, emotional labor, and LMX. Hypotheses were tested using moderated regression.\nFindings: Findings reveal that power distance between the meeting leader and attendees does relate positively to emotional labor, both surface and deep acting. In addition, LMX moderates this relationship for deep acting, but not for surface acting indicating that when high levels of both power distance and LMX exist, meeting attendees will engage in more deep acting.\nResearch limitations/implications: The results of this study suggest that meeting leaders influence the behavior of attendees through their perceived power and relationship with the attendees. The power distance measure and cross-sectional nature of the sampling strategy is a limitation that provides opportunities for future research.\nPractical implications: The practical implications focus on meeting leaders, how they can help meeting attendees make meetings successful by expressing their true authentic emotions.\nOriginality/value: The current study is one of the first to focus on the power distance present in meetings related to emotional regulation through the social comparison theory. In addition, the current study investigates how LMX can serve as a moderator in this relationship.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Employing needs-based funding formulae - some unavoidable tradeoffs
|
[
"Policy",
"Equity",
"Resource allocation",
"Funding formulae",
"Needs based"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In many school systems, the allocation of school resources is done according to a needs-based funding formula. Traditionally, educational funds have been allocated primarily on the basis of pupil and teacher numbers (Ross and Levacic, 1999). However, since the 1990s, countries and states have increasingly employed needs-based funding formulae to guide their educational resource allocation to schools (Fazekas, 2012). A needs-based funding formula, also known as weighted students funding, is a funding mechanism that allocates greater educational resources to students with greater needs through an impartially applied mechanical set of criteria. In the literature, the shift to needs-based funding formulae is generally regarded as an improvement on more traditional methods of school funding. Most significantly, it marks an important development in the conception of educational justice guiding resource allocation. The use of needs-based funding formulae normally brings about a move from a conception of justice as blind equality, in which all students receive similar resources, to one based on vertical equity in which different students receive different allocations according to their need (Center for Public Education, 2016). Another relative advantage of needs-based formulae is that by setting explicit allocation criteria, they can play an important role in increasing allocative transparency and in depoliticizing the budgeting process (Berne and Stiefel, 1999a). Finally, needs-based formulae are also regarded as effective instruments for reform (Ross and Levacic, 1999).\n2. An overview of needs-based funding formulae: Formula funding is a means of allocating public funds. It allocates funds to devolved entities according to a mechanistic formula (Smith, 2003). In the educational sphere, funding formulae normally consists of a set of agreed-upon objective principles which are fairly applied for allocating resources to educational entities, most commonly individual schools. In practice, a funding formula commonly takes the form of \"a mathematical formula which contains some variables to which a cash amount is attached in order to determine\" an educational budget (Fazekas, 2012, p. 6).\n3. Social and economic needs: Although the definition of students' needs varies from country to country, needs-based funding formulae almost always heavily rely on students' social and economic characteristics (European Commission, 2014; Ladd and Fiske, 2011). Factors, such as poverty, parents' education, immigration and others, play an important role in determining who should get extra funding. These social and economic indicators can serve as proxies for estimating educational needs but can also be viewed as having their own inherent significance. In the latter case, they are supposed to reflect either social or economic disadvantages that have to be reduced, amended or compensated for through the help of education. Now, the rationale for linking educational needs-based funding formulae to social and economic realities is a simple and powerful one. To begin with, education has a decisive influence on the distribution of many significant social goods, such as wealth, power, and even health. Moreover, education also has a positional value, namely, the benefits in other areas of life that an individual can derive from one's education hinge on how well one fares in education as compared to others (Unterhalter and Brighouse, 2007). This means that the ability of people to answer their social and economic needs depends not only on their own education but also on those competing with them. In addition, education can also actively contribute to answering social and economic needs by advancing a variety of social and individual goals, such as economic growth, active citizenship or professional development. Education, it follows, can play an indispensable role in answering social and economic needs and there is, therefore, a very good reason for allocating resource based on social and economic indicators. When this is taken into consideration, needs-based funding formulae can make an important contribution to achieving a better and more just social and economic order.\n4. Discretion: Increasing allocative justice is not the only consideration propelling the use of needs-based funding formulae. Another related one, which is in itself very significant, is a desire to limit reliance on discretion in educational resource allocation (Fazekas, 2012). Reducing the use of discretion, namely, narrowing the area in which agents are allowed or empowered to decide and act according to their own autonomous judgment has become a key objective of school finance policy because discretion has significant shortcomings (Molander et al., 2012).\n5. Needs and outcomes: When needs-based funding formulae are employed, the predicted or actual outcomes of the educational process designed to meet these needs only rarely influence the way resources are allocated. In needs-based formula funding, resources are distributed, almost exclusively, according to student' needs at the starting point. It has been increasingly argued, however, that budgeting education based solely on students' needs at the starting point is unsatisfactory because it tends to be inefficient and to misrepresent students' actual situations. It is inefficient because it does not offer incentives to improve the quality of educational provision, since schools receive the same funds regardless of how well they actually meet students' needs (Ben David-Hadar and Ziderman, 2011). It misrepresents students' situations because it relies on students' needs at the starting point when the skills and abilities gained by the educational process, which are the focal point of education, are disregarded. One key way to overcome these shortcomings, which is currently gaining currency, is to create a link between outcomes and funding (Mesecar and Soifer, 2013). It aims are to make funding somewhat connected to how well needs are actually being met and to increase awareness of the educational process involved in it.\n6. Final remarks: In their most prevalent existing form, needs-based funding formulae tend to rely on student starting points, to take into account mainly students' social and economic needs, and allocate funds to schools in accordance with the aggregated needs of its students. In doing so, they transform the world of education in intended and unintended ways. For example, they contribute to increased equity in educational resource allocation. They also strengthen the view of education as a means of dealing with social and economic concerns. In addition, they reduce the discretion and consequently lower the risk of corruption and indeterminacy. At the same time, however, needs-based funding formulae often sidestep educational considerations because economic and social ones take precedence. In addition, since they disregard outcomes, they have a limited ability to reward schools according to actual merit. Finally, they often transfer discretion down the ladder into the hands of principals and teachers rather than eliminating it, because they are rarely accompanied by surveillance systems that oversee how money is actually spent.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The method by which the state allocates resources to its schooling system can serve as an important instrument for achieving desired improvements in levels of educational attainment, social equity and other social policy goals. In many school systems, the allocation of school resources is done according to a needs-based funding formula. The purpose of this paper is to provide a deeper understanding of some significant tradeoffs involved in employing needs-based funding formulae.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper is based on theoretical investigations of normative aspects involved in using needs-based funding formulae.\nFindings: There are a number of underexplored complications and difficulties that arise from the use of needs-based funding formulae. Dealing with these involves significant tradeoffs that require taking normative decisions. Understanding these tradeoffs is important for improving the use of needs-based funding formulae.\nOriginality/value: The paper highlights three under-examined issues that emerge from the current use of needs-based funding formulae. These issues are: to what extent funding formulae should be responsive to social and economic needs? To what extent should funding formulae allow for the use of discretion in resource allocation? To what degree needs-based formulae funding should be linked to outcomes? By discussing these issues and the tradeoffs involved in them, the paper provides a deeper understanding of significant aspects stemming from the use of needs-based funding formulae. This, in turn, can serve as a basis for an improved and better informed process for decision making regarding the use of funding formulae.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Valorization of traditional foods: The case of Provolone del Monaco cheese
|
[
"Dairy products",
"Food products",
"Consumer behaviour",
"Italy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Provolone is a pasta filata cheese produced from cow's milk and is quite popular in Italy. The technology of this cheese has been recently certified by the Consortium of \"Provolone Valpadana\" (DPCM, 1993) and basically consists in kneading and stretching the acidified curd melt by adding hot water. Then form weighting from 4 to 20 kilos are salted in brine and ripened for ten days up to six months depending on the form weigh and shape. This cheese originated in the Campania region however nowadays is mainly produced in the northern regions, in particular in the Valpadana area. In the southern regions, however, still niche production of provolone exists, one of these is the Provolone del Monaco.Provolone del Monaco is a typical cheese made in the Sorrentina Peninsula, located a few kilometres south of Naples, Campania, Italy. The peculiarities of this cheese are both in the raw materials and in the processing technology. In particular, the milk comes from cows of the Pezzata Rossa, Friesian, but mainly Agerolese breed. The latter is a native breed which has a quantitatively low yield, but which produces milk with an above-average butterfat content (Albano, 2001). Provolone del Monaco is not manufactured on a regular basis but it is produced in small quantities depending on the milk availability; moreover the manufacture is artisanal. The cheese ripening is carried out in natural caves and rock fissures of the Sorrento coast and of the Lattari mountains for a period lasting from four to 18 months. The cheese is characterized by a smooth and yellowish rind, a semi-firm paste, compact and easy to cut, and it presents small elongated or round holes. It shows a noticeable fragrance of milk and hay and, according to the length of ripening process, a sweet, delicate or spicy flavour, with a complex variety of aromas (Albano, 2001).By considering all the above, Provolone del Monaco possesses all the requisites of a premium typical cheese. However, in order to be perceived as such by consumers interested in artisanal typical products, it must possess peculiar characters which make it recognizable among other similar products, and moreover it is necessary that it matches the image that a typical product evokes.Consumer choice behaviour and decision-making process depend on product image as created by the consumer prior to purchase and during consumption. This perception of a product is referred as \"quality expectation\" (Kupiec and Revell, 1998). A consumer's intention to purchase also depends on the degree to which the product meets or satisfies the circumstances of its use (Kupiec and Revell, 2001).Perception of quality by artisanal food consumers is strongly dependent on subjective factors such as personal preferences, experience level, demographic and psychological characteristics (Ophuis and Van Trijp, 1995), and also on the quality expectations. Quality expectations are themselves affected by several factors including brand name (Di Monaco et al., 2003; Di Monaco et al., 2004), origin (Caporale and Monteleone, 2001), price (Lange et al., 1999), nutritional information (Kahkonen and Tuorila, 1998; Tuorila et al., 1998) and health benefits (Bower et al., 2003; Solheim and Lawless, 1996; Bower and Turner, 2001).In the literature, the effect of price and origin information on consumers' response for typical products has been largely ignored, although these factors have a strong influence on the acceptance of artisanal products (Caporale and Monteleone, 2001; Kupiec and Revell, 2001; Skuras and Vakrou, 2002).The role of price on consumer's choice of speciality foods requires considerations on product attributes and specific market characteristics. By considering the unique properties and the expected superior quality of artisanal products, it is possible to hypothesize a priori that the market of speciality cheese is characterized by low price sensitivity and that consumers are often willing to pay for intangible benefits resulting from distinctive features of the product. In the case of speciality foods the price represented a \"quality indicator\" rather a \"cost factor\" (Kupiec and Revell, 2001).Information about origin of product gives rise to positive stereotypes and generates great expectations. The \"origin\" may be viewed as cognitive cue and as informational stimulus about a product, in fact, country of origin has a symbolic and emotional meaning to consumers. Caporale and Monteleone (2001) studied the effect of expectations generated by information on origin and its guarantee on the acceptability of virgin olive oil. Their findings revealed that information about the origin affected product acceptability and, in particular, consumers liking scores moved toward their expectation, showing an assimilation effect. This reveals that a typical food has a special link with a specific territory. The food can be viewed as the product of natural and cultural resources of a specific geographic area.Today, marketing strategies for product quality try to exploit these new opportunities, by emphasizing the product attributes generated by the geographical characteristics of manufacturing area or by traditional and distinctive production practises used (Skuras and Vakrou, 2002).The aims of this paper were to evaluate if Provolone del Monaco is perceived as a typical and identifiable cheese and evaluate if the consumers perceive Provolone del Monaco as different and recognizable from homologous industrially produced cheeses.\nMethodology: Two different experiments were performed in order to achieve the objectives of this research: a consumer study and a sensory one.Cheese samples\nResults and discussion: Consumer study, i.e. effect of price and typicality information\nConclusions: This study has revealed that typicality information improves the performance of a product only when it possesses specific characteristics, such as Provolone del Monaco ripened for six months (sample A). On the contrary, typicality information acts negatively when a product does not have distinctive features, as demonstrated by the industrial cheese results (sample D).The price has per se a negative impact on the consumer judgment, whereas if accompanied by typicality information, it represents for the consumers a \"quality indicator\" rather than a \"cost factor\".It must be noticed that this study was performed on Campania consumers who are familiar with this regional product, therefore the results obtained could be not extended to the entire Italian or moreover EU population unless similar results are found by investigating other consumer groups outside this region.From quantitative descriptive analysis performed on Provolone del Monaco, ripened six months, homogeneity was seen between the eight samples from different dairies, as cluster analysis showed.Finally, the major finding of the QDA is that Provolone del Monaco samples show several specific attributes, i.e. that sensory characteristics are significantly different from the other two Provolone cheeses, such as vinegar odour, ripened flavour and appearance attributes. This result explains the results of the first experiment, i.e. the consumers probably associate those sensory characteristics with typical properties.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This study aimed to assess if an Italian artisanal pasta filata cheese, named Provolone del Monaco, is perceived by consumers as typical or not and if any variability exists among cheeses made by different dairies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Two experiments were performed. In the first experiment, two artisanal Provolone del Monaco having different ripening times and two industrial Provolone cheeses were evaluated. A total of 95 subjects, divided into three homogeneous groups, first rated the samples in blind condition, then, after having received information about typicality; price, and both sets of information. In the second experiment, the quantitative descriptive profiles of eight Provolone del Monaco samples aged six months and made by different dairies were compared with the quantitative descriptive profiles of the same cheese aged ten months and provolone cheeses made by industrial dairies.\nFindings: - Consumer results revealed that consumers knowing typicality information gave a better score to cheeses markedly different. The price together with typicality information, represented a quality indicator. Cluster analysis of descriptive scores revealed homogeneity between the equally aged Provolone del Monaco samples. Moreover descriptive data showed that cheese was characterized by several specific attributes, that the consumer, probably, recognized as typical.\nResearch limitations: - It must be noticed that once it was performed in Campania, the results extrapolation to other regions or countries should not be made unless similar results are found.\nOriginality/value: - This study will contribute to better addressing consumer needs and enhancing the competitiveness of traditional foods.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
An application of data envelopment analysis for Korean banks with negative data
|
[
"Benchmarking",
"Data envelopment analysis",
"Banking",
"Business performance",
"Negative data"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Since the Lehman Brothers' Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection file in 2008, the largest bankruptcy file in the US history, many investment banks have realigned their business strategies to cope with environmental changes and challenges. Of course, commercial banks as financial intermediaries are not free from turmoil by dynamic business environments. In particular, Korean commercial banks, even before the global economic crisis started, had been subject to fierce competition and faced great turbulence in their operations for many firms' large scale of internal restructuring efforts in the country after the financial crisis in 1997 in Asia. Moreover, the country's financial deregulation attempts tied to advances in information technologies brought fierce competition in the banking industry. As a consequence of highly competitive market conditions and radical changes in the economy of the nation, bank closures became very common events, which brought numerous mergers and acquisitions in the banking industry (Kim and Baek, 2013). Observing this dynamic status in the Korean banking industry, we have naturally directed our attention to the question of how well banks have been performing in their operations since the recent global economic crisis.\nLiterature review: Since the seminal work proposed by Charnes et al. (1978), which has been called a Charnes, Cooper, and Rhodes (CCR) model, plethora of DEA studies have appeared in the academic circle showing diverse applications of the model in various disciplines and industries. The original authors of DEA have continuously contributed to the development of their theories and models. The CCR model, which is based on linear programing (LP) for finding optimal solutions, carries the same limitations of LP such as the non-negative condition of variables. This condition can be a major hurdle to measuring the performance of entities under the presence of negative data. To overcome this condition, there have been various attempts such as taking advantage of the property of translation invariance in the additive DEA model (Pastor, 1996; Sueyoshi and Goto, 2015), introducing a directional distance function to a radial DEA model (Silva Portela et al., 2004), modifying a slack-based measure (SBM) of efficiency model (Sharp et al., 2007), demonstrating the applicability of SBM and super SBM models to firms with negative data (Lo and Lu, 2009), developing a semi-oriented radial measure (SORM) model (Emrouznejad, Anouze, and Thanassoulis, 2010; Emrouznejad, Amin, Thanassoulis, and Anouze, 2010), applying SORM and SBM models to Indonesian banks (Hadad et al., 2011), proposing a simple proportional distance function (Kerstens and Van de Woestyne, 2011), suggesting a variant of a radial measure (VRM) (Cheng et al., 2013; Kerstens and Van de Woestyne, 2014), implementing a new super efficiency model (Hadi-Vencheh and Esmaeilzadeh, 2013), designing directional oriented value-based measures of technical efficiency (Sahoo et al., 2014), finding the state of returns to scale (RTS) in the presence of negative input and output observations (Allahyar and Rostamy-Malkhalifeh, 2015), devising an extended SBM model (Mohammadpour et al., 2015), employing DEA models with the unified efficiency of natural and managerial disposability (Sueyoshi and Yuan, 2015), combining DEA and a technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) for measuring the efficiency of branches of an Indian bank (Chitnis and Vaidya, 2016), and determining RTS for negative data using a general non-radial DEA model (Sahoo et al., 2016). We summarize these studies in the following section.\nMethodology: DEA that is rooted from Farrell (1957) is a non-parametric optimization technique pursuing to derive a point estimate from a sample for input and output elements in measuring productivity. The nonlinear productivity measure of an output and input ratio can be transformed into linear programming ultimately yielding the relative efficiency score of each DMU ranging from 0 to 1 inclusively. According to the non-negativity assumption of decision variable in linear programming, basic DEA models also conform to the same assumption of non-negativity in the data set. Hence, evaluating efficiency using the DEA models when variables contain negative observations is not straightforward and requires adequate treatments. Various attempts have been made to circumvent the obstacle of the non-negativity assumption in efficiency measurement using DEA. Among them, we wish to highlight two major approaches: a BCC model (Banker et al., 1984) and a MSBM model (Sharp et al., 2007).\nData and variables: DEA has been a widely used non-parametric approach to evaluate the efficiency of a number of business units. A typical statistical approach such as regression analysis is characterized as a central tendency method evaluating each unit relative to average units. In contrast, DEA compares each unit with only the \"best\" performers by taking optimal weights between input and output elements. In our study, we have selected capital and number of employees as input variables and net interest profit and net non-interest profit as output variables for 18 Korean banks during the five study years from year 2010 to 2014. Table I exhibits the banks by categories.\nResults and discussion: Since the foreign exchange rate crisis in the mid 1990's, financial institutions in Korea have experienced a high level of tribulations in their operational environments arising from restructuring of companies, change of financial policies, and advancement of information and communication technology. Ill-performing banks have been disbanded, and mergers and acquisitions have taken place frequently resulting in fierce competition and concentration of capitals in the Korean banking industry. This instability in the banking environments of the country is well evidenced by the statistics released by Financial Supervisory Service (2015): 12 mergers and acquisitions within a single year in 1999 and additional one or two of these events until 2007 and another in 2012.\nConclusion: Banks and other financial institutions play very important roles in the economy of one country since they are lubricating factors in the economy as a middle entity interacting between manufacturing or service firms and customers. They need to boost their competencies in operations both domestically and globally to effectively support one's economy. To do that, it is highly advised that industry practitioners formulate operational tactics and business strategy by considering competitors and situations amid dynamic business environments today.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to measure the comparative efficiency of 18 Korean commercial banks under the presence of negative observations and examine performance differences among them by grouping them according to their market conditions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors employ two data envelopment analysis (DEA) models such as a Banker, Charnes, and Cooper (BCC) model and a modified slacks-based measure of efficiency (MSBM) model, which can handle negative data. The BCC model is proven to be translation invariant for inputs or outputs depending on output or input orientation. Meanwhile, the MSBM model is unit invariant in addition to translation invariant. The authors compare results from both models and choose one for interpreting results.\nFindings: Most Korean banks recovered from the worst performance in 2011 and showed similar performance in recent years. Among three groups such as national banks, regional banks, and special banks, the most special banks demonstrated superb performance across models and years. Especially, the performance difference between the special banks and the regional banks was statistically significant. The authors concluded that the high performance of the special banks was due to their nationwide market access and ownership type.\nPractical implications: This study demonstrates how to analyze and measure the efficiency of entities when variables contain negative observations using a data set for Korean banks. The authors have tried two major DEA models that are able to handle negative data and proposed a practical direction for future studies.\nOriginality/value: Although there are research papers for measuring the performance of banks in Korea, all of the papers in the topic have studied efficiency or productivity using positive data sets. However, variables such as net incomes and growth rates frequently include negative observations in bank data sets. This is the first paper to investigate the efficiency of bank operations in the presence of negative data in Korea.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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A quality management system application to investigate and troubleshoot process failures: A case study of BC cancer agency
|
[
"Quality management",
"Genetics",
"Cancer",
"Service failures",
"Canada"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Background: The Genome Sciences Centre (GSC) founded in 1999 by Nobel Laureate Dr Michael Smith (1932-2000), is a leading non-profit center for genomics and bioinformatics research and engages in high-throughput research activities including DNA (a glossary of technical terms is provided in the Appendix) sequencing, genome mapping, gene expression profiling and bioinformatics. The GSC has a primary mandate to deploy resources and technology of high-throughput genome mapping and DNA sequencing laboratories to decode genetic information, with a focus on advancing cancer research, diagnosis and treatment.The GSC, at the BC Cancer Agency, deploys resources and technology for high-throughput, manufacturing style genome mapping and DNA sequencing and has invested in an internal quality management system (QMS) to ensure consistent production of, accurate, high-quality laboratory data.The QMS was developed based on 12 key areas that were identified as quality system essentials (QSE). One of the key QSE, the non-conformance-event management and failure investigation (FI) system, consists of a strategically developed FI process, regularly applied to the sequencing platform to aid in troubleshooting process failures in a consistent manner.The GSC plays a major role in the fields of genomics and bioinformatics and takes on various genome projects in Canada as well as around the world. It employs highly experienced internationally recognized scientists and other skilled professionals to find innovative approaches to automate the sequencing and mapping processes in a manufacturing fashion and to develop measures that will make such research cost-effective.Genomic research activities are carried out on the latest sequencing and mapping equipment, such as the ABI 3730 XL DNA Sequencer from Applied Bio-systems and the Illumina Genome Analyzers, GAii, with data collected and analyzed using a state-of-the-art bioinformatics computing facility.To ensure high quality, accurate and reliable data is consistently delivered to our clients the GSC has taken a quality management system (QMS) approach and implemented a number of key quality assurance and quality control processes that increased process efficiency and decreased operating costs.The internal QMS was initially modeled based on ISO 9001:2000 quality management standards (Balasundaram et al., 2005), but later modified to incorporate guidelines provided in the CLSI GP26-A document, \"A quality system model for health care; approved guidelines\" in order to improve processes and procedures that are executed under the QMS. The current QMS is focused on 12 key areas, the quality system essentials: organization, assessment, new process development and process improvement, information management, non-conformances/failure investigations, documents and records, service and satisfaction, personnel, process control, purchasing and inventory, equipment, safety, and facility.\n2. Objectives: The objective of this paper is to discuss a practical approach taken by utilizing one of the quality management system processes, the non-conformance/event management and failure investigation system, established at the GSC to formally troubleshoot an actual event of recent process failure observed in the sequencing high-throughput facility.\n3. Introduction to the failure investigation process: A formal failure investigation process is an integral part of any quality management systems as it acts as an important quality tool to investigate any process failures including high priority customer complaints in a high-throughput environment by providing a systematic approach to consistently analyze, and troubleshoot process failures due to various non-conforming actions. It also aids in identifying action plans to immediately correct the problem and also to prevent reoccurrences of similar problems in the future.A standard failure investigation procedure established at the GSC (Figure 1) first classifies the type of a reported failure or complaint as high priority or low priority based on predetermined priority levels. Under usual circumstances, high priority complaints involve calculation errors, incorrect analysis or testing performed, missed holding time, significant increase in operational costs or a very unsatisfied client while low priority complaints are usually due to typographical error or request of additional data to report.High priority failures/complaints are formally investigated and every step of the investigation process is thoroughly documented. When reported, all failures/complaints are first logged-in into the non-conformance-failure investigation system and a unique number is generated for each failure/complaint. For high priority complaints, a formal investigation is executed and any procedures and processes carried out during the investigation are documented by the quality assurance coordinator.The quality assurance coordinator usually coordinates the investigation activities and gathers all the facts from the client, files, and from any employees involved. A clear definition of the problem in terms of possible effects on data quality is then drafted to aid in the investigation. This process also involves identifying the extent of the problem regarding batches, products, time periods and processes. Other systems, pipelines, work areas or products are also assessed to ensure that the problem is not extended further.Once the initial assessment has identified the extent of the problem, possible root causes are determined through brain storming activities between the quality assurance coordinator and departmental group leaders. Necessary documentation is reviewed and applicable documentation is gathered for further review. If required, additional meetings are scheduled with the knowledgeable team members and department leaders and an investigational plan is created. The investigation plan consists of questions and evaluations to investigate each possible cause and for each possible cause the likelihood, specific activities to be done, and any tests to be performed are determined (Immel, 2004). An investigation plan is reviewed and approved by the department head and any relevant experiments are carried out. If required, further interviews are scheduled and carried out and outcomes from the interviews are documented.Data and information retrieved through testing, interviews and review of records are analyzed and possible causes are either rejected or confirmed. Based on the analysis of the results, decisions or recommendations are made including justification for the actions planned, alternatives considered and a risk-benefit analysis. To immediately correct the problem, corrective action plans are established and if necessary, preventative actions are also established to avoid or minimize the problem or any related problem in the future.The effectiveness of the preventative action plans are monitored carefully through several monitoring processes.\n4. A practical application - case study: In July 2008, a total of 16 96-well sample plates (96 DNA samples arrayed into 96 wells of a rectangular plate) sequenced in the Bacterial Artificial Chromosome (BAC) sequencing pipeline produced sporadic failures and continued to be problematic. Initial investigations revealed that plates processed prior to July 2008 produced high quality sequence data. The failed plates contained high molecular weight DNA which was isolated from patient lymphoma cells, digested, size fractionated and cloned into vectors which were then transformed into electro-competent bacterial cells to be used in studies related to genome rearrangements in follicular lymphoma patients.Sequencing success is monitored on a large-scale, referencing overall pass rates and average read lengths, typically in terms of Phred 20 (Q20) bases (Yang et al., 2005). Phred examines the peaks around each base call to assign a quality score to each base call. Quality scores range from 4 to about 60, with higher values corresponding to higher quality (Ewing and Green, 1998). The quality scores are logarithmically linked to error probabilities. For example, when Phred assigns a quality score of 20 to a base, the chances that this base is called incorrectly are indeed just 1 in 100 (99 percent accuracy).Internal acceptance criteria established recommends that sequenced data can be accepted as long as an average Q20 read length of 400 bases or more is achieved with an 80 percent success rate. The BAC sequencing data quality in terms of average Q20 read lengths for the failed plates ranged between 35 to 500 base pairs (Figure 2). These failed BAC plates were initially prepped by the high-throughput mapping group using a well developed 96-well DNA prep protocol, and the plates were then processed through the sequencing standard pipeline. Since the first set failed, the sequencing group attempted their own 384 well DNA preps using their own protocol on a small set of plates and sequenced using the same standard pipeline as before. High quality results with an average Phred Q20 read length of 700 bases or more were obtained for the small set, and then the sequencing group proceeded with a large set of BAC plates. During this time the BAC sequencing pipeline started failing and sporadic failures were observed and these continued. The cost associated with these failures was considerable and immediately this failure was classified as a high priority failure and a formal failure investigation was launched.\n5. Methods: During the assessment phase to identify the extent of the problem, we determined that all BAC libraries sequenced since July 2008 produced poor quality data with an average Phred Q20 read length ranging from 30-500 base pairs and all BAC libraries sequenced prior to July 2008 did not have any issues, but consistently produced high quality data, with an average Q20 read length of 600 base pairs or better. Therefore, the failures were linked to a total number of eight BAC libraries that consisted of at least 18 96-well sample plates. It was also determined that the problem did not extend to any of the other DNA library types.As a first step of the investigation, a list of all the BAC plates that were processed through the pipeline from July 2008 was generated. A list of all protocols applicable to the BAC end-sequencing pipeline was also generated to identify any recent changes to the protocols. Relevant changes were ranked as minor or major depending on the possible impact they may have had on the results quality.During the brainstorming sessions with the team leaders, four possible causes were identified that could have possibly affected the quality of the data. These causes include:1. The incorrect use of procedures in the BAC sequencing pipeline.2. The use of contaminated solutions and/or reagents.3. The loss of DNA during reaction product precipitations.4. Instrument modifications or failures (Biomek, centrifuges, tetrad, sequencers and SpeedVac).After the brain storming session, an investigation plan was drafted that consisted of the following steps:1. The group leaders were to watch the execution of all protocols associated with the BAC end-sequencing pipeline by the technologists to ensure processes are carried out as per the developed standard operating procedures (SOP) and also to observe any deviations or problems during the processes.2. The Sequencing group was to prepare and use a new batch of 0.5M EDTA and 125mM EDTA to ensure there was no problem with the reagents and to repeat two of the failed plates to test the new reagents.3. The group leaders were also to perform Quants, a method used to quantify prepped DNA, to determine any correlation between the concentration of DNA in failed wells and poor quality data.\n6. Results and discussion: 6.1 Immediate action plan\n7. Conclusions: Application of a QMS approach, a systematic documented failure investigation process, in the high throughput sequencing platform at the GSC resulted in successful determination of the underlying cause of one of the BAC end-sequencing process failures. This identification enabled the sequencing team to effectively confirm the cause of the failure through a series of tests conducted, to determine the appropriate corrective action plans to be applied immediately and to outline a preventative action plan to avoid, or minimize, reoccurrences of similar problems in the future.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to discuss a practical approach taken by utilizing the non-conformance/event management and failure investigation (FI) system to formally troubleshoot an actual process failure observed in the sequencing facility.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In this study the authors describe how the cause for the poor quality sequence data, as indicated from the quality score, involving high molecular weight follicular lymphoma DNA samples for a study of tumor-associated genome rearrangements was successfully identified and confirmed through the application of a well structured FI process.\nFindings: - Through this FI process the underlying causes were effectively identified, immediate corrective actions were executed and a preventative action to avoid or minimize reoccurrences was also implemented and monitored for effectiveness.\nOriginality/value: - This paper establishes that by applying a systematic, documented FI process the underlying causes of a process failure in an organization can be effectively identified and appropriate corrective and preventative actions can be successfully adopted.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Impact of product description and involvement on purchase intention in cross-border e-commerce
|
[
"Purchase intention",
"Commitment-involvement theory",
"Cross-border e-commerce (CBEC)",
"Involvement theory",
"Product description"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Cross-border e-commerce (CBEC) refers to the process of selling goods to a consumer located in a foreign country by means of online channels, either directly through a proprietary website (i.e. business-to-consumer (B2C)) or through a digital intermediary such as an online retailer or a marketplace (i.e. business-to-business-to-consumer B2B2C)) (Giuffrida et al., 2017). Nowadays, CBEC has become an important channel for promoting international trade (Mou et al., 2017) as it provides opportunities for both developing and developed countries to reap the benefits of global transactions (Cui et al., 2019; Mou et al., 2019). In 2018, global CBEC consumers accounted for 51.2 percent of online consumers (iResearch, 2019). In 2018, global B2C CBEC transactions reached US$676bn, which increased by 27.5 percent over the previous year. It is estimated that this number will exceed US$800bn in 2019 (iResearch, 2019). In China, the number of CBEC consumers exceeded 100m in 2018. In the same year, the total amount of CBEC transactions reached 9.1tn yuan and was expected to reach 10.8tn yuan in 2019 (iResearch, 2019). In the first half of 2019, NetEase Kaola, Tmall Global and JD Worldwide ranked as the top three Chinese CBEC platforms with 27.7, 25.1 and 13.3 percent market share, respectively (Ebrun, 2019).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 The involvement theory\n3. Research hypotheses: 3.1 Impact of product description on purchase intention\n4. Methodology: For this research, we collaborated with DHGate.com, a well-known Chinese CBEC platform. DHGate.com was established in 2004. It is the first online platform to provide B2B cross-border transactions for SMEs in China. We collaborated with DHGate.com for the following three reasons. First, DHGate.com is a global online trade website, which met the basic requirements of CBEC platforms. Second, DHGate.com has been conducting global online trade for over 14 years and it is a successful example in the field of CBEC, which would enable us to test our research hypotheses reasonably. Third, DHGate.com has 19m registered buyers from 222 countries and regions around the world. This gave us access to an appropriate population to survey for our research.\n5. Data analysis and results: 5.1 Reliability and validity test\n6. Insights from the analysis: Our analysis enabled us to identify the following five interesting insights. First, a high-quality product description has no significant positive influence on purchase intention in CBEC. In traditional e-commerce settings, previous research (Zhang et al., 2011; Benlian et al., 2012) has shown that high-quality product description can generate high purchase intention. However, in CBEC settings, this conclusion is not supported empirically. This shows that there are indeed differences between CBEC and traditional e-commerce when studying product descriptions. We believe that the motivation to purchase a product on a CBEC platform is more likely to be driven by involvement as well as value perceptions such as lower price. We intend to further investigate those factors in the future. Consumers hesitate to buy products on foreign platforms because of geography, income, culture, religion differences, as well as lack of trust and value perceptions. Issues such as privacy, security and regulation can also be factors. Therefore, the effect produced by a high-quality product description can have different psychological effects on different consumers, which might lead to different purchase intentions. Referring to the other conclusions of this study, we know that the effect of product description on consumers' purchase intention needs to be mediated by involvement. In other words, in CBEC, regardless of how attractive and diverse the product description is, it will not directly determine the purchase intention of consumers.\n7. Implications: This study makes theoretical and practical contributions. Theoretically, we studied the psychological mechanisms of product description on purchase intention from the perspective of product involvement and platform involvement. In this regard, based on the involvement theory, we divided product involvement into cognitive involvement and affective involvement, and analyzed the psychological measures of consumers' involvement in product from rational and sensible perspectives. Through our quantitative analysis, we discover that a high-quality product description cannot directly affect consumers' purchase intention, but this influence can be mediated through product involvement. More precisely, the impact of a high-quality product description on consumers' purchase intention can only be transmitted through product affective involvement rather than through product cognitive involvement. Furthermore, based on the commitment-involvement theory, we divided platform involvement into enduring involvement and situational involvement, and analyzed the psychological measures of consumers' involvement in CBEC platforms from ongoing concern and situational state perspectives. Finally, we found that the influence of a high-quality product description on consumers' purchase intention can also be mediated by platform involvement. Moreover, both platform enduring involvement and platform situational involvement can mediate this effect.\n8. Limitation and future research: The main limitation of this study is that the data collection was carried out on a single CBEC platform in China. Future studies could expand the data collection using multiple channels. This will be beneficial to obtain more comprehensive conclusions. In addition, this research only analyzed the impact of product description on purchase intention from the perspective of product involvement and platform involvement. Consumers' purchase intention can be analyzed and explored from multiple perspectives. Therefore, future research can also be carried out based on these considerations.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of product description and involvement on purchase intention in a cross-border e-commerce (CBEC) setting from a psychological perspective.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study proposes a research model of purchase intention in CBEC based on the involvement theory and commitment-involvement theory. The research model was tested using the covariance-based structural equation modeling technique. Data were collected from consumers on a popular CBEC platform in China.\nFindings: A high-quality product description has no significant positive effect on purchase intention, but it has significant positive effects on product cognitive involvement, product affective involvement, platform enduring involvement and platform situational involvement. In addition, product affective involvement, platform enduring involvement and platform situational involvement all have significant positive effect on purchase intention, but this effect is not significant in the relationship between product cognitive involvement and purchase intention.\nPractical implications: This study calls for sellers to optimize product descriptions on CBEC platforms in order to attract more buyers and generate more profits.\nOriginality/value: This study integrates two theories of involvement into the research model in the CBEC context. Based on this model, the authors analyzed how product description affects purchase intention under the joint influence of two involvement factors.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Development and validation of an instrument for multidimensional top management support
|
[
"Project success",
"Top management support",
"Multidimensional",
"Instrument",
"Validation",
"TMSQ"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: One of the most important determinants of project success is the top management support (TMS) but the essence of TMS has been discussed in a limited way in the literature (Dong et al., 2009; Staehr, 2010). The individuals working at senior level positions who possess essential leadership and managerial skills are referred to as top management (TM). In the last three decades, TMS as a single dimension has often been explored. Pinto and Slevin (1987) are pioneers in identifying critical success factors where TMS is the most important factor. TMS is a well-known success factor but yet little is known about why sometimes TM chooses to: not support; reduce support; and provide only low levels of support. Also little is known about the types of behaviors and patterns associated with TMS (Boonstra, 2013). A few theoretical studies identified TMS as a set of attitudes and behaviors but did not relate these behaviors with each other (McComb et al., 2008; Naranjo-Gil, 2009).\n2. Literature review and theoretical background: Every project is unique and TM can have different leadership roles in projects. TM generally refers to the individuals working as CEO, President, Chairman or Chairperson, Executive Director and other senior officials in organizations (Denis and Denis, 1995). TM provides financial, material, and human resources for successful accomplishment of tasks. For successful delivery of projects, sufficient support is almost always required from TM (Young and Poon, 2013). TM possesses essential leadership and managerial skills to lead and support the projects (Bryde, 2008). Cost and time delays are seen often in projects (Ibbs et al., 2001). Decisions made by TM and/or project managers early in projects have the largest potential for an overall impact on the success or failure of a project (Wright et al., 2014b).\n3. Instrument development process: This study aims to develop and validate an instrument for the measurement of multidimensional TMS. In this instrument developing and validating process, five dimensions of TMS were adopted from Boonstra (2013) which were identified on the basis of in-depth analyses of five different organizational cases. This study operationalized following five dimensions of TMS: provide resources; structural arrangements; communication; expertise; and power, during the instrument development process. To develop a reliable measurement scale for multiple dimensions of TMS, creation and sorting of items were undertaken in the first step. The purpose of item creation was to check the content validity for the selection of right items for each dimension and item sorting was to ensure the construct validity in terms of convergence and divergence of items.\n4. Instrument testing process: The questionnaire was primarily developed in English containing 10 demographic questions, 26 TMS questions developed by the authors, and 25 project success questions adapted from the study of Shenhar and Dvir (2007).\n5. Methods for main study: 5.1 Population and sampling\n6. Findings and discussion: In research, the primary objective of scientific exploration is the development and validation of a reliable scale. Therefore, the objective of this study was to develop and validate an instrument for the measurement of multidimensional TMS. To make a significant contribution to methods, practice, and theory, this study developed and validated a \"Top Management Support Questionnaire (TMSQ).\" An initial data screening was performed and no missing values were found due to an online survey with items having the option of \"answer required\" as a mandatory field. In line with the study of Muthen and Kaplan (1985), the values of Kurtosis were within the threshold value of +-1.\n7. Conclusion: This study presents a comprehensive scale development process to develop an instrument for measurement of multidimensional TMS and operationalize the TMSQ's instrument by examining the influence of TMS on project success. The outcome of this research is a TMSQ instrument to measure five dimensions of TMS with a high degree of reliability and validity. The CFA suggested a model fit to the data for all dimensions of TMS and project success. Findings validated the multidimensionality of TMS construct and revealed a significant and positive correlation between all the dimensions of TMS. Results suggested that multidimensional TMS significantly influences on project success, especially, in terms of project efficiency and impact on the team. The study provides critical insights for the academicians, researchers, and practitioners on scale development and validation procedures for a multidimensional construct. It further provides opportunities to employ TMSQ in different types of projects, contexts, and cultures across the industry, sector and country levels.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Literature reveals that there is a paucity of instruments to measure multidimensional top management support (TMS). The multidimensionality and the complexity of the TMS cannot be reflected by a single-dimensional construct. The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate an instrument for the measurement of multidimensional TMS.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In this cross-sectional study, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed to check the validity and model fitness based on sample data collected from the PMI community. Ordinary least square and structural equation modeling techniques were used to test the research hypotheses and validate multidimensional TMS.\nFindings: The findings revealed a significant positive correlation among all dimensions of top management and their significant influence on project success, especially on project efficiency and team dimensions.\nResearch limitations/implications: Based on the existing knowledge through a coherent and refined process, the development and validation of a top management support questionnaire (TMSQ) made a significant contribution to theories and research methods.\nPractical implications: Multidimensional TMS provides an opportunity to ensure provision of apt assistance throughout the implementation of projects for improving organizational performance across the industries.\nOriginality/value: This study targeted a sample size of 300 to develop and validate an instrument, which is in line with previous research studies on the development and validation of a reliable instrument. To operationalize TMSQ, this study adopted an online survey and received 208 responses (69 percent) from the PMI community.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The impact of biomedical students' ethnicity and gender
|
[
"Female",
"Research",
"Homophily",
"Biomedical",
"Laboratories",
"Underrepresented"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nThe impact of biomedical students' ethnicity and gender: There has long existed a discrepancy between the number of women and ethnic minorities vs men, whites, and Asians in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics-related (STEM) careers. This imbalance begins in childhood and adolescence, and continues throughout high school, college, and graduate school. A steady increase of public interest, media attention, and governmental funding continues to focus attention on how to retain and boost the success, particularly, of women and underrepresented (UR) individuals in the STEM pipeline. The current research examines the number of female and UR students in STEM, particularly as they experience graduate school, and specifically in the field of biomedical sciences and engineering. Recent evidence suggests that this field is one of the most rapidly growing and lucrative fields in life sciences (Rose, 2015), and estimates suggest that biomedical sciences and engineering will represent approximately 27 percent of all jobs in the life sciences by 2022 (Rose, 2015). Examining biomedical graduate students in 2014, then, seems like an opportune way to examine the potentially changing pulse of the STEM pipeline and reflect on the success and challenges that face students as a function of their race and gender.\nMethods: We identified the top 50 schools in the Biomedical Field for the 2013-2014 academic year by including any and all schools appearing on a ranked list of biomedical programs provided by US News and World Reports (20 programs; US News and World Report, 2013), biomedical engineering/bioengineering programs provided by US News and World Reports (30 programs; US News and World Report, 2014), or biomedical programs ranked by S-rank (criteria that scholars report as being most important) provided by the National Research Council (20 programs; National Research Council, 2010). Using the available information contained on each program's website, we identified all specialties within the \"biomedical programs\" at each institution. Independent raters recorded graduate students' and their respective advisors' gender and ethnicity, which was determined by name and photographs from department/university webpages. In the cases that this information was not available nor clear, the independent raters conducted searches on social media sites to match the student's or advisor's name with their post-secondary education. This usually led to information that allowed coders to credibly confirm the person's gender and ethnicity. Any students or advisors that were still indiscernible, were left blank (and excluded from our analyses). International and domestic students and faculty were included in our data set (although we did not examine this variable in our analyses). Additionally, we measured advisors' performance by collecting their h-index (an index comparing productivity and impact using the number of citations reported for individual publications), total number of publications, and total number of citations (NIH, 2016; Scopus & Elsevier B.V., 2014). We used the SCOPUS database which is extensive, and allowed us to match first, middle, and last name with educational backgrounds to be certain we were recording the correct information for the correct person. All of these variables were double coded. Demographic information about the individual graduate students was nested within the demographic and performance advisor information. The final database included 3,726 graduate students, who had a total of 1,294 graduate advisors and were from 50 different biomedical graduate programs. Men comprised 57 percent (2,110) of the student sample, and 54 percent were white (2,000), 38 percent Asian (1,419), and 8 percent (306) were Latino or black (UR). Of the advisors, 77 percent (1,003) were male; and 78 percent (1,004) were white, 21 percent (274) Asian, and 3 percent (41) were UR. Additionally, 22 percent (286) of advisors were assistant professors, 28 percent (356) were associates, and 50 percent (652) were full. For further demographic breakdowns of each sample, please refer to Table I.\nResults: Unless otherwise noted, all analyses based on our predictions were conducted using one-tailed tests (p<0.10). To examine if female and UR students work in less productive labs than their male, white or Asian counterparts (H1), we used a 2 (student gender) x 3 (student ethnicity: white, Asian, and UR) factorial MANCOVA with the students' advisors': h-index, total citation count, and total number of publications entered as dependent variables, while controlling for faculty rank (p<0.001). First, the omnibus MANCOVA revealed a significant main effect of student gender (H1a), F(3, 3,588)=3.01, p=0.029,\nDiscussion: The goal of this study was to use archival data to determine if female and UR graduate students are situated in less productive labs than are majority members and men. As expected, the results show that male (vs female) students are positioned into laboratories with advisors who not only have more publications, but also have higher h-indices; and, these metrics are particularly important given how meaningful they are for hiring and promotion decisions within academia (Ruscio and Prajapati, 2013; Cruz-Castro and Sanz-Menendez, 2010). The results also show that white students are in laboratories with advisors who have more publications than those of UR students. These findings provide evidence that female and UR students may be experiencing disadvantages relative to male and majority members. Further, results indicate that male and female students tend to be paired with male and female advisors, respectively, as are white and Asian students (with white and Asian advisors), also respectively. This tendency for homophilic student/advisor pairings (or strong ties), may indicate that graduate students are receiving more benefits in terms of psychosocial support, but fewer instrumental benefits. It could also be that there is a component of this homophilic matching that may be based on shared interests, or a gender- or race-oriented gravitation towards more mutually appealing topics (e.g. fields that are more populated with women than men; Miller, 2017). Regardless, due to the observed dearth of UR advisors, in most cases UR students may not have the option for homophilic advisor pairings. This was the one group for which we did not observe homophilic pairings, and we suspect that this was due to the lack of UR advisors. However, across every other demographic and both genders, there was a tendency for homophilic student/advisor pairings.\nConclusion: In conclusion, our results show that female and UR graduate students and faculty are UR as both biomedical graduate students and faculty advisors. In this study, we anticipated that female and UR graduate students would be disproportionately placed into less productive laboratories than their male and white counterparts, respectively. Our results support this contention in terms of fewer advisor publications and lower h-indices for advisors of female as compared to male students, as well as fewer advisor publications for UR as compared to white and Asian students. We also found evidence of homophily among our male and female students, and male and female faculty, as well as our white and Asian students, and white and Asian faculty, respectively. Further, it seems that the number of UR faculty and students is still so small relative to their white and Asian counterparts, that we may not have a large enough sample to detect if additional disadvantage is present. Thus, it appears that there are still hurdles to be surmounted when it comes to female and UR students having access to similarly productive faculty advisors relative to their male and majority counterparts.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: There has been a great deal of research published on the lower success rates of women and underrepresented (UR) students in Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics-related (STEM) occupations. For biomedical scientists in particular, many of the obstacles to success occur during graduate training and may be related, at least in part, to certain demographic characteristics (i.e. gender or ethnicity). In particular, women and UR students may be positioned disproportionately into labs with fewer resources and less productive faculty advisors. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The present study examines the distribution of biomedical science graduate students into research laboratories, based on the gender and ethnicity of both students and faculty advisors. This is archival data that were collected via publicly available information on the internet.\nFindings: Results indicate that female (vs male) students and UR (vs white and Asian) students are paired with advisors who are less successful (i.e. fewer publications, lower h-indices). Additionally, the data show patterns of homophily in that female (vs male) and white and Asian (vs UR) students are more likely to be paired with female and white and Asian advisors, respectively.\nOriginality/value: This research uses real-world, archival data to demonstrate that phenomena suggested in previous literature (e.g. less favorable pairings for female and UR students, homophilic pairings) occurs with this specific population.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Price overreactions in the cryptocurrency market
|
[
"Cryptocurrencies",
"Price overreactions",
"Trading robot",
"G12",
"G17",
"C63"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The dominant paradigm in financial economics is still the efficient market hypothesis (EMH) that implies that the behaviour of asset prices should be unpredictable (Fama, 1965). However, cognitive biases (Akerlof and Shiller, 2009), different investment horizons (Campbell and Viceira, 2002), noise traders (Black, 1985), the belief of many traders in technical analysis (Taylor and Allen, 1992) and other factors can generate so-called market anomalies, namely certain patterns in price behaviour making prices predictable (at least in the short run).\n2. Literature review: Following the already mentioned study by De Bondt and Thaler (1985), many other papers have tested the overreaction hypothesis, according to which if investors overreact in a given period, in the next period they move in the opposite direction; in the case of short-term overreactions one-day price increases are followed by price falls on the next day and vice versa. For example, Bremer and Sweeney (1991) showed that, after negative daily changes exceeding 10 per cent, price increases on the next day averaged 1.77 per cent (see also Caporale et al., 2018).\n3. Data and methodology: To analyse overreactions in the cryptocurrency market, we use daily data on the four cryptocurrencies (bitcoin, litecoin, ripple and dash) with the highest market capitalisation and longest span of data from 28 April 2013 to 31 December 2017. The data source is CoinMarketCap (https://coinmarketcap.com/coins/). CoinMarketCap calculates prices as the volume-weighted average of all prices reported for each market. For example, bitcoin prices are the average of those from 400 markets.\n4. Empirical results: A key issue when examining overreactions is how they are defined - for example, as a 10 per cent price change in Bremer and Sweeney (1991). It should be mentioned that using a constant value may lead to biased results (see Cox and Peterson, 1994 for details). To avoid this trap in this paper, a dynamic approach is used: overreactions are defined on the basis of the number of standard deviations to be added to the average return. However, these are influenced by the averaging period; therefore, there are two parameters to be chosen on the basis of preliminary calculations.\n5. Conclusions: This paper examines price behaviour in the cryptocurrency market after one-day abnormal price changes (overreactions). Using data on the cryptocurrency markets that are most liquid and have the highest capitalisation (bitcoin, litecoin, ripple and dash) for the period 2013-2017, two different hypotheses were tested: counter-reactions after volatility explosions differ from those after normal days (H1) and price movements after volatility explosions in the same direction of the overreaction differ from those after normal days (H2). For this purpose, a variety of statistical tests were performed, including average analysis, t-tests, ANOVA, regression analysis with dummy variables, Mann-Whitney U-tests, etc. Neither hypothesis could be rejected, which implies that overreactions cause statistically abnormal price behaviour in the cryptocurrency market.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine price overreactions in the case of the following cryptocurrencies: bitcoin, litecoin, ripple and dash.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A number of parametric (t-test, ANOVA, regression analysis with dummy variables) and non-parametric (Mann-Whitney U-test) tests confirm the presence of price patterns after overreactions: the next day price changes in both directions are bigger than after \"normal\" days. A trading robot approach is then used to establish whether these statistical anomalies can be exploited to generate profits.\nFindings: The results suggest that a strategy based on counter-movements after overreactions is not profitable, whilst one based on inertia appears to be profitable but produces outcomes not statistically different from the random ones. Therefore, the overreactions detected in the cryptocurrency market do not give rise to exploitable profit opportunities (possibly because of transaction costs) and cannot be seen as evidence against the efficient market hypothesis (EMH).\nOriginality/value: The overreactions detected in the cryptocurrency market do not give rise to exploitable profit opportunities (possibly because of transaction costs) and cannot be seen as evidence against the EMH.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Students' environmental responsibility and their willingness to pay for green buildings
|
[
"LEED",
"Green marketing",
"Sustainability",
"Environmental responsibility",
"Campus sustainability",
"Green buildings"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: There are many benefits to sustainability in the built environment, such as increased productivity in commercial buildings, decreased indoor air quality-related health problems and cost savings because of more efficient use of resources within the building (Celik et al., 2009). In addition to many benefits to their owners and occupants, green buildings also respect ecosystems as a whole and, in various ways, attempt to become a part of the natural environment, as opposed to working against it (Fitch and Bobenhausen, 1999; Roper and Beard, 2006). Despite the ongoing discussions regarding what is sustainable or how sustainable is a building; these attempts all represent a concern for the environment at some level.\n2. USGBC and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design: As building green is becoming more popular among populations, it is critical to identify what makes a building \"green\", or \"greener\" than another one. The US Environmental Protection Agency (2012) defines green building as:\n3. Environmental responsibility: Universities are in the perfect position to behave sustainably and further educate the population on sustainability issues. Unfortunately, there is limited information on perceptions of sustainability in higher education (Eagan and Orr, 1992; Earl et al., 2003; Emanuel and Adams, 2011).\n4. Environmental behavior: Although scoring high in environmental responsibility is a great first step toward a more sustainable lifestyle, behaving sustainably is the next. One study found that, although people may say that they have concern for the environment, they might not actually recycle. In other words, they have a positive attitude toward sustainability but may not turn their positive attitude into an actual change in behavior (Kaiser et al., 1999).\n5. Research questions: This study focuses on uncovering students' environmental attitudes and behaviors in accordance with their level of environmental responsibility and the cost associated with enacting that behavior. Although the majority of previous studies in this area assess students' knowledge and perceptions of sustainability, this study explores student levels of environmental responsibility in seven categories and compares these findings to their willingness to pay for sustainability in their build environment. Such detailed analysis can help take research on sustainability in higher education to the next level, with an effort toward finding the right message to help market and advance sustainability across college campuses. The basis of this study relies on a few research questions as detailed below:\n6. Methodology: To answer the research questions, authors created a single survey with three main sections:\n7. Results: The mean values and standard deviations of 145 subjects' ECOSCALE scores are shown in Table I. The highest mean score within the ECOSCALE categories is 4.06 (SD = 0.646) in the Knowledge category, whereas the lowest mean score is found in the Willingness to Act category with an average score of 2.99 (SD = 0.689) (Table I).\n8. Discussion: This study evaluated relations between environmental responsibility, willingness to pay and gender in an attempt to understand environmental attitudes and behaviors of university students. Results indicate that there is a difference in environmental responsibility of students based on gender where women are more environmentally responsible than men, confirming the study by Kopelman et al. (2002). Results show a direct correlation between environmental responsibility and willingness to pay for green buildings as defined by the LEED building assessment system. Therefore, as the level of environmental responsibility of an individual increases, willingness to pay for a sustainably built environment also increases. In other words, as the student population becomes more environmentally responsible, their willingness to pay for a more sustainably built environment also increases. By building green buildings, such as those assessed by the USGBC through their LEED certification system, universities can now provide a way for the students to behave more sustainably on a daily basis. As a result, if universities learn the level of environmental responsibility of their current and potential students, they are more likely to make more suitable choices in becoming more sustainable, specifically in built environment-related decisions.\n9. Conclusion: Sustainability in the built environment is a growing concern for many students on their campuses. Some universities have already started to implement sustainability not only in their daily operations but also in their built environment by building and renovating in accordance with international green building assessment systems such as LEED. The findings of this study can help not only universities but also building owners, managers and professionals (designers and contractors) to make better decisions about their campus sustainability efforts. The findings of this study can also help craft more focused messages to communicate their chosen sustainability efforts with their current and potential clients and/or occupants. Successful implementation of the findings of this research may lead to better marketing of green buildings to the general public. However, there is still a need for further research to generalize willingness to pay for sustainable buildings for various demographics.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore environmental attitudes and how such attitudes, when combined with a specific cost, can affect environmental behavior. Environmental attitudes are important to study due to the rising belief by building occupants that they are owed safe, healthy, environmentally responsible, and comfortable living environments. Universities around the world are responding to such demands as the majority of prospective college students and their parents claim that the environmental record is a determining factor in their selection of a university. Therefore, this study examines the environmental responsibility levels of a sample student population and to explore how these scores, along with gender, impact their willingness to pay for studying and living in green buildings.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An online survey consisting of three parts was administered to undergraduate university students to measure environmental responsibility, willingness to pay and demographic variables. Statistical analyses including ANOVA, t-tests and correlation were conducted to explore relationships among variables.\nFindings: Results of statistical analyses show a direct correlation between environmental responsibility and willingness to pay for green buildings, as defined by a leading green building assessment system. Results also show that female students are more environmentally responsible than males.\nPractical implications: Successful generalizations of the findings of this research may lead to better marketing of green buildings to the general public.\nOriginality/value: Findings present a unique opportunity for university administrations to develop more focused messages when communicating their environmental record with current and potential students.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The promotion of BPM and lean in the health sector: main results
|
[
"Lean",
"Business process management",
"Process management",
