title
stringlengths 6
301
| keywords
listlengths 0
23
| messages
listlengths 2
2
|
|---|---|---|
Relative influence of authentic and transformational leadership of local union representatives on the adoption of union citizenship behaviors
|
[
"Transformational leadership",
"Citizenship behaviour",
"Authentic leadership",
"Union leadership"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Recent research has initiated an in-depth reflection on union leadership, in particular, its individual behavioral manifestations and the psychological mechanisms of influence mobilized by union leaders involved at the local level[1] (Fortin-Bergeron et al., 2013; Hammer et al., 2009; Twigg et al., 2007). Most of these studies have relied on transformational leadership, a theory originally developed to explain leadership among managers. They argue that such leaders are well suited to the local union reality, as they increase collective awareness and create a climate in which the common good prevails over the attractiveness of individual interests and gains (Avolio et al., 1999; Cregan et al., 2009; Shamir et al., 1993).\nPurpose: Our study aims to test the relative influence of authentic leadership and transformational leadership, as displayed by union representatives, on the adoption of union citizenship behaviors (UCB) among union members. UCB refer more specifically to \"things that members do that are not required but provide a benefit to the union or its members\" (Skarlicki and Latham, 1996, p. 163). These voluntary behaviors can essentially be aimed at supporting the union as an organizational entity (UCBO), or supporting its individual members (UCBI). They include activities such as attending union meetings, distributing union information and helping fellow members with union matters, and have been recognized as non-rewarded and voluntary efforts that are essential to the functioning and continuing of local union organizations and the union movement as a whole (Deery et al., 2014; Fiorito et al., 2015). Considering their sustained presence in the workplace and the role they play in promoting citizenship behaviors among members, local union representatives have been recognized as central actors in encouraging this form of union activism (Gall and Fiorito, 2012; Twigg et al., 2007) through the example they set.\nTheoretical background and hypotheses: As presented in Figure 1, our model posits that authentic leadership and transformational leadership on the part of local union representatives is indirectly associated with members' UCB through member-representative value congruence and members' collectivist orientation, respectively.\nMethod: Background\nResults: CFA\nDiscussion: The aim of this study was to test the mediating roles of value congruence and members' collectivist orientation in the relationships between, authentic leadership and transformational leadership, respectively on the part of union representatives and members' UCB. Our results show that authentic and transformational styles both represent important leadership styles for local union representatives, and that they each influence UCB through complementary mechanisms. This brings specific contributions to the literature and has several implications.\nConclusion: Building on the social learning perspective (Bandura, 1986), this study sought to analyze how authentic leadership and transformational leadership on the part of union representatives relates to members' UCB. It should be noted that this study has a number of limitations, each of which provides opportunities for future research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the different mediating processes by which authentic leadership and transformational leadership on the part of local union representatives influence members' union citizenship behaviors (UCB) (i.e. UCBO and UCBI). Drawing from the social learning perspective, the authors suggest that authentic and transformational forms of leadership are associated with UCB through specific mechanisms i.e. member-representative value congruence and members' collectivist orientation, respectively.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research adopts a cross-sectional design. Structural equation modeling and bootstrap analysis were used to test the hypotheses among 343 members of a Canadian union federation representing professionals in the education sector.\nFindings: The results show that the influence of authentic leadership on UCB is explained through value congruence and the influence of transformational leadership is principally exerted through members' collectivist orientation.\nPractical implications: By enhancing the understanding of the behavioral manifestations of local union leadership and its influential mechanisms, this research offers interesting avenues for union organizations that wish to develop and implement leadership training programs at the local level.\nOriginality/value: Only a handful of studies have investigated the relational antecedents of UCB, such as leadership. This research thus contributes to the UCB literature by extending the spectrum of examined local union leaders' behaviors.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Analysing drivers and outcomes of job and professional satisfaction at health centres in Portugal
|
[
"Job characteristics",
"Health services",
"Human resource management",
"Job satisfaction",
"Structural equation modelling",
"Work design",
"Professional satisfaction",
"Health centre"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nHighlights: the percentage of Portuguese health professionals satisfied with their jobs was around 50 per cent;\nIntroduction: Job satisfaction has been the subject of many theoretical explanations. Career and professional satisfaction are much less explored, and the related conceptual framework is, by comparison, rather undefined. Many times, words are used interchangeably. This is quite unfortunate, as recent research has shown that younger generations are less committed to organisations and more committed to their profession (Singh and Gupta, 2015).\nTheory: Job satisfaction may be defined as \"a pleasure or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one's job or job experience\" (Locke, 1976, p. 1300). The concept is high in researchers and practitioners agendas, fostered by humanitarian, economic and theoretical motivations (Stanton et al., 2002). Other related concepts, such as professional satisfaction, satisfaction with the profession and career satisfaction are found in the literature (Leigh et al., 2009; Qian and Lim, 2008), but the conceptual framework is much less clear and many times words are used interchangeably.\nMaterial and methods: Study design\nResults: The majority of respondents from both the groups of doctors and nurses were women (Table I), 45 women doctors and 127 women nurses, corresponding to 75.8 per cent of the total sample.\nDiscussion: Women are prevalent in Portuguese health centres, mostly as nurses but also as doctors, at least in the surveyed units. The mean age of the work force is high, particularly for doctors and men. Results also show that most respondents have many years in the profession and have low propensity to change workplace.\nConclusion: Interest in the study of job satisfaction has been growing much because of the need to explain problems of productivity, absenteeism and turnover. However, this is a complex issue where assessment efforts are affected by multiple aspects. Indeed, job satisfaction is not a one-dimensional concept, it comprises multiple areas corresponding to different aspects of work, individual preferences and realities and environmental opportunities and constrains. Identifying factors that influence job satisfaction and helping predict consequences can provide administrators and managers with meaningful information necessary to make intelligent decisions in interventions aimed at increasing job satisfaction of employees and prevent undesirable effects of dissatisfaction. This is particularly relevant in public health organisations where the opportunity to alter wages to compensate for the relative advantages and disadvantages of jobs is limited because of national wage bargaining or where any salary rise has been simply forbidden, as in Portugal.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse antecedents, associations and outcomes of job and professional satisfaction of doctors and nurses in Portuguese health centres.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors have used structural equation modelling to examine the causal relationships between multiple variables placed in a path model reflecting the theoretical foundation.\nFindings: The percentage of those satisfied or very satisfied with their jobs was just above 50 per cent. Doctors' satisfaction stems from personal achievement and the formal component of work environment, leading them to strongly recommend their work in the health centre to dear ones but not to put aside other job options. Nurses' level of job satisfaction seems to be affected by co-workers and interpersonal relationships beside personal achievement and has more strong and multifaceted impact on their feelings and behaviour that goes from recommending their job position to considering to quit job and even regretting the option made in terms of career.\nOriginality/value: This study represents the first attempt to conceptualise and test a simultaneous model comprising antecedents and outcomes of both job satisfaction and professional satisfaction in primary care, investigating also differences between genders and professions. Results shed light on determinants of satisfaction among specialised staff in Portuguese primary care and how they affect commitment to the organisation and the way career choice is regarded.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Performance outcomes in empirical management accounting research: Recent developments and implications for future research
|
[
"Behavioural accounting",
"Contingency planning",
"Literature",
"Organizations",
"Performance management",
"Management accounting"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Over the years, quantitative management accounting research has become the main approach to assess such major questions as to what extent managers are likely to succeed with their management accounting and control systems (MCS) in various settings. Since many forms of empirical research have been taken and a wide range of topics analyzed, it is not possible here to acknowledge them all. However, three traditions of research can be singled out. The first one is behavioral accounting research. The behavioral research has, among other things, analyzed the impact of budgetary control on individual performance, and how people affect budgets. Such research has analyzed individual differences, for example, in personality, motivation, and risk aversion and developed our understanding of the variability and complexity of people in relation to work and performance (for literature reviews see Birnberg et al., 1990; Dunk, 2001; Greenberg et al., 1994; Ryan et al., 2002).The second tradition of research comprises organizational accounting research, such as contingency analysis, which has been interested in how MCS work in organizations (see, Ryan et al., 2002). According to Otley (1980), contingency-based management accounting research was developed to assess the impact of management accounting systems in aiding effective performance. Performance outcomes have since been the dependent variable of contingency studies applying either an interaction or systems approach to research (Drazin and Van der Ven, 1985, p. 313). To a large extent, such research has analyzed the effects of various organizational, environmental, and technological settings (see, e.g. Chenhall, 2003). The third and most novel tradition of research consists of strategic management accounting research (SMA). SMA refers to the process of identifying, gathering, choosing and analyzing accounting data for helping the management team to make strategic decisions and to assess organizational effectiveness.During the past 15 years, quantitative management accounting research has been the focus of a number of active developments (see Table I). In addition to some methodological assessments and reassessments (Atkinson et al., 1997; Borkowski et al., 2001; Chenhall and Chapman, 2006; Dirsmith, 1998; Dunk, 2003; Gerdin and Greve, 2004, 2007; Gerdin, 2005; Hartmann, 2005; Hartmann and Moers, 1999, 2003; Moser, 1998; Selto et al., 1995), several key concepts have been discussed and evaluated. These include the concept of MCS (Birnberg, 1998; Chapman, 1997; Chenhall, 2003; Dirsmith, 1998; Fisher, 1998; Ittner et al., 1998; Otley and Fakiolas, 2000; Otley and Pollanen, 2000; Simons, 1995; Vagneur and Peiperl, 2000), and situational factors surrounding the use of MCS in their organizational, strategic, cultural, and environmental settings (Cadez and Guilding, 2008; Chapman, 1997; Chenhall, 2003; Fisher, 1998; Hartmann, 2000; Langfield-Smith, 1997; Roslender and Hart, 2003; Shields and Shields, 1998; Shields and Young, 1993). However, recent analysis on how to develop assessment of performance outcomes has been less extensive, the main exception being Chenhall's (2003) literature analysis, which discussed performance outcomes in part. Other such studies include those of Fisher (1998), Hartmann (2000), and Shields and Young (1993). Earlier examples include the studies by Dent (1986) and Otley (1980). Shields and Young (1993) focused on behavioral budgeting research. The others addressed contingency-based management accounting research.This study seeks to further our understanding of the rather fragmented literature in the area of behaviorally-, organizationally- and strategically-oriented quantitative management accounting research. The objectives of this study are:* to provide a synthesis and an extended discussion of the literature from the performance outcome standpoint; and* to foster future research in this area by identifying promising recent developments in the assessment of performance outcomes, and gaps in the literature.The literature analysis is based on empirical studies and literature reviews published in a wide range of journals[1].Figure 1 presents the theoretical framework of this study. It consists of the following six themes, according to which the discussion below is organized:1. the level and nature;2. diversity of performance outcomes;3. scope of performance outcomes;4. data collection methods;5. time perspective; and6. samples.These themes are used to provide novel and important perspectives in this study. While other themes could also be considered, these have been selected to allow the analysis of performance outcomes from central viewpoints.In the following, for each of the themes, traditional management accounting literature will first be briefly introduced. Thereafter, in commentary sections, recent developments over the past decade will be more closely examined, followed by suggestions for future research. Finally, the Summary and conclusions section presents a synthesis of the key findings and concluding comments.The overall conclusion of this study is that future management accounting research can still make progress in the measurement of performance outcomes. While studies have traditionally contributed to the literature by the cross-sectional analysis of the behavioral effects of managers in particular, the promising recent developments and gaps in the literature can also provide fruitful directions for future research. In particular, it is suggested that increasing and simultaneous analysis of various other kinds of performance outcomes could also be conducted, ranging from accounting-based to social and environmental outcomes and relative-to-peers assessments in different settings. If possible, development of performance outcomes could be investigated with longitudinal and panel research designs and attempts could be made to analyze the nature of causality.\n2. Theoretical framework: 2.1 The level and nature of performance outcomes\n3. Summary and conclusions: Few previous management accounting studies have provided comprehensive analysis of performance outcomes (Chenhall, 2003; Dent, 1986; Otley, 1980). This study seeks to complement existing literature by providing a synthesis and an extended discussion of behaviorally, organizationally and strategically-oriented quantitative management accounting research from the performance outcome standpoint and by identifying promising recent developments and existing gaps in the assessment of performance outcomes. The period of the past decade, from 1999 to 2009, has been emphasized in particular to examine recent frontiers of knowledge.In brief, the findings of this study suggest that most studies have traditionally contributed to the literature by analyzing, using regression analysis, a wide range of single, absolute, performance effects emphasizing behavioral effects with data collected from directors and managers. The use of cross-sectional surveys has dominated in contingency and strategic management accounting research, and the use of experiments has been common in behavioral research. Careful application of traditional research strategies on the assessment of performance outcomes has been, and can be expected to remain, useful. While empirical evidence of various behavioral effects is still rather thin, our knowledge of the relationship between MCS and performance has started to accumulate through the combined efforts of the research community.The findings also indicate that empirical management accounting research has recently become more active with several new developments, illustrated by a number of examples of empirical studies. The following new developments have furthered our understanding of performance outcomes and provide fruitful directions for future research:* analysis of various social, environmental and competitive strategic outcomes;* simultaneous analysis of multiple performance effects;* analysis of relative (to peers) performance effects;* the use of multiple data collection methods;* the use of more advanced statistical methods such as structural equation modeling; and* analysis of mediating effects of various performance outcomes.A number of gaps and under-researched yet important areas in the literature were also identified in existing management accounting research. They include:* the analysis accounting- and market-based organizational or segmental level performance as dependent variables;* analysis of nonfinancial performance outcomes such as quality as a dependent variable;* simultaneous analysis of financial and nonfinancial performance outcomes;* analysis of competitiveness of management accounting systems as a dependent variable;* historical analysis of management accounting systems and performance. For example, what various roles management accounting systems might play in how successful organizations become and stay successful or become unsuccessful both in general and during rapid changes;* historical analysis of various performance outcomes of (management) accountants at various business and accounting cycles and during their professional careers;* analysis of how management accounting systems can support the development of various dynamic capabilities of people and organizations;* analysis of performance outcomes with longitudinal and panel research;* analysis of specific important, but under-researched samples (such as chief executive officers, employees, accountants, students, academic scholars, accounting firms, not-for-profit organizations, service sector organizations, small entrepreneurial businesses, academic institutions, multinational companies, national and international organizations and governmental bodies);* the analysis of the nature of causality.On the bright side, those areas can be considered potentially useful for future endeavors to advance both quantitative management accounting literature and social science research. Taken together, the findings of this study suggest that future management accounting research can still make progress in the measurement of performance outcomes.Finally, future studies could also be conducted in the subject area of this study, performance outcomes in empirical management accounting research. Elucidation of a more detailed picture of the periods and development trends would require that either the subject of study or the period of time covered or both should be more limited than has been the case in this study (see Nasi, 1990, p. 235). For example, the analysis of performance outcomes could comprise organizational, behavioral or strategic outcomes only, or studies published during the past five years could be the focus. Such studies could provide detailed and analytical descriptions, explanations and interpretations of more limited phenomena. Painting a more comprehensive picture would require that either the subject of study or the period of time covered or both should be more comprehensive than has been the case in this study. For example, the findings of contingency-based studies published in other fields or languages could be compared and contrasted to those of this one. Moreover, performance outcomes could be analyzed from the 1960s to the present time, or the current study could be extended to cover future time periods. Such studies could provide a more comprehensive picture of how empirical management accounting research has developed in various settings over time.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper seeks to further the understanding of the rather fragmented research in the area of quantitative management accounting research. The purpose of this study is to provide a synthesis and an extended discussion of the literature from the performance outcome standpoint and to foster future research in this area by identifying promising recent developments in the assessment of performance outcomes and gaps in the literature.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A literature analysis was adopted based on empirical studies and literature reviews published in a wide range of journals.\nFindings: - The overall conclusion of this study is that future management accounting research can still make progress in the measurement of performance outcomes.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Research published in English, and the period of the past decade was emphasized to examine recent frontiers of knowledge. The results imply that increasing and simultaneous analysis of various kinds of performance outcomes could be conducted, ranging from accounting-based to social and environmental outcomes and relative-to-peers assessments in different settings. If possible, development of performance outcomes could be investigated with longitudinal and panel, in addition to cross-sectional, research designs. Attempts could be made to analyze the nature of causality to advance both management accounting literature and social science research.\nPractical implications: - This study furthers understanding of behaviorally-, organizationally- and strategically-oriented management accounting research that has played a central role in assessing to what extent people are likely to succeed with their management accounting and control systems in various settings.\nOriginality/value: - This paper presents a theoretical framework and several examples potentially useful for both academic scholars and practitioners.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
What do students think of self-determined learning in entrepreneurship education?
|
[
"Entrepreneurship education",
"Graduates",
"Self-determined learning",
"Team Academy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Higher education is considered important for economic growth as it can provide key knowledge and skills for current graduates entering a complex work and labour environment (Artess et al., 2017; Henry et al., 2005; QAA, 2012; Hoppe, 2016). Moreover, higher education institutions (HEIs) are under \"considerable pressure\" to equip graduates for the labour market, part of which will include employability attributes required by a complex and changing work environment (Artess et al., 2017, p. 6). However, some research suggests that the usefulness of the knowledge, skills and capabilities developed on degree courses, does not meet the needs of potential employers who are seeking graduates with a \"business-ready mind-set\" (ABS et al., 2014, p. 4; also Jackson, 2010).\nLiterature review: Graduate employability\nMethodology: This research engaged with students already attending the business school at an HEI that was, at that time, developing a self-determined learning, TA-inspired suite of modules and a potential full degree programme. Neither the proposed modules nor the programme were in delivery at the time of the research. This research sought specifically to gain access to the perceptions and expectations of potential students about the value of such an approach to learning for them and its perceived effect on their potential employability. Little research has been conducted on student perceptions regarding this type of learning. Consequently, due to the limited existing research, the subsequent exploratory nature of the research and seeking to gain access to a breadth of views on the key concepts of learning approach and approach delivery (i.e. in the TA format), a mixed methodology approach was employed (Cresswell, 2003). First a literature and policy review was conducted to identify key themes (e.g. review of QAA standards). Thereafter, rich qualitative data were collected via focus groups and semi-structured interviews to review existing, and establish new, themes regarding the value of degrees, EE, self-determined learning in an EE context (i.e. TA) and employability. Questions included: what are your plans after graduation? What do you think about employers' expectations of graduates? According to Tymon (2013), it is not only possible, but important to assess student perspectives on employability and the views of employers (see Appendix 1 for further details). Subsequently a small-scale quantitative survey to gain additional data around the themes derived was implemented (see Appendix 1). This study takes a similar approach to Azevedo et al. (2012) that examined student and potential employer expectations of employability aspects. All data collected were subject to ethical clearance, and were recorded and transcribed where appropriate. Participants were assured anonymity and confidentiality. Data were subject to thematic analysis based on themes from literature and emergent topics as per Miles et al. (2014). Each author coded separately looking for themes, similarities and differences. Thereafter, the authors compared coding and came to a consensus on interpretation.\nFindings: This research sought to understand the perceptions, perspectives and expectations of students on the value of self-determined learning in a context of EE. Two provisional themes emerged from this research: student perspectives on a self-determined learning approach; and personal development, often orientated towards achieving \"employability\".\nDiscussion: The findings from this study suggest that students value gaining a degree to enhance their employability; it is a clear first step towards getting a job. In terms of learning, the students recognise that the majority of their learning is theoretical as per the findings of Nicolescu and Pun (2009). They are also able to identify many of the transferrable skills associated with employability such as initiative, motivation and enthusiasm also found in academic studies (Azevedo et al., 2012). In addition, it is clear that students place importance on practical and applied experience which is found to be important to employers (Nicolescu and Pun, 2009). Many authors who conduct research in the EE field recognise that experience is key to learning in the context of entrepreneurship (e.g. Bell, 2016; Johannisson, 2016; Rae, 2007). However, in the case of this student sample, it was evident that opportunities for such activity did not often form part of the existing EE module approaches or were not taken up by students in this particular HEI. This may fit with the findings of Pegg et al. (2012) who identified that even in the case where work-based learning or equivalent activities were offered, they were not often used by UK students.\nConclusion and contribution: Gaining a degree continues to have value in the marketplace. Students recognise that gaining a degree is a standard \"entry requirement\" and that (large) employers seek this as an indication that a certain level of education has been obtained. However, student perceptions of the value of what occurs during participation in a degree programme are more varied. For example, the students that participated in this study report that they lack opportunities to practically apply the knowledge and theory that they are exposed to during their studies. Nevertheless, whilst students may recognise and acknowledge the practical application limitations of their degrees, Pegg et al. (2012) report a lack of uptake of extracurricular opportunities by UK students. With regards to self-determined learning in an entrepreneurship context, which prioritises practical application of theory as its underpinning learning philosophy, again student responses were mixed. In general, these potential students thought the programme would and could offer a valuable opportunity to undertake practical learning and to build experience and confidence amongst other qualities. However, some of the students were concerned about the marketable value of such a degree and moving away from the \"traditional\" expectations of (large) employers.\nLimitations and further research: As with all studies there are several limitations to the research findings presented here. First, the sample of students in this study came only from one UK HEI. Notwithstanding the sample size limitation, this provided a unique opportunity to gain access to a sample group who were poised with the potential to engage in a self-determined learning-informed programme and to gain access to their perceptions and opinions. Further, this provides an opportunity for future research in collaboration with other institutions that may be considering changes to their EE delivery options. Second, as this was cross-sectional research is it hard to draw conclusions about any potential boost, or not, to levels of employability in the students who may opt for such a programme. Consequently, it would be useful in future research to conduct longitudinal follow up studies of students before entering and post-completion of such a self-determined learning-inspired module/programme. Finally, while this study used a mixed-methods approach, it was with a small sample and therefore, generalisability is limited. Future studies could engage with larger sample sizes, quantitative data collection and analysis methods, and collect date from potential employers regarding their perceptions of such an approach to learning in graduates.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the perceptions and perspectives of students with regards to self-determined learning in an entrepreneurship education (EE) context and its potential contribution to employability.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research used a mixed-methods approach with a sample of 25 students currently attending a UK higher education institute. The students had access to participation in EE modules but self-determined learning-informed modules or programmes were not currently offered. Students were invited to attend focus groups and as a result of emergent themes, a business school-wide survey was developed.\nFindings: This research makes two tentative contributions to the EE field. First, the findings of this student cohort are similar to those found throughout the UK and the EU with regard to the perception of the value of a degree by students; its contribution to the hidden curriculum; and the importance of practical experience. The research also adds to the field by considering the value of a self-determined learning approach to developing the capabilities and competencies of graduates. This approach to learning in a context of EE was in general well received by potential students, particularly the applied aspect of the programme. However, there is a perception of risk about this approach to learning and students are concerned about the value of a programme like this to employers in general.\nOriginality/value: The study contributes to discussions on the value of EE on perceived employability and in particular self-determined learning through entrepreneurship activity.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A FMEA-based approach to prioritize waste reduction in lean implementation
|
[
"Lean manufacturing",
"Waste reduction",
"FMEA",
"Leanness"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: In the last decades, competitive pressures have been pushing companies towards cost reduction and performance improvement of operations to provide high quality products to very demanding markets. The approach of lean production for waste reduction and performance improvement has been gaining importance (Gurumurthy and Kodali, 2011; Taj and Morosan, 2011). However, as most of the improvement initiatives, there are several problems that can hinder improvement expected after lean production implementation. A survey conducted by Lean Enterprise Institute (2008) points out a number of obstacles. The three most cited ones are: backsliding; middle management resistance and lack of implementation know-how. Gurumurthy and Kodali (2011) also points lack of understanding regarding how to implement lean production as one of the main reasons for failures. Following the same line of argument, Sawhney et al. (2010) also point lack of planning as one of the causes of unsuccessful lean system implementation.\n2 Lean production and types of waste: According to Womack and Jones (2003) and others (Piercy and Rich, 2009; Shetty et al., 2010; Shah and Ward, 2003), the five lean principles are: define value from the standpoint of the end customer; identify the value stream for each product family; create flow through the value creating steps; pull value from next upstream activities; seek perfection and eliminate wastes.\n3 FMEA: The FMEA basic procedure for defining priorities of improvement is based on the risk priority number (RPN) which in turn is based on the product of three indices resulting from evaluation of (Inoue and Yamada, 2010; Chuang, 2010):\n4 Waste FMEA: The method presented here, called W-FMEA, focus on the identification of waste modes in lean production system and definition of priorities of actions for waste mode elimination. Therefore, it helps planning improvement actions in the process of implementation or improvement of lean production systems as illustrated in Figure 1.\n5 Results: Application of this procedure to the value stream under consideration led to the identification of the waste modes, evaluation of severity, occurrence and detection according to, respectively, Tables III-V, and calculation of the WPN and CPN figures, as presented in Table VII. Table VIII presents the most relevant causes of waste mode according to the CPN index, indicating in its last column the waste modes related to those causes. The three main causes of waste accounted for 71.3 percent of the accumulated WPN. Tables VII and VIII show that the first and third most frequent causes of waste mode ask for improvement actions in the information system, either to add functionalities to make the flow more automated/integrated or to make the system more robust against unauthorized edition and incorrect/incomplete inputs. The second most frequent cause of waste mode is basically related to various forms of exaggerated bureaucracy.\n6 Conclusion: The proposal of application of FMEA to reduce waste in lean production implementation has some particularities:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper presents a proposal of adaptation of the failure mode and effect analysis method to analyze wastes and define priorities for actions aimed at minimizing or eliminating these wastes based on the criteria of severity, occurrence and detection.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The proposition was developed in parallel to the implementation of a lean production system of a manufacturing company. A pilot application of the proposal was based on the analysis of a flow of information for order processing.\nFindings: Application of the proposed procedure results in a classification of levels of priority for waste reduction of the analyzed waste modes. Following this procedure, high priority will be given to actions focused on the elimination or minimization of the most common causes of the most severe waste modes.\nOriginality/value: Prioritization of actions to minimize waste is essential to sustain lean production systems. However, identifying the wastes most in need of attention is not always straightforward and methods presented in the literature to evaluate leanness do not focus on waste reduction prioritization. Adoption of the proposed technique can certainly aid planning implementation and improvement of lean production programs, and in the end, it can contribute to the effectiveness and sustainability of lean production systems.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Lean facilities management: preliminary findings from Singapore's international schools
|
[
"Lean management principles",
"Facility management",
"International schools",
"Singapore"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Schools are established for the purpose of educating and learning (Li et al., 2005). Like many countries, Singapore attributes great importance to the education sector as a primary sector that benefits from an increasing middle-class population. The availability of infrastructure in both government and private educational institutions provides a great opportunity for Singapore to attract global students from all educational levels and to retain foreign talent in the long run. Cubillo et al. (2006) noted that the physical environment of the service production constitutes an important element in the decision-making process of prospective international students in selecting their destination country. Price et al. (2003) found that school facilities are a relevant factor in influencing students' selection of the institution where they will pursue their studies. International schools in Singapore are a suitable avenue for nurturing and grooming foreign talent and one that can encourage them to stay and contribute to local society (Iyer, 2017). Although education properties can facilitate high-quality education, it is the interrelationship within the organization that catalyzes improved performance (Moohan, 1993). Duyar (2010) wrote that education facilities do matter and that they affect the delivery of instruction. As such, facilities management within school organizations plays a pivotal role. Leung and Fung (2005) stated that the purpose of facilities management is to improve students' learning. However, displeasure with facilities management (FM) services is not uncommon in universities and public schools (Isa and Usmen, 2015). This indicates that there is room for improvement in facilities management in the educational sector. FM has developed into a discipline that is imperative in all organizations that wish to support their core businesses and ensure smooth day-to-day operations.\n2. Facilities management in education: 2.1 Understanding facilities management\n3. Connecting lean management principles to facilities management: 3.1 Lean management\n4. Methods: This study adopts the mix-methods sequential explanatory design, collecting and analyzing quantitative and then qualitative data in two consecutive phases (Creswell and Clark, 2011). It starts with a comprehensive review of the literature on FM, FM in education institutions and LMPs. The literature review establishes a good knowledge basis for this study and helps to map the relevance of lean in FM, which provides the theoretical ground. The 14 LMPs derived from the Toyota Way will be used as indicators in the questionnaire. The questionnaire consists of four sections. Section A is designed to obtain respondents' work profile and to collect background information on the school. Section B aims to understand the job scope of the respondents. Section C investigates the level of awareness of lean among the respondents. The last section, which is the main part of the questionnaire, seeks to understand the perceptions of the respondents regarding the level of perceived importance and the extent of implementation. Each LMP is rated by its importance (1 = not important at all, to 5 = very important) and on the extent of implementation (1 = not at all, to 5 = to a large extent). The Likert scale was adopted as this approach makes it more convenient for the respondents to record their judgments (Lam et al., 2010). As O'Cathain and Thomas (2004) reminded us the lack of clarity around the status of the responses could be the barrier in adopting open questions. As the potential respondents may not be very knowledgeable about lean management, it is more appropriate to follow-up them with face-to-face interviews. Thus, no open questions were included in the questionnaire. The questionnaire survey targeted facilities professionals working in approximately 53 international schools in Singapore, which form the population. It was convenient that the FM professionals' email contacts were available on school websites. A total of 82 emails were sent, with a follow-up reminder sent one week later to those who had yet to respond. A total of 30 responses from eight international schools were returned, garnering a response rate of 36.6 per cent. The general profile of survey respondents can be found in Table I:\n5. Survey results: 5.1 General knowledge and perception\n6. Interview findings: 6.1 Implementation issues\n7. Conclusion: This study explores the importance and extent of implementation of LMPs among facility management professionals working in locally based international schools in Singapore. The survey questionnaire identified the current level of lean awareness and implementation of lean management practices in the facility management function of the schools. The lean awareness is certainly not high; hence, there is a need for the FM department of the education institutes to provide more training opportunities in raising the awareness of lean among their FM professionals. The interviews also helped identify several opportunity factors, such as increasing knowledge sharing, educating on the benefits of lean principles, training for staff development and building a culture for continuous improvement. Just like Singapore's The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) Academy launched a special diploma in lean construction, aiming to equip industry practitioners with the knowledge of lean principles, lean construction approaches and methodologies for higher productivity, the Singapore International Facility Management Association and government agencies such as the BCA Academy can consider a similar training program - embed the LMPs - tailored for the FM professionals.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Lean has been adopted in various industries (i.e. construction, health care and service) over the years; the level of lean adoption in facility management is relatively unknown. The purpose of this study is to analyze the 14 lean management principles (LMPs) and seek to develop an understanding as to whether LMPs, which are most commonly used by the manufacturing companies, are relevant to the facility personnel's scope of work. The research scope focuses on international schools located in Singapore.\nDesign/methodology/approach: For the purpose of this study, a conceptual framework that focuses on connecting the 14 lean production principles to facility management has been developed. Questionnaire survey and interviews were used. A total of 30 facilities professionals from eight international schools participated in the survey. Six interviews were followed up to gain deeper insights into the extent of lean importance and implementation in the work of facility personnel in a school environment.\nFindings: The survey findings revealed that P8 \"use of reliable technology\", P9 and P10 relating to leadership and people development, P12 \"go and see for yourself\" and P14 \"continuous improvement\" are generally perceived more important than the other LMPs and are also well implemented. On the contrary, P3 \"use the 'pull' system\" is considered the least important principle. The interview findings also offer insights into modifications of some LMPs for the facilities management (FM) sector.\nResearch limitations/implications: There are several limitations affecting this study. First, the research sample size was small. Only 30 respondents participated in this study. Second, as this study is one of the first to explore the applicability of lean in FM, there is no consensus on how to define lean, which means that the LMPs could be interpreted in many ways.\nOriginality/value: The adoption of lean in FM can potentially optimize the value of the school organization. It is recommended that more research be conducted, resulting in a more holistic and representative study of the applicability of lean FM.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Foreign language use among decision-makers of successfully internationalised SMEs: Questioning the language-training paradigm
|
[
"International business",
"Small to medium‐sized enterprises",
"Decision making",
"Language",
"Training",
"United Kingdom"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This article aims to explore the implications of a study of the decision-maker characteristics, particularly in terms of foreign language use, of successfully internationalised small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Internationalisation is increasingly found to be an important aspect of the maximisation of business opportunities and many SMEs consider it to be a prerequisite of business success. Confining their activity within national boundaries often disadvantages businesses with regard to, for example, supply resources, labour costs and the size of their markets; they are also at greater risk of failure in times of national economic recession than companies which trade internationally (Bell et al., 2004; Dana et al., 2004; Girma et al., 2001; Lloyd-Reason and Mughan, 2002, Morgan, 1997; Wilson, 2003).Decision-maker characteristics are considered a strong element in the development of overseas activity. The international orientation and competences of these leading participants form the basis of the firm's stance on trade with foreign partners and its ability to explore and respond to such opportunities (Chetty, 1997; Manolova et al., 2002; Moini, 1995; Morgan, 1997; Reid, 1981; Zou and Stan, 1998).Since a great deal of the international trade of UK companies is conducted with non-Anglophone countries, it seems logical that foreign language skills in particular have long been considered paramount in the successful internationalisation of companies. It is often asserted, explicitly or implicitly, that success in international trade is dependent on such skills. Language training has therefore been a prominent element of government policy aimed at increasing international trade (CILT, 2003; Clarke, 1999; Hagen, 1999; Morgan, 1997; Wright and Wright, 1994). Language skills have been credited with contributing to international success in a number of ways such as the enhanced availability of market information, improved negotiation skills, and an improved understanding of trade partners' business culture (Clarke, 1999). The majority of the academic literature and government policy actions supports this perspective. It is only occasionally and marginally disputed by the equally reasonable one that foreign language skills are unnecessary to native English speaking international decision-makers as English is the accepted business lingua franca throughout the world (Enderwick and Akoorie, 1994). These two views of the real use to native English speakers of foreign languages in international trade must be understood in the context of the poor levels of foreign language skills in this country, described by the Department for Education and Skills as \"a cycle of national underperformance in languages\" (Department for Education and Skills, 2002, p. 10). The dominant view in policy and literature emerging from this macro-level analysis is that success is primarily dependent on communicative competence with individual markets. This has resulted in significant amounts of expenditure and energy going into the provision of language training in SMEs as the prime means of helping companies avoid losing business in overseas markets. This article will propose that the contribution of language skills to a broader international mindset and better decision-making needs to be considered more carefully and that the development of a multi-faceted paradigm encompassing a broader range of skills and knowledge is required if we are to provide better, more efficient support to companies.Internationalisation in the context of this study may be described as business activities which \"cross national borders and [are] intended to create value in organizations\" (McDougall and Oviatt, 2000). It encompasses the activities of importing, exporting, manufacture abroad, intellectual property and overseas recruitment[1], although the three international trading activities in which the respondent firms were engaged were importing, exporting and manufacture abroad (see below). Given the advantages such as their contribution to GDP in the form of exports, their beneficial effect on national trade deficits, and the acquisition of new technologies, there is considerable interest in the internationalisation of SMEs on the part of government and its business advisory bodies (Bell et al., 2004; Brinton, 2003; Ibeh, 2000; McDougall and Oviatt, 2000; Raven et al., 1994). These organisations encourage international trade in a number of ways including policy and the provision of training in the skills that are considered necessary for success in foreign markets (CILT, 2003; McDougall and Oviatt, 2000; Morgan, 1997).This article considers previous research on the effects of decision-maker characteristics, particularly their proficiency and use of foreign languages, on international business success. It then presents findings on the language skills and intercultural competence of decision-makers from an empirical study of internationalising SMEs undertaken in the Eastern Region.\nLiterature review: There is a well-established body of literature on the influence of personal characteristics of decision-makers on the successful internationalisation of SMEs (Lloyd-Reason and Mughan, 2002; Manolova and Manev, 2004). As several review articles demonstrate, there is a considerable lack of consensus as to which of these characteristics really make the difference between successful and less successful attempts to internationalise or indeed between international and non-international firms (Ibeh, 2000). Personal characteristics of decision-makers include the demographic (such as age, level of education. length of service in the firm); international experience or orientation (such as language skills, periods spent living/working/studying abroad, personal foreign networks) and psychological (such as uncertainty avoidance). Dichtl et al. (1990) combined these types in their six-country, cross-cultural study of export success compared with decision-maker characteristics. They found that, generally, decision-makers are \"not foreign market-oriented\" if they are older, less well educated and have lower levels of skill in foreign languages and if they display a number of psychological barriers to exporting. Morgan (1997) categorised decision-maker characteristics as objective (language skills, experience of having lived abroad, education, previous experience of international trade) and subjective (perceptions of the risks, profitability and costs of internationalisation). He found from the literature that the differences between successful and less successful exporters were often insignificant - for example, there was little difference between in their respective educational attainments - and that the greatest differences occurred between exporters (or decision-makers with an interest in exporting) and non-exporters. The former often had superior foreign language skills, had had more experience of living and travelling abroad, had higher levels of education, had more previous exporting experience and were more risk averse.Manolova and Manev (2004, p. 51) differentiate at firm level between internally \"controllable\" factors (including the psychological management attitudes and perceptions) and internally \"uncontrollable\" factors (including the demographic management characteristics) although it seems relevant to argue that \"controllable\" attitudes and perceptions might occur as the result of \"uncontrollable\" characteristics. These authors find from their survey of the literature that overall it is the internally controllable factors which have greater effect on success than internally uncontrollable ones.The decision-maker in the form of the owner-manager is at the centre of the \"internationalisation web\" developed by Lloyd-Reason and Mughan (2002, p. 127). This model demonstrates the interlinkages between the psychological and demographic decision-maker characteristics. It shows that \"cultural orientation\", derived from a mixture of demographic and psychological characteristics including language skills and also education, knowledge of overseas competitors, experience of foreign cultures, foreign networks of friends and colleagues, attitudes to visits abroad and willingness to welcome foreign visitors, influences the behaviour which leads to successful internationalisation.Language proficiency\nThe study: Methodology\nSkills and knowledge: The method adopted for this study was to observe and record the behaviour of companies from a wide range of sectors and of varying size, age and international experience. We did not seek to squeeze these companies into a pre-conceived analytical framework but have attempted, in our analysis, to identify the variables in their composition, culture and context which have played a significant part in their progress, or otherwise. It was not our aim to locate the companies or their personnel on a scale of educational achievement, though we are able to make some general estimates of the relationship between performance and educational qualification of key personnel.Our analysis therefore focuses on the skills and knowledge required by companies, in normal circumstances, to sustain successful performance in a competitive international trading environment. Some of these skills (general management) may apply equally to the domestic trading environment. Others (foreign language skills) may be specific to the international environment. Very importantly, and this is something to which we will return, we were interested in the nature of the transition from domestic trading to international trading from a skills and knowledge perspective, as it emerged from our study. Do all companies make this transition successfully, or is there something about the make-up of some that helps them do it better? If there is, could it be language skills or the benefits they convey, in one way or another? What is the inter-relationship between language skills and general management skills? In order to explore this matter we will describe the broad skills and knowledge-sets we identified amongst successful decision-makers under the headings of Planning, Manning and Scanning. We will simultaneously discuss the place of language skills within them.Skills\nConclusions: The differences in decision-maker characteristics between the successful group and the less successful in this study are very clear. The decision-makers of the successful group of internationalised SMEs were found to be both more likely to have experience in the international activities used as objective indicators and to score highly on the subjective attitude and perception measures. The element of international orientation on which this paper focuses particular attention is that of language proficiency, which we have placed on a cusp of the subjective and objective characteristics for a number of reasons. The decision-makers in the successful group were much more likely to have foreign language skills than the less successful and these skills were often at a higher level. It seems that decision-makers with language skills are in a position to move forward in international trade to a degree that those without languages are not. Those with languages are able to make use of a \"bridge to culture\" (Naor, 1983, cited by Morgan, 1997); they often demonstrate an international mindset that is conducive to successful internationalisation.We contend therefore that although learning of languages is a useful activity for decision-makers in progressing the internationalisation of SMEs, acquisition of particular languages as ends in themselves for business use in individual country markets seems, not to be critical for native English speakers. We found little direct relationship between the possession or use of specific foreign language skills (e.g. advanced spoken French), on the one hand and better decision-making or firm performance on the other. Language learning is simply part of a sequence in the development of many intercultural competences and personal characteristics, such as experience of working in foreign environments, that help achieve these outcomes.Indeed, it is the integrity of and relationship between these three decision-maker characteristics - language skills, intercultural competence and business experience - that appear to hold the key to success for SMEs in international markets. Investment in language training might yield better results across the range if it attended to these findings. Examining the entire background and aspirations of the potential learner and not just his/her language learning history and immediate skills requirements would help identify a balanced approach to the development of international competence and the prospect, ultimately, of better decision-making and firm performance. For example, a manager with some history of successful learning of French, rather than undertake a new course of learning in a particular language, might benefit more from intercultural awareness training accompanied by a short-term placement such as those funded by Globalwatch (www.globalwatchonline.com) to improve his/her knowledge of business systems and culture in a prospective market. The entirety of this personal development as it manifests itself in all his/her behaviour and decisions is what enables that manager in the medium to long term to achieve success.An approach to training based on these findings would probably involve a greater volume of intercultural awareness training and business placements and less but more selective language training. In this respect SMEs would be coming somewhat into line with well-established practices amongst larger multinational companies who have been employing exactly this strategy for many years. Given the role of government support services in financially supporting SMEs (whereas large firms have been able to determine and fund their own programmes) this would require some reconfiguration of funding and support budgets and programmes. There are signs that this may already be happening in key areas of national and regional policy in the United Kingdom.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this research is to assess the place of language skills in the international orientation of decision-makers of successfully internationalised SMEs. The position of language skills in this area of literature and policy is problematic and a new paradigm is proposed.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper considers findings from an empirical project using both quantitative and qualitative methods, first, a 1,200 company telephone survey and second, an 80 company batch of face-to-face interviews.\nFindings: - Strong international orientation seems indeed to be a determinant of success in international trade. The decision-makers of the successful companies were notably more likely to have foreign language skills than those in the other groups and were also the only group to include self-reported skills at the highest level. However, comparison of the countries in which the firms were dealing with the languages in which decision-makers claimed skills shows very clearly that the decision-makers of the \"successful\" international companies were often not using their foreign language skills in business. In addition, these decision-makers also possessed better attitudes towards foreign experience and other elements of international orientation.\nPractical implications: - The paper discusses the implications of the findings for policy-makers responsible for training and trainers themselves. The evidence supports the view that government subsidies focusing on language training might be better directed at a more varied range of activities to develop international orientation.\nOriginality/value: - The article contributes to the development of qualitative research in this area in examining the foreign language use of decision-makers in successful international SMEs and locating this within their broader international orientation. It posits that language skills make an indirect contribution to overall international business success which is more valuable than their direct contribution to improved communication with specific foreign clients and markets.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Continued value creation in crowdsourcing from creative process engagement
|
[
"Value creation",
"Crowdsourcing",
"Creative process engagement",
"Disconfirmation of expectation",
"Honeymoon hangover effect",
"Need for recognition"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Crowdsourcing is a problem-solving and production platform that enhances customer engagement and value creation (Yang et al., 2008) by using the collective intelligence of networked communities (Piller, 2008). Crowdsourcing tasks range from simple to highly complex. Leading firms such as Coca-Cola, DELL and P&G have outsourced complex tasks which demanded a higher level of cognitive capability, and required more effort in the problem-solving process, than a typical crowdsourcing activity (Dontcheva et al., 2011; Howe, 2009; Poetz and Schreier, 2012). For example, Cisco launched a billion-dollar global idea competition named Cisco I-Prize, calling for innovative ideas on technologies and markets to help Cisco widen its business scope. In 2010, Cisco invited entrepreneurs, innovators, students and technologists to submit new business ideas. The winning team earned $250,000. More than 2,900 participants from 156 countries submitted 824 ideas to the contest (Roth, 2012).\nConceptual development: We build on creativity theory, which establishes CPE as a central tenet (Gilson and Shalley, 2004; Zhang and Bartol, 2010), and customer satisfaction research (Oliver, 1980; McKinney et al., 2002) to develop a model to explain value creation and continuance. The conceptual model is depicted in Figure 1. Value creation for the customer and the firm after the announcement of winners and rankings (Time 2) is a function of CPE at the time of submission (Time 1). Value creation from CPE beyond participation in the contest can be explained by disconfirmation of expectation and need for recognition. In the subsequent section, the study reviews existing literature in creativity and customer behaviour that is relevant to the main conceptual building blocks of the model.\nMethodology: Research setting and participants\nAnalysis and results: Data analysis\nDiscussion and implications: Key findings\nLimitations and concluding remarks: While this research offers insights into the drivers of value creation and its changes over time, it is not without limitations. The first limitation is the nature of the study context, where a firm outsourced a complex task to crowds. Hence generalization of the results to other contexts might be limited to complex, rather than to easy, tasks, where participants solve a generic routine task, such as a short text translation, with relatively low CPE.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Crowdsourcing delivers creative ideas for the issuing firm, but participants' engagement in the creative process also creates additional benefits to firms and participating customers. The purpose of this study is to investigate if these spill-over values endure over time. With data from two time point, i.e. at submission and after announcement of the contest winners, we examine the relationship between the degree of a participant's creative process engagement (CPE) and value creation from a crowdsourcing contest, and how these perceptions of value change over time.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected from 154 participants in a crowdsourcing contest at two time points with an online survey: at submission, and after receiving feedback (in term of rankings, rewards, and comments) from the community. Partial Least Square path modelling was used to estimate both main and moderating effects.\nFindings: CPE increases the perceived value of customers (social and epistemic value) and firms alike (knowledge-sharing intention and customer loyalty), though all but epistemic values decrease over time. Disconfirmation of expectations and need for recognition moderate these effects.\nOriginality/value: This paper is the first longitudinal study that helps understanding the effect of CPE on value creation from crowdsourcing across time. It also uses the theoretical lens of the honeymoon hangover effect to explain how perceived value changes. The resulting insights into the role of customer engagement in crowdsourcing contests and subsequent value creation will be beneficial to the growing research stream on consumer value co-creation and user innovation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Accelerated temperature and voltage life tests on aluminium electrolytic capacitors: A DOE approach
|
[
"Degradation",
"Power law",
"Accelerated life testing",
"DOE",
"Voltage and temperature acceleration"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Aluminium electrolytic capacitors have a wide range of application in electronics industry especially in power supply applications: switch mode power supply, inverters, audio systems, etc. Number of studies has been carried out on lifetime analysis of aluminium electrolytic capacitors. Studies have been carried out investigating capacitor lifetimes under thermal stress (Jano and Pitica, 2012), time varying temperature (Albertini et al., 2010), voltage fluctuations (Zhao et al., 2010), and the effect of voltage on capacitor mounted in reverse polarity (Gavrila and Gontean, 2012). However, studies to check and analyse the performance of the capacitor when used beyond their rated applied voltage and ambient temperature, including the interaction effect of test parameters is not known.\n2. Capacitor failure criterion: The capacitor failure is governed by various parameters that include capacitance value, DF, and leakage current and ripple current. Aluminium capacitors can fail in various modes. Several methods have been proposed to estimate the deterioration status of the electrolytic capacitor; some methods are based on the fact that loss of electrolyte results in loss of capacitor weight (Stevens et al., 2002) and others are based in the claim that the capacitor's wear-out mechanisms can result in fluctuations of its internal ESR (17 and 19). The literature states that the main causes of wear-out mechanism in electrolytic capacitors are the loss of the electrolyte by vapour diffusion trough the seals and/or the deterioration of the electrolyte (Sankaran et al., 1997). Furthermore, they may have to withstand extreme and harsh temperature which accelerate the electrolyte evaporation process and reduces their lifetime (Sankaran et al., 1997). The integrated influence of electrical, high mechanical and environmental stress is the root cause of failures. The degradation of the capacitor is characterised with an increase of ESR and decrease of capacitance. The evaporation of electrolyte is one of the main causes for failure of capacitors (Zhou and Bo, 2011). However literature (Stevens et al., 2002) mentions that the change of ESR increases rapidly beyond 2,000 hrs for large electrolytic capacitors. The capacitance is different from ESR in that capacitance is a functional parameter. The capacitor cannot perform its intended function of filtering and energy storage when the capacitance goes down below a certain value. The tolerance for considering the capacitor as having failed depends on the application of the capacitor. In the experiment conducted, when the capacitance drops 25 per cent of the rated 100 mF, it is considered as a failure.\n3. Degradation approach for data collection: Traditional DOE approach for conduct of any experiment requires running the test units till failure. The test may be failure terminated or time terminated. Conducting of experiment as per the failure criteria specified above would have required a continuous monitoring of capacitance value for each capacitor. To obviate this requirement an alternative approach based on the degradation study was thought of. The degradation of the capacitor is studied by measuring the reduction of its capacitance at random times over the test duration. Regression analysis on the data thus collected are done for each capacitor and the regression equation representing the degradation pattern of the capacitor is developed. Regression equation is used to predict the expected time of failure of each capacitor. The capacitor product data sheet specifies +-30 per cent of the initial capacitance (100 mF) as the acceptance criteria. The failure criterion for the purpose of the test (based on the specific application) has been modified as +-25 per cent. The capacitor is deemed to have failed if the capacitance drops to below 75 mF.\n4. Capacitor specifications: The specifications of the 100 mF capacitors used for the experiment are as follows (Table I).\n5. DOE design details: factor levels and replicates: The objective of test study was to check the effect of ambient temperature and applied voltage on the capacitor and hence appropriate levels of these factors was to be decided. Following are the salient features of the DOE design:\n6. Experimental set up: 6.1. The testing circuit\n7. Data analysis: DOE perspective: The observed values of the experiment were analysed keeping in mind the objectives of the study and the principles of DOE. Analysis included degradation study, predicting of failure time, Weibull analysis of the predicted failures, ANOVA to check the effect of voltage and temperature and the interaction.\n8. Data analysis: ALT perspective: The test data were also used to for data analysis from ALT perspective so as to estimate the life of the capacitor at the use level of 85degC and 16 V. Two approaches were followed wherein we estimate the life of the capacitor by first taking only voltage as the accelerating stress using Inverse Power Law and second, when both temperature and voltage are the accelerating stress using Combination Model.\n9. Conclusion and future scope: A critical observation of the test data and data analysis gives us an insight into the behaviour of the capacitor under varied test conditions. Following may be inferred from the results of the data analysis and intuitively both from the DOE and ALT perspective:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to focus on conducting accelerated life tests on aluminium electrolytic capacitors under accelerated temperature and voltage stress to study the effect of applied voltage and ambient temperature on the capacitor, its degradation over time, failure data collection, analysis and then modelling the failure times. Principles of DOE are used for studying the effect of temperature and voltage.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Life tests are conducted at three levels of temperature and applied voltage and the life of capacitor is ascertained at each treatment level. Life variation with voltage and temperature is studied to gain an insight as to how these factors affect the lifetime of the capacitor. The interaction effect of temperature and voltage on capacitor life is also established.\nFindings: The life of the capacitor decreases exponentially with temperature and voltage at all the three factor levels. Ambient temperature, applied voltage and their interaction effect significantly affects the life of the capacitor. Applied voltage has the greatest effect followed by ambient temperature and then their interaction effect. Life of the capacitor has been estimated as 4,206 hrs when only voltage is taken as the accelerated stress using Inverse Power Law and as 4,003 hrs when both temperature and voltage are taken as accelerating stress using combination model.\nResearch limitations/implications: This work consider only decrease in capacitance as the failure criterion. However, as a future scope, it is proposed that test may be conducted by taking into consideration not only the decrease in capacitance as the failure criteria but by monitoring all the performance parameters of the capacitor. This would give a more realistic assessment of life as it is possible that capacitor may have failed much before it reached the lower threshold capacitance value.\nPractical implications: This work has lots of practical implications. It shows how DOE approach can be used for ALT data analysis and identification and effect of critical stresses acting on capacitors in real practice. Most critical types of stresses affecting the reliability can thus be controlled to ensure better performance. Product manufactures as well as users will be benefited by such findings. The paper has also illustrated how failure data can generated by degradation analysis using life test data collection at discrete intervals.\nOriginality/value: The methodology presents an alternative non traditional approach of accelerated life testing, which does not require continuous monitoring of test items. This only requires intermittent monitoring which reduces the need of test resources. Though the degradation study itself is not new but using degradation study for ALT data generation is new. This approach may considerably reduce the test duration and resources used for ALT. DOE approach gives more tangible result to study the effect of various variables on the dependent variable. As DOE approach uses a fractional factorial design, it can be very helpful to conduct life tests with minimum number of test units (only a fraction of full factorial test units). This will considerably reduce the test duration, resources requirement for testing, easier but accurate data analysis, and faster product development, especially when ALT is to be conducted at several stresses simultaneously.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Cash flow volatility and trade credit in Asia
|
[
"Corporate finance",
"Financial crisis",
"Trade credit",
"Working capital",
"Cash flow volatility"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Trade receivables represent a significant portion of firm assets, with mean values of receivables ranging from 18 to 21 percent of total assets (Mian and Smith, 1992; Molina and Preve, 2009; Hill et al., 2012). The importance of trade credit has been attributed to the many benefits associated with the decision to extend trade credit to customers. For example, Petersen and Rajan (1997) identify the extension of trade credit as a way to increase sales. Ferrando and Mulier (2013) identify trade credit as a tool to manage growth, and Garcia-Appendini and Montoriol-Garriga (2013) explore trade credit as a way to assist financially constrained buyers.\n2. Literature review: A significant portion of trade credit research has focused on the Financing Theory of trade credit (Meltzer, 1960; Nadiri, 1969; Schwartz, 1974). This theory identifies trade credit as a tool for sellers to relieve the financing constraints that buyers may potentially face. If buyers lack bank financing or other alternatives for credit, they may be able to receive trade credit from a supplier relationship. The seller may have better or cheaper access to credit and may be willing to pass on better terms than would typically be available to the buyer by offering trade credit. Many researchers have focused on the trade receivables side of trade credit in an effort to better understand the motivation for sellers. Petersen and Rajan (1997) identify the extension of trade credit by sellers as a tool that can increase sales growth. Garcia-Appendini and Montoriol-Garriga (2013) provide further evidence that the extension of trade credit serves as a way for liquid firms to share their access to capital to financially constrained buyers.\n3. Empirical model and methodology: In this study, we begin with a model that is based on the findings of Molina and Preve (2009) which helped establish determinants of trade credit policy. To account for the differences that may exist across the Asian economies in our sample, we additionally include control variables for gross domestic product (GDP), inflation and country fixed effects. Our primary model includes a measure for trade credit offered in terms of the days a firm gives its customers to pay their receivables (DSO). A selling firm may adjust the period of time required to pay for its goods or services through a method known as the price discrimination method (Meltzer, 1960; Schwartz and Whitcomb, 1978). This method of measurement is common in the literature and our primary measure for trade credit investment. For robustness, we include a second measure for trade credit which is to calculate trade receivables as a percent of total assets (Goncalves et al., 2018; Harris and Roark, 2017). Results for both measures of trade credit investment are presented together.\n4. Hypothesis development: Graham and Harvey (2001) provide evidence that cash flow volatility affects managerial decision-making. Summers and Wilson (2002) along with Molina and Preve (2009) show that trade receivables management is dependent on cash flow risk. Further, Hill et al. (2017) find that trade credit may play a more important role among firms in emerging countries than for those in developed markets. Finally, Love and Zaidi (2010) and Coulibaly et al. (2013) show that access to credit influences trade credit policy in many Asian countries. Because of the links of cash flow volatility to trade credit policy and the importance of trade credit policy in emerging countries, we expect to find a negative and significant relation between cash flow volatility and trade receivables for firms in emerging Asian economies:\n5. Data and summary statistics: The initial sample for this study comes from firms in the Compustat Global database from fiscal years 1987 through 2015. We examine the firms from 21 countries that are classified as developing economies in Asia by the International Monetary Fund. Financial firms (SIC Codes 6000-6999) and regulated utilities (SIC Codes 4900-4999) are excluded from the sample. Because our sample covers firms across multiple nations with different currencies, we standardize currencies using the UK's GBP. We then eliminate observations with sales below PS5m or total assets below PS10m[2]. The final sample consists of 95,684 firm year observations. Not all measures we use in our regressions are available for all firms, so the sample size used in several of the analyses is smaller. All ratios for firms in the final sample are winsorized at the 1 and 99 percent levels.\n6. Empirical tests and results: In exploring the relationship between cash flow volatility and trade receivables investment, we begin with a model similar to Molina and Preve (2009). They used fixed effects regressions with firm investment in trade receivables as the dependent variable. We generally follow this methodology to account for standard determinants of trade credit policy, but add variables for GDP, inflation and country and industry fixed effects to account for differences that may exist across our sample. Our first measure for trade credit investment is days sales outstanding. Our secondary (robustness) measure for trade credit investment is trade receivables as a percentage of total assets.\n7. Robustness: McGuinness et al. (2018) provide evidence that firms holding more cash provide more net trade credit. In other words, firms with greater liquidity provide more trade credit then they receive, and to a greater degree than less liquid firms. To ensure that our measurement of trade credit, as either days receivables or as a percent of total assets is not driving the results, we additionally include a measure for net trade credit. This also has two separate measures. First, we measure days receivables minus days payable. Next, we measure net trade credit as receivables as a percent of total assets minus payables as a percent of total assets. Results are shown in Table VI.\n8. Conclusion: The decision to offer trade credit to customers has been found to provide multiple benefits to the firms offering the credit (Petersen and Rajan, 1997; Molina and Preve, 2009). Because trade credit offers many benefits and represents a significant portion of total assets in the economy, it is important to understand factors that may significantly impact the level of investment firms will make by extending credit to customers. In particular, we have focused on the role that cash flow volatility plays in firms' extension of credit to customers. We have focused on factors that influence the extension of this credit among 21 developing Asian countries because firms in developing countries may experience more restricted access to forms of external credit (Hill et al., 2017). Additionally, we have chosen this sample because access to capital has been shown to influence trade receivables levels in Asian firms (Love and Zaidi, 2010; Coulibaly et al., 2013; Love et al., 2007).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the relation between cash flow volatility and trade credit offered by firms in developing Asian economies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study conducts country fixed effect regressions testing the relationship between cash flow volatility and firm investment in trade credit. The relationship is then examined with all firms separated into two groups based on firm size, and then again comparing the relation before and after the 2008 finasncial crisis.\nFindings: Higher levels of cash flow volatility are negatively related to the amount of trade credit offered. The negative relationship with cash flow volatility is greater amongst smaller firms that may have less access to external sources of capital. Additionally, the negative relationship is greater following the 2008 financial crisis.\nPractical implications: Trade credit plays an important role in the business process, particularly in developing economies. However, these firms may not be able to maintain their investment in trade credit when experiencing greater levels of cash flow volatility. These results are especially pronounced after the 2008 financial crisis and for small firms.\nOriginality/value: This study identifies an important connection between cash flow volatility and firm investment in trade credit among firms in developing Asian economies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The importance of management practices in IS project performance: An empirical study
|
[
"Information systems",
"Project management",
"Research methods",
"Outsourcing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The management of enterprise-wide information system (IS) projects is increasingly important to information system managers. Large-scale IS projects such as the deployment of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, the upgrade and patching of operating systems across an organization and the installation of enterprise network management software have required managers to develop project management practices that are successful in a global, integrated and highly distributed computing environment. A study by the Standish Group found that only 28 percent of IT projects were completed on time and on budget, and that IT projects were, on average, 45 percent over original cost estimates and 63 percent over original \"time to completion\" estimates (Standish Group International, 2001). This same report recommends improving the performance of IT project management through the use of better tools to monitor and control progress, through assigning skilled project managers that use good project management practices, and through a reduction in the scope and scale of IT projects.Much of the academic research on information system project management has been done in the context of software development and maintenance in the \"traditional\" computing paradigm of centralized mainframe processing, in which the majority of software projects involve the custom development of applications using a procedural programming language (Rockart et al., 1996). For example, Banker et al. (1998) investigated software development practices, software complexity and maintenance performance in a study of 29 software enhancement projects in a large IBM COBOL environment. While Kirsch (1996) investigated managerial control tasks in the systems development process by surveying 35 system development projects with varying size and complexity, 27 of the 35 projects were mainframe-oriented and project team size varied from three to approximately 100 participants. There is a lack of empirical investigation of the issues related to the characteristics associated with information system (IS) projects, the formal project management practices used within an IS project, and the performance of the project. While prior research by Zmud (1980) suggests that project characteristics directly affect the management practices of successful IS projects, the importance of understanding \"exactly how project management practices vary as a function of project complexity is a question for empirical research to examine\" (Kirsch, 2000).The upgrade and remediation of existing enterprise-wide information systems can be an expensive, time-consuming, and risky proposition for the IT organization. An enterprise-wide system upgrade can affect information technology assets distributed throughout the organization. Al-Mashari and Zairi (2000) identify three layers of the SAP R/3 architecture (SAP graphical user interface, SAP application layer, and SAP database layer) which \"can be distributed according to specified structures and connected through a network to make them operate as a whole\". When conducting system upgrade projects non-compliant systems needed to be identified and corrected on server resources (mainframes, minicomputers, LAN servers), client resources (workstations, personal computers, laptops, personal digital assistants), and the organization's communications infrastructure. Research related to the total cost of ownership (TCO) of end-user workstations must factor operations costs related to installation and upgrades. David et al. (2002) indicate that hardware and software upgrades are often related specifying that new software generally requires more powerful hardware forcing hardware upgrades. In this research we use a sample of 449 enterprise-level system upgrade projects in order to investigate the relationship between two IS project characteristics (technical complexity and project size), two formal project management practices (project methodology and outsourcing) and the target date for project completion. The unique characteristics of enterprise system upgrade projects (the distributed nature of the computer assets and the demand for consistent, reliable processes) made this a good laboratory to re-examine and broaden our understanding of the factors related to IS project performance. Specifically our research empirically tests a portion of the software project management framework proposed by Kirsch (2000) in the more general context of large-scale IS project management.In the following section, \"Theoretical development\", we first describe our two major objectives, followed by a review of the literature for each of the following:* target date for project completion;* IS project management practices; and* IS project characteristics.Based on past research and the framework proposed by Kirsch (2000), as well as an introduction to our variables and constructs of interest, hypotheses are developed in each section. The development of the variables and constructs of interest are more specifically explained in the \"Research methodology\" that follows. The analysis of an initial model, then revised model, are described in the next section titled \"Data analysis\". In the next section titled \"Discussion\", the findings are then discussed in light of past research, which is then summarized in the final section, \"Conclusions\".\nTheoretical development: In this research we have two major objectives. First we seek to answer the question: what project characteristics influence the formal project management practices exhibited by well performing large-scale IS projects? More specifically we examine the three-way relationship between project characteristics (technical complexity and project size), formal project management practices (project methodology and outsourcing) and meeting the target date for project completion. Our research model takes into account the important dimension of project size in addition to technical complexity when assessing the impact of formal project management practices on project performance. Traditional thinking suggests that projects that are high in complexity and large in size require formal methods for planning and control in order to track and integrate the separate components of the project. However, there is anecdotal evidence to suggest a contradictory relationship of project size with project success. For example, it has been the Fortune 500 companies, not the small to medium-sized firms that have been the first to successfully adopt ERP systems (Kumar and Van Hillegersberg, 2000). Thus we desire to understand the role that project management practices play in projects with varying organizational scale and technical complexity as it relates to successful large-scale, enterprise-wide IS projects.Second, our research examines the relationship between project management practices by answering the question: what are the interactions between different project management practices as influenced by the project characteristics of successful enterprise-wide IS projects? In particular we examine the interactions between two project management practices (project methodology and outsourcing) within the context of project characteristics (technical complexity and project size) as they relate to meeting the project's target date. Based on observations made by Lee and Kim (1999) which stated that the quality of outsourcing partnership is significantly related to the degree of information sharing, communication quality and coordination - all qualities provided by the use of a project methodology, we examined the relationship between outsourcing and project methodology.Our conceptual research, building on the results of Banker et al. (1998) and the software project management framework proposed by Kirsch (2000), examines the role of different management interventions (in the form of project management practices) on projects with different technical and organizational characteristics with varying levels of project performance. Figure 1 illustrates our guiding research model, presenting major constructs and relationships. The following section describes each component of this model, including the development of the related hypotheses, followed then by the research methodology which includes a more detailed explanation of the development of the constructs and variables.Target date for project completion\nResearch methodology: In order to study the model described in the previous section, a survey was designed to measure the characteristics of the project (project size and technical complexity), the specific project management practices used (project methodology and outsourcing), and the performance of the project (target date for project completion). The characteristics of enterprise-wide system upgrade projects (the distributed nature of the computer assets for testing, the time criticality of the project, and the large demand for administrative resources) make it good laboratory to reexamine and broaden our understanding the factors related to IS project performance. Face validation was achieved through review of the instrument by peer information system instructors. The survey was sent to 2,773 persons responsible for system upgrade projects within their firm. A total of 449 usable surveys were returned. The survey respondents had a broad range of upper management positions and represented a wide range of organizations in terms of corporate size and industry (see Table I).Measures, procedures and preliminary analysis\nData analysis: In order to test the proposed model, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used. This form of analysis has been used with greater frequency in the IS field in the past few years and is an example of \"a second generation of multivariate analysis\" (Fornell and Bookstein, 1982). The analysis was performed using AMOS, Analysis of Moment Structures. AMOS is a general maximum likelihood structural equation estimation procedure similar to LISREL which provides a test of parameter estimates as well as several measures of overall fit of a model.Initial model - structural equation modeling results\nDiscussion: The goal of this study was to examine the role of formal project management interventions on information system (IS) projects. We were interested in answering the following two questions:1. What project characteristics influence the formal project management practices exhibited by high performing enterprise-wide IS projects?2. What are the interactions between different project management practices as influenced by the project characteristics of well performing enterprise-wide IS projects?We implemented the research using a dependent measure of IS project performance based upon a self-reported measure of target date (the expected date by which the system upgrade project would be completed). In the following section we discuss the answers to these questions along with the implications for theory and practice.Project management practices that affect performance\nConclusions: Our results show that technical complexity and project size do not directly affect meeting the project's target date. Neither large nor technically complex IT projects are predictors of poor project performance. Rather, our results show that it is the intervention of a formal project methodology that predicts the successful completion of a project by its projected target date. This is an important conclusion. Much had been written in the literature about how large, complex IT projects have high failure rates (Brown et al., 1998; Standish Group International, Inc., 2001). Our study provides conclusive evidence that the greater the degree of methodology implementation the greater the chance for meeting the project's target date. Prior to this research, this had not been explicitly shown in the research literature.The results of this paper suggest that the larger and more complex the IS project, the greater the need for management interventions that include the utilization of project specific methodologies. In addition, technically complex IS projects tend to require more complex outsourcing relationships in combination with a project specific methodology in order to achieve success. This suggests that a project methodology, that is common to both the organization's internal personnel and to the external partners, will more than likely be required in well-performing IS projects. In addition, our results suggest that many of the project management principles learned from years of studying software development projects may also have application when applied to enterprise-wide IS projects. Viewed in context of results from prior research in software project management, our results establish the importance of methodology in project success, particularly as it applies to large, enterprise-wide system upgrade projects.Clearly, the message to managers of IS projects is to establish a project methodology to be used throughout the life of a project, especially in large, enterprise-wide projects, and more importantly, when some degree of outsourcing is required. The methodology must be clearly documented and understood by all project team members, including external constituents involved in the outsourced efforts. A good methodology can provide a standardized set of procedures and terminology that can be referenced by the project manager and team members in communications and provide a framework for the documentation of the project.Limitations and future research\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The literature on software project management is extended into the broader domain of large-scale IS management by studying enterprise-wide system upgrade projects. In particular; examines the role that the intervention of project management practices (formal project methodologies and outsourcing) play in large and/or complex IS projects, which result in good project performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A survey instrument was completed by 449 information systems managers about a specific upgrade project. The primary analytical approach used was structural equation modeling (SEM).\nFindings: - It was found that neither project complexity nor project size are good indicators of meeting a project's target date. Large projects that adopted formal project management practices were more probable to meet the project target date. Projects with a high degree of complexity which involved outsourcing and adopted formal project management practices, were more likely to meet the project target date.\nPractical implications: - Clearly, the message to managers of IS projects is to establish a project methodology, especially in large, enterprise-wide projects, and when some degree of outsourcing is required.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Future research should consider additional measures of performance such as cost, end-user satisfaction and business value.\nOriginality/value: - Much had been written in the literature about how large, complex IT projects have high failure rates. Our study provides conclusive evidence that, the greater the degree of methodology implementation, the greater the chance for meeting the project's target date. Prior to this research, this had not been explicitly shown in the research literature.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Planes, straws and oysters: the use of metaphors in healthcare reform
|
[
"Policy",
"Language",
"Organizational change",
"Metaphor",
"Healthcare reform"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: It has often been argued that public sector reform is \"predominantly achieved through policy-driven top-down change\" (McDermott et al., 2013, p. 93). The National Health Service (NHS) in England represents a notable case in point as a highly centralised system characterised by top-down policy directives. While such a view can be made of policy formulation, many studies of policy implementation note that any reform of healthcare systems requires change recipients to \"translate\" national agendas into local contexts (Dickinson et al., 2011; Millar et al., 2013). Notable gaps in our empirical knowledge remain regarding how policy recipients react to and contribute to policy change initiatives, and the tactics they use to do so (McDermott et al., 2013). One such perspective which is said to be in need of further development is the linguistic exchanges among actors as they negotiate meaning of organisational change (Thomas et al., 2011; Hardy et al., 2005, Tsoukas, 2005). This perspective has at its core the view that change programmes often represent a \"discursive template\", as \"a text produced by a particular author, which has to be interpreted by those whom it addresses in the context of specific local circumstances\" (Thomas et al., 2011; Tsoukas and Chia, 2002).\nHealthcare reform: Much of the mainstream policy implementation literature has debated whether policy is (or should be) given to local areas to implement in a top-down fashion, or shaped, developed and designed from a bottom-up perspective (Dickinson, 2011). Alongside these debates, there is a significant and growing literature concerning policy implementation within healthcare which goes beyond seeing this complex process in a simple binary fashion (e.g. Dickinson and Mannion, 2012). These recent studies illustrate the complexities of the health reform process and note the different opportunities and constraints for organisations and employees to act within. For example, McDermott et al. (2013) study implementation across four hospitals in England and Ireland, highlighting the entrepreneurial responses to policy by change recipients as they identify and act upon opportunities for their organisation. Their findings challenge the view that all non-adopting responses to change constitute \"resistance\" (productive or otherwise) is largely negative. Their findings also highlight how context or \"contextualized change agency\" has the ability to enhance or deny successful implementation of these change efforts (McDermott et al., 2013; see also Robert and Fulop, 2014).\nStudying organisational metaphors: The perspective of \"organisational becoming\" as summarised by Thomas et al. (2011) has a number of crossovers with the established tradition of studying paradigms, schemes and metaphors within organisational contexts (Cornelissen et al., 2008; Grant and Oswick, 1996; Putnam and Boys, 2006). Interest in metaphors has been on the basis of their centrality to human discourse and understanding (e.g. Cassirer, 1946). Often seen as central to work on organisational theory and the theory-building process (Tsoukas, 1991), metaphors can guide perceptions and interpretations of reality. They can also facilitate and further our understanding of organisations as they help us to formulate visions, goals and activities (Cornelissen et al., 2008). When we attempt to understand organisations we often use metaphors to make them compact, intelligible and understood.\nMethods: Our research focuses on metaphorical language used by healthcare professionals to express the effect of market reform policies in England. The research formed part of a wider study of health reform in England (see Powell et al., 2011) which conducted semi structured interviews with actors leading secondary and primary care organisations to understand the experience of market reforms across different organisational contexts. These actors occupied senior management and clinical positions within their organisations and had strategic responsibility to enact local policy responses. The sample included chief executives, directors of operations, strategy, medical directors, lead clinicians and consultants of specialities. A semi structured interview guide was constructed to capture various aspects of reform that included their understanding and interpretation of how various policy measures worked in practice and how they negotiated any tensions associated with delivering them. All interviews were recorded and transcribed with the NVivo computer programme used to manage and code the transcribed interview text.\nFindings: Our findings highlight how healthcare managers and clinicians employed a variety of metaphorical language to communicate how their organisations were able to enact and resist market-based reforms. On the one hand, these metaphors were an attempt to illuminate the limitations of these reforms within organisational contexts. Yet they were also an attempt to reflect how different reforms created opportunities and space to develop local service improvements. Whilst the former categories highlighted the negative consequences of market reforms, the latter group framed the proposed organisational changes in a more positive light (Table I). The following section details these two categories starting with the limitations of reform followed by the opportunities these proposals could create.\nMetaphor and the negotiation of healthcare reform: Our findings highlight the metaphors used by senior managers and clinicians as they attempted to negotiate reform within particular organisational contexts. They show how these metaphors could be clustered into two types of communicative practices. The first being an attempt to illuminate inherent limitations within these policies and the second being an attempt to illustrate the opportunities reform could bring as a source for critical reflection and opportunities for improvement.\nConcluding remarks: This study of metaphors in the context of healthcare reform has highlighted some of the ways in which meaning unfolds during conversations and illustrations of organisational change. By drawing attention to the problems and opportunities associated with market-based reform, these metaphors illustrate some of the creative and innovative meanings shaping the actions associated with organisational change. In doing so, we hope that our paper contributes and encourages further research about the use of metaphors to understand the nature and impact organisational change within healthcare settings. As this study illustrates, metaphors can be a helpful tool in understanding how agents view processes of reform and the degree to which there is the space for agency within these processes.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to examine the metaphors used by senior managers and clinicians in the delivery of healthcare reform.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A study of healthcare reform in England carried out a series of semi structured interviews with senior managers and clinicians leading primary and secondary care organisations. Qualitative data analysis examines instances where metaphorical language is used to communicate how particular policy reforms are experienced and the implications these reforms have for organisational contexts.\nFindings: The findings show how metaphorical language is used to explain the interactions between policy reform and organisational contexts. Metaphors are used to illustrate both the challenges and opportunities associated with the reform proposals for organisational change.\nOriginality/value: The authors provide the first systematic study of patterns and meanings of metaphors within English healthcare contexts and beyond. The authors argue that these metaphors provide important examples of \"generative\" dialogue in their illustration of the opportunities associated with reform. Conversely, these metaphors also provide examples of \"degenerative\" dialogue in their illustration of a demarcation between the reform policy proposals and existing organisational contexts.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Understanding female consumers' intention to shop online: The role of trust, convenience and customer service
|
[
"India",
"TRA",
"Trust",
"Convenience",
"Attitude",
"Intention",
"Subjective norm",
"Female",
"Customer service",
"Online shopping"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The last ten years or so have witnessed an immense growth in the e-commerce industry in India primarily due to five important reasons: rise in smartphone users, the launch of 4G networks, development in the domain of information technology, growing consumer income and an incredible increase in the penetration of internet services. Morgan Stanley (2017) foresees the Indian e-commerce industry to grow from $15bn in 2016 to $200bn by 2026. The financial services company also believes that the tally of online consumers is expected to touch 475m in 2026 from around 60m in 2016. The country will also witness a 5x growth in the number of female shoppers by 2020 and they will increase their online spending by twofold from 20 per cent in 2015 to 42 per cent by 2020 (Google-A.T. Kearney, 2016).\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 Theory of reasoned action\n3. Research model and hypotheses: Based on the past research, a theoretical model is proposed that integrates the theoretical power of TRA with three new constructs, namely, trust, convenience and customer service (as shown in Figure 1) to encapsulate the unique elements of the online shopping environment.\n4. Methodology: 4.1 Questionnaire, piloting and collection of data\n5. Discussion: 5.1 Findings\n6. Managerial contributions and directions for further research: 6.1 Directions for future research\n7. Conclusion: In conclusion, the current research has effectively evaluated the factors affecting the female's behavioural intention in an online shopping scenario. The model proposed in this research and the different hypotheses developed are built on the TRA framework along with the previous studies conducted on trust, convenience and customer service. The study has found support for seven of the eight hypotheses developed. The outcome of the present research establishes the vital role played by attitude, convenience, customer service and subjective norm in predicting female's behavioural intention.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a model to examine the female consumer's intention to shop online. The rising number of female online shoppers has compelled the analysts and online vendors to believe that understanding the attitude and behaviour of the female consumers is very crucial for their growth.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A conceptual model is proposed that expands the theory of reasoned action (TRA) with three additional constructs, namely, trust, convenience and customer service. The proposed model is examined with the help of questionnaire responses collected from 909 online shoppers from India.\nFindings: The paper empirically shows that there is a significant influence of attitude, convenience, customer service and subjective norm on the female consumer's intention to buy online. Customer service acts as the most crucial factor in influencing the attitude of female consumers towards online shopping. The paper also points out that trust does not directly affect the female's intention to shop online but indirectly influences it through attitude.\nPractical implications: The paper has significant implications for practitioners. First, the results advocate that convenience and customer service are the vital antecedents to both behavioural intention and behavioural attitude. Second, the paper also showcases that trust influences behavioural intention indirectly through attitude, stressing the need for the online retailers to develop consumers' trust in online shopping.\nOriginality/value: The paper examines TRA framework in the context of female online shopping, while earlier studies have concentrated completely on efficiency-based software tools like word processing, spreadsheets, etc. The integration of the three constructs - trust, convenience and customer service - in the TRA framework has not been studied in the past. The interaction effect of the different elements of customer services on the female consumer behaviour has never been examined in the previous research works.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Do country-of-manufacture and country-of-design matter to industrial brand equity?