"Lean healthcare"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Business process management (BPM) is derived from the combination of two approaches to improving performance, Six Sigma and business process reengineering, resulting in an integrated business performance management system focused on managing business processes from end-to-end (Hammer, 2010). This is a new way of viewing business operations, unlike the traditional view of functional structures based on the orchestration of activities in business functions (Paim et al., 2008). BPM emerged from process orientation, in which organizations began to focus their business processes on the customer instead of emphasizing functional and hierarchic structures (Reijers, 2006).\nBPM: A business process is a set of interdependent activities or tasks organized to achieve specific business goals, involving various functional structures and hierarchies (Bitkowska, 2015). Process management operates in an end-to-end fashion, from the initial customer request to customer fulfilment (Maddern et al., 2013). To manage these processes, BPM, which is a way of articulating and applying methodologies, approaches, and tools in an integrated manner for processes generally applied alone, should be promoted. It is a holistic view of organizing, structuring, and conducting business. Given that BPM enables quick adaptation to change, this approach has become one of the most important issues in the area of management (Neubauer, 2009).\nOrigins and definition of lean healthcare: Lean thinking is defined as a philosophy whose principles, tools, and methods aim to reduce waste (which does not add value for the customer) and improve quality (Dellifraine et al., 2010). Moraros et al. (2016) considered providing value for the consumer and eliminating waste the focus of lean thinking. Processes are defined according to what consumers want, and then, the organization determines which activities add value and which do not. There are seven sources of waste: overproduction, waiting, over-processing, inventory management, movement, transportation, and defects (Ohno, 1988).\nMethodological procedures: To analyze how studies on BPM and lean developed in healthcare approach process management, a literature review was conducted using published references available in databases. Therefore, this research is classified as descriptive and qualitative. The literature review was conducted based on the definition of search expressions, database selection, selection of the years of publication, surveys of studies, and data analysis.\nResults related to BPM and healthcare: In the first step of the study, which used the terms BPM and healthcare, 54 articles were initially found, including 26 in Scopus, 14 in Web of Science, and 14 in PubMed. After the first analysis of the titles and authors, 12 articles were excluded because they were duplicates, 1 because it was not a journal article, and 12 because they were not available in searchable databases, which left 30 for reading. Of these, 20 were excluded after the abstract and introduction were read because they focused on the development of information and communication systems. Ten articles remained for full analysis in this study (Table III).\nResults related to lean healthcare: In the search for systematic reviews that addressed lean healthcare, 272 articles were found: 112 in Scopus, 113 in PubMed, and 47 in Web of Science. Of these, 31 were excluded because they were duplicates, and 229 were excluded after the title and abstract were read and the exclusion criteria applied, which resulted in 12 articles for full analysis. These are detailed in Table V.\nDiscussion: Process standardization has a significant impact on process performance in general and on process time, cost, and quality in particular (Munstermann et al., 2010); as observed in the study by Yarmohammadian et al. (2014), the negative effects of the high complexity of the health sector, in addition to the high dynamism of the sector's processes, are ameliorated by the change in management to focus on processes and their consequent improvement. The results of this study support the assertion by Neubauer (2009) that the promotion of BPM enables a quick adaptation to change because, according to the study, the perceived negative effects of the sector's high dynamism are mitigated.\nConclusions and research agenda: The present study allowed us to achieve our proposed objective of analyzing studies on BPM and lean thinking as approaches to healthcare process management. The studies found showed the importance of promoting BPM in the health sector to improve the quality of the services offered to patients.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: Given the complexity and difficulties of the health sector, the question that this study attempts to answer is as follows: what are the main results of studies on business process management (BPM) and lean in the health sector? The purpose of this paper is to analyze the results of studies that address the promotion of BPM and lean in the health sector.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To conduct a survey of published studies using the BPM and lean approach in healthcare, a search was performed in the Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed databases in two steps. The first step consisted of the collection and analysis of data related to the BPM approach in the health sector, based on a survey of published articles on this topic. The second step consisted of the collection and analysis of data related to the use of lean in the same sector, based on the survey of systematic reviews published in major databases.\nFindings: The main results of the studies that address the promotion of BPM and lean in the health sector are as follows: a reduced length of hospitalization, increased patient satisfaction, increased patient efficiency and safety, a reduction in the time of notification of infection, help with organizational change, understanding the end-to-end process, increased motivation, understanding the importance of some handoffs for patient safety, improvements in quality indicators in the emergency department, and improvements in the organization's focus on high-level processes. By contrast, a single study showed difficulties in promoting management focused on processes in which decisions are unique and difficult to model.\nOriginality/value: The results may help in the identification of research gaps in the promotion of BPM and lean healthcare and in the development of relevant research. In addition, by understanding how health organizations are promoting management focused on processes and the results obtained with this approach, managers from other organizations, especially in this sector, can reflect and develop similar actions that seek to improve the quality of services offered, increase productivity and customer satisfaction, and reduce costs, errors, and waiting times.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
An organisational change approach based on Gestalt psychotherapy theory and practice
|
[
"Change management",
"Gestalt psychology",
"Gestalt psychotherapy",
"Organizational development",
"Postmodernism"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nOrganisational development based on Gestalt psychotherapy theory: This article stems from my life-based action research as an organisational consultant in the field of OD since the 1990s and how encountering Gestalt Psychotherapy theory and practice has fundamentally modified and shaped my OD practice. Initially schooled in the notion of organisational change as a process that can be created, planned and managed, I was soon to discover as a young consultant on a large transformational project, that total control of a change situation was a myth. Turning to Gestalt theory and practice clearly supported my presence and \"use of self\" as a practitioner. Yet more than that, it also offered me a framework from which to view organisational change and development that is more relational and constructionist than objectivist in orientation.What is interesting however, is that theoretical OD orientations to which I was initially introduced to as a young consultant are still very much at the heart of many OD practices today. These are mostly based on behavioural, positivist and open systems theories that helped shape the formulation of OD practice in the 1950s and 1960s. This is somewhat intriguing given the emergence in the last decade of new OD practices which as highlighted by Marshak and Grant (2008), are not necessarily different from a values or viability perspective to the classic OD but from an ontological and epistemological one.I contend that the field of gestalt psychotherapy theory and practice applied to organisations offers a perspective that could help advance thinking and practice in relation to these new/emerging aspects of OD. Building on the concept of \"organisation as self\" (Chidiac and Denham-Vaughan, 2009), this article first provides a conceptualisation of healthy organisational functioning based on gestalt theory and practice. From this, three capabilities are identified which provide a gestalt frame for guiding the design and facilitation of change projects. Specifically, these capabilities arose from an action research approach focussed on an exploration of my practice as an organisational change consultant over a period of ten years. During this time I applied gestalt psychotherapy concepts to my work in organisational change projects. Case study material from four projects is used in this article to reflect on and illustrate the applicability of this emergent model.\nGestalt and OD: Robine (2011) highlights that although early Gestalt Therapy theory contains numerous references to a modernist mode of thinking, it also introduced new ideas based on field theory and a notion of self that is fluid and emerges in contact with the environment. This places Gestalt psychotherapy theory at the heart of what is called \"postmodernism\". The latter is a turn away from the subject, from individualism to a more intersubjective frame of reference.In line with social constructionism, meaning is therefore co-created and as stated by Robine (2011, p. 42) \"there is no other reality that that which we construct in relationship\". This epistemological stance is revolutionary in the world of OD as it deconstructs the myth of objectivity and places the organisational practitioner at the heart of the co-construction of meaning as he/she leads change. This can be seen in the writings of many Gestalt writers such as Nevis (1987), Critchley (1998), Barber (2006, 2012) and Gaffney (2010a,b).Unlike however some deconstructive aspects of postmodernism, Gestalt Psychotherapy theory is a phenomenological hermeneutic process. According to Madison (1990), the philosophical discipline of phenomenological hermeneutics comes \"after postmodernism\" and is based on the work of phenomenologists namely Heidegger and Gadamer.What Gestalt psychotherapy theory offers therefore is not just the refuting of Cartesian dualism and positivism but a more fundamental epistemological shift in that meaning is found as we are constructed by the world while at the same time we are constructing this world from our own background and experiences. This is at the heart of Gestalt's view of Self and I will therefore first outline how this applies to an organisation and then provide a summary of the main Gestalt OD principles.The organisation as self\nGestalt organisational change capabilities: The above conceptualisation of an organisation as \"emergent self\", and other related Gestalt psychotherapy theories and insights, have guided and informed my thinking in designing and managing change projects. Reflecting on the impact of this approach in four case studies has led me to the development of an emergent model which identifies key Gestalt organisational change capabilities. The case study projects were selected as they represent a good variation in terms of size and extent of change undertaken within private sector organisations. The impact of the approach was evaluated through post-project reflection and dialogue with key members of the client organisation providing a heuristic evaluative method.This research has led me to recognise the need for change efforts to foster and grow the following capabilities within the organisation:* Sensing - as the stance or activities that track and stay responsive to the organisational environment and id functioning.* Supporting - as the stance or activities that enable emergent change and a move to action (ego functioning). In Gestalt, emergent and planned approaches are viewed as a dialectic rather than a polarity.* Sustaining - as the stance or activities that assimilate and embed change. Attending to the adaptability of the organisation's personality functioning as a way of ensuring sustainable change.As shown in Figure 2, these three organising abilities rely on a fourth: the instrumentality of the OD practitioner or change team as a whole. By this I do not only mean the knowledge of the change facilitators but their presence in the client system and how their use of self as instruments of change is an integral part of the change intervention. Indeed the \"use of self\" as a consulting instrument differentiates Gestalt OD theory and practice from other intervention orientations (Stevenson, n.d.). Nevis's (1987) seminal book Organizational Consulting: A Gestalt Approach, explores in detail the key skills of an organisational consultant. I shall therefore not expand further on this aspect of Gestalt OD in this article but highlight the primacy of this skill to a Gestalt OD practice.Sensing\nThe OD cycle through a Gestalt lens: The OD cycle is a route map for organisational practitioners to guide them through managing the helping process in dealing with organisational change. Looking at a typical phasing of an organisational change project, Tschudy (2006) identifies eight phases:1. entry/contracting;2. data collection;3. data analysis;4. feedback;5. action planning;6. action taking;7. evaluation; and8. termination).The action research process which is at the heart of OD can be glimpsed in these eight phases and also in the five phases which I propose in Figure 3 as being more congenial to a Gestalt perspective of organisational change. These can also be linked to the developmental process (orientation, identification, exploration, resolution) of the facilitator-client relationship as identified by Barber (2012). It is worth noting that \"the theoretical foundations of Action Research lie in Gestalt psychology\" (Cheung-Judge and Holbeche, 2011, p. 32), highlighting the importance in Gestalt of awareness in the change process. Fundamentally, change can only be achieved by helping individuals reflect on and gain new insights into their situation.Although project phases are often depicted as sequential steps in a planned process, Figure 3 highlights the iterative nature of the project phases. As stated by Freedman (2006, p. 93), within each phase of the project work, unexpected or emergent information would mean that change practitioners would guide their client through the four-step action research process to enable them to understand what happened, why it happened and what they might choose to do about it.As such the 3S model with its Sensing, Supporting and Sustaining activities cannot be viewed as sequential but rather as shown in Figure 4, it provides an overarching framework that spans the various phases of a change project. Space precludes me in this article to articulate more fully the methodological or practical implications of attending to a gestalt informed relational perspective in each phase of the cycle. This remains an area for further writing and research.\nConclusion: This article has provided an overview of a Gestalt informed approach to organisational development and change. As well as highlighting the importance of the practitioner's own presence and use of self, three interrelated capabilities - Sensing, Supporting and Sustaining were identified. These emphasise the need to track and stay responsive to the organisational environment; to ensure the right amount of support and challenge is present in the change effort and finally, to provide a focus on experimentation and the embedding of learning for sustainable change.This study not only strengthens the case for emergent approaches to be used in organisational change but also has two key implications for scholars and practitioners. First, it shows the usefulness of continuous sensing into the phenomenological experience of the organisation throughout the lifetime of a change project. Second, this study shows that learning and experimentation with new ways of being is crucial to an organisation that wants to grow and remain fluid and responsive to its environment. Clearly both implications will have an economic and commercial impact on the cost of a change project compared to more traditional planned approaches. Enquiry into the effectiveness of the case studies shows that the long-term impact resulting from a gestalt based approach could justify the cost increase. Further comparative research however into the cost-benefit of the approach would be needed.This contribution is also limited by looking at only four cases that fall only within the private sector. On the premise that model generalisation depends upon extensive empirical data, the current paper should be considered as a preliminary/exploratory research into a more emergent, relational and holistic organisational change management approach.Despite the limitations however, I hope that the insights and emerging model put forward in this article would encourage further research into the effectiveness of a gestalt based approach to a variety of organisational change contexts.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to expand understanding of how Gestalt psychotherapy theory and practice can support the facilitation of change management efforts in organisations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The methodology is based on action research approach in which the author has applied Gestalt principles to her work as a change management practitioner. Case study material is used to support the development of an emergent model for change management based on Gestalt psychotherapy theory and praxis.\nFindings: - This paper emphasises the need to attend in change management efforts to three interrelated capabilities: Sensing, Supporting and Sustaining. Together these emphasise the need to track and stay responsive to the organisational environment; to ensure the right amount of support and challenge is present in the change effort and finally, to provide a focus on experimentation and the embedding of learning for sustainable change.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This contribution is limited by looking at only four cases in the private sector and the current paper should be considered as a preliminary/exploratory research.\nPractical implications: - This study has two key implications for scholars and practitioners. First, it shows the usefulness of continuous sensing into the phenomenological experience of the organisation throughout the lifetime of a change project. Second, this study shows that learning and experimentation with new ways of being is crucial to an organisation that wants to grow and remain fluid and responsive to its environment.\nOriginality/value: - This article offers a conceptualisation of how the theory and practice of relational Gestalt psychotherapy theory can shape the practice of organisational development practitioners. Its uniqueness lies in that it offers to Gestalt practitioners a sense of the applicability of Gestalt theory to large-scale organisational interventions; and for non-Gestalt informed OD practitioners it offers new insights into a theory base that promotes a relational, holistic and emergent view of change.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
A maintenance prioritisation approach to maximise return on investment subject to time and budget constraints
|
[
"Maintenance",
"Production management",
"Return on investment",
"Productive maintenance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: We propose that maintenance is a business function such as any other in a business; it has to prioritise activities in terms of return on the investment. It is also the case the maintenance in particular is limited in respect to the amount of time and money which is available.In the academic maintenance literature the key business objective of return on investment is often ignored, and it is also the case that overwhelming importance of time and budget constrains is also often overlooked. These, however, are the factors, which most influence the decisions of the asset manager/maintenance planner.In this paper a ranking criterion for maintenance decision making that align with enterprise objectives is proposed.1.1 Notation\n2. Literature review: Previous research has advocated integrating maintenance and production in formulating decision-making models. However none of these papers recognises what we propose is the basic maintenance question:What is the best maintenance to do in terms of return on investment given that there are time and budget constraints?Weinstein and Chung (1999) integrated maintenance and production decisions in production planning. The model was tested with experiments for the significance of different factors affecting maintenance policy. Boukas and Liu (2001) addressed the production and maintenance control problem for a single unit manufacturing system producing single part type. Optimisation was carried out to optimise both the production and maintenance rates. Iravani and Duenyas (2002) considered a \"make-to-stock\" production system with single machines producing single unit using a Markov Decision Process. It was suggested that common practice of separating decision making in maintenance and production can be costly and advised that these decision should be made in an integrated fashion.Alfares et al. (2005) proposed a model that considers both the deterioration of the produced items and production equipment. Serval realistic aspect such as item and process deterioration, varying demand and production rates, quality, inspection and maintenance were integrated in formulating the model with heuristic solution approach. Cassady and Kutanoglu (2005) found that the inter-dependency of preventive maintenance and repair, both affecting available production time and the probability of machine failure is overlooked in the literature. They proposed an integrated model coordinating preventive maintenance planning for a single machine that minimise expected job completion time.Decision makers in various industries have developed their own approach in prioritising maintenance based on their experiences. Even within the same industry, there are different approaches. Taking the case of sewer maintenance, Fenner (2000) reported that many drainage authorities have developed their own systems for identifying critical area of maintenance and it was suggested that holistic management strategies are need. Al-Najjar and Alsyouf (2003) introduced a fuzzy multiple criteria decision-making evaluation methodology for the selection of the most efficient maintenance approach. A model of maintenance decision-making using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was developed by Labib et al. (2004) and was suggested that the model promote strategic decisions. Through prioritising machines' criticality the model maximise gains based on different criteria. Labib et al. (2004) suggested that the developed model utilises the best out of reliability centred maintenance (RCM) and total production maintenance (TPM).Moore and Starr (2006) proposed the cost-based criticality (CBC) strategy that draws together cost, criticality and other factors (such as limited resources) to prioritise condition-based maintenance. The CBC is calculated as: CBC=[?](P,C,Q,SE,CS)Pf (Equation 1, Moore and Starr (2006)), where P is the production loss, C the capital equipment, Q the quality, SE safety and environment, CS customer satisfaction and Pf probability of failure. Some of the data required to calculate CBC are very difficult to obtain and quantify.Approaches to prioritising maintenance based on failure mode, effect and critically analysis (FMECA) is defined in the US Military Standard, MIL-STD-1629A (1980). Work such as reliability centred maintenance (RCM) (Nowlan and Heap, 1978; Moubray, 1997) developed maintenance prioritisation according to FMECA results. These approaches however do not integrate with financial considerations.None of the above approaches addresses the question of how to prioritise maintenance in terms of return on investment given that there are time and budget constraints. The authors believe that these approaches still leave a significant gap in the maintenance prioritisation literature.\n3. Maintenance prioritisation framework: The framework proposed by Tam and Price (2008) (see Figure 1) considered that there are three critical decision-making dimensions, which are given the names: output, risk and resources. The three decision dimensions for asset management considered in this work are defined as follows:1. Output dimension - measures achievement of an organisation's production and service delivery objectives for operating the asset. The output dimension also involves planned outages required to meet compliance requirements such as satisfying regulations, safety and company quality standards.2. Risk dimension - is the cost of unexpected and unplanned incidents and events. This cost normally cannot be reflected on real expenditure and will not be reflected on the enterprise's accounting balance sheets. The consequences of failure can be both financial and non-financial such as loss of production time, injuries and deaths, customer satisfaction, company reputation and other liabilities. Note that insurance may be used to reduce the risk associated with very infrequent major failures and this may have to be considered in some calculations.3. Resources dimension - is concerned with expenditure for maintenance and the costs for supporting the resources required for maintenance.The maintenance prioritisation framework shown in Figure 2 is developed though the application of the maintenance optimisation framework proposed by Tam and Price (2008). The process begins with gathering information from different forms of data including: condition data, breakdown data and scheduled preventive work data. The data reflects the asset performance during that time and from this tasks are then proposed to restore/prevent failures.Strategic decisions are made with reference to asset performance data. Together with other data such as enterprise financial performance data, strategic output target and tolerable risk target, senior management will need to determine the budget and available outage time for planned maintenance within a given period. With these strategic policies in place, the next step is to evaluate and prioritise each maintenance task. This can be done with the use of the proposed indices. These proposed indices evaluate each maintenance task's cost-effectiveness and prioritisation of maintenance can then take place.3.1 The maintenance investment index\n4. Maintenance effectiveness: The major challenge in maintenance prioritisation is quantifying the return on investment for a specific maintenance task. The return on maintenance investment is viewed as the reduction in risk cost in this research (see equation (2)). There are number of ways to reduce the failure frequency and one of which is through maintenance. The question is by how much a maintenance action is able to restore life to the system. As discussed in the literature review, the concept of imperfect maintenance was first developed by Chaudhuri and Sahu (1977). Since then, a number of researchers considered the concept in the development of maintenance optimisation models. However, to the best of the author's knowledge, there is no research reporting on how to quantify the effectiveness of maintenance in restoring life to the system.4.1 Types of maintenance\n5. Numerical example: A system consisting of five components in series is considered. Five maintenance packages, each contain a number of tasks, are allocated to maintain these components. Table II illustrates the required (assumed) input parameters. A Weibull model with parameters b and E is used to model the time dependant reliability of the component (see notation).It is assumed that the man hour cost per hour is $100 and the current age of the system is 10,000 hours, annual plan outage time of 1,000 hours.5.1 Methods of prioritising maintenance\n6. Conclusion: Production asset maintenance activities need to be prioritised to ensure that tasks that maximise the return on investment will be performed first. However planned outage time and budget is normally limited.This paper developed a maintenance prioritisation approach that addresses the basic maintenance questions of \"What is the best maintenance to do in terms of return on investment given that there are time and budget constraints?\" The proposed prioritising approach can be applied to rank asset maintenance tasks based on the required emphasis on return on maintenance investment, the time and budget or risk.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Asset maintenance activities need to be prioritised as budget and planned outage time is often limited for all maintenance work to be carried out. The purpose of this paper is to develop a technique for prioritising maintenance work that maximises the return on investment under the constraints of budget and time.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Three indices are proposed to be used as indicators for prioritising maintenance. These indices are termed: maintenance investment index (MII), time index (TI) and budgetary index (BI). These indices permit prioritisation of asset maintenance based on the required emphasis on return on maintenance investment, time and budget respectively.\nFindings: - It is found that approaches to prioritising maintenance which integrate the critical dimensions in the decision making process are lacking in the literature. There is a need for such an approach to assist decision makers to ensure enterprise's objectives and targets are maximised with given budget and planned shutdown time.\nPractical implications: - The proposed techniques will assist engineers and mangers to develop their maintenance plan according to the enterprise needs and constraints and allowing management to make a better informed decision in maintenance.\nOriginality/value: - This paper provides a new technique for ranking maintenance that maximises return on investment.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Creativity nurturing behaviour scale for teachers
|
[
"Education",
"Creativity",
"Teachers",
"Critical thinking",
"Creativity nurturing behaviour"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Creativity is one of the crucial facets of humanity. Its an elusive and imprecisely defined concept. In different contexts creativity is considered one of the key elements of life satisfaction, a motivating factor in learning, as well as a driver of innovation and economic productivity. The proposition that all individuals have creativity as a latent skill that is a life-long process (Maslow, 1968; May, 1975; Rogers, 1970; Torrance, 1987; Treffinger, 1989) makes the case for the creative learning and creative teaching (Esquievel, 1995).\nLiterature review: There is a lot of research in the area of creativity. But literature shows that the research in the area of nurturing creativity is limited and especially there is a dearth of research to measure teacher's creativity nurturing behavior (TCNB).\nResearch design and methodology: The research is exploratory and data has been collected through a questionnaire. The sample was drawn from 356 school teachers in India. This study has three stages.\nResults and analysis: Exploratory factor analysis\nDiscussion and implications: \"Systematic, sustained and concerted action is required to significantly enhance the creative and innovative capacities of young people in ways that are relevant to employability\" Expert Group (2014). The increasing unemployment rate of even the students with the professional degrees, is an evidence towards the lack of required skill set in these graduates (Chappar, 2017). Creativity is ranked in top three skill sets of the employable workforce (Batey, 2011; Dempsey, 2010) and hence to be successful as the future working professionals, creativity would be the critical skill for today's school students (Bellanca and Brandt, 2010; Trilling and Fadel, 2009; Wagner, 2012). Trilling and Fadel (2009) posit that the creativity would develop abstraction and critical thinking amongst the children and to develop this the social and contextual factors play an important role which builds the strong case for the teachers to have creativity nurturing behaviour to usher the path of the students (Esquievel, 1995). Hence to develop the human capital for future, its crucial to understand, if the teachers are equipped with the right behaviour to nurture creativity amongst the students. The current study has identified the constructs of TCNB and developed the scale to measure this behaviour. The scale has 15 items under the following four constructs: critical thinking, abstraction, inquisitiveness and motivation. The behaviour that develops critical thinking is required to stimulate objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgement. The four items like \"The students are motivated to apply their learning in different situations\" are developed to analyse the \"critical thinking\" stimulating behaviour. The five items like \"I question the students' ideas, to ponder them to explore it further\" measures the ability of teacher to encourage \"abstraction\", which helps the student to explore their ideas. The ability to \"motivate\" students is measured through three items like \"I lay emphasis on the proficient learning of essential knowledge and skills\", which boost the morale of the students and also develop the instinct to learn from the failures, rather than giving-up. The three items like \"I give heed to every student's query\" measures the ability to develop \"inquisitiveness\". The sample rates high on \"Inquisitiveness\" and \"Motivation\" but needs to be trained for \"abstraction\" and \"critical thinking\". The teachers can be measured for all the four constructs and the TCNB with higher value is considered to possess TCNB. The future research should be focussed on understanding the teachers' perception about creativity and also to address an important factor of the \"School Environment\" and identify the enablers and the inhibitors for the creativity nurturing amongst the school students.\nConclusion: The creativity is a byzantine and poorly defined construct that encompasses a wide range of behaviours, skills, and ideas. The measurement of such behaviours facilitate in identifying the competency gap to achieve the task of \"developing creative workforce\". Teachers' creativity Nurturing Behaviour, act as catalyst in the development of the creative pupil. Hence, the TCNB measurement scale would help in identifying the gap in teachers' behaviour, which could be bridged by imparting training to the teachers. Hence it could help in achievement of the horrendous task of \"Nurturing creativity\" among the school students and prepare them to contribute towards the economic development and growth.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Today, innovation and creativity are the buzz words in the galore of not only business but also of education. The need to foster creativity and innovation has long been a priority in the educational and corporate spheres. The purpose of this paper is to propose the scale for the measurement of teacher's creativity nurturing behaviour.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The sample consists of 356 primary school teachers from various category, e.g. municipal schools, private schools, Indian Certificate Secondary Education board, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) board, regional board. The data are collected through the questionnaire with 15 items and four constructs: abstraction, inquisitiveness, motivation and critical thinking. The data have been analysed through SPSS and AMOS.\nFindings: The result shows good fit of the model with four constructs or latent variables.\nOriginality/value: This paper is original and a scale development for creativity nurturing behavior.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Re-evaluation of performance for adaptive charts: Viewpoints of inspection efficiency and efforts
|
[
"Statistical process control",
"Multivariate analysis",
"Inspection",
"Performance measures"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Control charts are often used in industrial situations as part of what is called statistical process control (SPC) to observe whether a process is in control. When there is one quality characteristic to control the Shewhart control charts (1931) are usually applied to monitor process disturbances. The advantage of the Shewhart charts is their simplicity for use. But, the time the chart takes to detect a small disturbance may be long. Thus, some alternatives such as the Shewhart control chart with supplementary run rules (Champ and Woodall, 1987), the EWMA charts (Lucas and Saccucci, 1990), and the CUSUM charts (Lucas, 1982) were proposed to improve the performance of the Shewhart charts.Recently, adaptive sampling schemes which allow one, two, or all of the three chart parameters (i.e. the sample size; the sampling interval; the coefficients of control limits) changeable during production have been applied to the standard Shewhart (SS) chart to improve its average time to detect small mean shifts. The chart with one of these adaptive sampling schemes is called the adaptive chart.Several studies devoted to the schemes of the variable sampling interval (VSI) (Reynolds et al., 1988; Reynolds and Arnold, 1989; Runger and Pignatiello, 1991), variable sample size (VSS) (Prabhu et al., 1993; Costa, 1994), variable sample size and sampling interval (VSSI) (Prabhu et al., 1994; Costa, 1997), and variable parameter (VP) (Costa, 1999) have demonstrated the adaptive schemes are efficient because they can substantially reduce the time the chart required to detect small mean shifts. However, one disadvantage of the adaptive charts is that the efforts required to administer the chart may be greater than for a corresponding SS chart. More efforts for inspection may lead a waste of some resource and reduce a firm's competitiveness. Consequently, before adopting an adaptive control charts to monitor a process it is necessary to evaluate their usefulness, and the evaluation process not only takes the ability of detecting an out-of-control condition into account, but also some other meaningful measures for expressing the inspection effort.The purpose of this paper is to re-evaluate the performance of several adaptive charts that are commonly used in practice from perspectives of inspection efficiency and efforts. The measures for inspection efficiency include the average time and the average numbers of samples/observations required to signal a process disturbance; while the measures for inspection efforts are the switching rates averaged during the in-control and out-of-control periods respectively. To reach the aim, the multivariate analysis of variation (MANOVA) and a univariate analysis of variation (ANOVA) are employed to study the difference of performance between these adaptive charts in light of all measures jointly and separate measure, respectively. Furthermore, based on the post hoc analysis of ANOVA, the orders of adaptive charts are also arranged to make some comments on these charts.This paper is organized as follows. Section 2 presents the adaptive charts to be evaluated. In section 3 we interpret the measures for analyzing the performance of adaptive charts (the method to compute these performance measures are illustrated in the appendix.) Section 4 is devoted to determination of the optimal design parameters in the adaptive charts by means of a statistical design. In section 5 comparisons of the adaptive charts are performed. Finally, concluding remarks are presented in the last section.\n2. Adaptive charts: Consider a process in which the distribution of the observations from the process is normal with mean m and known variance s2. The process is in control when m=m0, and out-of-control when m=m0+ds, d[?]0. For the SS chart, a random sample of fixed size n0 is taken every h0 hour, and the standard sample mean Z=X--m0/s/n0 is plotted in time order on the control chart with centerline 0 and two control limits of the form +-k0 to judge whether the process remains in-control state until a signal of the chart.For adaptive charts, one or more values of the three design parameters are allowed to change between two values. Assume the sample size vary between n1 and n2, the sampling interval length between h1 and h2, and the coefficients of the warning and control limits between w1 and w2, k1 and k2, respectively. Here, n1<n2, h1>h2, k1>k2, 0<w1<k1, and 0<w2<k2. In the SS charts, there is no warning limit. By contrast, it requires the warning limits in the adaptive charts to split the region between the control limits into the warning region Iw=(-kj,-wj][?][wj,kj) and the central region Ic=(-wj,wj), j=1, 2. The standard sample mean falling in the warning region is taken as an indication that there may be a problem (or disturbance) in the process, and a strict control is taken for the next sample to quickly confirm or deny the suspicion. On the other hand, the standard sample mean falling in the central region is taken as no indication of a problem, and a loose control is taken for the next sample. Finally, the standard sample mean outside the control limits is taken as an indication that some problem has happened to change the process.In this study, we take seven adaptive charts with the SS chart as the items for comparison. The functions that define the switching rules of strict or loose control for the above charts are shown below by the number of design parameters changeable during operation.2.1 Three variable parameters\n3. Performance measures: Tagaras (1998) discussed a number of different measures of performance for the adaptive charts. Some commonly used measures are briefly summarized as follows:* Average run length (ARL). Operations of control charts can be considered as a graphical expression of statistical testing for a process problem, thus the false alarm rate (i.e. the probability of type I error) and the speed with which it detects the occurrence of the process problem (i.e. the power of testing) are often used to evaluate the performance of control charts. The ARL, defined as the average number of samples to signal (ANSS) an out-of-control condition, is the most widely used for comparing the performance of different control charts when the intervals between samples are fixed and equal for the compared charts. The ARL should be long as the process is in-control, but short once a process mean shift occurs.* Average time to signal (ATS). In the case of charts with the intervals between samples not fixed, the measure of ATS an out-of-control condition would be an appropriate measure compared to ARL to evaluate the performance of control charts. The ATS is defined as the expected value of the time from the start of the process until the chart signals. The ATS is a multiple of the ARL when the sample size is fixed.In evaluating the performance of control charts with adaptive sample size, it is difficult to measure the inspection efforts by means of the ARL or the ATS because there is no difference between different sample sizes taken. Thus, the measure shown below is used to express the inspection efforts through different adaptive charts.* Average number of observations to signal (ANOS). This is the expected value of the number of inspected items from the start of the process until the chart signals. The ANOS should be small when the state of the process is out-of-control.The other measures that could well measure the inspection efforts of different adaptive charts include the following:* Average number of switches (ANSW). The ANSW, defined as the expected value of the number of switches between different values of parameters from the start of the process until the chart signals, expresses a metric of total switches.* Average switching rate (ASWR). Different from a measure of total switches, the ASWR defined by ANSW/ANSS should be small regardless of the state of the process.Box and Kramer (1992) pointed out that SPC was initially developed for a discrete manufacturing system, namely the parts industry (while automatic process control (APC) is concerned with continuous process industry). In such system, an appropriate assumption is that in the absence of assignable causes the process is constant and modifiable when necessary (Del Castillo, 1998). Therefore, the time-series models for process description in SPC obey Markovian stochastic processes with bounded discrete-state space and a corresponding transition matrix (Cinlar, 1975). Accordingly, we make use of the Markovian stochastic process in this study to describe the production process and derive the above five measures for the evaluation of different adaptive charts. Markovian and stationary properties when using Markov chain approach hold because of the characteristic of adaptive charts that allows their design parameters changeable depending on the region the previous samples falling at over time. Detailed computations of these measures are illustrated in the Appendix.\n4. Determination of design parameters: In evaluating the performance of adaptive charts it seems natural to compare their performances under equal conditions. Thus, before comparisons the in-control performance of the seven adaptive charts should be \"matched\" referring to a SS chart in the sense that they have the same false alarm rate and that, on average, the charts require sampling of the same number of items per unit time during the in-control period. That is, their design parameters should be specified in accordance with the constraints in equations (9)-(11): Equation 9 Equation 10 Equation 11 The three constraints in Equations (9)-(11) allow one to choose one of these pairs (n1,n2), (h1,h2) and (k1,k2) for the use in determining p0. Then, with one element from each remaining pair, the remainders (if necessary) can be easily determined by the corresponding constraints. For example, we can initially choose the values for the pair (n1,n2) as well as for the elements h2 and a1 when setting the parameters of the VP charts. Then, by (9)-(11), it is given that: Equation 12 Equation 13 Equation 14 Furthermore, using equation (8) we have: Equation 15 where Ph( * ) is the cumulative distribution function of the standard normal distribution.In spite of the equal conditions placing restrictions on the values of the parameters there are several options for them, and each option results in a different performance of the chart. Thus, it should be necessary to choose an appropriate option from the matched ones in terms of some rational objective(s). In this paper, the appropriate values for the design parameters are determined by minimizing the value of out-of-control ATS (denoted by ATS1), given the magnitudes of process mean shift d and values for (n0,h0,k0). The reason for selecting this objective is that reduction of average time to detect the occurrence of process disturbance usually leads to less cost spent on non-conforming product.As a result, determination of values for the chart parameters can be formulated as an optimization problem. The solution procedure to this optimization problem could be implemented by typical non-linear programming techniques. But they may be inefficient and time-consuming because the minimization problem is characterized by a non-linear objective function, mixed continuous-discrete decision variables, and a discontinuous and non-convex solution space. Therefore, some studies (for example, Aparisi and Garcia-Daiz, 2004; He and Grigoryan, 2006; Chen and Hsieh, 2006) employed the techniques of meta-heuristics such as the genetic algorithm (GA) (Davis, 1991; Goldberg, 1989) in solving this problem.\n5. Comparison analysis: Since GA is a random search based method, the resulting values for parameters and performance of adaptive charts should bear certain algorithm-related variation. Rigorous statistical analysis could be used to reduce the impact of random variations on the findings.5.1 Design for comparative analyses\n6. Concluding remarks: This article had a discussion on the inspection efficiency of seven adaptive charts as well as the SS chart, and the efforts required in operation. The measures associated with the inspection efficiency and efforts were developed by the Markov chain approach. Given the same condition, the values for the chart parameters and performance measures of the charts were computed and analyzed by a comparative procedure (including the MANOVA, ANOVA, post hoc, and MADM methods). The results of comparison indicate there are statistically significant differences among these charts in different performance measures; and further, the differences depend on the shift amount. Overall, the VSSC chart seems more appropriate for a small or small to moderate shift; the VSSI chart appears more suitable for a moderate shift; finally, the VSI chart is fitting for a moderate to large or large shift. As for the extremely large shift, the SS chart is still the best choice.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to re-evaluate the performance of the adaptive control charts which allow some of their design parameters to change during production depending on the collected information from samples over time. Instead of employing a single performance measure (average time to signal process changes), a set of measures, associated with the inspection efficiency and effort, is taken into account in the evaluation process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A multivariate analysis of variation (MANOVA) approach along with the post hoc analysis are applied to investigate the performance of different adaptive control charts based on different measures.\nFindings: - The findings indicate that different adaptive control charts may have different performance, depending on the measure regarded and the value of shift in process mean. In general, the VSSC, VSSI, and VSI control charts would be recommended for a process with a small, moderate, and large shift, respectively. The SS chart is still the best choice for a process with an extremely large shift.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Up to now, the proposed procedure has been developed for the comparative analyses of adaptive X- charts, but it could be adjusted for other adaptive charts as well.\nOriginality/value: - This paper provides a review of the performance of adaptive control charts from a novel perspective.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Including ethics in banking and finance programs: teaching "we shouldn't win at any cost"
|
[
"Ethics",
"GFC",
"Education",
"Banking and finance",
"Ethical decision-making"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The global financial crisis (GFC) has brought to attention malpractices in the banking and finance industry. Given its catastrophic effect on financial services and the real economy, public attention has focused on the deficiencies of this industry. Waves of ethical scandals have overwhelmed the global banking industry highlighting a lack of integrity. These include the Goldman Sachs fraud trial, JP Morgan's massive trading loss (related to the \"London whale\") and manipulation of London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), along with the collapse of many financial institutions such as Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns in the USA and the nationalisation of Royal Bank of Scotland, among others (Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission 2011; Mackenzie et al., 2012; O'Brien 2012; Baer et al., 2013). Moreover, in Australia, this is further evidenced by the Commonwealth Bank financial planning scandal (2014) where planners were accused of investing in high risk products without the knowledge of their clients (Janda, 2014).\n2. Literature review: 2.1. Why is ethics education important?\n3. Research method: 3.1. Population and selection of sample\n4. Findings: 4.1. Ethics coverage in banking and finance programmes (RQ1, RQ2, RQ3)\n5. Discussion: While the majority of banking and finance programmes include ethics education, the evidence suggests a relatively large proportion still need to incorporate ethics into their banking and finance programmes (see Table I). At the course level, most incorporated ethics as \"core\", with a relatively small number offering ethics as an \"elective\". The implications of this for graduates and wider society are that potentially many banking and finance students will graduate without awareness of the importance of ethical decision making and its far ranging consequences. Only a few courses were offered as stand-alone ethics courses, demonstrating a coherent approach to incorporating ethics into curricula. The majority of courses incorporated ethics within another course. This scattering of ethics education across different courses, can be perceived as superficial and less comprehensive. The incorporation of both external and internal ethics into the curricula was achieved in only a small number of courses covering ethics. Prior scholars have called for a need for the combination of external and internal ethics in education.\n6. Concluding comments: The first aim of this paper was to determine if ethics featured in postgraduate banking and finance programmes in Australian universities. We conclude that many Australian universities feature ethics in banking and finance programmes. The second aim of the paper was to show how ethics was incorporated into banking and finance curricula. We conclude that it is incorporated at core course level in some programmes and as an elective in others. We recommend ethics be included as a core stand-alone course in all programmes.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify whether ethics is incorporated into the curriculum in postgraduate banking and finance programmes. There is growing concern that moral failure preceded the global financial crisis with waves of ethical scandals overwhelming the global banking industry highlighting a lack of integrity. Consequently, banking and financial institutions have received much criticism for focusing on higher financial returns that bring personal rewards with significant costs to the majority of society.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The population for this study is Australian universities offering banking and finance postgraduate programs. The data for this study were collected from information available on university websites. The study uses content analysis to examine course content in 897 courses offered within banking and finance programmes.\nFindings: Findings reveal that 809 (90 per cent) out of 897 courses do not incorporate ethics into banking and finance programmes. Most of the 88 courses incorporating ethics as include the course as \"core\", with a relatively small number offering ethics as an \"elective\". Only a few courses were offered as stand-alone ethics courses. It appears from the information available that little focus is given to assessment of ethics.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study to explore whether ethics is featured in postgraduate banking and finance programmes.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
A comparative analysis of long-term performance of construction and non-construction IPOs in India: A panel data investigation
|
[
"Construction",
"Novel model",
"Approach"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Stock performance in capital market has always been an active area of research for practitioners and academicians. The study of stock price behavior, i.e. determining when will the price of a stock increase/decrease; the factors that affect the price of a stock; timing the market to buy or sell; finding the stocks that are overpriced or underpriced in the market, i.e. study of asset pricing; and whether the markets are efficient in processing information are some of the most important issues that have been researched extensively.\n2. Literature review: IPO underpricing is a phenomenon where a stock performs better than the offer price (Bell et al., 2008). Number of firms witness the stock price increase at the end of the close of the trading day when compared to the issue price. Such increase if witnessed on first trading day of the stock or during the first three to four months post-listing can be termed as short-term under pricing of IPO. Aggarwal et al. (1993), Ghosh (2005), Ibbotson (1975), Levis (1993), Ljungqvist (1997), Madhusoodan and Thiripalraju (1997), Peavy (1990), Ritter (1984, 1987), Sehgal and Singh (2008), Singh and Mittal (2003) and Tinic (1988) all have universally accepted the short-term IPO underpricing.\n3. Research methodology: India at present has six active stock exchanges, and among them Bombay stock exchange (BSE) and National stock exchange (NSE) are two of the leading stock exchanges in the world. NSE has a market capitalization of $2.27 trillion (Source: Monthly Report, April 2018, World Federation of exchanges, London) and listing of 1,952 firms (Source: www.nseindia.com). Both NSE and BSE are amongst the top 10 stock exchanges in the world. The study uses the IPOs that have been listed on NSE during 2006-2015. A total of 474 firms offered IPOs at NSE during this period. Follow on public offer (FPO) refers to the issuing of shares to investors by firm that has been already listed in an exchange. It is being noted by Kaur et al. (2017) that IPO and FPO behave differently in different phases of its time span. Considering this, the FPOs are not considered in the study. Announcement of stock split means that the face value of the share has been reduced and the share has been split into parts; therefore, the performance of such stocks can only be measured before the announcement of split as the base price of the shares changes at the event of stock split. As the performance of IPO is measured for a time horizon of three years, any firm that that announced stock split within three years post-listing is removed from the sample. Following the elimination, 281 IPOs are selected for the final analysis, in which 44 IPOs are construction firms and 237 IPOs are non-construction firms. Minimum three years performance is taken into consideration post-listing for a stock to be eligible in the panel.\n4. Data analysis: The data are analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, panel regression and t test. Table III presents the descriptive statistics of the study variables, and Table IV presents the performance of IPO over a period of time. The descriptive statistics presents a basic summary of the entire data thus helps understand the data in a much more comprehensive manner.\n5. Discussion: The study confirms that the IPOs are defiantly underpriced in the short run. Hence, the theoretical underpinning that IPOs are underpriced in short run is validated through the study for construction as well as non-construction firms. The findings further strengthen the view that such underpricing diminishes over a period of time, as the stock settles in the market and IPOs underperform in the long run. Even though the construction firms outperform the non-construction firms, there is no denying the fact that this underpricing lasts for a limited period of time.\n6. Conclusion: 6.1 Contribution of the study\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the long-term performance of construction sector initial public offers (IPO) made in India during 2006-2015. The study aims to compare the performance of the construction sector IPOs with the non-construction sector IPOs and finds the determinants of long-term performance of construction sector IPO with a time horizon of three years. The study also attempts to find out, if the long-term IPO underpricing that has been discussed in the literature, really exists or it is a myth.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study uses data of IPOs listed on National stock exchange during 2006-2015. In total, 281 IPOs are considered for the study, among which 44 are construction sector IPOs. IPOs anniversary performance of three successive years is calculated from the date of listing, and a random effect panel regression model with clustered robust estimates using the maximum likelihood method is performed to find out the determinants of IPO performance. The data are also tested for multicollinearity, stationarity and heteroscedasticity to ensure the robustness of results.\nFindings: The results show that in the long-run construction sector IPOs outperform the non-construction sector IPOs, though the performance is below average when compared to market returns. The IPO underpricing is a myth, and IPO underperformance is a reality in India. The performance of construction sector IPOs is driven positively by market return, size of the firm and negatively by liquidity of the firm.\nOriginality/value: The paper is the first attempt to analyze the performance of construction sector IPOs, and compare it with non-construction sector IPOs. The study uses a random effect panel regression model with robust estimates using the maximum likelihood method to ensure the robustness of results. This is the first time the performance of IPOs is studied with a panel data approach.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Global marketing managers: Improving global marketing strategy through soft skill development
|
[
"Global marketing managers",
"Decision making",
"Soft skills",
"Marketing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The development and implementation of global marketing strategy is of fundamental importance to academics and practitioners. Given the importance of the topic, researchers have devoted significant energy to study how elements of a firm's global marketing strategy influence performance (e.g. Zou and Cavusgil, 2002; Ryans et al., 2003; Katsikeas et al., 2006; Douglas and Craig, 2011; Robson et al., 2012). In fact, the extant international marketing literature is replete with research on how firms can improve their performance via implementing changes to elements of their global marketing strategy. From these efforts researchers have concluded that in order to maximize the performance of a firm's global marketing strategy, the firm's strategy needs to be aligned with its internal and external environment (e.g. Griffith, 2010; Katsikeas et al., 2006; Hultman et al., 2011). However, to maintain alignment within today's dynamic and ever-changing global marketplace requires that firms regularly evaluate their global marketing strategy and make adaptations to their strategy in reaction to new requirements and/or opportunities (Bettis and Prahalad, 1995; Douglas and Craig, 2011).Interestingly, although significant research has been focussed on understanding how global marketing strategy relates to performance, very limited work has actually focussed on those responsible for the development and implementation of global marketing strategy, i.e. global marketing managers. Global marketing managers are tasked with the unenviable position of needing to make strategic decisions on products, pricing, promotions, and distribution in an integrated effort across multiple markets that vary institutionally (e.g. economically, legally, and culturally) (Griffith, 2010). That is to say, it is these specific decisions made by the global marketing managers that determine what the global marketing strategy will be and as such the extent to which the global marketing strategy will be effective for the firm. It is the global marketing managers who need to be able to have the skills to not only make, but more importantly adjust, their strategic decisions to align with the changes occurring in their environment (Moeller and Harvey, 2011). For example, the ability of the Walt Disney Company to deliver sustained value throughout its global parks and resorts strategic business unit is attributable to the ability of its global marketing managers not only develop an overall global marketing strategy, but to also continually adjust their global marketing strategy to changes both internal and external to the business unit in each market it operates or from which it draws guests. The difficulty of the global marketing strategy decision making is further magnified by the dynamic pace of change in today's global marketplace (Griffith, 2010; Harvey et al., 2011). Despite the fact that global marketing managers are charged to make the decisions related to strategy adjustments, the study of global marketing managers has received little attention within the literature (cf. Berthon et al., 2001; Sousa et al., 2010; Moeller and Harvey, 2011).The purpose of this study is to contribute to the global marketing strategy literature by filling the gap in the literature created by a lack of attention to global marketing managers, thereby improving our understanding of the skills of global marketing managers and improving the effectiveness of a firm's global marketing strategy. Toward this aim, we first review the role of decision making in global marketing strategy and introduce the concept of tactical adaptation in decision making (i.e. the tactical adjustments made to a firm's marketing strategy to enhance alignment with internal and external factors); second, delineate the skills that global marketing managers need to develop in order to improve their strategic decision making in dynamic global markets; and finally, discuss how researchers, managers, and educators can contribute to advancing the knowledge on, and ability of, global marketing managers to utilize the skills to improve their global marketing strategy decision making.\nBackground literature: Global marketing manager as human capital\nModel development: Tactical adaptations in decision making\nDiscussion: The purpose of this research was to enumerate the \"soft skills\" that contribute to improving a global marketing manager's ability to develop effective global marketing strategies to enhance their firm's performance. Toward this aim, we began by adopting the perspective that global marketing managers are a key component for a firm's accumulation of human capital and that they fulfill a critical role in the development and implementation of global marketing strategy. Building from traditional perspectives on decision making (i.e. planned and improvisational), we then introduced the concept of tactical adaptation as a bridge between these decision-making approaches in relation to global marketing strategy. Subsequently, the soft skills that aid global marketing managers in their ability to make tactical adaptations to improve their strategic decisions in global markets were delineated. Building upon an assessment of soft skills resident within the literature and their demonstrated usefulness and/or applicability to global marketing strategy, we believe that this research has significant implications for researchers, practitioners, and educators who are interested in further advancing the knowledge on and ability of global marketing managers to improve their global marketing strategy decision making.Implications for researchers\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Although a great deal of research has focused on global marketing strategy development and implementation, little research has focused on the global marketing managers charged with the responsibilities of developing and implementing such strategy. The aim of this paper is to develop a model that identifies a set of soft skills that have the ability to increase the effectiveness of global marketing managers in making the tactical adaptations necessary to develop and implement global marketing strategy in an increasingly complex and dynamic marketplace.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A conceptual model is developed with coinciding propositions.\nFindings: - The model developed theorizes that the ability of global marketing managers to make tactical adaptations to the firm's global marketing strategy (and thus enhance performance) is driven by the soft skills of tacit knowledge, experience, learning, unlearning, intuition, self-confidence, flexibility, prioritization of problems, working under pressure and ambiguity tolerance.\nPractical implications: - The model highlights the specific soft skills that firms can work to foster in their global marketing managers and educators can work to incorporate within a curriculum. Through the development of these soft skills within a firm's global marketing managers, the firm can achieve a competitive position within the marketplace.\nOriginality/value: - This study is one of the first to conceptualize a specific set of soft skills that enhance a global marketing manager's ability to make tactical adaptations to the firm's global marketing strategy by which the firm can be more competitive. As such, this study provides for a better understanding of how soft skills relate to the development and implementation of global marketing strategy and how firms can be more competitive by not only employing unique human capital, but by developing global marketing managers who are more effective at adapting to constantly changing global market conditions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Internal governance mechanisms and the performance of decentralized financial systems in Niger
|
[
"Performance",
"Microfinance",
"Governance",
"Decentralized financial systems"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Access to credit markets within developing countries has undergone a major overhaul in recent years. On the one hand, the monopoly of traditional banks on the financing of international development projects is being questioned and reconsidered more than ever. On the other hand, we are now witnessing the creation and establishment of microfinance institutions (MFIs)[1], sometimes referred to as savings-and-loans cooperatives. These MFIs have an important role to play in the fight against poverty and in supporting the socio-economic development of those in the most disadvantaged classes. This is most notably done by improving the economic prospects of people in need and by enhancing their financial inclusion and living conditions. In fact, microcredit, which is the prerogative of MFIs, contributes to the development of micro-entrepreneurship. Thus, it favors the creation and consolidation of centers for economic development in certain countries. However, MFIs seek to establish a balance between their mandate to offer solidarity and services to society's less fortunate and the need to demonstrate sound financial performance. When they do not find this balance, they fail in their stated mission and are forced to cease operations. Therefore, to be successful, MFIs must reconcile their social performance with their financial performance and the need to ensure continued profitability (Gutierrez-Nieto et al., 2009; Adair and Berguiga, 2010).\n2. Contribution of MFIs to Niger's economic and social development: Niger is situated in West Africa and has an estimated land area of 1,267,000 km2. It has a population of 20 million in 2016 and also has one of the world's highest population growth rates, at 4.08 percent. Niger's economy faces recurring exogenous shocks (floods, droughts, locust attacks, etc.), which affect the food security of its population and undermine an economy that is strongly dependent on agriculture (38 percent of GDP in 2012). Since 2005, the macroeconomic situation has improved overall, but it is still subject to major variations. Thus, between 2011 and 2015, Niger's GDP growth has fluctuated from 2.3 percent (2011) to 11.2 percent (2012), with the most recently available data (2015) showing a growth rate of 4.4 percent (Banque de France, 2015).\n3. Literature review: An organization's board of directors must be comprised of a sufficient number of members in order to effectively distribute its responsibilities. However, some boards may sometimes function with only five members even though the ideal size is between seven and nine (CMEF, 2012). Jensen (1993) states that when the board size exceeds seven or eight persons it is less likely to effectively carry out its mandate, thus making it easier for the chairman to control the board. Similarly, if the board is too large, it can also hinder members from undertaking strategic actions. According to Yermack (1996), smaller-sized boards result in better performance. Nevertheless, Yermack also points out that the advantages that are associated with such a structure will be counterbalanced by an inherently ineffective decision-making process. That is, a large board of directors requires compromise in order to arrive at a consensus. Consequently, the decisions that stem from a large board might not always be effective and can lead to a lower performance level.\n4. Data and methodology: 4.1 Sample\n5. Results and discussion: 5.1 Results\n6. Conclusion: The objective of our research was to study the impact of internal governance mechanisms on the financial and social performance of decentralized financial systems in Niger. In particular, we studied the impact of board size and the influence of the CEO/chairman duality to determine their effects on firms' performance and financial viability. This study highlights the importance of including internal governance mechanisms in investigations of MFI performance in Niger. It underscores an interesting problem and answers the questions raised in the existing literature by rejecting or confirming the results that have been obtained thus far.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of internal governance mechanisms on the financial and social performance of Niger's decentralized financial systems (DFS).\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper investigated the impact of the board size and the CEO/chairman duality on financial performance and sustainability, respectively, measured by the return on assets (ROA) and operational self-sufficiency on one side and social performance measured by the size of loans granted and the percentage of female borrowers on the other side.\nFindings: The results show that board size positively and significantly affects the ROA. The author also concludes that the duality of decision and control functions promotes the financial viability of the DFS. Regarding the impact of internal governance on social performance, the author finds that board size positively and significantly affects loan size.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study focuses on Niger's 13 largest DFSs. However, an analysis that also includes smaller firms may show different results.\nPractical implications: A board size of between 5 and 15 members is recommended. This would help to incorporate key skills and the active involvement of all members.\nOriginality/value: This research highlights the importance of including internal governance mechanisms, underscores an interesting problem and answers questions raised in the existing literature by invalidating or confirming the results that have been obtained thus far. As the players in the microfinance sector recognize that sound governance is an important factor for a successful outcome in any microfinance institution objective, the paper helps shed some light on the situation of DFS in Niger.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Financial constraints and optimal working capital - evidence from an emerging market
|
[
"India",
"Financial constraints",
"Cash conversion cycle",
"Working capital",
"Target following"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Working capital management is one of the least researched areas of corporate finance. Working capital management strives to maintain a delicate balance between the components of working capital and provides vital support for revenues or inter-temporal cash flows of the firms (Afrifa, 2016). Firms can reduce their financing cost and/or increase the availability of funds for expansion by minimizing the amount of money locked up in their net current assets (Hill et al., 2010)[1]. On the contrary, a higher level of net current assets equips the firms to deal with contingencies such as input price fluctuations, stock out costs of inventories, and build relationships with customers by providing higher trade credits (Petersen and Rajan, 1997). Hence, substantial managerial efforts could be required to strike a balance and decide the right amount of working capital requirements. Optimally managed working capital can achieve the trade-off between risk and efficiency that maximizes the value of the firm (Smith, 1973, 1980; Deloof, 2003; Howorth and Westhead, 2003; Wasiuzzaman, 2015).\n2. Determinants of working capital and previous literature: Practitioners often question whether firms over invest in working capital, and if so, then how this excess cash tied up can be translated into productive investments and higher firm performance. Buchmann et al. (2008) discuss the power of net working capital, which is often neglected by the firms, as a potential source of funds. Over investment in working capital means additional funds being locked up in working capital which has some opportunity costs and leads to value destruction of the firm (Kieschnick et al., 2013). Therefore, firms with high level of working capital incur high-interest expenses on one hand and, on the other hand, face difficulties in financing value-enhancing projects at least in the short run.\n3. Mean reversion, methodology, and data: In a view to study the target behavior of working capital, we follow previous research and use CCC as a measure of net working capital. We assume the target cash cycle of a firm to be dependent on firm-specific factors, in line with Banos-Caballero et al. (2010). Thus, the target CCC is a linear function of the list of explanatory variables defined in the previous section and can be estimated as follows:(1)\n4. Results: The target behavior or the reversion in cash cycle is studied through the coefficient of lagged cash cycle (1-b1) in the partial-adjustment dynamic panel model in Equation (5). The results are reported in column 1 of Table I using the system GMM estimation. The coefficient of the lagged-dependent variable suggests a speed of reversion of approximately 13 percent (1-0.866) per year. This would mean that although firms in our data set do mean revert, they do so rather very slowly. We also test for these coefficients using the OLS and fixed-effect models. The coefficients, although they differ markedly, are nonetheless similarly sensitive toward sample composition. The results are reported in columns (2) and (3) in Table I, respectively. The speed of reversion differs markedly between the OLS and fixed-effect model. In the case of the OLS, the coefficient of the lagged-dependent variable suggests absolutely no reversion; however, the fixed-effect model shows the reversion of 32 percent in a year. The results verify that while using OLS, the coefficients are overestimated and using fixed-effects they are underestimated as compared to those of using the system GMM. This is in line with the methodological drawbacks pointed out by Hsiao (2003), and Huang and Ritter (2009) in using the pooled OLS and fixed-effect model. Thus, the results reported in column (1) using the system GMM are indeed more reliable.\n5. Robustness checks: 5.1 Stability of coefficients\n6. Determinants of target behavior: In the previous section, the results suggest that working capital management decisions of the firms are not consistent with a systematic target-following behavior. However, it is still not evident if the target behavior (or its absence) is influenced by firm-specific factors and to what extent. Kieschnick et al. (2013) and Hill et al. (2010) show the influence of firm-specific characteristics on designing the working capital policy of the firm. Therefore, we explore whether there are characteristic differences between firms following target behavior from those that are not.\n7. Conclusion: Working capital management is one of the least researched areas among several contemporary corporate finance issues. The objective of working capital management is to maintain a fine balance between the components of working capital while providing vital support for revenues and inter-temporal financing. In a fast growing emerging economy, where firms are financially constrained due to limited availability of bank finance and the external finance through capital markets, well-managed working capital could be one of the sources of internal funding. Hence, there is a need for widespread examination of the efficient management of working capital for emerging economies to minimize the need and dependence on external financing.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the existence of an optimal or target level of working capital for the Indian manufacturing firms, and whether firms intensely follow the target or not.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper uses cash conversion cycle as a measure of net working capital and employs partial-adjustment dynamic panel models to test its target-following behavior.\nFindings: The empirical results show that there is no evidence of systematic target-following behavior of working capital for the Indian manufacturing firms. The results hold true even after dividing the sample into four groups depending on the sign and magnitude of deviation. The results further show that lack of target-following tendency is not quite influenced by varying firm-specific characteristics and, therefore, seems to be a systematic feature across firms in India.\nResearch limitations/implications: Scarcity of such working capital management studies across emerging economies, facing several financial constraints, limits the comparison of findings. Future studies should be conducted to confirm the results.\nPractical implications: The findings imply that even though an optimal working capital might exist, emerging market firms may not be able to actively pursue it on account of several financial constraints and managerial considerations.\nOriginality/value: The study contributes to the scant existing literature on the target-following behavior of working capital management in the Indian manufacturing firms, representing a typical emerging market facing several financial constraints.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Beyond Pygmalion effect: the role of managerial perception
|
[
"Managerialism",
"Perception",
"Skills",
"Design and development",
"Aid agencies",
"Japan"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Numerous studies have been carried out which explore the relationship between the perceiver's expectation and the target's performance. These studies, often referred to as a \"Self-fulfilling prophecy\" (Merton, 1948) and/or the \"Pygmalion effect\" (Rosenthal and Jacobson, 1968), attempt to explain how the perceiver's positive expectation may enhance the target's performance. Similarly, McGregor's (1960) Theory XY also offers two sets of managerial assumptions, based on positive or negative beliefs and perception on the part of the managers, which influence followers' performance at work. The possible influence resulting from having positive expectations has been given much attention in education, sport, military and business settings (Kierein and Gold, 2000; McNatt, 2000) and these results generally support the notion that positive expectation works in certain situations.In an international setting, particularly in aid projects, the cross-cultural work environment exerts considerable influence on both the donor's and the local staff's perception and makes the task of working harmoniously together much more difficult (Analoui, 1998; Analoui and Karami, 2002). Moreover, differing perceptions on the part of the actors in the field might also provoke conflicts between donor and local staff, consequently resulting in ineffective work relationships (Hofstede, 1991; Kakabadse et al., 2004; Adler and Gundersen, 2007).After the Second World War, development projects were widely used whereby initially donors focused more on economic development (Cracknell, 2000). However, since the 1980s, participatory approaches have become increasingly popular and attempts have been made to involve project participants and beneficiaries in the projects and development activities (Chambers, 1983; Smith, 1989; Cernea, 1991). Moreover, since the 1990s, human capacity development also began to be recognised as an important factor towards sustainable development (UNDP, 1997; Analoui, 1998). Thus, people as opposed to task-related perceptions, knowledge and relationships (Analoui, 1993, 1998; Analoui and Al-madhoun, 2006), have been increasingly regarded as an essential ingredient for the successful management of work organisations. However, despite its considerable importance the influence of the actor's perception and expectations in development projects and programmes has received little attention (Eyben, 2006) and has remained relatively a neglected field of enquiry.Hence, in light of paucity of studies addressing influences of perception in aid project setting, this paper examines the extent of the influence of the Japanese aid worker's perceptions of the local staff and partner country on organisational performance of the development project. To achieve this, a brief review of the related literature, which forms the basis for the development of hypothesis, will be discussed in some detail. Then, the research methodology, a web-based survey that was conducted amongst Japanese aid workers to generate the relevant data, will be introduced, the findings of this novel study will be discussed and relevant conclusions will be reached.\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 Perceptual tendency\n3. Research methodology: After an extensive review of the related literature as illustrated in previous section, the survey planning procedure offered by of Czaja and Blair (2005), was adapted to design a survey (questionnaire). The questionnaire was piloted in July 2008 and it was amended accordingly.3.1 Scope of the study\n4. Results: 4.1 Demographics\n5. Discussion: Except for the four variables (P3, P8, P10 and P11) in the perception related questions, overall the results indicated the presence of positive perceptual and behavioural tendencies. The underlying reason for this ought to be explored by further analysis. Concerning the P9 and P10 in \"Expectation\", these questions were designed to clarify how the aid workers with a Japanese organisational culture mindset worked in developing countries, whereby cooperation and teamwork are important components in Japanese organisations (Ouchi, 1981; Johnson, 1990). According to the result of P10, it can be safely assumed that a majority of Japanese aid workers, 69 per cent of the respondents (n=169) selected either \"Agree\" or \"Tend to agree\", brought the teamwork spirit to their workplace and expected local colleagues to work hard and as a team. This type of perception might not be categorised as negative perception, but the expectation could result in stress for them if the local colleagues did not work as hard as they were expected to. However, this study did not deal with the perception of local staff, whereby the introduction of Japanese organisational culture might result in creating considerable stress for the local colleagues (Shadur et al., 1995; Adler and Gundersen, 2007).As for path analysis, each was interpreted accordingly in Table V. It seems \"Understanding\" and \"Work\" provide large positive influences on the two behavioural factors, whilst, \"Environment\" and \"Stress\" only negatively work on \"Encouragement\". Regarding \"Expectation\", there is no path to the behaviour related factors but there are three identified correlations (see Figure 3). Correlation between two factors is indicated by double-headed arrow.From the relations between \"Understanding\", \"Work\", \"Relatedness\" and \"Performance,\" it can be concluded that positive understanding of local colleagues and positive perception about work result in a close human relationship between the aid workers and local colleagues. Thus, close relationships between the above actors contribute to enhanced organisational performance.On the other hand, interpretations of \"Expectation\" and \"Encouragement\" are complicated. \"Expectation\" has a positive small effect correlations with \"Environment\" and \"Stress\" but shows a negative small effect correlation with \"Understanding\". From the identified correlations, although correlation cannot explain causal relationship, the following interpretations about JICA aid workers are discernible:* Those who are not stressed regarding their work tend not to have high levels of expectation about their local colleagues.* Those who are satisfied regarding their work environment tend not to have high levels of expectation about their local colleagues.* Those who have a positive understanding of their local colleagues tend to have high levels of expectation about their local colleagues.In other words, \"Expectation\" is related to both positive and negative perception of JICA aid workers whereby this mixed perceptual tendency could be the reason for the presence of no path to the behaviour factors.The notion of \"Encouragement\" was also influenced by both positive and negative perceptual factors. Based on the result, it is assumed that there might be two kinds of encouragement. One would be a motivating type of encouragement that originates from positive perception and the other would be urging type encouragement that derives from stress and frustration. Hence, it could appear that the aid workers encouraged their local colleagues by the both means. Although a number of studies explain that motivational behaviour succeeds in towards enhancing staff's performance (e.g. Rudolph and Kleiner, 1989; Analoui, 1995; Halepota, 2005), the results of the present study imply that the motivational behaviour which is caused by stress or frustration does not contribute to increase organisational performance. Due to this combined influence, there may be no positive path present from \"Encouragement\" to the performance variable.Finally, the main reason for the presence of a positive medium effect path from \"Relatedness\" to \"Performance\" is the project situation itself in developing countries. An uncontrollable external environment such as unstable revenue of partner country often affects the performance of projects, whereby even if the project teams have a strong tendency towards teamwork, sometimes the external environment cannot be totally overcome.These results adequately explain how the perception and expectations of the Japanese aid workers largely influences their behaviour toward the local staff and the performance of the organisation as the whole. Hence, motivated aid workers with positive perception will be one of the critical factors for the effective management of development projects and programmes (Analoui, 1998), such that more attention needs to be paid to the psychological aspects of the aid workers.\n6. Conclusion: This study intended to extend the theory of the \"Pygmalion effect\" to performance of the organisation within the developing world. It does not intend to criticise the aid workers (donors) for having negative perceptions and behaviours towards the local staff. Rather, it aims to explore and explain the phenomenon in order to provide a basis for better understanding the behaviour of actors involved. It is not uncommon to see people with a negative perception of others and situations due to their differing perceptual tendencies. In this study, although the majority of the respondents generally showed positive perceptions, the results pointed to the presence of tendencies that stressed Japanese aid workers due to frustration from the environment and their high expectation from their local counterparts with whom they shared the responsibility of work.Analysis of the data indicated the presence of causal relationships between perception related factors (Understanding and Work), behaviour related factors (Relatedness) and the organisational performance variable (Performance). Positive perception on the part of the aid workers causes close human relationships between them and their local colleagues. Moreover, harmonised human relationships work positively towards enhancing organisational performance.However, the analysis clearly shows that lack of positive encouragement behaviour on the part of the aid workers, due to experiencing stress and frustration, failed to increase organisational performance. Thus, this indicates that maintaining positive perception is imperative for successful management of people and operations. It is therefore prudent for the future success of the project implementation that cross-cultural management training should be included in the briefing of workers prior to embarking on the management of development projects in order to remove unnecessary misunderstanding and tension between the actors involved. In addition, the aid worker's mental health also needs to be nurtured because positive perceptions underpin a healthy mind. As a number of studies in management have proven, understanding and maintaining healthy psychological well being in the organisation is essential for successful management. In this sense, these results shed light on the importance of people-related management skills in development projects. Moreover, further analysis is required to clarify the complexity of the relationships at work, especially in the context of development.\nAction levers: * Cross-cultural management is vitally important for the success of the projects and organisations and should be considered in order to reduce misunderstanding.* Prior to embarking to new mission abroad, aid workers ought to be familiarised with stress-management techniques to maintain positive perception.* Owing to presence of human relation challenges in the field, people-related skills and competencies ought to be provided.* Aid workers need to understand that their negative perception of local colleagues and work environment will not contribute to enhanced organisational performance.* Aid workers have to understand the value of positive perception and encouragement towards achieving the organisational goal.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The influences of perception have been studied in educational, army, sports and business settings but never in the development field. The Pygmalion effect generally suggests that the perceiver's positive expectation enhances the target's performance. This first time research seeks to explore how managerial perceptions of the aid workers of the local staffs affect their behaviour and performance in cross-cultural project settings.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - With the cooperation of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), 244 valid responses were obtained from the aid workers through a web-based survey. Using factor analysis, five perception-related factors and two behaviour-related factors were extracted. Subsequently, in order to clarify the causal relationship, the above factors and one observed organisational performance variable were tested using path analysis.\nFindings: - Positive causal relationships were confirmed between two perception-related factors and one behaviour-related factor, and also between the behaviour-related factor and the organisational performance variable. These results strongly suggest that aid workers' positive perception causes positive behaviour in local colleagues and will result in higher organisational performance.\nPractical limitations/implications: - Whilst avoiding generalisation, nevertheless, the results suggest that there is a need for people-related and cross-cultural management skills to ensure successful future activities, and stress management competencies to maintain the positive managerial perception on the part of the aid workers.\nOriginality/value: - Despite the considerable influence of donor staff's managerial perception on the quality of the human relationships and organisational performance, this field of enquiry has remained neglected. The study provides first-time empirical evidence on its significance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Benchmarking national culture and decent work practice indicators in project-based industry: Lessons from United Arab Emirates
|
[
"Project management",
"China",
"Bangladesh",
"Pakistan",
"Construction industry",
"UAE",
"National culture",
"Expatriates",
"Decent work",
"Project-based industry",
"Temporary migrants"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Decent work is a new concept, introduced by the general secretary of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in the International Labour Conference in 1999. Therefore no extensive literature is as yet available on decent work practices. Decent work is centred on four elements: employment, rights, social protection and dialogue (Thore and Tarverdyan, 2009). The ILO has made \"decent work\" the cornerstone of its recommended strategy for recovery from the global economic crisis (Bisom-Rapp et al., 2011) and has provided a list of the ILO's (2010) conventions and recommendations. Ghai (2003) says decent work includes all areas of the economy and covers all kind of work, for example, the formal economy, unregulated workers, self-employment and home workers. Thus decent work is an all-embracing concept. The research studies on decent work have focused on these conventions and recommendations and benchmarks the national culture of the migrant construction labourers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).\n2. Decent work practice indicators: Defining labour standards has always been difficult and for this reason universal agreement on a common list of labour standards has not been reached (Bakhshi and Kerr, 2008). The only frame of reference for the definition of decent work is the ILO general secretary's definition of decent work as \"opportunities for women and men to obtain decent work and productive work within conditions of freedom, equality, security and human dignity\" (Anker et al., 2002). In simple terms, this means \"work for which the able bodied members of a family work decent hours and earn sufficient to live a decent life, able to provide education for their children and save appropriate amount for the future\" (Khan, 2013a). The word \"decent\" refers to the need for workers to have \"acceptable\" of \"adequate\" work and working conditions (Anker et al., 2003). The ILO has established a decent work programme under the Decent Work Country Programme. Thore and Tarverdyan (2009) study national performance in implementing decent work objectives, but their research did not include the performances of India, Bangladesh or China. Renwick (2011) says that employment and access to decent work is vital for reducing hunger and poverty, now that world poverty is forecast to reach 15 per cent by 2015. Proverbs et al. (1999) studied impact of overwork in shifts of longer than ten hours on the performance of the construction labourers. Similarly Ailabouni et al. (2009) contend that, besides supervision, labour wages, social factors and harsh weather affect performance of the construction labourers. Thomas (1992) has studied the impact of overwork on the performance of construction labourers in the USA. Butcher and Sheehan (2010) consider health, safety and environmental care as indicators, since site accidents result in economic losses and social damage. Frost (2004) has studied decent work practices in the construction industry of Hong Kong. The study reveals harsh working conditions, poor wages and in some cases non-payment of wages to these Nepalese construction labourers. Torres et al. (2013) conducted study in a Western context. This study reveals that in Austin, a city in Texas, USA, which was named \"the town of cranes\" in 2008, wages were low; construction labourers were not paid overtime or the minimum wage set out by the regulations; and were denied mandatory breaks during work. Considering impact of decent work practices, Lam et al. (2007) recommend looking into the social aspects of a project, besides its economic and technological performance. Similarly Chan and Chan (2004) suggest that performance measurement of construction projects is there beyond the iron triangle of time, cost and quality. Decent work was a vague construct however due to the recession and adaptation of deceleration on social justice for a fair globalization by the ILO in 2008, decent work has gained conceptual clarity (Bisom-Rapp et al., 2011), but it still lacks the authority which would enforce it.\n3. Geert Hofstede's national cultural perspective: The national culture study by Hofstede has extensively been used in research work. The present study is based on this study. Culture is \"the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another\" (Hofstede and Hofstede, 2005). Ralston et al. (1993) define culture as those beliefs and values that are widely shared in a specific society at a particular point in time. This definition adds not only context, but also a time line to cultural study. Rosenblatt (2011) says that culture is seen in interpretative schemes or codified patterns of meaning, which inform or constrain behaviour. Schwartz (1994a) defines values as beliefs and desirable goals transcending specifications and serving as standards to guide the selection and exclusion of behaviour, people and events and Hofstede (1981) defines values a broad tendency to prefer certain states of affairs over others. These are all invisible parts of the culture manifested through cultural practices (Hofstede, 2001). Triandis et al. (1986) speak of culture \"as a fuzzy, difficult to define construct\". Culture has traditionally been a difficult concept. Kroeber and Kluckhohn (1952) identify over 300 definitions of culture, as Macnamara (2004) cites. This complexity of culture at the national level was first examined by Geert Hofstede.\n4. Other comparative national cultural frameworks: This section elaborates other national cultural dimensions besides Hofstede. It helps in understanding national cultural dimensions in comparison with other cultural frameworks. The authors also highlights basis of the dimensions presented in this study as a part of literature review.\n5. Developing the missing link between decent work practice and national culture: The framework presented in Figure 1 establishes link between the decent work practices indicators and the national culture of the construction labourers in PBI of the UAE, which is an existing gap in the literature. Therefore the missing link is the development of a relationship between decent work practice indicators and the national culture of the migrant construction labourers.\n6. Methodology for data collection and analysis: The methodology for data collection and analysis focuses on decent work practices in the construction PBI and the culture of the migrant construction labourers who experience these decent work practices. In ethnographic research, data collection and their analysis is a continuous and overlapping process. In order to avoid bias in the data collection of the present study, an effort was made to get as close to the sources of data as possible. Therefore it involved both emotional involvement and objective detachment (Tedlock, 2000). Hofstede (1981) suggests that one can predict more accurately the behaviour of a person if the situation in which the culture is being operated (the culture-situation behaviour) is known. Fontaine and Richardson (2005) see this situation as the goal in predicting behaviour (culture-goal-behaviour) and was focused on the cultural values of Chinese, Malays and Indians in Malaysia Fontaine and Richardson (2005) analysed the data empirically using analysis of covariance approach. Similarly Migliore (2011) studied empirically relationship between big five personality traits and Hofstede's cultural dimensions at work place in the USA and India. Ng et al. (2007) also studied similarity between Hofstede and Schwartz national cultural dimensions. Chinese cultural values in China and the impact of western cultural values on Chinese working in Australia were studied by Jaw et al. (2007) using structural equation modelling. Frost (2004) studied construction industry of Hong Kong for the decent work practices and Torres et al. (2013) studied construction industry in the city of Austin in the USA. In the present study, the situation is that of decent work practices. An attempt was made to predict more accurately the behaviour of the construction labourers in the UAE (culture-decent work-cultural behaviour in the construction PBI). Our research is also in line with the most of anthropologists and ethnographists like Schein (1984) that culture is subconscious shared values and beliefs and it cannot be studied only by asking conscious questions by means of survey. Therefore our methodology of observations, narratives and semi-structured interviews is an appropriate.\n7. Data analysis: The data, having been collected and coded, are presented below in tabular form. Against each of the decent work indicators, the national cultural dimensions of IND, MAS, UAI, LTO and PDI are listed for India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and China. Measure of the data collection, against each of the indicator, is presented in Table III of the paper. Observations and narratives of the construction labourers have been included in Sections 7.1 and 7.2. The data were collected on a three-point scale registering high, medium and low. The purpose of selecting this score criterion was its simplicity for the construction labourers to relate and its subsequent measurement. Moreover, Hofstede (1993) used scale of low, medium, high to categorize the national cultural data collected. Table III presents the statistics of the data collected through participant observation, semi-structured interviews and narratives.\n8. Conclusions and recommendations: The study reveals difference between the national culture, as identified by Hofstede about three decades ago, and the national culture, as identified by the present study. This difference in the national culture could be because of the differences in the context, situation or goal of the construction labourers in the UAE. Moreover, Hofstede's study focused on the employees of IBM, a computer manufacturing company, in their respective countries and the present study focused on the construction labourers in the UAE in the migrant country.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to benchmark national culture in the context of decent work practices in project-based industry of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This should help in achieving successful short-term migration. The study also aims to validate the decent work practice indicators for Bangladeshi, Chinese, Indian and Pakistani construction labourers working in the UAE.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study takes an ethnographic approach in its qualitative research methodology. The research involves observational methodology for its data collection during the execution of construction projects, semi-structured interviews to confirm the data collection during observational approach and a narrative methodology for the data collection within the labour camps, grassy fields and town streets. The qualitative data were expressed in quantitative terms to signify statistically the effect of the national culture in the context of decent work practices in this industry. Hence, the research involved triangulation in its data collection and analysis.\nFindings: The study reveals that the national cultures of the migrant construction labourers in this context are not the same as identified by Geert Hofstede about four decades earlier. It was found that Indians were high in uncertainty avoidance, Pakistani construction labourers were high in masculinity, Bangladeshi construction labourers were low in long-term orientation (LTO) and individualism and Chinese labourers were found to have high individualism and LTO. This study verified decent work practice indicators for Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi construction labourers and identified different decent work practice indicators for Chinese construction labourers in the UAE than Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi construction labourers.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study was limited to the construction labourers in the UAE. The data were collected during observation while execution construction projects and limited to visiting construction labour camps, grassy fields and town streets.\nPractical implications: The differences in the national culture of the migrant construction labourers and the decent construction practices in the UAE have economic, social and environmental implications for construction labourers in the Arab world, for both migrant sending and receiving countries. Understanding and managing various national cultures and improving prevalent decent work practices would help to improve economic and social condition of the migrant construction labourers and help to arrest the advance of looming health problems.\nOriginality/value: The study identifies the national cultures of the migrant construction labourers in the context of decent work practices in the UAE. Improvement in the decent work practices of the migrant sending countries and the UAE and understanding of the culture of the migrants will help in preparing effective migration policy by both migrant sending and receiving countries. No study was found to have identified national cultures in the context of decent work practices and assessed the need for improvement in this regard.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Research trend on higher education in China for the past ten years
|
[
"Higher education",
"Literature review",
"Quantitative study",
"Trend analysis",
"Theory literature",
"Analysis dimensionality"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Proposing of the issue: The researches of higher education theory of China have been further improved since the opening reform. Especially in the middle of 1990s, there have been many great achievements of higher education theory research and researchers have made great effort to enhance the level and criterion of higher education theory. The fields and the contents of higher education theory are continuously expanding, issues of the research are gradually deepening, researching methods are constantly trending to be scientific and many works, textbooks and academic papers of high level are coming forth. However, there is still some dissatisfaction at the same time except the achievements. Both of the research itself and the researching method need to be improved and consummated. For example, on the aspect of the researching content, there are still some phenomena such as knowledge aging, obsolete concept and platitudes; on the aspect of the researching format, quantitative study of high education research is inadequate and the usage of qualitative and quantitative methods are not enough. It is really common that the research is not canonical and scientific enough, etc. The higher education research would have to move by the way which is low and not canonical if we did not emphasize it on recognition and research. As a result we take it as very important and necessary to have an extensive research on the higher education theory literatures since the founding of China. By the end of 2005, we established a study group to research the subject entitled Content Analysis of China Higher Education Theory Research Since 1949 to make a comprehensive and systematical study but during the searching process we found that there were not so many productions on this aspect from 1949 to the beginning of 1990s, most of which were summaries of experience and working reports. Only few of them were real theses and academic reports, which brought difficulties for our statistics, analysis and the conclusion making. At last we decided to confirm the research range from 1996 to 2006, because the higher education research productions were most abundant in this decade. Through the entirely multi-aspect investigation to the literature of higher education theory research in the decade, we used structural quantitative study - \"Method of Content Analysis\" to make quantitative analysis, descriptive statistics, evaluation and comparison to find out the deficiency and to exhibit the development, common rules and collective tendency of the higher education theory research of China by simple mathematical relations in order to provide references for the constructions and norms of our higher education theory research and the subject construction of higher pedagogy so as to make the higher education theory research of China more canonical and scientific.\n2. Literature review: So far, among the research publications in this field we have collected including nearly 300 works (as well as text books), 1,800 pieces of dissertations, while only <30 of them discuss the methods in doing research in this field. Below are some typical ones we picked.\n3. Researching method and process: 3.1 Analyzing units and range\n4. Search result: 4.1 Title (Table I and Figure 1)\n5. Conclusion: The analysis of the selected 250 academic theses and reports in the field of higher education shows that academic research and theoretical standard have been improved, meanwhile academic criterion have been formed by degrees in higher pedagogy within ten years time. At the same time, there are still some problems in the papers and reports we have selected such as title, key words, proposing of the issue, researching method and conclusion. Viewing from the data and information we have collected before, many problems appeared with the title in form of non-succinctness, non-clearness, meaning repetition, solecism, content unconformity, etc. However, with the development of subjects and enhancement of academic research, all that mentioned phenomena have changed. We have divided our research into two stages with the boundary of 2000. The veracity of title in the former stage is decreasing apparently. On the other hand, the title of academic theses or reports written by professors and postgraduates is the most exact and normative than other researchers', the others in institutions or organizations are less good ones.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to explore the developing trend of higher pedagogy, to promote the research of higher pedagogy to be more canonical and scientific and to improve the higher education theory.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The utility research uses a method of quantitative study, namely \"content analysis\", to estimate and analyze the higher education theory literature on ten dimensionalities which include theme, author, abstract, keywords, subject, proposing of the issue, definition of key terms, research methods, conclusion, reference and annotations from 1996 to 2006 in China.\nFindings: The analysis of the selected 250 academic theses and reports in the field of higher education shows that academic research and theoretical standard have been improved, meanwhile academic criterion have been formed by degrees in higher pedagogy within ten years. At the same time, there are still some problems in the papers and reports the authors have selected such as title, key words, proposing of the issue, researching method and conclusion.\nOriginality/value: This paper sums up the trend of research on higher education in China for the past ten years, and points out the problems in this trend and then proposes ways to improve the research of higher education in China.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
eLearning hands-on: blending interactive eLearning with practical engineering laboratory
|
[
"Interactivity",
"ELearning",
"Engineering",
"Experimentation",
"Lucas-Nuelle",
"Mathematica"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In this paper, eLearning and eLearners refer to any generic use of the terms learning and learners, respectively, and the words are interchangeable. Similarly in the paper, the term pedagogy connotes a generic reference to teaching, learning or both. Considering that effective pedagogy involves the judicious choice and use of appropriate intermediary aids, the emergence of eLearning has fuelled their development from simple static physical objects to dynamic multimedia tools called applets. In the Java programming lingo, akin to \"droplets\" connoting \"small drops\" of water, applets were originally conceived to mean \"small applications\". However in normal use today, applets are applications that are anything but small. In fact applets are increasingly and language-agonistically used in association with large applications in other scripting languages, notably Javascript. Nevertheless in this paper all references to applets are understood to retain their original association with the Java language. Necessitated sometimes by the need for independent learning, eLearning can blend content delivered via information and communication technologies (ICTs) with traditional face-to-face teaching or practical laboratory sessions. In such situations the provision of learner-content interactivity, as a guarantor for effective learning, is the primary design goal. In that quest, applets have proven indispensable as they are amenable to independent learner manipulation anywhere, anytime, and at the learners' own pace. They therefore match the expectations of a learner-centred eLearning pedagogy. As an example, Plate 1 has been used to represent a standard laboratory setup for demonstrating electric field lines. Today the concept of electric fields can be reproduced with ease, efficiency, and great effectiveness using the applet shown in Figure 1. At the University of Botswana (UB) - where eLearning is defined as the appropriate organisation of ICTs for advancing student-oriented, active, open, collaborative, and life-long pedagogical processes - some interactive multimedia tools for a course in electrical engineering were developed and reported (Kiravu et al., 2004). This paper draws interactive examples from that course to illustrate the desired interactivity, and therefore provides a standard way of assessing similar interactivity tools found in Pearson's myLab, Mathematica(r)'s Computable Document File (CDF) and Lucas-Nuelle(r)'s UniTrain-I. The comparative review provides a qualitative assessment of the respective learner-content interactive capabilities in each of the three eLearning frameworks.\n2. Interactive eLearning tools: Our reference to interactive eLearning relates to a typology of ICT-based user-content interaction in which a two-way communication between the learner and the content is guided by visualisations, the learner's active engagement with and influence over the content and where learning is reinforced through motivational feedback cues and/or prompts. Although it shares many of the tools used in ubiquitous computing (Wikipedia, 2016c) interactive eLearning is not synonymous with interactive learning in which the \"incorporation of social and urban computing into course design and delivery\" has been cited as the primary goal Wikipedia (2015). Several web browser-based technologies exemplify varying degrees of eLearner-content interactivity. Since there are, thus, many different perspectives of interactive content, we consider briefly the relative capabilities of Gapminder(r) (Gapminder, 2005) including its variant - Google's Trendanalyzer (Gapminder, 2006), Microsoft CourseLab(r), Dexy(r) and Macromedia(r) revealing thereby the criteria we used to dispel their suitability for this paper, where the focus is on electrical engineering eLearning.\n3. Methodology and results: 3.1 Introduction\n4. Discussions: Tools offering learner-content interactivity for eLearning have been discussed. Examples from a basic electrical engineering eLearning course although implemented using Javascript and Java were used for illustrations. Java-based implementation provide clean visualisation of the type interesting to the eLearning applets we are discussing. However beginning designers find it easier to implement their eLearning contents using Javascript rather than using Java. In Mathematica, the underlying Java implementation language is so wrapped as to make content programming much easier and user-friendly for beginning designers. We hasten to say though, that the choice between which language a designer ultimately chooses depends on his/her familiarity with the language. Certainly renditions of any of the applets, with graphics just as beautiful as the visualisations offered by Mathematica, could be implemented with either Javascript or Java and the user may not be able to tell the difference in implementation. Based purely on programming, this paper however shows to the first-time eLearner designer, the relative tradeoffs he/she needs to consider in choosing between using Javascript, Java or the Mathematica CDF. Having established the suitability of Mathematica CDF for electrical engineering eLearning, the paper revealed in Lucas-Nuelle(r)'s UniTrain-I, the desirable features that make the LMS complete in providing a modern ICT-based dynamic eLearning environment. Those features include the blending of practical hands-on engineering laboratory experimentation into UniTrain-I's pedagogical philosophy.\n5. Limitations: eLearning examples used in this paper were drawn from a course designed at the UB as a precursor to a detailed consideration of the LMS: myLab, Mathematica and the UniTrain-I. The limitation of our considerations to only three LMS is nevertheless justified. To the best of our knowledge, currently no other equivalent complete environments exist for electrical engineering eLearning. As other frameworks emerge in further ongoing research, they shall inform our current conclusions.\n6. Implications: The Chinese adage, \"I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand\" (Stack Exchange Inc., 2016; ThinkExist, 2016) summarises the implications of our results. If electrical engineering is to be understood using the eLearning mode, eLearners ought to not merely hear as they would soon forget, but visually behold so as to retain (remember) contents beyond the examination season and most importantly be involved through learning by doing. In order to remember through retention and recall, eLearning ought to be about interactive visualisation of content. Our paper has made a case for dynamic interactive content visualisation using Mathematica's CDF. Yet for learners to understand that, which they are able to remember, they must augment their exploratory visualisation of content with hands-on practical work. Our paper has made a case for eLearning with doing while working on practical laboratory sessions mediated by the UniTrain-I. This paper shall therefore be useful to eLearning designers who, wishing to provide interactive content, do not know which tools to use, what the relative strengths or limitations are and which eLearning environment may best be suited to electrical engineering pedagogy.\n7. Conclusion: This paper has explored various environments providing different levels of interactive content and one providing additionally, hands-on practical engineering education. Some environments generate interactive content from first programming principles. The paper showed the flexibility and user-friendliness of the Mathematica CDF obviating the need for eLearner designers to be proficient programmers or to programme their content from scratch. The paper finally considered the eLearning merits of the Lucas-Nuelle LMS noting its innovativeness. In particular, the paper commended Lucas-Nuelle's UniTrain-I as a complete engineering eLearning environment, whose modern teaching philosophy blends seamlessly dynamic interactive ICT-based multimedia content with practical hands-on engineering experimentation. In an electrical engineering eLearning environment we recommend the UniTrain-I not only as the most adept but also as the best one for dispelling any disquiet regarding the effectiveness of engineering pedagogy via the eLearning mode.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Integrating laboratory work into interactive engineering eLearning contents augments theory with practice while simultaneously ameliorating the apparent theory-practice gap in traditional eLearning. The purpose of this paper is to assess and recommend media that currently fulfil this desirable dual pedagogical goal.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The qualitative approach compares the eLearner-content interactivity deriving from Mathematica's Computable Document File (CDF) application, Pearson's myLab and Lucas-Nuelle's UniTrain-I. Illustrative interactive examples written in JavaScript and Java are thereby drawn from an engineering eLearning course developed at the University of Botswana (UB).\nFindings: Based on its scientific rigour, wide application scope, engineering analytical depth, minimal programming requirements and cross-subject-cum-faculty application and deployment potential, the authors found the CDF to be a versatile environment for generating dynamically interactive eLearning contents. The UniTrain-I, blending a multimedia information and communication technology (ICT)-based interactive eLearner-content philosophy with practical laboratory experimentation, is recommended for meeting the paper's dual eLearning goal as the most adept framework to-date, blending dynamic interactive eLearning content with laboratory hands-on engineering experimentation.\nResearch limitations/implications: The lack of other competing frameworks limited the considerations to only the three mentioned above. Consequently, the results are subject to review as the ongoing research advances new insights.\nOriginality/value: The conclusions help eLearning designers plan ICT-based resources for integration into practical electrical engineering eLearning pedagogy and both CDF and UniTrain-I help dispel the prevailing apparent disquiet regarding the effectiveness of the eLearning-mediated electrical engineering pedagogy. In addition, the cited examples document an original electrical engineering eLearning course developed at the UB.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Green start-up finance - where do particular challenges lie?
|
[
"Entrepreneurship",
"Start-ups",
"Entrepreneurial finance",
"Survey",
"Sustainable",
"Green"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This paper investigates the issue of entrepreneurial finance in the context of sustainable entrepreneurship and green start-ups. While research in both entrepreneurial finance and sustainable entrepreneurship has individually thrived and developed strongly in the last decades (Mitter and Kraus, 2011; Thompson et al., 2011), there are few instances where the two research fields merge (Bergset, 2015; Bocken, 2015; Cumming et al., 2016; Randjelovic et al., 2003). The entrepreneurial finance literature examines different aspects of business finance at early stages of company development from both the supply and demand sides, such as investor and entrepreneurial behaviour (Cable and Shane, 1997; De Clercq and Sapienza, 2001), potential conflicts arising between the two sides due to asymmetrical information and moral hazard (Denis, 2004) as well as possible solutions in terms of contract design (Fluck, 2010). The sustainable entrepreneurship literature builds on the research streams of social entrepreneurship and environmental entrepreneurship, and studies entrepreneurship in which a contribution to sustainable development is integral to the core business of the companies (Schaltegger and Wagner, 2011). Green start-ups, which make up one actor type within the larger group of sustainable entrepreneurs, develop products and services with a positive environmental impact (Bergset and Fichter, 2015). The increasing relevance of sustainable entrepreneurship and green start-ups for achieving the goals of a green economy coincides with a rising awareness and acuteness of issues linked to global challenges such as climate change, desertification and limited access to water, biodiversity decline and conflicts arising due to limited natural resources.\nTheoretical background: Sustainable entrepreneurship and green start-ups\nHypothesis development: The above literature suggests that more quantitative research is needed on the particular challenges that green start-ups experience. Here hypotheses will be developed based on a further immersion into relevant literature as well as drawing on the results of some exploratory interviews on the issue of financing sustainable entrepreneurship carried out in 2014 with 24 green start-ups in Finland, Germany and Sweden as a first step in this research (see also Bergset, 2014 for more details on the interviews).\nMethods and data: Study design\nResults: As Table III shows, for H1 neither the model nor the independent variable is significant and the hypothesis can thus not be confirmed.\nDiscussion: For the main hypothesis developed - that green start-ups struggle generally more with access to finance - the result was rather clear: this does not seem to be the case. The hypothesis was rather too broad to capture any of the intricacies of green start-up finance. In general, the opportunities arising through market failure thus seem to outweigh the challenges for sustainable entrepreneurs in green start-ups, at least when it comes to accessing finance. The increasing professionalisation observed in some Cleantech companies (Bocken, 2015; Wustenhagen and Teppo, 2004) can thus be assumed currently to contribute to success in financial resource acquisition in such firms. The cross-sectoral character of green start-ups underlines the diversity amongst them, which is reflected in the results here. While some may struggle substantially, others might have a convincing business model that helps them access finance. There is thus a clear need for more detailed research on different types of green start-ups in the context of entrepreneurial finance, related to issues such as entrepreneurial motivation, network effects, the role of regulation, the role of public-private partnerships and impact finance.\nConclusions: This study provides initial statistical data on the issue of entrepreneurial finance in green start-ups. These findings corroborate anecdotal and qualitative findings described in the pertinent literature. While there are some limitations that call for a conservative interpretation of the results and a need for further research, some assertions can be made at this stage. The general results on difficulties and rejection using the \"greenness\" of product/service portfolio as the only independent variable make it clear that green start-ups are also a composite group of different types of start-ups that need more detailed analysis. For some green start-ups access to finance can be empirically observed to be a challenge. Especially, companies with innovative products/services and/or a lack of business education in their founder team seem to struggle. The possible reasons for the former have been explored in the literature streams of sustainable entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial finance. Asymmetrical information as theorised in the entrepreneurial finance literature is one exploratory model: there is still a low number of specialised VC firms offering funding to such companies, which could help overcome the exacerbated informational asymmetries that green start-ups may experience. On the other hand, the characteristics of green start-ups likely linked to innovativeness - high risk, high investment sums needed, long investment horizons - as explored in the literature on sustainable entrepreneurship and Cleantech, are such that make most investors shy away. One possible solution includes syndication across plural investment firms to achieve higher sums and diversify risk. Another solution - possibly sensible due to the hybrid public/private market for environmental products and services - would be that public funding programmes are geared more towards innovative early-stage companies with higher funding sums and long funding periods. Green start-ups might be well advised by support organisations and intermediaries to set up complementary founder teams, in which business education is also covered. There might also be a role here for public funding programmes to provide or subsidise business training for green start-ups.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to shed some new light on the entrepreneurial finance of green start-ups, for which there has been little quantitative empirical evidence thus far. It explores what challenges green start-ups might experience when it comes to financial access.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper includes a survey of start-ups in Finland, Germany and Sweden and the separate evaluation of the \"greenness\" of participating companies' product/service portfolios based on Eurostat's Environmental Goods and Service Sector classification. A logistic regression is carried out for different company phases for two measures of challenges (\"difficulty accessing finance\" and \"rejection by investor/funder\").\nFindings: Green start-ups as an overall group cannot be said to have more challenges in access to finance. Particularly, a lack in business education and a high level of innovativeness, however, seem to be lead to more challenges for green start-ups in accessing finance compared to other start-ups.\nResearch limitations/implications: Further research might seek to identify which exact characteristics of innovative green start-ups lead to challenges in financial access, i.e. is it individual factors such as high risk levels, high investment sums, long development periods or a low return prospect - or is it rather a combination? It might, furthermore, be rewarding to investigate whether \"interventions\" of business-related training might reduce challenges.\nSocial implications: Suggestions are made for improved policy support to sustainable entrepreneurship in the case of green start-ups.\nOriginality/value: This research paper provides quantitative empirical analysis in a new research area, which has previously been predominantly theory based with some anecdotal observations as well as some early qualitative research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Developing communicative competencies for a learning organization
|
[
"Change management",
"Communication skills",
"Learning organizations",
"Individual development"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The continuous nature of contemporary change highlights several difficulties for managing the process of change and in particular, managers need to develop competencies in change management that accommodate continuous change efforts (Buchanan et al., 1999). This paper reports on some of the difficulties encountered when an experienced change leader attempted to introduce \"intellectual transformation\" (Waldersee, 1997) in a public sector agency. In highlighting the barriers, we offer value to management development by using the empirical data to reflect on the importance of communicative skills development when implementing change.The guiding research question is how organizational change communication impacts on change receptivity in continuous change contexts. The focus of this paper is the communicative competences that managers need to acquire in organizations dependant on continuous change.\nChange communication and the learning organization: Originating from Schon's (1973) concepts of a \"learning society\" as a way to manage the continuous processes of transformation within our society and institutions, the learning organization presents as an ideal type. It is noted that it represents a systematic response to the pressure of globalization (Schon, 1973). The learning organization is defined as:Learning organizations [are] organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to see the whole together (Senge, 1990).Waldersee (1997) suggests that this journey requires an intellectual transformation within the change process. Part of successful change leadership requires maximizing message reception (Waldersee, 1997), and this perspective regards change communication as a monologic approach, incorporating a traditional linear perspective on change communication. However, one of the key components of the capabilities required to create a learning organization is the emphasis on dialogue (Senge, 1990; Isaacs, 1999). Dialogic approaches to change form a \"core relational practice\" for learning organizations, however these are inherently risky as they require managers to reveal what they do not know (Bokeno and Gantt, 2000). Kent and Taylor (2002) argue that there are key differences between monologic and dialogic communication. These differences are illustrated in Table I.Organizational change communication research derives from a body of literature in which organizational change is perceived as a communication problematic (Bourke and Bechervaise, 2002). This perspective suggests that the frequent failure of organizational change (Weick and Quinn, 1999) results in part from ill-considered or misused organizational communication strategies and tactics. Organizational communication is initially defined as \"The process by which information is exchanged and understood by two or more people, usually with the intent to motivate or influence behavior\" (Daft, 1997). This perspective represents an instrumental, information-processing view of communication that complements the planned model of change. In planned change, change communication involves exchanging and transmitting information to influence changes. It is here that Waldersee's (1997) emphasis on message reception resides. The more recent change communication scholars (Lewis, 1999; Ford, 1999) take a constructivist approach to organizational communication. In this way, the understanding of organizations is that these are \"socially constructed realities\" (Czarniawska, 1997). Bourke and Bechervaise (2002) explain change communication as the instrument used to construct, deconstruct and reconstruct existing realities in order to effect change. The implications for today's managers are that to develop communicative competencies they need to accommodate both perspectives and this requires a reconceptualization of change communication as communication during change, rather than to communicate the change.Communication is widely acknowledged as important in management development programmes, but there is less recognition of the intricacies and nuances of communication during change such that it is the neglected \"specialist knowledge\" of change (Buchanan et al., 1999). It is argued that it is the delicate and often subjective interplay of communication styles, expectations and competencies that can unhinge a change program (Frahm and Brown, 2004).Development of \"soft skills\" remains of paramount importance in the management development literature (Coppelli, 1998). Accordingly, managers are urged to develop communication skills to minimize occurrences of workplace sabotage (Analoui, 1995) and develop competences in inspirational communication (Frese et al., 2003). Methods of communication development beyond workshops and training seminars include action training (Frese et al., 2003), coaching (Wales, 2003), and concentrating on \"in context\" practice (Doyle et al., 2000). Vecchio and Appelbaum (1995) suggest techniques for improving communication in organizations include: using appropriate language, practicing empathic communication, encouraging feedback, developing a climate of trust and using effective listening. These are examples of dialogic change communicationFrom a communicative perspective what has been advanced in terms of continuous change is the concept of dialogue (Bohm, 1996; Isaacs, 1999). Within dialogic communication processes, \"People function as essential information and idea resources, creating solutions we have never seen before\" (Eisenberg et al., 1999).\nPrinciples of dialogic communication: In order to reflect on how communicative competences may be developed within organizational change there is a need to establish the different types of communication in the case study under review. In this study we identified dialogic communication with use of Kent and Taylor's (2002) principles of mutuality, propinquity, empathy, risk and commitment.Mutuality acknowledges that organizations do not exist without employees. It is characterized by a collaborative orientation and a \"spirit of mutual equality\". Through dialogic processes, reality is socially constructed rather than positions wonnor lost (Kent and Taylor, 2002). Participants in dialogue are viewed as persons, not as objects, or \"targets of change\". This principle provides the first clue for management development, which to date has focused on workshops that train managers to \"maximize message reception\".Propinquity is more than mere proximity (Buber, 1970). Rather, it has a temporal aspect whereby the participants of dialogue are engaged in communication in the present, instead of after the decision-making. The dialogue acknowledges the past, present and future discussions. Propinquity also refers to the level of willing engagement in the process (Kent and Taylor, 2002). This is similar to what Wales (2003) describes as Past-Present awareness. Developing competencies in evaluating who to involve in discussion about change and at what stage, is key to future management development.Empathy refers to the necessary atmosphere of support and trust that must exist for dialogue to succeed. It embraces supportiveness, communal orientation and confirmation or acknowledgement. Whilst this is primarily an emotional prerequisite, it also translates to the provision of empathetic space or fields where dialogue about change can occur. The importance of empathetic listening skills is already highlighted in the literature (Vecchio and Appelbaum, 1995).Risk involves vulnerability. It is contended that vulnerability is a position of strength, rather than being detrimental in dialogic processes. When the participants involved in a dialogic communication acknowledge what they do not know, only then are they able to build and construct new understanding that benefit the organization (Kent and Taylor, 2002). Unanticipated consequences are another consequence of risk. With continuous change comes a high level of ambiguity and uncertainty, and accordingly it is difficult to script an exact plan. Risk in dialogic processes is one of the more difficult concepts for change communicators, as much of their charter is in minimizing risk to achieve the organizational goals. In this sense, risk is generative of new meaning and understanding and a considerable challenge for management development. Others have noted the importance of developing courage for change (Furnham, 2001), and risk requires courage.Commitment is the final principle of dialogic communication and refers to genuineness, commitment to conversation and commitment to interpretations. Weick and Quinn (1999) suggest, \" If continuous change is altered by freezing and rebalancing, then the role of the change agent becomes one of managing language, dialogue and identity\", and this approach has research implications for everyday conversations and discourse and for the language of change in the process of continuous change. It then follows that change leaders need to develop linguistic competences, and be comfortable speaking the different \"languages\" of change.\nMethods: In this section of the paper, a current research case is used to illustrate the key themes of one organization's experience of communication during change and how this impacted on the development of a learning organization. As is appropriate in conducting case study research the research methods employed in this case study are participant observation, document analysis and focus groups.Participant observation\nCase study overview and discussion: The case study was a public sector organization chartered with the role of technology diffusion. A new Chief Executive Officer had entered the organization and it was his desire to create a \"continuously changing, a learning organization of the Senge [CEO's reference to \"The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge, 1990] type.\" Employing 75 employees, the occupations of staff in the organization ranged from foundry workers, engineers, model finishers and business consultants.The organization was operating under seemingly volatile conditions, subject to political change, both in terms of government budgetary decision-making as well as technological obsolescence. The case study's charter required it to source high-capital-cost new technology in order to facilitate uptake within state and national firms in the manufacturing sector. This means that it operates within the boundaries of \"market failure\". The firm is undergoing a directed change effort. Some of the changes introduced over the last 12 months included: a commercialization focus, team working, organizational restructure, downsizing, culture change, continuous improvement, and 360-degree feedback. Given the turbulent environment in which the organization is situated, the CEO rejected a planned change path - preferring to be adaptable as new information was presented. The strategy could be considered ad hoc strategy formation, whereby strategies emerge from a fluid process of learning and adaptation (Mintzberg, 1987). Initial findings of this process indicate a scant application of either monologic or dialogic communication during the change. It was found that this situation prevented the establishment of a learning organization and detracted from achieving the change goals.Monologic communication\nConclusion: In summary, this paper started by noting that much of the management development literature focuses on a one-way, linear model of change communication in skills building. In order to bolster the manager's competencies in managing continuous change this paper investigates the change communication of an organization intent on creating a learning organization. Whilst the study is still ongoing, the initial results from the first 12 months suggest success is limited when there is a mismatch between employees' communicative expectations and managers' communicative competencies.By using a dialogic lens and Kent and Taylor's (2002) principles, we establish that the case study organization defaults to a monologic approach initially, but the limitations implicit in a lack of formal communication channels and limited feedback mechanisms meant that the change communication was decreasing the staff receptivity to change. As the process of change continued we noted a shift to more dialogic approaches to communication primarily from the lower level employees. The main principle evident in the data was commitment. The employees were genuinely committed to conversation and discussion about the interpretation of the change goals. The management team demonstrated empathy in acknowledging the employees' concern and supported the reframing of the term \"continuous change\" to \"continuous improvement\". In response to the lack of information and sense-making from managers, the lower level employees initiated a reframing of the language within the organization, in order to be more receptive to change. However, this was not sufficient without ongoing direction and guidance from the senior management.\nImplications for future development: Some argue that dialogic competences should not be considered a panacea to solving communication issues during continuous change (Botan, 1997). This paper seeks to highlight potential applications of an existing theoretical framework that may assist in improving change communication competence development. Dialogic communication can be recognized as an inimitable resource, and one that creates competitive value (Peteraff, 1993). Emphasis on principles of communication rather than understanding communication in terms of tactics and tools suggests an intangible asset, and thus it is difficult to replicate. This approach supports the argument of dialogue being a key driver of learning organizations in managing the demands of continuous change.Regardless of the benefits in developing managers' skills in dialogic and monologic competences, there are some important caveats. Whilst a dialogic approach offers a sustainable business practice, it is difficult to institutionalize. Dialogic communication requires sophisticated communicators, that is, people who are comfortable relinquishing their power bases, suspending their beliefs and committing to alternate interpretations in order to build a relationship. This implies an organizational commitment to learning and up-skilling of all employees. If the most sophisticated communicators are the managers or the change agents, a power imbalance exists, and the dialogic process is violated. Transformation of a bureaucratic organization into a learning organization in this context is particularly challenging, as asymmetry of power is central to considerations of bureaucracy.Dialogic communication processes take time, and many organizations need short-term responses. Kent and Taylor (2002) acknowledge that not every stakeholder should be expected to participate in dialogic exchanges and that dialogic communication is not required in every change agenda.Finally, dialogic approaches to communication are costly and run the risk of \"too much talk and not enough action\". Further, just as it takes someone skilled enough to communicate on this level, it takes expertise in knowing how to take the dialogue into a tangible outcome, one that can be recognized for its value to the organization. However if, as some suggest, up to 75 percent of popular change management programs fail (Beer et al., 1990), perhaps the high cost of dialogue is not as great as the costs of failed implementations and additional change consultants.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the developmental needs of managers operating in continuous change contexts. Special attention is drawn to communicative competences through the use of Kent and Taylor's five principles of dialogic communication. A case study is used to illustrate the communicative challenges in creating a learning organization.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The research uses longitudinal case study methodology and provides details on the multiple methods used, specifically: participant observation, focus groups, and document analysis.\nFindings: - Findings suggest that existing management development literature needs to reconceptualise change communication as communication during change, rather than to communicate the change. In so doing attention is drawn to the power of communicative expectations and communicative competence. Successful transformation to a learning organization is hampered by a misalignment of the employee's communicative expectations and management delivery of change communication.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Whilst single case studies can be criticized for a lack of generalisability, the use of multiple methods and a longitudinal study bolsters the rigor and validity of this study. Management development needs were not formally addressed in this case study, and thus it is difficult to offer prescriptive statements to improving communicative competences.\nPractical implications: - The field study provided ample opportunity to identify change management development needs, and reflect on how to bolster an often difficult area of change management, communication during change.\nOriginality/value: - This research provides in-depth empirical data from an organization attempting to transform to a learning organization. In prior studies the communicative theoretical framework is rarely tested, and this paper provides evidence of the communicative theoretical applicability. This contribution is extended to management development needs.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Understanding knowledge sharing in the work context by applying a belief elicitation study
|
[
"Behavior",
"TPB",
"Knowledge sharing",
"Intention",
"Theory of planned behavior",
"Elicitation study"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Organizations are increasingly dependent on knowledge for success, and consequently, knowledge is considered a critical organizational resource in today's knowledge-based economy (Grant, 1996; Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998; Yi, 2009). The key concern is how to best utilize the collective knowledge pool, as there is abundant evidence that efficient knowledge use can result in positive organizational outcomes, such as enhanced performance, productivity or innovation capabilities (Cummings, 2004; Lin, 2007b; Mesmer-Magnus and DeChurch, 2009). From an organizational perspective, value creation takes place when relevant knowledge is shared (Sveiby, 2001), but whereas the emphasis has long been on finding ways to capture and distribute knowledge through systems, it is today clear that crucial for knowledge-based work is how knowledgeable individuals interact (Wang and Noe, 2010). Hence, it is increasingly important to understand what drives meaningful behavior in knowledge-intensive environments, specifically knowledge sharing (KS).\n2. Approaches to KS: Davenport and Prusak (1998) define knowledge as \"a fluid mix of framed experiences, values, contextual information, and expert insight that provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information. It originates and is applied in the minds of knowers. In organizations, it often becomes embedded not only in documents or repositories but also in organizational routines, processes, practices, and norms\". This elucidates the complex nature and extensive scope of the term knowledge. It becomes even more challenging, when combined with sharing, which may refer to both donating and receiving (Cabrera et al., 2006; van den Hooff and de Ridder, 2004), or just the former (Bock et al., 2002; Chennamaneni et al., 2011), and take many forms and mean many things in terms of behavior. As we advocate a more hands-on approach to KS in organizations, revisiting some key discussions in the literature makes sense.\n3. Antecedents of KS based on TPB: Two major reviews\n4. Method: This survey-based study was conducted in a major public sector organization in Finland. It was selected because all employees in this entirely knowledge-based organization are experts, operating in a sector under tremendous external pressure to become more efficient. In consequence, KS is crucially important for its continual performance.\n5. Results: The findings of the elicitations study were used for the survey items and are therefore presented first.\n6. Discussion: The present study is the first to investigate cognitive antecedents of KS in the context of work meetings by applying a combination of a belief elicitation study and a subsequent survey. Work meetings were identified as a critical KS forum in the organization studied. As hypothesized, positive attitudes (but not negative), subjective norms and perceived behavioral control each predicted KS intentions independently (H1). Furthermore, KS intentions were positively related to KS behavior, and mediated the effects of attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control (H2), but perceived behavioral control predicted KS behavior also independently (H3). KS barriers were negatively related to perceived behavioral control (H4), but did not moderate the relationship between KS intentions and KS behavior (H5). All hypotheses were supported, with the exception of H5, and the negative attitudes in H1.\n7. Conclusions: Elicitation of behavior-related beliefs offers an interesting alternative to ad hoc or general antecedents of KS when TPB is used as the general framework. The study at hand introduces a promising start. The approach necessitates rigor in identifying critical behaviors and a relevant work context where these behaviors are particularly desirable. Behavior always takes place in a context and exposing the affordances and limitations in a particular work environment may prove useful. Whereas the generalizability of the findings to other contexts may be limited, what we gain is actionable information that can be used to develop the particular work context. Even with its limitations, this study was an attempt toward a more rigorous approach to TPB and the TACT principle, also demonstrating that TPB is particularly suitable for studying KS in context.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to investigate cognitive antecedents of knowledge sharing (KS) by applying a belief elicitation study and embedding KS in an organizationally relevant context, work meetings.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study was carried out in two phases: an elicitation study (n = 18), and a survey (n = 200) based on its findings. The method, which combines a qualitative and a quantitative approach, is frequently used in the study of other behaviors (e.g. health behaviors) when applying the theory of planned behavior (TPB).\nFindings: Belief-based measures, informed by the elicitation study, were meaningful predictors of KS intentions. In line with TPB, attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control explained 47.7 per cent of the variance in KS intentions, which together with perceived behavioral control explained 55.2 per cent of the variance in KS behavior. Behavioral beliefs reflecting positive collective outcomes (new perspectives, knowledge diffusion/collective learning, increased interaction) were the most important predictors.\nResearch limitations/implications: Single organization and the study design limit generalizability of the results.\nPractical implications: The findings suggest that by eliciting shared beliefs relating to specific KS behaviors, organizations may come a long way in understanding and subsequently influencing these behaviors.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study to apply TPB on KS by investigating the underlying beliefs using an elicitation study. By demonstrating its utility, the study not only lays avenue for evidence-based interventions to improve KS in organizations, but also presents a method that bridges the gap between quantitative and qualitative approaches to KS.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
International new ventures in "low tech" sectors: a dynamic capabilities perspective
|
[
"International new ventures",
"Dynamic capabilities",
"Low technology sectors",
"Business development",
"International business",