|
[
"Country‐of‐manufacture",
"Country‐of‐design",
"Industrial brand equity",
"Single cue",
"Multiple cues",
"Brand equity",
"Country‐of‐origin",
"Corporate branding",
"Taiwan"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article.After the EU imposed antidumping duties of up to 85 percent on China-made screws at the beginning of 2009, China responded to this action by also imposing temporary antidumping measures against carbon-steel fastener imports from the EU at the end of the same year. These trade disputes have not only increased the tensions in regard to protectionism and retaliation between western and Chinese fastener-makers, but also imply that the issues of price competition and country-of-origin of fasteners matter to international buyers.\n1. Introduction: Owing to changes in global markets and the increased pressure brought to bear on firms to cut prices and extend their global reach, international business-to-business (B2B) manufacturers have experienced a situation of increased requirements and competition. An important question that faces such firms is concerned with how they can set themselves apart, influence buyers' perceptions, and thereby succeed in being selected as a supplier or in retaining their position as suppliers. Increased efforts to develop firm capabilities combined with a stronger focus on branding efforts could be part of the answer (Blomback and Axelsson, 2007). For example, in B2B contexts, the campaign \"Intel Inside\" has constituted a well-known effort to make a components producer visible in the final product (Norris, 1993). Despite the increased focus on brands in B2B markets, little research to date has focused on understanding the role that B2B brands play in the international marketplace.Knowledge of the country-of-origin preference of the branded B2B products can direct the targeted international buyers to either stress favorable evaluation or downplay product image (Ferguson et al., 2008). Favorable evaluations may then lead to purchases. The effect of a product's country-of-origin (COO) on both industrial buyers' and consumers' perceptions and evaluations has been one of the most widely studied phenomena in the fields of international business, marketing, and consumer behavior since the 1960s (Peterson and Jolibert, 1995; Ahmed and d'Astous, 2008). Since the pioneering work by Schooler (1965), two streams of studies have come to dominate the literature. The first builds on Schooler (1965) and provides support for the view that country-of-origin effects do in fact influence buyers' perceptions (e.g. Nagashima, 1977). The second major area of work has found that COO effects are small and/or not statistically significant (e.g. Erickson et al., 1984; Johansson et al., 1985). Not surprisingly, these two kinds of work have rekindled the debate on the existence of the country-of-origin effect under a variety of circumstances.With the trend toward globalization and production relocation through advanced technology in transportation and networking, an increasing number of branded, bi-national products render consumers' perception processes more complex. For example, a Sony television may have been designed in Japan, but its parts and components manufactured in Taiwan. Thus, the proliferation of hybrid (or bi-national and in some cases multinational) products in international markets has encouraged a recent research partitioning of the global country-of-origin concept into country-of-design (COD) (Chao, 1993; Usunier and Cestre, 2007) and country-of-manufacture (COM) (Chao, 1998; Insch and McBride, 2004). Although many country-of-origin studies focus on consumer behavior in developed countries and acknowledge that the processes and stages of economic development by which consumers use country-of-origin information may differ in developing countries (Batra et al., 2000; Reardon et al., 2005), little research has been done to investigate the effects that country-of-manufacture and country-of-design could have in explaining the variation in international buyers' evaluation of industrial brand equity in the newly-industrializing economies, like Taiwan. Thus, optimally positioning B2B products on the basis of country-of-origin attributes, COM and COD, should help firms maximize positive evaluations among international buyers while facilitating the identification of products as well as differentiating them from the competition.Both country-of-manufacture and country-of-design are extrinsic product cues - intangible product attributes - that are distinct from physical product characteristics or intrinsic attributes. How generalizable are the COM and COD effects? Consider the findings of single- versus multiple-cue studies. Single-cue studies of the influence of country-of-origin on product perceptions and purchase intentions have been criticized on the basis that the significant results that have been obtained are likely to reflect methodological artifacts rather than substantive differences (e.g. Bilkey and Nes, 1982; Johansson et al., 1985). In particular, since demand artifacts are potentially greater in the single-cue study and the presence of other cues could influence study participants' reactions in the multiple-cue study, many studies have argued that the effect of a country-of-origin cue should be greater in a single-cue study than in a multiple-cue study, and have suggested that there is a need for additional empirical research that comprehensively examines both the antecedents and consequences of the country-of-origin effect under a variety of circumstances (Peterson and Jolibert, 1995). To address this issue, this study develops a conceptual framework to investigate how international buyers assess the effects of country-of-manufacture and country-of-design on industrial brand equity when confronted with a single cue and multiple cues.The fastener industry in Taiwan has gained a worldwide reputation as the kingdom of screws since the 1990s. For example, the market share of Taiwanese fastener products in the US market had exceeded 50 percent until the early 2000s. However, the importance of Taiwanese fastener products to the world has decreased with the emergence of Chinese screws in recent years. To cope with the challenges posed by low-price Chinese products, many fastener firms in Taiwan have been eager to reposition themselves from original equipment manufacturing (OEM) to original design manufacturing (ODM) or even to original brand manufacturing (OBM) by investing in advanced equipment and upgrading their manufacturing facilities to increase efficiency. Therefore, in acknowledging the increasingly important role played by brands and innovative products, how to brand Taiwanese fastener products in international B2B markets has become a salient issue in international marketing and brand management research. In addition, following the transformations from OEM to ODM or OBM in Taiwan's fastener industry in recent years, have the outcomes of unique and innovative screws from Taiwanese fastener firms generated the country-of-manufacture and country-of-design effects in international industrial buyers' minds?Understanding the determinants of brand equity has long been of central interest to international marketing and consumer behavior researchers, as well as to international business managers. However, most of the previous studies have followed the customer-based brand equity of the B2C approach rather than the industrial brand equity of the B2B approach (Mudambi et al., 1997; Low and Blois, 2002; van Riel et al., 2005). Although only a few researchers have recently focused on industrial brand equity (e.g. Shipley and Howard, 1993; Michell et al., 2001; Mudambi, 2002), the depth and extensiveness of customer-based brand equity provide an extensive background to industrial brand equity (Mudambi, 2002). Therefore, this study in following the previous literature on customer-based brand equity proposes a conceptual framework of industrial branding based on the theory of Aaker (1991) with the country-of-manufacture and country-of-design effects, and investigates and validates the sources of industrial brand equity in international B2B markets when confronted with a single cue and multiple cues in using the case of the fastener industry in Taiwan.\n2. Conceptual development and research hypotheses: In the consumer marketing literature, brand equity is generally defined as the value added to a brand or endowed to a product that is created in the minds of consumers in response to past investments in the marketing of the brand (Keller, 1998). In other words, customer-based brand equity is generated when the customer is aware of a brand, perceives the overall quality of that brand to be superior relative to alternative products, and associates some favorable, strong, and unique attributes with the brand's image (Aaker, 1991). Although procurement in industrial markets is often rational and calculative, B2B brands could play a significant role in establishing a consideration set of potential suppliers in the buyers' minds (Gupta et al., 2010). While several of the determinants of customer-based brand equity such as brand awareness, brand loyalty and perceived quality appear directly transferable to industrial branding, others such as brand associations appear irrelevant in most B2B markets (van Riel et al., 2005). For brand associations in the fastener industry, industrial brands are rarely if ever used to evoke non-product-related associations. Therefore, brand associations are not regarded as a determinant of industrial brand equity in this study. In addition, although brand loyalty is often recognized as a source of customer-based brand equity, this study following van Riel et al. (2005) views brand loyalty as a desired outcome of industrial buyer-based brand equity. By building on the theory of Aaker (1991) and previous studies that conceptualize how customers evaluate brand equity, we propose industrial brand equity that accrues to a firm, rather than a product, as the relevant dependent variable in the context of B2B markets, attempt to explain why perceived quality, brand awareness, country-of-manufacture and country-of-design are regarded as sources of industrial brand equity, and establish the relationship between industrial brand equity and brand loyalty for international B2B firms.2.1 Country-of manufacture and country-of-design\n3. Research method: 3.1 Survey procedures and sample\n4. Results: 4.1 Measurement model\n5. Discussion, conclusions and implications: The primary focus of this research is to test the influences of the country-of-manufacture and country-of-design effects on industrial brand equity in order to analyze the process by which international buyers evaluate brand equity when confronted with a single cue and multiple cues. In addition, marketing researchers have long been interested in understanding the determinants of brand equity. However, many previous studies have been conducted in accordance with customer-based brand equity rather than on industrial buyer-based brand equity. Thus, the present study examines the relationships between the international industrial buyers' perceived quality of screws, awareness and loyalty of a company, COM and COD effects, and brand equity for fastener SMEs in Taiwan, providing new findings for the literature and offering support to some existing findings for brand management in industrial B2B manufacturing settings.5.1 Implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to investigate the effects of country-of-manufacture (COM) and country-of-design (COD) on industrial brand equity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A conceptual framework to assess how international buyers evaluate industrial brand equity when confronted with a single cue and multiple cues is proposed. Data for testing the hypotheses are collected through fax, e-mail, and online surveys of managers from 102 industrial buyers of Taiwanese fasteners. A quantitative study is undertaken of 64 respondents using PLS analysis.\nFindings: - The main finding is that the single-cue framework produces more statistically significant COM and COD effects on industrial brand equity than does the multiple-cue framework. The current results confirm previous findings that the country-of-origin effects based on single-cue and multiple-cue studies produce conflicting and inconclusive results.\nResearch limitations/implications: - These findings underscore the findings that the impacts of COM and COD on industrial brand equity are jointly determined by study characteristics, research designs, and the nature of the dependent variable being investigated.\nPractical implications: - A clear implication for managers responsible for branding and communicating B2B products in international markets is to continue to create clear awareness of the offering and to provide appropriate imagery for consolidating the reputation of firms in both their internal (product) and external (country-of-origin) dimensions.\nOriginality/value: - While country-of-origin and consumer products have been widely studied in the literature, the paper examines the effects of COM and COD on industrial brand equity in analyzing the process by which international buyers evaluate brand equity when confronted with a single cue and multiple cues.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Application of the person-centered model to stress and well-being research: An investigation of profiles of employee well-being
|
[
"Employee attitudes",
"Job satisfaction"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Psychological well-being at work has important implications for employees, organizations and society. Indeed, a recent study by Goh et al. (2016) found that diminished employee well-being is responsible for 5-8 percent of healthcare costs in the USA, and 120,000 deaths each year. Calls for work organizations to address this problem are evident in the recent literature (Goh et al., 2016; Guest, 2017). These concerns are highlighted by weak empirical evidence (cf. Hausser et al., 2010; Viswesvaran et al., 1999), and the need for new approaches and new methods to better understand and manage employee well-being (Spector and Pindek, 2016).\nProfiles of employee well-being: The fundamental premise for incorporating the person-centered model into well-being research is that variable-centered studies are missing something important. With respect to well-being profile groups, what is hypothesized to be missing are differences in how well-being is experienced across groups of individuals. That is, applying the person-centered model calls two implicit assumptions underlying variable-centered well-being studies into question. The first assumption is based on the view that components of well-being can be disaggregated and studied independently. The second related assumption is that components of well-being do not interact in influencing how well-being is experienced. That is, while interactions among antecedents have been proposed (Karasek and Theorell, 1990), this possibility has not been extended to components of well-being.\nOutcomes of profile group membership: In person-centered research, observed subgroups are evaluated in relation to other variables of interest (Craig and Smith, 2000). These variables can be characteristics of people or behaviors (Meyer and Morin, 2016) with well-being focused on the latter (Van den Broeck et al., 2013). Well-being is hypothesized to be associated with several job outcomes including employee turnover. Specifically, in high strain occupations, diminished psychological well-being is associated with the desire to leave the work environment and the organization (Brunetto et al., 2012). This relationship has been supported in variable-centered studies in hospital settings (Brunetto et al., 2013) and in general (Harter et al., 2003).\nMethod: Participants\nResults: Descriptive statistics\nDiscussion: A person-centered perspective is grounded in the notion that there are different subgroups in a population so that something is lost by studying the average responses of individuals for phenomena of interest (Craig and Smith, 2000; Meyer and Morin, 2016; Vandenberg and Stanley, 2009). This notion was applied to psychological well-being at work and six distinct profile groups representing different patterns of well-being were observed in this study. As such, this study adds to Morin et al.'s (2017) study indicating that well-being is experienced differentially based on the relative levels of its components. Further, profile group membership was associated differentially with behavioral outcomes including intention to remain in the organization and occupation and with job search behavior.\nConclusion: The person-centered model has garnered recent interest in organizational and occupational research. It is applicable to well-being coupled with the potential to complement and extend the large body of variable-centered research that defines research on this topic. In particular, the notion of well-being profile groups offers a new perspective on how well-being is experienced that addresses the need for new models and new methods for research in this area (Spector and Pindek, 2016).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate profiles of employee well-being using multiple components to better understand how well-being is experienced in organizations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A survey design with 579 health care workers in the USA was administered. Latent profile analysis (LPA) was used to identify well-being profile groups.\nFindings: Six well-being profile groups based on the relative levels of work stress, carry-over stress and job satisfaction were identified. Profile groups differed with respect to intention to remain in the organization and occupation, and job search behavior.\nPractical implications: Models of well-being at work have generated consistently disappointing results that have not enhanced the development of programs to increase well-being at work. By identifying patterns of well-being, this study offers insights into how well-being is experienced so that more targeted programs to promote it can be implemented.\nOriginality/value: Although there is increased interest in the person-centered model in organizational research, it has not been applied to psychological well-being at work. This study represents an initial attempt to study configurations of well-being based on its components. Results indicate that distinct patterns of well-being are present, and those patterns are useful in gaining a greater understanding of how well-being is experienced and in how it can be more effectively managed.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The role of choice in eating behaviours
|
[
"Behaviour change",
"Choice",
"Habit",
"Behaviour maintenance",
"Fruit consumption"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Interventions to improve healthy eating behaviours\nMaterials and methods: Participants\nResults: Assumption testing and baseline group equivalence\nDiscussion: This intervention was successful in changing fruit consumption behaviour. Fruit consumption and habit strength increased over time, and this change was maintained at follow-up for all groups given a degree of choice, regardless of what that choice was (i.e. pictorial cue or fruit type). Only the group given no choice at all failed to maintain behaviour changes over time despite showing similar increase to other group during the intervention period. While preliminary, and in need of replication, these results confirm interventions using salient cue to action reminders can successfully lead to increased fruit consumption that is maintained over time. Further, results suggest interventions focusing on maintaining healthy behaviours may benefit from including some level of choice. Having no choice during an intervention may, in fact, explain why some eating interventions are unsuccessful (Kwasnicka et al., 2016).\nConclusion: The intervention we designed and implemented in the current study is the first of its kind, where choice was manipulated on two levels and behaviour was changed with a simple cue and advice provision intervention. Its strength also lies in the fact that participants significantly increased their fruit consumption and managed to maintain these levels even after the intervention had concluded. These results carry important practical implications for future intervention development in the area of fruit consumption and highlight several key areas in need of more research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of choice on the development and maintenance of a fruit consumption behaviour and if behaviour change was underpinned by habit strength.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A 2x2x3 mixed model experimental design was used. The independent variables were pictorial cue and fruit consumption manipulated on two levels: choice and no choice, across three-time points: baseline, post-intervention (after two weeks) and follow-up (one week later). Participants (n=166) completed demographics, the self-report habit index and fruit intake at all three-time points.\nFindings: All participants showed significant increases in fruit consumption and habit strength at post-intervention and follow-up. However, participants provided neither choice of cue nor fruit showed a significant decrease in consumption at follow-up.\nPractical implications: Fruit consumption can be significantly increased with a relatively simple intervention; choice seems to have an effect on behaviour maintenance, providing no choice negatively effects behaviour maintenance post-intervention. This may inform future interventions designed to increase fruit and vegetable consumption.\nOriginality/value: The intervention that the authors designed and implemented in the current study is the first of its kind, where choice was manipulated in two different ways and behaviour was changed with a simple environmental cue intervention.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Report on a seminar on gender equality during the credit crunch: PROFESSIONAL INSIGHTS
|
[
"Gender",
"Equal opportunities",
"Recession"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: This paper reports on a half-day seminar held at Queens' College, University of Cambridge. It was organized by Dr Anke Plagnol and Professor Jacqueline Scott from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Gender Equality Network (GeNet) as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2009. The purpose of the ESRC Festival of Social Science is to demonstrate to a wide audience how the work of social scientists makes a difference to people's lives. The event was therefore targeted at social scientists and members of the general public.The theme of the seminar - gender equality in hard times - is highly topical, especially after official statistics have recently confirmed that the British economic is now in a recession (Office for National Statistics, 2009). As more men and women join the ranks of the jobless it is important to ask whether the economic downturn affects both genders differently, and thus exacerbates persisting gender inequalities. Although over the last decades more women have entered and remained in the labor market, female employment patterns still differ remarkably from those of men. About 40 percent of women in the UK work part-time, they are more likely than men to work in the public sector and in low-paying occupations, and 75 percent of part-time workers are female (Brown, 2009). Could these differences in employment patterns imply that the current recession will affect men and women differently?The first of the four invited speakers, Professor William Brown from the University of Cambridge, described to what extent the national minimum wage had an impact on gender equality (Brown, 2009). He explained that gender segregation tends to be higher in low-paying jobs, with female employees concentrated in social care, office work, hairdressing and childcare, while men are more likely to be employed in security, agriculture and food processing. However, over 65 percent of employees in low-paying occupations are female, and correspondingly two-thirds of the beneficiaries of the national minimum wage increase in 2008 were women. Brown also described that over the last ten years the gender pay gap - i.e. the percentage difference between women's and men's earnings - has decreased in the lowest income deciles while it remained relatively constant in the upper income deciles. Minimum wage regulation had a substantial impact on lowering the gender wage gap at lower income deciles.His presentation further addressed possible consequences of a major recession on the gender pay gap. Overall, unemployment has increased considerably during recent months, while vacancies have fallen sharply, but compared to the rest of the economy some low-paying sectors - including social care and agriculture - have continued to perform well. However, employment in the public sector, where many women are employed, has been falling over the last years. Moreover, in past recessions less skilled workers have suffered more than those with more skills and women could therefore be more affected by the current economic downturn than men. However, past recessions have affected the consumer durables industry - in which mostly men are employed - more than the service sector. Brown concluded that the national minimum wage should somewhat protect low wage earners and further diminish the gender pay gap.Dr Katherine Rake, the second speaker, argued that advances in female employment during the last 20 years might be at risk during the current economic downturn (Rake, 2009a). Her presentation was based on a recent report published by the Fawcett Society (Rake, 2009b), which states that female unemployment rates and redundancy levels might be underreported because women with employed partners often do not register as unemployed and are less likely to receive redundancy pay. Employees in the UK are entitled to redundancy pay after two years of service, but women are more likely than men to have temporary employment contracts. Official statistics therefore likely underestimate the negative impact of the recession on female employment. The recession has had a more negative impact on some employment sectors than on others, and as Brown had already described genders tend to be concentrated in specific sectors of the economy. Rake explained that 38 percent of women in the UK work in public administration, education, and the health care sector, and therefore have been largely protected from the negative impact of the recession. However, a significant proportion of women are employed in the retail, hotel, and restaurant trade, which fared less well than the public sector. Women are often already at a disadvantaged position in the labor market because of maternity discrimination, their need for part-time work and flexible work hour arrangements. It is possible that some of the recent gains in women's employment conditions will be erased during the recession.Dr Brendan Burchell, from the University of Cambridge, discussed the effect of job insecurity on individuals' psychological well-being (Burchell, 2009). His research indicates that women worry more about the risk of losing their jobs than men do. However, women worry more about economic issues in general, including the rising cost of living, the drop in the stock market, and the security of their money in the bank. This result suggests that women are generally more adverse to risk and worries about losing their job might not necessarily reflect their expectation of unemployment. Burchell's analyses of the European Working Conditions Survey 2005 and European Social Survey 2006 did not reveal any significant gender differences in the proportion of men and women who expected to become unemployed. Job insecurity can be as detrimental to psychological well-being as unemployment, Burchell found, but this effect is stronger for men. Men who move out of unemployment into insecure employment report the same low psychological well-being as those who remain unemployed. What does the current recession imply for the psychological well-being of men and women? Burchell found that during the last recession in the 1990s, those who went from secure employment to insecure employment experienced a chronic decline in psychological well-being. As of now, it is not certain whether the current recession will be different from previous economic downturns, but Burchell's results highlight that not only people who lose their jobs during a recession suffer. He found that the stress and anxiety of people who became unemployed \"bottomed out\" after about six months as they adapted to their new circumstances. By contrast, individuals who had not lost their jobs but were worried about doing so displayed steadily worsening mental health for one to two years.Professor Shirley Dex, from the Institute of Education, University of London, described how typically male and female jobs are affected during the current downturn compared to previous recessions (Dex, 2009). Her presentation further focused on first job entrants and promotions. As previous presenters, she described that both genders are concentrated in specific employment sectors; however, her data did not reveal gender inequalities in employment or job loss. Because of the usual delay in obtaining national statistics it might still be too early to assess whether there will be disproportionate job losses by gender. For instance, a large proportion of women in the UK hold part-time jobs which have been unaffected by recessions in the past. How do the prospects for career progression differ for men and women? For men, low-level entry jobs are often merely a stepping stone to better occupations, while women often remain in these jobs. Dex further showed that women of more recent birth cohorts were less likely to leave low-level entry jobs than those who were born earlier. The implications from past recessions are that young women may enter the labor market with lower occupational status than men, and those young women that enter the labor market with lower entry-level jobs, may do worse than those from previous generations.In summary, it is still too early to assess whether men and women will be affected differently by the current credit crunch. Nationally representative data are usually available after a delay of several months and might reveal new insights. On the one hand, the current economic crisis might exacerbate existing gender inequalities because of differences in male and female employment patterns, and the concentration of genders in specific industrial sectors. For instance, some stimulus policies - such as investment in construction - favor male employment. On the other hand, the economic downturn may improve gender equality for some women because the wives of laid-off husbands are more likely to enter the labor market in order to improve a household's financial situation. The seminar concluded with a general discussion about the issues that were raised during the presentations. Audience members agreed that the current recession does not only pose a (potential) problem for gender equality, but will likely affect members of different ethnicities, classes, and ages disproportionally. For instance, young people who have never been on the labor market are not included in unemployment measures as they do not receive unemployment benefits. It is therefore important to ensure that economic indicators measure the effect of the crisis on different members of society accurately.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this report is to review the seminar on \"The credit crunch: gender equality in hard times\" held 6 March 2009 at Queens' College, Cambridge, UK.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The seminar seeks to inform members of the general public and academia about the - possibly - differential impact of the credit crunch on men and women. The meeting included four presentations by invited speakers.\nFindings: - As of now, economic indicators do not seem to show a differential impact of the economic downturn on men and women. However, unemployment and redundancy rates might underestimate the impact on women because they often do not register as unemployed if they have an employed partner. Past recessions have shown that insecure employment can be as bad as or even worse than unemployment for psychological well-being.\nOriginality/value: - The seminar brought together four speakers who considered the impact of the current recession on gender equality from different perspectives. It was held shortly after official statistics confirmed that the British economic is now in a recession, and the seminar theme was therefore highly topical.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
How parents were involved in a special school in Hong Kong
|
[
"Hong Kong",
"Parental involvement",
"Home-school cooperation",
"Involvement models",
"Parent-teacher relationship",
"Special school"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Globalization reinforces education reforms in various countries resulting in commonality in validation of education. Decentralization of power to parents is one of the recent trends of educational development in the global society in which the notion of parents as stakeholders of their children's education and as school partners is gradually recognized in different places in the Asia-Pacific region. In Hong Kong parental involvement in school education becomes one of the important focusses in the current education reform movement. Particularly, specific policy documents for involving parents at various levels of children's education have been announced on many occasions. Home-school partnerships have been successfully developed because parent representatives have eventually been allowed to participate in managing schools through legislation (Ng, 2013a). The bill that parents, teachers and alumni are included as school managers was passed as an Education Ordinance by the Legislative Council in July 2004 in Hong Kong. As echoed by Caldwell, 2004), empowering parents to play a role in the self-management of schools is one of the most important innovations in helping achieve school effectiveness. The purpose of this paper is to report on an exploratory case study survey in a special school designed to examine parents' view on participating in various levels of school education. It concludes that parent samples preferred to be involved more outside the school context including \"communication,\" \"supervision of children at home\" and \"participation in parent organizations and activities\" than those activities occurring inside the school such as \"volunteering,\" \"providing advice on school policies\" and \"decision making.\" As this is a small scale survey study, the finding of this study does not attempt to come to any generalization but is expected to contribute to illuminative analysis of the phenomenon of parental involvement in this special school.\nTheoretical underpinnings of parent involvement: Though there may be tensions emerging in the process of implementing parental involvement (Ball, 2012; Huber, 2011), it is widely agreed that parent involvement in children's education will bring about positive learning outcomes of children and help achieve school improvement and effectiveness (Pang, 2004). Parental involvement in education can be defined in various ways (Fan and Chen, 2001). It is admitted that parents are people who influence children's attitudes toward learning and have a central educational role. Constructive impacts of parental involvement on students' academic outcomes have been recognized by teaching professionals (Graves and Wright, 2011). Thus, parental involvement could be defined as parents' behaviors at home and in a school setting supporting their children's educational progress (El Nokali et al., 2010). In their review of the historical development of parent involvement in schooling in Australia, New Zealand, Britain and the USA, Dimmock et al. (1996) found that these countries have been launching reform movements to highlight increased parent involvement in evaluating and reviewing whole-school performance. In fact, the importance of a strong parent-school relationship has been repeatedly identified as a critical factor in the academic success and social development of the children (Epstein, 2001; Mundschenk and Foley, 1994). Epstein (2001) noted that students report more positive attitudes toward school and develop habits in doing homework if their parents are involved in school events. Hodges (1997) observed that parents being involved feel more confident in their roles as tutors and foster better relationships with teachers. Moreover, sustained interest by parents can also boost teacher morale and overall school achievement. Encouraged by the positive evidence of getting parents involved in the west, the government of Hong Kong has initiated measures to gradually involve parents at different levels of school education since 1991 through the reform movement of implementation of school-based management (Ng, 2004).\nMethod of the study: The case study school\nFindings: Demographic data of respondents\nDiscussion and conclusion: On the whole, it seems that parents liked to be involved more in matters concerning their children with special education needs than those regarding the school operation. In special schools, it is true that parents have close relationships with their children due to their being mentally inferior to students in other normal schools. They have close relations with the class teachers especially maintaining effective communication with the school side. With reference to the findings with regard to the domain of \"involvement inside the school,\" parents were keen on being involved more at level 1: \"two-way communication\" (GS=3.98, SD=0.83) than at Level 2: \"supervision their children at home\" (GS=3.75, SD=0.71) and Level 3: \"participating in parent programmes and organizations\" (GS=2.96, SD=0.83). As for the domain of \"Involvement outside the school,\" parents liked to be involved more at Level 4: \"volunteering\" (GS=2.84, SD=0.90) than at Level 5: \"providing advice on school policies\" (GS=2.55, SD=0.74) and at Level 6: \"participating in decision making\" (GS=2.27, SD=0.94). It implies that parents liked to be involved most at levels directly related to their children's personal and academic development whereas they preferred to be involved relatively less at levels regarding their development such as being volunteers in school or the school development such as participating in any consultative committees or becoming school managers. To conclude, parents' involvement from Level 3 to Level 6 could be regarded as a service which means that parents need to be of altruistic orientation when participating at these levels. What they do at school is to serve other parents and the school as a whole. Thus, not all parents are willing to work in school as parent volunteers at the expense of looking after their children at home, not to mention to be willingly elected as parent managers or take part in managing the school (see Table IV).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report on a case study of 93 parents' attitude toward their involvement at various levels of school education in a special school. It also examines the relations between parents' education backgrounds and different levels of parental involvement.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study adopted quantitative research approach. A questionnaire composed of 30 items under six scales was developed with reference to Ng's (1999) six-level Model of Home-School Cooperation which was adopted to frame the study.\nFindings: The study indicates that parents' inclined to be involved more outside the school including \"two-way communication,\" \"supervision of children at home\" and \"participation in parent organizations and activities\" than that inside the school such as \"volunteering,\" \"providing advice on school policies\" and \"participating in decision making.\"\nResearch limitations/implications: In spite of its small scale in a case-study special school, the paper does not aim at generalization but illuminates how parental involvement was carried out.\nPractical implications: The study carries implications for school management and policy makers when promoting and implementing parental involvement in special schools.\nOriginality/value: For the school personnel, a total and positive relationship could help enhance efficient and effective management of education. Second, more resources should be provided by the Education Bureau for special schools to educate parents and subsidize their involvement. Third, more training opportunities regarding knowledge and skills of parental involvement should be provided for frontline teachers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Interview with Samuel Culbert, author of Get Rid of the Performance Review!
|
[
"Human resources",
"Human resource management",
"Performance reviews",
"Employee engagement",
"Organizational change"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In October 2008, Professor Samuel Culbert's article, \"Get rid of the performance review\", appeared in the Wall Street Journal. The piece went viral, sparking debate around what he termed the \"ill-advised and bogus\" practice of performance measurement, propelling Culbert into the media spotlight.\nIt has been almost four years since your polemic entitled \"Get rid of the performance review!\" appeared in the Wall Street Journal. Were you surprised by the out-pouring of feeling, and the debate that ensued?: Surprised? Not at all. I think we all know how much everybody hates performance reviews - whether you're the one who is giving the review or getting the review. So the fact that so many employees came forward to tell their own horror stories, and how they find the performance reviews intimidating, demoralizing and totally useless, was far from a surprise.At the same time, I'm well aware that the performance review is the key tool that HR uses to keep their seat at the big executive table. So I'm also not surprised that most in HR insist upon their companies using it. They like to say that the tool isn't flawed, it's the way managers use the tool. But that's because if the tool is flawed, they lose a lot of their power. And believe me, all evidence suggests the tool is fatally flawed. I couldn't find a single study that could lead any credible researcher to believe otherwise.\nYour criticism of the performance review centers on the questionably \"objective\" position that bosses supposedly occupy, and certainly makes for persuasive reading. How has something quite so illogical been allowed to become so widely accepted in corporate culture?: It is so illogical. Starting with the industrial revolution the world of work went command and control crazy and in the process made evaluation the whip. Most bosses aren't very good at what they are supposed to do: manage. They need something to cover their insecurity, to make them feel like they DO know what they're doing. That something is the performance review. It sticks around because it makes bosses feel comfortable and powerful, it makes HR feel crucial at the top levels of the company, and it's all anybody knows. They do it because that's how things are done. Even if they all know it's absurd. And they do know it's absurd.After all, think about the premise of performance reviews: the objective evaluation. Objective? That's ridiculous. Who's the all-knowing, always-right, objective evaluator? I don't know any, and I doubt that you do, either. We're all flawed. So the whole idea of objective evaluation is off the wall to begin with. People can't change just because somebody tells them to change. All we have in this world are imperfect people who can do some things very well, and are at their best when they can acknowledge their limitations and can ask for help when they need it - prior to bringing in negative results. But performance reviews promote the opposite. Their presence pushes imperfect people to pretend to be perfect and cover over mistakes in order to get good marks on one-size fits all metrics that neither relate to who they are or what they do. This all combines to create organizational absurdity: a system that marks 80 percent of employees average or worse without recognizing how each unique employee goes about being his or her best.At the same time, we have insecure bosses who have figured out how to use the fact that their employees have faults to falsely bolster themselves. When things go wrong in what the boss promised the company the boss passes the blame down. Realizing their vulnerability to this insane system employees try to buy the bosses off. Instead of working for the company - doing what the company needs most - the employee goes to work pleasing the boss, believing that in the end that's the only way to get a good evaluation. And the whip? Yes, you nailed it. It's the annual pay and performance review.Instead, what should the boss do? Simple. The boss's job should be to figure out what each unique individual does well that best helps the company, and then create an environment for that person to be their best.\nYour subsequent book, Get Rid of the Performance Review! How Companies Can Stop Intimidating, Start Managing - and Focus on What Really Matters, offers a practical alternative to the performance review in the performance preview, albeit one that requires a sea-change in the way the boss-subordinate dynamic currently works. Do you fear that management practice is too entrenched to ever be entirely free of this?: Well, yes, I fear that has been the case. But I hope it isn't going to stay that way. That's why we wrote the book, so maybe this hoax can cease. On the positive side, I've never met a CEO stupid enough to actually use this performance review weapon on his or her top-tier, direct reports, and I never met a thoughtful one who didn't privately acknowledge that performance reviews do the opposite of what's needed. They don't make people do their jobs better, they don't identify talent and they don't groom employees for future greatness. They intimidate people who are evaluated, support bad management and detract from needed results.Since writing the book, scores of CEOs and small-company owners have written me telling me how much they want to do away with reviews, and recently - I hope, bolstered by reading our book - I've met several who have asked their HR people to stop the practice that is so clearly hurting their employees, hurting their companies, hurting their stockholders. They're asking their HR people to adopt the performance preview format we suggest in our book. But let's not kid ourselves: these CEOs face a lot of internal resistance. Their HR people aren't just going to roll over. I believe that the CEOs who are strong enough to stay firm, who are determined to fix an obviously broken system, will be heroes.You need that impetus from the top, though. Because change is hard. It's scary. Even when it's obvious that change is needed. Managers like to think of themselves as all-knowing, as always right. They like to think they have all the answers. And the performance review feeds into that. So to let go of that psychological crutch, and leap into the unknown, takes a push. A big push. That push has to come from the top.\nGet Rid of the Performance Review in a number of ways seems be a continuation of your earlier work, Beyond Bullsh*t: Straight Talk at Work, with the performance review encapsulating the self-serving double-speak that pervades most working relationships in its most concentrated form. What benefits are there to be gained from a more direct approach?: In a word, results. Think about it: self-serving double-speak takes energy, it takes time and its purpose isn't to do what the company needs to be done. Its purpose is self-preservation or self-promotion. People spend so much time playing games that they aren't able to develop the kind of trusting, honest, straight-talk relationships that are at the heart of what's so desperately needed. The boss-vs.-subordinate relationship has to be replaced by a boss-and-subordinate, we're in it together, relationship. They shouldn't be at war, doing a dance to avoid blame. They should be in the battle side-by-side together, fighting for the company's results. The whole point of straight talk is that everybody has good ideas, and everybody knows how they best do their jobs. Honesty and straight talk clear the way for those ideas to come out, and for each of us to get where the company needs us to go in the best way possible.\nWhat impact can the human resource function have on the wider culture of a company? Does responsibility for more honest relationships rest with HR?: Human resources should be in a supporting role, not the starring role it too often grabs off for itself. It shouldn't be the keeper of corporate secrets. Instead, it should be facilitating - in any way that bosses and employees need. HR doesn't have the responsibility for more honest relationships. It has the responsibility of getting out of the way so more honest relationships can blossom. As it is, HR impedes honest relationships by cramming performance reviews - which make honest relationships all but impossible - down everybody's throat.\nWhat would your ideal working scenario be? Have you seen any examples of this in practice?: This happens all the time - but not nearly enough. An ideal working scenario, for me, is where open communication prevails, where people aren't afraid to speak their minds for fear that their comments will come back to haunt them in the dreaded performance review. It's a place where both manager and subordinate are in it together, where each of them sees his or her goal as helping the two of them get the job done. It's where the underlying assumption isn't that there is one way (the boss's way) to proceed, where the focus isn't on the journey and how they get there, but rather but on the prize - the results that they are on the hook for.\nDo you have any new projects in the pipeline? Which dysfunctional element of corporate culture will you go after next?!: I have two. The first is a demonstration project in a high-profile, progressively led company where I'm assisting HR professionals create and implement a company-appropriate prototype for transitioning from performance review to performance preview, \"no-surprises\" management. It's an open-ended experiment that I'm diligently documenting so that others can have a format to guide them.The second relates to an unsolved question that's at the core of each of the muckraking investigations I've performed. I'm out to uncover the mind-sets that allow top-tier managers to self-decide not to object or take action to reverse what they personally acknowledge as organizationally constructed obstacles to people working at their best (for themselves, for teammates, for the organizations need for results). I reason this way: if a manager's or a leader's function is to create an environment for others to perform effectively, then what are the forces driving people with highfalutin job titles to self-justify allowing energy-draining and disorienting corporate practices and protocols - this time the annual pay and performance review sham - to go unaddressed.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this article is to provide an interview with award-winning author Professor Samuel Culbert.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper provides an interview with Samuel Culbert, author of get Rid of the Performance Review!\nFindings: - In the interview, Culbert discusses the illogical nature of performance reviews, and proposes an alternative discursive and collaborative approach.\nOriginality/value: - Culbert puts forward his concept of the performance preview, and opines on the role the HR function can play in creating more open boss-subordinate relationships.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Integrated care: mobilising professional identity
|
[
"Professional identity",
"Health care",
"Social care",
"Integration",
"UK",
"Teams"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Integrated care has been identified as essential to delivering the reforms required in health and social care (Le et al., 2016; Stokes et al., 2016) and is a priority across the UK (Ham et al., 2013) and other healthcare systems (e.g. Leichsenring, 2004; Ovretveit et al., 2010). The shift to integrated working needs to be not only financially effective but also to improve patient experience. Some suggest integrated care is complex and widely contested (Stokes et al., 2016) and recommendations in terms of what form this takes and how best to prepare professionals to support these new structures and working practices are somewhat scarce. A recent National Audit Office (2017) report does point to some of the barriers to effective integrated team working and cites the lack of evidence for the sustainable impact of integrated care on patient outcomes. Similarly, Dickinson (2014) notes shifting mechanisms and ethos for the provision of care through integrated teams has not been without its challenges. Furthermore, Morgan and Ogbonna (2008), while recognising the differences and similarities of those working in healthcare, argue understanding the professional identity (PI) of professions within a team is a key component for successful change in healthcare. This paper specifically contributes to developing this understanding by inviting members of community-based integrated teams to share their experiences of managing and mobilising their PI. Our research questions are:\n2. Professional identity and integrated care: PI describes how people define themselves through their work role. Schein (1978) points to a \"constellation of attributes, beliefs, values, motives, and experiences in terms of which people define themselves in a professional role\" highlighting a multitude of potential influences over the generation of PI (cited in Ibarra, 1999, pp. 764-765). While the mechanisms for some of the influences have not been established, the link between gender and profession has been recognised (Adams et al., 2006). Work experience is believed to also customise PI (Pratt et al., 2006) by centring on two areas: first, activity, i.e. role identity, only doing what they can do and thereby exclusive in the eyes of colleagues and patients (Caza and Creary, 2016). Second, sense of uniqueness, Van Maanen and Barley (1984) explored the concept of work identities and how people develop and retain a \"sense of uniqueness\" (p. 295). They recognised work or professional social identity is constructed as an individual identifies themselves as belonging to a profession with other individuals who engage in the same approach to a form of work - for example, physiotherapists and dieticians. This is of interest but does not, however, explain why PI matters.\n3. Study context and methods: The context for this qualitative cross-sectional study is the UK focusing specifically on the principality of Wales, where there is a devolved government with responsibilities for 20 areas including health, housing, education and training, fire and rescue services, local government, social welfare and the environment. As a result, strategic decisions about health and social care are made in Wales rather than from the Westminster parliament. Health and social care are administered via different mechanisms. Social care is provided through local government (of which there are 22 local authorities in Wales) while health is delivered via the NHS through seven Local Health Boards and three NHS Trusts with an all Wales focus.\n4. Findings: This research focuses on the link between PI and integrated team working. As integrated health and social care is elevated as a solution to some of the challenges faced by the UK NHS and other global healthcare systems. It is important, therefore, that we understand how PI is defined and managed within integrated teams and identify what factors support and inhibit such working. We present our findings based on the two key research questions proposed earlier in the paper which include the key themes that emerged from our analysis of the focus group data.\n5. Discussion: Defining PI was the starting point for our focus group discussions. Marrying with Schein's definition of PI our participants referred to how their experiences, values and education had shaped their PI. Three themes emerged in relation to how they defined PI: scope of practice; inter-professional trust; and a unique role in the team. Figure 3 illustrates how our findings can be linked to this well-established definition. For example, scope of practice can be linked to the attributes and beliefs associated with PI. Trust is implicit to the values and motives of PI. The uniqueness of a profession is understood and shaped by experiences, beliefs and attributes of PI.\n6. Conclusion and implications: The purpose of the study was to empirically examine the intersection between PI and integrated working. As we highlight in this paper, there is limited research that occupies this intersection and even fewer studies that are empirical. This paper provides an insight to how practitioners from health and social care view PI when working in integrated teams, which has helped us to start to address the dearth in the literature between two bodies of literature: PI and integrated working. Our empirical work has focused on two key questions. First, we have identified what PI means to practitioners and the significance they place on this when working within integrated teams. Improving patient care was a key motivation for participants choosing to work in integrated teams and they had several strategies in place to help them maintain and mobilise their PI whilst working in integrated teams. Second, we have identified the enabling and inhibiting factors to mobilising PI and examined how practitioners manage these factors as they continue to deliver care for patients.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Integrated care has been identified as essential to delivering the reforms required in health and social care across the UK and other healthcare systems. Given this suggests new ways of working for health and social care professionals, little research has considered how different professions manage and mobilise their professional identity (PI) whilst working in an integrated team. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A qualitative cross-sectional study was designed using eight focus groups with community-based health and social care practitioners from across Wales in the UK during 2017.\nFindings: Participants reported key factors influencing practice were communication, goal congruence and training. The key characteristics of PI for that enabled integrated working were open mindedness, professional trust, scope of practice and uniqueness. Blurring of boundaries was found to enable and hinder integrated working.\nResearch limitations/implications: This research was conducted in the UK which limits the geographic coverage of the study. Nevertheless, the insight provided on PI and integrated teams is relevant to other healthcare systems.\nPractical implications: This study codifies for health and social care practitioners the enabling and inhibiting factors that influence PI when working in integrated teams.\nOriginality/value: Recommendations in terms of how healthcare professionals manage and mobilise their PI when working in integrated teams are somewhat scarce. This paper identifies the key factors that influence PI which could impact the performance of integrated teams and ultimately, patient care.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
New paradigm for the Asian boardroom - brand equity
|
[
"Premier brands",
"Brand equity",
"Shareholder value analysis",
"Brand management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Despite the booming economies of Asian countries, an increasing middle-class population with heightened levels of disposable income, erosion of low cost as a definite source of comparative advantage and increasing penetration of global brands into the Asian market, Asian business leaders have not recognized the potent impact of building a strong brand and its effect on business value for Asian companies.\nAsian brand pioneers: The culture and character of companies are greatly influenced by the paths chosen by their leaders and the success of a company is a direct product of the leaders' decisions. In spite of the dominant business practice in Asia, leaders of some companies have been pragmatic and visionary enough to incorporate branding in their businesses. These businesses have become well recognized brands and they command high equity from stakeholders. Among the Asian companies pioneering in branding are Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts, Aman Resorts, Giordano, RedBull, Fiji Water and BritishIndia. All these companies chose the path less traveled at a time when branding did not have the same level of corporate focus and backing it does today. These companies embraced brand management practices efficiently and built strong brand equity.Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts\nConclusion: By investing heavily in their brands, these companies and their leaders have proven the traditional Asian reluctance to focus on branding to be outdated. These brands have successfully challenged the misconception that a brand can only be built through extensive advertising, but it is the leadership commitment and the mindset of leaders that influence the success or failure of a brand. Branding is a dynamic process that demands consistent investment of human, managerial and financial resources.Branding is also a cross-functional, organization-wide principle that requires the full support of the CEO and the board of directors. It is only when the board understands and appreciates the significance of branding that it can attain its potential as a strategic discipline and enhance shareholder value.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The main purpose of this paper is to bring to the fore the strategic importance of branding as managed by the boardrooms, so that Asian companies can realize their full potential by inculcating right branding practices.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper methodically dissects the reasons for the lack of branding in the Asian region. It analyzes the societal factors that have shaped the Asian management mindset. Then, the paper takes up some of the Asian pioneers in the field to demonstrate the practical viability of what the author argues.\nFindings: - It has been found that Asian companies do not realize the importance of branding. Asian business leaders treat branding as an expense and not an investment. Further, many Asian companies still prefer building up tangible assets rather than strategic intangibles such as brand equity.\nPractical implications: - The important implication of this paper is that branding should no longer be delegated to the lower echelons of the company but rather managed by the CEO. Companies must focus on building long-term strategic assets such as brand equity rather than tangible assets such as buildings, factories and the like.\nOriginality/value: - Branding has always been mistaken for a fancy arm of advertising that is practised by the elite. By explaining the strategic importance of branding through concepts and case studies, this paper disseminates the emerging role of branding in the Asian corporate landscape. Specifically, this paper will be of a great value to Asian businessmen/women who can, by reading this paper, realize the growing significance of branding in their businesses.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The importance of personal norms for purchasing organic milk
|
[
"Green marketing",
"Consumerism",
"Milk",