"Ireland"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: International entrepreneurship (IE) is described as \"a process of creatively discovering and exploiting opportunities that lie outside a firm's domestic markets in the pursuit of competitive advantage\" (Zahra and George, 2002, p. 11). International new ventures (INVs) constitute a form of international entrepreneurship. From inception, they \"seek to derive significant competitive advantage from the use of resources and the sale of outputs in multiple countries\" (Oviatt and McDougall, 1994, p. 49). Many studies hold that for INVs to internationalise successfully much depends on the internal capabilities of the firm (Autio et al., 2000; McDougall et al., 1994; Zahra et al., 2000). Faced with resource abundant, experienced multinationals enterprises, INVs need to develop their own unique and dynamic competencies - typically manifested through unique knowledge-intensive assets (technological offerings) and in the ability to utilise technology effectively (Eisenhardt and Martin, 2000; Hamel and Prahalad, 1990; Mathew, 2003; Teece et al., 1997). Furthermore, INVs with superior technologies and internationally experienced entrepreneurial teams are more likely to acquire international competitive advantage early than those without (Aspelund et al., 2007; Loane et al., 2007; McDougall et al., 2003; Rialp et al., 2005; Weerawardena et al., 2007).However, international performance is also a function of an entrepreneur's managerial competence (Chandler and Hanks, 1994). High-performing INVs can also show timely responsiveness, flexibility, and managerial capabilities such as the ability to innovate and develop knowledge and a network of resources for competitive advantage (Nooteboom, 2002; Teece, 2000; Weerawardena et al., 2007). Zahra and George (2002) also found that it was not the technology or the R&D per se that facilitated successful internationalisation processes, but rather the network linkages embedded in the INV's entrepreneurial team.Despite much sophisticated theoretical conceptualisations of the dynamic capabilities perspective of the firm (Eisenhardt and Martin, 2000; Teece et al., 1997; Weerawardena et al., 2007) empirical studies have been limited in explaining how dynamic capabilities are actually developed and manifested in INVs. Although existing empirical studies suggest that firms develop dynamic capabilities through building, adapting and reconfiguring existing capabilities (Montealegre, 2002; Zucchella et al., 2005), case studies have been called for to effectively capture dynamic capability development in the present context of INVs (Montealegre, 2002). As IE has tended to focus on INVs in mainly high technology and knowledge intensive sectors of the economy, we know little about the resources, knowledge and capabilities that can underpin the competitiveness of INVs in traditional low technology sectors. In other words, where technologically embedded offerings are not a core component of competitive advantage, and where industry dynamics can differ greatly from each other.According to the OECD industry classifications of high and low technology sectors[1], low-tech sectors mainly comprise \"mature\" industries such as food processing, publishing and furniture industries. These industries are typically more challenged by the globalization processes, such as rapid advancements in technology and information communication technology (ICT), and as their products can be easily imitable to a large extent they can ultimately fail under cost and competition pressures (Hirsch-Kreinsen, 2008).With only a handful of INV studies in traditionally low tech sectors (see McAuley, 1999; Belso-Martinez, 2006; Evers, 2010; Fillis, 2001; Knight et al., 2001; Sullivan-Mort and Weerawardena, 2006; Wickramasekera and Bamberry, 2001), this study draws on the dynamic capabilities perspective (Teece et al., 1997) and resource-based view (RBV) (Barney, 1991) to investigate how INVs operating in the global seafood sector develop and sustain competitive advantage on international markets. Drawing on three in-depth cases of highly export-dependant Irish seafood ventures, this study seeks to explore two research questions:1. How do new seafood export ventures firms develop and sustain competitive advantage on international markets?2. What are the strategic attributes of new seafood export ventures firms that explain their international competitiveness?A review of the literature is first presented, followed by the methodology. Case findings are analysed and discussed, leading to a conceptual research framework to guide future research. Finally, conclusions, limitations and implications from this study are identified.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Synthesis of key findings: strategic attributes of INVs\n3. Methodology: As the aim of the present study was to examine generating mechanisms and dynamic capability building processes, case study method was the chosen strategy (Eisenhardt, 1989; Yin, 1994; see also Sullivan-Mort and Weerawardena, 2006) with the critical incident technique (CIT) as the main tool for data analysis (Chell, 2004; Flanagan, 1954). One way of capturing process is through case studies of firms, as they are useful ways of understanding why things are as they are (Spender, 1996). Many authors (Chetty, 1996; Fletcher, 2009; Ghauri, 2004) have advocated the use of the cases in research on international SME research. One key advantage of case over survey research is the former's role in facilitating the study of the internationalisation process from several perspectives and therefore facilitating a more thorough analysis of each firm. Multiple case design was adopted as a more robust alternative than a single case study (Yin, 1994). Should the research problem demand rich, deep information, then a small number of case studies are appropriate; and, as long as generalisability is not assumed, meaningful findings can still result (Coviello and Jones, 2004).3.1 CIT\n4. Case findings and discussion: This research seeks to gain exploratory insights into how traditional low-technology INVs develop competitive advantage and their strategic attributes underpinning successful and rapid internationalisation. In accordance with the literature review, the case findings are organised and discussed under the following headings: \"The founder-manager's prior knowledge base and capabilities\" and \"The unique resources and capabilities of the firm\". Building on case findings and extant studies, a conceptual framework (Figure 1) is proposed as a basis for future research for exploring dynamic capabilities in INVs in both high and low tech sectors.4.1 The founder-manager's prior knowledge and capabilities\n5. Conclusions: This study set out to explore how INVs in a traditional low technology sector developed competitive advantage, and to identify their strategic attributes for attaining this competitiveness on international markets. This research supports both the perspectives of dynamic capabilities and the RBV for explaining competitive advantage in INV. In support of Castanias and Helfat (2001) view that managerial resources are critical for acquiring economic rents from firm resources, this research posits that objective and subjective capabilities of the INV founder/managers are even more central to our understanding and explaining how INVs in traditional low-tech sectors acquire international competitiveness.The case entrepreneurs' objective and subjective capabilities embedded within the firm helped mobilise external networks for market, operational capabilities and finance. The greater the founder's capability to mobilise networks, the greater the access to resources and capabilities. This study supports the dynamic capabilities perspective (Teece et al., 1997) in an entrepreneurship-networking context. This also further strengthens the idea that international entrepreneurship is concerned with dynamic pursuit for resources and using networks for international development irrespective of sector.5.1 Implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Drawing on the dynamic capabilities perspective and the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm, this paper seeks to further understanding of international new ventures (INVs) operating in a traditional low technology sector - an understudied context in international entrepreneurship.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Exploratory research merited qualitative research as the chosen methodology. Multiple case study design and critical incident technique were the main qualitative techniques employed.\nFindings: - The case entrepreneurs' objective and subjective capabilities emerge as a critical key resource for strategically managing and developing the dynamic capabilities of the firm in areas of research and development (R&D), logistics and production. The firms' capability to adapt and renew themselves through product diversification strategies was also critical for sustainable competitive advantage in a highly turbulent and competitive sector of seafood.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The study is sector-specific and, while the sample size is small, findings are consistent. The paper presents a conceptual research framework for exploring further dynamic capabilities theory across diverse empirical high and low-tech industry contexts.\nPractical implications: - Low technology sectors are considered a \"forgotten sector\" of innovation policies in small-developed economies. Findings from this study identify a number of important implications of relevance to policy-makers and managers.\nOriginality/value: - This study contributes to the knowledge and understanding of how INVs in traditionally low-tech sectors develop competitive advantage on international markets. The study presents an entrepreneurial perspective to the dynamic capabilities theory of the firm and presents a conceptual research framework to further understanding on INVs.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Business-to-business marketing as a key factor for increasing service revenue in China
|
[
"Customer service management",
"Manufacturing industries",
"China",
"National cultures"
] |
[
{
"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: Until the late 1990s, only a few Swiss machine and equipment manufacturing were active in the Chinese market. The majority of them concentrated their business on the European or American markets or on other Asian countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan or Japan. Companies like Schindler, Sulzer, Buhler and Saurer rank among the exceptions. These organizations have been present in the Chinese market since the early 1980s. Since most European or American markets have reached an advanced stage of maturity and China offers attractive growth opportunities, more and more Swiss machine and equipment manufacturing companies have entered the Chinese market over the last couple of years. The high speed of economic growth and the large population of 1.3 billion, for example, add up to a rapidly growing demand for consumer goods leading to emerging markets for machines and equipment. As our own study among 118 Swiss companies indicated in 2004, 41 percent of Swiss companies have already entered the Chinese market. In addition, 62 percent of those companies that have not yet entered the Chinese market are planning to do so within the next five years.The starting point for our hypothesis is the observation that most Swiss machine and equipment manufacturing companies have found it extremely difficult to transfer their traditional business model to China. A business model is generally defined as the way in which companies generate their revenue and profits. Today, Swiss machine and equipment manufacturers generate a major share of their total revenue through services. The share of service revenue on total revenue represents a service-related performance outcome in manufacturing companies. Service-related performance outcomes can include the quality of customer relationships (a non-financial outcome) and direct service profitability (a financial outcome) (Homburg et al., 2003). The first construct comprises such aspects as intensity of interaction with customers, intensity of personal relationships with customers, customer satisfaction and loyalty. Direct service profitability relates to the degree to which manufacturing companies directly earn money by offering and charging services to their customers. However, in this proposal, we will focus on the share of total revenue attributable to services. The share of service revenue as a proportion of overall revenue, can be interpreted as the service component in relation to the income generated. The share of total revenue attributable to services is sometimes referred to in the literature as the \"value proposition\", for example in Oliva and Kallenberg (2003). However, in this paper, we will use the term share of service revenue to total revenue, which expresses more precisely the phenomenon we wish to convey.To generate a major share of the total revenue through services cannot be achieved without a clear service marketing and management. According to the 4P model (product, price, place and promotion), there has to be a service that can be priced, communicated, and distributed to the consumers (Gronroos, 1998). This also included typical service management approaches such as empowering service workers to offer services proactively and increasing the service orientation of the corporate culture.According to our survey in January 2005, Swiss companies achieved on average 21.2 percent of their total revenue through services in Europe. However, the service revenue share is significantly lower in China. Swiss companies indicated that on average they only earn 10.3 percent of their revenue through services. As a result of significantly lower service revenue, Swiss companies are losing potential margins, thus weakening their overall profitability. In general, services offer potentially higher margins than products. The average margin for products is just 1 percent. In contrast, services offer margins of more than 10 percent. Consequently, the operating margin is 5.2 percent in China, compared to 8.1 percent in Europe (see Figure 1).Nevertheless, we observed that some Swiss companies are quite successful at achieving an attractive share of revenue with services even if the average figure is only 10.3 percent. Our current data show that, even in China, 14 percent of the investigated companies generate more than 20 percent of their total revenue through services. If it was basically impossible to achieve an attractive service revenue share in China, it would then be easy to explain why most Swiss companies struggle to increase their service revenue. However, this would not explain why some companies have previously posted an attractive level of service revenue in China.Existing literature does not offer concrete suggestions as to how Swiss manufacturing companies might successfully increase their ratio of service revenue to total revenue in the Chinese context. To close the research gap, our paper tries to answer the following research questions:* How does business-to-business marketing contribute to increasing the share of service revenue?* How does Chinese culture affect business-to-business marketing?* How can Swiss companies overcome the effect of Chinese culture on business-to-business marketing?Answering these research questions brings us closer to a theory and service marketing guideline for machine and equipment manufacturing companies in China. In case of a product manufacturer, in our context, service marketing concentrates on the 4P model (product, price, place and promotion), there has to be a service that can be priced, communicated, and distributed to the consumers (Gronroos, 1998). According to Gronroos and Gummesson (1985), the marketing of services cannot be separated from overall service management. Thus, we also included typical service management approach such as empowering service workers to offer service proactively and service-orientation of the corporate culture in our study.The next section describes our research methodology. In the third section, we describe the transition line from products to services as a key concept for service management in manufacturing companies. In this section, we also link the transition line to business-to-business marketing strategies for manufacturing companies. In the fourth section, we apply several qualitative research methods to identify and validate effects of Chinese culture on business-to-business marketing. We explain how different Chinese cultural characteristics limit or support business-to-business marketing. Finally, we offer some guidance for managers in overcoming the limiting effects and discuss the implications for further research.\nResearch methodology: By investigating the effects of Chinese cultural characteristics on business-to-business marketing and service revenue, we rely on several core characteristics of service management (Gronroos, 1998; Oliva and Kallenberg, 2003; Kurtz and Clow, 1998; Lovelock, 2001). On the cultural side, we refer to characteristics of Chinese culture (Hofstede, 1991; Davies, 1995; Arias, 1998).Since increasing service revenue in China is a complex and context-bound organizational issue, we concentrated on qualitative research approaches (Miles and Huberman, 1994). While qualitative studies may be considered inappropriate with respect to generalizability (Lincoln and Cuba, 1985), we concentrated on the transferability of our results. We applied three different qualitative research approaches (interviews, longitudinal study and bi-polar case studies). The sequence of our qualitative research approaches was chosen to maximize internal and external validity. External validity in the context of qualitative studies refers to the extent to which the results of our single, in-depth case study are transferable. Internal validity is the approximate truth about cause-effect or causal relationships (Eisenhardt, 1989).Our first qualitative study is based on a single, in-depth case study. We refer to the company by the pseudonym Swiss Machine Inc. The first author conducted a single case study based on a qualitative research methodology (Yin, 1994), involving inductive inquiry and field study between 1998 and 2004. This allowed direct observation of key parts of the corporation's initiative to increase service revenue in China. Because the study covered a period of seven years, it can be also interpreted as a longitudinal study. This study is based on multiple sources of evidence: archival data, company documentation, and, most importantly, participation in internal workshops, interviews ranging from service workers and managers to the chief executive officer (CEO), and customer surveys in China. The customer surveys were conducted on a regular basis: 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2004. The survey used a standardized questionnaire covering topics on customer value as perceived by Chinese customers. More than 35 Chinese customers of Swiss Machine Inc. participated in each survey.Our second qualitative study was conducted at the end of 2004. It involved 15 interviews with companies who had recently completed initiatives for increasing the ratio of service revenue to total revenue in China. Representatives of the following management functions participated in the 15 interviews: general management (seven), service management (five) and sales (three). Most interviews were recorded through extensive notes taken during the interviews. Based on the interview transcripts and some secondary data, we wrote 15 mini-case studies describing the main effects of Chinese culture on business-to-business marketing and increasing service revenue in China. Participants and the research team reviewed the cases, identifying gaps in the narrative and suggesting additional data collection. The reviews often led to interviewees providing more detailed background information. By allowing all the participants to review their cases, we were able to offset some of the bias normally associated with retrospective interviews. These interviews helped us to externally validate the main effects of Chinese culture on business-to-business marketing.Third, to enhance internal validity in respect of the causal relationship between Chinese culture and service revenue we recently completed four bipolar case studies. Two of the four manufacturing companies have been highly successful in their transition from products to services. Over the last couple of years, they increased service revenue share from 6 and 7 percent respectively to over 25 percent. In contrast, the other two manufacturing companies struggled to increase service revenue share. They only increased their shares from 5 and 6 percent respectively to less than 10 percent. Again, the four case studies are based on multiple sources of evidence: financial reports, company documentation, and, most importantly, participation in internal workshops, and interviews with employees. Our expectation was that a comparison of these polar-typed case studies would help to internally validate what prevents or limits the success of initiatives to increase service revenue in China.Overall, the research process is positioned between deductive and inductive qualitative studies, being neither a test of an already developed theory nor a development of a new theory. Rather, it is an extension of an existing theory (Strauss and Corbin, 1990) through dialectic interaction between field studies and existing theory.\nBusiness-to-business marketing strategies: Transition line from products to services\nBusiness-to-business marketing in China: Exploratory findings of a longitudinal, in-depth case study\nDiscussion: Managerial implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This study seeks to examine how Chinese culture affects business-to-business marketing strategies and service revenue in manufacturing companies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper used a combination of qualitative research approaches, namely interviews, longitudinal study and bi-polar case studies. The sequence of the qualitative research approaches was chosen to maximize internal and external validity.\nFindings: - The findings expose the impact of the characteristics of Chinese culture on a firm's potential to generate high service revenues in business marketing.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The study has possible location- and industry-specific limitations.\nOriginality/value: - The implicit logic for increasing service revenue starts with overcoming typical and, in some respects, limiting cultural characteristics. These characteristics limit business-to-business marketing for increasing service revenue. Monitoring the effects of Chinese culture and gaining an understanding of how they have to be managed provides some guidance for managers to generate high service revenues.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
A TAPS interactive multimedia package to solve engineering dynamics problem
|
[
"Multimedia systems",
"Interactive programming",
"Mechanical engineering",
"Problem solving",
"Students",
"Sciences"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Computers allow us to create rich interactive multimedia software products for numerous applications in many domains, for example education and computer games. Apparently new and sophisticated technology has influenced the delivery of learning materials mainly to preserve quality education, and hence presents an opportunity to set-up new teaching and delivering platforms for classrooms and laboratories. In general, the gradual change from traditional teaching methods to computer-based learning environments is the result of the development of multimedia technology-enabled learning interfaces in the educational environment (Ozer et al., 2003). This paradigm shift is further supported by newer developments of multimedia packages for visualization of high quality simulations in 2-D illustrations to fully animated 3-D design models.One area that holds great potential in the use of multimedia technology is engineering. Numerous efforts have been carried out to develop engineering courseware (Flori et al., 1996; Ratan and Mitty, 1997; Gramoll, 2001). Some of these efforts are relatively comprehensive, aspiring to provide almost complete learning coursewares (e.g. stand alone PC based/CD-ROM or internet based). Other efforts are more focused for example within engineering dynamics, rectilinear, curvilinear and projectile motion (Gramoll, 2001). As such it can be clearly seen that part of the delivery of engineering learning aids at present is changing to motion-based trend as opposed to still, such as textbooks and other conventional methods.\nLimitations of traditional learning of engineering dynamics: Engineering dynamics subject involves a simultaneous mix of mathematics and physics in a challenging way to students. Some of the reasons that have encouraged classroom instructors to develop and use multimedia courseware for teaching can be summarized as follows:* In the area of engineering, the traditional communication model follows a one-dimensional, linear path that focus on the instructor/lecturer as the most important element of a communication transaction. This model does not take into account the level of the learners. In addition, traditional learning methods could not engage the learners in visualization tasks and work on virtual experiments (Kahn, 1992; Janson, 1992).* Engineering mechanics dynamics like many other engineering subjects is fundamentally about problems solving through the application of scientific principles. The engineering problems are often complex, and relationships among the variables of an experiment can be difficult to visualize (Scott, 1996).* Traditionally, problems in engineering dynamics are presented to the student as a combination of schematic diagrams and text descriptions. The shapes and lines that make up the schematic diagram have very specific engineering meanings, and the words accompanying the diagram also give rise to student error because critical information about the solution of the problem is often concealed in the text in unexpected ways (Scott, 1996).* Theory-oriented approach results in some disparity between text coverage and student comprehension (Ratan and Mitty, 1997).* One of the difficult issues to deal with within the engineering curriculum at the introductory level is the process of abstraction of real and practical situations into mathematical models (Gramoll, 2001).* Although many forms of learning aids have been used by educationists to support them in their teaching (Fogler et al., 1992; Squires et al., 1992), there is a need to provide better-enhanced learning aids. For example multiple tools such as calculator, glossaries of words, electronic notepad can be integrated in a single learning package that can perform multiple tasks simultaneously, is user-friendly, and caters for learner's requirements and could guide the learner when reaching an impasse (wrong answers).* In general the feedback that students receive on their homework is relatively ineffective. Feedback usually comes too late; solutions are often made available to students after the week's homework is complete. By then, however, students are often focused on another course, or on the next homework or the posted solutions (Steif and Naples, 2003).* Engineering dynamics subject is difficult to understand from the textbook alone because there are many cognitive steps that lead from a problem through a series of steps to solution. Subsequently, this scenario creates additional educational difficulties such as some learners lack the ability to translate mathematical word problems into the form necessary for effective computation and poor visualization of the problem that ultimately leads to lack of interest in the subject matter (Manjit et al., 2003).However the theory of learning can be represented with modern educational teaching media such as multimedia, the World Wide Web, mathematical software and visualization techniques, thus the conceptual analysis and visual understanding is enhanced. Multimedia-based media technologies has the potential of providing a means for dealing with the aforementioned issues in a dynamic, provocative and likely cost-effective manner that not only will increase the effectiveness of the educational program but will also increase the quality of the resulting students (Manjit et al., 2004a; Reagan and Sheppard, 1996). Since dynamics is a subject that depends on geometric and physical perception, every effort should be made to enhance this ability. This makes it an interesting challenge in an exciting area, requiring creativity and imagination as well as knowledge and systematic thinking.As the demand for more economical and effective learning packages increases, researchers are experimenting with nontraditional approaches in the facilitation of student learning. These approaches include the use of computers with multimedia, simulation, virtual reality packages and visualization techniques. The influence of computers is best seen in its multimedia configuration which includes an integration of multimedia elements, i.e. text, graphics, images, audio, video and animation into a consistent learning environment. The next section describes the development of a technology-assisted problem solving (TAPS) package and how multimedia, interactivity and delivery control in the problem solving process can enhance learning and understanding of the subject matter.\nTAPS package development: In response to the aforementioned analysis of the present problem solving and difficulty in understanding the engineering principles, a TAPS package was developed to test the feasibility of multimedia. The goal was to provide an alternative way of presenting engineering and scientific information in a way that can be easier for students to understand. For instance, when a 2-D or 3-D image is displayed in the right way, the user often has new insights into the underlying principle being taught.In the present work, a problem-solving model was designed and adopted to develop the TAPS package. The organizational design flow of the problem-solving model, as shown in Figure 1, can be represented as a list of procedures or steps that must be executed in a serial order which lead from a problem statement through a series of sequential steps to the solution. Generally, the TAPS package can be designed in an easy and visually appealing format. The problem-solving steps that must be executed by the student are shown in Table I.The content of the TAPS package is similar to in scope to a textbook, but uses multimedia and dialogue to help explain concepts. The material is presented in a problem-solving approach of an engineering dynamics problem, namely rectilinear kinetics, erratic motion. During the problem-solving process, the information is presented using multimedia features such as interactivity and delivery control to enforce important concepts and user-computer interaction.Multiple media\nPedagogical features of the TAPS package: The TAPS package in this study has been developed in such a way that it would not deviate from the method of teaching adopted by the lecturers teaching the mechanics dynamics course in the classroom. The system is developed to include the same pedagogical philosophy that is used in the classroom. For example in solving mechanics problem, students are normally encouraged to draw free body diagrams and kinetic diagrams where appropriate, label all known forces, moments and other parameters, select appropriate datum or reference point, use appropriate formulas and equations to solve the problem. Past research indicated that immediate feedback has a positive impact on learning (Anderson et al., 1995; Kulik and Kulik, 1988) and thus the TAPS packages were designed to provide immediate feedback such as by displaying different colored messages in the comment box on the computer display to indicate correct student actions, correct or wrong answers and so on. In addition, in the event when the student input a wrong answer, the TAPS package will immediately prompt an invalid input has entered and provide some explanation or hints to encourage the student to try again.Consider the example shown in Figure 2(a). The test car starts from rest and travels along a straight track such that it accelerates at a constant rate for 10 seconds and then decelerates at a constant rate. Students are required to draw the v-t (velocity-time) and s-t (distance-time) graphs and determine the time t needed to stop the car. Obviously the student has to develop a series of steps to solve this problem. Traditionally, this problem can be solved analytically, as shown in Figure 3.In the TAPS package, students are encouraged to select and define the correct formula from a drop list and then to use them to enter symbolic equations, and finally solve the question as shown in Figure 4.In order to eliminate poor algebraic skills from undermining the conceptual issues the student is trying to learn, the TAPS package further enable the student to select an equation, and click on a solve button which will then perform the algebraic/arithmetic manipulations necessary to simplify the equation. In the preliminary development stage, the TAPS package has been designed to solve rectilinear kinematics, erratic motion and engineering structure problems. It is anticipated that motion of a projectile problems would be added in the package in the next stage of development. This mechanics dynamics TAPS package is powerful, flexible and user-friendly that has been designed to guide students to solve the given problem in a step-by-step fashion.When solving engineering problem, students need to use and input special characters that are unavailable on the standard keyboard such as the power of two. Thus a character map table has been included in the TAPS package. Users can click the character map button, as shown in Figure 5, that will display all the characters available for editing. Once the required character is selected, the user can copy and paste into the text input box where appropriate. Similarly, a calculator, notepad and glossaries of commands are also included in the TAPS package. An example of glossaries of commands feature is shown in Figure 6. These features are considered as essential components of multimedia learning packages (Cairncross and Mannion, 1999). Cairncross and Mannion (1999) believed that having control over the delivery of information could help promote a sense of ownership over the material, which in turns leads to engagement and active learning.The action interpreter module interprets the student's problem-solving action in the context of the current problem and determines the type of feedback to provide. For example, if the student enters an equation, this is compared to the set of equations produced by the problem-solving engine and if a match occurs, a message to indicate that the equation is correct is displayed as shown in Figure 7. When the student has reached an impasse and has no idea how to proceed, he can click the hint button for help. Some of these buttons are enabled when it is necessary or appropriate and disabled when they are not required in the problem being solved.TAPS package architecture\nDiscussion: This study has provided insights into the development and usage of an interactive TAPS package as an adjunct to traditional teaching and alternative to resource-intense problem-solving tutorials for engineering mechanics dynamics. The study validates the approach adopted for tutoring strategies in which the feedback is provided for individual users by inferring information about them through interactions with the TAPS package interface.The evaluation of the TAPS package materials comprised mainly on quantitative methods which provided validation of the package approach for the acquisition of procedural skills and related basic concepts. More work is necessary to employ qualitative approaches for more detailed analysis of usability of particular materials of the TAPS package. This could provide an insight of how the students use the package in real academic environment, and how their behavior changes with the application of multimedia materials.Although the usefulness of the TAPS package has been revealed in this study, further work is necessary to examine the effectiveness and usability of various parts of the materials allowing the instructor of the subject to pinpoint the areas which have less effect or perhaps negative effect on learning and problem-solving task. These areas may not be identified by a quantitative analysis based on some simple overall measure of effectiveness.Since engineering textbooks of the subject matter may have limitations of students understanding because the books contain unclear engineering sense to students, the use of multimedia technologies are an ideal way to teach undergraduates as they provide direct learning rather than acquiring knowledge through learning by experience. The TAPS package is based on this view of knowledge transfer and targets more focus on acquisition of conceptual knowledge. Both approaches have a role in engineering practical.\nConclusions: The development and employment of multimedia packages for use by students in their learning has been well regarded. In order to provide additional learning aids, we supplemented the theory of learning to solve the selected engineering problem with multimedia technology. The use of multimedia was very rewarding as the students could visualize problems that are sometimes difficult to explain in textbooks. A learning architecture model for developing an interactive TAPS package for visualizing engineering concepts has been discussed. The model basically provides a guideline for designers, developers and facilitators to construct practicable multimedia engineering TAPS package that could be used by students and to support individual self pace learning environments. The TAPS package implemented and described in this paper could support and provide students with a better understanding of the basic concepts in engineering mechanics dynamics course in particular. Generally, the study found that weaker students benefited and appreciated the most from such a TAPS package, in that they found that the subject becomes more interesting, enjoyable, easy, and understandable when compared to the traditional method of classroom learning.Although the TAPS package is at the prototype phase, nevertheless it has shown great potential in enhancing learning and understanding of the relevant theories in the mechanics dynamics course. This paper has shown that interactive multimedia is an effective platform for enhancing learning and to reinforce understanding of basic engineering theories. Further work is in progress to enhance the multimedia TAPS package by adding different engineering problems to incorporate 3-D models in the lessons.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To expose engineering students to using modern technologies, such as multimedia packages, to learn, visualize and solve engineering problems, such as in mechanics dynamics.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A multimedia problem-solving prototype package is developed to help students solve an engineering problem in a step-by-step approach. A learning architecture model for developing an interactive technology-assisted problem solving (TAPS) package for visualizing engineering concepts has been discussed.\nFindings: - The learning model was found to be easy to follow and use and the engineering package can be designed in an easy and visually appealing format. The TAPS package implemented and described in this paper could support and provide students with a better understanding of the basic concepts in an engineering mechanics dynamics course in particular.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The evaluation of the TAPS package materials comprised mainly quantitative methods which provided validation of the package approach for the acquisition of procedural skills and related basic concepts. More work is necessary to employ qualitative approaches for more detailed analysis of usability of particular materials of the TAPS package.\nOriginality/value: - The main originality of the paper can be seen from the development of the package that guides the student intelligently to solve the selected engineering problem. In addition, important user tools are also included which the user may need to use if necessary.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
An aggregated and dynamic analysis of innovations in campus sustainability
|
[
"Campus sustainability",
"Sustainability reporting",
"Innovations",
"AASHE/STARS",
"Drivers of innovations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: For several decades, higher education institutions (HEIs) have played a major role in promoting and implementing sustainable development (SD). Through changes in their operation, curriculum and institutional framework, HEIs champion SD on their campuses. However, to reach their full potential and have transformative impacts, efforts relative to campus sustainability require constant enhancement. To promote campus sustainability, HEIs have launched multiple initiatives, from international declarations on education and sustainability (Dyer and Dyer, 2017) to the creation of campus sustainability networks and assessments (Disterheft et al., 2013). Such initiatives aim to develop pathways toward enhancing campus sustainability through the establishment of clear sustainability benchmarks and diffusing successful innovations.\nLiterature review: In the past two centuries, US universities have championed major social changes in response to challenges of significant scale, such as SD (Caeiro et al., 2013). In one example, to respond to the horror of slavery, many college students and professors became major actors in the Underground Railroad in the 1830s (Slater, 1995). Following a long history of pioneering social change, in the past 40 years, HEIs have been leaders in promoting social change toward sustainability (Disterheft et al., 2013). From the first Earth Day in 1970 (Rome, 2003) to the more recent divestment movement (Grady-Benson and Sarathy, 2015), HEIs have continued to echo and amplify social movements and calls for addressing SD through social change over the years.\nMethods: Innovations\nResults: Topics of innovation\nModes of implementation: EIs are developed via seven modes of implementation described below (Table IV).\nNumber of topics of innovations and modes of implementation: Some EIs span multiple topics of innovations and/or modes of implementation. Indeed, 9.5 per cent of EIs stretch over two topics, whereas 0.7 per cent cover three topics. For instance, Clarkson University (NY, USA) created a research, education and operation agroforestry carbon offsets program in Uganda and explicitly integrated considerations relative to energy, ecosystems and environmental justice and development in the Global South. A number of innovations extend beyond one mode of implementation; 33 per cent of innovations operationalize two modes of implementation, 5.3 per cent of innovations mobilize three modes of implementation and 2.1 per cent of innovations involve more than three modes of implementation. For instance, Colgate University (NY, USA) integrated its campus operation, research and curriculum to establish strong partnerships to enhance forest carbon sequestration and ecological restoration on campus and in Patagonia (Argentina).\nClassification and regression tree models: CART models explore relationships between topics of innovations (dependent variable) and internal and external drivers of innovations (independent variables). Each tree shows how relevant splits in the data explain the relationships between the dependent and independent variables. The most significant splits are made first and arranged at the top of the tree. Subsequently, less important splits are made afterward and arranged lower in the tree. Lower branches of the tree specify which variables condition the adoption of given EIs and are arranged from the most to the least influential. Each branch splits the data in two groups, namely, HEIs that adopted the innovation and others.\nDiscussion: Our analysis shows that for EIs reported in STARS, drivers beyond international declarations, campus sustainability networks and internal agent of change incentivize and provide a favorable context for the implementation of given EIs. External drivers such as climatic zones, local income and poverty rate drive the development of several EIs. For instance, HEIs located in \"cold\" and \"very cold\" climate regions are more likely to develop EIs relative to energy efficiency and renewable energy. Because they use an abundant amount of energy to heat their buildings, they are faced with strong economic and environmental incentives to innovate. HEIs in average socio-economic contexts, where income levels and poverty rates are close to the mean, are more likely to adopt EIs relative to food and environmental justice. This result does not reflect past literature on food and environmental justice EIs that highlights how HEIs located in low-income areas respond to their socio-economic environment by shaping their campus sustainability efforts (Orr and Cohen, 2013). Additional research should be conducted to elucidate the drivers of food and environmental justice EIs and weigh the respective role of agents of change versus local socio-economic contexts. Internal drivers relative to the size of various spaces on campuses and the endowment of HEIs significantly impact the implementation of EIs. In both cases, HEIs with relatively large physical spaces and endowments appear to be more likely to innovate. Possible explanations for these findings may include the fact that large physical space and endowments often correlate with and may reflect broader institutional capacities to develop and report EIs.\nConclusion: To define strategies and policies to efficiently promote campus sustainability, this paper offers the first systematic understanding of campus sustainability innovations and has begun unpacking the complex drivers behind the elaboration of specific EIs. More precisely, the authors asked and provided responses to two fundamental questions: What are the topics and modes of implementation of campus sustainability innovations? What are the external and internal factors that drive the development of specific innovations? The authors arrived at these answers by coding and analyzing 454 innovations reported within STARS. The authors then used descriptive statistics and illustrations to assess the state of EIs within STARS. Furthermore, the authors produced CART models to more distinctly evaluate the role of internal and external drivers in shaping EIs. This study shows that external and internal factors provide an incentive and a favorable context for the implementation of given EIs. In contrast with recent literature, this research also reveals that EIs often broaden the traditional scope and scale of campus sustainability. EIs create new dynamics of innovation that echo and reinforce the culture of an HEI.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to compose a systematic understanding of campus sustainability innovations and unpack the complex drivers behind the elaboration of specific innovations. More precisely, the authors ask two fundamental questions: What are the topics and modes of implementation of campus sustainability innovations? What are the external and internal factors that drive the development of specific innovations?\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors code and analyze 454 innovations reported within the Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Rating System (STARS), the campus sustainability assessment tool of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. Using descriptive statistics and illustrations, the paper assesses the state of environmental innovations (EIs) within STARS. Then, to evaluate the role of internal and external drivers in shaping EIs, the authors have produced classification and regression tree models.\nFindings: The authors' analysis shows that external and internal factors provide incentives and a favorable context for the implementation of given EIs. External drivers such as climatic zones, local income and poverty rate drive the development of several EIs. Internal drivers beyond the role of the agent of change, often primarily emphasized by past literature, significantly impact the implementation of given EIs. The authors' work also reveals that EIs often move beyond traditional mitigation approaches and the boundaries of campus. EIs create new dynamics of innovation that echo and reinforce the culture of a higher education institution.\nOriginality/value: This work provides the first aggregated picture of EIs in the USA and Canada. It produces a new and integrated understanding of the dynamics of campus sustainability that complexifies narratives and contextualizes the role of change agents.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The preferences of Chinese LIS journal articles in citing works outside the discipline
|
[
"Bibliometrics",
"Interdisciplinary studies",
"Machine learning",
"Chinese LIS",
"Citation preference",
"Knowledge import"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The approach to knowledge production adopted by contemporary science community is problem driven, blurring links between pure and applied and disciplinary borders and leading to interdisciplinarity (Gibbons et al., 1994; Milojevic, 2014). Interdisciplinary research is increasingly significant and widespread (Szostak, 2008; Xu et al., 2016), generating innovation (Cummings and Kiesler, 2005), complementing capabilities (Bidault and Hildebrand, 2014) and addressing real-life problems (Milojevic, 2014; Bornmann, 2017) by emphasizing and promoting knowledge exchange and cross-disciplinary collaboration (Liu et al., 2011; Ma et al., 2014). Library and information science (LIS) is commonly defined as an interdisciplinary field (Karki, 1996; Saracevic, 1999; Prebor, 2010). With the economic reform and opening-up of China in 1978, Chinese LIS has been growing at an accelerated pace (Wu and Yuan, 1994; Hu et al., 2011). There have been more LIS articles listed in China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database (265,562) than in Library and Information Science Abstracts (195,472) during the same period of 1998-2013. It is fair to say that, in the course of development, there is a golden rule for all disciplines to have themselves as a solid base while strengthening their communication with other disciplines, and there is no exception for Chinese LIS (Chen, 2012).\n2. Literature review: Citation analysis is commonly used to study the interdisciplinarity of LIS and the influences it received from outside the discipline (Meyer and Spencer, 1996; Buttlar, 1999; Tang, 2004). Researchers have different views on the extent of LIS' dependence on other disciplines by analyzing self-citations of LIS (Huang and Ho, 2007; Lariviere et al., 2012) and the disciplines outside LIS that have the greatest impact on LIS are identified based on the citation frequency of those disciplines (Pettigrew and McKechnie, 2001; Tang, 2004). It has been nearly a century since LIS was first taught in Chinese universities, and the practice of knowledge import from outside the discipline started in the 1930s when research methods in fields of advertising, linguistics, statistics and economics began to be applied to library science (Li, 1935; Jiang, 1995). Different disciplines have different influences on Chinese LIS at different times (Chen and Wang, 2010).\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Data and samples\n4. Results: 4.1 Disciplinary distribution of cited WOD\n5. Discussion and conclusions: 5.1 Chinese LIS researchers prefer citing researches from other disciplines\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand how Chinese library and information science (LIS) journal articles cite works from outside the discipline (WOD) to identify the impact of knowledge import from outside the discipline on LIS development.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper explores the Chinese LIS' preferences in citing WOD by employing bibliometrics and machine learning techniques.\nFindings: Chinese LIS citations to WOD account for 29.69 percent of all citations, and they rise over time. Computer science, education and communication are the most frequently cited disciplines. Under the categorization of Biglan model, Chinese LIS prefers to cite WOD from soft science, applied science or nonlife science. In terms of community affiliation, the cited authors are mostly from the academic community, but rarely from the practice community. Mass media has always been a citation source that is hard to ignore. There is a strong interest of Chinese LIS in citing emerging topics.\nPractical implications: This paper can be implemented in the reformulation of Chinese LIS knowledge system, the promotion of interdisciplinary collaboration, the development of LIS library collection and faculty advancement. It may also be used as a reference to develop strategies for the global LIS.\nOriginality/value: This paper fills the research gap in analyzing citations to WOD from Chinese LIS articles and their impacts on LIS, and recommends that Chinese LIS should emphasize on knowledge both on technology and people as well as knowledge from the practice community, cooperate with partners from other fields, thus to produce knowledge meeting the demands from library and information practice as well as users.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Professional development of HR practitioners - a phenomenographic study
|
[
"Phenomenography",
"Professional development",
"HR practitioners",
"Non-formal learning"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: As a former human resource (HR) practitioner and currently a lecturer in HR with a strong commitment to professional development, I was alarmed to learn that participation in continuing professional development (CPD) by professionals, including HR practitioners, appears to be erratic (Friedman and Phillips, 2001; Farmer and Campbell, 1997). This led me to speculate about how, if at all, they keep their professional knowledge, personal skills and competencies up to date. Is there a lack of awareness of the necessity to keep up to date (Cullen et al., 2002; Evans, 2009a, 2009b)? This must surely raise questions about the quality of service that HR practitioners, the focus of this study, deliver, and the resultant effect on the status of the profession as a whole (Reed, 2008).\nLiterature review: Continuing professional development\nMethod: Phenomenography is a research approach, rather than a method, which aims at describing, analysing and understanding experiences (Richardson, 1999; Ireland et al., 2009; Marton, 1986), or in other words \"the various ways of conceiving a phenomenon\" (Micari et al., 2007, p. 460) and seems to be appropriate because it is an empirical research approach which was designed in the 1970s in Sweden by Ference Marton (Anden et al., 2009) to answer pedagogical questions (Orgill, 2002); more specifically, to understand why some students are better learners than others. Dortins (2002) identifies that the purpose of phenomenographic research has been to illustrate the various ways in which learners capture their learning, thus contributing to the body of knowledge relating to teaching and learning, and as this study is fundamentally about learning, would seem an appropriate choice. The word has Greek roots and is derived from the words, appearance and description. This approach, therefore, comprises a description of appearances (Orgill, 2002). In this study, I intend to discover the qualitatively different ways - because I believe from my own experience and anecdotal evidence, there will be differences - in the ways in which people (HR practitioners) understand, experience and think about given phenomena (non-formal learning and professional development). Phenomenography is concerned with \"the relation between the subjects and the phenomenon and not the phenomenon itself\" (Bowden and Green, 2005, p. 12). The reason for this form of qualitative approach is because the research questions which need to be answered relate to the HR practitioners' understanding and experience of, and relationship with, the phenomena. By concentrating on the differences identified by the participants, the truth of the phenomena being studied will emerge (Sjostrom and Dahlgren, 2002). It seemed to me that by using the phenomenographical approach, a fresh perspective about how the \"learning about the phenomenon is undertaken, experienced and applied in context\" (Stein et al., 2009, p. 1) would emerge. The historical approach to research in relation to professional development and CPD (Farmer and Campbell, 1997; Rothwell and Arnold, 2005) has been mainly phenomenological, which Marton identifies as being concerned with \"describing what the world would look like without having learned or taken for granted\" (Richardson, 1999, p. 60). People, in this context HR practitioners, are all individuals, have had varying experiences and will, as a result, experience a phenomena differently, which would appear to be justification for a phenomenographical approach. Not only that but in the light of the notion that conceptions (Stein et al., 2009) and thoughts (Beddoes-Jones, 1999) influence individuals' behaviours and perspectives, it seems likely that the phenomenographic approach may generate new data. Stein et al. (2009, p. 1) seem to concur when they say \"the conceptions an individual holds about a phenomenon can influence and determine associated behaviours and perspectives\". Another reason for using this approach is that there have been important contributions to learning and teaching knowledge which have resulted from previous phenomenographical research (Prosser and Trigwell, 1997; Watkins, 2004). In fact, phenomenography has been used to research various experiences of learning (Mann, 2009) and the foci of this study, professional development and non-formal learning mechanisms, relate to learning.\nResults and discussion: There are two outcomes of phenomenographic analysis, the first is categories of description and the second is to explain the relationship of the categories - the outcome space - and the relevant cross category themes, or dimensions of variation within the outcome space (Trigwell, 2006; Anden et al., 2009; Soon and Barnard, 2002). Mindful of validity and reliability in the research process, the analysis followed the four-step process suggested by Marton (1994), cited by Schroder et al. (2005) and Soon and Barnard (2002). Throughout the whole analysis process, the research questions were uppermost in my mind as well as my responsibility to the participants in terms of interpreting not only what and how they responded but the context also. Throughout the analysis process, I was consciously mindful of interpretive awareness (Sanbergh, 2006). In addition, each step involved much immersion and iteration of the data. Based on Sanbergh's (2006) suggestion, feedback from colleague lecturers and doctoral students was sought at various stages of the analysis process. Direct quotes were used throughout the analysis process to aid transparency and reliability in as much as the reader is in a position to make a judgement on the findings as they are presented (Sandelowski, 1993; Cope, 2002).\nConclusions: A number of findings resulted from this exploratory study. These are outlined in the remainder of this paper. I believe though, that although the focus of this study was the HR profession, the findings are relevant to a wider range of professions. The findings are relevant and are likely to be of interest to practitioners, employers and professional bodies.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is an investigation into the experiences of professional development of human resource (HR) practitioners in the North of Scotland, and the use of non-formal learning in that development.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In-depth semi-structured interviews from a purposively selected sample of HR practitioners were conducted. Data from these interviews was analysed on a phenomenographic basis, to discover the qualitatively different ways in which HR practitioners describe, experience, understand and analyse their professional development and the use of non-formal learning in that development.\nFindings: What emerged from the analysis were two sets of categories of description, one for each of the phenomena. An outcome space for each of the phenomena emerged, illustrating the hierarchical relationship within each set of categories of description as well as the dimensions of variation relating to the phenomena. These outcome spaces represent the collective experience of the practitioners on the subjects of professional development and non-formal learning.\nResearch limitations/implications: Sample size and the specific geographical area are acknowledged as limitations. Another factor which may be considered a limitation is that the author's position as an HR lecturer with a keen interest in the subject could lead to this being considered an \"insider\" study. All these factors are acknowledged. These have been mitigated against by the careful preparation undertaken during the research process which resulted from the author's awareness of these limitations.\nOriginality/value: This study has given a voice to the HR practitioners in the North of Scotland with regard to their experiences and attitudes towards their professional development and the role of non-formal learning in that development. This study gives employers, other practitioners and professional bodies an opportunity to learn from the practitioners themselves as to how they can help practitioners in terms of their development.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Commemorating the life and work of Professor Ross Davies, 1940-2005
|
[
"Retailing",
"Management technique",
"Education",
"Academic staff"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The untimely death of Ross Davies in 2005 robbed his academic associates, as well as retail and development practitioners, of a passionate advocate of retailing and a close and supportive colleague. As a founding Director of the Oxford Institute of Retail Management (OXIRM) and a contributor to the work of the retail management group at the University of Surrey, Ross' work paralleled and encouraged the professionalisation of the sector. This festschrift of papers, comprising a special issue of the journal, has been prepared by some of his friends and colleagues in Oxford, Guildford, London and Manchester, some of whom were his former students. The authors are particularly grateful to Emerald and to Professor John Fernie for their support in making space available in IJRDM. The commissioned articles address a common set of themes close to Ross' research interests in retail development and planning, retail innovation and retail-led regeneration.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To introduce a commemorative collection of articles by colleagues and former students of the late Professor Ross Davies, a leading UK academic in the field of retail management.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Outlines the development of Ross Davies' career and enumerates his particular contributions to the development of academic studies of retailing. Summarises the objectives of each paper in the collection.\nFindings: - The paper identifies the link between the authors of papers and Professor Davies' work.\nOriginality/value: - Demonstrates the ways in which an academic was able to relate sound scholarship to the practical needs of retailers, service companies and public sector agencies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Evaluating the impact of coaching skills training on individual and corporate behaviour
|
[
"Communication",
"Change",
"Training",
"Development",
"Training",
"Change",
"Organisational change",
"Problem-solving",
"Development",
"Organisational change",
"Coaching skills"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This paper concerns the evaluation of a training programme designed to help individuals within an arts-based organisation to develop coaching skills. The research question is: what was the impact of an intervention designed to develop and encourage the use of coaching skills in a small organisation, and what factors appear to have influenced this impact?\nCoaching practices, coaching training and support for change: Coaching practice includes a range of different approaches, styles and techniques (Cox et al., 2014). However, most definitions of coaching emphasise that it concerns one person helping another (or more than one other) to learn and develop (Connor and Pokora, 2017; Rogers, 2012). This learning and development may have a particular focus on improving performance, on acquiring or refining particular skills or on longer-term personal development (Grant and Hartley, 2013), or it may concern supporting the person being coached to make decisions and, thus, to develop their decision-making ability (Zeus and Skiffington, 2002).\nThe programme: The five one-day workshops in the programme introduced key ideas and techniques relating to coaching and allocated time to discussion, participation and practice sessions. The 25 participants were divided into two groups, and each workshop was delivered to each group. Some participants moved between the two groups as diary and scheduling issues dictated.\nMethodology: The research sought to understand perceptions of the impact of the coaching skills programme, on individuals and on the organisation as a whole and to identify the factors that appeared to have influenced this impact. This type of research enquiry is a suitable subject for a case study (Yin, 2014). The case that is researched is not presented as representative of all such cases, but findings may indicate phenomena which might be found in other settings (Yin, 2014, p. 21). The research approach in this study was interpretivist (Bryman, 2016), as it sought the perceptions of the participants who had undertaken the training.\nFindings and discussion: Positive impacts: individuals\nConclusions: This training programme enabled the development of skills and understanding such that those who agreed to contribute to the evaluation said that they developed their abilities to listen more effectively and to ask better questions. They felt better able to tackle problems and to help others to do so. They became able to engage in coaching in informal contexts and better able to work cooperatively with one another in group situations. Those who invested more time and effort between workshops in practising coaching skills and techniques demonstrated development of those capabilities. Individuals also believed they had developed their understanding of the organisation and had formed better relationships with colleagues in different departments.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of a training intervention designed to develop and encourage the use of coaching skills in a small arts-based organisation and assess the factors that appear to have influenced this impact.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The programme, its effects and factors that influenced its impact were assessed through ongoing feedback and evaluation and through information gathered in a focus group and in one-to-one interviews with participants at the conclusion of the programme.\nFindings: The programme had individual and organisational benefits, including improved skills in communication and problem-solving and a better understanding of a range of problems affecting the organisation. Factors enabling these benefits included participation of senior managers in the programme and coaching practice that focused on real workplace issues. Factors limiting these benefits included a lack of a clear statement about the purpose of the programme.\nResearch limitations/implications: This relates to a programme within a single organisation, and the findings may not be generalisable.\nPractical implications: Through training individuals in coaching skills, it is possible to improve the skills needed for cooperative working and joint problem-solving. A corporate training programme in coaching skills can surface a range of organisational problems and enable progress to be made in tackling them.\nOriginality/value: There is little empirical research evaluating the impact of training in coaching skills. This paper identifies how such training can develop leadership skills and indicates practical factors that may enhance or limit the impact of the training.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Individual social capital and access to rural services in Northern Vietnam
|
[
"Agricultural economies",
"Vietnam",
"Social capital",
"Rural services",
"Rural households"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Restricted access to public and private services can negatively affect the wealth of individuals as well as that of society as a whole. Often, the services that are missing, such as education, formal credit, or health care, are accused of exacerbating poverty (Boucher et al., 2009; Wennink et al., 2007). Being excluded from access to services is not only a cause of poverty but also a dimension of it (Campbell et al., 2010). Marginalized strata of society such as ethnic minorities frequently face difficulties in accessing services, particularly in rural areas. In rural areas, service markets often come with high transaction costs. If the transaction costs are too high, the consequences could be either no transaction at all or rationing on the supply side (Williamson, 1985). It has been repeatedly stated that social capital can mitigate market and state failures and improve access to services by reducing transaction costs (Manning, 2010)[1]. In this context, social capital can play an important role, particularly for the rural poor (Wennink et al., 2007).\n2. Theoretical framework: 2.1. Concepts of social capital and its measurement\n3. Methodology and data: 3.1. Sample and data\n4. The econometric model: 4.1. The model\n5. Exclusion from rural services in Vietnam: The regression diagnostics are all within standard range. The overall fit of the model is satisfactory and the correlation tables and the variance inflation factor showed no problems regarding multicolinearity. Table V presents the results of our two logit regressions using subjective exclusion from services (Y1) and adjusted exclusion (Y2) as dependent variables. The results of these two regressions look quite similar. One may believe that both results are similar robust. We applied a sensitivity analysis of the logit results with respect to the variables included, following the procedure used in Barslund et al. (2007) (the results are not shown due to space constraint but are available upon request). Concerning the social capital variables, the results from Y2 (the adjusted measure) are much more robust. Hence, we are focussing our interpretation on Y2.\n6. Conclusions: Most of the literature on service access (such as access to credit) has either ignored social capital in its analysis or has applied oversimplified measures. Our measures of social capital are more elaborated and focus on its relational character, namely, the social ties of the survey respondents. In our analysis we distinguish two dimensions with regard to social capital: tie strength; and social distance. This leaves us with four measures of social capital we have four different measures of social capital: bonding; bridging; bondinglink; and bridginglink. Thus, our measures of social capital do not only correct for the simplification but the findings and conclusions are clearly useful beyond Vietnam.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of network-based individual social capital on the access of rural households to services.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In the context of development economics, an innovative data collection approach is used to determine network-based social capital. The approach originates from the field of sociology and entails a personal network survey. The authors define four social capital variables according to tie strength and social distance between the respondent and his/her network member.\nFindings: Social network ties are not homogeneous. The econometric results suggest that social capital with weaker ties in combination with socially distant ties can potentially improve households' access to rural services.\nResearch limitations/implications: The empirical survey focusses on a single province in Northern Vietnam. Thus, the main limitation of the micro-study is its regional focus. A more representative sample of the whole country would be desirable to backup the policy recommendation.\nOriginality/value: The results indicate that access to services in rural Vietnam it still too personalized and subjective. Thus, a thorough review of the access procedures and making them more objective would be better choice. This would also root out a potential alley for corruption and nepotism.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
An evaluation of stakeholder relationship marketing in China
|
[
"Relationship marketing",
"Stakeholder analysis",
"China",
"Business analysis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: As practised in the 1980s and 1990s relationship marketing had a strong emphasis on business to customer relationships within a customer relationship marketing paradigm (Berry, 1983; Gronroos, 1997; Gummesson, 1999; Kotler and Armstrong, 1999) as illustrated by Kotler and Armstrong's (1999, p.550) definition of relationship marketing:The key: customer relationship marketingRelationship marketing involves creating, maintaining, and enhancing strong relationships with customers and other stakeholders. Relationship marketing is orientated to the long term. The goal is to deliver long-term value to customers, and the measure of success is long-term customer satisfaction.However, many commentators (Freeman, 1984; Arrow, 1988; Murphy, 1988; Verbeke, 1992; Polonsky, 1995; Murphy et al., 1997, 1999, 2005; Payne et al., 2001, 2005; Christopher et al., 2003) have expressed the view that a business is a coalition of stakeholders including employees, suppliers, shareholders, the community, as well as customers, and thus the scope of relationship marketing should be expanded to embrace business to stakeholder relationships. As expressed in the Kotler and Armstrong (1999) definition of relationship marketing, a common customer relationship marketing performance measure is long-term customer satisfaction. This could be considered as an intermediate outcome measure along the way to achieving sustainable business financial performance in terms of return on investment, a crucial end point marketing performance measure (Matear et al., 2003).Moving from a customer orientation to a stakeholder orientation has been demonstrated to improve business return on investment (Berman et al., 1999; Caulkin, 2002). A stakeholder orientation implies that the ultimate objective of a business is to create value for all of its stakeholders beyond just value to customers. Elkington's (1997) Triple bottom line (TBL) business philosophy implies that the creation of value for all stakeholders requires the traditional single business objective of achieving a single bottom line of maximum economic returns to shareholder stakeholders to be augmented to a tripartite sustainable business objective of achieving optimal economic, social, and environmental returns to all stakeholders.Murphy et al. (2005) have encapsulated the modern consideration of an holistic business as a coalition of stakeholders with TBL objectives of achieving sustainable economic, social, and environmental value for all stakeholders by augmenting the prevailing customer relationship marketing paradigm to an holistic stakeholder relationship marketing paradigm. They postulate the stakeholder relationship marketing model as a framework for measuring marketing performance in an holistic sense.The stakeholder relationship marketing model\nAnalysis: The stakeholder performance appraisal\nConclusions: From the literature and the quantitative and qualitative stakeholder performance appraisal analysis of the two businesses, it can be concluded that the foundational principles of the stakeholder relationship marketing model are not new for Chinese businesses. Chinese people always respect Confucianist traders who conduct business ethically with Confucianist theory as their direction. One view is that profit with ethics go together, that profit is not just used for developing the business but also contributes to society; from society, returned to society.In Chinese culture, the stakeholder relationship marketing model has been understood as:* Doing business sincerely, honestly, ethically. (In Chinese this is called Wenming Jingshan (see Chinese word 1)).* Paying attention to decorum no matter what the situation is.* Implementing business with ethics, that is dao ((see Chinese word 2)).There is a famous Chinese saying that making profit has to do with following dao ((see Chinese word 3), (see Chinese word 4)). The concept of dao does not only refer to business ethics, but also includes sustainable use of natural resources and preservation of the environment.* Treating your customers, suppliers, employees, and community with sincerity.* Fair trading.* Looking for long term rather than short term profit.* Ensuring that what the customers need and want is the direction for the business.Stakeholder relationship marketing is not only practical but also critical in China. The Chinese economy serves a 1.3 billion population and is still growing. Economic activity to support this growth has pillaged China's natural resources and has damaged its environment. Economic prosperity should not necessarily mean environmental degradation; in fact, for a business to follow the stakeholder relationship marketing model makes good business sense.China is the fifth largest exporter in the world and it plays an important role in balancing the multilateral trading system. Its global presence depends on its ability to enhance the value proposition of its leading brands and companies requiring transparency, openness and sensitivity to stakeholder attitudes which are new concepts for China.The two Chinese businesses perform well overall and are in line with their Western counterparts who comprised 57 out of the 59 businesses in the FRG SPA benchmark database as at November 2004. The application of the stakeholder performance appraisal to both businesses went smoothly, the quantitative indicators appear to have been understood and responded to in similar patterns to Western businesses, and the qualitative questions elicited much the same volume of responses as from Western businesses.Both businesses did not concentrate only on profit and see their businesses as coalitions to serve all parties involved. The businesses believed that business success should be measured by satisfaction among all stakeholders, and believed that social responsibility is a business matter. They both claimed that society is best served by pursuing joint interests and economic symbiosis. Stakeholders' interests are thought to form the foundation of corporate strategy itself, representing what we are and what we stand for.Both businesses realised that a good business reputation can certainly motivate employee productivity; stronger customer relationships; and ultimately a better bottom line. A business's reputation is more crucial than before with the trend of globalisation and high speed information technology. Reputation can affect not only the success of a business in terms of monetary return, but also has the ability to attract potential employees, suppliers, etc.However, the shareholders of both businesses are not sure about their strategy. The reason for this is the uncertainty of the financial return of the businesses. In China, the market is still different from the international market, eg, the business unit, with state ownership, joint ventures, foreign investments, etc, will make competition more complicated. Both businesses have realised that concentrating on winning short-term profit will not ensure long-term survival. Due to the Chinese economy catching up with the international market, the advantage of a focus on stakeholder relationship marketing will become more obvious, as shown by the benchmark analysis of the FRG SPA database.Today, all articles seem to be about how remarkable China's economic growth is and how many opportunities there are there; tomorrow we will read about its impact on the environment and society. As the 2008 Olympic Games will be held in Beijing, these issues will be more openly discussed. In order to survive in the international market, Chinese businesses should focus on stakeholder relationship marketing as a prerequisite for long-term business success. This study shows that a guide line such as the stakeholder relationship marketing model is an appropriate tool for businesses to use to determine the right strategy for long-term success. Overall, it can be concluded that the stakeholder relationship marketing model and its measurement instrument the stakeholder performance appraisal are as applicable to Chinese businesses as they are to Western businesses.\nResearch issues and future research: As only two Chinese businesses have been researched the results can be considered as an indicative evaluation of stakeholder relationship marketing in China, providing the foundation for definitive validation coming from research on more Chinese businesses which is planned. In addition it is planned to test the stakeholder relationship marketing model in other non-Western cultural contexts such as India.None-the-less, the fact that the stakeholder performance appraisal results for the two Chinese businesses in this study are in line with their Western counterparts in the FRG SPA database, together with the existence of congruence between Chinese classical philosophy and the underlying Western principles of the stakeholder relationship marketing model, is reasonable confirmation of the applicability of the Western paradigm of stakeholder relationship marketing to Chinese businesses.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the applicability of the stakeholder relationship marketing model, a new marketing model, to Chinese businesses.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Within the stakeholder relationship marketing model holistic marketing performance is reflected in the delivery of long-term economic, social, and environmental value to customer, employee, supplier, community, and shareholder stakeholders of a business in order to enhance sustainable financial performance. Stakeholder relationship marketing performance is measured in a stakeholder performance appraisal. The applicability of the Western stakeholder relationship marketing model in the Chinese context is tested by undertaking stakeholder performance appraisals on two Chinese businesses.\nFindings: - Results show that the performance of the two Chinese businesses is in line with the 57 Western businesses in the Future Research Group stakeholder performance appraisal benchmark database, and that the stakeholder relationship marketing model is applicable to the Chinese context both philosophically and practically.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The results can be considered as an indicative evaluation of stakeholder relationship marketing in China as a foundation for definitive validation from planned research on more Chinese businesses.\nPractical implications: - The stakeholder performance appraisal provides Chinese businesses with a perceptual overview of holistic marketing performance and concomitant business financial performance from stakeholders. These data enable Chinese businesses, like their Western counterparts, to plan stakeholder relationship marketing strategies to enhance marketing performance and to predict future financial performance.\nOriginality/value: - This study extends the newly developed stakeholder relationship marketing model from a Western context to the Chinese context and demonstrates the congruence between Western and Chinese holistic business philosophy.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Implementation of an in-hospital stroke simulation protocol