"Germany"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Theoretical background: Although there is a rapidly growing market for organic food in the European countries the potential seems still much larger (Bonny, 2006). People who occasionally buy organic food in supermarkets and not committed consumers of organic food have become the preferred target group of marketing measures lately because the growth potential for committed costumers of health food stores seems to be small (Spiller et al., 2004). Understanding their motivations to buy organic food is essential to develop the market.1.1 Factors influencing purchase of organic food\n2. Objectives of the paper: The aim of the present study is to get a better, more structured, and theory based understanding of the psychological processes that link environmental norms to the purchase decision concerning organic food in the supermarket among occasional buyers of organic food. It is tested if the well established psychological Norm-Activation-Model (Schwartz and Howard, 1981) is capable of explaining a substantial proportion of variation in the specific shopping behaviour for one of the key products in the organic food market: milk. The study aims to analyse the group of supermarket customers from a norm centred perspective and to identify the changes in the perception of product criteria and barriers that an established pro-environmental norm causes. Milk as target product was chosen because dairy products were on second place among the most popular organic products in the UK with regards to market share (Hill and Lynchehaun, 2002) and milk is the product most often named when McEachern and McClean (2002) asked participants of their study in Scotland what kind of organic dairy products they buy. Furthermore, Spiller et al. (2004) identified milk as one of the key products that especially occasional consumers of organic food buy.\n3. Hypotheses: This study has two different types of hypotheses: the first type relates to the application of the Norm-Activation-Model to purchase of organic milk. We expect that according to the Norm-Activation-Model there is a significant influence of personal norms on purchase behaviour. Furthermore, perceived behavioural control and social norms should have a weaker but independent direct influence. Awareness of need, awareness of consequences, social norms, and perceived behavioural control should be positively related to personal norms.The second set of hypotheses relates to the impact a strong personal ecological norm has on the evaluation of product criteria: Based on Bruhn (2002), Hughner et al. (2007) and the considerations of Birner et al. (2001) we selected a list of 12 probably important decisional criteria and 11 probably important constraints that interfere with buying organic milk (see Table I). We expect that most characteristics are considered equally important by customers with weak and strong personal ecological norms (see Torjusen et al., 2001) but customers with strong ecological norms should consider selected characteristics more important (\"organic production\", \"EU-Bio-label\", \"ingredients\", \"local production\", \"recyclability of container\", and \"reusable container\"). We furthermore expected customers with strong ecological norms to be less sensitive to higher prices and to lack of knowledge about organic milk.Finally, we expected people with strong personal ecological norms to generally be more positive towards proposed intervention measures to foster the sales of organic milk, especially towards norm related measures such as \"strengthen the support by other people\" or \"improve the image of organic milk\".\n4. Method: 4.1 Sample and design\n5. Results: Two separate path analyses were calculated using the structural equation modelling tool AMOS (Arbuckle, 2005). The first path analysis used the proposed model structure of the Norm-Activation-Model (see Figure 1) to explain self-reported frequency of buying organic milk, the second path analysis tested the model on observed purchase of organic milk. Table III displays the variance-covariance-matrix used. Table IV displays the results of both path analyses.Table IV shows that the proposed model is explaining the data satisfyingly. Only the RMSEA of 0.155 is too high for a good fit of model 1 but all other indices indicate a good fit of predicted and empirical data. Therefore, we see the RMSEA of model 1 as not critical. However, these fit indices should not be overestimated as the analysed sample is small. In both models personal norms to buy organic milk are determined by the awareness of need, the awareness of consequences and by perceived behavioural control (significant for one sided testing). Contradictory to the hypotheses social norms have no significant influence on personal norms. Self reported frequency of buying organic milk is determined by personal norms, social norms and perceived behavioural control as was predicted by the Norm-Activation-Model. Observed buying of organic milk is also determined by personal and social norms (one sided testing) but not by perceived behavioural control. The percentage of explained variation in observed behaviour is lower than in self reported behaviour.For the following analyses the sample was dichotomized according to weak and strong personal ecological norms to buy organic milk using a median split procedure. 25 participants who answered the personal norm item with 1-3 where considered to have a weak personal norm and the remaining 38 participants (4-5 on the personal norm item) where considered as people with a strong personal norm. To analyse which aspects each group most prominently takes into account during the decisional process a series of analyses of variance (ANOVA) was calculated with the dichotomized personal norm as independent and the twelve possibly important aspects described in the method section as dependent variables (Figure 2 and Table V). For both groups the fat content is the most important criterion. After that participants with a weak personal norm consider the expiration date, the recyclability of the container, the impact of the chosen milk on their own health, and the kind of container. Participants with a strong personal norm also consider fat content, recyclability, and their own health, but furthermore organic production and the EU-label for organic products on the container among the five most important aspects. Table V shows that participants with a strong personal norm score significantly higher on the importance of organic production, the EU-label on the container, and the ingredients.For the next analysis the same approach was taken for behavioural constraints (Table VI and Figure 3). Higher prices for organic milk, a lack of knowledge about the differences between ecological and conventional milk, a lack of general knowledge about organic milk, a lack of trust in organic products, and matters of convenience are the most important behavioural constraints that prevent customers with weak ecological norms from buying organic milk. Four of these five constraints are also the most important constraints for people with strong ecological norms. However, the power of these constraints is significantly lower for the price and the lack of knowledge about the difference between organic and conventional milk. Convenience is also less important (one sided testing).The average acceptance of nine proposed interventions was compared for participants with weak and strong personal norms (Table II and Figure 4). The highest rates of acceptance receive political interventions like subsidies for organically producing farmers. Customers with weak ecological norms show also high acceptance for measures like placing organic and conventional milk side by side on the shelf, lowering the price, giving more information on organic products, and broaden the choice of organic milk. Advertisement, the image of the product, support by relevant others, more information on organic milk, and a variety of different brands of milk are more accepted by customers with strong ecological norms.\n6. Discussion: Both self reported and observed purchase behaviour are predicted reasonably by Norm-Activation-Model predictors, with the higher percentage of explained variation as expected for self reported behaviour. However, even almost a third of variation in observed behaviour is explained by the model constructs. This underlines the importance of moral motives for the purchase of organic food and supports the aforementioned work by Schafer, Torjusen and colleagues, and Honkanen and colleagues (Schafer, 2002; Torjusen et al., 2001; Honkanen et al., 2006). Most of the suggested model paths proved significant during the analyses with some interesting exceptions: There is no significant influence of social norms on personal norms. This could either be an effect of the low statistical power due to the small sample size compared to the expected effect size or indicate that there are no salient social norms in the domain of shopping organic milk that are internalized into personal norms. As we see no reason why the later should be the case - social norms have an impact on behaviour - we prefer to accept the first explanation. However, the fact remains that we would have expected the influence of social norms on personal norms to be stronger as studies of behaviour in other domains show medium effect sizes (e.g., Hunecke et al., 2001, in the domain of travel mode choice). It could be possible that personal norms in the domain of food purchase deviate more strongly from social norms because food related personal norms develop more independent from the social setting. The second important deviation from the model prediction is the missing significant relation between perceived behavioural control and observed shopping behaviour in model 2. This makes sense from a theoretical point of view as behaviour was observed in one very specific situation with a very specific set of behavioural opportunities and restrictions which is similar for all surveyed customers. Therefore, perceived behavioural control which was measured on a slightly more general level (buying organic milk in general) should be not as strongly correlated to behaviour in a specific situation (buying organic milk at that day in this particular shop). However, perceived behavioural control should be related to the more general self report measure of purchase behaviour which it actually is.People with a strong personal norm show a different pattern of decisional criteria they take into account. This result underlines our hypothesis that strong ecological norms are translated into action by making selection criteria related to organic production more salient. Against our expectations customers with a strong personal norm do not score higher on the items measuring the reusability or recyclability of the container and the distance of transport. This may be due to the fact that no local organic milk was available and that customers in this supermarket have no choice in what kind of container they want to buy organic milk.There is almost the same pattern with the behavioural barriers: all but three aspects are not evaluated differently by customers with strong personal norms. However, a higher price for organic milk is a much less important constraint for customers with strong personal norms (although it is still the most important!). They also seem to feel better informed about the differences between organic and conventional milk. Finally, it seems that convenience is a less important constraint for people with strong norms. Taking differences in importance of decisional criteria and behavioural constraints together people with a strong and activated personal norm additionally focus on organic production (indicated by the EU-label) during the decision and cope with the higher prices of organic milk by reducing the importance of that aspect.However, not only during the decisional process customers with strong ecological norms show differences but also when asked about possible interventions that would increase the sale of organic milk. This underlines the norm orientation these customers show: they seem to be more sensitive to norm related interventions such as social support or creating an image of a product. Furthermore, they are a little more positive about more information on organic products and on broadening the choice of organic milk.\n7. Practical implications: The results show that moral considerations can be a powerful force that makes people buy organic food and that the norm activation process can be described well by the norm-activation-model. The Norm-Activation-Model offers several levers to change behaviour of people: first, increasing awareness of need by distributing information focussing on the relation between style of consumption and ecological impacts. However, the second step is at least as important: increasing awareness of consequences by displaying the positive effect of possible actions as detailed as possible (e.g. \"buying this bottle of milk equals saving X m2 of soil from being polluted by chemical fertilizers\"). Both aspects should increase the likelihood that personal norms become activated- Perceived behavioural control can be increased by very simple measures in the store: organic milk can be made more available, more visible, it can be made more convenient to buy (e.g. by positioning it at very exposed spots), and a reduction of the price difference between organic and conventional milk would also increase perceived behavioural control.Furthermore, the study shows that people with weak and strong ecological norms react differently to proposed interventions. Some people seem more sensitive to norm centred interventions like increased support or an image campaign than others. Interventions should be very carefully tailored to the target group to save costs or prevent negative responses. Identifying people with weak and strong ecological norms might be a way of detecting different target groups for proposed interventions.From a theoretical point of view the results are interesting because they show that moral aspects can be triggered in a purchase decision. For future research it is interesting to analyse what circumstances contribute to activate a normative goal frame. Understanding this activation procedure more deeply would offer possibilities to frame customers in different ways.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to apply a structured approach to understand the importance of personal ecological norms in purchasing organic food. The norm-activation-model by Schwartz is used to predict self-reported and observed purchase behaviour of organic milk.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper reports the results of a field study with 63 customers of a German supermarket. A combination of covert observation and in-store interviews was applied to obtain reliable data on actual shopping behaviour and its predictors.\nFindings: - The results show that the self-reported and the observed purchase of organic milk is predicted by personal ecological norms, social norms, and perceived behavioural control. Personal norms are activated by awareness of need, awareness of consequences, perceived behavioural control, and social norms. People with strong personal norms use \"organic production\", the \"EU-BIO-Label\" and \"ingredients\" as additional criteria during their decision process. For people with strong ecological norms the price difference between organic and conventional milk, the lack of knowledge about organic milk, and convenience are less important constraints. Finally, people with strong personal norms react more sensitively to proposed norm-centred interventions.\nPractical implications: - The study offers insight into the processes of motivating behaviour and can therefore be used to design intervention strategies. Suggestions are developed in the closing part of the paper.\nOriginality/value: - The study applies for the first time the norm-activation-model to the domain of purchasing organic milk and underlines the importance of normative influences for this decision.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Variable pay and job performance of shop-floor workers in lean production
|
[
"Lean production",
"Human resource management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The changes occurred in the global business environment made manufacturers worldwide to fundamentally change their production systems for survival and growth by moving away from low-discretion, control-focused work systems towards work systems that demand a higher level of participation of shop-floor workers, like lean production (Boxall and Macky, 2007; Godard, 2004; Karlsson and Ahlstrom, 1995). These new work systems have a considerable effect on shop-floor workers since a greater autonomy and control are assigned to them over their job tasks and the methods of work (Appelbaum et al., 2000; Godard, 2004; MacDuffie, 1995).\nReview of literature: Human element and importance of remuneration in lean production\nMethodology: Population and sample\nResults and discussion: Design features of variable pay plans\nConclusions and implications: Although the operations management literature emphasises the importance of remuneration system in attracting, retaining and motivating employees, empirical studies in this area is not abundant. It is even very rare to find empirical research that investigated effects of pay on employees in the context of lean production. The present study investigated the design features of variable pay plans directed to shop-floor workers in the lean production environment. Building on the available literature, four key design features of variable pay plans were investigated, namely, variable pay plan type, performance evaluation-base for variable payments, variable pay calculation-base and goal setting for variable pay.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate design features of variable pay plans adopted for shop-floor workers engaged in manufacturing firms that had implemented lean production systems, and the effects of design features on their job performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In total, 892 shop-floor workers attached to lean implemented manufacturing firms in Sri Lanka responded for the study. Structural equation modelling was used for the data analysis.\nFindings: It was found that the performance evaluation-base for variable payments, variable pay calculation-base and goal setting for variable pay significantly predict job performance of the shop-floor workers.\nOriginality/value: It could be expected that the academics and practitioners alike are motivated by their desire to clearly apprehend the contribution of variable pay plans on job performance of the shop-floor workers engaged in lean production systems. This demands more investigations to better understand the design features of variable pay plans.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Benchmarking model for factors influencing creation of negative electronic word of mouth
|
[
"Electronic word of mouth",
"Interpretive structural modelling",
"Negative electronic word of mouth",
"Structural framework"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: With the advent of the internet and the free flow of information, management has faced a tremendous challenge of meeting the expectations of the existing and prospective consumers. To meet the expectations of consumers, firms are employing several quality management techniques to offer the reliable products and services. However, quality alone cannot build the image of a brand even when coupled with the advertisement. The level of loyalty and extension of the customer base are dependent on the products or services experiences. Word of mouth (WOM, hereafter) exhibits a key role in propagating the image of the product (De Matos and Rossi, 2008). WOM is characterized by valence, focus, timing, solicitation and degree of management intervention (Buttle, 1998). Many companies are attempting to harness the power of WOM by offering incentives to customer on referring to their friend and family. WOM influences choice, diffusion and sales (Berger and Iyengar, 2013). Thus, WOM is a facet of much concern from a marketing perspective. Traditional WOM communication consists of verbal words exchanged with another person in a face-to-face conversation. However, the speed of propagation of traditional WOM is lesser as compared to the online or electronic WOM (EWOM, hereafter). EWOM is defined as positive or negative statements written or spoken by the past, present or potential customers which are available to different people and organizations over the internet (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004).\n2. Literature review: Interpersonal sources of information, in general, are viewed as more trustworthy as compared to non-personal or commercial sources of Information such as advertisement (Bachleda and Berrada-Fathi, 2016). Consumers often tend to rely on informal WOM when they seek help on information about their purchases (Goldsmith and Clark, 2008). The elaboration likelihood model, an important information processing theory, indicates how persuasive messages influence individuals (Yan et al. 2016). Goh et al. (2013) argues that consumers base their decision on EWOM because of its persuasive and informative nature. Generating positive WOM for a brand or product has got the attention of marketers to build and maintain a strong and effective relationships with the brand with its highly involved consumers (Anderson, 1998; Smith et al., 2007; Ho and Dempsey, 2010). A study done on 7,000 consumers in seven European countries indicates that 60 percent of the people are influenced by WOM before a new purchase decision (Kotler, 2000; Hsu and Tran, 2013). With increasing importance of social marketing, marketers are becoming more involved while conveying brand-related content which customers may share with other people. This activity helps in extending the reach of a message and includes an implicit testimony of the brand linked with the content (Siegert et al., 2015). Voice over social platforms helps in bridging the distance between awareness, interest level, consideration and sales.\n3. Interpretive structural modeling methodology: ISM is an interactive learning process and established methodology for categorizing relationships among variables (Vasanthakumar et al., 2016). The ISM process is developed with a philosophical foundation (Warfield, 1973a) along with analytical and conceptual details (Warfield, 1974b, 1976, 1994, 1999). Different structural models may have different kinds of interaction matrices, delta charts, signal flow graphs (Warfield, 1973b, c, 1974a), which are difficult to interpret or represent in a system. ISM helps to identify structure within a system which makes decision making process more robust. The ISM methodology is widely used in many dimensions such as decision support systems, vendor selection, waste management, product design, manufacturing and lean remanufacturing (Hansen et al., 1979; Mandal and Deshmukh, 1994; Sharma and Gupta, 1995; Lin et al., 2006; Haleem et al., 2012; Vasanthakumar et al., 2016). In addition, ISM is also being used in studying the interactions among barriers in third-party logistics implementation (Diabat et al., 2013), the enablers of green supply chain management (Malviya and Kant, 2017), the reconfiguration of supply chain network (Dev et al., 2014) and enablers of medical tourism (Debata et al., 2013). The process of ISM includes conversion of rough and inadequately represented mental models into well-defined and complete models. The ISM approach begins with finding out the factors which are supported by the literature. The next step includes a group judgment technique where experts' opinion is followed (Attri et al., 2013). After identifying the final list of factors by the group judgment technique, a relationship is decided among factors. Then, the ISM approach involves the development of a structural self-interaction matrix (SSIM). Coded pair-wise relationship among variables is input for SSIM. Further, the SSIM is transformed to develop an initial reachability matrix (RM). After including the transitivity, the final RM is achieved. That is how ISM offers insights into collective understandings of relationships among factors.\n4. Result and discussion: Based on the levels of factors, as given in Table VI, and the initial RM, as given in Table IV, a structural framework of factors influencing negative EWOM is developed, which is represented in Figure 2.\n5. Managerial implications: The study has several implications for marketing, strategy, public relation and overall brand of the company. Customers who articulate negative EWOM provide an actual narrative of the situation faced by them which may act as a base for people searching for more information on that market offering. The manager can analyze each product attributes whether they can meet the expected benefits and what are the potential of improvement in particular market offerings. Management can also analyze as which product feature is difficult to comprehend by the customer so that a necessary corrective action such as providing a comprehensive user manual or demonstration of the product is taken to reduce the customer anxiety. Given the altruistic nature of some customer, the management can collect negative information about a particular market offering and can revamp the offering to overcome the previous shortcoming. As we are living in a digital world, where it takes few minutes to spread the information to the world, it has opened the door for new opportunities as well as new problems. Opportunities may include understanding of the target customer more precisely, real-time corrective action, building more connect and enhance brand presence, whereas problems such as fast dissipation of negative EWOM may lead to sequential problems including a reduction in brand value, poor sales, loss of brand image and negative sentiments among investors and customers. The organization can look at the intensity of factors leading to negative EWOM and design strategies to avoid encouragement of these factors on preference basis. The management needs to ensure that in no situation any consumer should reach the level of vengeance.\n6. Conclusion: The present study focuses on benchmarking a model for the creation of negative EWOM. The model includes seven factors which are responsible for negative EWOM partitioned across three different levels. The first level consists of four factors, namely, anxiety reduction, advice seeking, exertion of power (over companies) and social benefits (received). The second level consists of two factors, namely, altruism (negative WOM), and economic rewards, whereas vengeance is at level 3 in the creation of negative EWOM. This model will help the researcher in better understanding the process of creation of negative EWOM. If the issues raised at level 1 were not addressed properly, then it will reach level 2. At this level, the motivation to involve in negative EWOM is economic reward and altruism. For any dissonance that is motivated by anxiety reduction, advice seeking or exertion of power, the customer wants to settle the issue with monetary compensation. Apart from an economic reward, the customer may have the motivation to help others without any social or monetary gain. Altruism (negative) motivates people to express themselves online so as to ensure that others do not experience what they have experienced. Depending upon the dissonance level and familiarity level, altruism is related to advice seeking, anxiety reduction and exertion of power over companies. If the issues raised by customers are not addressed properly till now, then it may hurt the customer in such a way that may prompt the customer to go to any extent for resolving grievances as well as to damage the brand image of company. This stage of negative EWOM is defined as vengeance. Negative EWOM at level 3 (vengeance) will damage the company brand image and sales to a large extent. For example, in the case United breaks guitars 2009, when the United Airlines accidentally broke the guitar of a Canadian singer and took a very long time to respond the customer grievances. The singer posted an online video that became famous instantaneously, and, within a four-week period, United Airlines' share price fell to 10 percent, costing stockholders about $180m in value (Ayres, 2009).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a structural framework for factors influencing the creation of negative electronic word of mouth (WOM) at online forums, review portals, social networking sites or any other internet-based platform. Consumers frequently talk about consumption through WOM. With the unprecedented progress in digitalization of world, consumers usually tell stories about a product or service experience online. The study aims to identify the antecedents for negative electronic WOM (EWOM) and develop a structural model with different levels of factors.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Literature review and group judgment techniques are used to identify the factors responsible for negative WOM. The study uses interpretive structural modeling approach to develop a structural model representing interrelationships among factors. The model also represents the factors at different levels along with most and least dominant factors responsible for EWOM.\nFindings: Seven factors responsible for negative electronic WOM are identified which are spread over three levels. First level of factors includes anxiety reduction, advice seeking, exertion of power (over companies) and social benefits (received), whereas the second level of factors includes altruism (negative WOM) and economic rewards. The most dominant factor identified is vengeance, which is at level three.\nPractical implications: The study identified three levels of factors responsible for negative EWOM. Companies can strategies their resources to ensure that no consumer reaches beyond level one. Beyond level one, the involved factors may jeopardize the brand value and brand image of the company.\nOriginality/value: The study contributes to the literature by providing a structural model for negative EWOM. This model identifies the most and least dominant factors and guides managers to take necessary action to prevent negative EWOM.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Understanding and responding to new forms of competition
|
[
"Branding",
"Brands",
"Brand loyalty"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Understanding competition is at the core of successful marketing. Many rules or guidelines have emerged through the years to help marketers design and implement their competitive strategies and tactics, e.g. guidelines for proper positioning, reasoned competitive response and so on. Providing a grounded factual basis to better understand competition is thus an important marketing objective.\nNew competitive forces: One of the modern realities of business is the emergence of new forms of competition in a number of traditionally stable categories. New entrants are finding success in many different ways: By tapping into new or emerging consumer trends; by anticipating and leading market movements; by developing new supply chains to offer great manufacturing efficiency and pricing power; and by creating powerful emotional stories and value propositions.\nCompetitive immunity: Ideally, brands would find ways to make themselves as immune as possible from these new forms of competition. Here we suggest three ways that brands can help to insulate themselves from tough new competitors.\nSummary and conclusions: Jagdish Sheth and Anthony Koschmann have made a very useful contribution to our understanding of brand competition by documenting the competitive realities that prevailed in the cola category and the apparent stability it produced in 2011. At that time, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo dominated the category, leading Sheth and Koschmann to conclude that \"brands coexist in the markets by focusing on their own brand loyal customer.\" In stable environments, such as was more likely to be the case at that time, a more circumscribed view of competition and focus on intra-category loyalty may have seemed appropriate.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this note is to provide some brand strategy perspectives to Sheth and Koschmann's Do brands compete or coexist? How persistence of brand loyalty segments the market.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper is a comment piece written in response to Sheth and Koschmann's \"Do brands compete or coexist? How persistence of brand loyalty segments the market\".\nFindings: In their article, Jagdish Sheth and Anthony Koschmann provide a very useful empirically grounded example of how categories can evolve to be dominated by two or three key players and some of the implications which result from that. In doing so, they offer a number of useful insights. At the same time, however, it should be recognized that a number of competitive forces have emerged in recent years that have disrupted long-established equilibria and threatened long-term leadership in numerous categories. This note describes the nature of those forces and outlines three strategic approaches to improve the odds of long-term brand leadership and success.\nOriginality/value: This response to Sheth and Koschmann's paper provides a scholarly dialogue centered upon the premise of brand loyalty within the context of market competition.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Dynamic analytic hierarchy process: AHP method adapted to a changing environment
|
[
"Case studies",
"Continuous improvement",
"Decision making",
"Business strategy",
"Analytical hierarchy process",
"Maintenance",
"Decision support",
"Post-sales service",
"Dynamic environment",
"Warranty"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The general aim of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is to show an assessment of the best decision, which includes certain judgement incoherencies when subjective opinions are adopted, due to the fact that human judgement is not always consistent (Crespo et al., 2012; Moreu et al., 2012). AHP method establishes a series of scales of comparisons, where inputs can be measured as the price, weight, time, provisioning, etc., or even the subjective opinion on how the satisfaction and preference sentiments can be. The AHP has been applied to multiple business situations, as well as political or personal issues, especially when it is necessary to synthesize the knowledge of different specialists to support decisions:\n2. Problem statement: The AHP provides a logical framework to determine the benefits of each alternative. Using the conventional AHP method, maintenance or post-sales manager can check the influence, for instance, of:\n3. Short literature review and general characteristics: The AHP is a methodology developed by Thomas Saaty in 1970, based on facilitating the understanding of a complex problem through a breakdown of parts hierarchically ranked (approaches and alternatives), quantifying and comparing alternatives through addition of views with geometrical average to synthesize a solution (Saaty, 1990, 1995; Saaty and Vargas, 1982). The process has been used to assist numerous corporate and government decision makers. Some examples of decision problems are: choosing a telecommunication system, choosing a product marketing strategy, etc. In short, problems are decomposed into a hierarchy of criteria and alternatives. AHP is one of the most commonly used MCDM methods. A quick sciencedirect search of the term AHP in title, from 2003 to 2013, provides around 300 results. Some recent relevant papers on last developments of AHP are, for example developed by Alessio (2012), Alessio et al. (2011a), Alessio and Ashraf (2011a) and Saaty (2007).\n4. Proposed methodology: The methodology is described as follows which could be adapted to each scenario under study. The reader will notice that many parts of this section refer to the classical AHP. Nevertheless, we consider it more useful to present it together with the new version in order to provide a more solid view of the proposed methodology. The DAHP application will be performed following these stages:\n5. Case study from the mining industry: This section presents a case study that implements the proposed method DAHP. The case covers the main concepts of critical equipment by prioritizing the traditional AHP model, and integrating dynamic phenomena that modify the absolute weighting with the criticality evaluation criteria, which are obviously special and unique to the operational scenario where the methodology is implemented. This case study refers to the criticality evaluation of electric engine components, which drives the main equipment (crushers), applied during the secondary crushing process (comminution process) in a copper mine in northern Chile.\n6. Conclusions: The traditional AHP method as applied in the area of maintenance tries to answer questions such as: What information should be relevant to make decisions regarding the maintenance or the post-sales service? How to select a policy for maintenance or warranty assistances in order to improve the profit and the image of the company? This paper adds the possibility to track, over time and on a common scale, those variables (alternatives) becoming more relevant to the business when strategy is changing dynamically according to emerging market needs. This can add value to managers by identifying trends of issues becoming critical to the business, and can foster more proactive business behaviour.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Actual situations evidence how adopted decisions can change the decision constraints of the system where the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is being applied. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide a dynamic view of the AHP method, considering the criteria and alternatives as temporary variables and finally obtaining not only one good choice for a specific moment but a more comprehensive picture of those alternatives resulting more important for the business, according to strategy and over time.\nDesign/methodology/approach: With this purpose this paper starts with a short literature review and the general characteristics of the AHP method. Afterwards, the paper presents the problem that appears frequently in actual situations which justify the development of this research. Once described, the uncertainty appeared after the AHP implementation, the proposed methodology called dynamic analytic hierarchy process (DAHP) is presented.\nFindings: Finally, this paper shows a case study and concludes with the main points of the research suggesting applications and further extensions.\nOriginality/value: The value of this paper is the description of a DAHP as a tool that can facilitate decision making related to some of the critical aspects in maintenance or post-sales area, permitting the alignment of actions with the business' objectives.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Co-worker characteristics and nurses' safety-climate perceptions
|
[
"Patient safety",
"Co‐workers",
"Safety climate",
"United States of America",
"Nurses",
"Individual perception"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Healthcare demands safety and efficiency. Unlike industries, such as aviation, which have successfully embraced a more collective approach toward achieving safe outcomes in high-stress environments, healthcare has historically reinforced the image of a heroic practitioner achieving safety through exemplary knowledge and skills (Kaissi et al., 2003). Though a system or organizational approach to patient safety is increasingly becoming the norm in healthcare, hospital care continues to fall behind other high-risk industries when developing an inter-organizational safety culture and reducing or eliminating preventable negative outcomes (Institute of Medicine, 2004). For example, healthcare workers are less likely than those in the aviation industry to acknowledge the universal potential for human error and more likely to feel their organization handles error poorly (Sexton et al., 2000). The reluctance to acknowledge that healthcare, while reliant upon skilled practitioners, is imbedded within an interdependent human-relationship system, which may be a factor in the inability to consistently reduce error (Kaissi et al., 2003; Liang, 2002; Pearson, 2005).We aimed to investigate unit level staff composition and its influence on individual nurse's safety-climate perceptions. Safety climate describes a shared perception of the emphasis placed upon patient safety, what is expected from staff and rewarded by unit culture (Hughes et al., 2009). Direct-care nurses play an important patient-safety role and their work environment influences patient outcomes (Lin and Liang, 2007; Stone et al., 2007). Previous research identified organizational factors such as staff overtime, nurse-patient ratios, nurse wages, leadership style and teamwork/communication patterns among staff that influence hospital safety climates (Gelinas and Loh, 2004; Hughes et al., 2009; Stone et al., 2007). Hughes et al.(2009) found nurses working in smaller units and those with lower work complexity perceived increased safety compliance and communication regarding errors. Mark et al.(2008) examined capacity and engagement's influence on safety climate and outcomes. They found that unit engagement; i.e. registered nurse (RN) unit experience, nursing expertise and commitment to care was positively related to safety climate, while unit capacity (RNs and RNs with BSN) had no significant relationship with safety climate. Safety-climate perception is influenced by individual characteristics such as gender, age, experience and licensure as well. Singer et al.(2009) found safety-climate perception was more negative in those who were licensed as a nurse, male, younger and had less seniority than co-workers.Through multi-level modeling, we contribute to the literature that addresses organizational structure and its influence on safety by assessing the potential effect of co-worker education, experience, licensure and full/part-time status on individual safety perceptions. Previous studies examined staffing influence and other unit characteristics, but no study specifically examined contextual, staff-composition factors on safety climate. Based on previous research that nurses use co-workers as a resource to assist with nursing's complex demands (Quine, 1998) and that nurses indentify co-worker support as a primary safety-climate predictor (Hughes et al., 2009), we investigated the relationship between nurses' safety-climate perceptions in the context of other nurses employed in a nurse's unit. In short, we investigated whether unit nurses' safety-culture perceptions are influenced by individual qualifications and by overall qualifications of the nurses employed in the unit. We hypothesized that nurses in units with co-workers who had more education, experience and were more consistently available in the unit would perceive safety climate to be higher than nurses working in units with less educated experienced or available co-workers. Specifically, unit level staff composition was operationalized to include overall nurse education (percentage nurses in a unit with a baccalaureate degree or higher), nurse licensure (percentage RNs as opposed to licensed practical or vocational nurses), nurse experience (average experience in years) and nursing consistency in a particular unit (percentage full-time nurses). Specifically, our hypotheses were:H1. Safety-climate perception will increase as the percentage of nurses in the unit with a Baccalaureate degree or higher increases.H2. Safety-climate perception will increase as the percentage of nurses in the unit who are licensed as RN increases.H3. Safety-climate perception will increase as the percentage nurses who are full-time unit employee's increases.H4. Safety-climate perception will increase as the average nursing-experience (in years) in the unit increases.\nMethods: We analyzed data from a 2004 nursing survey conducted throughout two Midwestern community hospitals. The survey was designed to measure employee communication and attitudes to patient safety. Hospital administrators:* granted permission to distribute the questionnaire;* supported our research endeavor; and* provided access to staffing records.Institutional Review Board approval was attained prior to contacting survey respondents. Questionnaires were administered to 850 nurses, each with at least six month's employment in their hospitals. Using Dillman's (2000) multi-contact method, potential subjects were contacted regarding questionnaire completion in four separate mailings: an introductory letter; the questionnaire; a reminder postcard and a replacement questionnaire for non-respondents, which yielded a 72 percent response rate. Returns for 29 individual hospital units ranged from 27 percent to 88 percent, averaging 58 percent. Hospital personnel records, examined immediately prior to questionnaire distribution were used to assess non-response bias. There were no significant demographic differences between respondents and non-respondents. Respondents were 95 percent female and 98.6 percent white - a composition consistent with the US nursing workforce (Institute of Medicine, 2004; Ramanujam et al., 2008; Tangirala et al., 2007). Because we based our research hypotheses on literature focused primarily on RNs, only RNs were included in our analysis, resulting in a sample size of 430 (Table I).Measurement\nResults: Our first analytical step sought to determine if there was more variation in safety climate perception between 29 hospital units than there was within each individual unit. Because variance in individual nurse safety-climate perception may be affected by a nurse's education, year's experience in the unit and employment category (full- vs part-time), we controlled these covariates in our analysis. The significance test indicated that, while controlling for individual nurse characteristics, significant variation in safety climate perception was attributable to between unit variation or variation between the 29 units (coefficient =3.932, standard error =0.046, p<0.0001). In other words, safety climate perceptions differed more between the 29 units than within each unit. The finding that significant variation in safety climate could be explained at the between-unit level suggests that unit level factors may be tested to explain this between unit variance. We predicted that the between unit differences in safety climate perceptions could be significantly attributable to staffing characteristics (education, licensure, experience, full-time status) in the respective hospital units.We found that nurses' experience had a significant, positive relationship with nurse perception (p<0.05). Controlling individual nurse experience, education and full/part-time status covariates in the unit for each nurse respondent, nurses who worked in units with a higher average experience in years perceived their units to have better safety climates than nurses working in units with lower average experience. Unexpectedly, the analysis yielded no significant relationships between the independent variables:* percentage nurses with a Baccalaureate degree or higher;* percentage RNs; and* percentage classified as full-time employees and the outcome variable - nurse unit safety climate perception.The unit's nursing composition: education, licensure and full-time employees did not have a significant influence on perceptions among individual nurses working within that unit (Table II).\nDiscussion: Patient safety is perhaps the most important healthcare quality issue. Research found that direct-care nurses' work environments have a significant influence on patient safety (Gelinas and Loh, 2004; Hughes et al., 2009; Lin and Liang, 2007; Mark et al., 2008; Singer et al., 2009; Stone et al., 2007). We investigated the contextual influence of unit staff composition on nurses' safety climate perceptions. Consistent with Mark et al.'s (2008) findings, experience in a hospital unit appears to have a stronger influence on unit safety climate than overall nurse education or licensure, which has several implications. First, nurse experience may be related the ability to provide clinical and personal support to co-workers. Co-worker support has been demonstrated to reduce workplace-demand perceptions (Shirey, 2004). It is possible that literature specifically linking co-worker experience, support and safety was not identified; i.e. if nurses are using co-workers as a resource to manage workplace demands then they are also using them to manage patient-safety issues. Nurse experience may provide collegial support that is not learned through formal nurse-education processes. Experienced nurses may contribute an understanding about accessing resources, managing complex patient situations, communicating with physicians and family members, and openly discussing potentially unsafe situations with managers that is not found in units staffed with less-experienced nurses. It may be that units with supportive and/or safety-oriented climates are more likely to retain quality nursing staff and therefore continue to support both a strong safety-climate and a highly-experienced staff. Retaining experienced nurses is a significant concern in many hospitals (Elgie, 2007). Our results highlight the importance of providing nurses with environments that encourage retention and create workplaces where experienced nurses' skills are best utilized.Examining US hospital safety climates, Singer et al. (2009) concluded that safety is more closely linked to individual hospital initiatives than by programs developed at corporate or federal administrative levels. We found that safety-climate influences are even more local than the hospital level and that unit level context effects nurses' safety perceptions. Safety climate perceptions varied more between units than within units, demonstrating that even within relatively small community hospitals, patient safety differs between units. This finding was not unexpected because previous safety-culture examinations at the hospital level found that culture varies by work unit and is strongly influenced by factors that vary between individual units (Pronovost and Sexton, 2005). Although we investigated staff composition and its influence, further research is needed to examine other unit level differences within community hospitals.Our analysis has several limitations. First, we analyzed cross-sectional data gathered from a nurse sample working within close geographic proximity. Policies or events occurring in this area may have influenced results. Second, our measurement captured nurses' unit safety-climate perceptions, but data on actual safety outcomes were not included in the analysis. Future research should go further and address the relationship between safety culture and outcomes. Our analysis examined nurse-safety climate perceptions as the outcome variable; additional investigation is needed to examine the process by which nurse experience influences the safety climate. Previous research has indicated that co-worker support decreases workplace distress and that there is a link between workplace distress perceptions among nurses and workplace errors (Balas et al., 2004; Potter et al., 2005). Future investigation should explore the relationship, suggested by our findings, between working with experienced nurses and patient safety.There is evidence that adding information technology, such as electronic medical records, decision support and error reporting systems to the hospital setting may reduce medical errors (Anderson, 2004; Bates et al., 1998). It is possible that decision-support technology may provide nurses with information support similar to experienced co-workers. An adequate reduction in medical error, however, has not been achieved through technological upgrades alone. Future research would benefit from exploring the effects of combining contextual and technological modifications or technology to better mirror the workplace environment provided by experienced co-workers. More in-depth research is required to assess management style and its influence on the number of experienced nurses retained in a unit, along with other forms of contextual social support among nurses.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Previous research indicates that nurses' safety-climate perceptions are influenced by individual nurse characteristics, leadership, staffing levels and workplace structure. No literature was identified that explored the relationship between nurses' safety climate perceptions and staffing composition in a particular hospital unit. This paper aims to fill some of the gaps in the research in this area.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data supplied by 430 registered nurses working in two Midwestern US hospitals were analyzed to co-worker characteristics such as education, licensure, experience and full- or part-time status.\nFindings: - Registered nurses working in hospitals with proportionally more-experienced nurses perceived their workplaces to be significantly safer for patients. Surprisingly, co-worker licensure, education and full- or part-time status did not significantly influence nurses' safety climate perceptions.\nPractical implications: - Findings indicate that safety-climate perceptions vary significantly between hospital units and experienced nurses may act as a resource that promotes a positive safety climate. Hospitals retaining experienced nurses may potentially reduce errors.\nOriginality/value: - The paper illustrates that the results highlight the importance of providing nurses with an environment that encourages retention and creates a workplace where experienced nurses' skills are best utilized.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Do ethical work climates influence supplier selection decisions in public organizations? The moderating roles of party politics and personal values
|
[
"Public sector",
"Nigeria",
"Personal values",
"Supplier selection decisions",
"Ethical work climates",
"Party politics"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Described as the \"prevailing perceptions of typical organizational practices and procedures that have ethical content\" (Victor and Cullen, 1988, p. 101), ethical work climates (EWCs) have attracted great scholarship in recent years, mainly because of their ability to explain decision making and the likely response to ethical issues arising from such decisions (Newman et al., 2017; Simha and Cullen, 2012). Indeed, EWC theories have been applied to examine a broad range of organizational outcomes and behaviours including, but not limited to, ethical behaviour (Wimbush et al., 1997); unethical behaviour (Peterson, 2002), turnover intention (Mulki et al., 2008); accountability (Laratta, 2011); job satisfaction and commitment (Okpara and Wynn, 2008; Shafer et al., 2013); marketing employees' job satisfaction and behaviour (DeConinck, 2010); and managerial success (Simha and Stachowicz-Stanusch, 2013). However, no previous study has considered the relationship between the EWC dimensions and supplier selection decisions (SSDs) in public sector organizations.\nLiterature review: Ethical climate theory\nConceptual framework and hypotheses: The conceptual framework developed to be tested in this study is presented in Figure 1. While the EWC theory by Victor and Cullen (1987, 1988) forms the \"base\" theory for the framework, other auxiliary theories including institutional theories and personal values theories are incorporated to develop the framework. The proposed hypotheses as well as the logical reasoning preceding them are discussed in the proceeding sub-sections.\nResearch methodology: Sample and data collection\nResults and findings: Correlation analysis\nDiscussion and implications: The purpose of this study was to investigate Nigerian public employees' perception of the ethical values prevalent in their organizations, and to determine the extent to which external political pressures and decision makers' personal value orientation shape these perceptions relative to SSDs. Only a few studies in the literature are devoted to perceptions of EWCs in African organizations (Newman et al., 2017; Parboteeah et al., 2014), and fewer studies still have considered these perceptible work conditions/attitudes relative to public sector SSDs in Nigeria. This is despite the globally reported issues associated with public procurement in Nigeria (World Bank, 2017). Thus, our study extends and supports extant research on the consequences and antecedents of ethical climates in public sector organizations in Africa.\nConclusions and suggestion for further research: Our study arrived at some conclusions worth highlighting here. First, the inordinate pursuit of self-interest, the ideals of public interest/service and the perceived presence of guiding rules are all significantly associated with public sector SSDs. Within the Nigerian public sector context, employees generally perceive that more emphasis is given to the pursuit of narrow self-centred goals than either adherence to procurement rules or consideration for public welfare. Second, given the unethical self-serving tendencies often associated with partisan politics, as well as the proximate dependent relationship between public sector organizations and political establishments, the presence of egoistic-based decision-making conditions will be more particularly felt by employees, compared to either rules-controlled or public-centred decision conditions. This feeling will persist irrespective of whether the political pressure is high or low. Third, public sector organizations which consist of employees and decision makers who place high (low) values on the pursuit of personal gains will pay less (more) attention to adherence to rules/laws and the ideals of public service, while those with low (high) levels of self-centred personnel will emphasize the application of extant rules and the pursuit of public interest objectives. It appears, however, that the association of instrumental ethical climate and decision processes in the Nigerian public sector will persist, irrespective of the level of instrumental value orientation of the decision makers.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between ethical work climates (EWCs) and supplier selection decisions (SSDs), and the moderating roles of party politics and personal values on this relationship.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A total of 600 senior-level personnel from 40 Nigerian public organizations were surveyed using structured questionnaires. Multiple regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses developed for the study after assessing construct reliability and validity.\nFindings: Results show that both high and low levels of external political pressures significantly reduce the perception that organizational SSDs are ruled based and pro-social in nature. Furthermore, regardless of the level of perception of instrumental personal values by employees, instrumental ethical climates significantly determine SSDs; principled/cosmopolitan climate and benevolent/cosmopolitan climate only become significant perceptible determinants when there is less room for the accommodation of personal goals during SSD processes.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study only examined the relationship between ethical climate perceptions and SSDs without controlling for the effects of some important possible intervening variables on this relationship. Therefore, the study encouraged future researcher to enhance the generalizability of the findings by incorporate relevant control variables in the model, as well as examining other decision phases in the public buying process.\nOriginality/value: This study is original to the extent that only a few studies in the literature are devoted to perceptions of EWCs in African organizations, and no previous studies have examined this phenomenon in relation to SSDs in Nigerian public firms.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
PR practitioners' experiences of, and attitudes towards, the internet's contribution to external crisis communication
|
[
"Communication",
"Internet",
"Problem solving"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nBackground: When an organisation is struck by crisis, a need for information triggers a flow of inquiries from various groups of people. At the same time, stakeholders contact each other for outrage, debate and information. A crisis can therefore easily become a time of chaos, risk and uncertainty for organisations (Marra, 1998), requiring timely and appropriate communication to minimise damage to corporate reputation and maintain public trust (Perry et al., 2003). It has been suggested that the internet has the potential to move crisis communication forward in several important ways (Holtz, 2002; Phillips, 2001). It may allow an organisation to communicate in a direct and rapid manner (Macleod, 2000; Neil, 2000; White and Raman, 1999), and perhaps more ambitiously, it also provides an opportunity to establish dialogue with and among stakeholders (Hoffman and Novak, 1996; Cooley, 1999; Gregory, 1999; Phillips, 2001; Wright, 1998; Kozinets, 1999). In this article, we explore the internet's contribution to effective crisis communication by assessing the views and experiences of senior PR practitioners.Immediately following the September 11 attacks in 2001 approximately 54 per cent of the US population went online (DiNardo, 2002). Many of these actively discussed the attacks, rather than just passively read information (Harris Interactive, 2004). Web sites have also been set up following other major events, like the Oklahoma bomb, the death of Princess Diana and the Clinton-Lewinsky incident, (Macleod, 2000). Even in minor crisis there is now evidence that stakeholders use the internet as a primary source of information (Holtz, 2002) and journalists now also expect that organisations in crisis supply details online (Macleod, 2000; Middleberg and Ross, 2001). According to Investor Relations Business (2001) the internet is now the most influential source of information for investors.Despite this, in 1998, a survey of US PR-practitioners found that only 15 per cent believed the internet to be valuable for crisis communication (Wright, 1998) and although a more recent analysis demonstrated that 64 per cent of UK organisations made some use of the internet in a crisis (Perry et al., 2003) this leaves a third of organisations still to adopt online crisis communication. Moreover, both surveys found that internet use was largely restricted to \"traditional\" tactics such as media releases and fact sheets (Perry et al., 2003). Indeed, IMT Research (2000) highlighted that PR-practitioners favoured aspects of the internet that made it easier for them to do traditional jobs and often rejected features that required a new way to look at PR, like chat rooms and instant messaging. Many studies confirm this preference for traditional and often one-way approaches. Greer and Moreland (2003) investigated United Airlines' and American Airlines' web pages following the September 11 attacks and concluded that, while both offered updates to a number of publics, neither utilised interactivity. DiNardo (2002) explored banks' online communication in relation to the potential Year 2000 \"bug\" and realised that the internet was perceived as an information dissemination tool rather than a two-way communication medium, and Wright (1998) surveyed 49 senior-level US PR-officers finding that none participated in online groups. So how might we account for the apparent gap between the suggested \"promise\" of the internet, especially for dialogue, and reports of actual PR-practice?\nCrisis communication and the internet: Much crisis communication theory builds on Grunig and Grunig's (1992) excellence study (Fearn-Banks, 2002), grounded in different \"models\" of public relations practice which are ranked hierarchically in relation to their potential for excellence. Ranked as the most excellent, the two-way symmetrical model has been referred to in numerous studies over the years and described by many as the solution to successful crisis communication (Fearn-Banks, 2002; Naude et al., 2004). However, there has been a growing scepticism towards the \"idealism\" of two-way communication theories. The main criticism of Grunig and Grunig (1992) is that PR-practice is too complex to be placed in neat categories. Cameron et al. (2001) and Cancel et al. (1999) suggest that the stance an organisation takes towards PR should vary from one-to-many communication of the organisation's position to dialogue with stakeholders, depending on the needs of the organisation and its publics at various times. Cameron et al. (2001) also found that even if practitioners are devoted to two-way communication, there are situations where this is simply not possible. Perhaps most obviously regulations may prevent organisations from establishing dialogue (Reber and Cameron, 2003). A specific example of this would be PR-practitioners working for airlines that face legal restrictions following a plane crash (Downing, 2004). So at the same time as the internet has been promoted as allowing \"excellence\" to be realised through dialogue with stakeholders (Cooley, 1999; Gregory, 1999; Wright, 1998), others have been questioning the actual value of two-way communication. The result is that we might consider the value of the internet in terms of both one-way and two-way crisis communication.One-way crisis communication and the internet\nResearch method: We aim to explore why practitioners use, or avoid using the internet in a crisis. In reviewing practitioners' experiences we hope to encourage reflection on current practices compared to \"ideal\" theories of PR. Specifically we ask practitioners about their overall approach to crisis communication; their experience of making use of the internet, and based on this, their perceptions of the benefits and limitations of the medium.Face-to-face, unstructured interviews were conducted between 28th of June and 6th of August 2004 with a convenience sample of ten experienced communication managers and consultants, selected on the basis of recent experience of crisis communication and identified through the media and from personal contacts in the industry (Table I). As crises are sensitive, potentially involving loss of lives and dismissal of colleagues, participants were felt to be more likely to share information in a one-to-one situation (Daymon and Holloway, 2002). Participants were asked to talk generally about their approaches to PR and crisis communication, then specifically asked about their recent experiences of a crisis, including how, if at all, the internet was used. Seven of the interviews took place in Norway and three in UK.As very little qualitative research has been conducted in the area, narrowing the research to only one industry or one type of crisis was not desirable. At this stage, a study involving several industries was considered useful in identifying a range of attitudes, approaches and experiences including those of in-house communication managers and account managers working for PR-agencies. In-house managers are likely to be more familiar with one particular type of crisis and are possibly influenced by the organisation's communication culture, while account managers are likely to have handled a wider variety of cases.Internal validity in this research has been addressed through member validation, allowing the participants to reflect on their thoughts and add comments. None of the participants had any major objections to the findings. Validity also includes the question of generalisation. Although Denscombe (1998) suggests interviews are not appropriate for generalisation when they are limited in number, Daymon and Holloway (2002) support the use of qualitative research in offering details on the range of views amongst professionals. The study identifies categories and themes that are generally apparent in online crisis communication that can be used as comparative factors in later studies.\nFindings and discussion: From our discussions with PR practitioners we extracted three main themes related to online crisis communication: general attitudes to crisis communication today, reasons for rejecting the internet, and perceived benefits of online communication and we will now discus each of them.General attitudes to crisis communication\nConclusions: This exploratory study of the attitudes and experiences of ten experienced PR practitioners revealed a range of opinions about the importance of the internet as a crisis communication tool that in many ways reflect the ambiguity of existing studies. At one extreme, some practitioners found it very easy to reject the internet as of little consequence. At the other extreme we found a practitioner keen to understand and embrace new technology, recognising its potential for changing practice.The diversity of attitudes expressed may be contrasted with consistency in initial claims about philosophy and practice. Although these practitioners initially reflected Grunig and Grunig's (1992) idea of two-way symmetrical excellence in their stated beliefs, subsequently most contradicted the model, suggesting that two-way communication is often impractical and idealistic. These practitioners state that they believe they should practice dialogue, but they find it difficult to balance this stakeholder \"philosophy\" with manageable practice. In other words, this research supports Cameron and colleagues' (Cancel et al., 1999; Cameron et al., 2001) views that in practice crisis communication needs to be adaptable to the situation at hand. However, there is also a suggestion that what counts as \"manageable practice\" might be based on familiar, comfortable and preferred practice. The integration of the internet into crisis responses takes place within this context.Rather than an opportunity for universal two-way approaches, the internet's value might be considered in terms of added flexibility that allows organisations to communicate in both a one-way and two-way mode as required. To achieve this, practitioners need to know both the strengths and limitations of internet use in a crisis. In addition, the willingness of practitioners to address an apparent \"knowledge gap\" when it comes to use of the internet may be determined by existing attitudes and their work preferences. Our findings suggest that the practitioners interviewed are making only limited use of the internet for crisis communication. For some practitioners the internet dismissed as lacking credibility as a news source or as a foundation for good stories, and was perceived as an impersonal and cold way of communicating in crisis. In this sample there was a belief that the internet has little new to offer, and is therefore of minor value compared with \"traditional\" approaches. Others either indicated directly, or through their contradictory comments, an degree of ignorance of how the internet is already changing communication with and among stakeholders. Much of the published research on online PR practice may be unhelpful for these professionals as a focus on two-way \"excellence\" is of little value to practitioners who generally regard this approach to be problematic and impractical. A result is that internet may only be considered useful a supplementary to one-way online crisis communication. These practitioners rejected online dialogue, believing it could harm an organisation to join, or even encourage an aggressive and open dialogue on the internet, but it is also clear that an absence of reported practice on how to use the internet in crisis adds to uncertainty. Consequently, it might be easier for practitioners to view the internet with caution and to develop arguments that lead to its rejection as part of a crisis communication plan.The final attitude that we identified was that of practitioners who are keen to exploit new opportunities for dialogue. Supporters of dialogue accepted the inevitability of online discussions and felt that this required the involvement of PR professionals. These attitudes towards the internet as a crisis communication tool are summarised in Table II.Consistent with other studies, the picture that emerges here is that the internet is felt by practitioner to challenge existing PR practice. But this does not mean that practitioners always rise to this challenge. Where their preference is to continue to practice in ways in which they are familiar and comfortable practitioners may be able to dismiss the internet, and find considerable justification for doing so, especially on the basis of \"fundamental\" approaches (such as a believe in managed and proactive one-way communication). Although a focus on two-way \"excellence\" in previous reports of the internet's impact on PR may have correctly identified the changes in communication model, they may also have made it easy for practitioners to reject the internet as having little significance to \"real\" practice. Assuming that the attitudes of the practitioners we spoke to are typical of many in the industry it is therefore possible that the communication industry is experiencing a considerable gap between the way \"enthusiasts\" promote the internet and the actual attitudes, skills of practitioners. The result may be more limited progress towards understanding the implications of online groups, direct communication and other aspects of internet than is needed given the current rate of change. A greater recognition of the attitudes, fears and prejudices of practitioners may therefore be required when considering progress towards effective engagement with online media.Further research\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to promote better understanding of how the internet is used as part of crisis communication.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The internet may be changing the way PR operates in a crisis. It has been reported that the web has a significant role in disseminating information and that many-to-many online communication allows organisations to achieve \"excellent\" communication. However, it has also been suggested that in practice there is a need for more flexibility that the \"excellence\" model suggests. This study reports on data collected from in-depth interviews with ten senior PR-practitioners in order to understand their experiences and attitudes.\nFindings: - A range of attitudes are identified, informed by recent experience. Although participants indicated knowledge of and preference for two-way communication with stakeholders, in practice they found this impractical or undesirable. This, their preference for existing approaches, and ignorance about the internet informed their views about online communication. The result was that some regarded the internet as inferior in terms of its ability to achieve \"traditional\" tasks and because of its potential for undesirable dialogue. When the web was acknowledged as useful it tended to be considered as supplementary to existing approaches. There was little recognition of the need for online dialogue.\nOriginality/value: - This paper articulates a range of positive and negative attitudes towards the use of the internet for crisis communication, based on the experiences of senior PR practitioners.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Gender, age and nationality: assessing their impact on conflict resolution styles
|
[
"Conflict resolution",
"Collaborative",
"Accommodating",
"Avoiding",
"Competitive",
"Compromising",
"Gender and Nationality"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: University setting is a large academic gathering of students from various countries, and backgrounds, each with unique, perceptions, beliefs, values and ideologies. It is impossible to have an environment of this nature devoid of conflict. Carpenter (2010), cited some reasons for conflicts that occur in university settings, e.g., academic egos, social class, high school locale among other factors. While it may be impossible to eradicate conflict totally from any organization or institution, it is very important to identify and understand the conflict resolution styles used by students in handling conflicts, because understanding conflict resolution strategies gives room for proper conflict management that becomes beneficial to the organization or institution (McKenzie, 2002).\nLiterature review: The very first models of conflict management were introduced in the early 1970s and these models measured conflict mostly along the dimension of concern for others, represented by the bipolar anchors of cooperativeness and uncooperativeness (Deustch, 1973). The models were later rejected based on the fact that they could not account for strategies involving concerns for self-interests (Thomas and Kilmann, 1975; Brahnam et al., 2005).\nNationality and conflict resolution styles: The reaction of an individual in a conflict may vary; either as a result of situational variable or personality of the individual, evidence from previous research has indicated that an individual's preference of conflict resolution style is hinged on their personal characteristics (Thomas and Kilmann, 1975; cited by Wafa, 1997). The development of one's personality is believed to be influenced by certain factors such as psychological, culture, family or group, role and situational determinants. Based on this it would be safe to say that certain types of personalities are more strongly prevalent in certain cultures than others and this may in turn affect conflict resolution styles (Wafa, 1997).\nPurpose of study: The intent of this study is to investigate the conflict resolution styles used by students in a university and to also determine the role of factors like gender, nationality and age in the use of conflict resolution styles.\nMethodology: Using the Thomas-Kilmann conflict mode instrument (Kilmann and Thomas, 1977), post graduate students of a university Malaysia were assessed with regard to their particular styles of conflict resolution. The reliability data for Thomas-Kilmann instrument have been reported as ranging from 0.65 to 0.68 (test-retest) and 0.69 to 0.71 (Cronbach a), which shows the reliability of the instrument for this kind of assessment (Rahim, 2001 cited by Brahnam et al., 2005). The collected data were subjected to a thorough statistical analysis, using ANOVA and t-test techniques to measure the effect of the three variables on choice of conflict resolution styles. The mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level.\nFindings and interpretation: The sample of this study was 169 post graduate students, 64.5 percent of them were male, and 35.5 percent female. They were from different field of studies such as MBA, MA and PHD. Respondents were from Iran (11.8 percent), Nigeria (13 percent), Palestine (8.3 percent), India (7.7 percent) and Yemen (6.5 percent), China (4.7 percent), Malaysia (4.1 percent) and others 43.9 percent. The mean of age for the respondents was 26 years old:\nDiscussion: The above mentioned findings identify the effects of gender, nationalities and age groups on the five conflict resolution styles among post graduate students in a university in Malaysia. The findings indicated that there exist significant difference among men and women in the use of competing, avoiding and compromising styles of handling conflicts, with little or no meaningful difference in the use of accommodating and collaborating. Women were identified to use less avoiding and compromising than men and more competing. While men on the other hand use more avoiding and compromising and less competing.\nConclusion and recommendations: The aim of this research was to determine the conflict resolution strategies used by university students and to investigate the effect of three variables namely; nationality, gender and age on the use of these styles. Conflict is a phenomenon that cannot be separated from human existence, and people in conflict often exhibit certain behaviors in order to settle conflicts (Civelek and Dincyurek, 2008).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the conflict resolution styles used by university students in handling conflicts, and to determine the effects (if any) of age, nationality and gender on how students respond to conflicts.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The Thomas-Kilmann conflict mode instrument was adopted to assess the conflict resolution styles (accommodating, avoiding, collaborative, competitive and compromising) of post graduate students in a University in Malaysia. Both ANOVA and t-test analyses were utilized to investigate the relationship between, nationality, gender, age and conflict resolution styles used by students.\nFindings: Results of this study indicates that female students used competitive style more than male students, while male students are more likely to avoid conflicts. The older students were discovered to use more avoiding, while younger students are more likely to be competitive in nature. The findings did not reveal any significant differences in nationality.\nOriginality/value: This paper expands its focus from gender (which is the most commonly tested category) to other categories such as age and nationality, thereby giving room for these new categories to be tested extensively in future researches. The results reveal that students not only use different conflict resolution styles to address conflicts, but also there exists differences in the styles used by students of different age groups and gender.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Regulatory overkill? Short-sales ban in Korea
|
[
"Liquidity",
"Market efficiency",
"Short-sales restrictions"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Stock short selling has a long history of being one of the prime suspects behind the force that exacerbates the market downturn, a view often assumed by policy makers. Certainly, the late-2000s global financial crisis was no exception. The financial crisis that originated from the US housing market led to various forms of short-selling bans and restrictions imposed by many regulatory authorities around the world. In September 2008, the UK Financial Services Authority instituted a temporary ban on short-sales of 32 financial stocks. This was immediately followed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission banning short-sales of nearly 1,000 financial stocks for about three weeks. In fact, the year 2008 is characterized by short-selling restrictions with varying duration, scope, and degree of strictness in at least 30 stock markets worldwide including major industrialized economies.\n2. Literature review[1]: The literature on short-sales is divided: while there is a group of studies arguing the legitimacy of imposing constraints on short-sales, a number of studies question the validity of short-sales restrictions. Examining the late-2000s global financial crisis period, Marsh and Payne (2012) find that the 2008-2009 UK short-sale ban on 32 financial stocks decreased market liquidity and efficiency: through the period of the ban, markets for financial stocks were substantially less efficient and that the role of the trading process in aiding price discovery was greatly reduced. They add that when the ban was lifted, the reduction in market quality was largely reversed, suggesting that the shorting ban had a detrimental effect on the UK equity market. In their study of the 2008 US shorting ban, Boehmer et al. (2013) show that large-cap stocks, the stocks most influenced by the ban, suffered a serious degradation in market quality as measured by bid-ask spreads, price impacts, and intraday volatility, and further suggest that the shorting ban did not provide an artificial boost in prices during the global financial crisis period[2]. Similarly, one of the findings of Autore et al. (2011) is that during the 2008 US short-sales ban, liquid stocks suffered larger liquidity declines and poorer contemporaneous stock returns. Beber and Pagano (2013) in their multi-country analyses find that the restrictions and bans implemented during the crisis period decreased market liquidity, particularly for small-cap stocks, slowed down the price discovery process, and did not support prices except possibly for US financial stocks. Bris et al. (2007) also perform multi-country analyses and find some evidence that prices incorporate negative information faster in countries where short-sales are allowed and practiced.\n3. Analysis: 3.1 Sample and data\n4. Conclusion: Stock-shorting has been a perennial target for blame for steep market plunges and instabilities. In the presence of market turmoil, short-sales are often depicted by popular press and investors as predatory attacks. The late-2000s global financial crisis was not an exception. In 2008, short-selling restrictions with varying duration, scope, and degree of strictness were imposed in more than 30 major stock markets worldwide including Korea.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The authors investigate the 2008-2009 short-sales ban in Korea, one of the most comprehensive and restrictive short-selling bans worldwide. The purpose of this paper is to examine: whether the ban stopped a destabilizing effect, if there was any, of short-selling activities; whether the ban improved or deteriorated the informational efficiency or the price discovery process of the stock market; and whether the ban had any impact on market liquidity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Multiple regression; vector autoregression analysis; and generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity analysis.\nFindings: The authors find no evidence that short-sales have a market-destabilizing effect and thus, restricting short-selling has a market-stabilizing effect. On the contrary, the short-selling ban is associated with an increase in return volatility and a deterioration of the price discovery process, particularly for the stocks without derivatives traded on them. The authors also find evidence of a liquidity decrease for short-sale intensive stocks. However, the evidence is inconclusive as to whether the market efficiency and liquidity changes are solely the result of the short-sales ban or the compound effects of both the ban and the concurrent progress of the financial crisis.\nOriginality/value: The literature does not provide a conclusive view on the effects of short-sales or restrictions thereof on the stock market. Also, the existing research on recent worldwide shorting bans often lack empirical scope (e.g. 32 stocks for UK; three weeks for USA). In contrast, the short-sales ban in the Korean stock market, one of the most comprehensive and restrictive short-selling bans worldwide, lasted for eight months for all the listed stocks and is still in effect for financial stocks. The authors find no evidence that short-sales have a market-destabilizing effect and thus, restricting short-selling has a market-stabilizing effect.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Usefulness of altmetrics for measuring the broader impact of research: A case study using data from PLOS and F1000Prime
|
[
"Facebook",
"Altmetrics",
"Mendeley",
"Twitter",
"F1000",
"Figshare"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: While scientometricians have chiefly used citation scores as an instrument for the measurement of the impact of research, in recent years altmetrics (short for alternative metrics) have provided a further attractive possibility for measuring the impact of research. \"Altmetrics refers to data sources, tools, and metrics (other than citations) that provide potentially relevant information on the impact of scientific outputs (e.g. the number of times a publication has been tweeted, shared on Facebook, or read in Mendeley). Altmetrics opens the door to a broader interpretation of the concept of impact and to more diverse forms of impact analysis\" (Waltman and Costas, 2014, p. 433). Whereas citations allow a measurement of the impact of research on research itself, one assumption is that altmetrics can also capture the impact beyond the realm of science. An overview of the various available altmetrics can be found in Claussen et al. (2013). For example, Twitter (www.twitter.com) is a popular microblogging application, whose data can be used as an altmetric. This application allows the user to post short messages (tweets) of up to 140 characters. Tweets can be sent to other users and linked to web sites or scientific papers (Darling et al., 2013). Other sources of altmetrics are Mendeley, Facebook, and Figshare.\n2. Peer ratings provided by F1000: F1000 is a post-publication peer review system of articles from biological and medical journals. F1000 is part of the Science Navigation Group. This group of independent companies publishes and develops information services for the biomedical community. F1000 started with F1000 Biology, which was launched in 2002. In 2006, F1000 Medicine was added. Both services were merged in 2009 and constitute the current F1000 database. Papers for F1000 are selected by a global \"Faculty\" of leading scientists and clinicians who are nominated by peers. The Faculty currently numbers more than 5,000 experts worldwide, assisted by further associates, who are organised into more than 40 subjects. Faculty members can choose and evaluate any article that interests them. They rate the articles and explain their importance (F1000, 2012). Only a restricted set of articles from the medical and biological journals covered is reviewed (Wouters and Costas, 2012; Kreiman and Maunsell, 2011). Although many papers published in popular and high-profile journals (e.g. Nature, New England Journal of Medicine, Science) are evaluated, 85 per cent of the papers selected come from specialised or less well-known journals (Wouters and Costas, 2012).\n3. Methods: 3.1. Construction of the data set\n4. Results: In order to examine how Mendeley, Facebook, Twitter, and Figshare counts differ with differently tagged papers, four regression models with four counts as dependent variable and the tags as independent variable were calculated. As Table III shows, each model includes the individual recommendation scores of the Faculty members alongside the tags. This can be used to investigate the influence of the tags on the different counts - under the control of the effects of the recommendations. Since the recommendations reflect the quality of the papers, the results of the tags are adjusted for the quality of the papers. In other words: the different results for the tags can hardly be traced back to the differing quality of the papers. The models also include the journals in which the papers were published. This allows the influence of the journal on the counts to be controlled for in the analysis. Thus, for instance, one may expect high-impact journals (e.g. PLOS Biology) to have a larger circle of readers than journals with a lower impact, and that their contributions would also be mentioned more often in social media than the contributions of other journals (Haustein and Siebenlist, 2011).\n5. Discussion: Altmetrics are regarded as an attractive possibility for filling the requirement for indicators for broad impact measurement. The data accessibility of altmetrics is already rather good: several organisations (such as ImpactStory, Plum Analytics, and Altmetric) have been founded to collect and provide altmetrics. In addition, altmetrics can also measure the impact of research products other than publications, such as data sets, software, or artwork. As opposed to traditional citations, many altmetrics have the advantage that they permit an impact measurement relatively quickly after the publication of a work. Whereas traditional citations allow a measurement of impact at least three years after the appearance of a publication (Bornmann and Marx, 2014), this is already possible in a (significantly) shorter time scale with many altmetrics.\n6. Conclusions: Initiated by the wish of governments for a broader impact measurement of scientific activities (Bornmann, 2012, 2013), the field of scientometrics is currently undergoing a process of deep-seated change, which is described by Bornmann (2014b) as a scientific revolution. An impact measurement can no longer involve only traditional citations, but also indicators which can measure the impact of research in other sectors of society (such as the economy, culture, or health services).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this case study is to investigate the usefulness of altmetrics for measuring the broader impact of research.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This case study is based on a sample of 1,082 the Public Library of Science (PLOS) journal articles recommended in F1000. The data set includes altmetrics which were provided by PLOS. The F1000 data set contains tags on papers which were assigned by experts to characterise them.\nFindings: The most relevant tag for altmetric research is \"good for teaching\", as it is assigned to papers which could be of interest to a wider circle of readers than the peers in a specialised area. One could expect papers with this tag to be mentioned more often on Facebook and Twitter than those without this tag. The results from regression models were able to confirm these expectations: papers with this tag show significantly higher Facebook and Twitter counts than papers without this tag. This clear association could not be seen with Mendeley or Figshare counts (that is with counts from platforms which are chiefly of interest in a scientific context).\nOriginality/value: The results of the current study indicate that Facebook and Twitter, but not Figshare or Mendeley, might provide an indication of which papers are of interest to a broader circle of readers (and not only for the peers in a specialist area), and could therefore be useful for the measurement of the societal impact of research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The growing (good) bubbles: insights into US consumers of sparkling wine
|
[
"Generational cohorts",
"Consumption occasion",
"Online consumer panel",
"Price points",
"Wine choice"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Over the last decades, wine business researches have explored wine consumers' characteristics and attitudes worldwide (Barber et al., 2007; Bruwer and Li, 2007; Saayman et al., 2012; Thach and Olsen, 2015). The rationale underlying this flourishing research line is the well-established belief that insights into consumers would enable their wine purchasing behavior to be uncovered (Lockshin et al., 2006; Pomarici et al., 2017). The current market scenario, indeed, is strongly driven by consumers who, having access to a wide variety of wines and brands from different countries, can easily alter their choices from one product to another. Theory suggests that consumers make their purchasing decisions based on the utility derived from the product that is a direct function of its single or combined characteristics (Apostolidis and McLeay, 2016). By a winery perspective, acquiring knowledge on wine consumers becomes central to adapting the product offer, market positioning and corporate communication. As a result, wineries can establish long-term relationships and strengthen their position on the market.\n2. Study background: Literature on consumers' preferences relies widely on the Lancaster's theory (Carlucci et al., 2015). Lancaster (1966), in the \"A new approach to consumer theory,\" stated that consumers do not derive utility directly from the product but rather from its characteristics. Lancaster's theory considers the product as an input of the consumption activity in which its characteristics - either intrinsic or extrinsic - are the resulting output (Ankamah-Yeboah et al., 2016). According to Lancaster, consumers make their purchasing decisions based on the utility derived from the product that is a direct function of its single or combined characteristics (Apostolidis and McLeay, 2016; Kuhfuss et al., 2016). Thus, the same product but with different characteristics may result in a different utility level (De Groote et al., 2016). When it comes to consumer, the utility level is also affected by psychological, moral, social and ethical factors (Carlucci et al., 2015; Nazzaro et al., 2018, 2019). The latter act positively or negatively on consumer purchasing decisions, encouraging or discouraging consumers' choices. Over the last decade, a flourishing stream of research investigated product characteristics more appealing to consumers (Pomarici et al., 2017; Chrysochou et al., 2012). Other studies have also proven the influence of brand image, reputation, symbolism and cultural variation on the purchase decision of sparkling wine (Verdonk et al., 2017; Velikova et al., 2016). Currently, scholars are focusing on socio-demographics and cultural factors able to affect consumer behavior. This study contributes to the literature investigating differences in consumer behavior between genders and generational cohorts. Consumers' preferences are explored applying the Lancastrian approach. For instance, sparkling wine is examined in different social settings (i.e. home, bar, cafe or restaurant) that may provide diverse utility levels. Furthermore, single product attributes influencing sparkling wine choice have been deeply investigated. The next paragraphs briefly review previous studies on sparkling wine and socio-demographics and generational characteristics.\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Data collection and questionnaire\n4. Results and discussion: 4.1 Sparkling wine consumption behavior\n5. Marketing implications: The wine industry is regarded as a highly heterogenous, dynamic and fast-changing industry making it one of the most complex and competitive businesses worldwide (Thach and Olsen, 2006).\n6. Limitations and future research: Although the results suggest several useful insights for wineries, a few limitations in the study need to be addressed in further research. Indeed, it is important to keep in mind that respondents of this study may not fully represent the US wine consumer population, as panelists are generally more involved in wine and sparkling wine consumption and more knowledgeable about wine than the average consumer. Another limitation is the type of surveying technique, which creates a self-selection bias limiting the representativeness of respondents' behavior and preferences. Future researches should thus target a fully representative sample. Moreover, due to the fast-changing nature of preferences and behaviors as well as the effect of aging, the current findings provide a time-framed scenario that should be constantly updated. Furthermore, and prominently, additional studies on generational differences among US consumers' behavior and preferences for sparkling wines should provide more detailed insights into the key drivers influencing purchasing and consumption choices. Indeed, researchers should identify the core trends prompting generational cohorts' preferences (e.g. healthy lifestyle for middle-aged consumers), together with the most effective instruments to deliver tailored information to specific market targets (e.g. applying more interactive and engaging systems to reach younger individuals). Therefore, future research could apply qualitative analysis techniques to better investigate these issues and provide marketing inputs. Lastly, current findings highlight that important differences are found between on-premise and off-premise sparkling choices. Thus, practitioners and scholars should devote deeper attention to uncover preference dynamics of these two purchasing occasions, also considering the paucity of on-premise research data.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate sparkling wine consumption behavior and preferences of a large sample of US consumers (n=1,096) exploring the differences among genders and generational cohorts.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The sample has been drawn from Wine opinions, a specialized market research company with a large online panel of US wine consumers. Data were collected through a survey mailing model, administering a structured questionnaire.\nFindings: Findings reveal that consumption frequency between genders is not statistically different and women generally prefer sparkling wines priced below $15. Baby Boomers is the generation with the lowest sparkling wine consumption frequency. Furthermore, Generation X and Baby Boomers have the highest consumption frequency in the price range $15-$19.99, while Millennials in the $10-$14.99 one.\nOriginality/value: The study sheds light on the changing consumer attitudes to create competitive advantages for wineries. Specifically, it provides valuable marketing insights into the peculiarities of sparkling wine consumption for each generation (e.g. price-point preferences and type of wine).\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Talent management: For what, how and how well? An empirical exploration of talent management in practice
|
[
"Talent management",
"Public sector organizations",
"Talent",
"Human resource management",
"Balanced approach",
"Employee well-being"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In popular and practitioner oriented literature, internet magazines and on social networking sites there is an intensive debate on the talent challenges organizations are confronted with (Iles et al., 2010). Scholars also have produced a considerable number of publications on talent and TM over the course of the past decade. Yet, the amount of scholarly peer-reviewed literature is lagging behind. This illustrates a gap between the practitioner and academic interest in the subject (Cappelli and Keller, 2014). In the academic field of Human Resources Management (HRM), talent and TM seem to be relative poorly developed research subjects, and to add a lasting contribution to the field of HRM, TM has to overcome some limitations and difficulties. First, the field of TM lacks a stable theoretical foundation. Academic TM literature explores the field in all possible directions - using a broad range of academic traditions, including international HRM, strategic HRM, career management and organizational behavior (Gallardo-Gallardo et al., 2015) - but theoretical approaches are hardly integrated or linked, and consensus on TM definitions and principles is therefore hard to find (Lewis and Heckman, 2006; Collings and Mellahi, 2009; Nijs et al., 2013). According to Dries (2013, p. 3) \"vague but appealing rhetoric\" even causes critics to question whether TM is not just a management fad.\nTM and the TM process: a theoretical exploration: TM is often described as the systematic attraction, identification, development, engagement/retention and deployment of talents (e.g. Scullion et al., 2010). Within their TM definitions authors adopt different terms for \"talent,\" for example \"excellent abilities,\" but also terms like \"key employees,\" \"high potentials\" or \"those individuals with high potential who are of particular value to an organization\" are used. The variety of terms used to define talent reflects one of the most central debates in TM, i.e. whether TM is an inclusive approach which focusses on (the talents of) all employees, or an exclusive approach aimed at attracting and retaining a select group of employees (Tansley, 2011). Subsequently, the outcomes of TM and the TM practices necessary to obtain the intended outcomes are key issues. In general, the TM literature provides a rational and instrumental interpretation of the TM process: talents are recruited and developed with a broad variety of TM practices to direct their behavior in a direction that fits the organizational needs, and, as a result, the individual is happy and motivated, and individual and organizational performance increases. The general assumption in this approach is that the effectiveness of TM primarily depends on the strategic alignment of TM. In doing so, the TM process is disconnected from other influences in the external and internal organizational context. However, in the field of HRM it is widely acknowledged that the process through which HR strategy leads to performance is not as simple as the TM literature suggests. The route from HR strategy to organizational performance consists of a set of underlying processes at multiple levels, and in each process different actors and hindering and enabling factors are involved, through which variance can occur at each of those levels. Though, these insights for the field of strategic HRM have not yet entered the TM domain.\nMethodology: In this study we will focus on explaining what actually happens in practice, and in line with the above reasoning, explores the potential and actual value of TM for the organization and the talented employees, and the factors that affect the design, implementation and effectiveness of TM. The empirical data were collected in a specific context: Dutch publicly funded universities. The university is an outstanding example of a talent organization. The terms \"talent,\" \"highly-gifted\" or \"genius\" are often used to refer to a scientist with extraordinary insights, a great mind who realized critical breakthroughs in his or her academic field. For centuries the university tried to provide an independent intellectual space to nurture and nourish these genii. Today, universities are still looking for the most gifted and committed academics, although the quest for talent seems to be more grounded in economic factors. In particular in Europe, universities are ascribed an important role in the strengthening of the European position in the global knowledge economy (Enders et al., 2011). The production of useful knowledge and relevant teaching necessary to solve societal and economic issues has been emphasized. To improve the competitive position of the European higher education system great value is attached to quality and excellence, which is combined with increasing demands for transparency, accountability and efficiency by local governments (Enders et al., 2011). The presence of highly qualified academic staff is extremely important for the quality of educational programs and academic research, the universities' reputation and the knowledge condition in a region (Florida, 1999; Enders et al., 2011). A \"war for talent\" is inextricably bound up with this shift toward competition and excellence. For some academic disciplines this is problematic and they suffer chronic shortages of talented people (e.g. technology and engineering) while other disciplines face a surplus of young academics wanting to pursue an academic career (e.g. humanities) (Gilliot et al., 2002). This raises the question if, and how, this typical talent organization attracts and develops their academic staff. Several studies showed that businesslike elements are seeping into the academic management systems, and that Dutch universities have shifted from a collegial system to manage the recruitment and employment of personnel, to a more managerial model in which practices from private sector organizations are adopted (e.g. Fruytier and Timmerhuis, 1995; Smeenk, 2007). On the other hand, not all signals from outside the academic organization come through. The classic academic norms and values such as autonomy, independence and creativity are still vital in the organizational culture and the professional values and orientations of academics. These professional norms and values have an impact on the academic organization and academic HRM as well (Smeenk, 2007). The managerial and professional pressures co-exist in today's academic organization and create tensions which affect HRM policy and practice. Whether this is also the case in TM is elucidated in the result section. Before presenting the results, this section describes the case selection, the data collection and analysis.\nFindings: Intended TM objectives\nDiscussion: In this paper the HRM-process models of Paauwe (2004) and Wright and Nishii (2013) have provided a more enriched and complete view of the talent challenges organizations have to face, how they deal with these issues in practice and how well they do this, than the one-dimensional and limited TM approach that is dominant in the current TM literature. The findings are interesting for the field of TM in several ways. First, in line with the HRM-process model of Wright and Nishii (2013) the study showed that that implementing TM is not as easy as the TM literature predicts. There is a discrepancy between intended and actual practices, and the perception of the employees of those practices. In accordance with Paauwe (2004) the study identified factors at the institutional, organizational and individual level causing variance in the chain of processes. It is essential to acknowledge this possible variance in developing and implementing a TM strategy, and to anticipate by developing a TM approach that fits the organization and its context (Collings and Mellahi, 2009; Paauwe et al., 2013) instead of copying best practices from other organizations.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify and explain what happens in practice in TM, in order to contribute to the building of a broader and more balanced theoretical framework for TM in which the impact of the organizational context and its interrelated actors are taken into account.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The empirical data were collected in an explorative, longitudinal study on TM policies and practices in five Dutch university departments.\nFindings: The two crucial actors in TM - the organization and the talented employee - have a different perception of the intended and actual value of TM. The organization is capable of shaping and implementing a TM system that meets its needs, so from an organizational perspective TM is effective. Since the needs of the talented employees are insufficiently addressed in the intended and actual TM practices, TM has less value for them. Various influence factors at the institutional, organizational and individual level are identified.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study was a first step in opening the \"black box\" in TM, but several questions on the TM process still remain unanswered. The author therefore encourages more research on the multiple levels in the TM process, and the factors that cause variability.\nPractical implications: Knowledge of the factors which influence the TM process from strategy to outcomes can help practitioners to build a more effective TM approach.\nOriginality/value: Theoretical approaches from companion academic disciplines are linked to the dominant viewpoints in the TM literature. Moreover, to give counterbalance to the tendency to use universal models to explain TM, this study contextualizes TM. Finally, this study goes beyond a focus on management interests, and investigates to what extent other stakeholders (employees) benefit from TM.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Theorizing parental intervention and young adults' career development: a social influence perspective
|
[
"Parental intervention",
"Social influence",
"Traditionality",
"Career maturity",
"Career outcomes"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: If I were giving a young man advice as to how he might succeed in life, I would say to him, pick out a good father and mother, and begin life in Ohio.Wilbur Wright\nIntroduction: Parents play important roles in young adults' growth and development. While many studies have examined parental support (e.g. Ginevra et al., 2015; Guan et al., 2016), there is scarce systematic research on parents' intervention. Extant limited studies show that young adults experiencing parental intervention hesitate to make career decisions (Berrios-Allison, 2005; Fan et al., 2014). Despite this negative impact of parents' intervention, little is known about why parents intervene and how their intervention affects young adults' career development. Answering these questions would enrich the career literature and provide an unbiased guide for career counseling regarding the role of parental intervention.To intervene, by definition (Cambridge Dictionary), is to become involved in a situation and try to change it. When parents intervene in young adults' career choice, they are attempting to influence the latter's career decision-making. We view parental intervention as a neutral influence process rather than judging it to be good or bad. We also consider parental intervention a phenomenon that is generalizable across cultures rather than limit it to a specific culture because parents involve in young adults' career decision-making in both western and eastern cultures (Gavazzi et al., 1998; Fan et al., 2014).Drawing on the social influence perspective, we propose a theoretical model [1] delineating the role of parents' intervention in young adults' career choice. Parents intervene in their children's career development at four stages: children, adolescents, young adults and older adults, while young adults are of age from 18 to 25 (Whiston and Keller, 2004). The majority of young people in this age period are still obtaining education and training for future occupation (Arnett, 2000). It is typical in the group of young people that little is certain about their future. They do not know clearly what jobs they would and should choose (Cueso, 2005), because in this period, many critical career development activities occur and various possibilities exist (Milsom and Coughlin, 2017). Even for students who have clear vocational interests, they may not be able to choose their interest-based jobs (Tang, 2009), since different directions still remain possible for people aged 18-25 (Arnett, 2000). Due to young adults' uncertainness for the future, it provides an appropriate context for parental intervention to take place.According to social influence research, individuals influence others for need fulfillment (Sommer and Bourgeois, 2010) and the characteristics of influencers and influence targets are important in the influence process (Hovland, 1951). In addition, the influence target's attitude change is driven by three mechanisms (compliance, identification and internalization), which in turn are determined by the influencer's power bases (Kelman, 1958). Based on these, we propose that parental intervention may result from the inconsistency between young adults' career interests and parents' expectations and between parents' assessments of young adults' qualities and job demands. We also propose that parents' attempt to intervene is contingent on their own traditionality and that young adults' traditionality and career maturity are important factors in determining whether they accept parental intervention. Furthermore, we propose that parents' power bases of position, referent and expert respectively activate young adults' psychological modes of compliance, identification and internalization, which lead to different levels of occupational commitment and career satisfaction. Further, we develop the propositions in detail and discuss their implications.\nTheory and propositions: Young adults' career interests and parents' expectations, assessments and intervention\nDiscussion: Theoretical implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Drawing on the social influence literature and proposing parental intervention as a social influence process, this study seeks to theorize why parental intervention occurs and how it affects young adults' career development.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper adopts a conceptual design, offering a conceptual model based on social influence research and career development research.\nFindings: It is proposed that parental intervention is a result of incongruence between parental expectations and young adults' interested occupations and between parents' assessments of young adults' qualities and job demands. Parents' traditionality moderates these relationships, while the success of parental intervention depends on young adults' traditionality and career maturity. Parents' position, referent and expert powers affect young adults' compliance, identification and internalization, respectively, which impact their occupational commitment and career satisfaction.\nResearch limitations/implications: Looking at parental intervention over time would help researchers understand this phenomenon more comprehensively than focusing only on its short-term effects as identified in the literature. The motivational processes of parental intervention triggered by power bases play a key role in determining young adults' long-term career consequences.\nPractical implications: Career advisors should consider parents as a source of potential intervention in young adults' career choice. They may also provide parent-oriented services in addition to young adult-oriented services.\nOriginality/value: This framework contributes to the career development literature by adopting social influence approach to explain parental intervention in young adults' career choice and also providing implications for career counselors.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Archivematica outside the box: Piloting a common approach to digital preservation at the Five College Libraries
|
[
"Digital preservation",
"Consortial collaboration",
"Pilot projects",
"Preservation planning",
"Preservation tools",
"Software trials"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Between July 2014 and May 2015, library staff from the Five Colleges (Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, Smith and UMass-Amherst) undertook a project to explore facets of digital accessioning and preservation using an open-source platform called Archivematica (2016). This pilot project was spearheaded by a working group assembled by the Five College Digital Preservation Task Force, a consortial group focused on the challenges of digital preservation with interest in pursuing a collaborative approach to digital stewardship at the Five Colleges (FCs). The pilot emphasized this interest in consortial collaboration by customizing Archivematica's framework around centralized archival storage of digital objects and by investigating shared workflows for digital object creation across the colleges. The pilot met with several challenges along the way, but succeeded most significantly in providing a venue for shared conversations and problem-solving around common digital preservation pitfalls. In the end, the working group was able to gain experience with applied digital preservation activities and set forth recommendations toward further collaboration in the FCs.\nThe FC Digital Preservation Task Force - concept and mission: Finding the necessary resources to establish a digital preservation program and implement a digital preservation repository is a challenge for many institutions due to budget and staffing limitations. Realizing this, the libraries in the FC Consortium (University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College and Smith College) decided to explore the possibility of working together in establishing an ongoing, sustainable program for digital preservation across the colleges. Existing FC consortial efforts, such as the management of a shared integrated library system and a shared print depository, provided models of successful FC collaboration and influenced discussions of a shared approach to digital preservation across the libraries.\nOverview of the Archivematica pilot: The goal of the six-month pilot was to give each institution in the FCs an opportunity to wrestle with the practicalities of digital object creation and management and give the consortium a chance to outline the challenges and opportunities of shared policy and infrastructure development for digital preservation. Although the project was focused around a particular software solution, it was equally intended to evaluate each institution's capabilities and readiness for digital stewardship. The Task Force intended for this pilot to provide opportunities for all member institutions to ask questions on their campuses related to everything from high-level policy development to server space and resource allocation for digital preservation.\nCreation of the Archivematica working group and project timeline: The installation and configuration of the shared Archivematica platform took place between June and September of 2014 (see A Consortial Configuration for Archivematica below). In December 2014, the Archivematica working group was convened. The group consisted of some members of the Five College Digital Preservation Task Force, college archivists and graduate student interns from the Simmons SLIS West program: Sarah Walden (Project Coordinator, Amherst), Shaun Trujillo (Technical Lead, Mount Holyoke), Aaron Rubinstein (UMass), Leslie Fields (Mount Holyoke), Margy Jessup (Smith), Angelina Altobellis (Hampshire), Christina Barber (Amherst), Wendy Essery (Smith), Johanna Radding (Amherst) and Alexis Dhembe (Amherst).\nA consortial configuration for Archivematica: After the Task Force assembled a working group to investigate Archivematica as an experimental platform for engaging digital preservation workflows and decision points, the Technical Lead installed several test instances of Archivematica using cloud-based hosting options provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS). Between July and September 2014, the Technical Lead relied on AWS to make a quick and inexpensive assessments of the technical resources necessary to the upcoming pilot. AWS provided the benefit of working outside of the restrictions of any particular campuses' IT or network infrastructure. The ease with which one is able to configure a web application with AWS also allowed for the Technical Lead to achieve a better understanding of the relationship between Archivematica's Client and Storage Service, gaining insight not immediately apparent from the platform's online documentation, by testing several configurations of the software and varying the installation process between tests. The Technical Lead, once able to ascertain specific limitations of the platform by actually installing and testing it, then brought their concerns and recommendations back to the working group for further consideration.\nChallenges, pitfalls and lessons learned: At the start of the testing phase of the project, there were some significant performance issues that arose from the experimental approach of implementing a shared storage server and the need to transfer SIPs over HTTP. Preconfigured upload limits and directory quotas on both client applications and the storage server affected issues ranging from failed transfers to filling up temporary memory with large files during normalization. Testing ingest and transfer with small files was successful, but restricting transfers to one or two files at a time and the inability early on in the pilot to transfer large files (video and TIFFs, for example) inhibited exploration of Archivematica's full functionality and defeated one of its primary purposes - to automate batch processing of digital objects. It became obvious during initial testing that the centralized storage configuration compromised system performance. Many of the transfer issues would have been resolved had each institution configured their client to point to a local storage system. The single storage destination became a bottleneck for asynchronous work across the group that would reveal bugs and problem areas at different times. The working group also came to the conclusion that the software's performance would be improved by installing it directly on a dedicated Ubuntu machine, rather than as a guest virtual appliance on a host Windows or Mac machine.\nConclusion: Despite many of the challenges faced along the way, the Archivematica pilot project was largely successful. While a permanent consortial instance of Archivematica is as of yet unrealized, the pilot led to a deeper understanding of what is needed to implement a robust digital preservation program across the FCs. Some of the goals of this project were for each institution within the consortium to evaluate their own capabilities and readiness for digital stewardship, to gain the necessary skills and knowledge for digital preservation, and to define policies surrounding digital preservation. This project not only successfully accomplished these goals, it also led to many positive outcomes that are ongoing.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This work aims to provide a report on adopting a consortial model of collaboration toward understanding digital preservation practice.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This work provides a case study detailing the work and outcomes of a digital preservation pilot project undertaken by the Five College Libraries between 2014 and 2015.\nFindings: Digital preservation is a broad endeavor and rapidly developing facet of digital collections and institutional repositories; yet, it is often an area that is not fully understood or implemented by many libraries and archives, largely because institutions lack the necessary resources to do it alone. Working across institutional lines provides a possible solution to overcoming resource limitations and general challenges for pursuing robust digital preservation programs.\nResearch limitations/implications: Findings reported in this work are based on a limited-scope pilot project. Several questions laid out during the pilot remain unanswered at its close.\nOriginality/value: This paper provides insight into an experimental process rarely reported in library and information science literature. The goal of the paper is to provide a reference point for institutions pursuing a consortial approach to the challenges of applied digital preservation practice.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The impact of organization ownership structure on JIT implementation and production operations performance
|
[
"Manufacturing companies",
"Ownership structure",
"Operational performance",
"Survey study",
"JIT production"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Just-in-time (JIT) production system, which originated from Toyota in the mid-twentieth century, has been accepted globally as an effective manufacturing strategy. For many firms, JIT has provided a competitive boost and has enabled them to meet the demands of global competition (Mackelprang and Nair, 2010).Ohno (1982), the originator of the JIT management philosophy, defined JIT simply as \"having the right part at the right time, and in the right quantity, to go to assembly\". The American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS) defines JIT as a philosophy of manufacturing based on a management plan that identifies and then eliminates all waste and that emphasizes continuous improvement (CI) in plant productivity (Brox and Fader, 2002). Monden (1983) described JIT philosophy as CI activities aiming to reduce cost through elimination of wastes, and he viewed JIT as one of the two pillars of Toyota Production System (another pillar is called automation, which is called \"Jidoka\" in Japanese). Summarily, a broader understanding is that JIT is a philosophy of CI in which non-value-adding activities are identified and removed in order to reduce cost, as well as to improve quality and delivery (Brox and Fader, 2002; Hall, 1983; Zelbst et al., 2010). From the standpoint of JIT, there are seven types of waste-overproduction, waiting and idle time, invalid motion, transportation, inventory, ineffective processing, and product defect (Hall, 1983; Jacobs et al., 2009; Gomes and Mentzer, 1988; Ramaswamy et al., 2002). Because waste is non-value-adding for customers, all activities of JIT production are deployed around waste reduction, including both internal and external processes of the organization (Claycomb et al., 1999).Since the 1980s, JIT production has been one of the hottest research topics in academics and there is a large body of empirical study about the JIT problem. A number of researchers have examined the critical success factors and influence factors of JIT implementation (Ahmad et al., 2003; Bayo-Moriones et al., 2008; Chong et al., 2001; Inman and Boothe, 1993; Kim and Takeda, 1996; Lee and Ebrahimpour, 1984; McLachlin, 1997; Peters and Austin, 1995; Power and Sohal, 2000; Sriparavastu and Gupta, 1997; White et al., 1999). Other researchers have discussed the implementation methodology, elements, and problems of JIT (Al-Maarneh, 2012; Crawford and Cox, 1991; Furlan et al., 2011; Harber et al., 1990; Matson and Matson, 2007; McTavish et al., 1991; Ramaswamy et al., 2002; Sohal et al., 1993; Swanson and Lankford, 1998). Some researchers have conducted international comparison of JIT implementation (Aghazadeh, 2003; Billesbach et al., 1991; Kristensen et al., 1999; Matson and Matson, 2007; Swamidass, 2007). Some researchers have compared the difference and complementary relationships between JIT and other manufacturing technologies, such as TQM, TOC, MRPII, agile manufacturing and supply chain (Cua et al., 2001; Danese et al., 2012; Dreyfus et al., 2004; Flynn et al., 1995; Furlan et al., 2011; Inman et al., 2011; Kannan and Tan, 2005; Lau, 2000; Sale and Inman, 2003; Sriparavastu and Gupta, 1997; Vuppalapati et al., 1995; Youssef, 1994; Zelbst et al., 2010). Also, some researchers have examined the relationship between JIT implementation and operations performance or business performance (Danese et al., 2012; Fullerton and McWatters, 2001; Fullerton et al., 2003; Inman et al., 2011; Meybodi, 2009).However, issues and challenges of JIT implementation also still exist in practice, such as practice of JIT and survey research have revealed that organization and culture factors play more and more important roles in implementing JIT (Wong, 2007). Moreover, prior research has paid a very little attention to the effect of contextual factors on JIT implementation, especially the effect of organization ownership structure on JIT implementation. Theoretically, different firms with different ownership types have different operations strategies, which affect the implementation of advanced manufacturing technologies such as JIT system. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the enterprise contexture variable - organization ownership influences the implementation of JIT in manufacturing companies. To the best of our knowledge, there is no literature that systematically researches the impact of organization ownership structure on JIT implementation, although several authors' works have been concerned with ownership issues in analyzing the implementation of new manufacturing technology (NMT), such as Salaheldin (2007) and Rahman et al. (2010). The results of this research will contribute to the body of knowledge on JIT application, offer evidence of the role of contexture factors in JIT implementation, and helpful managerial implications for firms to improve operations performance while implement JIT production system.There exists a number of compelling reasons why Chinese manufacturing firms are the focus of this study. First, China is the world largest exporter, i.e. so-called \"manufacturing floor of the world\". Thus, no operations or strategic theory can claim to be complete without considering China environment. Second, as China shares many important common cultures with Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, etc. the Chinese experience can help shed light on future firm growth in Asia. Finally, as China is becoming one of the biggest economy bodies, improved understanding of Chinese firms will have enormous practical implications for Western firms that have business dealings in China.The paper is organized as follows: Section 2 is the theoretical background and research framework, which presents theory model and constructs hypotheses based on literature review; Section 3 introduces the research method, including questionnaire design, data collection, and method of analysis; Section 4 tests hypotheses using survey data, and discusses the results; Section 5 summarizes our conclusions and addresses the limitations of the study.\n2 Theoretical background and research framework: 2.1 Organization ownership theory and ownership pattern in China\n3 Research design and methodology: This section introduces the research methodology, including measure variables, data collection, and processing method.3.1 Measures of operations performance\n4 Data analysis and research results discussion: 4.1 Construct validity and reliability analysis\n5 Discussion and conclusions: Using empirical data, this study examines the relationships among implementation of JIT, organization ownership structure and production operations performance. This research brings forth new findings based on the Chinese firms' environment. More importantly, this study addresses an important gap in the existing operations management and JIT literature, i.e. the impact of organization ownership structure on JIT implementation and its performance.This paper contributes to theory and practice in three ways. First, we provide empirical evidence on the relationships among organization ownership structure, JIT implementation and production operations performance. Second, we propose a multi-view framework model for explaining the relationships among organization ownership, manufacturing strategy and operations performance based on three theoretical views, i.e. resource-based theory view, agency theory view and organization theory view. Third, we identify the different roles elements of JIT play in the implementation process; this will be a helpful guideline for firms in implementing JIT.In this study, we find that ownership not only impacts the JIT implementation and operations performance, but also impacts the relationship between JIT implementation and operations performance. For firms operated in China, FOF and JVF have higher implementation level and obtain more benefit than state-owned and POFs in implementing JIT system. For all types of ownership firms (except for private firms), JIT implementation has a significantly positive relationship with operations performance. Most important, on the implementation of individual elements of JIT system, we uncovered information which has never been found in other literature, i.e. FOFs and joint ventures have dominant higher implementation level than state-owned and POFs in the four elements, i.e. STR, 5S activities, Kanban and visual management, and TPM. Surprisingly, two of the JIT elements, i.e. QC and MSE, were adopted by all types of ownership firms. This reveals that all types of ownership firms have understood the importance of QC and human resource in JIT implementation.This research sheds helpful insights into JIT implementation. First, firms should adopt a step-by-step approach when implementing JIT instead of replicating Toyota without taking into account the specific operating conditions of their plants. This findings is particular helpful for Chinese manufacturers who lack managerial resource and advanced management culture. It is vital that during JIT implementation, they should first implement and reinforce the basic elements of JIT, e.g. employee training, 5S campaign and supplier cooperation (JIT purchasing) before extending to other elements of JIT. Second, for Chinese firms (SOF and POFs), it is necessary to benchmark and learn from FOF and JVF on how to improve JIT implementation performance. The implementation of STR TPM, 5S activities and Kanban/visual management are areas where the Chinese firms should learn most from FOF and JVF.While this study extends previous empirical investigation of JIT implementation and its relationship with organizational ownerships, several extensions can be made to this research area to add further insights. First, since the conclusions of this research only reflect part of China manufacturing industry situation; future research should include a larger data sample to conduct a multi-group analysis to examine the moderating effect of different regions, it is also important to test the generalizability of these findings to other countries. Second, the conclusions of the research are all based on statistical data and not based on particular case, so the further research can be taken through case study. Third, in this paper, we only classify practices of JIT into ten elements, but not further define detailed items of each element, so the future research can been extended to include more detailed items for each element of JIT, and then conclusions will be more reasonable and more valuable.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to empirically explore the relationships among organization ownership structure, implementation of just-in-time (JIT), and production operations performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A theory model for explaining the relationships among ownership, manufacturing strategy and performance was constructed, and then several hypotheses were tested using statistical analysis models based on questionnaire responses from Chinese manufacturing firms.\nFindings: - The results show that organization ownership not only impacts the implementation of JIT and operations performance, but also impacts the relationship between JIT implementation and operations performance. Moreover, the results show that, for firms operated in China, the implementation frequency of JIT practices varies with organization ownerships; the foreign and joint venture firms (JVFs) were found to have a higher level of JIT implementation and can also achieve better performance from JIT implementation than state-owned and private-owned firms (POF). Also, JIT implementation was found to have a significantly positive relationship with operations performance in all types of ownership firms, with the exception of private ownership firms.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The research only covers manufacturing firms in China. Further research is needed to test the wide implications of this research in other countries or industries.\nPractical implications: - This paper provides insights into how to improve JIT implementation performances, especially in various organization ownership structures.\nOriginality/value: - The paper appears to be one of the first studies of relationship between ownership structure and JIT implementation in China manufacturing environment.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Gesture-based animated CAPTCHA