|
[
"Quality measures",
"Quality improvement",
"Simulation",
"Stroke",
"Nursing outcomes"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nBackground: Stroke is the fifth leading cause of death in the USA and the leading cause of severe long-term disability (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015). Early recognition and treatment of stroke is vital to patient survival and minimization of disability. An estimated 4.4-17 percent of strokes occur among hospital inpatients (Dulli and Samaniego, 2007; Kimura et al., 2006). Inpatient strokes may be more severe and lead to worse prognosis that community-based strokes (Cumbler et al., 2014; Dulli and Samaniego, 2007).\nPurpose: Under current Joint Commission standards, patients presenting with stroke symptoms should be rapidly triaged and diagnosed; those experiencing ischemic stroke should be treated with intravenous thrombolytic therapy within three hours of the onset of symptoms (Joint Commission, 2016; QualityNet, 2014). As a result of these recommendations, a large, urban, university-based hospital in South Florida updated its stroke protocols with the goal of becoming certified as a primary stroke center. To meet this goal, hospital administration collaborated with a local school of nursing to train nurse personnel to meet the new standards using traditional methods and simulation. As part of this quality improvement project, the impact of the educational program was evaluated.\nMethodology: After obtaining institutional review board approval, flyers were distributed throughout the hospital's cardiology and neurological units inviting all nurses (n=101) to participate in a quality improvement project regarding the new stroke protocol. A total of 86 nurses agreed to participate. Cardiology and neurology were chosen because at this study site these patients are at higher risk of presenting with stroke symptoms. A previous multisite study found on inpatient stroke found the most common departments for inpatient stroke to be cardiology, cardiovascular surgery, and neurology (Vera et al., 2011).\nResults: Change in stroke knowledge\nImplications: This study used simulation to improve knowledge among nursing personnel in a major urban hospital with the current stroke standards of care. Through simulation learning activities, the nursing staff refined their skills and enhanced their critical thinking with the goal of improving patient outcomes in the units. By offering simulation as a component of the instructional experience, we established a convenient teaching method that may have been more effective than the use of a didactic lecture without simulation. Results supported previous findings by Robinson and Dearmon (2013) as well as Khalaila (2014). Simulation in this context once again proved to be a useful tool to train healthcare providers, leading to improved knowledge of the new stroke protocol with the potential to improve patient safety and quality of care.\nOriginality/value: The simulation activity simultaneously served as a learning experience and as a test of the nurses' ability to put into practice the knowledge of the stroke protocol that they had acquired through the PowerPoint lecture. Results show that overall, when confronted with a simulated stroke scenario with a \"real-life\" standardized patient, the teams of nurses struggled to apply their new knowledge to the situation. As noted, 53-74 percent of the teams failed to complete one-third of the items, while 15-26 percent did not complete another one-third of the items. These results suggest that participation in the lecture alone was not sufficient to ensure that the nurses would be prepared to use their knowledge in a real-world scenario, even when they obtained high scores on the multiple-choice Stroke Module Test following the lecture (Time Point 3). The simulation activity debriefing session was used to re-instruct the participants regarding any content areas in which they had not performed well. Future efforts might include implementing a second stroke simulation activity a few weeks after the first simulation in order to demonstrate whether nurses are more successful in applying knowledge after participating in the initial simulation and debriefing, and to conduct follow-up 12 months or longer to evaluate retention of the training.\nConclusion: Despite barriers to training clinicians within the hospital setting, the use of simulation has been shown to be beneficial in this process. The present study provides a helpful model for how to establish new care protocols in a hospital setting. Bringing training to the workplace setting can facilitate the participation of busy nurses both in lectures and simulation activities. This instruction can be bolstered by adding a simulation activity to a traditional lecture format, thereby increasing clinician knowledge and providing an opportunity to implement the information learned during the lecture. Through this experiential style of learning, nurses are able to think critically during a scenario and make mistakes in a safe environment. Exposing nurses to simulated scenarios can develop critical thinking skills related to stroke, and prepare them to react more effectively in similar situations in the future.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: A major component of hospital stroke care involves prompt identification of stroke in admitted patients. Delays in recognizing stroke symptoms and initiating treatment for in-hospital stroke can adversely impact patient outcomes. This quality improvement intervention used simulation together with a traditional lecture to instruct nurses at a university hospital about a new stroke protocol being implemented to increase rapid recognition of stroke and meet Joint Commission National Hospital Inpatient Quality Measures. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In total, 86 registered nurses from the neurology and cardiology units attended a lecture and participated in a simulation scenario with a standardized patient exhibiting stroke symptoms. Participants completed a ten-item pre-test to measure their knowledge of stroke care prior to the lecture; they repeated the test pre-simulation and once again post-simulation to evaluate changes in knowledge.\nFindings: Overall mean stroke knowledge scores increased significantly from pre-lecture to pre-simulation, and from pre-simulation to post-simulation. Simulation plus lecture was more effective than lecture alone in increasing knowledge about hospital stroke protocol despite assigned unit (cardiology or neurology), years of experience, or previous exposure to simulation.\nResearch limitations/implications: All eligible nurses who agreed to participate received training, making it impossible to compare improvements in knowledge to those who did not receive the training.\nOriginality/value: A diverse array of nursing professionals and their patients may benefit from simulation training. This quality improvement intervention provides a feasible model for establishing new care protocols in a hospital setting.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The effects of consumption values and relational benefits on smartphone brand switching behavior
|
[
"Consumer behaviour",
"Structural equation modelling",
"End users",
"Mobile communication",
"Cognitive theories"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The rapid launches of new models in every smartphone brand have stimulated the growth of the smartphone market and led consumers to frequently change their smartphones. A report by eMarketer (2016) estimated that 73.4 percent of Taiwan's population uses smartphones, and it was predicted that the rate will reach 80 percent by 2020. Moreover, the new Digital in 2017 Global Overview (We Are Social, 2017) indicated that the total number of social users who accessed social media via smartphone reached 2.549bn people (34 percent were active) in 2017, and has shown an annual growth of 21 percent. It was also reported that in Taiwan, the penetration of social media has reached 81 percent of the national population. Statista (2017) estimated that smartphone users in Taiwan will increase from 17.2m in 2016 to 18.8m in 2020. The above statistics show that smartphones have become a ubiquitous communication tool.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Cognition-affect-behavior (CAB) model\n3. Development of hypotheses: 3.1 The product consumption values and brand commitment (H1)\n4. Research design and results: A quantitative research approach with an online questionnaire was adopted to conduct the study. All construct scales were designed based on prior literature and definitions (see Table AI). Consumers who owned at least one branded smartphone from Taiwan's five most popular brands were eligible to participate in the pilot test and the formal survey. According to eMarketer (2016), the top five smartphone brands in Taiwan market are Samsung (24.5 percent), ASUS (16.2 percent), Apple (15.7 percent), HTC (15.0 percent) and Sony Mobile (7.7 percent). Participants were first asked which brand of smartphone they use, how long they have used it, what their experiences have been when making inquiries at the smartphone brand retail store, etc. There were 55 items in the questionnaire, including experience items and demographic items. In total, 43 items were used to measure the research constructs, and all were on a seven-point Likert scale ranging from 1 \"strongly disagree\" to 7 \"strongly agree.\" A pilot test with 133 valid responses was conducted to assess the reliability and internal consistency of all constructs. Standard item-to-total correlation (>0.50) and Cronbach's a (>0.70) were computed and showed that the constructs' reliability and internal consistency requirements were satisfied.\n5. Conclusions and recommendations: 5.1 Discussion\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model for smartphone brand switching behavior, based on the consumption value theory (functional value, emotional value, social value and epistemic value) and the cognition affect behavior (CAB) model. Two paths - product consumption values and retail service relational benefits - were considered as the cognitive elements to predict brand commitment (affect) and smartphone brand switching behavior. In addition, switching cost was used to measure the moderating effect on the relationship between brand commitment and smartphone brand switching behavior.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research examined whether product consumption value and cognitive benefits related to retail services will enhance brand commitment and then further decrease smartphone brand switching behavior. Switching cost was predicted as a moderator in the model. An investigation of consumers who own a particular brand of smartphone (e.g. the top five smartphone brands: Samsung, Apple, HTC, Sony and Asus) was conducted, and 565 valid responses were collected for the structural equation modeling analysis.\nFindings: The results demonstrated that emotional value, social value, epistemic value and confidence benefits increased consumer brand commitment and predicted less smartphone brand switching behavior. In addition, switching cost played a significant moderator role in the relationship between brand commitment and brand switching behavior.\nPractical implications: A multiple cognitive paths design, with a consumption values aspect and a relational benefits aspect, can elaborate consumer perceptions of product values and service benefits simultaneously, which can lead to a better understanding of the whole picture of the brand services and the key reasons why consumers commit to a brand. Administrators of brand vendors are suggested to improve product innovation and the professionalism of sales services in order to facilitate consumer consumption values, increase their degree of confidence in members of sales staff and, in the meantime, help these administrators gain an understanding of the real reasons for brand switching so as to provide solutions leading to the maintenance of consumer brand commitment through products or services. This is, in turn, likely to increase continued usage intention and reduce the possibility of brand switching.\nOriginality/value: This study extended the consumption value theory and the CAB model to show that product consumption value and cognitive benefits related to retail services can enhance brand commitment and further decrease smartphone brand switching behavior. The results indicated that brand retailer managers should regularly conduct activities to connect with their customers to induce consumption values and relational benefits and, consequently, increase brand commitment and prevent customer switching behavior.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Managerial perceptions of the competitive environment and dynamic capabilities generation
|
[
"Individual perception",
"Managers",
"Learning",
"Organizations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: There is no doubt that firms now find themselves in high-speed competitive environments where maintaining competitive advantage is a definite challenge (Avila et al., 2009).Our study seeks to identify the keys to survival and even progress in such difficult competitive environments. To achieve this goal, our research adopts the framework of the theory of resources and capabilities (Barney, 1986, 1991, 2001; Peteraf, 1993; Rumelt, 1991; Teece, 1982; Wernerfelt, 1984), specifically the dynamic capabilities (DC) focus (Eisenhardt and Martin, 2000; Teece et al., 1997), which attempts to explain why adaptive differences are found among firms in the same sector (Teece, 2007).Currently, the main challenge for the DC focus is to develop empirical studies that provide evidence to resolve the conceptual debates in the literature (Ambrosini et al., 2009; Aragon-Correa and Sharma, 2003; Macher and Mowery, 2009; Narayanan et al., 2009). This paper contributes to the emerging literature on DC by measuring the relationship between managerial perceptions of competitive environment and DC generation.In defining DC, the literature consistently refers to their utility for survival and advance in challenging competitive environments. This study thus investigates to what extent managers' perceptions stimulate the development of DC in the organization. We base our work on the model proposed by Zollo and Winter (2002), which establishes that DC are developed through three learning mechanisms responsible for renewing existing knowledge in the organization.The paper makes three main contributions:1. Measurement of the DC generated in the organization, using three measurement scales for learning mechanisms (experience accumulation, knowledge articulation, and knowledge codification).2. Empirical evidence to confirm that perceived munificence promotes the use of learning mechanisms to generate DC, despite the fact that only negative environmental dimensions (dynamism and complexity) have been considered in the DC literature.3. Demonstration that the generation of DC is not a necessary condition for survival in some context.When managers perceive the environment as stable and simple, they tend not to devote resources to generating DC. Only when managers perceive a high degree of dynamism and complexity in the environment do they promote the generation of DC.\n2 Literature review: 2.1 Dynamic capabilities focus\n3 Research model and hypotheses: 3.1 Managerial perception of dynamism\n4 Research design and methodology: 4.1 Measures and survey\n5 Statistical research: To contrast the hypotheses, we first performed a multivariate regression analysis, in which the dependent variables were the three learning mechanisms (experience accumulation, knowledge articulation, and knowledge codification) and the independent variables were the three dimensions of the competitive environment (dynamism, complexity, and munificence). The analysis was performed in several stages, introducing a new independent variable at each stage to analyze the effect of inclusion on the global model.To complete the contrast, we performed a simple regression analysis, dividing the sample into three levels and analyzing the dynamism and complexity of the competitive environment.The regression analysis was performed with the application SPSS 15.0. Before developing the study, we confirmed that the variables considered fulfilled the properties required for regression analysis. The set of variables fulfilled the requirements of linearity, homoscedasticity, and normality. We also confirmed that there were no problems of multicolinearity by using the tolerance index and the variance inflation factor.Table V shows the results of the first multiple regression. This analysis seeks to explain the behaviour of the variable experience accumulation through the three dimensions of the competitive environment and the three control variables. On introducing each of the variables, we observe that only perception of munificence exercises a significant influence on accumulated experience. In this regression analysis, the other variables do not exercise a significant influence on experience accumulation.The perception of munificence expressed by the interviewee produces a regression coefficient of 0.402 in the final model, significant for a confidence level of 99 percent. With this variable, the final model that emerges from the regression explains 19.2 percent of the variance in experience accumulation.The results obtained from this initial analysis enable us to confirm H3a. We do not, however, obtain empirical evidence to confirm H1 and H2a, as the regression coefficients for perception of dynamism and complexity are not statistically significant.Table IV shows the following multivariate regression analysis taking knowledge articulation as the independent variable. The results are similar to those in the previous table. Only the interviewee's perception of munificence influences the independent variable significantly.The regression coefficient for munificence of the environment reaches 0.297 in the final model and is significant for a confidence level of 99 percent. The other variables considered in the analysis do not exercise a significant influence on knowledge articulation. The final model explains 12.9 percent of the variance in knowledge articulation (Table VI).These results enable us to confirm H3b, which establishes a positive relation between the manager's perception of munificence and the level of knowledge articulation. We do not, however, find empirical evidence to confirm H1 and H2b, as the perceptions of dynamism and complexity are not significantly related to knowledge articulation.Table V shows the regression analysis, taking knowledge codification as the dependent variable. The results are consistent with the previous regressions. Only munificence of the competitive environment influences the organization's level of knowledge codification significantly. Perception of munificence of the competitive environment produces a regression coefficient of 0.297, significant for a confidence level of 99 percent. This third regression explains 13.9 percent of the variance in knowledge codification (Table VII).With this last regression, we confirm that H3c is fulfilled. However, we do not obtain empirical evidence for H1 and H2c.To continue studying H1 and H2, we perform an additional analysis, stratifying the study sample into three levels to analyze dynamism and complexity.To divide the sample, we performed an optimal scaling process, using the statistical programme SPSS 15.0. The sample was divided by grouping the cases based on the comparison of the arithmetic mean and the standard deviation (Jaccard et al., 1990).For each dimension (dynamism and complexity) we stratified the sample. We then performed a simple regression analysis, taking perceived dynamism and perceived complexity as independent variables and each learning mechanism as a dependent variable. A simple regression analysis avoids creating interactions between the two independent variables.The simple regression analysis for which perceived dynamism explains the variance of the learning mechanisms is presented in Table VIII.As the table shows, when the level of perceived dynamism is low or medium, we do not find a significant relation to any of the learning mechanisms. When perceived dynamism is high, however, the regression coefficients calculated show a positive and significant relation between this independent variable and the three learning mechanisms. Therefore, this further analysis shows weak support. Therefore, this relationship was only supported in the sub-sample analysis.In Table IX, we stratify the sample to analyze the perceived complexity of the competitive environment.As with perceived dynamism, the data for perceived complexity show that, when the level of perceived complexity is medium or low, there is no significant relation between this variable and the three learning mechanisms. Only the group of firms with high-perceived complexity shows positive and significant regression coefficients (although these are less significant for knowledge codification). Then, this relationship is also confirmed in the sub-group analysis.\n6 Conclusions: 6.1 Discussion\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The aim of this paper is to study empirically the influence of managerial perceptions of the environment on dynamic capabilities (DC) generation. It seeks to identify three dimensions of competitive environment (dynamism, complexity, and munificence) and then use the theoretical model developed by Zollo and Winter to explain DC creation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The authors use data collected from 200 Spanish firms through a questionnaire to perform multiple and simple regression analyses that examine the relationship between managerial perceptions and DC generation.\nFindings: - It is found that managerial perception of munificence in the environment is related positively and significantly to the processes of DC creation; only when managers perceive the environment as highly dynamic and complex do they promote processes for developing DC.\nPractical implications: - The findings suggest that managerial cognition plays an important role in DC processes. Thus, managers should evaluate their mental models and value systems to determine whether they provide an accurate understanding of the environment.\nOriginality/value: - The understanding of DC must be developed though empirical papers, as unresolved theoretical inconsistencies create many challenges in this area. The proliferation of theoretical papers has produced a disconnected body of research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Antecedent of purchase intention: online seller reputation, product category and surcharge
|
[
"Surcharge",
"Product category",
"Seller reputation",
"Shipping‐charge skepticism",
"Purchase intention",
"Product differentiation",
"Buyers",
"Vendors",
"Buyer‐seller relationships"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Nonstore retailing has been growing much faster than store retailing. On the internet and in catalog, there are a lot of product category and their prices presented in the form of a base price and a small surcharge (such as a $35.00 base price for a cloth and a $3.00 shipping and handling surcharge) (Morwitz et al., 1998; Xia and Monroe, 2004). Research suggests that consumers often ignore the surcharge, especially when it takes much effort to process (Morwitz et al., 1998). On the other hand, shipping and handling charges, moreover, are considered a main reason why online shoppers abandon their shopping carts and discontinue the purchase process (Campanelli, 2002). Cheema (2008) found that seller reputation moderates the impact of surcharges on purchase. Huang et al. (2011) also found that the seller's reputation positively affects the probability of auction success. Jun and Jaafar (2011) found that only marketing mix and reputation significantly influence consumers' attitude to adopt online shopping in China. However, there has been little research to date on the interaction effect of product category and surcharges on the internet and in catalog.This study provides a start by demonstrating that product category also moderates the impact of surcharge on purchase. Studying the moderating role of product category in the internet allows us to bridge this gap in prior research. The interaction of surcharges and seller reputation and that of surcharges and product category are investigated across five studies. In study 1, we explore the effects of reputation, product category, and surcharge on purchase intention. On the internet and in catalog, sellers may include the surcharge in the base price and try to attract consumers by offering \"free\" shipping and handling. Separating the total cost into a base price and one or more surcharges has been labeled price partitioning (Morwitz et al., 1998). Thus, for a robust study, we explore this effect with partitioned vs consolidated prices (study 2). We next highlight this process in great detail across two studies. Goods/services have search, experience, and credence qualities. The quality of search goods/services can be learned at almost zero cost in the internet. While the purchase of experience goods/services is required to assess their quality. Moreover, it is difficult to assess and interpret product attributes and benefits for credence goods/services (Brush and Artz, 1999). Thus we explore how elaboration (response time) mediates the effect of product category on purchase intentions (study 3). Firms with a good reputation are perceived to be reluctant to jeopardize their reputation by acting opportunistically (Chiles and McMackin, 1996). Thus we explore how elaboration mediates the effect of reputation on purchase intentions (study 4). Moreover, Schindler et al. (2005) proposed that consumers who are skeptical about the purpose of the surcharge infer a profit-making motive for the seller, while non-skeptics infer a cost-covering motive. Hence we demonstrate how consumers' shipping charge skepticism moderates the effect of the reputation and surcharge interaction on purchase intentions (study 5).\nReputation: In online auction, reputation is typically the key indicator of trust (Tan and Thoen, 2000). A favorable web site reputation can reduce the uncertainty of new users and helps build initial trust (McKnight et al., 2002). According to Spence's (1973) signaling theory, a company's reputation is a signal because reputation is an unobservable characteristic, subject to manipulation. Wagner et al. (2011) also found that trust during the project collaboration has a stronger influence on the future of buyer-supplier relationships than fair economic rewards or reputation. Thus we manipulate trust through seller reputation based on user feedback (Doney and Cannon, 1997; Cheema, 2008). Feedback mechanisms act as credible reputation-creating devices (Resnik et al., 2000) and lead to credibility-based trust (Doney and Cannon, 1997). Firms with a good reputation are perceived to be reluctant to jeopardize their reputation by acting opportunistically (Chiles and McMackin, 1996). Suspicious buyers may infer negative motives when they notice high surcharges (Schindler et al., 2005). In sum, reputation significantly affects consumers' trust in sellers (Casalo et al., 2007). Sellers of high reputation are trusted more, and we expect seller reputation to moderate the effect of surcharges on purchase intention:H1. High surcharges will decrease purchase intention for sellers of low reputation than for sellers of high reputation.\nProduct category: Previous studies on information asymmetry have suggested that products or services have search, experience, and credence qualities (Brush and Artz, 1999; Lovelock, 2001). Search goods are those products with attributes that potential buyers can be determined prior to purchase. Experience goods are dominated by attributes that cannot be known until the purchase and use of the product or for which information search is more costly and/or more difficult than direct product experience. Credence goods are those that are difficult to evaluate even after some trial has occurred. All goods/services can be placed on a continuum ranging from \"easy to evaluate\" (search goods) to \"difficult to evaluate\" (credence goods) (Nelson, 1970).The offerings that service firms must provide in an offline context vary according to the search, experience, and credence categories (Brush and Artz, 1999). Dimoka et al. (2012) described how information signals (diagnostic product descriptions and third-party product assurances) reduce product uncertainty. A higher price is usually taken as an indication of higher quality, even though the significance of such perceived correction may vary across product categories (Lichtenstein and Burton, 1989). The quality of search goods/services can be learned at almost zero cost in the internet, hence high surcharges will decrease purchase intention. Experience goods are dominated by attributes that cannot be known until the purchase and use of the product or for which information search is more costly and/or more difficult than direct product experience. While the purchase of experience goods/services is required to assess their quality and credence qualities require additional information for their values to be assessed. For experience and credence goods/services, however, a somewhat personalized approach by the provider is required, which will lower the opportunity for customers to compare offerings on the basis of price (Brush and Artz, 1999). Given the difficulty of assessing and interpreting product attributes and benefits for credence goods/services, a base price plus a high surcharges may be particularly important signals of high quality and other characteristics to consumers, it also will reduce the level of product uncertainty and will not decrease purchase intention to a greater extent for this type of products. Hence, high surcharges will decrease purchase intention for experience goods/services than for credence goods/services. Thus, we have the following hypotheses:H2. Product category will moderate the effect of surcharge on purchase intention.H2a. High surcharge will decrease purchase intention for search goods/services than for experience goods/services.H2b. High surcharge will decrease purchase intention for experience goods/services than for credence goods/services.\nStudy 1: effects of reputation, product category, and surcharge on purchase intention: Pretest, manipulation, and measurement\nStudy 2: effects of reputation, product category, and price format on purchase intention: Pretest, manipulation, and measurement\nStudy 3: response time mediates the effect of product category: Participants, method, and design\nStudy 4: response time mediates the effect of seller reputation: Participants, method, and design\nStudy 5: shipping charge skepticism moderates the reputationxsurcharge interaction: Consumer skepticism research has focussed on consumer skepticism toward advertisements (Hardesty et al., 2002). Extending this line of research, we investigate the notion that some consumers may be highly skeptical of direct marketers' offers due to their underlying beliefs regarding the perceived fairness of shipping charges. As Hardesty et al. (2002) note, persuasion knowledge encompasses consumers' beliefs about marketers' motives, strategies, and tactics. High-shipping charge skepticism consumers naturally tend to seek, acquire, think about, and reflect back on information when processing information. In contrast, low-shipping charge skepticism consumers are more likely to rely on others (e.g. celebrities or experts), cognitive heuristics, or social comparison processes. Schindler et al. (2005) propose that consumers who are skeptical about the purpose of the surcharge infer a profit-making motive for the seller, while non-skeptics infer a cost-covering motive. Consistent with these processing differences, we expect that low-shipping charge skepticism consumers will be more likely to decide on the basis of seller reputation, since they are more likely to purchase from sellers of high reputation. In contrast, high-shipping charge skepticism consumers will be more likely to decide on the basis of the offer (surcharge level) when they do pay attention to surcharges. Specifically, among high-shipping charge skepticism consumers buying from sellers of low reputation, those facing high surcharges will be less likely to buy. Thus:H3. Consumers' shipping charge skepticism will moderate the interaction effect between surcharge and seller reputation outlined in H1.H3a. Among low-shipping charge skepticism consumers, surcharges will not affect purchase intentions.H3b. Among high-shipping charge skepticism consumers, high surcharges will decrease purchase intention to a greater extent for sellers of low reputation.Participants, method, and design\nConclusions: From Table III, we find all the hypotheses are supported. This study provides the practitioners in the internet business a way to benchmark and improve their performances. First, sellers of high reputation can post higher surcharges to increase the total price paid by the buyer, but sellers of low reputation cannot do so (study 1). Moreover, partitioned price will decrease purchase intention for sellers of low reputation than for sellers of high reputation. For the company of low reputation, participants who saw a consolidated amount were significantly more likely to purchase than were those who saw a partitioned amount (study 2). In contrast, price format did not affect purchase intention for the company of high reputation. Second, a base price plus a high surcharges will not decrease purchase intention to a greater extent for credence products. On the contrary, search goods/services, and experience goods/service internet retailers should not post higher surcharges. Meanwhile, in contrast to search goods/services sellers and experience goods/services sellers, credence goods/services sellers can benefit more by offering a partitioned price (study 2). Third, consumers take a longest time to make purchasing decisions when buying credence goods (study 3) or buying from low-reputation sellers (study 4). These potential buyers are hesitate to make a decision in online shopping transactions due to perceptions of uncertainty caused by imperfect information, fears of seller opportunism, and information privacy and security concerns. Developers of online web sites need to create an environment more conductive to buyer confidence. For example, internet developers can create functions that help sellers efficiently provide more complete and detailed information about their products and services. Online seller can use credible celebrity or expert to deliver their products or services messages in web site that can promote online trading. Seller opportunism can be frustrated by mechanisms such as purchase refund policies and seller authentication. Fourth, high-shipping charge skepticism consumers facing sellers of low reputation are less likely to purchase given high surcharges (study 5). Hence, sellers of low reputation should use surcharge-free practice.In addition to extend the Cheema's (2008) study, this experimental research also identifies the important moderator (product categories). That is, high surcharges will decrease purchase intentions for search goods/services than for experience goods/services. It also will decrease purchase intentions for credence goods/services than for search goods/services. It also find that consumers take a longest time to make purchasing decisions when buying credence goods and that the response time mediates the moderating role of product category. Moreover, it demonstrate that search goods/services sellers and experience goods/services sellers can avoid the detrimental effects of high surcharges by offering a consolidated (vs partitioned) price. Finally, we show that elaboration of the offer facilitates the moderating role of reputation, as evidenced by the significant effect of surcharges for high-shipping charge skepticism consumers who face sellers of low (but not high) reputation. Referring to the viewpoints from Corley and Gioia (2011), this study reveals these conclusions what we otherwise had not seen, known, or conceived. Being novel and interesting, these conclusions are a revelatory insight. This research improves the current research practice of informed scholars and can further delineate or understand the phenomenon of product category in the internet. After all, this study would enable internet theories with more scientific and practical utility. Our research is attuned to identifying or anticipating theoretically and pragmatically relevant domain - the effect of product category, seller reputation, and surcharge in the internet.This study has some limitations. First, although online shoppers aged between 20 and 39 are the highest-spending age bracket who spend an average of NT$10,661 in 2009 (www.taiwannews.com.tw/etn/news_content.php?id=1008102), this research data were collected from a self-selecting group of internet or catalog users in Tatung University who may not represent all consumers. However, to purchase the stimuli (clothing, cell phone, and health food) may need some expertise, university students may be appropriate. Second, this study was limited to internet or catalog users in Taiwan, and cultural differences in other countries and societies may limit the study's generalization. Future research might take some of the following directions. Second, this study focussed on products priced from $30 to $750: clothing (search goods), the cell phone (experience goods), and health food (credence goods). The effect of surcharge may vary for more expensive products (e.g. cars or homes). The surcharge often accounts for a small percentage of the cost for expensive products and may catch little attention. Future research could try to address such issues. Second, future research could focus on other individual characteristics, such as high product involvement, that may decrease attention to surcharges and enhance the moderating effect of seller reputation. Third, one may expect this effect of reputation or product category to be weakened as consumers gain additional interactional experience with a store seller. Therefore, future research might extend to store retailing boundary.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to examine the antecedent of purchase intention: online seller reputation, product category and surcharge.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper uses five experimental designs to explore the seller reputation, product category and surcharge effects in Internet shopping. The authors chose one seller of low reputation and one seller of high reputation from Yahoo Mall. ANOVA are used to evaluate the results.\nFindings: - Sellers of high reputation can post higher surcharges to increase the total price paid by the buyer, but sellers of low reputation cannot do so (experiment 1). Moreover, partitioned price will decrease purchase intention for sellers of low reputation more than for sellers of high reputation (experiment 2). Consumers take the longest time to make purchasing decisions when buying credence goods (experiment 3) or buying from sellers of low reputation (experiment 4). The effect of surcharge levied by sellers of low reputation is weakened for consumers with low (vs high) shipping-charge skepticism (experiment 5).\nPractical implications: - This study is helpful to online sellers if they can identify their reputation, product category and those consumers who have shipping-charge skepticism, they can create extra profit through surcharge practice.\nOriginality/value: - The authors' investigation extends the literature on consumers' price processing by identifying the important moderators (seller reputation, product category, and elaboration) and probing into the decision process (via the response time). The results suggest prescriptive strategies for online sellers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Luxury web atmospherics: an examination of homepage design
|
[
"Homepage design",
"Luxury brand image",
"Online retailing",
"Web atmospherics"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Cartier, and Ferrari are associated with finest quality, prestige, exclusiveness, and hedonism (Kapferer and Bastien, 2012; Moore and Birtwistle, 2005; Vigneron and Johnson, 2004). Although these characteristics may be properly promoted through physical stores, they are seemingly incompatible with the internet (Okonkwo, 2009). In particular, the internet is characterised by its ubiquity and worldwide accessibility rather than targeting an exclusive group of affluent consumers. Therefore, the internet is assumed to attract mainly price-conscious consumers instead of the prestige-seeking clientele. Unlike physical stores, the internet is not capable of creating a shopping experience which addresses all senses (Wiedmann and Hennigs, 2012). Despite the presence of this \"internet dilemma\" (Kapferer and Bastien, 2012, p. 247), it has become inevitable for luxury brands to be present in the digital space.\n2. The internet and luxury: In academic research as well as in managerial practice a controversy has evolved whether luxury brands should use the internet purely as a means to communicate or whether to understand the internet as a sales channel as well (Hennigs et al., 2012; Kapferer and Bastien, 2012; Okonkwo, 2009). So far, the luxury industry seems to have been slow in embracing the internet\n3. Study one: evaluation of luxury brand homepages: To empirically detect the differences between conventional and luxury homepage design, we systematically examined 81 luxury brand homepages based on 31 evaluation criteria. We then compared the resulting luxury homepage schematic to the conventional homepage schematic.\n4. Study two: effects of luxury homepage design on perceptions of luxury: 4.1 Development of hypotheses\n5. Discussion and conclusion: Despite the managerial importance of luxury homepage design research on this topic is still in its infancy. Preserving the luxury brand image of exclusiveness and uniqueness within the mass medium Internet represents a fundamental challenge for luxury firms. As the very first impression of a luxury brand\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to address the on-going debate in research on how a luxury brand\nDesign/methodology/approach: First, desk research on 81 existing luxury brand homepages and expert interviews are used to empirically detect specifics of luxury homepage design. Second, a randomised laboratory experiment is conducted to analyse the effects of luxury versus conventional homepage design on perceived luxury.\nFindings: First, luxury homepage design differs from conventional homepage design in four main aspects: the use of darker background colours, the use of a larger or full screen space to present the stage content, a horizontal navigation bar, and a substantial reduction of elements. Second, experimental results indicate that luxury homepage design significantly affects consumers\nResearch limitations/implications: The experiment was conducted in a laboratory setting. Future research could use this work as a framework and extend it to a field environment, analysing the effect of luxury homepage design on key performance indicators, such as site traffic and conversion rates.\nPractical implications: The results of the study provide luxury managers with guidance for designing luxury brand homepages.\nOriginality/value: While previous research has mainly addressed luxury homepage design conceptually, this paper is the first to empirically identify key characteristics of luxury homepage design and empirically examine the effect of luxury homepage design on consumer perceptions of luxury.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Discovery, difference, careers and change. Part 3: managing change
|
[
"Creative thinking",
"Change management",
"Skills"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: We start this final part 3 by looking at the Practical or Concept preference in gathering and using information and how each preference impacts on how we think creatively. We then bring into play Dr Kirtons' work on thinking styles and link across the two models so that you will know where you naturally prefer to be on both the creative thinking continuum and the change management continuum and how individuals with different profiles approach change management in an organisational context.We then consider my change preference questionnaire, based on Ned Hermann's work on whole brain dominance, enabling you to determine what your preferences are under this model, and then consider how the model is relevant to effective change management. We then link all three models together and determine the implications. We conclude this section by considering a critical factor for the individual - the extent to which natural preferences limit our ability to think creatively.Finally, we move to the organisational perspective. We consider what change management paradigms are currently in play and how they can be modified to make full use of the creative thinking abilities of all staff. The consequence is a quantum leap in the effectiveness with which any organisation can mange change and hence transform profitability.\nCreative thinking aspect of the P/C preferences in gathering and using information: As a reminder, I set out Table I that defines each preference and the beliefs and behaviours that flow from it. Please note that the mnemonic TOPs stands for The Other Party (or parties) in the relationship.If we look at the third behaviour for each preference, we have; \"Those with a P=Practical preference for gathering and using information prefer to be creative through adapting and improving existing structures and systems i.e. \"thinking inside the box'\". \"Those with a C=Concept preference for gathering and using information prefer to be creative through generating new concepts and structures i.e. 'thinking outside the box'\"\nThinking styles: Kirton (2003), who has studied and written on thinking styles for over 30 years, states:*Every individual has a preferred thinking style, which is stable over time, determined in early life (may be natural i.e genetically transferred) and is highly resistant to change.*We use our thinking styles to solve problems and be creative.*Each individual's thinking style can be measured and exists on a continuum varying from highly adaptive to highly innovative.The characteristics of the two thinking styles are:1. Adaptor*safe, reliable, methodical;*disciplined and efficient;*masters detail;*prefers defined problems;*rarely challenges the rules; solves problems by use of rules;*seeks consensus, values group cohesion; and*does things better;*provides balance when working with innovator;1. Innovator*thinks in risky unexpected ways;*little respect for past custom;*trades off detail for over-view;*questions definition of problems;*often challenges the rules; solves problems despite rules;*appears insensitive, even abrasive, to group cohesion;*does things differently; and*provides dynamics for radical change.Differences are generally not viewed positively.*Highly adaptive people as seen by highly innovative people.*Sound, conforming, safe, predictable, inflexible, wedded to the system, intolerant of ambiguity.*Highly innovative people as seen by highly adaptive people.*Glamorous, exciting, unsound, impractical, risky, abrasive, threatening the established system and causing dissonance.Before we move on, there is another relevant point. Where you are on the continuum is not as important as where you are relative to the TOP or group of TOPs with whom you are working. So you might be just on the adaptive side, but happen to work with a group of highly adaptive individuals, in which case you will be frustrated at what you perceive as their lack of flexibility and an excess of rules and regulations. Equally, you might be quite innovative, but working with a group of highly innovative individuals, in which case you will be frustrated by too much \"blue stratosphere\" thinking, a lack of decision-taking and insufficient structure and discipline. We develop this point later in the article under the section \"how limited are we in our creative thinking abilities\"Now let us connect back to our P or C preference and link preferences to thinking styles\nLinking preferences to thinking styles: The first point is that when to comes to creative thinking or thinking styles, there is a link between the \"How we gather and use information\" dimension and \"How we operate in the outside world\". As a reminder, I set out the definitions of the two different preferences in this dimension and the beliefs that flow from the definition (see Table II).In fact, we can put the four combinations PS, PF, CS, and CF on Kirton's continuum. Equation 1 With PS, focussing at the belief level, the beliefs in S of \"structure, routine, tried and tested methods' re-enforce\" those in P of \"common sense, tired and tested, comfort and security, risk avoidance\" to produce some-one who is a highly adaptive thinker. The beliefs in F of \"flexibility, variety and change, freedom, and choice\" run counter to those in P and lead to adaptive thinking but more flexibility, less rigidity and so further along the continuum. The beliefs in S run counter to those in C of \"the need for change, originality, taking risks, variety, and exploration\" and produce an innovative thinker but not a highly innovative one - hence the position on the continuum. Finally the beliefs in C are reinforced by those in F to produce the highly innovative CF at the end of the continuum. Now I am a certified practitioner in the Kirton Adaptor Innovator Inventory (KAI) and have been measured on the scale, which runs from 46, the most adaptive score measured to 146 the most innovative score measured i.e. a range of 100. My score was 115, which is 69 points along the continuum and places me where I should be as a CS.We can also put the four combinations on a change management continuum: Equation 2\nIndividual approach to change management: We now look at five different profiles and how the individuals approach change management. We also set out the definitions of the preferences in the E-I and L-H dimensions (see part 1) (see Tables III and IV).1. ECHFs quantum leap all over the place, have ten zillion ideas a second, initiate a million change management projects each day, and change their minds on an hourly basis. Eventually, morale is shattered (as the enthusiastic initial support of the followers wanes) and, assuming the ECHFs dominate the core decision-making unit, the organization topples into the Grand Canyon and the buzzards gather.2. ICLFs initiate many change projects as the ECHFs, also change their minds quite frequently, but use a remote, autocratic leadership style. Their followers are split between initial supporters and resistors but implementation by the supporters tends to be dire, because they do not fully understand what they are doing - not enough discussion and too many lengthy e-mails with attachments. Morale becomes poor, but, as the ICLF gets it right a lot of the time, the organisation can survive with endless restructuring and re-organisation diluting profitability. Eventually the autocratic leader is replaced with a hearty sigh of relief all round.3. EPLSs are the leaders of the resistance and build brick walls ten miles high as well as mounting frequent guerrilla attacks on the enemy flanks. They are soon \"let go\".4. IPLSs are passive resistors to change, linger longer, muttering imprecations to themselves and plod around the organization with body language so negative that it could be read by an amoeba.5. ECHSs are the most effective managers of change.\nChange preference: Here we look at the model, enable you to determine your profile, consider the impact of language, the impact of difference and the relevance to effective change management.The model\nEffective change management: Left brain (\"A\" and \"B\")\nLinking the three models: Left brain (\"A\" & \"B\")\nLimitations on individual creativity: There are no limitations on the ability of any individual to think creatively. Around 20 years ago, I attended a two-day seminar given by Edward de Bono (see de Bono, 1982). During the course of the two days, de Bono stated that some individuals thought they could only run a very short creative distance - 100m. These would IPLSs. Others thought they could run much longer creative distance - 10,000m. These would be ICLFs (he was considering the individual's capacity to think purely as an isolated entity) or, to use Belbin's team roles, very high plants. All individuals can run, he stated, a creative marathon.De Bono did not divulge how to achieve this result, apart from the need to develop on one's own an expertise in his lateral thinking questions!Five years later, I discovered how this result could be achieved. Since my discovery, over 7,000 individuals have run a creative marathon. There are two conditions required. The individual has to be part of a small cohesive unit (four to seven) and the group has to apply a whole-brained creative thinking technique - the Group Discovery Technique or GDT1 for short. Details of the technique are set out in the Appendix.\nOrganisational perspective: In the past, the Ps, the adaptive thinkers who thought creatively \"inside the box\" ruled the roost. In the present and for the foreseeable future, the Cs, innovative thinkers who think creatively \"outside the box\", reign supreme. This is because the prevailing change management paradigm (the set of beliefs shared implicitly or explicitly by the core decision-making unit that drives strategic action in the area of change management) is almost universally innovative. The set of beliefs of the C dominant paradigm is:*change is the only constant;*the pace of change is accelerating;*innovative changes are required rapidly; and*need \"can do\" innovative thinkers.The consequences of this innovative paradigm are:*too many change projects initiated;*many fall by the wayside;*the rush to implementation creates high levels of inefficiency;*change weariness affects staff; and*Ps are branded \"resistors\" and are undervalued and their creative thinking skills are under-utilizedIncidentally, the previously prevailing P dominant paradigm contained the following set of beliefs:*change in our industry is gradual;*change should build on the status quo; and*change should be directed at improving efficiency.For case studies of a global company who destroyed its culture and severely dented its profitability by following the innovative paradigm and of an international company that would have gone into liquidation or been take over if it had continued to follow the adaptive paradigm (see Eales-White, 2005).Both paradigms can be seen to result from the dictionary definition of change i.e. \"making or becoming different\". The innovative paradigm focuses on the revolutionary or \"making different\" component of the definition and the adaptive paradigm focuses on the evolutionary or \"becoming different\" aspect.Now, there is a happy medium, and my change management paradigm would be based on the following definition of change i.e. \"becoming and making different\" and the following two beliefs:1. Change should only be introduced if it helps the achievement of a key strategic goal.2. Change projects should be developed and the implementation managed by team(s) containing a mix of creative thinking types - so that all the natural preferences on each dimension are represented and no individual is suffering suppression (E-I and L-H dimensions) or a repression (P-C and S-F dimensions) - see part 1. By so doing, the optimal or whole-brained approach to change management is achieved.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of part 3 of this paper is to demonstrate what are the individual's preferences in change management, where they are naturally located on both the creative thinking and change management continua, how they can improve their creative thinking skills and how organisations can improve profitability be adopting the appropriate change management paradigm.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper determines how the Practical or Concept preference for gathering and using information impacts on how we think creatively; summarises Dr Kirton's work on adaptive and innovative thinking; demonstrates how the two models are linked and where different preferences are located on the creative thinking and change management continua; considers how individuals with different profiles approach change management in an organisational context; introduces the change preference model and consider the implications on effective change management; considers how to overcome the limitations of individuals profiles on their ability to think creatively; and finally defines the prevailing change management paradigm and how a modification to the definition of change and the resulting paradigm will enable organisations to improve their management of change and, as a result, profitability.\nFindings: - The paper finds that individuals have more flexibility and ability in creative thinking and change management than they might currently perceive; whereas organisations can improve their management of change significantly be adopting the appropriate change management paradigm and using a whole-brained or holistic approach.\nOriginality/value: - The paper enables the reader to determine what their current approach to creative thinking and change management is, and how they and organisations can become more effective.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Awareness of message source and its association with the impacts of sun protection campaigns in Australia
|
[
"Mass media",
"Health education",
"Parents",
"Australia"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Mass media campaigns have played a central role in numerous public health initiatives in Australia and other western nations, including those that have addressed motor vehicle accidents, smoking, HIV, alcohol misuse and sun protection. Given the limited resources available to public sector agencies and the difficulties inherent in influencing health behaviours, careful application of relevant evidence and theory has been an important part of the design of these campaigns. This evidence and theory has highlighted a number considerations, including:* tailoring messages to the demographic, psychological and lifestyle characteristics of audiences (McGuire, 1989);* formatively testing messages with audience representatives (Novelli, 1990);* presenting messages that are relevant, promote an acceptable amount of change and give concrete advice (Wilde, 1993); and* having messages delivered by trustworthy and attractive sources (Witte, 1995; Wilde, 1993).An issue of interest to those involved in planning public health campaigns, particularly when these are being conducted as a collaborative strategy by two or more agencies, is which organisation(s) should be presented as the message source and what profile this source should be given. There are few studies in the field of health promotion that have examined whether or not it is beneficial for members of target audiences to be able to clearly identify sources of campaign messages. The research that is available indicates that awareness of message source can be positively associated with a range of variables, such as knowledge about smoking cessation programs (Donovan et al., 1993), usage of information helplines about cancer (Pierce et al., 1992) and intentions to change dietary behaviour (Hammond, 1987). In addition, research in the commercial marketing field indicates that consumers are more likely to use information provided by non-profit organisations in their product choices than that provided by profit making entities, which are seen to be biased. This further suggests that in public health communication campaigns identifying the source of information provided may be a helpful factor in increasing the attention given to messages and the impact that these have.The recent evaluation of sun protection campaigns conducted between 1998 and 2000 in New South Wales (NSW) provided an opportunity to examine whether awareness of the designated source of the campaign messages was associated with a greater likelihood of recall of the campaigns and correct sun protection knowledge and behaviour. In Australia, where skin cancer rates are the highest in the world (Parkin et al., 1997), mass media campaigns have played a major role in skin cancer control efforts for nearly three decades. While these have contributed to increased sun protection practices (Hill et al., 1993; Baade et al., 1996; Hill et al., 2002), rates of skin cancer are yet to decline (Marrett et al., 2001) and there is a need to continue to evaluate and refine these initiatives.The NSW sun protection campaigns were directed towards parents and other primary carers of children under 12-years-of-age and delivered over three successive summer periods. These campaigns consisted of television and radio commercials and bus-side and billboard posters and featured a cartoon character called Seymour the Snowman, who conveyed a message that by wearing protective clothing, a hat and sunscreen he avoided melting from the sun. The organisers of these campaigns were the NSW Cancer Council and the NSW Health Department, and this involvement was shown by inclusion of each organisation's logo in all electronic and print communications. Here we examine the extent to which members of the target audience could identify either of these organisations as the source of the campaigns and existence of any associations between source recognition and the impact of the campaigns upon sun protection knowledge and behaviours. This question is of interest not only to those engaged in skin cancer control initiatives, but also to those involved in the design of public health communications strategies more broadly.\nMethods: Study design and sample\nResults: Respondents\nDiscussion: These findings indicate that the NSW Cancer Council, as one of the organisations which conducted the \"Seymour the Snowman\" sun protection campaigns, was a salient component of the campaigns for the target audience. The fact that the recognition of this organisation as the message source was more prevalent at each post-campaign survey than at the C1 and C2 pre-campaign surveys suggests that this was a result of campaign implementation rather than accurate guessing by respondents. The much higher levels of recognition of the NSW Cancer Council than of its partner agency in these campaigns, the NSW Health Department, shows that the non-government Cancer Council holds a much higher profile and is more readily associated with skin cancer control initiatives.The associations between awareness of the NSW Cancer Council as the message source and sun protection knowledge and behaviours were not as consistent as those between source recognition and campaign message recall, but these still indicated that communication of the organiser of the campaigns may have contributed to the impact that these had upon the target group. It was notable that, even though the prevalence of knowledge about methods of protecting children from the sun was high at all surveys, respondents who identified the NSW Cancer Council as a campaign organiser were generally more likely to have accurate sun protection knowledge. In addition, use of child sun protection measures was generally higher among those who could identify the NSW Cancer Council, however, the use of sun protection by adults themselves did not vary greatly according to whether respondents had accurate message source recognition. This is consistent with the finding that the campaigns were associated with very little change in adult sun protection behaviours. This may have been due to the fact that child sun protection was the theme addressed in campaign messages or that adults considered themselves to be at lower risk and in less need of precautionary action (Smith et al., 2002).The finding that identification of the source of campaign messages was not associated with a significantly higher prevalence of all aspects of knowledge and behaviours related to child sun protection in all surveys indicates that this factor is likely to have been one of a number of elements that made some contribution to the impacts of the campaigns. It is also important to acknowledge that the associations reported here are drawn from cross-sectional analyses, and that message source recognition and sun protection knowledge and behaviours may have existed in a reciprocal relationship or be the common product of an underlying factor. For instance, adults who recognised that sun protection is important may been more likely to attend to information about this, take precautionary actions and, in doing so, become aware of the source of campaign information. Longitudinal designs could be used in future to investigate the contribution of pre-existing cognitive and motivational factors that may confound or mediate the relationship awareness of campaign message source and the changes in knowledge and behaviour following campaigns. Variables to be measured at baseline that may play an important role in this relationship (e.g. attitudes, perceived social norms, motivation), could be identified by drawing upon behaviour-change theories relevant to the health behaviour addressed in the campaign.While the cross-sectional analyses undertaken here make it difficult to determine the nature of the relationships between awareness of message source and the effects of the campaigns, it is possible that recognition of the NSW Cancer Council as the message source had a mediating role in the relationship between campaign exposure and knowledge and behaviour outcomes. Message source awareness could increase the perceived trustworthiness and importance of the information conveyed by the campaign, given that the NSW Cancer Council is the pre-eminent non-government organisation concerned with cancer control in this state. An additional means by which message source awareness could have been important is to act as a cue for the importance of the issue of sun protection and the need to take action in regard to this, because members of the target audience had formed a cognitive association between these factors and stored them in memory accordingly. Research in the commercial marketing field indicates that brands which are prominent, and which are clearly related to a product semantically or visually, are the most effective types of cues to consumers to purchase that product (Johar and Pham, 1999; Sangupta et al., 1997). The NSW Cancer Council, as a brand name, could be regarded as a cue which is both prominent and clearly related to the \"product\" of cancer prevention through sun protection. These factors may also account for the low level of recognition of the NSW Health Department, that is, because its name has no semantic connection with skin cancer and because it is not regularly involved in fundraising and awareness raising relating to cancer, it was not easily associated with campaign messages.An interesting question which these findings raise is whether the NSW Cancer Council has taken on the characteristics of a \"brand\" and, in marketing terms, has attained a level of \"brand equity\" which contributes to its ability to achieve its health promotion objectives. Keller (1993) describes brand equity as the marketing effects that are attributable to the brand itself. Those brands that have favourable, strong and unique associations in the minds of consumers will achieve greater equity and therefore have greater impact upon the product choices made by consumers (Keller, 1993). The NSW Cancer Council may exercise its brand equity by drawing attention to messages, conveying importance, signalling a core set of messages and possibly serving as a cue, or reminder, of those messages.The findings presented here indicate that clear signification of the source of the messages in public health campaigns, if this is a prominent and well regarded organisation, may make a useful contribution to the impact that these have. Indeed, the repeated promotion of an organisation in relation to such messages may contribute to awareness levels of this organisation, and its subsequent credibility and ability to act as a cue for the messages delivered in communication campaigns.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To examine whether awareness of the source of sun protection campaigns in New South Wales, Australia was associated with message recall and sun protection knowledge and behaviours.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Telephone surveys of random samples (n=800) of parents and other carers of children under 12 years of age were conducted before and after the first two campaigns and after the third campaign.\nFindings: - Recognition of the NSW Cancer Council (NSWCC) as the message source increased after each campaign. Cross-sectional analyses revealed that after the first and third campaigns those who could identify the NSWCC were 1.4-1.7 times more likely than those who could not to demonstrate knowledge about child sun protection practices (p<0.05). After the first campaign those with accurate message source awareness were 1.4 times more likely to report using sunscreen or clothing to protect their children, while after campaign three this awareness was associated with a greater likelihood (OR 1.6, p<0.05) of using hats, sunscreen and protective clothing.\nResearch limitations/implications: - While causality cannot be determined using a cross-sectional design, the use of serial population surveys to analyse the relationship between message source awareness and sun protection knowledge and behaviours strengthens the basis for examining the role of this factor.\nPractical implications: - Presenting a readily identifiable and credible message source is likely to enhance the impact of health campaigns and this factor should be given attention in the pre-testing of communications.\nOriginality/value: - The importance of a credible communication source has been postulated by various theorists, but this one of few studies to examine the role played this factor in a population-wide, health promotion campaign.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Strategia Sapiens - strategic foresight in a new perspective
|
[
"Regional development",
"Culture",
"Consciousness",
"Time management",
"Methodology",
"Nurture",