|
[
"Innovation",
"Computer security",
"Access control",
"Client-server computing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In spite of spam's low conversion rate (Kanich et al., 2008), it is still a popular way of making money (Gudkova, 2014). To prevent the unsolicited remarks left by spambots from appearing on their websites, webmasters often use captchas (completely automated public turing test to tell computers and humans apart; von Ahn, 2011). Unfortunately, it is possible to solve them automatically. For example, ReCaptcha, one of the most popular modern captchas, has been broken by a neural network (Hof, 2013). It was neither the first nor the last captcha to be broken by such a system, for that information processing paradigm is especially good at solving recognition-related problems (Vylomova et al., 2014). However, artificial intelligence (AI) systems have not achieved similar results in the field of gesture recognition yet (Rafiqul and Noor, 2012).\nToward the gesture-based CAPTCHA service: Some of challenge/response systems not only provide protection against spam but also perform other useful operations, for example, help recognize scanned texts and house numbers. However, their main task is to tell a website whether the user is a human. There are a lot of different captcha services, and most of them work according to the algorithm shown in Figure 1.\nDifferent video rendering approaches: Transferring video over the internet requires a rather high connection speed, and its rendering consumes a lot of computing power. Therefore, it is necessary to compare different approaches to rendering, inspect their positive and negative sides and choose the one that fits the purpose best.\nVideo format comparison: Out of the three approaches described in the previous section, server side rendering seems to be the most reasonable, at least at the first stages of implementation. The combined rendering might be used later, especially in the situations when it actually gives some performance benefit. Using the client device to render the video is very unprotected and negates the main advantage of the gesture-based CAPTCHA, allowing computing of the symbol sequence without video recognition.\nManual recognition rate of the gesture-based CAPTCHA: To estimate how hard it is for people to pass the gesture-based test, an experiment was performed. The CAPTCHA signing four numbers from 0 to 9 was shown to participants who were not familiar with gesture languages. Every one of them had to successfully recognize it 30 times. They were able to open a help page that clarified the meanings of the gestures, but the entire screen was blocked so they could not look at the CAPTCHA and the help at the same time. The goal of the test was to measure the average time it takes for a person to recognize the four gestures, the amount of mistakes made in the process and the time people spend on the help page and ascertain which gestures out of the ten are the hardest to recognize.\nConclusion: The conducted experiments have shown that the gesture-based CAPTCHA is not impossible to recognize even for people who are completely unfamiliar with sign languages, but it could use some improvements. As an algorithm able to automatically recognize hand gestures from a video without any depth data with a high rate of success has not been created yet, using such signs to protect websites from spam can be a good idea.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to describe the development of a new experimental CAPTCHA (completely automated public turing test to tell computers and humans apart), which is supposed to provide better protection against spam bots compared to the existing captcha solutions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In the new CAPTCHA, the authors are using animated images of hand gestures to represent letters and numbers. A lot of people use sign language as their primary means of communication, but an automatic algorithm able to reliably recognize such gestures from videos without any additional data has yet to be developed.\nFindings: The experiment showed that at first, it takes time for people who do not use sign languages in their everyday lives to adapt to the new CAPTCHA, but after several successful recognitions, they have no more trouble with it than with a typical captcha implementation.\nOriginality/value: The paper shows that people with little to no knowledge of sign languages can still recognize gestures on video relatively fast. Therefore, a gesture-based implementation can be used not only on websites aimed at sign language speakers but also as a general-purpose captcha service.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Understanding clients' experience of trust and distrust in dwelling fit-out projects: An ambivalence approach
|
[
"Organization",
"Trust",
"Construction",
"Distrust",
"Ambivalence",
"Interview",
"Projects"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Trust has been recognized as an effective approach to deal with uncertainty and complexity in projects (Bygballe et al., 2010; Sward, 2016). Extant studies have examined multi-dimension nature of trust (Shazi et al., 2015; Wong et al., 2008), how to build trust (Maurer, 2010; Laan et al., 2011) and how trust influences project outcome (Doloi, 2009; Kadefors, 2004; Muller et al., 2014; Wong and Cheung, 2005). Benefits of trust in project management have been widely recognized, such as reducing transaction cost (Muller et al., 2014), facilitating knowledge sharing (Ding et al., 2007) and contributing to project success (Doloi, 2009; Kadefors, 2004; Wong and Cheung, 2005). In addition, studies suggested removing distrust in managing projects as it increases transaction cost, results in adversarial relationships and impedes project success (e.g. Zaghloul and Hartman, 2003). These studies assumed that trust spans on a continuum, ranging from distrust to trust (Guo et al., 2017).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Imbalanced research on trust and distrust in project management\n3. Research methodology: 3.1 Research design and empirical context\n4. Results: 4.1 Presence of ambivalence caused by trust and distrust in projects\n5. Discussion: This study identified that trust and distrust result in ambivalence to the clients in dwelling fit-out projects. One aspect of ambivalence is that clients have simultaneous trust and distrust toward the contractor. This is attributed to the multifaceted nature of the transaction relationship (e.g. Ashforth et al., 2014; McKnight and Chervany, 2001). The client might trust the contractor on one aspect (e.g. competence), whereas distrust other aspects (e.g. cost control). This finding adds to the literature of multi-dimension nature of trust (e.g. Wong et al., 2008) by showing that when clients have divergent feelings or emotions toward different dimensions of the cooperative relationship, they may be confronted with a high level of ambivalence.\n6. Conclusion: This study investigated clients' ambivalence caused by trust and distrust and how clients respond to the ambivalence. Qualitative research strategies using multiple data sources were adopted.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Drawing upon the ambivalence literature, the purpose of this paper is to explore clients' ambivalence caused by the co-existence of trust and distrust and to investigate how clients respond to the ambivalence.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Qualitative research strategies using multiple data sources were adopted. Face-to-face interviews were the major method for gathering data. Additional data sources included archival cases, official reports, regulations and rules and survey reports.\nFindings: The results identified that clients' ambivalence occurs in the face of the co-existence of trust and distrust. Clients might trust contractors on certain aspects and distrust of others or when they realize that trust and/or distrust have mixed merits and demerits. As a response strategy to the ambivalence, clients may choose to oscillate between trust and distrust in accordance with contractors' quality and cost performance.\nResearch limitations/implications: One limitation is that dwelling fit-out projects are generally small in size. Parties in small size projects might have different mindsets than large projects. Thus, it is worthwhile to extend the framework to the context of large projects.\nPractical implications: Managers or clients should be aware of the double-edged sword nature of trust and distrust. To deal with the ambivalence resulting from co-existence of trust and distrust, a proper balance of trust and distrust might be effective.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes an ambivalence approach to the trust research in project management.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Why wakeful leadership is more important now than ever
|
[
"Leadership development",
"Reflection",
"Workforce",
"Transparency",
"Profit",
"Wakefulness"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Leadership has been described, studied and applied in more ways than the lights we see in the sky on a starry night. The fact that such is the case is a good indicator of the fascination scholars and practitioners seem to have with the subject. It also demonstrates that leadership is a frequently implemented phenomenon. Actually, there are conflicting opinions about the meaning of leadership. A large group of leadership authors feels that we can only speak of leadership when people exert leadership behavior in a formal, hierarchical setting toward others. Others broaden this scope and include informal settings to the picture, but maintain that \"others\" have to be involved before we can speak of leadership. And then, there are those, such as the author of this article, who feel that leadership should be considered from an even broader scope: as a behavior we exert throughout the many decisions we make and the many actions we take, whether others are involved or not. It is our personal leadership that drives us to make the strategic choices in our lives, for instance, whether we will continue our study or find a job right after college, or whether we should invest our savings in a new car or a long overdue paint job of the house.\nThe quality of our leadership: In considering the quality of our leadership, we have to include our values and moral convictions. What do we believe in? What do we consider important? What is acceptable to us and what is not? It should be noted that many people have a tendency to just adopt mindsets and behaviors from others because they simply do not think about the option of developing their own. And as they engage in this mindless adoption process, they fail to question the reasons and motives behind those others' actions, or the circumstances under which those mindsets and behaviors were developed. This act of mindlessly following trends and behaviors has been the plight of humanity for the longest time. The major problem we are facing today, however, is that we have progressed - or regressed - too far in our so-called civilized pattern to further uphold any form of mindlessness. In our local and global society of today, we are too connected, too informed, and too interdependent to continue hiding behind a mask of ignorance and mindless behavior. Aside from the numerous alerts on global warming, pollution, extinction of species and forest and water decline, we are dealing with inevitable interdependencies, inexorable cause and effect trends, which demand urgent attention to the decisions we make from here onward. Some recurring interdependencies in business leadership that require strict caution are:\nA wakeful approach: A wakeful approach begins with awareness - of our values and moral convictions, as mentioned earlier, of our beliefs, priorities, boundaries and behavioral tendencies. It really catalyzes when we start accepting that many of our traditionally held beliefs may need serious re-evaluation, so that we refrain from mindlessly following existing patterns, but instead formulate our own opinions, based on our own, contemporary insights.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to underscore the need for wakeful leadership, which is manifested through regular reflection.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This briefing is prepared by a leadership scholar/practitioner based on a blend of theory and practice.\nFindings: Today's leadership, whether in a formal or informal setting, and whether with others involved or not, requires reflection to refrain from mindless continuance of obsolete mindsets and behaviors.\nPractical implications: The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking aimed at constructively influencing current and future leaders.\nOriginality/value: A brief but critical emphasis on the urgent need of reflectively leading ourselves, others and our organizations today, considering past and future.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Factors contribute in development of the assessment framework for wheelchair accessibility in National Heritage Buildings in Malaysia
|
[
"Accessibility",
"Assessment framework",
"National Heritage Building",
"Wheelchair user"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: National Heritage Buildings have become popular among international and local tourists. The buildings reveal their historical background and unique architectural style that were left behind by our past generations. Apart from our country's vast development, such as its technology that is becoming more vital and expanded, and the skyscrapers built in many places, our national heritage and history have also drawn global attention (Zolkafli et al., 2019). Recently in 2017, Malaysia received 25.9m tourist arrivals bringing in a total receipt of RM 82.1bn (www.tourism.gov.my/statistics, accessed on January 10, 2019). This shows that tourism is an industry that contributes to Malaysia's income. Thus, the industry is obligated to provide quality services and facilities to welcome and attract more tourists to come to Malaysia.\nLiterature review: Built environment\nMethodology: In achieving the objectives of this research, two types of methodology are used: Structured Interviews and Access Audit (go-along interviews with the wheelchair users).\nSummary: National Heritage Buildings are old buildings and were built before there were any building regulations and regulated specifications of wheelchair accessibility (Harun, 2017; Welage and Liu, 2011; Olivadese et al., 2017). In this research, there were four vital factors considered in developing the assessment framework for wheelchair user in National Heritage Building: physical built environment; financial resources, organizational behavior and structure, and legislative matters. This study was executed using two methods to achieve its objective: a semi-structured interview with the National Heritage Building operators and Accessible Audit through the Go-along interview with the wheelchair participants. First, it is concluded from the perspectives of the National Heritage Building operators that they are more concerned on the financial resources and legislative matters since they were bound by both. Without sufficient financial resources their hands are tied. Besides that, the National Heritage Building operators must know and understand the rules and regulations in the act and the guideline regarding the maintenance of these National Heritage Buildings. Good understanding will then lead them to a better decision. Thus, accessibility for wheelchair users can be provided without jeopardizing the authentication of these National Heritage Buildings. Accessible audit and go-along interviews revealed that the physical built environment of these National Heritage Buildings was inaccessible. The participants concluded that the accessibility of the national heritage building is the most inconvenient causing them to feel unwelcomed. They suggested that the building should be installed with facilities and accessibility for the disabled and wheelchair users like them so that they will not feel left out by the society and the environment. They also have the same desires and other life goals like any other abled and normal people. They want to visit, experience, and enjoy our National Heritage Building and what is within the building (right of independent living). Thus, in this regard accessibility plays an important role (see Figure 1).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to reveal the significant factors that contribute to the development of the assessment framework for wheelchair accessibility to National Heritage Buildings.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A qualitative approach was conducted via semi-structured interviews and go-along interview (Accessible Audit) through selected multiple case studies to reveal the main factors that contribute to the development of the assessment framework for wheelchair users in National Heritage Buildings in Malaysia. There are four National Heritage Buildings (gazetted under National Heritage Act, 2005) selected for this research.\nFindings: The findings revealed a few significant factors comprising the physical built environment, organizational behavior and structure, financial resources, and existing legislation.\nResearch limitations/implications: This research is limited to wheelchair users and National Heritage Buildings, which was conducted through semi-structured interviews and go-along interview (Accessible Audit).\nPractical implications: This research investigates the standpoints of both the National Heritage Building operators and the wheelchair users pertaining to accessibility in National Heritage Buildings with regard to their respective roles as management and users.\nSocial implications: The research demonstrates the importance of social participation effects on the accessibility in National Heritage Buildings based on empirical evidence in highlighting operators' and wheelchair users' challenges toward enhancing their accessibility.\nOriginality/value: This research will be a great contribution to the development of the assessment framework for wheelchair accessibility in National Heritage Buildings in Malaysia, including accessibility for pushchair, elderly, and pregnant women.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Beyond "mainstream" and "alternative" in organic food supply chains: Empirical examples of added value distribution from eight European countries
|
[
"Added value",
"Added value calculator",
"Conventionalization",
"Organic food supply chain"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: One goal of the EU political framework is to ensure a sustainable growth of European organic agriculture (Meredith et al., 2018). Despite the steady increase in organic food consumption at the European level, growth in land area is less pronounced and there is uncertainty whether organic supply chains function efficiently and share rewards fairly between all partners involved (European Commission, 2014; Sanders et al., 2016; Willer and Lernoud, 2016, 2019).As stated by the European Commission (2014) in the \"Action Plan for the future of Organic Production in the European Union\", there is a need to understand where the barriers to further uptake of organic practices amongst farmers in Europe lie. To date, various studies have analysed the relative profitability of organic and conventional farms (Sanders et al., 2012; Crowder and Reganold, 2015). While such studies provide valuable information on financial attractiveness of organic production, they do not allow one to draw any conclusion on whether farmers are able to exploit the full potential of the EU organic market. In particular, there is little empirical knowledge on whether organic farmers are getting a \"fair\" share of added value created along the supply chain.The research presented in this paper aims to fill this gap by investigating the supply chains for three organic products - milk, apples and pasta - in eight European countries and how added value is distributed among market players.Previous studies relating to the socioeconomics of the organic sector (e.g. Crowder and Reganold, 2015; Padel, 2008; Sutherland, 2013; Dupre et al., 2017; Herman et al., 2018) have focused on analysis at the farm level. The reasons why studies on organic food supply chains are lacking and are normally limited to farm level analysis can be explained with the shortage of publicly available organic market data, especially product-specific data (Home et al., 2017), and by a lack of willingness of market players to share market and financial information (Kottila and Ronni, 2013).In our research, we account for all contributing supply chain stages and actors, i.e. farmers, wholesalers, distributors and retailers to understand how added value is distributed along the whole chain. We tried to overcome the limitations of other studies by using a mixed method approach, including interviews, an \"added value calculator\" tool developed by the research team and some secondary statistics. The analysis of specific organic supply chains of three products in eight countries helped us identify the factors influencing the distribution of added value and the overall dynamics of organic food chains, including farmers' opportunities to increase their share, target markets and the sale channels used.The next section provides a brief review of the literature relating to organic food supply chains, followed by a description of the methods. The results are then presented, including an overview of the market characteristics for the selected products in the study countries, as well as a summary of the findings from 12 specific supply chain examples. A discussion and conclusions section closes the paper.\nBackground: Most of the socio-economic studies on the organic food sector are related either to literature on alternative food networks (van der Ploeg et al., 2000; Renting et al., 2003) or to the conventionalisation hypothesis (Buck et al., 1997; Guthman, 2004; Clark, 2015; Constance et al., 2015). The former represents the organic sector as mainly based on local and domestic short supply chains and specialised organic shops. According to the conventionalisation hypothesis, organic farming has increasingly incorporated elements of the conventional food sector, becoming entangled in the conventional food system with supermarkets appropriating the largest share of added value (Buck et al., 1997; Guthman, 2004). Padel and Midmore (2005) distinguished between emerging and established markets and found in a Delphi study in Europe that most organic sales in emerging markets were either through direct marketing or organic shops, whereas supermarkets were more important in mature market countries. However, patterns of organic sales may also be influenced by product type, but studies and data distinguishing between product categories are lacking.The blunt division of organic farmers into either \"purists\" or \"pragmatists\" (Morgan and Murdoch, 2000; Guthman, 2004; Clark, 2015) has been challenged by some authors (Padel, 2008; Rosin and Campbell, 2009; Lehtimaki, 2019), who argue that it is difficult and potentially misleading to differentiate between farmers only in regard to their attitudinal viewpoints and the marketing channels they deal with. Rosin and Campbell (2009) explicitly criticised the traditional political economy approach employed by the supporters of the conventionalisation hypothesis and argued that the binary interpretation of the organic sector (alternative organic/mainstream organic) does not reveal the complexity connected with the specific contingencies in which the organic market players operate in.A few scholars (Lockie and Halpin, 2005; Ilbery et al., 2010) usefully attempted to provide a \"whole chain\" analysis, even though their investigations were based on, and limited to, farmer surveys and secondary data. They argued for the \"hybrid\" nature of the organic food sector, reporting as an example the case of some organic farmers in Australia, England and Wales who sell part of their production direct to consumers and part to a retailer, often a supermarket (Lockie and Halpin, 2005; Ilbery et al., 2010).There is a lack of studies analysing the distribution of added value along the whole organic food supply chain, which makes it difficult to know what the implications of dealing with different retail channels and markets are (Lockie and Halpin, 2005). Yet, an argument often sustained (Guthman, 2004; Smith and Marsden, 2004; Bui et al., 2019) is that the connection of organic farms with supermarkets undermines the viability of the organic sector by securing a cheaper and more consistent product supply. While this is certainly possible to an extent, there is no empirical evidence suggesting that this is always the case within the organic sector. For example, according to Aertsens et al. (2009), some supermarkets in Belgium played an active role in organising supply chains for organic beef in which farmers managed to get a relatively high price and were encouraged by the retailer to invest in product quality aspects. However, their analysis did not extend as far as comparing supermarket sales with other types of organic marketing channels. Although the relationship between organic suppliers and retailers is often a relationship between small and big volume actors (Wycherley, 2002), collaborative approaches between small suppliers and major retailer groups were found in organic supply chains in Finland, where trust and communication allow for collaborative planning and reciprocal advantages despite the power imbalances and differences in values between actors (Kottila and Ronni, 2013). Bonnet and Bouamra-Mechemache (2015), in a study on organic milk sold through a supermarket chain in France, found that the retailer's margins for organic milk were lower than for conventional and lower than the wholesaler's margins. The retailer's choice to sell organic milk was mostly driven by the need to avoid losing customers who want to purchase organic products. However, the analysis did not consider the farm stage.Likewise, increases in organic export activities in some countries for some products have been regarded as a symptom of conventionalisation of the sector (Buck et al., 1997; Guthman, 2004). Motives for export have mainly been related to the farmers' marketing choice and the involvement of international retailers in the organic food system, but other potential reasons, such as a lack of domestic supply chain infrastructures or supply/demand mismatch in specific market contexts, were largely ignored in research. Attempts to draw generalisations on this might be misleading, as very few data on organic imports and exports exist and currently it is not possible to compare production data vs international trade data (Willer and Lernoud, 2019).It seems fair to state that there is a lack of data as well as little empirical research on the underlying dynamics of the development of organic food supply chains, how they relate to the market environment and how they affect the distribution of added value. The research presented in this paper aims to fill these gaps.\nMethods: A mixed method approach was used, focussed on the analysis of added value in selected product supply chains for organic apples, milk and pasta in the Czech Republic (CZ), Estonia (EE), France (FR), Germany (DE), Hungary (HU), Italy (IT), Spain (ES) and the UKUK.The three products selected include two crop and one livestock product and different levels of processing. Apples as an almost unprocessed product require only grading and packaging, whereas pasta making from durum wheat involves several stages. Milk is of intermediate processing level. In choosing which products we studied in each of the eight countries, we aimed to cover a diversity of types of organic markets to explore whether the market context affects the functioning of the organic food chain. The markets for the products in the study countries reflect three types of development based on expert judgement: \"mature markets\", predominantly based on domestic production; \"emerging markets\", currently emerging within the EU and still developing structurally; and \"import markets\", predominantly based on imports from third countries.The approach to data gathering and analysis involved three steps.At first, background information from secondary data (e.g. organic production data, when available) was collected from the literature, Eurostat (2016) and AMI-FiBL (2016), to understand the market for organic apples, milk and pasta in the eight countries. Eurostat (2016) and EU-FADN (DG AGRI, 2016) provided some data for a basic comparison of organic and conventional prices at farm and supermarket levels. This analysis did not take the costs at different stages of the supply chain into account, as they are not available from secondary sources.Second, qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted between April and May 2016, with 65 organic industry experts, including persons from certification bodies and market players (farmers, processors and wholesalers) in supply chains selling to different market outlets. The objectives of the interviews were to understand the structure of, and power relations within, the supply chains and to identify opportunities and constraints for market players to increase their added value. Experts were selected using a snowball process. The interviews were analysed by coding the information collected according to common themes.Third, we collected financial data on costs and sales prices at different stages of 12 organic supply chains in a second round of 60 interviews with market players, to calculate the distribution of added value. For organic apples and pasta in Italy, data were collected both on supermarkets' and specialised organic shops' supply chains, whereas the other supply chains analysed were based only on organic retailers. This was because many supermarkets in the other study countries did not respond to the interview requests. The interviews included also questions on how added value distribution was related to the specific supply chain dynamics and to the market context. To calculate the distribution of added value in the 12 chain examples, we used an \"added value calculator\" tool developed by the research team. This is a spreadsheet-based tool where the sale price of each product at each supply chain stage represents the unitary gross revenue for that product. The gross margin can be automatically calculated using only information on costs provided by the interviewee, which made data collection easier and overcame market players unwillingness to disclose information on margins. The calculator allows for some flexibility to deal with data provided either as unit monetary costs or percentage costs through imputation with respect to output price. We limited the analysis to gross added value, focussing on the product-related outputs, valued at basic prices, less product-related intermediate consumption, valued at purchasers' prices. Some data on costs/supply chain stage/country could not be elicited and were considered as missing. The share of missing data referring to depreciation and other fixed costs was particularly high, and mainly in the distribution stage of the supply chains/countries. Missing data for variable costs were randomly distributed across countries and supply chains, with no systematic pattern and at a much lower incidence[1]. We used multiple imputation (MI) to estimate missing data for variable costs in order to have a complete and comparable data set of the breakdown of gross added value (not including the fixed costs) along the supply chains for all products and countries. MI is based on the creation of multiple estimates for each missing value based on observed data, which provide the necessary information for the predictions. These replace missing values with multiple sets of simulated and plausible values, representing the uncertainty about the correct value to impute (Rubin, 1996). The specification of the MI model was structured as follows. First, all relevant predictors for the imputation of missing data (i.e. all available data on costs) were used. Second, all relevant design variables representing the structure of the data set - data on cost type, country, supply chain, actors, etc. - were included. Thirdly, a truncated linear regression imputation method was specified, to bound imputation of missing data within the lowest and highest values observed. Following Graham et al. (2007), 150 iterations were run, a number that was a good balance between the time for computation and the stability and precision of the results (convergence and standard deviation increase with the number of iterations). The final estimates for the missing data were taken as the average of the estimates produced in each iteration.\nResults: Overview of the market for organic apples, milk and pasta in the eight study countries\nDiscussion and conclusion: Distribution of added value in the organic food supply chain\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the supply chains for organic milk, apples and pasta in eight European countries and how added value is distributed among market players.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using secondary data and expert interviews, a market overview for the three products is provided as the basis of a more detailed analysis of the added value in 12 organic supply chain examples. For this, interviews with market players and an \"added value calculator\" tool are employed.\nFindings: The farm gate and retail price of organic products is higher than conventional. Supermarkets are the main outlet for organic milk and apples in the countries studied, whereas the situation for organic pasta is varied, suggesting that the use of different sale channels is influenced by the food product. The farmers' share of added value ranges between 3 and 65 per cent of the added value created in the organic supply chains analysed. Organic offers opportunities to increase the farmers' share of added value both in supermarkets and alternative sale channels, by developing collaboration, physical infrastructures for organic and integrating operations upstream of the chain.\nResearch limitations/implications: While more research is needed into a larger number of chains, this paper indicates that there are dynamics and features at supply chain level, such as the distribution of added value and the target markets used, that cannot be interpreted according to the binary division between \"mainstream\" and \"alternative\" organic suggested by the conventionalisation hypothesis.\nOriginality/value: The distribution of added value for existing supply chains in eight European countries is calculated by using an effective added value calculator tool.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Universal truths: can universally held cultural values inform the modern corporation?
|
[
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Cross-cultural values",
"Horizontal collectivism",
"Vertical individualism"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: There are four universal truths in the world; four criteria that people globally believe to be valuable and important. These criteria - mental and physical health, subjective well-being, longevity, and preservation of the natural environment - are widely shared across cultures and can be used to evaluate the success of societies (Triandis, 2009). No culture is perfect; each is defective on one or several of these criteria. But cultures that predominantly violate these core values cannot be deemed successful because the result is a society that is unsustainable, filled with violence, unequal distribution of wealth, social disintegration, and environmental degradation. In short, indicators that could lead to a civilization's collapse (Diamond, 2011).\nThe four universal truths: Triandis (2009) searched for criteria that are acceptable across cultures, and commonly held. He identified four criteria that were commonly held cultural values. These included: health (both physical and mental), well-being (happiness), longevity, and preservation of the natural environment. These four \"universal truths\", Triandis (2009) observed, could be used to evaluate the success of individual cultures due to their globally recognized importance and persistence. For instance, no culture was identified where it was desirable that its members were sick. Similarly, happiness is a core desire of cultures. Although happiness is defined somewhat differently across cultures, core observations such as non-suicidal ideation are widely accepted. In the same vein, no culture values life being cut short, and longevity is thus a universal value. Some cynics have argued that people should die at age 65, as soon as they stop working, so as not to burden the health system. And there is at least one culture where people who reach age 80 are killed and eaten, so that the members of the culture can acquire their wisdom. However, these perspectives are culture specific and are not universally accepted. And finally, no culture wishes to see the destruction of the natural environment.\nA world in flux: The last 80 years have seen two important shifts in society, one in culture, the other in organization. These two shifts have had tremendous implications for our world, and how we live up to the four universal criteria. Both trends are generally heading in an undesirable direction that goes against the criteria of health, well-being, longevity, and environmental preservation that people value globally.\nHow do corporations measure up to the four universal truths?: The corporation has arisen in an era of vertical individualism, with the accompanying emphasis individual achievement, status, and competitiveness. As a result, the modern corporation thrives on flexible capitalism, instead of welfare capitalism. This is particularly true in the USA, where in the 1920s at least 20 percent of companies applied some form of welfare capitalism but today only 0.5 percent do so (Koller, 2010). While there are some benefits of individualistic cultures, such as higher subjective well-being of the individual due to greater freedom of choice, this can be costly at a societal level (Diener et al., 1995). We observe that emphasis of individualism in corporation can similarly have negative consequences for society. The flexible capitalism system has seen the collapse of major corporations that needed taxpayer bailouts (e.g. Lehman Brothers, AIG), corporate misconduct and fraud (e.g. Enron, Madoff), misuse of corporate funds for the private gain of managers and executives such as the private use of corporate jets to head to holiday resorts (Maremont and McGinty, 2011), disconcerting patterns of layoffs such 11 US companies laying off 600,000 people over a two-decade period (MacIntyre, 2011), and the increasing and unjustified pay inequalities mentioned earlier (Walsh, 2008).\nWhat lessons can corporations learn from the four cultural truths?: Now that corporations are a dominant form of social organization, the notion of cultural values becomes critically important. After all, like societies, corporations consist of groups of human beings and culture is a central tenant of humanity. Therefore, if corporations violate the four cultural truths, they will not be sustainable in the long term.\nThe culturally valued corporation: So how can a corporation be true to the four universal values of health, well-being, longevity, and environmental preservation? For one, such a corporation needs to take a more cognitively complex approach that integrates these values with other goals such as making a profit. The answer may lie in a corporation that balances opposing forces, such as integrating internal competition and cooperation, social welfare and individual interest, and tradition with entrepreneurship - in short, an organization that is \"ambicultural\" (Chen, 2014). Such a strategy must go beyond simple stakeholder management, and take an \"integrative, balanced, relational approach to management\" that \"benefits the greater community\" (Chen, 2014, p. 24). In short, we need a new, critical, and more complex approach to organizational theory and practice, since the power dynamics are not balanced between the corporate vs societal/community interests (Banerjee, 2008).\nConclusion: That challenges remain in the relationship between business with society and the natural environmental is clear. Furthermore, it is now clear that the cross-cultural literature and the understanding that four key, universally held values can help inform the corporate world's direction of CSR may provide guides in the future. Companies that integrate the notions of health, well-being, longevity, and environmental preservation - and do so from an \"ambicultural\" perspective - are more likely to be sustainable. Their employees will be happier and healthier. They will be more rested and do better work. The quality of products will be higher, not only for consumer use, but for the purpose of sourcing and recycling. The relationship with stakeholders will be stronger, and more integrated.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: There are four criteria that people universally value: health, well-being, longevity, and environmental preservation. When these criteria are violated, a society becomes unsustainable. In order to preserve cultures, these four universal criteria therefore need to be taken into account. But nation states are no longer the dominant form of social organizing - corporations are. This raises questions about the role of corporations in preserving cultural values. How do corporations measure up to these four universal truths? Can corporations live up to these values, above and beyond financial performance, and does it matter? The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Amidst a shifting trend toward vertical individualism which emphasizes personal needs, status, and hierarchy, the paper argues that the universal truths are more important than ever in the consideration of corporate social responsibility.\nFindings: The paper concludes that although most companies claim to be attending to social and environmental issues, the current form of corporate governing is largely incapable of optimizing the four universally held values.\nOriginality/value: The authors present some examples of corporations and corporate forms that appear to be heading in the \"right\" direction, but highlight that challenges remain. Nevertheless, the cross-culture literature can help inform the future of the relationship between business, society, and the natural environment.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Knowledge creation and exploitation in Italian universities: the role of internal policies for patent activity
|
[
"Patent",
"Internal Policy",
"Knowledge exploitation",
"University"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the past years, universities, which are regarded as key institutions in the knowledge economy, have been engaged in an unprecedented surge in patenting (Mavi, 2014; Leyden and Link, 2014).\nTheoretical background: The notion of \"third mission\" has recently emerged to define a third stream of academic activities and so to label the new entrepreneurial role of universities in promoting territory growth.\nResearch hypotheses: From the above-presented considerations, and referring just to academic and not to institutional factors, a research question arises:\nResearch design and settings: Method of analysis: Microfit\nConclusions: In recent years, Italian universities have given an increasing emphasis on systems of protection of their scientific results and commercial exploitation of their patents.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims at identifying factors that might affect academic patent activities. It investigates the characteristics of universities acting on the number of academic patents, thus classifying elements of differentiation among universities able to determine the level of patent activity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Three hypotheses are tested through a regression analysis, considering various academic variables.\nFindings: Results demonstrate that the patent activity is mainly influenced by the presence of universities' internal policies that regulate such a field. The adoption of a regulation is a signal for academics of the university inclination and attempt to develop an environment conducive to patent activities, and to offer structured support to inventors in the different phases of the patenting process.\nResearch limitations: The study, as it focuses on a single country, Italy, may reflect some peculiarities of the national system. Future research may extend it to different geographical areas in which institutional and environmental factors are different, or, maintaining the geographical location, study the impact of institutional factors to the change over time in the rate of patenting universities.\nOriginality/value: Unlike the great number of studies which focus on institutional factors affecting university patent activity, the present study explores the academic elements able to valorize and exploit scientific knowledge, providing also a practical guidance for university governance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Policy to encourage the development of antimicrobials
|
[
"Health policy",
"Health law or regulation",
"Infectious diseases",
"Emerging healthcare delivery structures",
"Health economics",
"Antimicrobial resistance and stewardship"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) stems from the ability of microbes to evolve and resist the antimicrobial medicines designed to kill them. This serious public health problem is exacerbated by overuse of antimicrobials in humans and food-producing animals, suboptimal infection control measures, and globalization (Huttner et al., 2013). Even as most developed countries practice aggressive infection control, multi-resistant pathogens, such as carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, which are resistant to all available human antibiotics are spreading at an unprecedented pace (Patel and Bonomo, 2013). Estimates of the burden of an AMR are alarmingly high and is responsible for more than 23,000 annual deaths in the USA and 25,000 in the European Union (CDC, 2017; ECDC/EMEA, 2009). Making matters worse is a market failure that is wiping out pharmaceutical company research and development (R&D) units dedicated to antimicrobial agents. Short courses of treatment, short product life cycles due to an AMR, antimicrobial stewardship efforts that - rightfully so - discourage inappropriate antimicrobial use, generic competition, and the emergence of large drug plans that focus on incremental cost-effectiveness, all spell low revenues and low profits for the makers of innovative antimicrobials. It is not surprising therefore that the expected returns from antimicrobials are tenfold lower than those from musculoskeletal drugs, sevenfold lower than neurological drugs, and threefold lower than oncologic drugs (Sharma, 2011).\nFirm incentives to conduct R&D: Drug companies are profit-maximizing entities, and profit is, by definition, revenue less cost. R&D becomes more attractive to drug companies as the expected revenues earned from newly developed drugs increases and the costs of developing and producing new drugs and getting these drugs used by patients decreases.\nSchemes that impact revenues: Price control schemes, including reference pricing, have become fairly common among the public drug plans operating in developed countries and these price controls have substantial effects on drug company revenues (Sood et al., 2009). While drug plans and consumers benefit from lower prices in the short-term, several studies have demonstrated that price controls reduce R&D. Giaccotto et al. (2005) estimated that a 10 percent increase in the growth of real US drug price is associated with nearly a 6 percent increase in the growth of global R&D intensity. Golec et al. (2010) found that the mere threat of drug price regulation can affect subsequent drug R&D spending. Their study used the Clinton administration's Health Security Act (HSA) of 1993 as a natural experiment to study the issue. The proposed legislation included drug price controls and during the time that the legislation was debated, the US drug industry curtailed R&D projects in the event that the legislation passed. The authors found that the HSA reduced R&D spending by about $1 billion even though it never became law.\nSchemes that impact costs: Regulations governing drug safety and efficacy\nMixed incentive schemes: Some government policies simultaneously enact multiple push and pull schemes that increase the size of the market, allow for higher prices to be charged than otherwise, and reduce the cost of R&D. One such policy is the Orphan Drug Act (ODA) enacted in the USA in 1983. The ODA provided seven-year exclusive marketing rights to companies that develop drugs to treat rare diseases, defined as diseases that affect fewer than 200,000 people in the USA annually. Notably, the market exclusivity right applies to both the drug and the therapeutic indication. In addition, the ODA provided a 50 percent tax credit for expenditures incurred in the R&D of a rare-disease drug, regulatory fee waivers, priority regulatory review, and other incentives (US Congress (OOTA), 1993; Yin, 2008). Yin (2008) observed a marked increase in new clinical trials for drugs for rare disorders in the three years immediately after the ODA passed and a smaller increase thereafter, suggesting that the policy expedited the clinical testing of existing drug candidates but also lead to a sustained increase in both basic research and clinical testing. In a subsequent paper, Yin found that in response to the ODA, manufacturers also conducted clinical trials to determine whether existing drugs could benefit individuals suffering from rare disorders. This repurposed drug R&D accounted for about half of the total R&D induced by the ODA (Lichtenberg and Waldfogel, 2003; Yin, 2009). Lichtenberg and Waldfogel (2003) produced the evidence on the clinical benefit of the policy; they estimate that the ODA resulted in a relative decline in mortality among individuals with rare diseases.\nImplications to antimicrobial policy: Drug plans, private and public, set prices for each unit of medication before providers can prescribe these medicines to patients. The market transacts when patients have their prescriptions filled, at which point supply meets demands at prices set by the drug plan. This is what defines pharmaceutical company revenues; prices granted by drug plans multiplied by the number of units sold. The prices are traditionally set based on incremental cost-effectiveness and budget impact calculations. To date, this transaction mechanism seems adequate for many categories of medicines, evident by continued medicines development and utilization in the market place. However, this framework is not able to facilitate transactions in the market for antimicrobials. In this market, the actual demand for antimicrobial agents is fundamentally different than most other medicines. Public health seeks access to a sustainable arsenal of antimicrobials with variation in their mechanism of action, even if marginally less effective than standard of care, that can be deployed in a limited and strategic manner.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Antimicrobial resistance is a public health threat even in countries exercising aggressive antimicrobial stewardship. A market failure is also causing lackluster innovation in antimicrobial medicines development. At the heart of the issue are antimicrobial stewardship guidelines that, rightfully, reserve innovative antimicrobials for emergency situations that arise due to multidrug-resistant organisms. This suppresses revenues and research and development (R&D) investment incentives of manufacturers. The public policy makers and researchers have taken aim at the problem. The researchers have published strategies to encourage the production of innovative antimicrobials, while policy makers have taken legislative steps to address the issue. Most notably, the USA enacted the Generating Antibiotic Incentives Now (GAIN) act in 2012 and the EU created a commission to formally study possible policy solutions. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In this paper, the authors describe incentives that drive pharmaceutical R&D and review the impact of a number of R&D stimulus policies in other pharmaceutical markets. The authors also discuss which policy levers are useful to boost R&D of new antimicrobials.\nFindings: The authors find that a policy focused on extending intellectual property rights, as implemented in the GAIN act, are unlikely to be impactful. Instead, the authors see a need for the revision of the procurement policy to move away from paying per prescription and toward licenses and advanced market commitment models. Further, the authors note that the importance of steadfast public investment in basic biomedical research as it has been repeatedly shown to boost innovation.\nOriginality/value: The authors hope that the work can support the refinement of the GAIN act and the EU efforts.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Taming the amygdala: new tools for crisis management
|
[
"Reputation",
"Crisis management",
"Decision-making",
"Neuroscience",
"Cognitive bias",
"Crisis communications"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Over the past decade, the literature of decision-making and cognitive science has exploded. The pioneering work of Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky has spawned a legion of texts both popular and scholarly purporting to demonstrate how homo sapiens thinks, feels and chooses. Kahneman's recent summation of his work in Thinking Fast and Slow (Kahneman, 2011) is only the culmination of a long series of books about what poor decision makers human beings are, including many popular titles such as Everything is Obvious, Once You know the Answer (How Common Sense Fails Us) (Watts, 2011), Nudge, the seminal popular work in behavioral economics by Sunstein and Thaler (2008) and Jonah Lehrer's How We Decide (Lehrer, 2009). This stream of thinking also intersects with a slightly older trend of works on limitations to our rational decision making power perhaps best represented by Cialdini's Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Cialdini, 1984), which describes experiments that explain how easily we are manipulated by marketers and politicians.\nThe rabbit and the wolf: In a study by Wolfowitz and Montcalm, the researchers looked at the physiological responses of rabbits to the threat of a predator. As the predator comes into the rabbit's field of vision, it literally freezes in place. Furthermore, its field of vision narrows so that it is focused exclusively on the predator. It remains motionless, apparently in the hope that the predator will fail to notice it. When it becomes apparent that this hope is in vain, the rabbit breaks out of its frozen state and dashes from the scene in the attempt to escape its fate. This behavior is almost directly paralleled by corporate executives when faced with a serious crisis. Their first response is often to hope that the crisis will pass away quickly without serious ramifications and then, when it has become apparent that the price of inaction is too high, they switch to wild flurries of action, even going beyond what a measured response would suggest would be appropriate.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The article discusses the ramifications for corporate reputation of the current concerns about consumer data privacy in order to identify potential risks and benefits for corporations in their relations with consumers and other stakeholders.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The article discusses the ramifications for corporate reputation of the current concerns about consumer data privacy in order to identify potential risks and benefits for corporations in their relations with consumers and other stakeholders.\nFindings: This review suggests that there are indeed significant concerns for corporations about how consumers feel about corporate use of personal and, in particular, behavioral data. However, there are steps that corporations can take to demonstrate their commitment to data privacy that can mitigate potential reputational damage and even strengthen their image with consumers and other stakeholders.\nOriginality/value: Data privacy as a reputation asset has been little discussed in the literature to date.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
MBA education: new insights on enablers of managerial performance
|
[
"MBA graduates",
"Performance",
"Competency",
"ISM",
"MICMAC",
"Fuzzy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Many authors have commented on the inadequacy of MBA students to be effective managers. For example, Porter and McKibbin (1988), Mintzberg (2004), Vaara and Fay (2011), Alajoutsijarvi et al. (2015) and Pettigrew and Starkey (2016) throw more light on the issue. To overcome this situation, several authors have identified some enablers of managerial performance. For example, Rotter (1966), Campbell et al. (1970), Bray et al. (1974), Thornton and Byham (1982), Kotter (1982), Boyatzis (1982, 1988), Luthans et al., 1988, Spencer and Suttcer (1993), Monte (1994), Goleman (1998), Boyatzis et al. (2002) and Rubin and Dierdorff (2009) highlight several enablers.However, there is little insight on how these enablers influence each other. Without this, it is difficult to prioritise and set goals for developing the enablers. This paper makes three incremental contributions:Determines the influence on each enabler in the system of enablers on individual managerial performance.Applies the judgement of professional managers on enablers identified from academic literature, making the outcome more acceptable to both the academic world and the practicing managers.Demonstrates the power of the integrated use of interpretive structural modelling (ISM) and fuzzy Matrice d'Impacts Croises Multiplication Appliquee a un Classement (MICMAC) to arrive at new insights on the enablers of individual managerial performance.\nLiterature review: As mentioned in the introductory paragraph, many authors have researched on the inadequacy of MBA education to ensure efficient managerial performance. That competencies are enablers of performance is a fact that has been well established through several studies such as McClelland (1973), Boyatzis (1982), Thornton and Byham (1982, 1988), Luthans et al. (1988), meta-analytic studies of Campbell et al. (1970), Spencer and Suttcer (1993), Goleman (1998), Vazirani (2010), Leoni (2012), Vito and Taylor (2012), Long et al. (2013), Suen and Yang (2013), Uma and Manonmani (2013), Jena and Sahoo (2014), Mangkunegara and Waris (2015), Prasad et al. (2016), Nudurupati et al., (2016), Mufti et al. (2016) and Achmad (2017).To enhance managerial performance of MBA students, one must first define the enablers and then prioritise them (Noe, 2006). Once the enablers/factors are prioritised, and goals are set, efforts are made to achieve the goals as postulated by the goal theory (Locke and Latham, 1979). The normative decision theory (Alexander, 1970; Levi, 1982) suggests that relative weight of the factors is the key to prioritisation. One way to establish priority is to rank order the enablers. But, it is advisable to take a systemic view and assess how each enabler in the system influences each other before according priority.Boyatzis et al. (2002) identify three clusters of managerial competencies - cognitive (systems thinking and pattern recognition), self-management and relationship/social management. Further, studies by Boyatzis et al. (2008) not only confirm these competencies, but also find that they be developed during MBA education and their effect can be sustained for at least seven years. Systems thinking is the ability to holistically think of a problem. Patterns that can help an organization are adopted and those that are dysfunctional are modified (Kast and Rosenzweig, 1972; Frank et al., 2016; Seibert, 2018). Further, systems thinking forms the foundation for planning and sustained competitive advantage. Hence, the authors include both systems thinking and pattern recognition in this study.The second and third factors of the Boyatzis model, self-management and relationship management, pertain to emotional quotient (EQ). Goleman's EQ model (1998) consists of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and social management. Awareness is at the root of learning because an awareness of the gap between \"what one is\" and \"what one should be\" leads to dissonance, which in turn, motivates people to change their attitude and behaviour, as explained by the dissonance theory (Brehm and Cohen, 1962; Harmon-Jones and Mills, 1999). As Goleman's model comprises both awareness and management, the authors adopt the EQ enablers mentioned in the model, rather than those mentioned in the Boyatzis model.A third dimension of managerial performance is execution orientation. Self-efficacy drives execution. Albert Bandura defines self-efficacy is a personal judgement of \"how well one can execute courses of action required to deal with prospective situations\" (Bandura, 1982; Stajkovic and Luthans, 1998). Locus of control is another factor that predicts the performance of managers. Locus of control, which is a psychological concept, bridges the gap between cognition and behaviour (Rotter, 1966). Leftcourt and Wine (1969) classify locus of control as an internal locus of control versus external locus of control. Those with internal locus of control tend to believe that they can control the consequences of their actions. Hence, they are driven to action more often than those with external locus of control. Even in the face of failure, those with internal locus of control tend to show resilience and continue their efforts to succeed. External locus of control is the opposite of internal locus of control. Internal and external locus of control are relative to each other. Hence, the authors do not include both in the study.The authors also include the big five personality factors (openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and emotional stability (neuroticism)), given that there is overwhelming evidence of their influence on performance, as evinced in the works of Barrrick and Mount (1991), Monte (1994), Keller, 1999, Hurtz and Donovan (2000), Stevens and Ash, 2001, Brown et al., 2002; Kwong and Cheung, 2003; Ciavarella et al., 2004; Barrick et al., 2005, Moutafi et al., 2007; Moutafi et al., 2007; Bowler et al., 2009; Brown et al., 2011; Komarraju et al., 2011; Rosander et al., 2011; Caprara et al., 2011; Neal et al., 2012; De Feyter et al.,2012; Judge and Zapata, 2015; Antoncic, 2015; Roberts and Woodman, 2017; Kerr et al., 2018; Al-Qirim et al., 2018; Stajkovic et al., 2018; Kerr et al., 2018; Syed et al., 2018; Gera and Kaur, 2018; Khan, 2018; Zhang and Ziegler, 2018; Hensel and Visser, 2018; Azucar et al., 2018 and Jawabri, 2020.While leadership as an enabler was considered for the study, it was not included, as the focus of the study is on enablers that predict managerial performance. However, the authors acknowledge the importance of leadership competencies for MBA graduates. The summary of enablers is given in Table I.Application of the ISM-MICMAC approach\nResearch methodology: Research objectives\nResults and findings: Structural self-interaction matrix (SSIM)\nDiscussion: This study considers four critical dimensions of managerial performance and 14 enablers (Table I). The hierarchical position, determined through ISM (Figure 1), explains the potency of each enabler to help achieve other enablers in the system. Thus, for example, conscientiousness, being in Hierarchy 1, will help achieve all other factors. Openness is in Hierarchy 2 and will help achieve all factors other than conscientiousness.The \"help achieve\" property is limited or enhanced by the driving power and dependency given by MICMAC (Figure 2). For example, systems thinking is in Hierarchy 3 (Figure 1) and is an autonomous enabler (Figure 2). Though conscientiousness in Hierarchy 1 should help achieve systems thinking, which is in Hierarchy 3, systems thinking, being autonomous, does not actually help achieve enablers in Hierarchies 3 to 7. Cross-tabulation (Table VII) shows how each enabler influences/gets influenced by other enablers after factoring for its status in the hierarchy (ISM) and its driving power and dependency (MICMAC).From this cross-tabulation, we can infer four types of enablers based on their complementarity or power to influence other enablers:Of the 14 enablers, \"high influencers\" influences six to seven enablers. Conscientiousness and openness belong to this category. MBA graduates should develop these on priority, as these enablers will help them improve many other enablers.\"Moderate influencers\" influences three to five enablers. Social awareness, internal locus of control, agreeableness and self-efficacy belong to this category. They are similar to the high influencers except in that their degree of influence is less.\"Low influencers\" influences one to two enablers. Emotional stability, self-management and relationship management belong to this category.No influencers. Systems thinking, pattern recognition, extroversion, self-awareness and external locus of control belong to this category. Though the enablers are important, developing these need to be addressed without expecting any complimentary improvement on the other enablers.The influence map (Figure 3) provides the influence clusters for planning the deployment of resources required for developing these enablers. The key insight from the influence map is that by focusing on developing five enablers - openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, systems thinking and self-efficacy - it would be possible to improve all other enablers.\nTheoretical and managerial implications: Based on the study, the following generalisations can be made. One, an integrated use of ISM and MICMAC can lead to better prioritisation and optimisation. Two, when there are enablers from different dimensions, which influence an outcome such as performance, system-level studies can provide better insights into prioritisation. Three, the integration of ISM and MICMAC helps to understand the influence of enablers on other enablers.From a managerial perspective, this study highlights what matters the most for the industry because its inputs are based not only on extant literature but also expert opinion. The study enables managers, students and business schools to trim the number of enablers on which they should focus, i.e. 5 out of 14 in this case. The outcome of this study can be applied to select appropriate MBA students, plan individual development during an MBA program and during the recruitment process. Hence, the study has wide applications.Conscientiousness has emerged as a key enabler of performance in several independent studies quoted in the literature review, including the work of Kommaraju et al. (2011). This study not only confirms the same but also highlights that conscientiousness improves performance by influencing several enablers of performance, particularly the enablers related to EQ (Figure 3).Most concerns related to inadequate performance of MBA graduates, as discussed in the introduction and literature review, can be addressed by developing five key enablers. These enablers point to a new paradigm in enhancing managerial performance of MBA graduates.\nConclusion, limitation and future scope of research: The research answers some key and vexed questions where opinions can differ, by brining analytical techniques to reduce perceptual differences. The scope of this research and the methodology applied are wide, as the method can be extended to other contexts where prioritising enablers is a major challenge. Though the enablers have been carefully selected from the literature keeping in mind the principle of comprehensiveness and parsimony, the authors do not claim that the enablers are exhaustive. For example, leadership is not explicitly included in the study. Future studies could address this issue. While the study includes managers from multinational and global companies, all of them are based in India. The inclusion of managers from more countries can make the findings more robust. As the study helps to find complementarity in a system, it is possible to extend it to other contexts, in which prioritisation is a challenge.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Several authors have proposed various factors/enablers that enhance managerial performance of MBA students. However, there is little research on how to prioritise these enablers or how each enabler in the system of enablers influences each other. This paper aims to address this gap.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper integrates the interpretive structural modelling (ISM) and Multiplication Appliquee a un Classement (MICMAC) techniques to arrive at the conclusions.\nFindings: The \"help achieve\" power of each enabler, determined by ISM, is limited or accentuated by its \"driving power and its dependence\" determined by MICMAC. Out of the 14 enablers used in the study, this paper identifies five enablers that can enhance the performance of MBA students.\nResearch limitations/implications: When ISM and MICMAC are integrated, one can arrive at a better way to prioritise enablers in a system of enablers.\nPractical implications: The implication of the study findings is that all stakeholders can now systematically prioritise the enablers that can lead to performance and also save resources during the process. A related implication is that this method can be used in a wide variety of situations.\nOriginality/value: This paper highlights how an integrated use of ISM-MICMAC can improve decision-making and resource optimisation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Configuration of product-service systems
|
[
"Services",
"Capital",
"Product life cycle"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: In the past, many manufacturers of capital goods primarily concentrated on design, production and distribution of premium quality goods. In the meantime however, customers are increasingly expecting to be provided with services such as maintenance, upgrading, user trainings or process improvement (Aurich et al., 2007a). Through this, additional services combined with the physical product attain increasing importance. Beside the present product characteristics, these services provide additional unique selling points. Furthermore, services as part of a product-service system (PSS) represent a simple option for tailoring a PSS to the individual customer needs (Aurich et al., 2005). The purpose of services thereby is to ensure or to enhance the product performance expected by the customer throughout the whole product life cycle (PLC) (Takata et al., 2004; Aurich and Fuchs, 2004).PSS contain a physical product core, which is supplemented by specific non-physical services. The latter are applied throughout the whole PLC and thus complete the PSS. The design and the dispatch of project for public spaces (PPS) is realised within an extended value creation network made up of particular production and service networks of the respective manufacturer (Mont, 2002; Aurich et al., 2006). These networks are characterized by a long-term cooperation between the manufacturer and its customers (Aurich et al., 2007c).In order to use the entire inherent potential of services, an integrated alignment of existing design and realisation processes of both physical and non-physical PSS-components is necessary. This integration also addresses the process of configuring a PSS. Along with the consideration of the whole PLC, a holistic view on the structure of physical as well as of non-physical PSS-components forms a decisive challenge.Regarding the PLC-oriented management of PSS, two perspectives on the PLC have to be distinguished (Aurich and Fuchs, 2004). For the manufacturer the life cycle of a PSS starts with planning and developing the PSS followed by manufacturing its physical product core and the realization of the corresponding services. This perspective of the PLC results in either the redemption, the reutilisation or the recycling of the physical product core. From the customer point of view, the life cycle of a PSS contains the phases acquisition (buying decision and purchasing), utilization and disinvestment.The paper is structured in eight sections. Sections 1 and 2 give a short introduction on PSS and existing approaches for their configuration. The overall framework of the concept is sketched in Section 3 including an outline on how the several elements of the concept interact. Additionally, Section 3 gives a first idea of the actions that have to be carried out in order to conduct a customer and life cycle-oriented configuration of PSS. Sections 5-7 illustrate in detail the several elements of the concept. Alongside with a summary, Section 8 displays a perspective on future research work. A use case illustrates the suitability of the presented approach throughout the paper.\n2 Configuration of PSS: PSS combine physical products and services in a system to deliver required user functionality (Baines et al., 2007). Thereby, PSS are mostly seen as a competitive proposition, and thus directly refer to the need for customer satisfaction and economic viability (Baines et al., 2007). Furthermore, some approaches focus on the environmental impact of PSS and therewith link PSS to ecological sustainability (Tukker, 2004; Wong, 2004).Even though it does not appear in common definitions, the dematerialization of solutions being offered to customers can be seen as one of the fundamental ideas of PSS. Dematerialization offers the opportunity to break the link between the value delivered to the customer and the amount of physical products needed to create that value (Baines et al., 2007). Thereby, the level of dematerialization of the solution (PSS) can vary significantly. For example, approaches distinguish product-, use-, and result-oriented PSS (Meier and Kortmann, 2007).Many of the existing approaches in PSS-research are either service-oriented (e.g. service design methods (Tomiyama et al., 2004) and service engineering (Tomiyama, 2001)) or product-oriented (Jugel and Zerr, 1989). Further approaches are result and market-oriented addressing business benefits and business drivers (Mont, 2002; Goedkoop et al., 1999; Manzini et al., 2001). Thereby, the results of a PSS are predominantly evaluated against specified customer or manufacturer objectives in terms of desirable results.According to the definition above, a PSS delivers value in use. Nevertheless, existing approaches address planning, design and configuration of PSS starting from a physical product point of view. By taking a physical product as the initial point, the servitation of this product (Morelli, 2003) leads to a PSS. Reverse approaches implementing a productization of services are untypical for capital goods industry.Although, result-oriented approaches focus on the solution character of a PSS, in practice most of these approaches concentrate on the physical product core. This concerns both the manufacturer and the customer point of view. From a manufacturer point of view existing corporate culture, core competencies in manufacturing specific physical products and product-oriented corporate strategies often lead to anticipated (product-oriented) solutions. Therewith, the transition from a manufacturing company to a producing provider of services and PSS, respectively, is restricted. On the other side, customers still need to accept the inherent solution character a PSS primarily provides instead of pure product ownership (Baines et al., 2007).Though, most of the existing approaches neglect to consider the system characteristics (Fuchs, 2007) of a PSS (especially in the realization phase), many of these approaches include the involvement of the customer. This comprises, e.g. identification of customer value, involvement of the customer in the design phase, effective communication and information sharing.The approach presented in this paper provides a concept for a life cycle-oriented configuration of PSS. Though, by composing physical and non-physical PSS-components not just customer and manufacturer objectives are taken into account. Furthermore, the system characteristics of a PSS are considered. This consideration comprises not only the interrelations of physical and non-physical PSS-components. Since the customer becomes an active part in PSS-realization, additionally the individual behaviour of a customer has to be analyzed in advance. Hence, the anticipation of the PSS-realization processes becomes crucial. Considering the PSS life cycle thereby provides a promising starting point.\n3 Framework for PSS-configuration: The core of the overall framework consists of seven elements that are assigned to either of three element groups (Figure 1). The first element group contains three elements which set substantial prerequisites. The structure of the physical product core as well as the structure of every service is analysed to completely identify the feasible variants of the physical product core and of every service. Additionally, PLC of different customer groups is identified and modelled on a rather abstract but effectual level.Within the second element group, the data gained from the three elements of the first element group are processed. Therefore, the second element group contains two further elements. First of all, the influence of PLC-specific characteristics on the physical product core and its components is determined in element four. In element five, the influence of PLC-specific characteristics on existing services and their impact on the physical product is denoted. At this, findings of element four are also taken into consideration. The above-described elements are primarily performed without a direct participation of a specific customer. In contrast, element group three which represents the intrinsic configuration scheme requires an active participation of the customer. The technical configuration (element 6) and the service configuration (element 7) altogether form a unique PSS tailored to the specific needs of an individual customer and the expected PLC.\n4 Case used throughout this paper: For the illustration of the suggested approach, a cultivator with a rotary harrow serves as the example of use. The cultivator is a tool for winegrowers basically used for loosen compacted soil (Figure 2). As to operate the cultivator it is usually mounted to a smaller tractor through which also its rotary harrow is propelled. The cultivator might be composed of various components which are the under frame, the mounting frame, the three-point mounting, the rotary harrow, various tool holders and different tool-sets. Many of these components are optional depending on several influence factors.For using the product as a cultivator merely, the under frame and at least one out of a couple of tool-sets are mandatory. Figure 2 gives an idea on how these components can be combined otherwise (Figure 2). The under frame is the basic component of the cultivator to which the mounting frame, the three-point mounting or several tool holders can be attached if needed. In addition, both the three-point mounting and the tool holders may be mounted to the mounting frame which then in turn is attached to the under frame. The rotary harrow always relies on the three-point mounting. Finally, tool-sets can be fixed to the tool holders or to the mounting frame next to their fitting right to the under frame.Depending on the intended use under given environmental conditions, different components and thus different combinations become necessary. One basic process almost every winegrower relies on is ploughing. Subject to the vegetation, pre-cutting marks a conceivable preceding process. Subject to, e.g. soil conditions ploughing is completed by grubbing, harrowing, cultivating or a combination of these. In either case, the cultivator has to provide specific tool-sets that must not interfere one another.\n5 Basic prerequisites: A configuration implies a set of entities that are combined in a structured manner. With reference to a PSS both the physical product as well as the services are composed of various entities. The entities of the physical product are its components. Service modules or simply modules are the equivalent entities in terms of a service.The presented approach claims on configuring the PSS with regard to its PLC. This leads to the necessity of establishing a linkage of given entities of the PSS to the PLC in an effective way. Therefore, the PLC must be analysed in advance. Furthermore, in order to get a better understanding of the PSS a couple of indelible prerequisites need to be set. This affects both the product structure as well as the service structure.5.1 Product structure\n6 PLC-influence and service-impact: In Section 5, the structure of both the physical and non-physical PSS-components are analysed. Main results of these analyses are basic constrains that influence the degree of freedom regarding the combinability of product components and service modules. However, so far all of these constrains are detached from the virtual PSS that by definition relies on a combination of both material and immaterial entities. Accordingly, the combinability of physical and non-physical entities among each other are yet to analyse.Services are supplied throughout the life cycle of a physical product. Therefore, the life cycle itself is taken into account whilst conducting these continuative analyses. For this, two main considerations become necessary. At first, it is to question to what extent the physical product is affected by the PLC. Second, it is to determine which benefit results from a service regarding the individually tailored physical product core applied within a specific PLC.6.1 PLC-influence\n7 PSS-configuration: The interrelations found by conducting all depicted steps of element group one and two pour in the configuration model which forms the fundament of a customer-oriented PSS-configuration. The configuration model describes the process of configuration whereas it considers all aspects regarding the various interrelations just as all sorts of contradictions. It includes four steps (Figure 10).The matrices introduced in Sections 5.1 and 5.3 comprise the elementary rules for combining physical product variants and service variants. Every technically feasible and economically favored combination of physical product components and service modules can be derived from these matrices. Within the first step of the configuration model these elementary matrices are customized. Furthermore, the customer specifies those phases of the generic product life cycle in which the PSS will be operated. Based on this information the physical product component variants and service module variants that are exclusively related to life cycle phases and that are not required by the customer are removed from the corresponding matrices.In the second step, the customer-specific values of the influence factors (6.1) emerging from the customer-specific environment are used to identify all feasible variants of the physical components and service modules.. At this, checklists are used providing all relevant influence factors for each of the previously specified PLC-phase. Manufacturer and customer pass through the relevant checklists and specify the value for each influence factors. Main results of this step are a further reduction of both combination matrices.In the third step, every variant of the physical product reasonably usable within the customer specific environment is deduced based on the reduced configuration matrix. Similarly, the variants of each service module are determined.In case, there are no combinatorial restriction as described in Section 6.2, a set of service module variants is subsequently assigned to each variant of the physical product. The result of this step are PSS-variants that are applicably within the customer-specific PLC.As usually, more than one PSS-variant is conceivable all these PSS-variants are to evaluate using appropriate evaluation measures. As an example, a simple evaluation measure is represented by the selling price of a PSS. However, the calcultation of the PSS life cycle costs (LCC) provides a promising starting point for the evaluation of a PSS as it better displays the life cycle orientation of the PSS concept. Existing LCC concepts can be integrated in the configuration model introduced in this paper.\n8 Summary: The presented approach shows how a customer- and PLC-oriented configuration of PSS is achieved. The overall framework displays all necessary prerequisites in a structures sequence. Sections 5 and 6 describe the procedures through which these prerequisites are establish. Likewise, Section 7 gives an impression of how the actual configuration is conducted involving the individual customer.Future research work will be spend on the development of a software that displays the configuration model as well as the underlying configuration matrices. This software then represents the underlying interrelations that are establish during the various inherent steps of the framework. Furthermore, operation figures are an essential factor whilst monitoring the performance of a PSS and thus have to be derived following the virtual configuration. On top of that, quantifiable objectives regarding the performance of a PSS are to be determined. Both, appropriate operation figures as well as quantifiable objectives are preconditions for a continuous improvement of PSS. Finally, consistent procedures for the continuous improvement of the configuration model as well as the material and the immaterial entities of a PSS have to be developed.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Traditionally, many manufacturers of cost intensive capital goods have largely focused on design, realization and distribution of high-quality products. Meanwhile, their industrial customers increasingly expect to be provided with diverse services. These services predominantly aim at enhancing the functional and the economical performance of the underlying products. To systematically exploit the potential of services, an appropriate combination of products and services becomes crucial. For achieving desired benefits for both manufacturers and their industrial customers, product-service systems (PSS) have to be configured systematically. This paper aims to address these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The presented approach considers customer, manufacturer and product life cycle specific aspects within the configuration of PSS. The paper presents a framework which comprises all activities necessary to conduct a systematic configuration of PSS. Throughout the paper, an elementary case study illustrates the activities.\nFindings: - Exemplary use cases indicate that the configuration of PSS using the presented approach is beneficial.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The case study is a success. However, especially the increasing complexity of modern capital goods demands for developing a suitable application software that supports the configuration.\nOriginality/value: - The paper presents a successful application for conducting a customer, manufacturer and product life cycle-oriented configuration of PSS.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The impact of telematics on the insurability of risks
|
[
"Insurability",
"Telematics",
"Motor insurance",
"Health insurance",
"Homeowners insurance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Digitalization, defined as the integration of the analog and digital worlds with manifold new technologies that enhance customer interaction, data availability and business processes, is fundamentally transforming the value creation of the insurance industry (Eling and Lehmann, 2018). Moreover, recent advances in InsurTech have generated immense interest among insurance practitioners, policymakers and supervisors worldwide. Given all these trends, it is astonishing that the academic discussion on innovative insurance models making use of new technologies has been scarce.\n2. Definition and market developments: 2.1 Telematics in insurance\n3. Data and methodology: 3.1 Data\n4. Analysis of insurability: In the following, we analyze each insurability criteria step by step and list down arguments why insurability might be improved or impaired. At the end of each criterion, the pro and con arguments are summarized to derive a final evaluation of the impact of telematics on insurability. We do not weight specific aspects, and thus, implicitly assume that the arguments are considered as equally important.\n5. Conclusion and future research: We analyze the use of telematics in insurance in light of the insurability criteria developed by Berliner (1982). We show that problems with the insurability of telematics impede market development. Table II summarizes the main pro and con arguments and provides an overall assessment considering Berliner's insurability framework. The main insurability effects can be seen in the reduction in information asymmetry and the possibility of doing more accurate risk pooling, two effects that improve the insurability of risk. The effect on loss frequency and severity is not explored well enough to provide an assessment of the need for future research; it seems, however, that also these two aspects will increase insurability. More critical are the legal and ethical questions that policymakers and future researchers must address.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the use of telematics in insurance and its consequences for the insurability of risks. Empirical results on monitoring policyholders or insured objects and its consequences for asymmetric information, as well as claims frequency and severity are discussed. Furthermore, potential future research questions that arise from the use of telematics in risk management and insurance are outlined.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper systematically reviews existing studies and then investigates the consequences of telematics using Berliner's insurability criteria. The results are based on 52 academic studies and industry papers published from 2000 to 2019.\nFindings: The findings emphasize the effects of new information on information asymmetry and risk pooling, the implications of new technologies on loss frequency and severity, legal restrictions and ethical consequences of the use of telematics in the insurance field. Problems with the insurability impede the market development of innovations such as telematics tariffs.\nOriginality/value: Despite its increasing relevance for businesses at present, research on telematics in insurance is limited. Some papers can be found in the IT domain, but relatively little research has been done in the business and economics literature. The authors illustrate where the research stands currently and outline directions for future research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Lean manufacturing practices and performance: the role of social and technical factors
|
[
"Performance measurement",
"Social factors",
"Lean manufacturing",
"Manufacturing strategy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Globalization and emerging technologies are having enormous impacts on the manufacturing industry around the world (Achanga et al., 2006). The global competitive scenario experienced by manufacturing organizations at present is leading them to be increasingly concerned about the operational efficiency improvement and the reduction of production cost, commercialization and distribution expenses (Freitas and Costa, 2017). Indeed, new markets are continually emerging in different areas of the world and are making the way to satisfy the need for closeness to customers, which always become more complex in terms of product-service requirement (Bevilacqua et al., 2017). To stay competitive, companies facing the current unprecedented global competition must design and offer better products/services and improve their manufacturing operations (Taj and Morosan, 2011). In order to improve their operations and enhance their competitive advantage, firms across the globe have embraced different tools and techniques, hoping that they will help them to remain profitable and competitive within the turbulent marketplace (Alsmadi et al., 2012).\n2. Literature review and research hypotheses: 2.1 Socio-technical system of work design\n3. Research methods: 3.1 Survey design and sample\n4. Analysis and Results: 4.1 Hypothesis testing\n5. Discussion and conclusion: This study develops a conceptual model to examine the mediating role of hard lean practices in the relationship between soft lean practices and business performance. The results show that lean social factors can enhance business performance; however, if lean technical factors are added as a mediator, then the direct positive relationship between lean social factors and business performance will attenuate. It specifically implies that lean social practices indirectly influence business performance by influencing lean technical practices. Therefore, significant relationships and synergies exist between these factors, and they form part of a lean management system. The results of the analysis show how technical factors play a mediating role in the relationship between social factors and business performance results: this role is specifically a complete mediation. This is in line with Calvo-Mora et al. (2014), where their results have highlighted how technical TQM practices partially mediate the effect of social TQM practices on organizational results.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Modern manufacturing systems require tools and techniques that take cognizance of the social (concerning people and relations) as well as the technical environment. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between the social and technical aspects of lean manufacturing practices and their effects on business performance outcomes.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The hypothesized relationships for this study are tested with data collected from 148 Indian manufacturing firms by using SPSS and AMOS statistical software.\nFindings: The analysis of the study was conducted using structural equation modeling (SEM) technique, which indicated that both \"soft\" and \"hard\" lean practices are positively related to business performance parameters. The findings also demonstrated that \"hard\" lean practices fully mediate the relationship between \"soft\" lean practices and business performance parameters.\nResearch limitations/implications: There are some limitations of this study. Although a cross-sectional survey has been applied, the research does not permit us to account for the lag between implementation and performance. It also brings the opinion of a limited number of Indian experts about lean manufacturing systems; hence, the sample size could be increased and the nationality of the respondent could be expanded for future research.\nPractical implications: The paper would be of interest to Lean practitioners, and the results of this study can be used in organizations to put a focus on social-cultural changes while applying lean technical tools when it comes to practices as well as importance.\nOriginality/value: This paper extends theoretical contribution in production and operations management literature, highlighting how social and technical practices have to interact to enable a successful lean manufacturing implementation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Uncovering the service profit chain in the casino industry
|
[
"Marketing",
"Management",
"Literature review",
"Tourism and hospitality",
"Service profit chain",
"Casinos"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Casino gambling is a popular leisure activity for many individuals (Walker et al., 2005). The term \"casino\" traditionally refers to a public hall for music and dancing (Cotte and Latour, 2009). Casinos today refer to places that offer gambling entertainment, including slot and table game play. Gambling or gaming, defined as playing a game that may involve elements of chance and/or skill for a prize (UK Gambling Commission, 2005), can take various forms, such as casino gambling, horse races and sports betting and lottery. Over the past two decades, casinos have evolved from the phenomenon of \"build it and they will come\" to a more competitive environment globally (see Thompson and Prentice, 2013).\nMethod: Data collection\nReview findings: The internal link: casino management and employees\nConclusion: This paper has reviewed the literature relating to casino marketing and management on the basis of the SPC model, involving discussion of the relevant constructs in the model. The review thoroughly discussed the findings of major studies in the respective areas and provided critiques. Each section concluded with the identification of the relevant research gap and suggestion for future studies. In a nutshell, three main research gaps were identified in this article. The first gap is germane to the internal link of SPC with respect to the relationship between the management and employees. The foci of this research gap lie on the lack of study on incumbents' personal traits and emotions, work-family conflicts, organization support and more. The second gap is reflective of casino service quality measures and the issues relating to customer service experience. The third gap hints at the external link of SPC with respect to the relationship among casino offerings, gambling behaviors and profitability. The focus on this gap lies on the lack of attention to possible contingencies and contextual effects of different casino-level factors on the effectiveness of casino offerings and marketing initiatives, gambler responses, casino profitability and relationships among these aspects.\nImplications: On the basis of findings of the review, this paper has implications for researchers and practitioners in the relevant fields. The review involves analysis of all major studies on casino marketing and management with a focus on research relating to the SPC model and provides a critique on these studies. The analysis reveals merits of previous studies and research gaps for future research directions, as presented above. The critique provides insights into existing gaming research and its applications to the industry. The gaps and missing links identified in this review present a useful reference and guideline for researchers in their future research endeavors. For casino practitioners, this paper can be a reliable source of information for them to draw on to improve their current practice and helps facilitate identifying useful research findings.\nLimitations and future research: Despite a concerted effort in this review, the paper presents some limitations. First, this review is focused on casino-related literature primarily from the gambling, tourism, hospitality, marketing and management disciplines. Research from other disciplines may be unintentionally neglected due to its lack of coverage in the hospitality aspect of casino gambling. Second, this study takes the SPC model as a guiding tool in laying out the structure of the article. This model covers the essence of both internal and external aspects of casino operations. More could be explored. Third, recommendations made in this study could be subjective, reflecting the authors' knowledge in the relevant fields, albeit the authors have published extensively in these fields. As the casino industry evolves, more research will emerge to advance our current understanding of this sector.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper, from a marketing and management perspective, aims to review the relevant literature germane to casino studies. The review discusses the major findings from previous studies, provides a critique and identifies research gaps for future studies. In particular, the research foci presented in this paper rest on the service profit chain (SPC) model. The review involves studies relating to the constructs of the chain model and comprises sections that are categorized based on the internal link between management and employees, interaction between casino service employees and customers and profitability link.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The approach used in the current study involves a systematic review of the relevant academic literature with a focus on SPC studies in the casino industry, along with critical evaluation and analysis to identify research gaps. Google Scholar, EBSCOHost, Science Direct, Emerald and other academic databases were used to search relevant studies relating to casino and gambling research streams.\nFindings: The review identifies several research gaps on the basis of the SPC link. Specifically, internal service quality needs more attention from both the practice and research points of view. Casino employee research should be extended to include personal traits and characteristics that may contribute to employee performance and loyalty. In the interaction between casino service providers and gamblers, more studies should be undertaken on the efficiency and effectiveness of marketing initiatives and promotions. Externally, the paper points out that more appropriate measurement of customer loyalty and casino profitability should be explored.\nResearch limitations/implications: This review provides references to focusing on key competitive advantages and presents guidelines on improving business growth and profitability for casino managers. The paper also identifies research areas that future studies should attend to.\nOriginality/value: The paper is the first thorough literature review of gaming research on marketing and management with a focus on the SPC model. This review represents a new era of gaming research, extending the problem gambling research focus into a broader scope embracing other disciplines.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Intellectual capital based reputation for market internationalization: The case of engineering consultancy firms
|
[
"Intellectual capital",
"Reputation",
"Engineering consultants",
"Market internationalization"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The sum of all knowledge assets and knowing capabilities are described as intellectual capital (IC) (Wang et al., 2014). IC deals with the valuation of knowledge and aims to gain sustainable organizational competitiveness especially in international markets (Youndt et al., 2004). IC also plays a key role to comprehend the drivers behind firm reputation (FR), as it provides name recognition gained through strategic positioning (Harrison and Sullivan, 2000). Similarly, Petkova et al. (2008) posit that the proper management of IC represents a significant improvement in the company's value and reputation. Moreover, Petty and Guthrie (2000) assert that FR may be accepted as a by-product of the judicious use of IC, rather than a component. Based on this linkage advocated by aforementioned studies, there are some other mainstream researches that claim the probable effect of IC on FR. Rindova et al. (2005), one of these researches, empirically found that the relational capital of the US business schools contributes significantly to a favorable FR. Zabala et al. (2005) theoretically advocate that relational capital determines FR. In another theoretical study, Cravens and Oliver (2006) suggest that human capital can play a considerable role in the overall positioning of FR. Highhouse et al. (2009) theoretically propose that both relational and human capital are required for FR. Lastly, Ginesti et al. (2018) empirically support that human capital of Italian companies is the key to FR. Looking at all these previous studies in the literature, there are only a few empirical researches and little is known concerning the impact of the elements of IC on FR. In addition, to the best of our knowledge, the relationship between FR and the three elements of IC has not been investigated together in an empirical way up to date.\n2. Literature review for hypotheses development: 2.1 Intellectual capital\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Survey\n4. Statistical results: 4.1 Information on participants\n5. Discussion: 5.1 Effect of intellectual capital on firm reputation\n6. Conclusions: Goals of the present study were to demonstrate the impact of IC on implementing FR and to explore the relationship of FR on ECFs' MI efforts. This is because neither the relationship between FR and the three elements of IC nor the relationship between MI and FR has been investigated empirically from the ECFs' point of views. Hence, an ECF may achieve a convenient fit between IC and FR and this causes new contracts in the international arena.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report the possible impact of intellectual capital (IC) on firm reputation (FR) and investigates if there is a relationship between FR and market internationalization (MI).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The data were collected from engineering consultancy firms (ECFs) in Turkey. The study employed structural equation modeling to examine the hypothesized relationships between IC, FR, and MI of ECFs.\nFindings: ECFs with strong human and structural capital can have a good FR. However, healthy relational capital may not lead to the same effect on FR. On the contrary, FR can create high-quality relational capital for ECFs. Lastly, a good FR, based on robust human and structural capital, can provide the success of ECFs' MI process.\nResearch limitations/implications: This model may be analyzed for other knowledge-intensive business services. Also, subsequent researches may investigate potential variations in results about other sectors and geographical areas. Moreover, various constructs may be included in the model. However, a greater number of samples could lead to distinctive outcomes.\nPractical implications: The research may be a general guide for related professionals and their companies to build long-term strategies, given IC, FR and MI. In this respect, they should take into account human and structural capital for MI.\nSocial implications: ECFs that can be active in the international arena may maintain their services by financial sustainability. Thus, the advantage may result in a prosperous society.\nOriginality/value: The study is first to suggest a model joining IC and FR for the MI process of ECFs. This is suitable for competition of ECFs that are willing to be sustainable firms.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Empathy and affect in B2B salesperson performance
|
[
"Affect",
"Empathy",
"Salespeople",
"Extra-role performance",
"In-role performance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Empathy and positive attitude are among the most widely desirable transformative human emotions and traits recognized by scientists, philosophers, religious leaders and business managers (Judge et al., 1998; Morelli et al., 2015). Organizational interest in empathy and positive affect at work is apparent from the large number of publications demonstrating their favorable effects on employee dispositions and behaviors (Cropanzano et al., 1993; George, 1991; McNeely and Meglino, 1994). Empathy has been found to exert positive and strong effects on pro-social and cooperative behaviors (Eisenberg and Miller, 1987). In the sales literature, research on empathy has shown that a salesperson's ability to share and understand others' emotions increases satisfaction and creates a pathway to future buyer interactions (Aggarwal et al., 2005). Pertinent findings also indicate that salesperson empathy increases sales effectiveness as a reflection on overall organizational performance (McBane, 1995; Pilling and Eroglu, 1994; Spaulding and Plank, 2007).\nTheory and hypotheses development: From much of the existing organizational research on empathy and affect, we know that both constructs serve as strong indicators for response tendencies at work (Cropanzano et al., 1993; George, 1991; McNeely and Meglino, 1994). This view is consistent with the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, which suggests that positive emotions broaden people's thought-action repertoire and help to build enduring resources (Fredrickson, 2001). The resource build-up from positive emotions can manifest in various forms, including cognitive (e.g. expert knowledge), intellectual (e.g. problem-solving skills), social (e.g. social support networks), psychological (e.g. resilience) and physical (e.g. health) resources. These resources can be instrumental for coping and recovery (Tugade et al., 2004) and to foster individual transformations (Fosha, 2005), because they lead to increased psychological resilience and enhanced emotional well-being.\nMethodology: Sample and data collection\nDiscussion and implications: Traditional and existing views on sales performance have predominantly focused on cognitive models (Churchill et al., 1985; MacKenzie et al., 1998), ignoring emotional arguments in discussions of salesperson performance. The current study responds to the recent call for more research on the role of emotion in B2B marketing (Bagozzi, 2006). Specifically, we address this gap by examining an emotional model of performance that is grounded in the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotion. Interestingly, this study is among the first in the B2B literature to explore the relationship between empathy and affectivity as a means of explaining sales performance. In response to the identified lack of research on empathy within a sales context, we provide unique insights into understanding how social emotions interact with positive states to create external behavioral outcomes directed toward buyers and firms. This underscores an important discovery in the B2B sales context, which is founded on the notion that logical actions by salespeople can be driven equally by positive social emotions and affective states. This counters years of sales research (Churchill et al., 1985; Weitz et al., 1986), which contends that salespeople's behaviors and performances are motivated mainly by reason, external factors (such as sales management variables), and cognition (abilities, training and knowledge) and not by emotion. While our research findings do not negate the role of reason, they do support the inclusion of emotions and affect in future B2B sales models.\nLimitations and future research: We should emphasize that this study makes no attempt to examine the different types of empathy found in the psychology literature, including perspective taking, empathic concern and emotional contagion. On the contrary, the three indicators used in capturing empathy collectively address empathy as a whole. As a result, interpreting empathy as a single-dimensional variable must proceed with caution, noting that various dimensions of empathy may reveal differential effects on salesperson behaviors. That being said, future studies on empathy should investigate salesperson empathy from a multidimensional perspective, similar to the McBane (1995) study.\nConclusion: More scholars Bagozzi (2006), and Erevelles and Fukawa (2013) are calling for greater research on the largely overlooked impact of empathy and affect on salesperson behavior and performance. The present study addresses this gap and by so doing contributes to the marketing literature in a direct effort to comprehend the role of emotions in B2B sales. Over the years, numerous research studies in B2B marketing have made the argument that rationality is needed to increase salesperson behavior and performance. While research shows us that salespeople respond well to logic, facts and motivational stimuli, the results from this study reveal that emotions also drive sales performance. This unequivocally indicates that salespeople ought to consider utilizing and responding to positive emotional triggers while selling. We, therefore, conclude that positive emotions are related to buyer and firm-directed goal achievements in the form of adaptive selling, active listening and higher performance.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore salesperson empathy and the moderating impact of positive/negative affect on a salesperson's listening and adaptive selling behaviors. It also seeks to identify whether and how empathy influences performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study's hypothesis was analyzed using data collected from business-to-business salespeople working for a manufacturing firm. A partial least squares analysis was used to test the study's proposed hypotheses.\nFindings: The results of this study show that empathy and the moderating role of positive affect foster desirable sales behaviors (listening and adaptive selling behaviors) that subsequently enhance in-role (expected) and extra-role (discretionary) performance.\nOriginality/value: Contributions from the findings enhance the literature through its consideration of how the direct effect of empathy on sales behaviors (a salesperson's listening and adapting selling behavior) is moderated by the salesperson's positive and negative affect and how sales behaviors impact final sales outcomes (in-role and extra-role performance).\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The role of executive coaching in performance management
|
[
"Coaching",
"Performance management",
"Feedback",
"Leadership",
"Senior managers"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Seeking the advice of an executive coach is becoming increasingly more common in companies across America. After all, professional athletes have coaches, so why shouldn't professional executives?\nWhen can a coach make a positive contribution?: When executives are asked what they wish they had known when first appointed to their current positions, most state that they could have benefited from the guidance of a \"truth-teller,\" someone willing to alert them to cultural landmines and unwritten norms and to candidly point out role expectations and performance areas in need of course correction. Since bosses are so often reluctant to be the truth-tellers for new subordinates, this is one of the primary areas of effectiveness for executive coaches. A coach can facilitate the period of adjustment for a newly appointed leader or prepare a leader in transition for new roles and responsibilities.\"Coaching is an excellent tool for executives who are continuing to advance in their professional careers and are looking to develop additional skill sets,\" says Deborah Davis, president of Pitt County Memorial Hospital in Greenville, North Carolina. \"Coaching can be particularly beneficial for individuals who have come up through the ranks from various backgrounds and who want to learn how to develop relationships at different levels, both internal and external to the organization.\"Similarly, coaches can help leaders in transition prepare for a new frontier. \"When someone makes the leap from running a business division to the executive level, the skills that made them successful in the former may only play a minimal role in the latter,\" says Denise Morrison, president of Global Sales and Chief Customer Officer with Campbell Soup Company:In such a case, a coach might be a valuable resource as one component of a complete performance management process. The coach can give tips about style, how to work with a board of directors and provide benchmarks of other leaders and organizations.Coaching can also be very effective in augmenting an associate's inventory of leadership styles. People tend to stay in the comfort zone of a particular style, based on their orientation and experiences, which may not always be appropriate in their new role. For example, someone who has primarily relied on a collaborative style may need coaching to learn to use a personal-instrumental or other style, depending on the situation, Morrison adds.The other side of the coin is remedial coaching when a specific performance issue has been identified. Again, this works best as part of a comprehensive performance management process. \"In the performance management process, the objectives set at the beginning of the year should not be limited to business objectives,\" Morrison recommends. \"They must also address the associate's personal development in three areas: leadership, management and technical skills.\"\nTake time to develop individual potential: \"When you take the time to develop the individual's potential along both dimensions - business and personal - they will do a better job for the company. At Campbell Soup Company, when we have our one-on-one with the associate at the end of the year to review performance versus objectives, we also spend time on the individual's development plan,\" says Morrison.\"We set objectives for the following year in the areas of leadership and managerial and technical skills,\" he adds. \"We then align on a formal program that specifies which of those three components needs formal training, which need new on-the-job experiences and which area could benefit from coaching. For example, if someone is struggling with communication skills, we may bring in a coach to work with the associate in that area.\" The Campbell \"process\" positions coaching not as something to \"fix\" an individual who has gone astray, but as an investment in development.\nComponents of coaching: A successful coaching process begins with an assessment of the executive's role as defined by the institution, current performance expectations and perceptions that have developed over time, including feedback from the superior and key peers and subordinates. Expect the coach to conduct one-on-one confidential interviews with a cross-section just large enough to get a snapshot of any performance issues from various perspectives.In-person interviews with key constituents are preferable to anonymous, written \"360\" surveys. The latter may provide indicators, but not the deep understanding of substantive information the coach needs in order to guide the executive towards improved performance. The coach's approach may also include \"shadowing,\" i.e. accompanying the executive to meetings and generally observing him or her in action and in relationship to other key players. Coaching may further involve sessions between the executive, direct reports and his or her boss to acknowledge the performance feedback, build a sense of team and solicit support for agreed-on changes in performance.It is a common misperception that a coach can work with the individual in isolation, invisible to the organization. A coach who remains invisible lacks the leverage of getting first-hand feedback about how others experience the executive's performance. Since in many remedial situations, the executive's problem lies in the perceptions of others, coaching needs to be grounded in the interdependent nature of roles. Armed with a more accurate understanding of the impact of how others experience his or her leadership, the executive can then focus on increasing style flexibility and repairing relationships in ways that enhance performance effectiveness.\nCustomization is key: To be effective, any coaching intervention must be customized to meet the needs of the organization and the individual executive; a generic cookie-cutter approach never results in increased effectiveness sustained over time. Coaches can only add value when their interventions are based on a thorough understanding of environmental complexities, the organization's needs and values, the executive's needs and values and the degree to which these needs and values are in alignment.Among the desired outcomes of coaching are actionable recommendations that result in a shift in perspective, new learning and altered behaviors, such as increased ability to manage key relationships more effectively, demonstrated style flexibility that leads to more effective decision-making, more effective communication and a more effective approach to problem-solving and conflict resolution.Pitt County Memorial Hospital is currently rolling out a large-scale coaching initiative for managers. Davis explains:We have engaged an outside group to implement a leadership development program for all 300 managers across our health care system. Each individual will be assigned a coach from within the organization and each participant will also serve as a coach. We expect every manager to acquire the tools to support another as a coach while he or she is being coached. We believe that this process will create a whole new dynamic in our future leaders.The hospital is about to roll out the same process for its physician leaders.To measure progress and outcomes, the hospital is developing specific accountability metrics. \"Traditionally coaching has been implemented on a one-on-one basis at the executive level,\" Davis says:Our goal is to transform our entire organization through the next generation. We view coaching as more than an opportunity for leadership development; it is also a necessity for future growth and self-awareness. If used appropriately, it is a wonderful gift to future leaders because it allows them to continue to grow both personally and professionally.Morrison urges a similar paradigm shift for coaching. \"Unfortunately, coaching is often thought of as an intervention that becomes necessary when someone has a problem. Rather, it should be regarded as a positive opportunity to be more proactive about leadership development,\" she says.\"Measuring progress is critical to coaching,\" says Bruce Heller, PhD, an industrial psychologist and executive coach who works with Fortune 500 companies and smaller, entrepreneurial companies. \"I administer a 360 survey at the beginning of my coaching engagements,\" says Heller. \"And then within six months to a year, I re-administer it to get some objective measure of behavioral change. It gives the coachee a sense of accountability and the client company an objective measure to assess return on investment.\"When is coaching not viable?\nWhat performance management alternatives remain?: When executive coaching is not viable, what actions can companies take to improve or change the unacceptable behavior or performance? In consultation with human resources, and sometimes the Legal Department, one can attempt a candid and meaningful dialog with the individual whose performance has derailed.Compliment the individual on strengths (only if it is truthful!), identify the specific areas where performance weaknesses are unacceptable, and explore the options. For example, could the executive transfer laterally to a different position and really make a contribution there? Does company policy require that the executive be given one more opportunity? What might that opportunity be? Would it be possible to help the individual focus on a transition plan that will result in a substantive contribution over a six to 12-month period while he or she is looking for other internal or external opportunities? How can the organization support him or her in this endeavor?Above all, there is no substitute for candid, constructive feedback. Sometimes taking the risk of having a difficult conversation can result in a sense of relief that the performance issue is finally on the table. Both parties can then move on to a meaningful discussion of long-term professional goals and the degree of fit and can begin to explore alternatives that are aligned with the needs of both the organization and the individual.\nCoaching realities: Coaching is a developmental tool, not a magic wand or an instant makeover. In many cases, coaching interventions would be unnecessary if organizations set clear performance expectations in the recruitment process, paid closer attention to organizational fit in hiring and had the courage to provide truth-tellers to facilitate the initial leadership orientation and ongoing performance feedback process. However, when coaching becomes necessary despite all efforts, timing is everything. The earlier the intervention, the more opportunity there is for course corrections before a complete derailment.\nCorporate commitment a must: When considering a coaching intervention, companies that hire coaches must understand and commit to two realities. One is that coaching requires a substantial investment of time and resources. Derailments do not happen overnight, and neither will changes in behavior. The second is that bosses cannot simply hand matters over to an external coach and wash their hands of the problem. The engagement can only succeed when superiors complement the coach's work by remaining engaged in the process and invested in the relationship. Neither coach nor coachee can succeed without the help of at least a few truth-tellers who are willing to communicate the sometimes harsh and painful, but constructive feedback that make learning and increased leadership effectiveness a new reality:Structuring relationships with coachesIn structuring a relationship with an external executive coach, clarity and honesty about the following crucial issues are critical:* What are the performance deficiencies, and have performance management processes been followed? How accurate are performance reviews? Do they portray the executive as a water-walker, while the boss verbally states that the individual's performance is completely unacceptable?* Is the company really willing to make the necessary investment in time to produce the desired outcomes? What is the length of the coaching assignment? Is the company willing to invest in the assessment process, the coaching process and some long-term follow-up?* How committed is the boss? How much time is he or she willing to invest in continued mentoring of the executive to turn him or her into a champion? Is the boss willing to complement the coach's work with action coaching when he or she witnesses positive or negative behavior?* What kind of performance action plan will be developed, and what will the scope and accountability parameters be?* What is the minimum acceptable level of performance improvement, and how will it be measured?* What are the expected outcomes of the coaching engagement? Is there a good match between the coach's credentials and the organization and between the coach and coachee?\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this article is to identify circumstances under which executive coaching is and is not an appropriate performance management tool. Alternative performance management measures and guidelines for structuring executive coaching engagements are also included.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The information on which this article is based derives primarily from the author's coaching experience. Workplace application support of these principles is included in the form of input from high-level executives and one coach.\nFindings: - Executives who have been coached or coached others support the finding that coaching is never a substitute for performance feedback and can only serve as an effective performance management tool when certain conditions are met.\nPractical implications: - Coaching interventions to halt derailment can be avoided with timely performance feedback and management.\nOriginality/value: - Executive coaching is a performance management tool, not a substitute for performance management.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Bridging complexity theory and resilience to develop surge capacity in health systems
|
[
"Resilience",
"Crisis",
"Complexity theory",
"Health systems",