"Strategic foresight"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Over the past 20 years, I have been involved in research and education in the fields of international and regional economics and futures studies. I graduated and received PhD as an economist, but since then I have learned pedagogy and psychology, and I have launched courses with colleagues dedicated to both advanced students and young children. These varied experiences all focused on the different aspects of strategic foresight, albeit not consciously or deliberately. I have had the chance to look at strategic issues from various perspectives. I have learned that many fields of science face similar problems, although they do not really influence each other. In addition, it seems that the theoretical and empirical findings of these fields can be linked to each other, which may result in a fruitful contribution to strategic foresight.\nWhy Strategia Sapiens?: Strategia Sapiens refer to the need to strengthen as well as renew our strategic foresight thinking. This effort is linked to the integral futures movement (Hayward, 2008; Slaughter, 2008) but raises new perspectives. The underlying rationale is that different sciences show that strategic foresight is a fundamental characteristic of human biological, social and cultural evolution or rather their co-evolution. For instance, Ganti (2000) devoted his life to creating a general theory of Life from a biochemical view. He distinguishes different levels as well as real and potential criteria for life. One of his conclusions states that all living systems have a strategic subsystem and a type of foresight orientation. From an ethological point of view, Csanyi (1988) stresses two main features of human beings, reconstruction ability and social attraction. The former highlights the development of the brain and mind, which became able to analyse the present and to create not-yet-existing future structures. Later, the identity of man as a group being became an evolutionary advantage. In the course of group selection, those communities enjoyed benefits that enhanced the development of human system-organising abilities. Christian theology also deals with the essence of man: \"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth\" (1Mos 1,26). One interpretation says that the God-based image of man refers to the ability to think, to feel, to hope and to plan; therefore, man obtained strategic foresight during creation. Other approaches debate this idea by stressing that our God-based image is not an ontological feature but a mode of living. In this view, strategic foresight is a task, not a characteristic; man should live every day using foresight, which serves to (re)create and sustain Life in the long run (Torok, 2006).\nStrategic foresight in a time-space model and its consecutive challenges: The model is constructed in three dimensions and hence differs in many aspects from the classical interpretation of strategy. One dimension is the framework of actual (and changing) principles, values and paradigms. They are related to current problems and challenges and determine the direction that shapes the future. Although this dimension focuses on forces that shape the future, it also comprehends the previously created, ongoing strategic program, which continues to form the future for a while. Additionally, it serves as an orientation point in terms of the strategy that is under construction.\nThe content of visions - development through nurture theory: Because vision is defined as a better/higher state of development, the book starts from the definition of developmental economics by saying that development is a process from a lower to a higher level of quality (Szentes, 2011, p. 13). When comparing the different approaches, it concludes that providing a strict definition is rather problematic because different branches of social sciences such as economics, politics, sociology and organisational-management sciences offer varying approaches. Further, the content of development differs by country and the position of their social layers as either central or peripheral (Cowen and Shenton, 1996). Another problem is that a phenomenon such as demographic growth could be interpreted as both development and decline. Finally, individual, biological and psychological and social development are difficult to link, although there have been efforts to do so (Cleveland and Jacobs, 1999).\nThe emergence of the vision - strategic foresight as a special activity: The second challenge of strategic work is located in the emergence process of a vision. In strategic management, vision, in many cases, is an exogenous starting point, and how the vision emerges is often neglected. The model (Figure 2) indicates that strategic activity must not be reduced to the operational-execution component, and the conceptual process that results in the (set of) preferred future(s) demands a great deal of attention.\nStrategic foresight as time management: Strategic development and foresight is non-homogenous in time. Thus, strategic foresight activities vary in different periods of the process. For non-linear development tracks, the social-economic literature most regularly mentions and uses logistic functions or the life-cycle model. Both have advantages and disadvantages. The Strategia Sapiens book offers a synthesis of the two because their mathematical background makes it possible to link them directly. The synthesis offers new options by dissolving some of the original disadvantages and unifying the benefits. It enriches the available models of foresight to a great extent and provides a number of new results (Figure 8).\nThe spatial characteristics of strategic foresight: One methodological problem of strategic foresight comes from the fact that regional and national development strategies often directly adapt methods that were originally articulated for the corporate field. However, the communities of a company and a village or a region are completely different social entities. In other words, strategic foresight has a spatial dimension too, which demands corresponding deeper insight.\nConclusions: Strategia Sapiens refers to the fact that strategic foresight is facing two primary challenges. One is that the term \"strategic\" is linked to foresight as an adjective, which means that in its regular interpretation strategy is not interpreted broadly enough. The strategic activity neglects the conceptual phase towards the future; however, strategic thinking by nature should include the fundamental elements of foresight. Another challenge is that in our global age there are an increasing number of processes and thoughts that not only demolish human communities but also put human existence itself at risk. Hence, foresight should put more emphasis on the responsible choice of values and visioning. Overall, strategic foresight is searching for new interpretations and refinement. This paper highlights the following areas: the content of a vision, the shaping process of a vision and the time and spatial relations of strategic foresight. The main conclusion is that considering strategic foresight on a nurture theory basis could fruitfully contribute to its renewal. The issue of the content of visions raises the problem of how to interpret the state of development. In nurture theory, consciousness and hence the level of (social) self-realisation and self-regulation seem to be the core content. Consciousness in this sense does not remain a psychological or spiritual factor because the physical, human, social, spiritual and even, partly, the natural wealth of a society are taken as the materialisation of consciousness.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to offer a new perspective for strategic foresight on the basis of nurture theory. Strategia Sapiens refers to the fact that strategic work needs to be foresight oriented, and foresight should be directly value driven.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The following areas of strategic foresight are offered for discussion: the content of a vision, its emergence process and the characteristics of strategic foresight in time and in space.\nFindings: The interdisciplinary approach of this research creates a synthesis of and bases its findings on the empirical and theoretical findings of different scientific fields. The primary finding is that nurture theory offers new perspectives to refine and renew strategic foresight. One perspective is the existence of a value- and culture-driven way of life, and the other is the simultaneous self-realisation of individuals. The paper creates the following models on the basis of nurture theory: the system relations of strategic foresight, a complex model of development, the field and system of strategic foresight activities, the logistic life-cycle model and the field of force of social spaces.\nOriginality/value: This discussion and approach are highly useful for regional and national strategic practitioners, and they contribute to the discussion of the concept and measurement of development. The nurture theory approach strengthens the incorporation of cultural responsibility, as well as an intergenerational view of strategic foresight, which are both fundamental for a renewal of this field.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Understanding the value of big data in supply chain management and its business processes: Towards a conceptual framework
|
[
"Big data",
"Supply chain management",
"Value",
"Business process management",
"Conceptual framework",
"Literature review"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The practices of supply chain management (SCM) are faced with technological innovations that disrupt and change current supply chain configurations (MacCarthy et al., 2016). Noteworthy is that business processes become increasingly data dependent, and data-derived insights are seen as an instrument to improve supply chain performance, in which the concepts of big data and business analytics offer better decision-making practices to improve firm-level and process-level performance (McAfee and Brynjolfsson, 2012; Ramanathan et al., 2017). Big data is viewed as a new management paradigm and is based on the premise that intuition and discursive reasoning are being enhanced by logic, facts and evidence for more effective decision making (Mortenson et al., 2015). The emergence of big data is being introduced as a new frontier for IT-enabled SCM that has caught practitioner interest because it can increase the value delivered to customers, but, at this stage, not much is known about how to generate business value from big data (Fosso Wamba, Akter, Coltman and Ngai, 2015). Scholars and practitioners recognize a valuable opportunity to utilize the vast, fast and diverse characteristics of data; however, the current body of literature has limitations concerning how to realize the expected value of big data (Kache and Seuring, 2017; Matthias et al., 2017; Schoenherr and Speier-Pero, 2015; Waller and Fawcett, 2013a). From a scholarly perspective, forward-looking research identifies big data, analytics and decision making as important themes for the future of SCM research (Wieland et al., 2016). Thus, value is expected from the utilization of big data, and, as this study will show, the value of big data in SCM includes several dimensions and cannot be understood as a singular concept.\n2. Literature: SCM is mostly described in terms of processes, more specifically, as chains of activities (Burgess et al., 2006). The nature of business processes is to deliver value on a consistent basis to customers and consumers (Al-Mudimigh et al., 2004). Several frameworks have been introduced in the history of SCM, e.g., the supply chain integration model that emphasizes the need to control materials and information flows through value-adding processes (Stevens, 1989), the global supply chain forum model that conceptualizes eight generic cross-functional processes (Lambert et al., 1998) and the supply chain operations reference model that introduces plan, source, make, deliver and return as the central processes (Stewart, 1997). Stevens and Johnson (2016) argued that supply chain integration is the foundation for SCM through the alignment, linkage and coordination of people, processes, information, knowledge and strategies across the supply chain to facilitate the efficient and effective flows of material, money, information and knowledge in response to customer needs. These central contributions to SCM have business processes as a grounded element of SCM. Therefore, this study adopts business processes as an appropriate unit of analysis.\n3. Methodology: For this study, a content-analysis-based literature review has been conducted. Big data is a rather new phenomenon and the literature is moving fast, with a significant growth in academic contributions (Frizzo-Barker et al., 2016; Lamba and Singh, 2017; Sheng et al., 2017). Therefore, there is a substantial amount of literature upon which to ground a content-analysis-based literature review. Previous literature reviews on big data in SCM have focused on strategic and operational applications (Wang et al., 2016); trends within procurement, manufacturing and logistics (Lamba and Singh, 2017); and the identification of research clusters to suggest future research directions (Mishra et al., 2016). This literature review differs in its unit of analysis and its inductive synthesis of literature.\n4. A big data SCM framework: To strengthen the current understanding of big data, a holistic big data SCM framework is presented in Figure 2. A prerequisite for big data has been emphasized as value; however, a single dimension of value is too simplistic a view, and big data in SCM needs to be understood with more granularities through the dimensions of value discovery, value creation and value capture:\n5. Discussion: Through this content-analysis-based literature review on big data in SCM, existing literature has been synthesized, and a big data SCM framework has been provided. Pertinent constructs and measures are identified from a business process perspective and related to the meta-categories of value discovery, value creation and value capture. In this discussion, the findings of the big data SCM framework will be informed by business process theory and value theory with the purpose of introducing research propositions. This section will be structured around value discovery, value creation and value capture.\n6. Conclusions: The hype surrounding big data is high, the perception of big data is somewhat confused and existing SCM literature have lacked a thorough understanding of big data and its value. By conducting a content-analysis-based literature review on big data in SCM, this study introduces a big data SCM framework through the dimensions of value discovery, value creation and value capture. Pertinent constructs have been defined, including the assimilated measures. The study has been informed by business process theory and value theory through which research propositions are introduced as a basis for future theoretical improvements.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The value of big data in supply chain management (SCM) is typically motivated by the improvement of business processes and decision-making practices. However, the aspect of value associated with big data in SCM is not well understood. The purpose of this paper is to mitigate the weakly understood nature of big data concerning big data's value in SCM from a business process perspective.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A content-analysis-based literature review has been completed, in which an inductive and three-level coding procedure has been applied on 72 articles.\nFindings: By identifying and defining constructs, a big data SCM framework is offered using business process theory and value theory as lenses. Value discovery, value creation and value capture represent different value dimensions and bring a multifaceted view on how to understand and realize the value of big data.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study further elucidates big data and SCM literature by adding additional insights to how the value of big data in SCM can be conceptualized. As a limitation, the constructs and assimilated measures need further empirical evidence.\nPractical implications: Practitioners could adopt the findings for conceptualization of strategies and educational purposes. Furthermore, the findings give guidance on how to discover, create and capture the value of big data.\nOriginality/value: Extant SCM theory has provided various views to big data. This study synthesizes big data and brings a multifaceted view on its value from a business process perspective. Construct definitions, measures and research propositions are introduced as an important step to guide future studies and research designs.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Promoting transformational leadership practices of retail managers
|
[
"Teaching",
"Leadership development",
"Workplace training",
"Organizational development",
"Learning methods",
"Management development",
"Management development programme (MDP)",
"Transformational teaching strategies",
"Transformational learning strategies",
"Work place learning"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Background and researcher positionality\nTheoretical framework: Transformational teaching, learning and leadership strategies for the retail manager\nMethodology: Qualitative research\nConclusion: The MDP provided the managers with extensive transformational leadership and management skills such as counselling, coaching, collaboration, communication, commitment and engagement techniques which allowed them to select specific principles as they related to a particular problem and developed their critical thinking. With new skills, change in thinking could result in a change in leadership practices and, therefore, a change in the Retek environment.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The pursuit of knowledge should be the objective of managers in the workplace, both for the purpose of empowerment and to achieve financial objectives. It is important that retail managers have a need to solidify their transformational leadership knowledge, which ultimately could increase their capacity to excel. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A structured management development programme (MDP), consisting of a comprehensive spectrum of retail management and leadership theory and practices, was designed to develop transformational leadership by using transformational teaching and learning strategies. The sample for this study consisted of seven retail managers from a group of 20 managers, employed by Retek, the largest independent retail pharmacy group in South Africa. A focus group interview identified the dominant themes and produced a landscape to understand the retail managers' environment, their preferred teaching methodology and benefits experienced from attending the MDP.\nFindings: By transforming themselves, these managers have become more empathetic leaders, armed with self-awareness and a deeper awareness of team issues. The MDP created in a shift in their attitude towards attending training programmes and subsequently, has created a more accommodating philosophy towards workplace learning. The study added to the understanding of how transformational teaching and learning lead to more effective transformational leadership and the integration of theory into practice by retail managers. The conclusion was that by embracing and practising a transformational teaching and learning ideology, the managers would be better equipped with managerial and transformational leadership abilities.\nOriginality/value: This research provided a landscape for future management development training in terms of selection of managers to attend, relevant curriculum, teaching and learning methodology as well as benefits of this type of professional development. This initiative was the first project in which such a programme has been designed, developed and instructed in this particular organisation and encompassed a unique experience in terms of training, professional development and the change in the willingness to engage in training and acknowledgement of the value of learning.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Family-friendly support programs and work family conflict among Indonesian higher education employees
|
[
"Academic staff",
"Developing countries"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Organizational support to assist employees in balancing their work and family responsibilities can take many forms under the heading of family-friendly programs (FFPs). Previous studies (Muse and Pichler, 2011; Ratnasingam et al., 2012) indicated that the majority of the research examining the impact of FFPs has typically examined perceived availability of the programs while largely neglecting their actual utilization. Few studies directly asses FFPs in non-western countries (Butts et al., 2013) and the research findings of work and family-related issues that have been conducted in western economies may not be applicable to countries with different underlying cultures and forms of social organization. The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of FFPs on work family conflict among employees in an Indonesian context.\nFFPs: FFPs refer to a group of formal organizational programs and initiatives designed with the aim of helping employees balance their work and lives (Lee and Hong, 2011). The FFPs investigated in this paper are categorized into flexible work options, specialized leave options and dependent care support. Flexible work options refer to arrangements that provide opportunity for employees to vary their working hours to better meet family commitments or others life demands (Burgess and Strachan, 2005). The term is often used to cover a range of programs, including reduced hours, non-standard hours, various form of remote working, and compressed working hours (Kelliher and Anderson, 2010). Specialized leave options refer to different leave arrangements and time that can be taken off from work. Specialized leave options include bereavement leave, maternity leave, paternity leave, sabbatical leave and leave to take care for sick family member (Bardoel, 2003). Dependent care support refers to programs designed to provides workplace social support for employees with dependents (i.e. children and elderly) (Drago and Kashian, 2003). Such support includes providing information to employees about existing child care providers, offering assistance in making care arrangements, and offering financial assistance toward child care costs (Russell and Bowman, 2000)., Organizations may also grant employees financial assistance toward the cost of elder care, and operate an elder center support program for employees' parents and elderly relatives (Swoody and Powell, 2007).\nResearch methods: The data for the study were gathered using structured questionnaires. The original questionnaires were developed in English. They were translated into Indonesian and then back-translated into English to ensure cross-linguistic comparability of the scale-item contents (Brislin, 1980). Both academic and non-academic staff from 30 higher education institutions across Indonesia participated in the research.\nMeasures: FFPs\nResults: To test the hypothesis, a regression analysis was conducted using SPSS version 21. Prior to the hypothesis testing, preliminary analyses was undertaken and this included testing the validity, reliability, the regression assumptions and the fitness of the model assessments. In assessing validity of the scales, factor analysis was conducted to confirm the underlying structures or dimensions of a set of variables (Pallant, 2011). In determining whether scale items were measuring a single latent construct, exploratory factor analysis was performed for each scale separately. Means, standard deviations, and a correlation matrix for demographic variables, independent variables and the dependent variables are summarized in Table II.\nDiscussion: The use of a range of FFPs did not have a significant impact on employees' levels of work family conflict as expected. From the result of hypothesis testing (Table II), it was found that the use of flexible work options had significant positive impact on employees' work family conflict. This result shows that among respondents of this research, the use of flexible work options actually increases the level of work family conflict. A similar finding was found from a study (Galovan et al., 2010) also conducted in an Asian context (Singapore). One explanation for this surprising finding could be that the use of flexible work options might lead to increased awareness of the existence of work family conflict that was not recognized previously (Brough et al., 2005). The introduction of the programs highlighted a problem that had previously been dormant. In fact, as shown in list above, the level of work family conflict reported in this research is quite low. This level of work family conflict supports the findings from past studies, that despite the long working hours that are normally the practice in most Asian countries, employees in Asian countries reported low to moderate levels of work family conflict (Hassan et al., 2010). Schein (1984) suggests that Eastern societies give greater priority to work as compared to western societies. In Eastern societies, extra work may be legitimized or even encouraged and may be viewed as self-sacrifice made for the family (Galovan et al., 2010). From this perspective, work family conflict among individuals in eastern societies may not be as extensive as in western societies given the priority given to work (Galovan et al., 2010).\nConclusions: This paper examined the effectiveness of selected FFPs in reducing work family conflict for workers in the Indonesian higher education sector. The survey found that not only were the selected measures ineffective in reducing work family conflict, they actually increased work family conflict. Extended family and paid home care support is common within Indonesian families, but these were control variables in the analysis. The paper went on to consider why there were these counter intuitive findings. Suggested explanations included the offsetting increased work intensity and increased hours outside of normal hours, and the fact that the available measures led to income loss that put pressure on family well-being.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of family-friendly programs at the workplace in the Indonesian higher education sector. The focus is the impact that these programs have on employees' work family conflict.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A survey of academic and non-academic staff from 30 higher education institutions across Indonesia participated in the research. A total of 159 completed questionnaires from 109 academic and 50 from non-academic staff are reported and statistically analysed using SPSS.\nFindings: Work and family experiences in Indonesia do not positively align with the findings reported in most academic literature pertaining to western societies where the use of family-friendly programs (i.e. flexible work options, specialized leave options and dependent care support) leads to a reduction in employees' work family conflict. In fact, some of the programs were found to have the opposite effect in the Indonesian context.\nResearch limitations/implications: The design of family-friendly support has to take into account the context in which the policies will operates; these policies are not transferable across countries in terms of their effectiveness.\nOriginality/value: This is one of the first studies that has examined the operation and effectiveness of family-friendly support programs in an Indonesian context.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The operational performance of UK airlines: 2002-2007
|
[
"Airlines",
"Performance management",
"Data analysis",
"United Kingdom"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Recent industry reports from the UK and international airline associations have warned that airlines currently face a threatening period of major financial losses following the last four years increase in oil prices. The predicted global loss in 2008 was around $2.3 billion and latest figures from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) also indicated that the financial losses could even exceed the $6 billion dollars in the near future if oil prices stay high (Robertson, 2008a). The president of IATA described the global situation as \"desperate\" and indicated that in early 2008 around 24 airlines have gone out business. Figures from the US, for example, indicated that in the first quarter of 2008, United Airlines lost around $537 million, American lost $328 million, and Northwest lost $191 million (Wilber, 2008; Robertson, 2008b). Other airlines such as Continental and JetBlue have also suffered major losses. In the UK, airline analysts expected that airlines might face considerable challenges in the near future. British Airways for example predicted a profit reduction of PS250 million in 2008 (Robertson, 2008b).In the literature, the link between performance and profit was well established. It is hypothesised that with a sharp drop in profits only the high performing airlines will survive. Airlines are currently adopting cost-reduction strategies and IATA predicted that airlines will be forced to increase their prices in the near future (Fleming, 2008). Thus, the need for high performance takes an additional importance within the current market challenges.In this study, we were driven by all the above-mentioned factors and the major aim was to reflect the efficiency standing of UK airlines in light of all the recent market challenges. Another aim of this study was to determine those factors that explain the sources of efficiency variations between airlines. We focused on UK airlines because of their international market power; however the findings could also be generalised to reflect the link between performance and current industry characteristics. The methodology used in this study also aimed to improve the accuracy in modeling the performance of airlines. We introduced the innovative data envelopment analysis (DEA) bootstrap methodology. Traditional methods used in the airline and airport efficiency research were the traditional DEA or stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). One of the major limitations of DEA is that it is a deterministic technique and thus does not account for measurement error in deriving the efficiency measures. SFA was again subject to criticism, as it requires a pre-specification of the functional form in the estimation of cost or production frontier technologies. SFA also requires larger sample size than DEA. On the other hand, it is possible with the DEA bootstrap to keep the flexibility of DEA and also obtain statistical properties of the efficiency scores. Data used in the analysis range from 2002 to 2007 and covered 15 airlines. More details on the literature, methodology, variable used, results and discussions are provided in the next four sections of the paper.\n2. Literature review: Studies on airline frontier models are generally limited and outdated and clearly indicate the need for additional evidences and implications on the efficiency characteristics of the airline industry. None of the available studies has focused purely on UK airlines, but many studies have analysed the performance North American airlines and in some cases compared the performance of European, and Asia Pacific airlines. North American airlines usually appeared to be the most efficient (Oum and Yu, 1995). In a recent study, it was also confirmed that US and European airlines were more efficient than Asia Pacific airlines (Barbott et al., 2008).In general, most studies have also followed traditional approaches in the analysis of efficiency. However, in most cases these studies have addressed the limitations of simple partial productivity measurements by incorporating multiple inputs/output as well as environmental variables in the analysis of efficiency. Some of the most common input/output variables are illustrated in Table I. The more common environmental variables are the average load factor and airline size, which in most cases have been found to play a positive role in improving airlines performance (Caves et al., 1984; Coelli et al., 1999). Other variables in the same category are float characteristics like the average speed and size of aircraft.Some of the methodologies used in these studies include the traditional SFA model (e.g. Caves et al., 1984; Baltagi et al., 1995), the DEA-based Malmquist approach (Barbott et al., 2008), and the traditional DEA models (Good et al., 1995). As mentioned before, all these methodologies suffer from common limitations. The main limitation of DEA is that it is a non-statistical technique and thus treats all measurement error as sources of inefficiency, while the main limitation of SFA is that it requires a pre-specification of the functional form in the estimation of cost or production frontier technologies. In this context, the use of the bootstrap approach in this study is therefore considered an innovation as it takes into account the limitations of both the DEA and SFA methods. The findings are consequently expected to be more accurate and as a result provide a more solid ground for policy implications. More details about the advantages of the bootstrap approach are provided in later sections.\n3. Data: The data selection process started with a detailed review of the existing studies in the literature. Guidance from experts in the area was also helpful in confirming the list of variables selected. Data were collected directly from the \"Civil Aviation Authority\" and consisted of 15 major UK airline companies during the period 2002-2007 (90 observations). The authority collects data using the same criteria of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).On the output side, two variables are used namely, \"TKA\" or tonne kilometres available and total operational revenues. TKA is a reflection on two airline outputs: passenger service and cargo operation and is calculated by multiplying the number of tonnes available for the carriage of revenue load (passengers, freight and mail) on each flight by the flight distance. The \"total operational revenues\" (sum of aeronautical and non-aeronautical revenues) was also used in previous studies (Ahn et al., 1997; Good et al., 1995), and is strong indicator of overall performance. On the inputs side three inputs were selected namely labour expenses (total expenditure for the salaries and allowances of all employees), aircraft fuel and oil expenses (includes fuel, de-mineralised water and water methanol consumed), and aircraft value[1] (total financial value of aircraft minus depreciation).In order to account for the sources of efficiency changes, we have also regressed DEA on two environmental variables, namely load factor and airline size. Load factor (defined as the ratio of performed tonne-kilometres to available tonne kilometres) was used to account for the environment in which the airlines operate. As mentioned in the literature review, this variable was used in several related studies (Coelli et al., 1999; Ahn et al., 1997), and it is considered as a measure of market demand. Airlines operating with a high load factor coefficient would expect to have a stronger demand, and thus consequently a higher production/efficiency. The identification of airline size was based on the percentage share of each airline in the total kilometres performed by all UK airlines[2]. It is hypothesised that larger are more productive, as these airlines usually possess stronger economies of scale and more flexible access to technology and innovation. The descriptive statistics of all variables are listed in Table II. In the next section we describe in detail the methodology used in the paper.\n4. DEA and the bootstrap: 4.1 Data envelopment analysis\n5. Results and discussions: The VRS technical efficiency estimates of the different UK airlines, obtained from 2000[6] bootstrap iterations are reported in Table III. As the results indicate, the average technical efficiency follows two different patterns. From 2002 to 2004 there was a strong increase in the average technical efficiency from 78.36 to 85.20 per cent, while from 2005, the average technical efficiency started to decline to reach its lowest level of 73.39 per cent in 2007. Some of the lowest performing airlines in that year include First Choice, Monarch, and Jet 2, while some of the highest performing airlines include British Airways, Thomas Cook, and Thomson fly. The last two columns of Table III show the 95 per cent confidence intervals of the bootstrap estimates. As found before by Simar and Wilson (1998), the bias corrected estimates lied for every observation inside the confidence interval.The estimates of returns to scale were also in line with the efficiency results. As it was shown, most airlines in 2007 were operating under increasing returns to scale that is an indicator that these airlines were motivated to increase the scale of their operations, but there were certain external factors that have stopped these airlines from achieving an optimum level of scale. Some of these airlines include Flybe, Titan, Flightline, and GB Airways, which are mainly described as small airlines.As mentioned before, we also employed in this paper a second stage estimation to determine those factors that explain the variations in technical efficiency scores between the different airlines. The two variables included in the truncated regression model are the load factor and airline size. Specifically, the model can be expressed as follows: Equation 3 where d^it is the technical efficiency scores; LFit is the load factor; Sizeit is a dummy variable reflecting the size of different airlines, with 1 representing large UK airlines; and eit is random error representing statistical noise. The model in equation (3) was also bootstrapped along with the double bootstrap procedure presented in section 4.2. The results are presented in Table IV. We verified that both variables have the expected signs with each of load factor and airline size had a significant positive impact on technical efficiency. These findings are also in line with previous studies in the literature (Coelli et al., 1999; Cornwell et al., 1990).Thus, what do all the results indicate? It is possible to relate the results from the first and second stage estimation to the recent and current industry trends in the international aviation industry. The results, from the first stage, for example, clearly indicated that there was a decreasing trend in the efficiency of UK airlines post 2004, while before 2004 the efficiency was strongly improving. Several external factors might have contributed to this finding. The sharp increase in oil price[7] post 2004, for example, was an important factor. The oil price started to rise from 2004 to reach its highest value on June 16, 2008 with a record price of $139.89 per gallon (Goldman, 2008). Prior to 2004, the inflation adjusted the oil price and it was generally under $25/barrel. Following the increase in oil price, many UK airlines have recorded a sharp decline in profit and high increase in costs, with some examples include British airways and Virgin. The trend was also international. In the US, \"American Airlines\" has expressed intention to stop 75 of its planes and cut the number of seats. Fuel costs have also contributed to several airlines going bankrupt. Some recent examples include business carries MaxJet, Eos, Hawaii's Aloha Airlines and the US carrier ATA (Clark, 2008). A European example is \"Alitalia Airline\" which has been funded from the Italian government to keep flying (Clark, 2008).The increase in oil price had also a direct impact of the load factor of certain airlines. Some examples of airlines which recorded drop in the load factor include British airways (Davies, 2007) and Easy Jet (fall by 3 per cent in 2007). Those operating in regional areas were also directly affected. In this study, it was shown that the load factor has a significant positive impact on technical efficiency, so it is possible that by affecting the load factor, oil price has also indirectly affected technical efficiency. One more factor worth mentioning is the link between oil price and increase in competition. This is because for some airlines the number of international passengers and the domestic market share was decreasing. For example British Airways, together with Virgin have in the past two years announced capacity cut. Recently, Continental Airlines also announced cut by 11 percent and Air Canada by 7 percent. Small airlines were also directly affected as they generally fly short and domestic routes that are less profitable than international long routes. Several recent reports have also discussed that small airlines might not be able to sustain the future competitive environment, and as a result might consider merging with larger airlines.To sum up, all the above factors might have had a direct or indirect impact on the efficiency variations of UK airlines. It is also worth noting that sometimes technical inefficiency could also be attributed to many internal factors, such as management mistakes or staff training. These factors are not part of the analysis, but future studies might consider investigating the impact of these factors through detailed case studies on some airlines. Future studies might collect data on future years of observations to assess the impact of the current economic situation or the drop in oil price, on the performance of UK airlines. The inclusion of other international airlines might also add new dimensions to the study and provide more validations to the results.\n6. Conclusions: The study has introduced the DEA double bootstrap methodology to measure the technical efficiency of UK airlines. The results could generate a starting point for policy makers at the different airlines by providing them with a comprehensive figure on their level of scale and efficiency standings. The results can be used as an incentive to target operational deficiencies and seek new areas of efficiency improvements. However, the management of different airlines is also strongly encouraged to adopt a benchmarking management procedure in order to perform a continuous evaluation of their performance against operational strategies and to make the necessarily corrective actions. It is also possible to validate the results of this study with some qualitative case investigations of the major airlines involved, so future strategies taken by these airlines in response to the current industry trends can be identified. The results can also be used for international benchmarking purpose. For example, several studies have looked at the efficiency of US and other European airlines, and each of studies provides an efficiency score on key airlines in these countries. Thus, it is possible for UK airlines to compare their average efficiency score with those international airlines that share similar characteristics.The efficiency estimates indicated that the performance of UK airlines experienced strong increase between 2002 and 2004, while from 2005, the average technical efficiency started to decline to reach its lowest level in 2007. In this paper we have also employed a second stage estimation to explain the variation in technical efficiency scores. Factors such as load factor and airline size were found to be significantly and positively related to technical efficiency. The paper discussed that the decrease in efficiency of UK airlines might be due to factors such as increase in oil price, intense market competition and drop in load factor. For small airlines the impact of these factors might have also been stronger as they usually suffer from weak economies of scale.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to measure the efficiency of UK airlines in light of all the recent industry challenges.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study measured the technical efficiency of airlines through the innovative data envelopment analysis (DEA) bootstrap methodology.\nFindings: - Results based on a sample of recent input/output data indicated that the efficiency of UK airlines has continuously declined since 2004 to reach a value of 73.39 per cent in 2007. Factors which were found to be significantly and positively related to technical efficiency variations include airline size and load factor. The paper also highlights that factors such as increase in oil price and fierce market competition were also potential inefficiency determinants.\nPractical implications: - The findings of this paper provide a fresh link between airline performance and the current industry characteristics. UK airlines also have a major role in the European and international aviation sector, and thus a reflection on their efficiency could be of interest to private and public policy makers.\nOriginality/value: - The paper focuses on a recent period and thus provide a fresh efficiency assessment of the airline industry. The study also extends the limited literature available on UK airlines.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Lost in the transition from cash to accrual accounting: Assessing the knowledge gaps in Italian public universities
|
[
"Public sector accounting",
"Public university",
"Accrual accounting",
"Budgeting process"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Changes in accounting regimes have already been discussed in many contributions that aim to highlight the information limits of cash accounting systems, comparing the opportunities offered by an accrual accounting system (Parker et al., 1990; Perrin, 1998; Chan, 2003; Anessi-Pessina, Steccolini, 2007). In a small number of studies, the context of analysis was that of public universities (Gray and Haslam, 1990; Christiaens and De Wielemaker, 2003; Agasisti and Catalano, 2013; Agasisti et al., 2008; Agasisti et al., 2015; Upping and Oliver, 2012). The assumption of this literature is that cash accounting systems are insufficient to guarantee the appropriate control of public organisations' performance. Such control can be properly replaced or supported by other tools - primarily an accrual accounting system - inspired by the accounting system of business corporations. The transition from cash accounting to accrual accounting is a consequence of the attention that new public management (NPM) reforms give to the principles of management responsibility and continuous improvement in public administration (Hood, 1995). The introduction of these principles implied the identification of accrual-based accounting tools, able to support the fulfilment of financial balance, efficiency in service provision, higher transparency, and publicly accountable institutions. Aimed to make individual administrations responsible and accountable for the use of public resources, these innovations play a fundamental role in the process of quantification, control and communication of performance. They modify the methods whereby public administrations fulfil their accountability duties (Hood, 1995), while still maintaining the overall balance between cash inflows and outflows. In this context, the accrual system is meant to maintain the structure of ex ante constraints and authorisations but also to support processes of decision making and control, and incorporate new dimensions originally focused on ex-post accounting issues (Christiaens and De Wielemaker, 2003).\n2. Theoretical background: The barriers to the effective accounting change\n3. Empirical setting: The empirical setting of this research is given by a selection of Italian public universities that, by the effect of reform in the accounting and accountability system, are required to substitute cash accounting with accrual accounting. Among the innovation introduced by this reform, we focus, in particular, on the shift of the budgetary system. First, introduced by national Law no. 240/2010. Further regulations were subsequently introduced to complete the initial framework. Legislative Decree no. 18/2012 introduced the mandatory drafting of the annual budget for authorisation purposes, consisting of a budget of profit and loss and an investment budget, related to the calendar year[1]. After this decree, the Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR) established the COEP Committee (Committee for the transition to Accrual Accounting), an advisory body including the administrative directors of several Italian public universities. The COEP Committee aimed to support the transition from cash accounting to accrual accounting through the development of guidelines and other tools for the administrative units of the Italian public universities. The subsequent Ministerial Decree no. 19/2014 stated that budget models would be defined within three months of the decree entering into force; these models, however, were defined only later by the Inter-Ministerial Decree no. 925 on December 10, 2015. Therefore, in the beginning, each university had to figure out how to construct these budgets. Since 2015, the regulatory framework has been completed and includes the annual forecasting budget for authorisation purposes (profit and loss and investment budgets) with the retrospective financial reporting documents (balance sheet, income statement, statement of cash flows and explanatory notes).\n4. Methodology: This study employs a mixed method design based on qualitative analysis by combining a threefold source of information: the findings of an action research within the COEP Committee; the results of a survey based on a standardised questionnaire; the information from a second round of in-depth semi-structured interviews with the administrative directors of the BI's universities (Table I).\n5. Findings: This section presents the findings of the analysis according to the three critical issues of the accounting change mentioned above.\n6. Discussion: The results of the assessment of the Italian public universities' transition from cash accounting to accrual accounting highlight a threefold gap in the capabilities of the administrative staff in the selection of documents to be included in the new budgetary system, the approach to revenue and expense recognition, and the interpretation of the concept of a balanced budget. These gaps emerge as a consequence of both the institutional context and the organisational context in which confusers, frustraters, and delayers factors raise several barriers to the effective implementation of the accounting innovation (Table III).\n7. Conclusion: The transition from cash accounting to accrual accounting marks a radical change not only in the methods of financial reporting and budgeting but also in the system of internal and external relationships. Such a profound change leads to the review of internal organisational and decision-making processes that cannot be considered as neutral operations. These transitions have significant implications for organisations that have been monitored to guarantee that the set objectives are effectively achieved. With the assessment of the transition from cash accounting to accrual accounting in Italian public universities, some technical issues that make this change particularly difficult has been analysed. In particular, the organisational answer to the reform highlighted that the will to maintain a direct link with the pre-reform approach generated a persistent confusion between the accrual approach and the cash approach. At the same time, universities' administrative staff tended to attribute to the budget of profit and loss, functions, and purposes that could only be pursued through other instruments.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the change from cash accounting to accrual accounting, identifying and assessing the institutional and organisational barriers that may affect this process. A specific focus on knowledge gaps is provided.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study employs a mixed method design, combining action research activities, a survey, and in-depth qualitative interviews in the setting of Italian public universities.\nFindings: The findings highlight a low degree of compliance with the accrual accounting system and budgeting system, which is the result of the lack of an accrual accounting culture in the Italian public sector.\nOriginality/value: The analysis confirms some barriers to the transition highlighted by previous literature and also adds further explanations of such limitations in terms of the lack of skills and accounting knowledge of the universities' administrative staff possesses.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Risk communication for religious crowds: preferences of Hajj pilgrims
|
[
"Crowd management",
"Hajj",
"Protection action behaviour",
"Religious crowds",
"Risk and crisis communication"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In recent years there has been a growing interest in understanding the nuances of crowd behavior for effective crowd management solutions. Although ensuring the safety of people at crowded events requires sophisticated planning and monitoring of pedestrian movements, crowd members demand a degree of mobility and freedom if they are to enjoy themselves. When managers are overly focused on control through heightened security measures, physical barriers or force it may spark a degree of defensive resistance and irrational actions leading to human stampedes (Kingshott, 2014). Thus a noticeable shift in paradigm from a danger-based approach demanding crowd control, to a more collaborative crowd management approach that looks at members of a crowd as rational and responsible actors is evidenced (Maidl and Buchecker, 2015).\nTheoretical framework for examining risk communication: Lindell and Perry (2004, 2012) advanced the PADM framework positing that three risk communication bases affect what individuals do with the risk information they receive, i.e., how they arrive at decisions to take protective actions against threats, these are threat perception, protective action perception and stakeholder perception. Threat perception is influenced by environmental cues and social clues (i.e. the impact of people around us). Protective action perception is based on behavioral decision making and problem-solving processes involved in deciding what actions to take to protect oneself, why it must be taken, the kinds of resources required in time and money, etc. Stakeholder perception is the integration of social and cognitive processes. It highlights the individual's perceptions of which societal stakeholders are knowledgeable, trustworthy and responsible for keeping them safe.\nMethodology: In the Summer of 2013, partial funding was received from the TCMCORE, Saudi Arabian Government for data collection in Madinah. A research team comprising 21 interviewers and 3 supervisors was appointed by TCMCORE to assist the lead author. The team used a convenience sampling strategy to identify and interview 348 pilgrims from the area around the Prophet's Mosque. Only 4 of the 21 interviewers were female and hence the number of female respondents was limited at 13.5 percent (47) due to cultural restrictions. Further, the interviews were conducted only in English and Arabic, likely leaving out the preferences of other language speakers.\nResults: Demographic characteristics\nDiscussions and implications for practice: The findings from this research highlight initiatives currently in place for targeting the diverse pilgrim crowds during Hajj and strategies that can be adopted to improve risk communication for better crowd management. First, considering that printed materials received the highest score as the first channel of choice, and trust and clear messaging were the two most discerning characteristics of a good media channel, it likely demonstrates that the Hajj authority initiatives in publishing such materials are meeting with success. For example, the Hajj and Umra magazine published on a monthly basis by the Saudi Government is distributed to over 90 countries across the globe in both Arabic and English languages. It covers special events and the rituals of Hajj, and Umra and visits to the major shrines in Makkah and Madinah (Ministry of Haj and Umra, 2017). Furthermore, health risk messages have been translated in advance and made available at the airport, hotels, public spaces, with Tawafa establishments, etc. as brochures and pamphlets. The Saudi Government is to be lauded for investing thousands of riyals annually for translating printed materials into multiple languages and making them simple and easy to understand, and available to nearly 2.5 million pilgrims annually.\nConclusions: This paper described an empirical research conducted to gauge the sources of risk information and their perceived effectiveness expressed by Hajj pilgrims in 2013, to inform better risk communication strategies for the most crowded religious event in the world - The Hajj. Although the research has its limitations in that all 348 respondents interviewed spoke either English or Arabic and only 13.7 percent were female, it is the first study of its kind to take Hajj pilgrims preferences into account. As such it makes an important contribution to theory and practice.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe empirical research intended to gauge the channels of risk information and their perceived effectiveness expressed by Hajj pilgrims in 2013 to better inform risk-reduction strategies at crowded religious events.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To do so, a research team partially funded by the Transportation and Crowd Management Center of Research Excellence from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia conducted face-to-face interviews with 348 Hajj pilgrims in 2013. The semi-structured survey instrument used the Protective Action Decision Model framework to gather information on six pre-decisional variables that influence threat perceptions, stakeholder perceptions and decisions to take protective actions against impending threats.\nFindings: Results of the multinomial logit regression using the traditional media (i.e. television and radio) as the reference category found support for ease of access, language of choice, gender and age differentials, as factors positively or negatively influencing respondents' selections of their top three most preferred channels for risk communication materials. Printed materials (i.e. pamphlets and billboards) ranked first followed by smart technologies and outreach activities.\nResearch limitations/implications: The convenience sampling strategy adopted with only four female interviewers compared to 17 male interviewers, limited the number of female respondents to only 47 (13.7 percent) due to cultural restrictions. Interviews were conducted only in English and Arabic, leaving out the preferences of other language speakers.\nOriginality/value: Despite these limitations, this study makes a valuable contribution to theory and practice by highlighting the social and cognitive variables influencing risk communication at Hajj. No studies to date have examined choices and preferences of heterogeneous Hajj pilgrims.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Management of gift materials in an academic library
|
[
"Charitable donations",
"Libraries",
"Information retrieval",
"Cataloguing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Gift materials can be a joyful occurrence or the bane of the library. Lane (1980) says that:Gifts are a vital source of library materials, as the frequent mention of important gifts in library literature attests. Aside from large or famous collections of rare single volumes or manuscripts, the common \"garden variety\" materials also play a large role in the development and maintenance of collections. Where do they come from?Gifts, as the word implies, come from various sources. Librarians may encounter patrons or friends donating monies or in-kind materials to be housed in the library's collections as a safe haven or exchange in perpetuity. Some estates are bequeathed to our institutions, while some important people give their life's work (usually papers, letters, etc.) so that others may do extensive research later. These may include materials like Presidential papers, screenplays of famous playwrights, or music scores written for special occasions. Some materials the library acquires on exchange from other sources for works that the library either owns now or can acquire in the future. The majority of gift materials that the Music Library at the University of South Carolina receives are from private donors. Their donations reach the library as they retire, move, or as part of their estates.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper proposes to provide information on how to handle gifts in academic libraries.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper is based on the author's research and practices developed at the Thomas Cooper Library at the University of South Carolina.\nFindings: - The author has suggested ways to handle materials being added to the library's collection in order to make them accessible to the users even if they are not as yet cataloged.\nPractical implications: - A new method is shown that allows keyword accessibility to MARC records in the local online catalog for donors' names, storage identification, and other details of importance, making the procedure simpler to use. It also allows for the rapid retrieval of materials.\nOriginality/value: - This paper provides useful guidelines for handling gifts to a library so that they can easily be retrieved and so that the donor can see how the library is handling the donation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Setting an ethical example with authentic leadership: Exploring the connections between knowledge sharing, creativity, workplace climate and performance
|
[
"Employee performance",
"Employee creativity",
"Knowledge sharing",
"Authentic leadership",
"Workplace climate"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Extracting optimum creative value from employees and spurring them on to perform to the highest possible level is the managerial sweet spot that many companies dream of landing in on a consistent basis. In markets that are increasingly leveraging the knowledge of their people to gain a competitive advantage, organizations that devote time and attention to building a climate that releases the best from those people have the strongest chance of succeeding.\nUnlocking a web of psychological characteristics: Companies in the telecommunications industry have been compelled by rampant competition in recent times to turn to their employees' creativity to help maintain and grow their customer base. Authentic leadership (AL) is an organizational leadership theory rooted in positive psychology that's built upon a leader behaving ethically, reliably, and in a morally transparent, trustworthy manner. By transmitting their values to those around them in the work environment, authentic leaders imbue the workplace climate with a harmony that transmits to the operational character of the wider organization. Four dimensions that authentic leaders ethically promote can be crystallized as follows:\nThe reported impacts of authentic leaders: Survey questions such as \"My leader asks for ideas that challenge their beliefs\" were used to reveal the following results from the insights of the respondents:\nApplying authentic leadership: By embuing their people with a sense of psychological safety, authentic leaders can leverage the talents of the individuals they serve by harnessing the psychologically motivating and energizing advantages that become available when AL skills are applied.\nCommentary: The review is based on \"Knowledge management, workplace climate, creativity and performance: The role of authentic leadership\" by Alzghoul et al. (2018), published in the Journal of Workplace Learning. This research paper concentrates on how authentic leadership (AL), workplace climate, knowledge sharing, and employee performance interrelate based on data from people working in two telecommunications firms in Jordan. A highly ethical and moral AL style has a positive effect on an employee's performance and creativity. Furthermore, the workplace climate impacts the relationship between AL and creativity, and knowledge sharing impacts the relationship between AL and the workplace climate.\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: This research paper concentrates on how authentic leadership (AL), workplace climate, knowledge sharing, and employee performance interrelate based on data from people working in two telecommunications firms in Jordan. A highly ethical and moral AL style has a positive effect on an employee's performance and creativity. Furthermore, the workplace climate impacts the relationship between AL and creativity, and knowledge sharing impacts the relationship between AL and the workplace climate.\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"
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] |
What motivates consumers to buy traditional food products? Evidence from Croatia and Austria using word association and laddering interviews
|
[
"Croatia",
"Motives",
"Austria",
"Free association",
"Laddering technique",
"Traditional food"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Traditional foods have played a historically important role in traditions of different cultures and regions contributing to their sense of identity and pride (Weichselbaum et al., 2009; Almli, 2012). They include foods produced in a traditional way, which have been consumed locally and regionally for an extended period of time (Weichselbaum et al., 2009).\nTraditional food products in Croatia and Austria: Croatia has many fresh and processed food products, which possess specific characteristics and reputation due to their region of origin and/or traditional method of production (Radman et al., 2006). This is a result of topography, climate and cultural diversity of the country. In a relatively small geographic area there are plains, hilly and mountainous regions, the Adriatic Sea, three types of climate: continental, mountain and Mediterranean as well as various cultural influences from central Europe and the Mediterranean to the Balkans and Byzantium (Kovacic et al., 2014). Almost all Croatian regions are known for their traditional products; nevertheless there is no detailed register of Croatian traditional food products. Kovacic et al. (2014) listed some traditional products of interest according to the criteria of authenticity, image of the product, size of the existing production and market potential. The list includes several plant varieties (cherry Maraska, Neretva mandarin, Varazdin cabbage, Ogulin cabbage, Lika potato), domestic animal breeds (Zagorje turkey, Posavina goose, Pramenka sheep, Black Slavonian pigs, Istrian cattle Boskarin), traditional meat products (Slavonian kulen, Dalmatian ham and Istrian ham, bacon, greaves), traditional cheeses (Pag cheese, Skripavac cheese, Istrian cheese), wines (Dingac, Postup, Babic, etc.), fruit products (sljivovica, tepka, visnjevac, etc.) as well as traditional dishes particularly cakes and pastries (Zagorje strukli, soparnik, mantala, etc.).\nMethodology: Consumers from two different locations in Austria and Croatia were interviewed during two separate surveys between 15 and 23 of December 2013. Beside socio-demographic variables, the questionnaire contained several questions about shopping habits concerning traditional food and knowledge about selected traditional and regional food labels. Furthermore it contained a word association test and guiding questions for the laddering interviews. The same questionnaire was used for both samples. First the questionnaire was made in German and then it was translated in Croatian. Due to the qualitative nature of the study and the small but sufficient number of the sample size (28 and 31) the respondents were selected over convenience sampling.\nDescription of the samples: The following table summarizes socio-demographic variables of the Croatian and Austrian sample. The Croatian sample had a higher share of females (61 per cent) than the Austrian sample with 46 per cent females. The majority of respondents in both samples were always or mostly responsible both for food purchase and preparation of food for the household's members (Austrian sample 64 per cent, Croatian sample about 60 per cent).\nResults and discussion: In the following section we describe first the results concerning how the respondents defined traditional food, the share of traditional food in their weekly shopping, what importance they attributed to the origin and other questions concerning traditional food, before we explain the results of the word association test and the laddering interviews. It is important to note here that the results cannot be generalized for the population of the Austrian and Croatian consumers, because of the qualitative character of this study. We first let the consumer freely associate to the word \"traditional food\" and then we asked them in a consecutive question to define \"traditional food\", because we did not want to frame their spontaneous associations. The question about the definition of a traditional food product tried to reveal more cognitive or rational aspects, while the association test aimed to reveal the affective and emotional elements behind the concept and a wider range of associated images, beliefs and attitudes (Dean et al., 2006).\nWord associations for traditional food: We asked the respondents the following question: \"When you think about traditional food, what comes spontaneously into your mind?\" The free association test resulted in a total number of 158 valid elicited words in the Austrian sample with an average 5.6 words per participants. In the Croatian sample the total number of valid elicited words was 141, which represented an average of 4.5 words per participant. In all, 26 of the 28 respondents in the Austrian sample (92 per cent) could name at least three different associations; all of them were able to provide at least one association; 15 of the 31 respondents in the Croatian sample (48.5 per cent) could name at least five different associations; all of them were able to provide at least three associations. Eliciting words about abstract concepts such as traditional food could be more difficult than for specific objects. Guerrero et al. (2010) reported an average of 2.42 associations per participant in their word association study about traditional food, and even 8.5 per cent of their respondents could not name any association at all to the word \"traditional food\". Compared to this study the Austrian and Croatian respondents seemed to be at ease with finding associations.\nHierarchical value maps for traditional food: The following Figure 4 shows the Austrian HVM. In all, 28 Austrian respondents generated 83 ladders. A ladder represents a sequence from product attribute to consequences to values. The average elements per ladder of the Austrian HVM are four and in average one respondent produced 2.96 ladders. The cut-off level for concrete attributes and functional consequences was 3, which means that only links (direct and indirect) between categories that were at least three times listed were taken into account for the visual display. For the psychosocial consequences the cut-off level was 2 and for the instrumental and terminal values it was 1. The differing cut-off levels were necessary to reduce the complexity of the HVM while not losing too much information (at a higher cut-off some terminal values would not have been visible).\nConclusions: The results of this study visualize the cognitive structure and motives of Croatian and Austrian consumers in respect to traditional food. Croatia and Austria produce a wide variety of traditional foods in their countries, but on a marketing level Austria has actively promoted an umbrella brand for more than 100 different traditional food products for several years, called \"Genuss Region Osterreich\" (Delight Region Austria). In Croatia up until now there is no governmental marketing organization involved in marketing of an umbrella brand of traditional foods. For both countries the results of this study deliver interesting insights for further marketing activities, such as the marketing communication strategies, product development, further analysis of consumer attitudes, as well as useful segmentation of the market of traditional food products. In both countries consumers perceive traditional foods as \"natural\", healthy and trustworthy products, which are produced without chemicals or pesticides. This natural aspect of products should be emphasized for communication strategies. The use of traditional ingredients and the domestic origin are important aspects for brand development and quality management. Quality criteria for traditional food brands should recommend that producers have to use local or domestic raw material. Third-party certification has to guarantee that the existing trust level is not damaged between the consumers and the domestic producers. Traditional recipes and ingredients emphasize the unique character; while on an agricultural production level an environmental friendly and sustainable (integrated pest management or organic) production should confirm the image of a more natural production system.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the differences between consumer motives regarding purchase of traditional food in two European countries (Croatia and Austria) with a different history and development in regards to traditional and/or regional food.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A word association test and soft laddering interviews were used to elicit consumers' perception and purchasing motives for traditional food. Additionally, the questionnaire contained socio-demographics and questions about shopping habits concerning traditional food. Semi-structured, individual, face-to-face interviews were performed with 31 Croatian and 28 Austrian respondents.\nFindings: The most frequent associations/definition in both countries refers to heritage (food of generations) and elaboration (traditional receipt). The meaning of traditional food is for both samples positive. Hierarchical value maps for both countries contain ladders standing for health or support of local farmers. Additionally, the Austrians connect traditional food with environmental friendly production while for the Croatians sentimental hedonism ladder starts with perception of traditional food as a mean to connect with the childhood.\nPractical implications: The findings can be used by traditional food producers in order to better understand consumers' motives and accordingly adapt their marketing strategies.\nOriginality/value: This is the first work which uses free association test and laddering interviews to reveal consumers perception and motives for purchase of traditional food both in Croatia as well as in Austria.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Extending the ERP system: considering the business relationship portfolio
|
[
"Adoption",
"Business relationship portfolio",
"Extended ERP system",
"Markets-as-networks"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have gone from being described as \"a dream come true\" to being evaluated and adopted in a more careful and gradual manner (Momoh et al., 2010; Davenport, 1998). To reach their full potential ERP systems need to include e-commerce (EC) functionalities (Frank, 2004) and thereby become what has been described as a second-wave ERP (Shanks et al., 2003), ERPII (Weston, 2003), ERP2 (Ross et al., 2003), or extended ERP (Samaranayake, 2009; de Burca et al., 2005). In practice, ERP systems support companies in their daily dealings but their focus is mainly internal (Davenport et al., 2004). ERP systems are designed to support the core processes of the organization, such as finance, human resources, operations and logistics, and sales and marketing (McLaughlin et al., 2003; Umble et al., 2003) and the (virtual) central database integrates all transactional data which offers accurate and up-to-date information accessible on demand (Forslund and Jonsson, 2010; Zabjek et al., 2009; Chen, 2001). Contemporary ERP systems support customer-oriented business processes (Davenport, 2000) even if they are a breed of the earlier MRP systems that have a product rather than customer focus (Sumner, 2005).\n2. The ERP system evolution: The use of ERP systems expanded with a broad frontier in the early 1990s, especially when the German company SAP released their SAP R/3 (Chen, 2001). At that time companies spent vast sums on ERP systems given the anticipated Y2k problem and today the ERP market has shifted from focussing solely on large companies to now also including software packages for mid-size and small companies. This market change has led to a situation where the large vendors, such as SAP and Oracle, have gotten competition from Microsoft that has expanded their product portfolio. ERP systems' core functionality leads to integrated and centralized data as well as business process support. Well implemented it gives financial benefits and simplified data processing for managers. However, an ERP project should not only be based on return-on-investments, it should also bring strategic benefits by offering simplified decision making, improved processes as well as faster and more reliable data access (Samaranayake, 2009; Chen, 2001; Davenport, 2000). An ERP system should also in the longer run aid interorganizational exchanges and thereby become an extended ERP system (Salo, 2007; Jaiswal and Kaushik, 2005). Salo (2007, p. 492) uses the concept ERP2 suggesting that it is similar to the first generation ERP systems; but also that it is \"extended beyond one organization to include business relationship parties.\" Salo (2007) also adds that the added functionality offers \"a window for managers to see inter-organizational processes.\" Companies can use several extended ERP system functionalities simultaneously, i.e. they can be used and exist in parallel depending on what business the company runs, what suppliers and what customers the company has.\n3. Business relationships and the extended ERP system: To understand how companies can develop extended ERP system functionality we propose a business relationship perspective following the markets-as-networks research tradition (Johanson and Vahlne, 2011; McLoughlin and Horan, 2002; Mattsson, 1997). This is an inductively developed theoretical stream also referred to as the International and Purchasing Group (Ford et al., 2011), industrial relations (Hadjikhani and Thilenius, 2009), or business networks (Leek and Mason, 2010). This robust body of research has stressed the importance of business relationships (Ford et al., 2011; Hakansson and Johanson, 1992; Ford, 1990; Johanson and Mattsson, 1988; Hallen et al., 1987; Turnbull and Valla, 1986) that become both a resource and a limitation for the involved companies (Hakansson, 1982). A business relationship is quite similar to a relationship between two human beings; it is something that requires a lot of work from both parties to work in the long term (Ford et al., 2011). A business relationship is based upon all the different exchanges that take place between a company and its customer or supplier; it is not just a simple business transaction where one product changes hands on a single occasion (Holmlund and Tornroos, 1997). The formation of business relationships means that companies develop trust and commitment and it reduces the risk for opportunistic behaviors (Wong et al., 2010; Gil-Saura et al., 2009; Ryssel et al., 2004; Handfield and Bechtel, 2002; Morgan and Hunt, 1994; Anderson and Weitz, 1992; Cook and Emerson, 1978). Both seller and buyer need to understand that both parties must get benefits from the business relationship (Johanson and Mattsson, 1987). Trust is considered a central aspect of business relationship formation and it is also considered important when introducing different forms of IT for the exchanges.\n4. Research approach: To capture a networked business setting and form an understanding of how firms develop extended ERP systems a case study approach is necessary. Case studies are used when the researcher strives for a deep knowledge of a contemporary phenomenon and where the context is taken into consideration (Yin, 2009; Dube and Pare, 2003). The case study methodology could be considered weak when considering statistical generalizability but is well suited for theory building and theory extension. This is especially the case when the selection of case organization can be considered theory driven (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007; Miles and Huberman, 1994; Eisenhardt, 1989). The case study concerns a firm that had gone from a \"go-live\" state to increasing the ERP system's functionality and the business relationship and network theory - i.e. a market-as-networks perspective (McLoughlin and Horan, 2002; Mattsson, 1997) - was used as theoretical lens. The unit of analysis is thereby the studied focal company's portfolio of business relationships given that an extended ERP system spans beyond the firm's organizational boundary. This meant that we had to collect supplementary data at the case company's customers and suppliers to capture the phenomena.\n5. Discussion and conclusions: Industrial companies' main attention when implementing ERP systems is usually confined to intra-organizational issues and the associated expectations of the effects on efficiency appearing once the ERP systems \"go-live\" (Davenport et al., 2004). The dependency of industrial companies' on business relationships and the markets-as-networks logic imply that companies in addition also need to manage their portfolio of relationships to become competitive (Ford et al., 2011; Johanson and Vahlne, 2011; McLoughlin and Horan, 2002; Mattsson, 1997). Studies have suggested that companies are driven to expand their ERP systems to include e.g. EC functionality to increase the value of the ERP system (Salo, 2007; Jaiswal and Kaushik, 2005; Willis and Willis-Brown, 2002; Chen, 2001). This calls for a theoretical approach where organizational boundaries are not posing constraints to the study of the process of developing an extended ERP system. In this paper the case of one company's process of developing extended ERP system functionality to increase efficiency using a business relationship perspective has provided several interesting findings.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Research has shown that companies focus their internal processes when they adopt enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. However, the ERP systems need to expand their functionality to include customers and suppliers (with e-commerce functionality) to reach their full potential. The purpose of this paper is to consider business relationships as a resource but also a limitation when companies strive to get an extended ERP system.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper presents an illustrative case study of an industrial company's process of developing an extended ERP and how the company's portfolio of business relationships has affected the solution. The analysis is supported by the markets-as-networks theory.\nFindings: The process of developing an extended ERP system needs to incorporate the company's business partners (customers and suppliers). It is a simultaneously bottom-up and top-down process given that the operative frontline staff hold the knowledge about the company's business relationships while the corporate management has the means of extending the ERP system functionality and align it with the focal company's strategy.\nResearch limitations/implications: Companies need to consider the fact that the technological and financial status of their customers and suppliers differ. Thus, an effective and flexible extended ERP system needs to include both a high-end and low-end solution as well as understand that a full interorganizational integration might not be realistic.\nOriginality/value: The paper puts forth business relationship portfolios as an important factor to consider when extending the ERP system functionality in the supply chain and toward customers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
What is food poverty? A conceptual framework
|
[
"Food poverty",
"Food policy",
"Food security",
"Hunger"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: As an issue which has received increased recognition in recent years, food poverty within the UK has been subject to public, private and governmental interest. This is emphasised by Wells and Caraher (2014) who identified a steep incline in the volume of print media relating to food banks between 2011 and 2013 and Loopstra and Tarasuk (2013, p. 1316) who stated that \"household food insecurity is increasingly being recognised as a serious public health problem in high income countries\". A high level of inflation on essential goods and services, coupled with lower disposable income has increased pressure upon households in achieving an adequate diet. Consumers have expressed apprehension about food affordability and have petitioned for the issue to be debated in the House of Commons (HC Deb, 2013) while businesses and charities such as Kellogg's, Tesco, Oxfam and Red Cross, have identified the problem and responded proactively by engaging in research, providing support and partnering with food distribution schemes. With these concerns in place, the government has instigated investigations through groups such as; the All Party Parliamentary Group and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Both enquiries identified that food affordability was a significant risk to household food security.\n2. Review strategy: An exploratory approach utilising secondary research was conducted to assemble sufficient information to ensure an extensive examination, consisting of several sources inclusive of academia, government and non-governmental organisations. The literature was screened for relevance following a broad search which primarily focused upon UK publications, with the exception of national data relevant to specified countries of USA, Canada, Yemen and United Republic of Tanzania (Tanzania). The developing countries were selected for comparison for several reasons, first both countries ranked poorly in the 2014 Global Hunger Index, whereby of 76 countries, Yemen ranked as 69 and Tanzania as 53. Additionally, the 2014 UNDP human development index found that of 187 countries, Tanzania was ranked as 159 and Yemen as 154 (Von Grebmer et al., 2014). These countries represent two separate continents where food insecurity is a significant problem with dissimilar causes. Food insecurity relating to socio-economic problems in Yemen were aggravated by 2007/2008 price spike and 2011 politic crisis, in addition to weakening economy, conflict, resource depletion and environmental threats (UNICEF and WFP, 2014). While the causes of food insecurity in Tanzania are inclusive of drought; high food and oil prices; insufficient infrastructure; seasonal shortages; and lack of dietary diversity. Both countries are reliant upon external food aid and support, yet while Tanzania's status was relatively stable, Yemen's was decreasing. Despite the economic situation in these countries, both have accessible and comparable measurement of inflation.\n3. Defining food poverty: Maslen et al. (2013) discussed that the definition of UK food poverty developed over time as understanding advanced however there remains no consensus for a standardised definition, an impediment for the comprehension and conceptualisation of the issue. This disunity is problematic for several reasons including: as an obstacle in academic and political examination, difficulty in ascertaining the quantity or characteristics of individuals classified as such and constraints in addressing related demands. A common terminology utilised in Dowler et al. (2011) \"the inability to acquire or consume an adequate quality or sufficient quantity of food in socially acceptable ways, or the uncertainty that one will be able to do so\", derived from a definition of food insecurity by Radimer et al. (1992).\n4. Food poverty: international perspectives: 4.1. Economic access\n5. Discussion: Through an examination of existing literatures on the subject, food poverty has been defined as the insufficient economic access to an adequate quantity and quality of food to maintain a nutritionally satisfactory, socially acceptable diet. This brief, comprehensive term encompasses four elements which are popularly utilised within the current knowledge of the issue, yet differentiates itself in several ways. First this definition was developed specific for UK application with an awareness of the influential role of household finance in meeting dietary requirements. Second, simple terminology was employed to enable multi-level use and understanding. Third, the role of a social dimension is recognised as a pertinent factor to individual requirements given the influence of factors such as education, skills, culture, preferences and emotional relationship with products. Furthermore clarification of food insecurity and food poverty were produced, to illuminate differentials between the issues and the effect on developed and developing countries.\n6. Conclusion: Food poverty is not a new problem occurring as a result of 2007/2008 food price, as evidenced by a history of food aid. Inflation of essential household expenditure reduced food affordability for almost all socio-economic groups around the world with the lowest income households impacted most severely. As an area with numerous gaps in research, there is broad scope for further study to fully understand the extent of the situation both internationally and within the UK.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Recently, food poverty has been subject to much academic, political and media attention following the recent reduction in consumer purchasing power as a result of food and energy price volatility. Yet the lack of consensus related to food poverty terminology acts as an inhibitor in both identifying and addressing the issue in the UK, specifically as a separate problem to that of food insecurity. Misunderstanding of terminology is an impediment to identifying similarities and differentials with both developed and developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues and enhance political and academic discourse.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An exploratory approach utilising secondary research was conducted to assemble sufficient information to ensure an extensive examination, consisting of several sources inclusive of academia, government and non-governmental organisations. The literature was screened for relevance following a broad search which primarily focused upon UK publications, with the exception of national data relevant to specified countries of USA, Canada, Yemen and United Republic of Tanzania (Tanzania).\nFindings: Economic access, quality, quantity, duration and social dimensions were the common features identified in the majority of the literature. Based upon these elements the proposed concise definition was constructed as; food poverty is the insufficient economic access to an adequate quantity and quality of food to maintain a nutritionally satisfactory and socially acceptable diet.\nOriginality/value: This study provides a conceptual approach in defining food poverty. Comparative to the countries examined, the UK has significant gaps in understanding and providing strategies in relation to individuals experiencing food poverty, causes and symptoms, methods of alleviation and coping strategies. There is no peer reviewed paper clearly discussing the definition of food poverty, hence, this review paper is original in three areas: establishing a definition for food poverty; clarifying the relationship between food poverty and food security; and discuss food poverty in UK with international comparison.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Are they willing to work for you? An employee-centric view to employer brand attractiveness
|
[
"Literature review",
"Employer brand",
"Employee benefits",
"Employee attraction",
"Employer of choice",
"Means-end chain"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The concept of employer attractiveness has grown in importance in an economy where organizations compete to attract the best employees (Ewing et al., 2002). Building a strong employer brand generates favourable attitudes in potential employees (Berthon et al., 2005), which in turn allows companies to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage in the labour market as they differentiate themselves from competitors. Previous studies have evidenced that companies with stronger employer brands than their competitors can potentially improve firm performance (Kashive and Khanna, 2017), reduce the cost of employee acquisition, improve employee relations, increase employee retention, offer lower salaries to comparable staff in firms with weaker employer brands (Ritson, 2002) and even reduce employees' turnover intentions (Alniacik et al., 2011), thereby increasing their willingness to stay within the firm (Ambler and Barrow, 1996; Tanwar and Prasad, 2017).\nMethod: To answer the research questions, the employer attributes, employee benefits and employee perceived value that have been studied and measured in the literature will be critically analysed in order to describe how these three concepts have been addressed in existing research and the relationships that have been established among them. Following the procedure of Saleem and Iglesias (2016), a literature search was conducted with 14 employer branding-related keywords used in a recent literature review by Theurer et al. (2016) (i.e. EITHER: \"brand equity\", \"recruit* equity\", \"employ* brand*\", \"employ* image\", \"employ* reputation\", \"employ* identity\", \"employ* advertising\", \"employ* value proposition\", \"work* brand*\", \"work* image\", \"work* reputation\", \"work* identity\", \"work* advertising\", \"work* value proposition\"). The keyword \"employ* attractiveness\" was also included in the search due to its wide use in the literature as a synonym for \"employer brand attractiveness\" (Backhaus and Tikoo, 2004; Berthon et al., 2005; Tuzuner and Yuksel, 2009). The keywords were always searched in combination with one or more of the four HRM-related terms (i.e. AND: \"human resource*\", \"HRM\", \"recruit*\", \"retention\") in the Google Scholar database (Theurer et al., 2016), and a confirmatory search was performed using the same keywords in the Web of Science database. These terms were chosen to capture the entire spectrum of the literature covering any dimension of the \"employer brand\" and the literature covering \"employer branding\" strategies. A total of 249 papers published in English in double-blind peer-reviewed academic journals (Podsakoff et al., 2005) between 1993 and 2016 were obtained.\nResults: As shown in Table II, the conducted literature review reveals that the study of attributes has captured most of the attention of researchers when analysing the strength of employer brands. Of the analysed papers, 99 per cent consider at least one attribute as a variable for explaining employee attraction, whilst 65 per cent of papers consider at least one employee benefit.\nDiscussion, limitations and avenues for future research: This study uses the distinction between the notions of attributes, benefits and perceived value as established in consumer-centric means-end chain models (Zeithaml, 1988) as a method to revisit and classify the existing literature on employer brand attractiveness (see Figure 1). This paper contributes to the literature in two ways, opening new research avenues for future studies to address.\nManagerial implications: In the recent 17th Annual Global CEO Survey (PwC, 2013), 93 per cent of the CEOs surveyed said that they recognize the need to make a change, or that they are already changing, their employer brand strategies.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The present study aims to propose a novel employee-centric framework for the study of employer brand attractiveness. This framework disentangles the role of employer attributes, employee benefits and employee perceived value in the study of employer brands to better develop policies for talent attraction. Additionally, this study formulates a research agenda to help advance an employee-centric view of the employer's brand management by following the tradition of customer-centric research and identifying benefits and forms of value that are yet unexplored.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper performs a systematic and critical review of the literature on employer brand attraction from the lens of means-end chains to examine how the notions of \"employer attributes\", \"employee benefits\" and \"perceived value\" have been addressed in past studies and what relations have been established among these three concepts.\nFindings: The results unveil the existing conflation among attributes, benefits and value in the conceptualization of employer brand attractiveness. By proposing an employee-centric framework following the tenets of current consumer-centric paradigms, this paper disentangles the notions of attributes, benefits and value in the creation of attractive employer brands; establishes a hierarchical relationship among them; and suggests studying the multiple paths of relationships between attributes and benefits. These conditions should help organizations understand how to create successful strategies to ultimately ensure that they are selected as employers of choice.\nResearch limitations/implications: Further research is needed to clarify the domains in which the already studied empirical relations hold. This could be achieved by conducting a laddering process based on a means-end chain approach. Additionally, the impact of this framework on the construction of effective value propositions and employee market segmentation should be further explored.\nOriginality/value: This paper has revisited the construct of employer brand from a means-ends approach to propose an employee-centric view guiding employer brand strategies. As competition for the best employees sharpens, understanding how employer brand traits are valued in the eyes of different segments of employees and applicants may help organizations to develop more effective strategies to attract the best talent.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Returns to education and occupations for Canadian Aboriginal people
|
[
"Occupations",
"Education",
"Human capital",
"Canadian Aboriginal people"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Although the estimation on the returns to education is well-documented since the popularisation of the Human Capital Theory a few decades ago by Mincer (1958), there are still under-studied issues within this area where a better understanding could provide valuable implications for policy arrangement and further development. The study of returns to education and occupations for Canadian Aboriginal people is such a case.\n2. Theoretical background: Human capital theory is a modern extension of Adam Smith's (1776/1937) account of wage differentials by the net advantages between different employments. Human capital theory was refined throughout the 1950s and 1960s by Mincer (1958, 1962), Schultz (1961, 1963) and Becker (1962, 1964). The basic concept of this refined theory is that personal talents, abilities, knowledge and skills are considered capital, and investment in education, training and medical care enhances human capital following the same idea as the investment in physical capital. However, measuring human capital presents with issue. The difficulty is that human capital related characteristics of individuals can hardly be summarised into a common unit of measurement. The frequently used measurements of human capital in research for estimation are often indicators of these abilities and skills rather than direct measurements of these characteristics. Mincer (1958) pioneered empirical estimation of human capital by including only years of schooling and experience, known as the Mincer equation, which remains an accurate benchmark for estimating wage determinants over the last few decades (Lemieux, 2006). More sophisticated models were developed later that considered the life cycle arrangement in investment, education, and job training as maximising an individual's lifetime utility (Blinder and Weiss, 1976, Heckman, 1976).\n3. Data and method: 3.1 Data\n4. Results: Our ordered logit model estimation is processed in two stages with Stata software. First, the ordered logistic estimation was performed. Then the marginal effects (dy/dx) of each dependent variable, on each outcome (income level) were calculated based on the order logistic regression. The results of ordered logistic regression are reported in Table II, and the marginal effects are reported in Table III.\n5. Conclusion remarks: Using a dataset from the APS 2012, this paper estimates the returns of education and occupations for Canadian Aboriginal people. Results of the ordered logit model estimation confirmed most of our predicted relationships between income level and age, gender, health status, urban residency, education and occupations. A few findings should however be highlighted.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, drawing on a unique data set, the authors estimate the returns to education for Canadian Aboriginal people. Second, the authors explore the relationship between occupation and the economic well-being, measured as income, of Aboriginal people in an effort to provide a better understanding of the causes of income gaps for Aboriginal people.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The data used in this study is the Public Use Microdata File of Aboriginal People's Survey, 2012. An ordered logit model is used to estimate the key determinants for income groups. Then the marginal effects of each variable, for the probability of being in each category of the outcomes, are derived.\nFindings: All the explanatory variables, including demographic, educational and occupational variables, appeared statistically significant with predicted signs. These results confirmed relationships between income level and education and occupations.\nResearch limitations/implications: The data limitation of income, as a categorical variable prevents the precise estimation of the contributions of the dependent variables in dollar amount.\nSocial implications: In order to substantially improve the Aboriginal people's market performance, it is important to emphasise the quality of their education and whether their areas of study could lead them to high-skilled occupations.\nOriginality/value: Attention is paid to the types of human capital rather than the general term of education.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Market basket analysis insights to support category management
|
[
"Customer segmentation",
"Marketing analytics",
"Category management",
"Market basket analysis",
"Multidimensional scaling",
"Retail Management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Retailers face the problem of managing tens of thousands of products. For each of these products, retailers need to make marketing decisions concerning price, promotions, assortment, space and location for each stock keeping unit (SKU). The decisions for each SKU not only affect its own sales but also the sales of many other products (Ma et al., 2012). In practice, it is too complex to consider all possible interactions in this marketing decision process (Gooner et al., 2011). The category management approach is an attempt to tackle this challenge through the decomposition of this management problem into a set of sub-problems. Each of these is then considered as being practically independent from the rest. This is achieved by grouping highly interrelated products into categories in such a way that products contained in one category are almost independent from products of other categories. This property enables retailers to manage their categories as strategic business units (SBUs) with significant autonomy (Nielsen, 1992). In some cases, the management of each SBU is supported by partnerships between retailers and a specific manufacturer, which assumes the role of a category captain (Mouzas, 2006).\n1. Empirical setting: The data come from a mid-sized supermarket in Latin America. Its assortment approximately consists of 7,000 different products. The average basket includes products from 3.6 different categories. The data set contains information for each purchase (transaction) recorded in a single month (July 2000), specifically products sold, units sold, date and time. The data were organized by defining groups of products determining which products belong to each of the 33 product categories analyzed in this research (e.g. cereals and rice). These product categories were selected by first identifying the 25 categories most frequently purchased at this store. We then added eight categories considering products that, in spite of having a relatively low frequency of purchase, exhibited either a relatively high participation in the ticket in terms of dollar value (e.g. diapers) or belonged to a basket with high total dollar value (e.g. shampoo and conditioner).\n2. Definitions and methodology: We begin by quantifying the occurrence of purchases simultaneously, including products from different categories. To analyze their frequency, consider the following definitions:\n3. Measuring interrelationships among product categories: Using the MDS technique and relying first on the Jaccard dissimilarity matrix, we obtained the horizontal and vertical coordinates for each product category shown in Table III (please note that the results for the duplication dissimilarity will be shown at the end of this subsection). The MDS procedure yields fit measures (stress and square correlation [RSQ]) that describe the extent by which the product category map accurately displays the dissimilarities. In our application, the values of these measures are: stress = 0.364 and RSQ = 0.555, where smaller values of stress and larger values of RSQ are preferable. It is indeed possible to improve this fit by adding more dimensions to this graphical representation. We note that the conclusions may change with the number of dimensions used. Ideally, one should add dimensions until the quality of the MDS solution (e.g. stress) does not substantially improve. For example, if six dimensions were used, we would obtain a sizable improvement: stress = 0.155, RSQ = 0.772. However, as we aim to produce an intuitive graphical representation of the prevalence of joint purchases, we will focus on the product category map with two dimensions (Figure 3), while the solution in six dimensions will be used in the next subsections (adding more dimensions did not substantially improve the stress measure).\n4. Segmentation of shopping trips: Relying on the four baskets previously identified, we now segment transactions based on the content of the corresponding shopping basket. Accordingly, we define the following segments: immediate consumption purchases (IC), non-perishable purchases (NP), hygiene purchases (H) and hedonic purchases (He). When more than half of the categories in a shopping trip belong to the immediate consumption basket, then we assign this shopping trip to the IC segment. The same definition applies for the non-perishable, hygiene segment and hedonic segment. Finally, we add a fifth mixed segment (M), which considers shopping trips for which half of the categories belong to one basket while the other half belongs to another. Given this segmentation of shopping occasions, it is possible to describe each segment in terms of:\n5. Managerial implications: The existence of cross-category interrelations allows us to produce a partition of the retailer's business and a segmentation of the shoppers according to the composition of their baskets. This raises important managerial implications as described next.\n6. Conclusions and future research: This paper presents a simple, fast and wide-range approach to study the shopping behavior of customers, detect cross-category interrelations and segment a retailer's business and customers based on information about their shopping baskets. This study allowed us to conceive the retail store under study as a set of four sub-businesses.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to present an approach to detect interrelations among product categories, which are then used to produce a partition of a retailer's business into subsets of categories. The methodology also yields a segmentation of shopping trips based on the composition of each shopping basket.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This work uses scanner data to uncover product category interdependencies. As the number of possible relationships among them can be very large, the authors introduce an approach that generates an intuitive graphical representation of these interrelationships by using data analysis techniques available in standard statistical packages, such as multidimensional scaling and clustering.\nFindings: The methodology was validated using data from a supermarket store. The analysis for that particular store revealed four groups of products categories that are often jointly purchased. The study of each of these groups allowed us to conceive the retail store under study as a small set of sub-businesses. These conclusions reinforce the strategic need for proactive coordination of marketing activities across interrelated product categories.\nResearch limitations/implications: The approach is sufficiently general to be applied beyond the supermarket industry. However, the empirical findings are specific to the store under analysis. In addition, the proposed methodology identifies cross-category interrelations, but not their underlying sources (e.g. marketing or non-marketing interrelations).\nPractical implications: The results suggest that retailers could potentially benefit if they transition from the traditional category management approach where retailers manage product categories in isolation into a customer management approach where retailers identify, acknowledge and leverage interrelations among product categories.\nOriginality/value: The authors present a fast and wide-range approach to study the shopping behavior of customers, detect cross-category interrelations and segment the retailer's business and customers based on information about their shopping baskets. Compared to existing approaches, its simplicity should facilitate its implementation by practitioners.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Consumer perspectives about mobile banking adoption in India - a cluster analysis
|
[
"India",
"Perception",
"Mobile banking",
"Attitude",
"Cluster analysis",
"Intention"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Mobile technology is transforming both the global banking and financial industry by providing convenience, affordability and accessibility to bank customers. Indian consumers are increasingly using mobile phones to search, buy and recommend product and services. According to the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and the KPMG report \"India on the Go - mobile internet vision report 2015,\" India is projected to have between 236 and 314 million mobile internet users by 2016-2017 (IAMAI, 2015; Indian Express, 2015). The report points out that India is expected to have over 500 million internet users by 2017. As of June 2015, India has second largest internet base in the world with over 350 million internet users, with more than 50 percent being mobile-only users. Internet penetration is around approximately 19 percent - low compared to other developed and developing economies. According to the report, the next wave of growth of internet users will be primarily driven by mobile internet, with non-metros and rural areas contributing to this growth. As of 2014, the active internet user base in rural India was 6.7 percent of the 905 million rural population, accounting for 61 million users. In all, 4.4 percent of the total rural population used a mobile device to access the internet; a figure that stood at a meagre 0.4 percent in the year 2012. As per another estimate by IAMAI and Indian Market Research Bureau, urban India will continue to account for a large percentage of the mobile internet users across the country and is expected to reach 143 million by March 2015 and 160 million by June 2015.\nReview of literature: Evolution of mobile banking and its definition\nMethodology: A set of 59 statements were taken from the existing studies or added to the list based on the analysis of data collected through focus group discussion and personal interviews. The members of the FGD were managers and senior managers with an average work experience of around ten years and were eight in number. All of them were working in the nationalized public sector banks of India. The 59 statements were shown to the subject experts and 17 of them were eliminated as a result of their suggestions that these statements were capturing the same meaning as others in the instrument. There were five statements which were re-worded as per the suggestions of the experts. The remaining 42 statements were measured on a seven-point Likert scale ranging from 1=strongly disagree to 7=strongly agree. These were subjected to exploratory factor analysis using principal component analysis with Varimax rotation. A sample size of 283 respondents was used for this purpose. The conditions for the application of factor analysis was satisfied (KMO=0.947, kh2 for Bartlett's test of sphericity=12,277.304, df=861 and p<0.05). There were seven factors with eigen value greater than one which were extracted and labeled as Factor 1=behavioral intention (BI); Factor 2=trust (TR); Factor 3=ease of use (EOU); Factor 4=attitude (ATT); Factor 5=lifestyle (LS), Factor 6=efficiency (EFF) and factor 7=convenience (CON), respectively.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify which factors influence mobile banking adoption and examine those factors for segmentation, using a sample of Indian consumers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In total, 59 statements were identified based on a literature review, focus group discussions and personal interviews. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to identify the relevant factors. An online survey of 367 mobile phone users in India was conducted. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted using structural equation modeling. Appropriate statistical techniques (hierarchical cluster analysis, k-means cluster analysis) were used to segment the users. A profile of each segment was developed based on demographics, mobile banking services used, and attitude and intentions toward mobile banking. Further, a post hoc test was used to test the variation between the obtained clusters and user attitudes and intentions toward mobile banking. The demographic characteristics of users within each cluster were also examined.\nFindings: Mobile users were segmented into three clusters based on their perceptions of various factors influencing mobile banking. These segments were labeled as technology adoption (TA) leaders, TA followers and TA laggards. The results show that both attitude and intentions toward mobile banking significantly differs across the three segments. In terms of relative positioning, TA leaders have the most favorable attitudes and intentions followed by TA followers, and TA laggards. Age was found to significantly influence TA and usage.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings of the study are based on responses from young, educated and salaried Indian consumers from large metro cities. Therefore, it is important to include respondents from smaller cities and towns to be able to generalize the findings. The sample is skewed toward users having accounts with private banks and hence, a balanced representation of respondents from public and private sector banks would help in identifying gaps pertaining to each sector. In future research, attempting to compare the results with other developing and developed countries may be beneficial.\nPractical implications: The results offer service providers better knowledge about typical mobile banking user segments, providing banks with ideas for customizing their services to meet customer expectations.\nOriginality/value: This paper provides insights into factors that influence mobile banking adoption in India, which has not been investigated. In contrast to earlier studies conducted on internet banking, this study attempts to examine the perceptions, attitudes and intentions of mobile users. Although traditional TA models and theories of technology diffusion have been used, this study attempts to tailor the model specifically for mobile banking.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Fighting elephants, suffering grass: oil exploitation in Nigeria
|
[
"Conflict",
"Niger delta",
"Oil",
"Cultural theory",
"Communities",
"Risk and vulnerability"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In Nigeria, the lack of adequate compensation, and the persistent environmental degradation arising from oil and gas exploitation in the Niger Delta, has raised concerns within the local communities about the sustainability of state policies and practices. The controversy between the state, the oil companies and the local communities centres on the sustainability or otherwise of oil exploitation in relation to both the local ecology and the livelihoods of those who are directly dependent on the land. Often the local people view the state's economistic approach to resource exploitation as unsustainable and skewed against indigenous land-use practices and economic survival. The state, in their view, treats their communities as merely economic spaces rather than as human habitations with both life-supporting and mystical significance for the local population (Akpan, 2009, p. 112). The state, on the other hand, views local opposition to its exploitation of oil and gas as a challenge to its political and economic sovereignty over the different segments of the country. The conflicts between the state (in some sort of alliance with the International Oil Companies (IOCs)) and the oil producing communities often emanate from these disparate perceptions of land-use, ownership rights and governance procedures: a scenario that has been characterised as agitation for good environmental governance and for the payment of just compensation for expropriated and polluted land (Akpan, 2005, p. 135; see also Obi, 2001).\nTheory behind these triangular interactions: The theory of plural rationality/cultural theory has been set out many times (e.g. Douglas and Wildavsky, 1982; Thompson et al., 1990; Gross and Rayner, 1985; Schwarz and Thompson, 1990; Verweij et al., 2006; Thompson, 2008). Here we will do it in a somewhat minimal way, since we only need to underpin the fundamental nature of our three sets of actors, and to explain how it is that the complex dynamics of their interactions can lead things in sometimes destructive and sometimes constructive directions.\nTowards a pluralistic policy: the case for clumsiness: The dynamics of the solidarities in the Niger Delta Region have clearly resulted in a polarised configuration - the two stroppy elephants - that is far from satisfactory, both to an outside observer (the position we have tried to adopt) and, increasingly, to those who are caught up in one or other of the elephants. Cultural theory suggests that things begin to go wrong when the solidarities start to undermine their own moralities, and that, as we have seen, is what has happened in both the Delta and Nigeria as a whole. Hierarchical actors, for instance, are supposed to strive for the common good, not feather their own nests through rent-seeking and crony capitalism. Individualistic actors are supposed to do well only when others also benefit, and that is clearly not what is happening with the oil companies. And the egalitarian actors are supposed to be caring and sharing, both with respect to their fellow humans and the environment, not forming themselves into plundering and pollution-spreading gangs.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand the interactions of the different actors - the state, multinational oil and gas companies, environmental advocacy groups and local people - in the oil-rich Niger Delta.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper draws on interviews, observations and focus group discussions, as well as on archival materials relating to the development of the oil and gas industry during the colonial period (i.e. pre-1960 Nigeria).\nFindings: A cultural theory-based analysis of the environmental risk perceptions of the different actors reveals a profoundly unconstructive institutional configuration, in which the collusion of two \"solidarities - the oil companies (individualism) and the state (hierarchy) - has led to the exclusion of the local communities (egalitarianism) who have found themselves impoverished and marginalised (fatalism). With these two \"elephants\" - individualism/hierarchy and egalitarianism/fatalism - pitted against each other, it has been the \"grass\" - the natural environment that has suffered.\nPractical implications: Giving the local communities a stake in the wealth-creating process, from which they are at present excluded, would shift the pattern of inter-solidarity engagement from one in which two \"active\" (i.e. non-fatalist) voices silence the third to one in which each voice is able to make itself heard and is then responsive to the others.\nOriginality/value: Innovative and current on under-researched topic and geography. The main fieldwork was conducted between 2007 and 2008, with further field visits and updates between 2009 and 2013.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Digital engagement strategies and tactics in social media marketing
|
[
"Business-to-business relationships",
"Digital engagement strategies",
"Digital engagement tactics",
"Facebook and Twitter",
"Social media marketing capability"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Social media (SM) has a ubiquitous presence in marketing in general (Valos et al., 2014), particularly in a business-to-consumer (B2C) context. Although business-to-business (B2B) SM research is still in its infancy (Bocconcelli et al., 2017; Quinton and Wilson, 2016; Swani et al., 2014), we know that industrial marketing practice is profiting from SM use by marketers (Salo, 2017). Yet, we know surprisingly little about SM from a relationship and network marketing perspective (Bocconcelli et al., 2017; Singaraju et al., 2016) or within an entrepreneurial B2B context (Drummond et al., 2018; Sigfusson and Chetty, 2013).\nTheoretical and conceptual foundations: Theoretical background\nMethodology: Research design\nFindings: The theory development objectives of our paper were developed through a recursive cycle of abductive analysis. Our findings are summarised as follows: Table I summarises the results of our ECA data quantitatively and aligns it to the layers of SM marketing capability and to the 15 tactical groups that emerged from our SM data analysis. It also presents the number of interview data pieces aligned to each tactical grouping for the case study firm and its 26 SM partners. In each section of the findings, we make reference to appendices, which contain sample raw data for SM posts and tweets (Appendix 1) and interviews (Appendix 2), which backed up our classification of the SM data. Tables II-V present the post-analysis descriptions of the 15 SM digital engagement tactics groupings that an entrepreneurial firm can use to implement its SM digital engagement strategies (8 identified) in the development of SM marketing capability. While our findings are presented for the case firm, supporting evidence from the 26 embedded network actors for each of the digital engagement strategies and tactics is provided in Tables II-V and Appendix 2. Our findings are organised around the four layers of SM marketing capability as follows: connect, engage, co-ordinate and collaborate.\nDiscussion and conclusions: The aim of this research was to identify the digital engagement strategies and tactics aligned to a business network approach to SM marketing capability of the entrepreneurial firm. In the literature review, we proposed a definition of SM marketing capability comprising four layers of digital engagement. These layers were theoretically bounded and defined, and their associated digital engagement strategies and tactics were derived from the SM data of an entrepreneurial firm complemented by interviews with its owner and 26 of its network partners. The final definitions of the four layers and their associated digital engagement strategies (a total of 8) and tactics (a total of 15) are presented in Table VI. The contribution of this research is its development of a definition of SM marketing capability and its identification of digital engagement strategies and tactics for the entrepreneurial firm linked to this definition. From a theoretical standpoint, SM marketing capability is translated into practice via the strategies and tactics, and this cycle is recursive.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Digitalisation has increased the importance of online forms of marketing, including social media (SM) marketing, for entrepreneurial firms. This paper aims to identify digital engagement strategies and tactics in developing SM marketing capability.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study uses ethnographic content analysis of an entrepreneurial firm and a network of business-to-business (B2B) actors to classify 1,248 B2B Facebook posts and Twitter tweets from a case of an artisan food producer in addition to semi-structured interviews with 26 networked actors.\nFindings: The authors derive a range of digital engagement strategies (8 in total) and tactics (15 in total) for the four defining layers of SM marketing capability, namely, connect, engage, co-ordinate and collaborate.\nResearch limitations/implications: This research focuses on a case study and a network of B2B actors within the artisan food sector. However, the strategies and tactics are applicable to other entrepreneurial firms and contexts.\nPractical implications: The digital engagement strategies and tactics are of direct practical benefit to entrepreneurial firms willing to learn and develop SM marketing capability in interaction with their B2B partners.\nOriginality/value: This study investigates three under-researched areas, SM as it relates to B2B relationships, and entrepreneurship, and marketing capability gaps in an era of rapid digitalisation. The definition of SM marketing capability and associated digital engagement strategies and tactics are new to the extant literature moving forward the understanding of SM B2B marketing in theory and practice.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Estimating the effect of racino restaurant sales on slot wagering volume
|
[
"Casinos",
"Operations management",
"Racino operations",
"Loss‐leader marketing",
"Slot operations analysis",
"Regression analysis",
"Catering"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Racino is an informal term used to describe a horse and/or dog racing track which also offers gambling devices. For the most part, these gambling devices are slot machines, but some racinos also offer table games such as blackjack and roulette. Over the past decade, many race tracks across the US have suffered substantial declines in revenues and profits. However, fortunes have turned for the track operators who were permitted to offer gambling devices. Their businesses have gone from marginally profitable or worse to viable, if not thriving.With the additional cash flow provided by gaming devices, many of these operators have emulated casino resorts by offering a variety of on-site restaurant outlets. Of course, the development, construction, and operation of restaurants requires a substantial investment. Yet operating restaurants at a loss is not an uncommon practice in the gaming industry (Lucas and Kilby, 2008). Such a strategy is predicated on the notion that the restaurants will attract and/or retain gamblers, thereby creating incremental gaming revenues.This study examines the slot machine and restaurant performance data of a US racino pursuing a restaurant loss-leader strategy. The results will help management determine whether such a strategy is appropriate for the racino, while adding to the broader casino operations research aimed at estimating the impact of restaurants on gaming volumes. Without such results, it would be most difficult for the management of any racino to gain a useful understanding of the all-important relationship between restaurant and slot gambling volumes. After all, it is the assumption of a positive relationship between these two key business volumes that validates the decision to operate the restaurants at a loss.\nLiterature review: Only a few published studies include attempts to estimate the impact of casino restaurant business volume on key gaming volumes. The first one featured Lucas and Brewer's (2001) time series model designed to predict the change in the aggregate daily coin-in of a Las Vegas hotel-casino. The dependent variable, aggregate daily coin-in, represented the dollar-value of all wagers placed, across all forms of slot machines. Their model predicted 87 percent of the total variance in daily coin-in over the 181-day sample period beginning on January 1, 1998 and ending on June 30, 1998. However, daily covers, the variable representing the restaurant business volume failed to produce a statistically significant effect. This was an alarming finding, given that management was operating the restaurants at a considerable loss. That is, the results produced no evidence of association between slot gaming volume and restaurant business volume. This condition ran counter to the popular theory that loss-leader restaurant operations drive gaming business volumes. The Lucas and Brewer (2001) study led to further empirical research into the relationship between restaurant and gaming business volumes.Lucas and Santos (2003) examined the relationship between on-site restaurant business volume and aggregate slot machine business volume (i.e. daily coin-in), across three different casino properties. Specifically, they analyzed performance data from two Midwestern riverboats and one Las Vegas hotel-casino with a clientele comprised of frequent visitors. In fact, the primary target markets of all three properties consisted of frequent visitors. Contrary to Lucas and Brewer (2001), the variable representing the number of daily restaurant diners produced a significant and positive effect on daily coin-in, at each of the three casinos.Tanford and Lucas (2011) further explored the relationship between restaurant and slot business volumes by limiting the definition of both variables. Specifically, they examined the effect of the number of casual restaurant diners (i.e. covers) on coin-in produced on slot machines with credit values worth less than one dollar (e.g. penny, nickel, and quarter slots). The casual restaurants category was comprised of affordable outlets such as the buffets and coffee shops. Tanford and Lucas aimed to examine the restaurant-gaming relationship within a price-point condition. For example, operators would not expect gourmet restaurant diners to drive penny slot machine play, just as they would not expect buffet diners to fuel high-limit slot play. Ultimately, daily casual restaurant covers produced a significant and positive effect on daily low-denomination coin-in, at both a Midwestern riverboat and a Laughlin hotel-casino.Using data from the same two properties analyzed in Tanford and Lucas (2011), Tanford and Suh (2011) further narrowed the expressions of both the coin-in and restaurant variables. Specifically, they examined the restaurant-gaming relationship by individual restaurant and player-worth segments. For example, they analyzed the effect of a one-unit increase in the buffet covers on the daily coin-in produced by high-, medium-, and low-worth slot players. The worth of the players was expressed in terms of their historical value to the casino, as recorded in the slot tracking system. The results presented a few surprises, but, for the most part, the high-end restaurant variable (i.e. the steakhouse) produced significant and positive effects on coin-in within the high-worth segments, just as the cafe and buffet covers tended to produce significant and positive model effects on coin-in in the medium- and low-worth segments.Using the same data set as Tanford and Lucas (2011), Suh et al. (2012) studied the relationship between restaurant and gaming business volumes. However, Suh et al. (2012) expressed daily restaurant business volume in terms of both cash and comp sales, as opposed to covers. For example, they sought to estimate the effect of a one-dollar increase in daily cash restaurant sales on aggregate daily coin-in. While both cash and comp restaurant sales produced significant and positive effects on daily coin-in, the coefficient for the variable representing comp dining sales was much greater in terms of magnitude. That is, the regression coefficient for the comp restaurant sales variable was approximately four times greater than that of the cash sales variable, in both the Laughlin and the Midwestern city models.Although the effects of restaurant operations on daily coin-in levels have been estimated in different forms across several different properties, no one has examined this relationship using operating data gathered from a racino property. Aside from the presence of live racing, racinos most notably differ from the previously researched resorts in that they typically offer no hotel rooms. Additionally, racinos usually feature fewer slot machines, fewer table games (if any at all), and do not typically feature live entertainment options and retail outlets to the extent offered by traditional land-based casino resort operators. Therefore, the relationship between restaurant and gaming volumes in a racino often exists within critically different circumstances. Of course, there are exceptions to these \"typical\" differences. Racinos such as Gulfstream Park, Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, and Saratoga Casino and Raceway offer an expanded set of nongaming amenities.Although the racino often introduces unique operating conditions, the existing theoretical models designed to predict aggregate daily coin-in have been quite successful (see Lucas and Brewer, 2001; Lucas and Santos, 2003; and Tanford and Lucas, 2011). This success was achieved using general variables that are directly applicable to racino operating conditions. Therefore, there was no need to substantially deviate from the basic structure of the extant models. The basic forms of the predictor variables used in the existing models could be summarized as follows: Day of the week, holidays, special event days, daily restaurant sales or covers, business trend variables (over the sample term), and ARMA terms (as needed). The AR stands for autoregressive and the MA represents moving average. ARMA terms are employed to address the serial correlation that is often present in the error process of time series models (Pindyck and Rubinfeld, 1998). With live horse racing representing a key distinction from traditional land-based casino amenities, a variable indicating the days featuring live racing was added to the basic model described in this paragraph. Figure 1 illustrates the theoretical model examined herein.Research hypotheses\nMethodology: Data source\nResults: Data Screening\nDiscussion: With regard to the model effect of SALES, the null hypothesis was rejected. The statistical significance of SALES supported the notion of a positive relationship between restaurant sales and coin-in, within the racino operating environment. While contrary to the findings of Lucas and Brewer (2001), this result was consistent with the bulk of existing studies from similar casino data sets (Lucas and Santos, 2003; Tanford and Lucas, 2011; Tanford and Suh, 2011; Suh et al., 2012). Given the paucity of existing empirical research related to the indirect effects of loss-leader restaurant operations, this study adds a valuable result to the growing stream of research.In general, the results associated with the THU, FRI, and SAT variables were consistent with those produced by previous researchers (Lucas and Santos, 2003; Tanford and Lucas, 2011; Tanford and Suh, 2011; Suh et al., 2012). The weekend days represent increases in available leisure time and are therefore expected to correlate with increases in gaming business volumes. Although not a weekend day per se, Thursday has often been associated with coin-in levels in excess of the early-week days such as Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (Lucas and Brewer, 2001; Lucas and Santos, 2003; Suh et al., 2012; Tanford and Lucas, 2011). However, all of these same studies included models that produced significant and positive model effects for the variable representing Sundays. The results of the current study were not consistent with this robust finding.Like weekends, holiday variables represent periods of increased leisure time. Therefore, it would be reasonable to expect increases in gaming activity during these periods. However, in the current study, the following holiday periods failed to produce a significant effect on aggregate daily coin-in: New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Day, Presidents' Day, and Memorial Day. While this outcome confounded the results of the three coin-in models advanced in Lucas and Santos (2003), it was consistent with the coin-in models produced by other researchers (Lucas and Brewer, 2001; Suh et al., 2012; Tanford and Lucas, 2011).Managerial implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to estimate the effects of onsite restaurant business volume on slot machine gaming volume at a Midwestern racino property. The results provide management with critical estimates for use in determining the overall value of the restaurant space. Additionally, operators are able to examine whether it makes sense to operate restaurants at a loss, based on the notion that the dining outlets are contributing to gaming volumes.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Time series multiple regression analysis is used to analyze daily performance data, providing an estimate of the change in the dollar amount of slot wagers resulting from a one-unit increase in the dollar value of restaurant sales.\nFindings: - The theoretical model advanced herein explained 81 percent of the variation in the aggregate, daily dollar value of slot wagers. A one-dollar increase in the variable representing overall restaurant sales produced a $91 increase in slot wagers (or $7.44 in slot win).\nResearch limitations/implications: - Regression analysis does not prove cause and effect. The result was produced from a single data set. Operators are encouraged to examine their own data via the method and model advanced herein.\nPractical implications: - The results provide management an opportunity to examine whether the slot win associated with the restaurant operations exceeds the operating losses incurred by the restaurants, and, if so, by how much.\nOriginality/value: - This is the first study to examine empirically the relationship between restaurant and gaming business volumes at a racino. Specifically, no published study includes statistically derived estimates of the impact of changes in on-site restaurant volume on a racino's slot wagering volume.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Surgical learning and guidance on operative risks and potential errors
|
[
"Learning environment",
"Guidance",
"Learning from errors",
"Operative risks",
"Surgical training"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Learning from errors at work has been increasingly discussed in the recent literature on workplace learning (Dochy et al., 2011; Harteis and Bauer, 2014). Understanding the processes of learning from errors, some of the more general theories on professional and practice-based learning have been considered relevant as a starting point for elaborating learning from errors. Harteis and Bauer (2014) have suggested three different notions, which could contribute to our understanding on the processes of learning from errors. First, they discuss how the perspective of experiential learning (Kolb, 1984) could contribute to our understanding of learning from errors. In this approach, errors can be understood as concrete experiences which trigger learning through reflection. From the experiential learning perspective, errors are seen as specific incidents of concrete experiences that diverge from prior knowledge (Bauer and Gruber, 2007; Bauer and Mulder, 2007, 2008). Learning from errors through experiential learning has also been defined as negative knowledge. This is understood as experiential knowledge about what is wrong, about what not to do and about the limitations of one's own knowledge, skills or cognition (Gartmeier et al., 2017). Such knowledge is vital in medical practice.\nMethods: Data collection\nFindings: The findings are presented in the order of the research questions. First, we report how potential errors and risks were addressed in the interactions between the trainer and the trainee during authentic surgical laparoscopic operations. Second, we report the findings on which potential errors and risks should be addressed during authentic operations and which could be addressed otherwise.\nDiscussion: Despite the small number of the analyzed surgical operations, our findings showed that within the authentic surgical laparoscopic operations, risks/errors were rarely addressed in the guidance given by the trainer (the senior surgeon). The guidance concentrated mostly on the operation phase. Thus, preparatory phases critical for the safety and success of the whole operation were mostly ignored. The main aspects considered in the guidance involved technical issues, such as instrument handling, and the patient's anatomical characteristics. The trainee's attention was not drawn to the risks and potential errors emerging from characteristics specific to the patient. There was also a lack of guidance on team working, dealing with unexpected challenges or alternative ways of operating. In addition, the trainers did not explicate their own decision-making or problem-solving. However, this kind of tacit knowledge - if spoken aloud - could be extremely valuable for trainee learning in authentic situations. The instructional interaction did not include reflection on the present experience or root-case analyses of the risks and potential errors. It has been suggested that doing this promotes learning from errors (Bauer and Mulder, 2007).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Within the framework of learning from errors, this study focused on how operative risks and potential errors are addressed in guidance to surgical residents during authentic surgical operations. The purpose of this paper is to improve patient safety and to diminish medical complications resulting from possible operating errors. Further in the process of the optimal contexts for instruction aimed at preventing risks and errors in the practical hospital environment was evaluated.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The five authentic surgical operations were analyzed, all of which were organized as training sessions for surgical residents. The data (collected via video-recoding) were analyzed by a consultant surgeon and an education expert working together.\nFindings: The results showed that the risks and potential errors in the surgical operations were rarely addressed in guidance during operations. The guidance provided mostly concerned technical issues, such as instrument handling, and exploration of critical anatomical structures. There was little guidance focusing on situation-based risks and potential errors, such as unexpected procedural challenges, teamwork and practical decision-making. The findings showed that optimal context of learning about risks and potential errors of surgical operation are not always the authentic operation context.\nOriginality/value: The study was conducted in an authentic surgical operation-cum-training context. The originality of the study derives from its focus on guidance related to risk and error prevention in surgical workplace learning. The findings can be used to create a meaningful learning environment - including powerful guidance - for practice-based surgical learning, maximally addressing patient safety, but giving possibilities also for other training options.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Assessing the impact of web-based electronic commerce use on the organizational benefits of a firm: An empirical study
|
[
"Electronic commerce",
"Online operations",
"Financial benefits",
"Organizational performance",
"Organizational effectiveness"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Undoubtedly, electronic commerce (EC) is considerably changing how firms interact with customers and trading partners alike. Consequently, firms of all sizes must realize its importance when developing business plans and strategies in order to maximize profits by leveraging emerging technologies to their benefit. However, as a result of the \"dot com\" downfall in the early 2000s, changing and turbulent environments, and market uncertainties (Microsoft Corporation, 2002; Kang et al., 2003), among other factors, companies are more wary when it comes to committing resources to EC projects (Beatty and Shim, 2001). Just like other new technologies, challenges in measuring EC's benefits add to the obstacles in the adoption process (Teo and Ranganathan, 2004; Hong and Zhu, 2006). Despite the challenges, the outlook for EC appears promising as evidenced by recent studies which suggest that the volume of goods and services exchanged through EC is expected to grow into the trillions of dollars worldwide in the near future (Kearney, 2003; International Data Corporation, 2004; Dubelaar et al., 2005; Veijalainen et al., 2006; Serban et al., 2008).Before embarking on EC projects, companies need to assess how EC can be used to seamlessly integrate processes internally and with trading partners. This becomes even more relevant today as new e-commerce technologies emerge because they have far-reaching ramifications on the way businesses are conducted (Kheng and Al-Hawamdeh, 2002), from supporting internal processes to supply chain integration (Clark and Lee, 2000; Keskinocak et al., 2001; Lee, 2002; Oliver et al., 2003; Cassivi et al., 2005; Yan, 2008; Benisch et al., 2009). However, it is also recognized that these technologies demand an increased inter-dependence and expanded coordination among firms along the supply chain (Clark and Lee, 2000). One of the major challenges faced by companies is how to leverage the inherent benefits of EC to establish forms of inter-organizational systems with their suppliers and customers in hope of improved benefits along the supply chain (Min and Mentzer, 2004; Gunasekaran et al., 2006). In fact, recent research (Straub and Watson, 2001; Wu and Hisa, 2004; Bergendahl, 2005; Chu et al., 2007) have urged about the need to conduct research in several areas of e-commerce, web-based electronic commerce (WEC) being one important component.To successfully overcome the challenges of EC and obtain the expected benefits, research must identify the factors that lead to improvements in organizational benefits (OBE) in the context of WEC. Thus, the objective of this study whether WEC usage leads to OBE in a firm.\nLiterature research and research model: To answer the research questions posited previously, we propose a model shown in Figure 1. In this model, we argue that WEC usage influences the OBE of the firm. The model is justified using the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm (Barney, 1991), and supported based on a multitude of information systems (IS) theories. We point that web-based usage in general can be considered an important resource for an organization. Thus, based on RBV theory that suggests resources can carry multi-dimensional characteristics, which include rarity, value, non-substitutability, and inimitability; WEC can be also considered a resource that has such characteristics depending on the usage levels, which can be transactional and strategic. From a transactional use perspective, WEC can improve an organization's operations by minimizing costs and enhancing efficiency, thus we posit that transactional WEC use can be a valuable resource from an operational perspective. From a strategic use perspective, WEC can support an organization's unique capabilities, such as improving quality, increasing competitive advantage (COA), among others, thus making them hard to imitate resources.The literature support for these factors as well as the hypotheses that describe the nature of the relationships between the factors is provided below.Web-based electronic commerce usage\nResearch methods: The current study is a part of a larger project that included additional organizational variables (Mora-Monge and Rao, 2006). The process of developing reliable measures to capture the constructs previously mentioned involved different stages (Nunnally, 1967). First, potential measurement items were generated for the constructs shown in Figure 1 based on previous relevant theoretical and empirical research, and trade journal publications (Bagozzi et al., 1991). Second, the pool of items was pre-tested with academicians and practitioners, whose feedback is used for improving the clarity and quality of the measurement items, the anchors and instructions, and length of the questionnaire. In the third stage, a pilot study (Q-sort) was conducted to pre-asses the discriminant validity of the scales (McKeown and Thomas, 1988). Fourth, a large-scale survey was conducted and the questionnaire was submitted to a rigorous set of tests with the following objectives: purification, unidimensionality, convergent validity, and discriminant validity (O'Leary-Kelly and Vokurka, 1998). The methods used in this stage included: corrected-item total correlation (CITC) for purification, exploratory factor analysis for unidimensionality (Anderson and Gerbing, 1982), Cronbach's a for reliability, and correlation analysis for convergent and discriminant validity.Since the results of the first three stages of this process have been published elsewhere (Mora-Monge and Rao, 2006), only the results of the last stage of validation are presented in this study.Large-scale instrument assessment\nResults: Web-based electronic commerce use\nConclusions and directions for future research: Undoubtedly, WEC will continue to play a major factor determining future success of businesses and change the shape of competition. In this paper, we presented the results of a study that empirically demonstrated its significance and positive impact on OBE. The implications of our findings are relevant for a number of reasons.From a practical perspective, our findings are helpful to companies for a number of reasons. First, we have demonstrated that WEC use positively impacts the organization in different ways, ranging from operational benefits, to strategic benefits. This should provide some light to managers that are faced with tough challenges on how and where to invest resources to maximize the overall performance of their organizations. A key finding is that both transactional and strategic WEC use both affect the bottom line efficiency, improves the quality of information is being used by the organization, and ultimately, helps improve the COA of the firm. This reinforces that justifying investments in WEC technologies must be based on both operational and strategic objectives. These indicators can serve as benchmarks to evaluate the current state of a firm and help in setting future organizational goals.From a research point of view, we have operationalized and validated reliable measures for the WEC use and OBE routed on the resourced view of the firm. We found the multi-dimensional nature of WEC use by identifying both transactional and strategic dimensions. Similarly, we found that OBE is a multi-dimensional factor that includes the following dimensions: INQ, BUE, and COA. In order to move a research stream forward from anecdotes to hypotheses and testable models, there must be a set of valid and reliable metrics such as the ones developed in this study (Sethi and King, 1994; Rosenzweig and Roth, 2007).As with any empirical study, there are certain limitations and directions for further research. First, there might be some bias by having the same respondent reporting on both predictor and outcome variables. Also, we requested a single respondent to evaluate the perceptions of an entire firm. Future research should attempt to collect data from different respondents within the organization to assess communal measures. Second, this research examined only a small set of possible relationships between WEC use and OBE. Since the factors studied have been shown to be associated with favorable outcomes, future research could propose and examine its antecedents and consequences. Third, it is important to note that because of the innovative nature of WEC and its likely developments in the future, it is important to note that the current operationalization describes the current state of practice. Fourth, this research did not consider other organizational variables that could potentially impact the relationships found in this research. Finally, since this study was limited to the USA, future research might consider doing a cross-country analysis to determine if differences exist.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of web-based electronic commerce (WEC) use on organizational benefits (OBE).\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The researchers develop a research model based on a literature review. A large-scale instrument was applied to empirically test the model. MANOVA was first used employing a general linear model. Then, univariate tests were performed to further analyze differences. The model was tested and validated using a sample of 180 firms in the USA.\nFindings: - The findings empirically tested that there is a significant positive impact of WEC use on OBE. Findings also demonstrated the multi-dimensional nature of both factors.\nPractical implications: - This research develops and validates reliable measures for the WEC use and OBE. It also provides several indicators that can be used to measure the extent of usage of WEC for both transactional and strategic purposes, and OBE that span several dimensions, including information quality, business efficiency, and competitive advantage. These indicators can serve as benchmarks to evaluate the current state of a firm and help in setting future organizational goals, which can also help managers gauge the risks and benefits associated with WEC.\nOriginality/value: - This paper contributes to the literature by providing evidence of the positive impact of WEC on OBE. It also develops and validates measures for all the constructs involved in the study that can be used in other empirical studies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Interview with John Fleming and James Asplund
|
[
"Six sigma",
"Human resource management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: John Fleming is the Principal and Chief Scientist for Customer Engagement and Human Sigma at The Gallup Organization. Fleming's consulting insights help Gallup's global clients improve customer engagement and enhance business performance. He has published more than 20 research articles and book chapters in such prestigious refereed journals as the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Social Cognition, the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. A major review of Fleming's research and theoretical contributions was published in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Academic Press, 1994).\nFirstly let me offer you a warm welcome to Human Resource Management International Digest. What sparked the research behind Human Sigma?: The original spark for our research was the curious, but consistent anomaly in the presumed link between employee and customer metrics proposed by the service-profit chain model. That is, not all units in a company - stores, branches, sales teams, offices - who were strong at engaging their customers actually delivered superior financial results when compared to their lower-performing peers. Some did, but some didn't. This was true for units that scored high on employee engagement as well. In other words, the linear service-profit chain model could only go so far in explaining the relationship between employee and customer metrics in driving financial performance. We became convinced that there was a more complicated relationship between customer and employee engagement and decided to try to figure it out.\nWho do you expect to benefit from the book?: We expect anyone who has to manage customers, customer-facing employees, or employees whose non-customer facing roles have a downstream impact on the customer to benefit from the ideas in this book. We offer a new way of conceptualizing the link between employees and customers that should fundamentally change how these systems are managed. But Human Sigma also has a strategic component, which should make it relevant to senior leaders on a strategic level as well. The Human Sigma approach is really a synthesis of more than 20 years of work at Gallup to help companies optimize their human systems to drive improved financial performance.\nIn the book you use the analogy of the \"Terminator School of Management\" to explain how certain managers operate. Could you tell our readers what you mean by this?: The Terminator is a cyborg that is programmed to accomplish a specific task in a specific way without deviation and without fail. It is relentlessly efficient, but has no soul. As we began to collect and synthesize our experiences with leaders' and managers' perceptions of employees and customers, we were struck by a common theme that ran through many of those experiences and felt that the Terminator was an apt metaphor. That common theme was a tendency on the part of some executives to value control over quality by scripting employee behaviors when they interact with customers. These executives view employees as mistakes just waiting to happen, as impediments to doing business, and as costs to be minimized. Basically, The Terminator School of Management is a metaphor for a desire to control - or eliminate altogether - human interaction from business.\nWhat are the main ways that Human Sigma differs from Six Sigma?: Basically, Six Sigma helps companies figure out how to assess and improve processes that repeatedly combine ingredients with known and predictable properties in known and predictable ways to produce a known and predictable outcome - a finished product of acceptable quality. In contrast, Human Sigma helps companies figure out how to assess and improve processes that repeatedly combine ingredients with unknown and unpredictable properties in unknown and unpredictable ways to produce a known and predictable outcome - a highly engaging employee-customer encounter. Some of the tools and techniques are similar; a focus on reducing variation in outcomes, for example. But while Six Sigma focuses primarily on materials, methods, measurements, and machines to drive improvement, Human Sigma focuses on people to optimize business performance.\nThe figures from your research are remarkable: ten companies that applied your best practice principles outperformed their five largest peers during 2003 by 26 percent in gross margins and 85 percent in sales growth. What kind of changes were these companies making to the way they worked to secure this growth?: We could fill an entire book just on that topic, but basically those companies did a few core things:1. They made a company-wide commitment to taking disciplined and focused local action to improve the employee-customer encounter. For these companies, creating engaged employees and emotionally connected customers was more than mere lip service.2. They deployed a broad array of intervention activities.These activities targeted two separate issues. The first was finding ways to do what they already did but to do it better - what we refer to as \"transactional\" interventions. Transactional intervention activities include things such as local team action planning, brainstorming, and Six Sigma initiatives, to name a few. But they also began to fundamentally change how they identify and recruit talent, position people within roles for success, reward and recognize their employees and, importantly, manage them. We refer to these kinds of actions as \"transformational\" interventions. Both transactional and transformational activities are essential for sustainable improvement in the employee-customer encounter.\nAccording to research undertaken by The Gallup Organization just 29 percent of employees in the US are engaged. What measures can managers take to improve this rate?: There are any number of actions that local managers can take and interestingly, the steps necessary to improve employee engagement will vary from team to team and location to location. That is why local action is so important. A good starting place is to look at the 12 elements of great management (embodied in Gallup's Q12 employee engagement metric) to see where there may be gaps or shortfalls. Those 12 elements define what it means to have a great place to work. Work units that score high on those elements tend to have significantly higher productivity, greater profitability, better safety, lower staff turnover, and more engaged relationships with their customers.\nHow does employee engagement link to customer engagement?: Clearly there is a direct link between the two constructs. It is of moderate size, but remarkably consistent from study to study. But here's the thing: that simple link does not explain the complex interplay between engaged employees and emotionally connected customers. There is more to it than a simple linear chain of factors. It turns out that employee and customer engagement interact to potentiate one another to drive superior financial results. In other words, the whole adds up to more than the sum of its parts. The Human Sigma model recognizes the direct link between employee and customer engagement but also recognizes that simply engaging your employees alone is not sufficient to create strong and healthy customer relationships.\nOne of the quotes that stood out in your research was \"emotion counts more than rationality\". Doesn't this statement counter your efforts to measure and standardize performance?: Not at all. What we mean by that is that it is time for business leaders to incorporate an understanding of the emotional dimensions of the customer experience - part of what we have learned from the field of behavioral economics - into our measurement tools and management models. The last thing we are advocating is a need to standardize human behavior - that is the legacy of the Terminator School of Management. What we are talking about is a need to standardize how we think about customers and how we define our customer outcomes but not how we get to those outcomes. Paradoxically, this may actually mean that we need to increase the range of behaviors employees actually use when they interact with customers. Customers' emotional requirements can be reliably measured and used to define the outcomes we desire to create. Scripting the precise behaviors employees engage in and defining the steps to service will never get us to that goal though.\nHow do you think human resource management will or should change in say, ten years time?: There has never been a better - or more important - time for HR professionals to play a strategic role in defining and managing the brand in service economy companies. If your company's employees are truly the \"face\" of the brand in the marketplace, then they represent a potent weapon in your company's marketing arsenal. Sadly, it's often an underutilized resource. Until employees are fully involved in \"living the brand\" - being its ambassadors - it is unlikely that we will be able to truly engage our customers' hearts and minds. In line with this observation, over the next five to ten years we expect service economy companies to begin to move toward more alignment between their HR, operations, and marketing organizations. In some companies this move has already happened and the HR and marketing functions have been merged into a department of human marketing. Others have begun to form Human Sigma steering committees made up of representatives from marketing, HR, and operations and headed by a single corporate champion. HR professionals have a critical role to play in making this all a reality.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - This paper provides an interview with John Fleming and James Asplund.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper provides an interview with John Fleming and James Asplund.\nFindings: - There has never been a better - or more important - time for HR professionals to play a strategic role in defining and managing the brand in service economy companies. If your company's employees are truly the \"face\" of the brand in the marketplace, then they represent a potent weapon in your company's marketing arsenal.\nOriginality/value: - The paper provides an insightful interview with John Fleming and James Asplund.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Perceived managerial problems in SMEs: evidence from Botswana
|
[
"Small to medium‐sized enterprises",
"Training",
"Botswana"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Although the discovery of mineral wealth (i.e. diamond) has propelled Botswana into the middle-income category, the country still faces the problem of economic diversification, employment creation, income distribution and poverty alleviation. The main strategy employed by the government to diversify the economy and create employment has been the promotion of the development of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). There is a general consensus that Botswana should not continue putting all its \"eggs in one basket\".The most common argument in favor of SMEs is that they are sustainable forms of diversifying the economy away from mining; they create substantial job opportunities; and they help narrow the gap between urban and rural development, and alleviate poverty. SMEs employ more people per unit of investment as compared to large firms. The prevalence of low-skill and unskilled labor force in the economy coupled with the tendency of the government to reduce its role as primary employer made the promotion of SMEs a primary source of employment creation, income generation and poverty alleviation.\nMethod and results: The objective of the study was to investigate how managerial problems are affecting the performance and development of SMEs, and analyze the relationship between these factors and firm specific demographical variables, and the association among the problems themselves. Data were collected from through questionnaire from 250 SMEs.The majority of the sample firms were small in size (70 percent), owned by males (78 percent) and concentrated in the non-manufacturing sectors (merchandising and service) (90 percent) of the economy. Respondents were asked to rate the impact of 34 managerial items on the performance of SMEs on a five-point scale ranging from 5 (very high) to 1 (very low).\nPerceived managerial problems: Managerial actions issues\nConclusions: The measurement scale used in the study does not indicate the actual impact of selected factors. It is intended to show only the direction of the perception of the sample firms. It is therefore important to note that any conclusion drawn from these findings should be tentative. This research has empirically identified the problems that SMEs in Botswana are facing. Ranging from managerial actions (mean=3.28) to managerial background related problems (mean=2.76). These problems could be summed up with one phrase, \"lack of the necessary skill to manage and run a business venture.\"Lack of low cost and inaccessibility/unavailability of training facilities in the local community has put considerable impact on the performance of SMEs. If Botswana government policies for the promotion of SMEs are to yield better results, there is need to develop low cost training facilities that would enhance or facilitate the development of skills (both operational and managerial) for this sector. Vocational training programs should be tailor-made to meet the needs of the SME sector. It is obvious from the research that local external consultants are under-utilized by SMEs. This could be attributed, among other things, to lack of awareness about the role of consultants. Whatever the reason may be, there is need to involve consultants in the development of SME capabilities in order to enhance their competitiveness.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The paper investigates the perceived critical managerial factors affecting the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data were collected from 250 SMEs in Botswana through questionnaire and analyzed using simple descriptive statistics. The respondents were asked to rate the impact of 34 selected items (derived from small business management literature) using a five-point Likert type scale ranging from very high (5) to very low (1).\nFindings: - The findings revealed that four factors (managerial action, human resources development, managerial background and organization development) emerged as critical management problems affecting the survival and growth of SMEs in Botswana.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Although the findings are based on perceptions of managers rather than actual impact analysis, they have practical implications for the development of a proactive management development and training and small business support programs in developing economies like Botswana.\nPractical implications: - The paper promotes the importance of designing management development and support programs based on assessment of the organizational and managerial problems and the objective conditions in which SMEs are operating.\nOriginality/value: - This article discusses SMEs in Botswana.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Internal capital markets and investment decisions
|
[
"Internal capital markets",
"Investment decisions",
"Decision rights",
"Capital markets",
"Investments",
"Decision making"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This research is part of the reflection on the organizational architecture1. While much work in this area examines the investment decision2 regardless of the financing decision, this work focuses on the availability of the financing means, which determines the delegation of the rights of management and of investment control to units. Thus, it is somehow on the internal architecture of large industrial firms.The study of the internal capital market, which is the competitive management of the financial resources of the firm by the top management to the profit of the units that are susceptible of the best return, then constitutes a crucial topic (McNeil and Smythe, 2009; Cremers et al., 2009; Datta et al., 2009; Xuan, 2009). Indeed, in complex organizations3, an important part of the decisions that shape the creation of value are taken (or at least influenced) by the units' managers.This article focuses specifically on the role of the internal capital market in the allocation of the decision rights relating to the investment projects by the firm's top management to the units' managers. The analysis is based on the contractual theories of organizations, mainly the theory of organizational architecture, while incorporating lessons from the theory of influence costs.Several authors4 consider that the allocation of the firm's financial resources to the various investment projects plays a fundamental role in terms of the management and control of the investment decision of the units by making it possible to direct funds to the more profitable projects. The authors explain that the firm's top management establishes an internal capital market.This research then focuses on the lessons of the theory (positive) of agency that expresses the idea that the firm's top management should establish effective monitoring systems to supervise the investment decisions of the units' managers. Although it is the source of value creation, the decentralization of the investment decision may also lead to organizational costs and destroy value. Its adoption involves the transfer of some decision rights to those intermediate and/or bottom managers informed and having specific knowledge5 relevant to decision making. But only marginally bearing the monetary consequences of their investment decisions, these managers are not encouraged to act in the interests of the owners of capital (shareholders-managers) by maximizing the value of the firm. \"Their opportunism may be manifested by excessive capital expenditure, especially within the process of the internal financing of the units where the managers can behave as stowaways. Indeed, while a unit manager would be the only one to benefit from overinvestment in his/her unit (notably in the form of increased power and benefits in kind), the additional financing cost caused by the wasting of resources at his/her unit would be borne by the firm, that is to say by all the units' managers\" (Duprat, 1998b, p. 37). The solution requires the adoption of an efficient organizational architecture6 allowing the fight against this type of behavior on the part of the units' managers.This research finally receives input from the theory of influence costs. In addition to the agency costs resulting from the conflicts of interest (Jensen and Meckling, 1976), the influence activities or political activities (Milgrom and Roberts, 1997) occur when the managers turn away from their work to influence the decisions of the firm. They are equivalent to the behavior of rent-seeking and emerge whenever making decisions affecting the distribution of wealth or income among the stakeholders of a firm is required. The organizational costs incurred by the firm can thus degrade its efficiency. The procedures for the control of investment by units must help reduce this cost, and in this way, create value.In this study, the decentralization of the investment decision can be explained by the following factors:* The organizational complexity7 of the firm, which allows taking into account the costs of bureaucratic centralization.* The degree of uncertainty - associated with the activities managed by the units - which determines the requirement for adaptation and responsiveness.* The Scarcity and the optimal sharing of the financial resources of the firm, which play a fundamental role in the management and control of the units' investment decision.The first section is devoted to developing an explanatory model of the investment decision decentralization, which takes into account the organizational and contextual factors. The methodological aspects of this study and the results are presented in the second section.\n2. Explanatory factors of the investment decision decentralization: The separation of the functions of ownership and decision leads to decision processes for which there is separation of the decision (initiative and implementation) and control functions (ratification and monitoring). This separation is pronounced in complex organizations where the implementation of effective decision making involves the co-location of relevant knowledge and the right of decision. This co-location may be done in two ways:1. by the transfer of information to those who hold the decision rights, which amounts to centralizing decision making; and2. by transferring the decision rights to those who hold information, and thus by decentralizing the decision-making.The choice depends on the respective costs of the transfer of information and decision rights. The latter are allocated by the managers and compliance is ensured by the incentive systems they put in place. The allocation of decision rights should maximize their aggregate value by arbitrating between the costs associated with the poor use of specific information (insufficient decentralization of decisions) and those associated with the conflicts of interest (due to decentralization) (Charreaux, 2005, pp. 12-13).According to Wruck and Jensen (1994), the decentralization of the investment decision is economically viable in complex firms characterized by significant informational challenges, and where over-centralization would lead to sub-optimal decision-making. They argue that the benefits of the delegation of decision rights outweigh the disadvantages in complex organizations (the case of large firms) versus non-complex (in a small firm) ones.Therefore, in complex organizations, executives delegate some decision rights, particularly in terms of investment, to middle and bottom managers holding specific knowledge that is too costly to transfer among agents, hence the following hypothesis:H1. The degree of decentralization of the investment decision, from the top management of the firm to the middle and bottom management, is positively related to the organizational complexity of the firm.In an environment characterized by great uncertainty, the knowledge relevant to decision making, particularly on investment, is most often diffuse among several individuals. The adaptability and responsiveness of firms involves greater efficiency in the mobilization of resources (material, organizational and human), knowledge management and organizational flexibility. Hence the need for decentralization as a solution to the increasing knowledge to be treated (Milgrom and Roberts, 1997). The delegation of investment decision to a unit manager allows him/her to quickly take the necessary measures to adapt the unit equipment, in particular, to the changing environment.In this perspective, Noda and Bower (1996) and Brickley et al. (2003) point out that volatility requires a strong capacity for responsiveness, therefore, the decentralization of some decision rights to intermediate and bottom managers. In the same order of ideas, Govindarajan (1988, p. 833) shows that \"an effective way to deal with an uncertain environment is to move the decision making level to where information is rather than to transmit this to the superior hierarchical levels\". In other word, the decentralization of decision making is a response to increased uncertainty, hence H2:H2. The degree of decentralization of the investment decision, from the top management of the firm to the middle and bottom management, is positively related to the degree of uncertainty of the environment.Another factor plays a crucial role in the management and control of investment decisions. It is the internal capital market. According to Williamson (1975, 1985), Maksimovic and Phillips (2007) and Glaser et al. (2009), in a complex organization, the cash flows are not systematically reassigned to the units that have generated them, but are subject to the internal competition and are reallocated to the more profitable projects. At the level of the internal capital market and unless each unit manager is informed of the financing capacity of the firm and of the investment projects of all the other units, \"a completely decentralized investment management at the level of the unit with ex-post control makes the firm incur a higher bankruptcy risk because its financial resources are constrained\" (Duprat, 1998a, p. 127).Total decentralization of the investment management rights implies that \"every unit manager locally decides the level and nature of investment for his/her unit, then turns to the top management of the firm to obtain the necessary financing. With this system, each unit manager decides the investment policy of his/her unit without knowing the amount of financial resources that the firm can actually allocate to that unit. The financial envelope that the top management may assign to a unit depends on the financial resources that the firm can mobilize and the funding needs of other units. These needs depend on their investment policy. With the completely decentralized system, they are locally dictated by their respective managers\" (Duprat, 1998a, p. 126). This analysis highlights the need for coordination of the units' investment policies in adequacy with a limited funding capacity for the firm. This coordination, which increases the costly transfers of specific knowledge, is made more effectively through a centralized system than in the context of a decentralized system.Moreover, Thakor (1990) assumes that the external financial resources of the firm are rationed. He proposes an explanation of the centralization of investment decisions by considering two investment projects, present and future, which are located in two different units. He argues that \"if the value of the future investment project funded by cash flow is greater than the sum of the value of the present project funded by cash flow and the value of the future project funded by external resources, the centralization of authority over investment decisions dominates decentralization because the optimal investment decision requires knowledge of the investment opportunities of the two units\" (p. 134).Thus, the centralization of investment decision can dominate decentralization because the opportunity of an investment in one unit is assessed not only in terms of the perspectives of the unit but also in terms of the financing capacity of the firm and the perspectives of all other units. By its authority, the top management is the only way to arbitrate the possible conflicts between units' managers about the internal allocation of the financial resources.Therefore, the investment decision is closely linked to the availability of the firm's financial resources and to the mode of financing. In the case of financing on the internal capital market, the problems of coordination and of the resolution of agency conflicts can lead the top management of the firm to centralize the investment decisions to a large extent. We deduce the following hypothesis:H3. The degree of decentralization of the investment decision, from the top management of the firm to the middle and bottom management, is negatively related to the scarcity and sharing of the financial resources of the firm.According to Holmstrom (1989, p. 307), \"firms are careful about idiosyncratic risk and they are highly aware of the funding constraints. Every year, there is a limited amount of financial resources to be allocated to the proposed projects and, in general, the demand for funds exceeds this amount to a large extent. This imbalance is not resolved in a decentralized way by creating a programme for the internal cost (price) of funds. It is treated with various idiosyncratic8 rules that are accompanied by a centralized relatively deep examination of the proposals advanced. It indicates that \"the rationing of funds is the rule and the cost of funds is widely perceived to be dependent on the sources from which they are obtained\" (p. 308). The author then explains the centralization of the rights of investment management in a firm by the existence of financial constraints. Hence H3a:H3a. The degree of decentralization of the rights of investment management, from the top management of the firm to the middle and bottom management, is negatively related to the scarcity and sharing of the financial resources of the firm.To fill its role as coordinator and arbitrator on the internal capital market, the top management must be informed of the investment projects of all the units. To ensure this, it centralizes and examines the investment proposals issued by the units' managers. In other words, it proceeds to an ex-ante control of the investment decisions. According to Williamson (1975), ex-post control is especially useful when the investment is broken down into different stages. The top management may then condition the achievement of the stages not yet committed to the results obtained in earlier phases. Consequently, the establishment of a dual control allows to the top management to achieve an optimal allocation of the financial resources of the firm among its units on the internal capital market, hence H3b:H3b. The degree of decentralization of the rights of investment control, from the top management of the firm to the middle and bottom management, is negatively related to the scarcity and sharing of the financial resources of the firm.As in the foregoing, we consider in the context of this study three variables that determine the decentralization of investment decisions: organizational complexity, environment uncertainty and the internal capital market. The theoretical predictions are presented in Figure 1.\n3. Empirical analysis: This section aims to test the effect of organizational and contextual variables on the decentralization of investment decision. Initially, we will present our sample, the explained and explanatory variables and the appropriate analytical methods. The presentation and interpretation of the results of this study will make up a second section.3.1 Presentation of data and variables measurements\n4. Conclusion: The study of the decentralization of the investment decision seems interesting because it allows us to better understand the mechanisms of value creation. Taking into account the benefits of the decentralization of the investment decision and the resulting costs enriches the analysis of this organizational structure.In the explanatory model of the decentralization of the investment decision, we hoped to verify five fundamental hypotheses made in the theoretical phase, on Tunisian firms, according to which the organizational and contextual variables condition the adoption of the investment decision decentralization. The relevance of this model has been demonstrated. Even if the organizational complexity has a linear and negative impact (opposite sign to what is expected) on the investment decision decentralization, which creates value, it appears that there is a positive association with the uncertainty of the environment, and a negative one with the scarcity and sharing of the financial resources between units on the internal capital market.This research provides some contributions to the understanding of the determinants of the investment decision decentralization and opens the way to future research. To assess the overall consistency of the model, it is necessary to identify other types of relationships (quadratic or exponential, or logistic regressions ...) and carry out, for example, structural equations analyses between the variables in the model. In addition to a cross-sectional study18, the model also requires a longitudinal study to see how the architecture of the firms has changed so as to ensure an effective decentralization of the investment decision.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This research attempts to explain the decentralization of investment decision. To do so, it highlights the role of the internal capital market in the allocation of decision rights and control as a factor explaining the effectiveness of investment management. The authors aim to apply the theory of the organizational architecture to the investment decision to understand its complexity and its efficiency.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An empirical test was realized on a sample of 63 Tunisian firms using the methods of canonical correlation and cross tabulations.\nFindings: - Even if organizational complexity has a linear and negative impact (opposite sign to what is expected) on the investment decision decentralization, which creates value, it appears that there is a positive association with the uncertainty of the environment, and a negative one with the scarcity and sharing of financial resources between units on the internal capital market.\nOriginality/value: - The authors show that the role played by the internal capital market in the value creating requires the setting of a centralized organizational structure.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Improvement of organizational efficiency and effectiveness by developing a manufacturing strategy decision support system
|
[
"Manufacturing systems",
"Strategic planning",
"Quality function deployment",
"House of quality",
"Decision support systems",
"Modelling"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: During the last decade, the pressures of increasing global competition caused by developments such as the passage of the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade in 1994, the World Trade Organization in 1995 and a multitude of other international trade agreements coupled with advances in information technology, industries worldwide face a new area of intense global competition. Manufacturers will have to achieve world-class status to compete effectively in global markets. To achieve competitive advantage, marketing and manufacturing, strategies should be interlinked and incorporated in corporate strategy (Skinner, 1969). When companies fail to recognize the relationship between manufacturing and corporate strategies, they may become saddled with non-competitive production systems, which are expensive and time consuming. In the current competitive scenario, manufacturing strategy assumes a significant importance and calls for serious research attention. Numerous articles dealing with the theory and practice of manufacturing strategy have been published over the last 20 years, but the topic is still under considerable development and debate. All these papers are classified into content and process areas. Content-related literature addresses issues of manufacturing capability (Skinner, 1969, 1974; Neely, 1993; Slack, 1994; Spring and Boaden, 1997) and the achievement of these capabilities through aligning the competitive priorities with the requirements of the marketplace (Kerr and Greenhalgh, 1991; Hill and Chambers, 1991; Grewin, 1993; Upton, 1994). Malhotra and Grover (1998) explained the flexibility term in detail and discussed its application in corporate and manufacturing strategies to achieve superior performance. Another topic of content-related literature is the philosophy of strategic choices which is based on need to attain internal and external consistency. Failure to match with external business, product and customer factors can lead to mismatch with the market and consequently erosion of market share (Chatterjee, 1998).Process aspects include design, development and implementation of manufacturing strategy. Many researchers have emphasized the process approach for manufacturing strategy. Hill (1987, 1989) developed a framework for manufacturing strategy and presented a step-by-step procedure of developing manufacturing strategy. Platts (1993) suggested an audit-based approach to develop manufacturing strategy. He described a three-stage approach for formulating manufacturing strategy. These are creating the process; testing and refining in a small number of companies; and investigating wider applicability by means of a survey. Gilgeous (1995) discussed manufacturing capability strengths such as technology, capacity, etc. and weakness like lack of fitness between manufacturing and marketing objectives of the industries. Mills et al. (1995) gave a framework for design of manufacturing process. Anderson et al. (1991) analysed the empirical data collected from manufacturing executives and proposed a methodology for process of manufacturing strategy development and implementation. Bonder and Harrison (1991) developed manufacturing strategy in an industry. Mills et al. (1995) have given a detailed framework for design of manufacturing strategy, which is useful in identifying gaps in manufacturing strategy toolkit in areas such as past strategy analysis ongoing formation strategy. They have described the process of design in three steps, which are audit, formulation and implementation. Each of these is further explained in details regarding participation and procedure issues. Mohanty and Deshmukh (1997, 1999) presents manufacturing strategic model for selection and evaluation process in a learning organization.It is interesting to note that with increased globalization, and opening up of economics, the focus in manufacturing strategy has changed, especially in controlled economics such as Hungary, Brazil, etc. Nobel (1993) has tested a set of competitive priorities for manufacturing strategy in the context of multiple countries. The competitive priorities are different. The managerial focus and control systems also vary according to the country's specific needs and its entry into the globalization process. Voss and Blackmon (1998) reported on the role of adopting strategic manufacturing practices and links between corporate and manufacturing strategy. It appears that for countries like China, India, Middle East and other developing countries there is no reported study on improvement of the efficiency and effectiveness of a company based on the formulation and implementation of manufacturing strategy. Therefore, research that focuses on this managerial aspect is needed.Quality function deployment (QFD) is a powerful approach to customer-focused product development. Recently, many practitioners and academics have recognized the potential of these methods and applied them to strategic formulation and decision making as well. As an excellent tool for strategic planning, QFD simplifies strategic thinking with a framework for clarifying and meeting goals. For the decision maker, it helps identify what is important by providing a logical system to replace emotion-based decision making. The nature of strategic decision-making differs from that involved in the product development process, which was the original purpose of QFD. The difference is in the types of information used, the personnel generally involved and the potential impact of the decision upon company performance. However, there are great similarities also. These become clear when one considers \"strategy\" as \"the management product\" (Daetz et al., 1995). The \"management product\" is what management makes and sells to its customers (stakeholders) - its employees, shareholders and strategic business partners. If the strategy does not satisfy and delight these stakeholders, they will not buy it, and it will not be implemented.The QFD approach is derived from a cause-and-effect mentality where targets or objectives are translated into means in a cascading system down through the organization. It is a holistic in nature and multi-functional in its application. For example, the application of QFD approach helped executives and managers in small and medium size enterprises more quickly make informed and creative decisions and issue directives to implement them (Mazur, 1998). Moreover, it provided the health care services a tool to look at customer needs and measurements as well as a tool to describe and assure the quality of human tasks (Mazur et al., 1995). Recently, using QFD to manage project priorities and project management resources improved the quality of the infrastructure of the companies (LePrevost, 2003). It is worth-mentioning also that the leading edge in QFD in the past, present, and future can be found in Akao (2003). So it can be stated that QFD approach provides clear and measurable milestones to control implementation and self-document to facilitate review, corrective action and organizational learning. The recorded benefits of utilizing this technique in strategic decision making are summarized in Hummel (1996), Crowe and Cheng (1996), Sullivan (1988), Atkins and Crisafi (1995), Chen and Bullington (1993), Guinta and Praizler (1993), Philips et al. (1994), Lyman et al. (1994) and Hales (1995).Based on what has been mentioned above, manufacturing strategy as a concept and area of research and practice has been growing for the last 30 years. However, as it has grown, the clarity of manufacturing strategy has decreased as different views and different approaches have emerged. There is thus a need to identify useful knowledge that can be used to build a manufacturing strategy framework which will be reflected positively on the performance of a company. This research aims at developing a model for manufacturing strategy formulation and implementation to help the managerial body of a corporation improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their company. The methodology captures the essential factors that must be considered and the steps that must be taken by a firm attempting to design a viable manufacturing strategy, in addition to interpreting the manufacturing strategy into action plans. To achieve this purpose, the QFD was chosen as a systematic tool and the developed model has been applied to one of the small size Jordanian pharmaceutical companies which lacks the consideration of the implementation of such approaches.\n2 The development of a manufacturing strategy formulation model using quality function deployment: The manufacturing strategy formulation process begins with the definition of a business strategy, continues with an assessment of the current manufacturing system and finishes with the definition of a mission for the manufacturing system, which is translated into specific action plans. Figure 1 shows the conventional framework of manufacturing strategy formulation. After reviewing many of the published recipes and frameworks for manufacturing strategy development and many QFD applications, a new methodology is proposed for manufacturing strategic planning. The methodology can be considered as a modification of the proposed approach by Thomas and Cheng (1996) and includes the following stages.2.1 Define the business strategy (long-term objectives)\n3 Case study - a Jordanian pharmaceutical company: In today's turbulent and competitive environment, manufacturing can be a competitive weapon, however, a company's manufacturing function is often overlooked by top management. There is a large gap between business strategy and manufacturing. Many companies do not have explicit manufacturing strategies even though the importance of such strategies is appreciated.The Jordanian pharmaceutical sector is fairly competitive, with 17 pharmaceutical manufacturers seeking entry into new export markets and striving to capture a greater share in the small domestic market. According to a study conducted by the national competitiveness team, pharmaceutical companies in Jordan conduct research in only two areas: formulation and stability, and bioequivalence. Most leading multinational pharmaceutical companies conduct research in five major areas; clinical, synthesis compound, bioequivalence, toxicological, formulation and stability.In Jordan the concept of strategic planning is still new, few companies have their own methodologies for the formulation of strategies and fewer have a clear procedures for the strategic planning in manufacturing. Thus, it is so important to start searching in this field to find out proper methodologies for the manufacturing strategy formulation and implementation. So, it was decided to apply the proposed QFD model in this research to a small size Jordanian pharmaceutical manufacturing company. After studying the status of this company and applying the proposed model to it, the results can be analysed in the following stages.3.1 Define the business strategy\n4 Conclusions: * QFD is a good tool for developing a decision support system for the formulation and implementation of manufacturing strategy and the proposed QFD-base model is easily apprehended, easy to be followed and leads to a good manufacturing strategy.* Using the QFD-based model, not only was the manufacturing strategy identified but it was further deployed into action plans and tasks.* It was also proved that the developed methodology integrates and manages information from diverse sources in the organization to develop executable plans and tasks for the manufacturing function.* The gap between manufacturing and business strategy was bridged through the use of QFD that also included full documentation of the entire process of manufacturing strategy through action plan formulation and revision.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To develop a model for manufacturing strategy formulation and implementation to help the managerial body of a corporation improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their company.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The quality function deployment (QFD) technique is used in the formulation process to provide the basis for selection between options in each of the formulation stages. The proposed model consists of six stages starting from the business strategy formulation, functional strategy formulation, manufacturing priorities formulation, the generation of action plans and the suggestions of the detailed tasks of each action plan, and ending up with the evaluation of the developed strategy. QFD capture software is used to form the matrices needed for the proposed model.\nFindings: - It was found that the proposed QFD approach is easy to apprehend, clear to be applied and leads to dependable manufacturing strategy. Accordingly, this model is recommended to be used in other functional areas in addition to manufacturing to develop their functional strategies.\nResearch limitations/implications: - After the application of this model, the quality of management in this company was improved and recommended for other companies.\nOriginality/value: - The paper provides a QFD approach that can be applied to any company by their managerial body in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their company.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Building resilience against food insecurity through social networks: The case of rural farmers in Oyo State, Nigeria
|
[
"Nigeria",
"Social networks",
"Food security",
"OLS",
"2SLS"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Nigeria agricultural system is characterized mostly by peasant farmers who are responsible for approximately 90 per cent of the total agricultural productivity (Obisesan, 2018). Among many push and pull factors, the economies of scale surrounding farmers' production environment is largely responsible for the overall low productivity. However, other factors include: natural and physical constraints, lack of technical know-how, lack of institutional supports, unavailability of production inputs and planting of low yielding varieties. FAO (2016) noted that, smallholder farmers only cultivate relatively small area of farmland, relying on family labour with the primary aim of feeding the family, and consequently have little or nothing to offer for sales. This in turn has overarching effects on farming household's sustainable access to food, poverty status and, by extension, farming household welfare. Farming household's food security could be described as \"a situation where the household is able to access and afford the adequate quantities and quality of food at all times for an active and healthy existence\" (World Bank, 1986 as cited in Oluwatayo and Rachoene, 2017). However, food insecurity situation is a deviation from this path, with uncertainty surrounding \"food availability, food adequacy, safety, accessibility and affordability\" by individuals (Ujunwa et al., 2018). Importantly, food sufficiency is touted as a great weapon to keep the world at peace because when individuals or households live in fear of starvation or suffice it to say, with hunger, the relative peace of individuals, household, community or even the nation is threatened. This is also affirmed by FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO (2017) who also emphasized on a strong nexus between hunger, conflict and peace; hence, the need to ensure peace by fostering sustainable food security in our society.\n2. Data and methodology: The study area is Oyo State which is located in the south-western part of Nigeria. The climate is equatorial and characterized with two seasons (\"wet and dry\"). The relatively high humidity in this area favours the cultivation of arable crops by farmers. Importantly, the study employed multistage probability sampling techniques to select 300 representative sample (smallholder farmers) used for this study. However, responses from only 297 respondents were found useful in the final stage of data analyses because of inconsistent information. Descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution, and mean values were used to describe farmers' characteristics. Similarly, inferential statistical techniques such as: \"ordinary least square (OLS) regression model\" was applied to investigate the interactions of social network components and farmers' food security status. Importantly, Foster-Greer-Thorbecke indices vis-a-vis food consumption expenditure-metrics technique was used to evaluate the food security profile of the respondents. Besides, \"Two-stage least squares (2SLS) regression model\" was applied to investigate \"reverse causality\" relationship between farmers' food security status and social networks.\n3. Results and discussion: 3.1 Profiling of farmers' personal and social networks features\n4. Conclusions: Evidently, the study revealed that social networks as expressed by level of diversity among members of social groups, participation in decision making and attendance of group meetings have significant effect on farming households' food security. Similarly, the findings clearly show that intertwined factors of social networks, households' assets and human capital features can drive farming households' food security status, and by extension households' welfare.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Many nations in Sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria have initiated programmes targeted at addressing food insecurity, but without any major significant breakthrough. This necessitates the call for inclusion of social network institutional framework into the food and nutrition security policy of many developing countries. This is touted as an important social safety net needed for farming households' economic advancement and welfare. Consequent on this, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the importance of social networks in building resilience against food insecurity among farmers in Oyo State, Nigeria.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data collected from a sample of 297 smallholder farmers during 2015/2016 agricultural production season were analysed using descriptive statistics to describe farmers' notable characteristics. However, Foster-Greer-Thorbecke indices vis-a-vis food consumption expenditure-metrics technique was used to evaluate the food security profile of the respondents. Similarly, ordinary least square and two-stage least square (2SLS) models were applied to investigate the effects and \"reverse causality\" in the social networks food security model.\nFindings: The study findings indicated that about 48.15 per cent of the smallholder farmers are food insecure. Similarly, the study revealed that age (p<0.01), years of formal education (p<0.05), marital status (p<0.05), number of persons in the family (p<0.01), executive status in social groups (p<0.05), aggregate social networks (p<0.1) and non-food consumption expenditure (p<0.01) made significant contributions to food security status of farming households. Importantly, 2SLS estimation indicated non-existence of reverse causality effect of social networks components and households' food security status.\nSocial implications: There is an urgent need for pragmatic policies that support systematic and organized social groups and networks formation in the rural/agrarian areas across Nigeria.\nOriginality/value: A widely accepted view of economic theory posits that traditional capitals (physical, economic/financial and human) drive households' welfare including food security status. However, this study has established the relevance of social networks as an important component of human well-being. Apparently, this study also established the exogeneity of social networks in the framework of households' food security status.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Biomedical technology growth: a case study of forecasting in pulsed electromagnetic field therapy
|
[
"Pulsed electromagnetic field therapy",
"Bass diffusion model",
"Bibliometric analysis",
"Management of technology",
"Medical treatment",
"Forecasting"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction and research method: The main research objective in this paper is to establish technology diffusion patterns for pulsed electro magnetic field (PEMF) therapy technology. The research method will be exploratory and case based. Cooper and Schindler (2006) discuss the merits of case study and exploratory research methods especially in the early phases of research to establish patterns and solve or evaluate problems. This coincides with the current focus to explore technology diffusion patterns in the PEMF arena.Research data will be gathered from mainly two sources: firstly global bibliometric PEMF data from Google Scholar and secondly real application data in a global context for ten years for a specific patented PEMF case application. Other bibliometric data sources such as SciDirect may also be used. Google Scholar is however easily accessible and is thus used for current exploratory research purposes.The adoption of technology and products by a potential market can typically be modeled as a diffusion process (Bouwman and van der Duin, 2003; Danaher et al., 2001; Dorf and Byers, 2008). One of the earlier models used to describe such a diffusion process is the Bass diffusion model (Bass, 2004). Alternative diffusion models such as logistic/pearl or the Gompertz models as indicated by Crompton (2001) may also be employed to simulate technology diffusion processes. In this paper the focus will however be on the Bass diffusion model that is useful to simultaneously evaluate innovation and imitation effects in the technology growth lifecycle. This is deemed appropriate as the focus in this research is just to establish some initial trends of PEMF technology diffusion using exploratory research.A combination of bibliometrics (Bae et al., 2007) and the Bass diffusion model is used in this paper to show how research trends in PEMF technology development can be used by executive management to assess their approach to technology management. According to Bae et al. (2007) bibliometrics may be used to attempt to make technology forecasts (Bouwman and van der Duin, 2003; Drejer, 1997). Jordan (2007) also refers to the use of bibliometrics in tracing technological change. This feature of bibliometrics is used in this paper to obtain technology forecast data to assess simulation of PEMF technology against.1.1 The new technology under consideration\n2. The holistic technology management model: To enable a new technology to be adopted in the context of an established professional paradigm which runs contrary to the new technology poses serious and diverse challenges. The management model proposed by Winzker (2005) has been successfully applied in South Africa for over 20 years in the context of a diverse group of high technology projects and is being applied to the innovation discussed in this paper for the past decade. The application of a holistic technology management model over some ten years to the introduction of a new technology in a conservative profession such as the medical field has enabled us to trace, to guide and to monitor the impact and diffusion of innovation and research this instigates.Any new medical technology application has to be characterized by sound research, high efficacy for the purposes applied, excellent understanding of the physiological interactions produced by the new technology and safety considerations. Hence a sufficiently long period has to be monitored to give meaningful results.The key components identified in the technology management model (Winzker, 2005) pertinent to this particular paper are:* Awareness of the business space concerning the new technology, which will require a paradigm shift.* Future management - how to shape the future and to position the new technology strategically for maximum impact* Change management - how the previous two points will require the initiation of change and the management of the professional mind-shift change.* Leadership and vision - how to effectively \"lead the revolution\" to introduce the new technology based on the research available from year to year.Awareness of the business space in this instance refers to the paradigmatic change required by the medical practitioner to appreciate the benefits pursuant to the application of the new technology. The medical technology under consideration is process-based which is contrary to the traditional, symptomatic indication-based approaches. Increased research activity specific to the technology both in depth and scope, teaching the process at medical institutions and the practical execution by medical practitioners will assist in the overall awareness and sporadic breakthroughs in terms of acceptance.It has been recognized for a long time that to manage a paradigm shift in a scientific/professional environment is very difficult and can take a number of years (Winzker, 2005). Future management here implies to formulate a totally new approach and to accomplish the strategic positioning in many places such as institutions, universities and in medical practices. The purpose being to shorten the transition period until professional acceptance has been reached.Initiating and managing the required changes in structural, organizational and operational terms is an important consideration and will influence the degree and speed by which a paradigm shift will be accepted.Usually it is an individual or a small team that displays passionate vision and commitment, which builds the necessary strategic intent. The leadership recognizes the changes necessary, incessantly elucidates the new paradigm, finds allies and support by smartly leveraging research, practical application and teaching. The leadership also communicates effectively both with advocates as well as critics.The practical implementation and the spawning of more adopters which eventually culminate in the new technology becoming main stream will also require the consideration of the remainder of the components of the technology management model (Winzker, 2005) but is deemed beyond the scope of this paper.The abovementioned key components of the technology management model are a few of the softer components required to promote the new technology and are mentioned in this paper as a backdrop to the gathering speed with which a new medical technology becomes a subject of awareness, of research and acceptance through application.To put it in the words applicable to the mathematical technology diffusion model elucidated in the next section, the key components gleaned from this discussion of the technology management model are innovation, imitation and practical application in the market. These and other pertinent factors are related and will determine the degree of paradigm shift and the speed of professional acceptance. The technology management model introduced very briefly in this section has been used repeatedly in practice to serve as initiating instrument to aid in the diffusion of the biomedical technology discussed in this paper. It specifically served the purpose of focusing management attention on the subject of awareness and acceptance of the biomedical technology.\n3. Simulation with the bass model: In this section an appropriate diffusion model as well as solution and simulation optimization techniques in a spreadsheet environment are discussed. These models and techniques have been identified from literature and applied in the PEMF therapy technology context. The model links appropriately to the innovation and imitation issues of the technology management model discussed in the previous sections.3.1 Bass diffusion model\n4. Conclusion: One may conclude that technology diffusion traces exist for PEMF therapy technology as is evident from the bibliometric PEMF global data presented. Furthermore it is possible to simulate the PEMF therapy technology diffusion process with a Bass diffusion model incorporating innovation imitation and market size coefficients by determining optimized parameters for the Bass diffusion curve to fit the bibliometric PEMF technology data. There is also no evidence of the research on PEMF therapy nearing saturation in the first fifteen years of Bass simulation of bibliometric trends. There is however evidence of a saturation market of somewhere in the region of 28,000 cumulative research units after more than 40 years.The PEMF technology trend for the real BEMER case study is also established. According to Bass diffusion model simulation there is evidence of a saturation market of 5.2 million cumulative global therapy applications approximately 15 years after launch. This trend is based on the current real world therapy application data accumulated over 10 years. If management makes changes in strategy this should obviously change. The usefulness of the current Bass model is that new trend forecasts of the technology may be made as the model is updated with new available data.A correlation has also been established between cumulative bibliometric data for the PEMF therapy technology and the real biomedical treatment data using PEMF therapy technology for the case A. This correlation is in the form of a compact power law equation. It is specifically useful to focus the attention of management via the technology management model on the effects of research in PEMF on possible future sales of PEMF therapy technology products.This research is based on a case study of a specific PEMF product and technology. Further research can be done on similar PEMF technology products. It is also suggested that some future research be done on geographic diffusion of PEMF technology products such as in for example South Africa. The effect of technology substitution and competing technologies in the PEMF technology environment may also be researched using further versions of the Bass diffusion models discussed by for instance Mahajan et al. (1995) and Danaher et al. (2001).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The aim of this paper is to explore the benefit of forecasting emerging biomedical therapy technologies as well as the rate of diffusion of resultant biomedical products in the context of management of technology.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The research method is exploratory using a case study approach. Techniques such as bibliometric analysis and the Bass diffusion model are utilized to assess the growth rate and market penetration of pulsed electromagnetic field therapy (PEMF) as a technology.\nFindings: - The penetration and growth rate of user acceptance of the technology in a global context are simulated across a 15-year period. The technology forecasting model is also used in a case study to simulate the penetration of a product using ten years' medical application data of a patented pulsed electromagnetic field for biomedical therapy application in the global context. Useful correlation between bibliometric data for PEMF and real data for the case study is illustrated.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The research is limited to the case of PEMF data presented. Further research may be done on other PEMF technology applications.\nPractical implications: - Aspects of a holistic management model that was developed for high technology companies are invoked in the practical realisation of the professional paradigm shift required when an emerging biomedical therapy technology is in the process of becoming mainstream.\nOriginality/value: - It has been shown that technology diffusion traces exist for PEMF therapy technology as is evident from the bibliometric PEMF global data presented. Furthermore it is possible to simulate the PEMF therapy technology diffusion process with a Bass diffusion model incorporating innovation imitation and market size coefficients.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Flexibility or ethical dilemma: an overview of the work from home policies in modern organizations around the world
|
[
"Work life balance",
"Flexible work arrangement",
"Result oriented"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The ability to hire, develop and then retain talent is regarded as a competitive advantage for any company. Organizations are coming up with diversified compensation packages, benefits and incentives to induce loyalty and commitment amongst their workforce.\nWork from home policy: a catalyst for increasing worker's productivity: Companies which advocate in its favor state that the productivity level of their employees increases once, they are given the option to work from home. As far as employees are concerned, they do not have to worry about the morning traffic jams, they can spend more time with their families, they are away from the stressful office environment and above all they are at their creative best. For organizations, this policy has enabled them to hire the top talent without geographic limits (including companies \"stealing\" talent from their competitors), save on operational expenses relating to office-based workers, and, most importantly, provide the much needed \"work-life balance\" to their employees. The general benefits for employees are:\nWork from home policy: a compromise between speed and quality of work: On the other hand, the critics of this policy also have some valid arguments as they claim that employees, who work remotely, are \"actually not working\" (Bloom, 2014). Primarily, this argument stems from the traditional managerial mindset which fears \"the loss of control\", i.e. the productivity of employees cannot be measured, if they are not in direct sight. A key example in this regard was the change of policy at Yahoo!, when CEO Marrisa Mayer decided to relocate employees working from home to different Yahoo! facilities. The following points were raised in her memo sent to the employees (Smith, 2013):\nEffect of national culture on flexible work arrangements: examples from Pakistan: Another major factor for companies considering implementing home working is the national culture. This suggests a universal work from home policy may not be possible for all organizations around the world. The organizations need to revise and review their flexible work arrangement policies based upon their geographic locations. For example, in Pakistan, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority became the first public-sector organization to announce work from home policy for \"female workers\" only on a trial basis. According to the current policy, selected female workers will be allowed to work from home on just one day of the week. The results of the policy will be assessed and then a decision to continue with it or withdraw it shall be taken.\nMoving forward with work from home policies: Working from home is not for everyone: it requires a lot of dedication, self-control and discipline. It requires effort not to get distracted and lose momentum. Organizations that offer working from home tend to do so without providing any training on how to be effective working from home.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The primary purpose of this paper is to highlight the pros and cons associated with the work from home policies and how these policies differ across countries and cultures. The main question to be answered is that why a perk or benefit is now being considered as an ethical issue.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Opinions of practitioners and examples of some leading controversial work from home policies have been discussed in detail. Examples from the developed countries have been compared with those of less developed countries, to present a cross country analysis.\nFindings: Culture has a significant impact on the flexible work arrangement policies. Although many companies endorse some degree of flexibility for working mothers or parents in general, working from home as a universal policy is still debatable. The decision to offer this facility to employees majorly depends upon the geographic location of that organization.\nOriginality/value: All the discussions and views expressed solely belong to the authors. This paper can be extended by adding some empirical evidences from the companies who actually offer this facility to their employees.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Genre fiction readers: a quantitative exploration of provided construct ratings
|
[
"Repertory grid",
"Personal construct theory",
"Construct rating",
"Genre fiction reader",
"Minority ethnic genre fiction",
"Provided constructs",
"Black British fiction",
"Asian fiction"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This paper presents findings of a study which is part of doctoral research into the reading and promotion of minority ethnic fiction in public libraries. Previous papers by the author based on this doctoral work have presented a study of reader response to minority ethnic fiction (Birdi, 2010; Birdi and Syed, 2011), and a further study investigating fiction reader characteristics using personal construct theory (Birdi, 2011). The last of these papers examined tables of personal constructs elicited by 15 respondents and their frequencies, and also facilitated the understanding of these constructs its main limitations were that it was difficult to compare participant ratings given that so many different constructs were elicited (n=128 before grouping), that there was a relatively small number of repeated constructs, and that the sample size was too small for meaningful statistical analysis (n=15). However, it was concluded that the repertory grid technique is an effective means of generating and exploring a series of constructs relating to the characteristics of fiction genres and their readers.\nMinority ethnic fiction: terminology and genres: Three terms are frequently employed in this paper, and are defined as follows:\nTheoretical framework: Originally presented by George Kelly in 1955 in his ground-breaking work \"The psychology of personal constructs\" and then developed in the context of clinical psychology, the significance of this approach is today widely acknowledged (Tyler, 1981; Fransella, 2005). Underpinning the new \"personal construct theory\" (Fransella, 2005, p. 67) was the idea that \"a person's processes are psychologically channelised by the ways in which he anticipates events\" (Kelly, as cited in Fransella, 2005, p. 67). In his work Kelly describes this constructivist approach, by which there is no such thing as objective reality.\nThe repertory grid technique: Initially described as the \"role construct repertory test\", the repertory grid is the most well-known aspect of Kelly's personal construct theory. This is a method based on three interlinked processes, conducted in the order as stated:\nUse of the repertory grid in previous research: There is a large body of research into the use and value of the repertory grid technique and the wider application of personal construct theory, and aspects of this work can be reviewed in order to inform and justify the present study.\nMethodology: The previous study consisted of a complete repertory grid interview with construct elicitation and rating (n=15) (Birdi, 2011). In order to increase the overall validity of the data collected and to enable more helpful statistical analyses, the present study combines the previous data with data collected from an additional 21 participants, who rated the most frequently cited and/or relevant constructs from the previous study. Unless stated otherwise, the analyses for this study are therefore based on a sample group of n=36. As was the case for the previous study, a purposive sampling method was also used here. In order to maintain consistency and increase the validity of the overall process, the intention was to reach a population similar to that of the previous phase.\nThe findings of the study: Before presenting the findings of the empirical research it is helpful to explain why only the findings of non-parametric tests are reported here.\nThe contribution of the research: In using a larger population than the previous study (Birdi, 2011), the present research has facilitated the statistical analysis of the ratings by 36 participants of 16 provided constructs, and in doing so has provided further findings relating to the perceived characteristics of the readers of fiction genres, including minority ethnic fiction.\nResearch limitations: As with all research, it is important to acknowledge the limitations of any study, and the notable limitation of this exercise has been the ethnic homogeneity of the sample population. Given the focus of the thesis on minority ethnic genre fiction, this limitation has potentially reduced the scope and impact of the findings.\nConcluding remarks: In conclusion, the use of the repertory grid with a group of librarianship students and professionals facilitated the development of a detailed series of perceived reader characteristics. However, it was clear from this and the previous study (Birdi, 2011) that some participants found it difficult to describe and rate the readers of the minority ethnic fiction genres in particular, so it would be of interest to conduct the same study with a group of the readers of Black British fiction, and Asian fiction in English, to see how the two data sets compare. Furthermore, given that the perceived profiles of the readers of the two genres were not identical, it would also be useful to extend the research to the readers of other minority ethnic fiction titles in the English language, such as the growing collection of books by Polish authors who have moved to the UK in recent years.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to adapt a repertory grid technique to investigate fiction readers' attitudes and beliefs, with a specific focus on minority ethnic fiction.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study required participants (n=36) to rate on a seven-point Likert scale a series of 16 provided constructs, using ten main elements, namely, the reader of ten fiction genres. Statistical tests investigated participant agreement across construct ratings, where on average fiction readers are rated on a construct continuum, and the extent to which public library work experience affected participants' perceptions.\nFindings: Findings were revealed regarding the perceived characteristics of the readers of ten fiction genres, including minority ethnic fiction. The readers of Asian and Black British fiction were similarly rated, but certain exceptions were also noted which had not been reported in previous research. Although intraclass correlations indicated that ratings were consistent for the more established fiction genres, there was little agreement regarding minority fiction.\nResearch limitations/implications: The research was potentially limited by the ethnic homogeneity of the sample population and the gender imbalance of same, and (in some cases) a lack of knowledge of minority fiction genres. It was felt that the repertory grid was an effective technique via which to build a rich profile of the fiction reader.\nPractical implications: This research could inform the development of fiction collections, and its detailed examination of fiction reader profiles could be adapted in three specific ways, as described in the paper.\nOriginality/value: Little previous research has been conducted to differentiate between readers of different fiction genres, and less still for those of minority ethnic fiction genres.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Dreams, visions, and values in fundamental business education
|
[
"Education",
"Innovation",
"Creativity",
"Business",
"Ethics",
"Aspiration"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven\nIntroduction: Business education is often viewed as fundamentally about rational and analytical thinking. However, while there is no question that science, technology, logic, and mathematics are critically important and fundamental to business, creativity, and innovation are also central. In fact, because of the changes taking place in the new global, technological, and competitive environments, creativity and innovation may be even more fundamental to business success than ever before.\nOur \"Glocal\" world: The United Nations reports that by 2015 it expects that the global poverty rate will fall below 15 per cent, well under its 23 per cent Millennium Development Goals target. This global trend primarily reflects rapid growth in Eastern Asia, especially China, but also India, Brazil, and many other so-called developing economies (United Nations, 2011).\nTribal connections - old and new: In the first month of 2012, as this paper is being finalized, the so-called \"Arab Spring\" is in full force. Syria is on the verge of civil war. Governments have been overthrown in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya and there have been demonstrations and uprisings in Yemen and Bahrain.\nDreams of one world: It has been 50 years since astronaut John Glenn circled the earth three times in five hours and exclaimed to the world from his Friendship 7 capsule, \"Man, that view is tremendous\" (Glenn, 1999). The space race with the Soviet Union, and the excitement of discovery culminating in putting a man on the moon, raised public awareness of space exploration to a fevered pitch. For the first time people around the world were looking back at the planet earth and seeing it from somewhere else.\nDreams, visions, and creativity in business: In researching Steve Jobs, founder and former CEO of Apple, author Carmine Gallo interviewed Rob Campbell, a Silicon Valley CEO who began his career at Apple. Campbell described how he ended up working for Apple after interviewing for a position at a number of companies that were leaders in the nascent personal computer industry:\nToward a pedagogy of aspiration in fundamental business education: A recent and groundbreaking vein of psychological research has been exploring a startling fact. Several scientifically rigorous, randomized field experiments have shown that what would appear to be very minimal social-psychological interventions - typically brief writing exercises that do not impart academic content but instead target students' thoughts, feelings, and beliefs - have had striking effects on educational achievement even over months and years (Yeager and Walton, 2011).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of a pedagogy of aspiration - a focus on dreams, visions, and values in fundamental business education. The paper focusses on issues of motivation and creativity in a global and multi-cultural milieu. Business education is often viewed as fundamentally about rational and analytical thinking, but creativity and innovation are also central. Due to information technology and globalization, they may be even more fundamental to business success than ever before. Both educators and managers can benefit from thinking about creativity and innovation in this context, since both are responding to the same business trends, and developing the same people.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Since business fundamentals should reflect business realities, global trends in information and communications technology and mass migration brought on by information and communications technology are explored, and their relevance to the imagination and creativity is developed. Educational innovations in motivation and aspirational capacity are explained, and their relevance to fundamental business education is postulated.\nFindings: Tapping into the imagination is a source of motivation and creativity. What would appear to be very minimal social-psychological interventions have had significant positive effects on educational achievement. Those same techniques may be useful in teaching the fundamentals of business, and may have the added benefit instilling of a holistic and ethical perspective on the part of students.\nOriginality/value: The paper brings together threads of research in globalization, information and communications technology, the imagination and creativity, and motivation from a psychological and anthropological standpoint, and suggests applying that research in teaching the fundamentals of business and business ethics.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Identifying antecedents and outcomes of festival satisfaction: The case of a cosmetics & beauty expo
|
[
"Trust",
"Quality",
"Support",
"Expo satisfaction",
"Extension effect",
"Theme awareness"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Appearance is considered to be a useful tool for expressing one's identity and to improve one's wellness in the modern society. A popular phrase \"appearance is an asset\" reflects individuals' increased interest in their outlook and beauty (Hansen et al., 2012). In this regard, Domzal and Kernan (1993) state that a desire to cultivate appearance and to be attractive to others often increases the consumption of cosmetic and beauty (hereafter C&B) products by stimulating personal satisfaction with physical well-being and the motivation to engage in social activities. The C&B industry has been largely developed throughout the world. Accordingly, many countries and regions around the world have been encouraged to host C&B exhibitions or \"Expos\" to attract more visitors and buyers to fulfill their needs for C&B products and services. At Expos, visitors can also obtain high-quality C&B information and encounter diverse experiences.\nLiterature review: Festival quality\nMethodology: Study site\nResults: Respondents' demographic characteristics\nConclusion and implications: \nConclusions: Hosting a C&B Expo is one of the most effective ways for a region to promote C&B-related industries and for destinations to attract many visitors. However, no previous research has focused on the relationships among antecedents and outcomes of satisfaction with a C&B Expo. In particular, the effect of qualities on satisfaction has not been studied in the field of the C&B Expo yet. Therefore, the current study empirically tested relationships among Expo quality, satisfaction, trust, support, theme awareness and extension effect using the case of the C&B Expo held in Osong, Korea. Based on previous studies (Hjalager and Konu, 2011; Song et al., 2014), the current study highlighted the relationships between trust and support and between theme awareness and extension effect in the C&B context. This study provides crucial insights, indicating that the C&B Expo could be an effective means to reach target markets and stimulate trust from visitors, which, in turn, would encourage support for the C&B industry and extension effect for C&B products as a whole.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to explore the relationships among antecedents (i.e. quality) and outcomes (i.e. trust, support, theme awareness and extension effect) of satisfaction at the 2013 Osong Cosmetics & Beauty (C&B) Expo held in Korea.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An onsite survey with self-administered questionnaires was administered for this study. A structural equation modeling (SEM) technique was used to analyze the relationships among ten constructs in the research model.\nFindings: The results indicate that hospitality and product dimensions of quality positively affect satisfaction, satisfaction exerts positive influence on trust and theme awareness, trust performs an important role as a mediator between satisfaction and support and theme awareness significantly mediates satisfaction and extension effect.\nPractical implications: This study encourages the Expo's organizers to manage quality attributes to ensure Expo satisfaction and to consider extension effects of Expo experiences from long-term perspectives. This study also recommends that local governments develop symbolic products with exhibitors to strengthen the association of Expo themes with regions.\nOriginality/value: The current study highlights the role of quality as an antecedent of satisfaction with the C&B Expo, which has not been well-known despite its crucial role in the industry and the regional economy. It also improves the understanding of the inherent cause-effect relationships among antecedents and outcomes of Expo satisfaction. Therefore, this study provides crucial insights that the C&B Expo could be an effective means to reach target markets and stimulate trust from visitors, which, in turn, would encourage support for the C&B industry and extension effects for C&B products as a whole.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
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