"Surge capacity"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In recent decades, health crises have had serious consequences in terms of loss of life and economic, political and environmental damage. These events have cost more than $100 billion annually worldwide and economic losses are likely to double by 2030 (Albrito, 2013). For example, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) episode in Canada led to the death of 43 people and a drop in gross domestic product (GDP) of between 3.2 and 6.4 billion US dollars (Keogh-Brown and Smith, 2008). Health systems have been confronted by a number of such health crises in recent years (SARS, H1N1, Ebola, etc.), and are also on the front line of response to terrorist attacks and natural disasters. As we face a future in which natural, health-related and man-made crises are likely to become increasingly common due to the acceleration of urbanization, climate change and globalization, the ability of our health systems to perform under stress is becoming ever more important (Lagadec, 2009; Perrow, 1984; OECD, 2003). Moreover, during such crises, health systems must not only muster the surge capacity to deal with exceptional situations and a sudden influx of patients, they must also continue to provide essential services to the population.\n1. Surge capacity and resilience: In this section we explore the links between surge capacity and resilience to illustrate the challenges faced by healthcare organizations in times of crisis.\n2. A complexity-based conceptual framework of resilience for surge capacity: In this section, complexity theory is used to bring together the levels of interrelation between issues and stakeholders in and around health organizations when it comes to preparing for and managing a crisis. Complexity theory focuses on the dynamics of interaction, the unpredictable properties of interaction, and the relation between a system and its environment. It is important here to resist adopting a reductionist approach to systems and consider the system as a whole (Morin, 2005; Mitleton-Kelly, 2003; Maguire, 2011). Complexity, as a phenomenon, is defined as follows: \"First, complexity is a fabric (complexus: what is woven together) of inseparably associated heterogeneous components: it poses the paradox of the one and the many. Second, complexity is the fabric of events, shared interactions, feedback, determinations and risks that constitute our phenomenal world\" (Morin, 2005, p. 110, our translation).\n3. Conclusion: This framework calls for a balanced and innovative process of integrating various resilience factors, building on a pragmatic approach based on complexity theory and the four \"S\" of surge capacity. The three-dimensional framework we elaborate stands to increase the ability of complex health systems to prepare for eventual crises.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Health systems are periodically confronted by crises - think of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, H1N1, and Ebola - during which they are called upon to manage exceptional situations without interrupting essential services to the population. The ability to accomplish this dual mandate is at the heart of resilience strategies, which in healthcare systems involve developing surge capacity to manage a sudden influx of patients. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper relates insights from resilience research to the four \"S\" of surge capacity (staff, stuff, structures and systems) and proposes a framework based on complexity theory to better understand and assess resilience factors that enable the development of surge capacity in complex health systems.\nFindings: Detailed and dynamic complexities manifest in different challenges during a crisis. Resilience factors are classified according to these types of complexity and along their temporal dimensions: proactive factors that improve preparedness to confront both usual and exceptional requirements, and passive factors that enable response to unexpected demands as they arise during a crisis. The framework is completed by further categorizing resilience factors according to their stabilizing or destabilizing impact, drawing on feedback processes described in complexity theory. Favorable order resilience factors create consistency and act as stabilizing forces in systems, while favorable disorder factors such as diversity and complementarity act as destabilizing forces.\nOriginality/value: The framework suggests a balanced and innovative process to integrate these factors in a pragmatic approach built around the fours \"S\" of surge capacity to increase health system resilience.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Hybrid processes for a new era of strategic foresight
|
[
"Science fiction",
"Black swans",
"Conjectures",
"Strategic conversation",
"Latent needs",
"Speculative design",
"Ruptures"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Since the first use of the word prospective in 1957, where Berger (2008a) proclaimed a change of attitude in human beings with the aim of making them more interested in looking forwards and less backwards (retrospective attitude), several key concepts have been associated with futures studies: conjectures (De Jouvenel, 1966; Masini, 2013), strategic conversation (Van der Heijden, 2009), liberty (De Jouvenel, 2004), effective actions (Bell, 2012), desire for change (Cagnin & Loveridge, 2011; Hamel & Prahalad, 2010), prospective anthropology (Berger, 2008d), democratization of strategic foresight (Medina et al., 2014), analysis of consequences and adverse events (Ahlqvist et al., 2015; Taleb, 2008a).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Concepts that characterize the essence of strategic foresight\n3. Methodological approach: 3.1 Research design\n4. Results: 4.1 Relationships between foresight and science fiction\n5. Discussion: The proposed model raises the need to better understand the (latent) future needs of people. To do so, it considers necessary to incorporate tools coming from other fields, for the capacity to link discourses and practices within and between disciplines and communities of practices, engendering new possibilities for barrier-crossing, mutual learning, and the creation of new fields. Traditional Foresight processes begin with the analysis of the environment, with the detection of change factors or trends, but they do not consider what the users of the scenarios (those who are going to experience the scenarios) might need in the future. Tools specific to the world of design thinking (Osterwalder et al., 2014; Vianna et al., 2016) could be an effective solution to better address prospective anthropology (Berger, 2008b).\n6. Conclusions: Strategic foresight, as a knowledge discipline, entails the examination of processes that structure and enrich reflections on the future. Strategic foresight implies developing strategic conversations, attending to the latent needs of future users, managing uncertainty, championing sustained creative work with ideas and images of the future, taking into account the consequences of future events and promoting the freedom to imagine the future; likewise, it means developing impact narratives, democratizing scenario-building processes, making people aware of the desire for change, managing uncertainty and determining the role that human beings will have in the construction of their own future.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to propose a new strategic foresight process that combines aspects from science fiction, speculative design and tools linked to organizational processes, first, to generate potential new services and products and, second, to reduce problems associated with the construction of low-impact and irrelevant scenarios for decision-making processes. As a new proposal, it invites reflection and debate.\nDesign/methodology/approach: After reviewing the literature on the key concepts that represent the essence of strategic foresight, as well as the traditional processes to reflect on the future, a proposal for a new hybrid, integrative foresight process that allows moving from imagination to the materialization of scenarios will be presented.\nFindings: The new hybrid process makes evident the need to articulate strategic foresight with other areas of knowledge and management tools to build scenarios with greater impact on decision-making and greater added value from strategic foresight to organizational processes.\nOriginality/value: The proposed integrative model articulates tools that already exist, but the originality of the proposal lies in that there are no models that integrate science fiction, speculative design, and other organizational tools in a single process.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Pubscape: innovation by design in the British pub
|
[
"Innovation",
"Sustainable design",
"Public houses"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This paper discusses a 12-month longitudinal study of a British brewery company, focussing on a specific response to contemporary market challenges for public houses (pubs), through design innovation (Preece, 2016). According to Sandiford and Divers (2014, p. 88), the English pub \"has adopted an iconic status over the years, with a history stretching back many centuries\". However, despite this long history, reports suggest that large numbers of pubs are struggling in the present economic climate (Cabras and Mount, 2017; Ellis and Bosworth, 2015; Pratten, 2003, 2005). Also, despite their continued role in community cohesion (Cabras and Mount, 2017), pubs have seen a steady decline in numbers and profitability over the past 30 years (Roberts and Townshend, 2013), resulting in major changes in pub ownership and management (Andrews and Turner, 2012).\nThe Great British pub: The British pub has long been popularly viewed as a primary hub for community engagement and social cohesion (Cabras and Mount, 2017). Nevertheless, the structure of the pub trade remains fluid, competitive and challenging with higher duty, declining alcohol consumption and increased competition, changing significantly from the beginning of this century.\nServicescape, design and the public house: As part of understanding the response of the brewery to changing times, this study considers the public house through the lens of the \"servicescape\", which describes \"the role of physical surroundings in consumption settings\" (Bitner, 1992, p. 57; Bonnin, 2006), including the facility exterior, the facility interior and the surrounding environment as value components (Bitner, 1992). This concept has previously been used in the hotel and restaurant industry (Alfakhri et al., 2017; Countryman and Jang, 2006; Zemke et al., 2018) and in retail services (Turley and Milliman, 2000). Exterior premises, the building, signage, parking and landscaping etc., together with interior design, facilities and equipment are part of the services are, together with indoor signage, air quality and temperature. The surrounding environment comprises \"other tangibles - such items as business cards, stationery, billing statements, reports, employee appearance, uniforms and brochures\" (Bonnin, 2006, p. 46) to which Turley and Milliman, (2000) added human aspects, such as employee and customer characteristics.\nMethodology: This longitudinal research follows the design team as they formulate and implement designs, reflecting on current and past projects, their aims and their understanding of the vision of the brewery management over a 12-month period. This is complemented by the views of senior and fellow managers about the initiative. In exploring servicescape design evolution, a qualitative method was selected and carried out, using an interpretive approach with \"detailed examination of the participant's lived experience\" at work (Crawford, 2013; Smith and Osborn, 2004, p. 53), enabling the construction of an 'information-rich case in a detailed but realistic manner' (Miles and Huberman, 1994; Sonenshein, 2014).\nFindings: Process\nDiscussion: The design team brought \"people, products or practices from the world of the arts\" into the brewery, delivering a revitalised \"pubscape\" (Berthoin Antal, 2012, 45). This was a deliberate strategy, fulfilling senior manager ambitions to raise the profile of their pubs and to position them differently in the marketplace (Pratten, 2003, 2007; Preece, 2016). This included researching current and potential customer needs and aspirations before taking action to improve the servicescape, counter to Bitner's research (1992). The senior management vision was reflected by the designers in their ambition to deliver uniqueness in pubs such that \"every time you see something with the brewery name over the door, there's something amazing inside\" (DT1), building the customer response through cues to positive emotions (Alfakhri et al., 2017; Hightower et al., 2002).\nConclusions: The study offers new insights into design as innovation in the pub trade and indicates novel approaches to current market challenges by brewery management. Here innovation creates organisational value by applying new ideas and approaches (Lee and Trimi, 2012), revealed through single case study detailed results. In doing so, the study also offers a new perspective on the servicescape concept by applying it to a societal icon - the British pub - with both utilitarian and hedonistic perspectives embodied in new design to deliver the company vision of 'bespoke destination pubs'.\nTheoretical implications: By exploring how this brewery developed its customer experience strategy, a new approach to the servicescape approach initially suggested by Bitner (1992) emerged, which we termed \"pubscape\". Pubscape builds on existing servicescape theory (such as the model by Rosenbaum and Massiah, 2011, see Figure 1) to envisage a new complex service environment useful in different types of pubs to map and understand customer experience. This new concept - pubscape - emerged through the dynamic interplay of expectations from multiple stakeholders, all with strong ideas about what 'the pub' is now and how it should look and feel, in the future. This is shown in Figure 2, which models how the pubscape evolved through an interplay of different expectations and a shared vision.\nPractical implications: From a practical standpoint, breweries might implement service innovation by marketing a brand image that shows pubs are innovative locations, aligned with current customer needs and aspirations. This could help them to enhance their relationships with existing customers and increase their reach with new customers, through products and premises being seen as part of modern lifestyles. The brewery's project review indicated that the redesign has been successful in attracting and retaining new customers in a competitive trading environment, with resulting plans for the redesign of the rest of the pubs it owns. Drawing tenants and customers into the process added to the excitement and raised the profile of new designs, with pubs felt by all parties to be innovative but still true to local expectations.\nLimitations and future research: The research has focussed on one brewery in a longitudinal qualitative study. Will this approach, tested and found to work in small market towns and city centres, enjoy the same success in rural hamlets? The study has the benefits and disadvantages typical of such research in providing insights rather than measurable outcomes. Other cases might provide different results related to responses to pub decline. Similarly, the adoption of other research methods would allow testing of ideas rather than exploration. Repeating the study in another geographical context or with different types of beer companies might also generate different perspectives.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The decline of the British public house (pub), well documented over the past three decades, is often linked to detrimental social and economic conditions in communities. The purpose of this study was to explore brewery responses to turbulent market conditions for the pub trade, with a focus on innovation through design.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A longitudinal, qualitative study was conducted over 12 months, with 4 months of close participant observation within the company, to explore the experiences of a design team located within a medium-sized UK brewery.\nFindings: The \"pubscape\" emerged, extending and augmenting earlier models of the \"servicescape\", driven by an entrepreneurial shared vision recognising the importance of design and innovation in delivering the modern pub.\nResearch limitations/implications: A single case - one brewery - formed the basis for a longitudinal qualitative study, with the associated benefits and disadvantages typical of single case research in providing insights rather than measurable outcomes. Other cases and other research methods would allow testing of ideas, rather than exploration, and generate different perspectives.\nPractical implications: The research indicates the value of adopting an entrepreneurial approach to address challenging trading conditions and shows the practical role that design can play in rethinking service offerings to fit consumer needs and aspirations.\nOriginality/value: New insights into modern pub management have emerged from this study, positioning design innovation as a route to delivering successful British destination pubs by innovating while retaining traditional brand values and local identity markers, using the \"pubscape\" as a specific way to envisage innovative servicescape environments.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Social capital in disaster risk management; a case study of social capital mobilization following the 1934 Kathmandu Valley earthquake in Nepal
|
[
"Social capital",
"Nepal",
"Disaster risk management",
"Earthquakes",
"Community organizations",
"The 1934 Kathmandu Valley earthquake"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Over the last decade much has been written regarding the need of policies and planning for community disaster resilience. Dynes (2006) highlights the importance of local level disaster reduction approaches as top-down institutional approaches seem to fall short of targets in building community resilience. Few other studies emphasize this approach, and draw our attention to the potential roles and contributions of social capital in community response and recovery to disasters (Bankoff, 2007; Minamoto, 2010). However, local level social capital resources and pre-existing social networks are often overlooked by policy makers in community disaster planning (Lalone, 2012). This paper argues that local level social capital and traditional social networks are a vital part of community disaster management efforts, and greater consideration need to be given for the incorporation and application of social capital to aid disaster response and recovery planning programmes.\nSocial capital and disaster risk management: In social science, the concept of social capital is defined generally as the norms and networks that enable people to act collectively (Portes, 2000). Robert Putnam (1993, 2000), the most prominent advocate of this approach describes social capital as features of social organizations, such as networks, norms and trust that facilitate action and cooperation for mutual benefit. The basic idea of social capital is that a person's family, friends and associates constitute an important asset that can be called upon in a crisis (Portes, 1998, 2000). Those endowed with a diverse stock of social networks and civic associations are in a stronger position to confront poverty and vulnerability, resolve disputes and take advantage of new opportunities (Woolcock and Narayan, 2000).\nMethodology: This is a qualitative study and follows grounded theory approach (Charmaz, 2006; Padgett, 2008) which focuses on developing theoretical concepts as data were collected through interactions with respondents. The research approach adopted in this study follows systemic yet flexible guidelines and includes unstructured interviews and following up on important cues or patterns as additional data emerged during interactions.\nFindings: Personal accounts of the 1934 AD Kathmandu Valley earthquake\nDiscussion - lessons learned from the 1934 earthquake: The experiences of earthquake victims in 1934 provide a micro-level view into the way bonding, bridging and linking social capital were instrumental in aiding victims during and after the earthquake. The different types of social capital were found to be relevant in different phases of disaster. Bonding social capital was especially useful on a daily basis to survive the catastrophe of earthquake and develop resilience at an individual level.\nImplications and conclusion: The research results described in this paper are based on experiences of people about a devastating earthquake that hit their city a long time back in 1934 AD. As the study participants were less than ten years old when the earthquake happened, they might have omitted or overlooked some important details about the event. While participants had some of their own memories, they also shared stories told by their parents which were the indirect experiences. Nonetheless, the findings are valuable in the sense that participants shared their experiences and knowledge of a rare catastrophic earthquake a long time back, and the lessons from it are important to current local inhabitants.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine how social capital operated in the lives of 15 respondents from Lalitpur following the massive 1934 Kathmandu Valley earthquake. Based on experiences of the survivors, it attempts to understand how individuals and families utilized their social capital in the aftermath of the earthquake, and rebuild their lives and communities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This is a qualitative study based on non-structured interviews and discussions with disaster victims on their own locality. Following Padgett's (2008) grounded theory approach, flexible method of data collection is adopted through interactions with respondents and following up on important cues or patterns as additional data emerged.\nFindings: Participants described a process through which they relied on bonding, bridging and linking social capital in different stages of earthquake response and recovery. Close ties or bonding social capital were important for immediate support, but bridging and linking social capital offered pathways to longer term survival and wider neighbourhood and community revitalization. This paper also discusses how social capital inclusion in pre-disaster communities might be helpful to strengthen their response capacity.\nResearch limitations/implications: As the study participants were less than ten years old when the earthquake happened, they might have omitted or overlooked some important details about the event. The findings are based not only on participant's own memories, but they also shared stories told by their parents which were the indirect experiences.\nPractical implications: This study indicates the potential value and need for including bonding, bridging and linking social capital and traditional social networks in disaster planning. A key outcome related to disaster policy would be what institutional condition or combinations of different dimensions of social capital may serve the public for better disaster response and recovery.\nOriginality/value: This study has paid attention to how social capital might be useful in disaster risk reduction both in post-disaster phase and in pre-disaster condition which may be rare in disaster studies. It also provides an insight into how community-based disaster management can take into account pre-existing social systems and traditional social networks to build local capacities.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
An evidence-based faculty recruitment workshop influences departmental hiring practice perceptions among university faculty
|
[
"Organizational culture",
"Women",
"Recruitment",
"Psychology"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Diversity in group settings has been found to be related to improved performance and decision-making, innovation and creativity (Ely and Thomas, 2011; Page, 2007, 2017), suggesting that in the university context, greater faculty diversity can enhance institutional excellence in teaching and scholarship and benefit an increasingly heterogeneous student body (Stewart and Valian, 2018). Therefore, many colleges and universities have developed initiatives, including training workshops for faculty search committees, to increase the representation of women and underrepresented racial-ethnic minority (URM) faculty. Although hiring trends are typically tracked and training workshops evaluated by attendees, there is less understanding of the psychological factors that lead to the attitude and behavior change among attendees that could ultimately increase faculty diversity. Greater understanding of these factors would help inform the development of effective faculty diversity initiatives. In this paper, we examine the role of education about social science findings and principles in shaping specific attitudes and behavioral intentions among faculty search committee members, which highlights the importance of basing faculty search training workshops on compelling scientific evidence.\nInitiatives to increase faculty diversity and their evaluation: Many higher education institutions have focused on increasing faculty diversity, particularly in disciplines where there are substantially fewer women and/or faculty of color. The National Science Foundation's (NSF) ADVANCE Program is offered to \"increase the representation and advancement of women in academic science and engineering careers, thereby contributing to the development of a more diverse scientific and engineering workforce\" (ADVANCE at a Glance, 2018). In particular, the ADVANCE Institutional Transformation grant program supports initiatives designed to increase the representation of women faculty in STEM fields through efforts to escalate their hiring, promotion and retention. To date, more than $270m has been invested by the NSF to support ADVANCE projects at more than 100 institutions in 41 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico (ADVANCE at a Glance, 2018).\nThe importance of changing attitudes, intentions and norms: Because the prevailing attitudes and culture of the setting influence the success of institutional change efforts, institutional climate can play an important role in increasing diversity among its members. That is, well-conceived, evidence-based initiatives may be instituted but fail if the institution's constituents are not \"on board\" to accept and sustain them. Therefore, it is critical that such initiatives serve to promote attitudes and beliefs supporting the idea that institutions benefit from greater diversity. Bias reduction workshops are one way to influence how people think about diversity and inclusion. One study found that faculty who were randomly assigned to attend a \"bias literacy\" workshop reported higher sensitivity to and awareness of bias in their academic setting, and greater intentions to use bias reduction strategies taught in the workshop (Carnes et al., 2012). An important next step is to evaluate whether interventions also affect some of the specific attitudes that would help to sustain more equitable hiring practices.\nThe importance of belief in social science research evidence: To achieve real change in diversity, institutions must want to change; therefore, it is critical to convince its members of the importance of the issue and motivate them to take action (Mitchneck et al., 2016; Stewart and Valian, 2018). Such motivation may develop as faculty members engage in \"change narratives\" about \"where we are, where we want to be, and how we will get there\" (Ely and Meyerson, 2000). Perhaps particularly in academic settings, effective faculty search training workshops should provide attendees with compelling empirical evidence for the benefits of equitable search processes, i.e., those that take deliberate steps to reduce the influence of unintended bias.\nThe faculty recruitment workshop (FRW): This research focuses on a workshop to promote gender diversity in STEM during the hiring process as part of one university's NSF ADVANCE Institutional Transformation grant. This FRW was developed in 2002 by a committee of eight faculty members who studied social science research relevant to the goal of hiring for diversity and excellence and created the content and format of the FRW. The committee expanded over time to include 13 faculty members from across the university, in both STEM and non-STEM fields, with a goal of achieving gender and racial diversity in the committee membership. The FRW was presented by the committee members, rather than by external \"diversity consultants,\" following recommendations to include local leaders (one's fellow faculty members) as deliverers of the message (Anderson, 2011; Mitchneck et al., 2016; Stewart and Valian, 2018, Wood, 2000).\nOverview of current studies: The current studies test whether attending the FRW may influence individual attitudes and behavioral intentions regarding equitable search practices. We predicted that faculty who attended the FRW would show more favorable attitudes toward equitable search strategies and report greater intentions to enact them. The studies also tested whether the workshop can change department climates in ways that may ultimately impact the attitudes of individual faculty. We predicted that faculty will have more favorable attitudes toward equitable search strategies if they are in departments where a greater proportion of faculty have attended the FRW, perhaps even for individual faculty who have not attended an FRW themselves. Finally, we explored whether the FRW was more effective for persuading faculty to adopt some search strategies more than others. In Study 2, we examined attitudes regarding the social science principles underlying the FRW. In doing so, we hoped to highlight specific ways these workshops may encourage intentional efforts to promote faculty diversity.\nStudy 1: Method\nResults: Data were analyzed with three analytic approaches. The first was a comparison of those who attended an FRW within the past three years of participating in the study (2009-2013) and those who had not attended (individual FRW attendance: FRW vs no-FRW). Second, pre- and post-FRW attendance was compared for the subset of participants who attended from 2012 to 2014 (pre-FRW vs post-FRW). Finally, linear mixed-effects model tested the role of departmental participation in the FRW (departmental FRW attendance: proportion of a department's members who had ever attended an FRW). All analyses included gender as a factor. For the endorsement items, the primary analyses used an aggregate of all 13 items; and the linear mixed-effects models allowed us to test all hypotheses with both the aggregated and disaggregated (three factor) indices.\nBehavioral intentions: Intentions to object to speculation of candidates' motives\nDiscussion: These results provide initial evidence that attending the FRW can influence attitudes toward evidence-based search strategies to promote faculty diversity through hiring. Analyses of endorsement of 13 equitable search strategies (e.g. use open searches; avoid asking personal questions of candidates) showed that faculty were more likely to endorse these strategies if they themselves had attended an FRW in the past three years or if more people in their department had. Even faculty who had not attended a workshop themselves were more likely to endorse these strategies if they were in a department where more of their colleagues had attended one, suggesting that a norm of equitable search strategy endorsement developed and spread in departments with high departmental FRW attendance. These results are promising given the importance of an institutional climate supportive of sustained change.\nStudy 2: Although evidence-based workshops like the FRW have demonstrated positive effects, it remains to be tested whether these are at least in part attributable to greater belief in the social science principles (e.g. gender schemas, implicit bias, accumulation of disadvantage) highlighted by these workshops. Study 2 was designed to directly test whether the education provided on these social science findings underlie the effects of the FRW. Study 2 thus aimed to replicate the effect of FRW on endorsement of equitable search strategies and test whether they were mediated by increased belief in the social scientific principles (e.g. the belief that stereotyping and implicit biases occur and affect outcomes for women and URM individuals) highlighted in the FRW. The sampling in Study 2 also allowed comparison of the long-term effects of the FRW (i.e. comparing beliefs and attitudes of those who had attended an FRW any time in the past to those who had never attended) as well as short-term effects (i.e. comparing those who had recently attended to those who never attended).\nMethod and measures: The design of Study 2 was similar to Study 1, with two differences. First, belief in the social science principles was measured. Respondents used a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) to indicate agreement with five statements corresponding to evidence-based information from the FRW, for example, \"Our assumptions about a person's traits and abilities can subconsciously influence hiring decisions.\" Second, the items assessing personal endorsement of equitable search strategies was modified from 13 to 12 items, and included additional strategies beyond those examined in Study 1 to match changes in the strategies most heavily emphasized in the FRW at the time (e.g. avoiding early ranking of candidates; a=0.62; see Appendix for items). Some items with the same content were also reworded to reduce potential ceiling effects and acquiescence bias. Because the items were different, we conducted another EFA to explore effects on different strategy types. This resulted in a factor for search and review strategies addressing identities, disparities, and bias (a=0.77), another for strategies to avoid limiting the candidate pool (a=0.60), and three single items that did not load strongly onto a single factor. Only one single-item index was retained because it was a collapsed version of a key factor identified in the previous study (one item for avoiding personal inquiries about both partners and children). This left three key strategy types of interest as the focus of exploration (see Table V).\nParticipants: A total of 468 tenured/tenure-track faculty were recruited in 2015 and 2016 to participate in Study 2. Among them, 344 were registered to attend the FRW during the study period and 124 were not. Overall, 63 percent were men and 37 percent were women; nearly one-quarter (23 percent) were faculty of color (12 percent were Asian/Asian American faculty and 11.3 percent were URM faculty). Half of all respondents were full professors (54.5 percent), and the remaining were associate (25.6 percent) or assistant (20 percent) professors.\nResults: Personal endorsement of equitable search strategies\nDiscussion: Results of Study 2 replicated and extended findings from Study 1. Personal endorsement of equitable search strategies was again greater among those who previously attended an FRW, a pattern that was corroborated by pre-post FRW attendance analyses. In addition, FRW attendance was associated with greater belief in the social science research principles emphasized in the workshop, a pattern apparent in both methods of comparison. Importantly, there was evidence that these beliefs mediated the relationship between FRW attendance and increased endorsement of equitable search strategies. Although the evidence was somewhat mixed for when examining more long-term effects of FRW attendance, the role of beliefs was clear in the short term - particularly for men. This finding suggests that educating people (especially men, who constitute the majority of many departmental faculties) about social science research principles may play an important role in determining their attitudes about equitable search practices soon after attending the FRW.\nGeneral discussion: Across two studies spanning five years we find evidence that attending an ADVANCE FRW increased endorsement of equitable search strategies. Among samples of faculty members, individual FRW attendance was associated with greater personal endorsement of equitable search strategies (Studies 1 and 2) and greater intentions to behave consistently with those practices on two out of three items (Study 1). Endorsement of equitable search strategies was greater among faculty members when a greater proportion of their academic department colleagues had attended an FRW, even among respondents who had not attended an FRW themselves (Study 1). Finally, there was suggestive evidence that having recently attended an FRW increased endorsement of equitable search practices because attendance moves people (especially men) to accept the social science research principles on which the FRW is based (Study 2 secondary comparison). Belief in these social science principles also seemed to play a role in explaining more long-term effects of the FRW (Study 2 primary comparison), albeit more tenuously. As a whole, these studies provide empirical evidence that being exposed to an evidence-based equitable FRW can increase faculty members' beliefs in the social science research evidence on which it is based, leading to increased support of equitable search practices and intentions to enact those practices, and that this positive influence may be spread throughout a department the more that its members have attended the workshop.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Many university programs seek to promote faculty diversity by reducing biases in hiring processes. The purpose of this paper is to conduct two studies to test the individual- and department-level impact of a faculty recruitment workshop (FRW) on faculty attitudes toward evidence-based, equitable hiring practices.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Study 1 included 1,188 faculty who had or had not attended an FRW. Respondents were surveyed about their attitudes and their intentions to use specific equitable search practices. The authors assessed the proportion of faculty in each department to test for the impact of department-level workshop attendance on individual faculty attitudes. Study 2 employed a similar design (with 468 faculty) and tested whether effects of workshop attendance are explained by changes in beliefs about social science research.\nFindings: Faculty had more favorable attitudes toward equitable search strategies if they had attended a workshop or if they were in a department where more of their colleagues had. Workshop attendance also increased intentions to act on two of three recommendations measured, and led to greater belief in evidence-based descriptions of gender biases. Some evidence suggested that these beliefs mediated the influence of the FRW on attitudes.\nResearch limitations/implications: Because faculty were not randomly assigned to attend the workshop, no strong claims about causality are made.\nPractical implications: The present studies demonstrate that an evidence-based recruitment workshop can lead faculty to adopt more favorable attitudes toward strategies that promote gender diversity in hiring.\nOriginality/value: These studies provide evidence of the role of belief in social science research evidence in explaining the effectiveness of a program designed to increase faculty diversity.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The effect of age, gender and level of education on the consumer's expectations towards dairy product packaging
|
[
"Marketing",
"Packaging",
"Consumers",
"Consumer purchasing decisions",
"Dairy products"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Each person has particular expectations concerning various areas of social, professional, health and personal life. These expectations are connected to the different roles played by an individual. One of them is the role of a market participant, i.e. a final customer (Jacob, 2014). It can, therefore, be stated that the measure of offerors' appropriate orientation is the extent to which they meet customer expectations connected with all elements of the marketing offer, including product attributes such as packaging. Customer's expectations and the aspiration for their best possible fulfilment form the foundations of all classical and modern marketing concepts. The consequence of noticing customers' growing expectations is reflected in the more frequent focus on their fulfilment (Bowen and Lihchen, 2001), although, in practice, a lack of pro-customer orientation can often still be observed (Sadeghi and Farokhian, 2011).\n2. Literature overview: With regard to the consumer market, one of the most important aspects of a product is its packaging. It is also a key element of the marketing communication process (Rundh, 2009; Silayoi and Speece, 2004). The growing role of packaging in marketing is a result of the following five factors:\n3. Hypotheses and conceptual model: Taking into consideration the results of the cognitive-critical analysis of the literature the research hypotheses were formulated. The authors tried to verify the following three hypotheses related to the influence of age, gender and level of education on the hierarchical system of customer expectations concerning elements of dairy product packaging in terms of purchase decisions:\n4. Research methodology: In order to verify the research hypotheses, primary empirical research was conducted. Both during the proper research and the preceding pilot stage, the socio-psychological method of the questionnaire was used. Pilot research served to identify (Corbin and Strauss, 2008) potential elements of dairy product packaging influencing purchase decisions, which were tested in the subsequent stages of the research process. The first stage of the research process allowed to prepare the final version of research instrument including clear and communicable questions.\n5. Research findings: The main stage of the proper research aimed at defining the respondents' expectations. In order to identify their expectations towards elements of dairy product packaging which influence their purchase decisions, they were asked \"What elements of packaging do You take into consideration during purchase process of dairy products?\". The list of these elements included 19 positions defined during the pilot research. Respondents were to assess the importance of each of suggested elements on a scale between 0 and 5, where 0 indicated lack of importance, 1 - very little importance, 2 - little importance, 3 - average importance, 4 - high importance, and 5 - very high importance. In the factor analysis estimated elements were treated as the input variables.\n6. Implications of the research findings: The statistical analysis of the results of the primary research allowed a positive verification of the research hypotheses. The respondents' demographic characteristics (age, gender, level of education) influenced the hierarchy of their expectations towards the features of dairy product packaging determining their purchase decisions. The H1, H2 and H3 hypotheses are confirmed. It is worth emphasising that the importance of ecological features of dairy product packaging grew along with the respondents' age. A strong dependence was identified between their age and these features. On the other hand, such a dependence was not observed with reference to education; yet, education had great influence on, inter alia, expectations towards non-obligatory information placed on dairy product packaging. Expectations also clearly differed depending on the respondents' gender, which is proved by the variables creating the principal component of \"non-obligatory information\" both in the case of women and men.\n7. Conclusions: It can be stated that the first research goal related to identification of elements of dairy product packaging influencing respondents' purchase decision has been realized. The results of the factor analysis show that the main role in this context play the elements connected with the packaging appearance (like colour, shape, originality and design). The three others principal components (non-obligatory information, brand and ecology) have relatively lesser signification. The second assumed research goal concerning the identification and analysis of expectations towards dairy product packaging and their hierarchical system according to the three selected demographic characteristics of the respondents has been realized too. This goal was achieved through the verification of three research hypotheses. It was carried out by means of the methods of statistical analysis. The analysed demographic characteristics of the respondents (age, gender and level of education) influences the hierarchy of their expectations concerning elements of packaging which determine their purchase decisions connected with dairy products. It means that all of the hypotheses are true. In this situation the conceptual model can be treated as the final model of dependences between customers' expectations towards elements of dairy product packaging and these elements.\n8. Limitations and future research: The conducted research, especially their subjective and objective scope, have some limitations:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to have two main research goals: to identify and analyse the elements of dairy product packaging which influence customer purchase decisions, according to these elements' compliance with their expectations; and to analyse the relations between final customers' expectations towards elements of dairy product packaging and their three chosen demographic characteristics including age, gender and level of education.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper is theoretical and empirical in nature. In the theoretical part, the cognitive-critical analysis of the world's literature on marketing and marketing management was applied. In the empirical part the following research methods were used: questionnaire survey for gathering primary data and statistical analysis (factor analysis and the Kruskal-Wallis independence test) for the analysis of the primary data and for statistical reasoning, which formed the basis for the final conclusions.\nFindings: On the basis of the research, one can conclude that the analysed demographic characteristics of the respondents (age, gender, level of education) influence the structure of their expectations towards dairy product packaging, thereby determining their purchase decisions. The dependence does not exist only between the growth of pro-environmental expectations and the increase of the respondents' level of education. However, this does not change the fact that level of education correlates with expectations related to other features of dairy product packaging, thus determining their structure.\nOriginality/value: The original contribution of this paper to theory is the identification of Polish customers' expectations towards elements of dairy product packaging and the description of their structural diversity, depending on the recipients' demographic characteristics in terms of their purchase decisions taken thanks to the fact that their expectations concerning the features of packaging are fulfilled. This knowledge can make it easier to effectively manage dairy product packaging as a tool of influencing on customers and properly shape their marketing potential by offerors. It determines the applicability of the research results and the conclusions drawn from them.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
How close are we to having a global "Get it for me" service?
|
[
"Resource sharing",
"Library users",
"Document delivery"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: For some time now our industry has been holding out the vision of a user-friendly system that can lead the individual from item discovery through to item delivery within one apparently seamless transaction. The vision goes something like this:An individual finds an item of interest while searching the Web, they press a magical \"Get it for me\" button and they are then either offered a list of places that can supply that item with prices and delivery times, or a helpful intermediary offers to get it on their behalf. Whichever route is taken, a short time later, the item gets delivered to their desktop or doorstep.Despite much anticipation, such a system still seems to lie in the future rather than the present. We have all seen implementations that provide some of the desired functionality. Now, we are all getting impatient to see the whole thing become a reality, - \"so how come it's taking so long?\"As ever, the answer lies in the details. In order to implement the \"discovery to delivery\" vision, a system needs to have certain fundamental questions answered. These questions can be summarised as follows: What is it? Who has it? Is it available? Is it available to me? And if so, then in what format? By which means will it be delivered? Where will it be delivered to? How quickly? For how long? And at what cost?Getting hold of the answers to these questions is not always easy, so I will go through each of the questions in turn, showing what technologies are available to help our system answer that question, and also, what barriers remain to prevent the system from getting the answers we seek.\nWhat is it?: In the simplest case, the user tells the system what it is they are looking for by highlighting the required item on the screen and then clicking on the \"Get this for me\" button. How the user gets to this point is out of scope for this discussion. We are only interested in what happens after the \"Get it for me\" button has been clicked.\nWho has it?: The system now has to find out who owns the requested item. It has an example of the requested item in its hands, so in theory, all it has to do is compile a list of who owns it.So where should it look for this information?Happily we live in a world with an increasing abundance of online data resources. Individuals are used to searching for referenced materials in all sorts of places, not just library catalogues. So our system too has access to any number of online data resources that could be searched in order to locate the item: everything from library catalogues, and national archives, through to commercial article databases, and online music and book stores. Some of these will have proprietary interfaces, some will have web search screens, while others, most notably, library catalogues, will support open catalogue search standards like Z39.50 or its newer web-based alternatives, SRW and SRU. Other sources can be searched via the familiar and all-pervasive global indexing and searching tools like Google and Yahoo!OPACs and library portals have been doing this kind of \"federated searching\" for about ten years. They can search across many heterogeneous data sources using a variety of open and proprietary search protocols in order to locate appropriate resources. Consequently, this is now quite a mature product area and so, surprisingly perhaps, it is not the search protocols per se that are the problem, but how items have been catalogued and indexed in the databases themselves. Take for example the case of the Universal Product Code, or \"UPC\" for short. The UPC is a standardised barcode that is used in the retail and stock control world to describe everything from a can of beans to a Lamborghini. One of the reasons that ISBNs were recently extended from 11 to 13 digits was to bring them into line with UPCs (which makes sense when you want to sell books through supermarkets).UPCs are important in our story because they are the primary unique identifier for CDs and DVDs (much as ISBNs are for books). For example, if we want to search for \"The Lord of the Rings\" - the movie on DVD in a typical library catalogue, we are more likely to get accurate search results if we could search for it using its UPC then if we searched by \"title\" and \"author\". We do not want to find out who has \"The Lord of the Rings\" as a film soundtrack on CD, or as a printed book, we only want to know who has the film version on DVD.The problem with UPCs is that although most bibliographic catalogues include the UPC in their MARC records for CDs and DVDs (it is to be found in Tag 024) almost none of them have indexed the UPC as a search key. This is the equivalent of having a bibliographic database that does not index its ISBNs and ISSNs. It is a crucial search index when looking for non-traditional or multi-media works. Z39.50 even has a search attribute for it (Bib attribute 1007 \"Identifier, Standard\") - but most online catalogues do not support searches using this attribute, thereby making accurate automated searches for CDs and DVDs more difficult than it should be.A reasonable alternative would be to search by Title and media type (i.e. title=\"lord of the rings\" AND media=DVD) - but it is also surprising how many Z39.50 enabled catalogues do not support searching by media type. So we end up with a result set full of books and CDs when what we wanted were the DVDs or we end up with a search failure message.So, we have the right data, but we do not always have the right indexes to access it.\nIs it available?: Let us assume that despite the cataloguing and indexing problems, we have managed to find several locations that hold \"The Lord of the Rings\" as a DVD movie. The next step is to find out whether any of those copies are available for loan, copy or purchase.How the system goes about this depends on the kind of database it is searching. I am going to continue using the example of a library catalogue for the moment, because library systems are designed specifically to deal with the availability of circulating items.The most obvious way of ascertaining the availability of an item in a library is to interrogate the library's circulation system directly. There are at least two published standards for allowing external software systems to \"talk\" to circulation systems:1. 3M's SIP (Standard Interchange Protocol); and2. more recent NCIP (NISO Circulation Interchange Protocol) standard.Both protocols include an item lookup service, which returns shelf-status information about a specified item. However, having access to this kind of information tends to be limited to machines that are operating within the realm of the library or campus or consortium where the data is stored. It is unlikely that our imagined \"Get it for me\" service will have that level of access; so it will most likely have to take an alternative route.The more common, but less desirable way of discovering the availability of an item relies on making sense of the circulation/holdings information that is returned in the catalogue records that have been used to locate the item. Using the holdings statements in catalogue records is less desirable than direct interrogation of the host circulation system because:*almost every catalogue employs its own rules for where in the MARC record the holdings statements can be found; and:*the circulation status is still being stored as human-readable text rather than standardised machine readable codes.This harks back to the origins of MARC records in the automated production of human readable catalogue cards. Nonetheless, the practice of putting display data in MARC holdings records rather than machine-readable codes continues unabated. Thus, different instances of the same cataloguing system will show different texts for the same circulation status. There is an ISO standard for codified circulation statuses (ISO-8459-4), but to my knowledge, no catalogues support it.So to answer the question \"Is it available?\", the \"Get it for me\" system needs to recognise all the possible alternative texts for \"On the shelf\", \"On loan\", \"Due back\" etc. in all the possible languages in all the different variants of a MARC holdings statement. And this is before it has to deal with systems that count 'On loan\" as being a temporary item location rather than a circulation status!So, from the standpoint of automated systems doing the availability checking, we have the right data - but it is often in the wrong format\nIs it available to me?: Our hypothetical system has managed to identify several places where the desired item is held and is available for loan. The question now is whether those places are willing to loan the item to me.There are two parts to this question:1. User authentication: establishing who the \"me\" is.2. User authorisation: finding out whether \"me\" has permission to access the items that have been found.User authentication\nAt what cost? And how soon?: These are further lender policy issue, but how does a borrower (or our \"Get it for me\" system) find out about the lending policies of external organisations? An ILL policies directory needs to hold the kind of data that can answer the questions: \"Do you provide copies and/or loans to external users? If so then which materials? Which users? At what price?\". Lenders generally keep such information to themselves. Various countries have made their libraries' ILL policies available to others, but this information tends to be localised within a given national system, rather than being made globally available. There was an attempt in the late 1990s to develop a global network of inter-connected national ILL policy directories using the LDAP protocol, but this effort never really got off the ground. So, a truly global ILL Policies directory is yet to come into being, in the meantime; for the last year or so OCLC has provided a publicly available Institutions Registry at http://worldcat.org.pitt.idm.oclc.org/registry/Institutions/, which includes the contact details of many hundreds of libraries in the USA and elsewhere.\nBy which means? (or \"Negotiating the delivery\"): Let us now imagine that we have found somewhere that will give access to its holdings to non-affiliated users, how do the borrowing and lending systems negotiate the transaction?We currently have three levels of loan transaction, and we also have three separate levels of software or protocol to enable that lending negotiation to take place:1. Within a local library we can use our traditional circulation system to place a hold on a locally item for our locally affiliated users.2. Within a consortium of libraries we can use our consortial borrowing system to broker the loan of a consortially held item to a consortially affiliated individual. The brokering system ensures that the user's library's circulation system and the item's library's circulation system are kept in step regarding the status of the item and the user.3. On a global scale, we can use interlibrary loans to place a hold on a globally held item provided the user's library is known to the lender. The transaction is split into a local (circ-like) transaction between the user and their affiliated library, and a second (ILL) transaction between the user's library and a remote lending library. We are not yet at the point where the users themselves, can directly place a hold on items found somewhere else in the world.Thus, although we have protocols like NCIP and SIP for handling direct and brokered circulation negotiations, and although we have various ILL protocols to allow the global library-to-library lending to be negotiated, I think we are coming to expect something that is less parochial than extended circulation, but that is more personal than inter-library loans. There is clearly going to be a need for such a transaction type, but we do not yet have the kind of lending policies in place that would allow such a transaction to happen.\n... in what format? (or \"Performing the delivery\"): And so we come to discuss the final delivery of the item from the lender to the individual borrower. The actual delivery of physical items by post, courier and e-mail, or electronic items by Ariel, OpenURL, web page etc. is well established, and is not the point at issue here.Document delivery gets increasingly harder to accomplish as the relationship between the borrower and lender gets more tenuous. As the borrower moves out of the lender's constituency, the lenders willingness to lend will lessen, but when the borrower and lender are in different countries or continents, then the issues related to custom and excise (for physical deliveries) or copyright and licensing for electronic items become increasingly prominent.It takes mutual trust for an institution to loan its physical items overseas with the confidence to expect to have them returned. This requires agreements to be made between lender and borrower that are feasible when made between institutions, but which are hard to imagine in the context of an individual asking for something \"out of the blue\" from a foreign lender.The requirement for trust is less necessary when it comes to the delivery of electronic copies, perhaps because the transaction can be viewed as a purchase rather than a loan, but even then licensing issues can still come into play. Copyright law and regulations are often less than clear especially when the copy is being sent across national borders. One only has to think of the problems that beset SUBITO when it tried to supply copied materials to customers outside of Germany. And it is not just a problem of copyright. Access to purely digital materials is often governed by the publishers' licenses to their users. A library may well own electronic copies of journals for access by their local constituency, but it is very unlikely that they will be allowed to distribute copies (electronic or printed) of these materials to borrowers from outside of the licensed community.Once again, it is the policies rather than the technologies that need \"fixing\" in order for our vision to be universally applicable.\nTwo real-world examples: So as you can see, for most of the steps in our journey, it looks like \"we have the technology\"; however, we do not always have the right data in the right format, or the right policies in place to allow that technology to play its part. Systems interaction is not just about software and electronic communications, it is also about people and policies. We need to start paying more attention to these non-technical aspects of the system if we want the vision to become a reality.So, to finish, here are two real-world examples to illustrate my point:Example 1\nConclusion: Why is it taking so long to implement the vision? I think we have got into the mindset of expecting technology to solve these kinds of problems. But it seems to me that there is enough technology out there already to do most of what we want, and we can already see how to \"fix\" the bits that are missing or broken. Now it is time for the resource sharing community to focus on the human aspects of global collaboration to bring down the remaining policy barriers that stand between our users and their obscure objects of desire.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to identify the key features in the process of an end-user identifying, requesting and obtaining a document they require. In addition it seeks to describe the issues that need to be addressed for this process to become successful and operational.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The approach takes a descriptive form.\nFindings: - The paper finds that most technical issues have been resolved. The information community as a whole must address how the remaining obstacles can be overcome.\nOriginality/value: - This is a readable paper by an experienced practitioner on the long-standing vision of a seamless service for end-users.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Fairness in franchisor-franchisee relationship: an integrative perspective
|
[
"Fairness",
"Franchising"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Franchising retains a preponderant place among entrepreneurial growth strategies in both domestic and international business markets (Dada et al., 2010). Franchisees make transaction-specific investments which are difficult to redeploy into other business activities. As a result, franchisees expect the processes of the franchisor to be consistent and free of bias (Leventhal et al., 1980). They expect all relevant information for their success before as well as after entering into the exchange (Lapiedra et al., 2012). This information could be related to the introduction of new products into the market, withdrawal of certain products from the market, transparency related to product replacement policies, entry of a new franchisee into the geography, changes in regulations and so on. Franchisees also expect to be treated with dignity and respect by the representatives of the franchisor (Weaven et al., 2014).\n2. Method description: The research questions explored in this paper are:\n3. Literature review: We are witnessing a change in distribution setups. First, new business models of \"online retailers like Amazon.com and Alibaba.com impacting traditional manufacturer-distributor relationships\" (Krafft et al., 2015, p. 580). Second, there is an unprecedented and simultaneous increase in the sizes of both vendors and buyers, thus changing the notion of power in the buyer-seller relationship context. For instance, Foxconn, a major vendor for Apple, earns more than $130bn yearly revenue (Luk, 2014) and Wal-Mart, a major retailer and buyer, now earns more than $450bn yearly revenue (Nassauer, 2016). Finally, increasing use of master (vs single) franchisee contracts for expansion has created different power equations (Alon, 2012). Consequently, it becomes important for managers to focus on how their actions are perceived by the franchisee owners, as perceptions of fairness become critical to the success of the relationship. Researchers' are also refocusing on the aspects of power in channel relationships (e.g. Amato and Amato, 2009; Melamed, 2012), as few studies have explored power as a driver of trust and commitment in channel relationships (Leonidou et al., 2008).\n4. Propositions development: 4.1 Fairness\n5. Conclusion: 5.1 Theoretical implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to elucidate and extend the concept of power and fairness in the context of franchisor-franchisee relationship.\nDesign/methodology/approach: On the basis of Dul and Hak's (2007) recommendations, the conceptual model is developed from closely related domains (e.g. channel relationship) using pertinent theories. On the basis of this comprehensive analysis, new propositions about fairness in a franchisee-franchisor context are drawn. The primary purpose of this research is to conceptually and theoretically further the understanding of antecedents and consequences of fairness in a franchisor-franchisee relationship context by proffering a framework. Finally, this study examines the concept of fairness of its antecedents and moderators that have received scant attention in the context of franchising research.\nFindings: This study contends that non-coercive power is perceived fairly. Also, coercive power that is legitimate is perceived fairly. However, coercive power that is illegitimate can be detrimental to relationships between franchisee and franchisor. Furthermore, a franchisee who perceives the relationship to be fair is likely to place more trust in relationship, is more satisfied with relationship and is less likely to be opportunistic. Finally, the study contends that these relationship outcomes are dependent on the franchisee's personality traits.\nResearch limitations/implications: One major limitation of this study is that the propositions have not been empirically tested. However, this paper cites several business cases that have been used to support the propositions proffered in the study. Our conceptual model supported by previous theoretical findings and industry cases suggests that it is important to focus on social dimensions along with economic costs of a franchisor-franchisee relationship. Future researchers may empirically examine the relationships posited in this study by using the primary industry data.\nOriginality/value: This paper takes a comprehensive view of various social constructs affecting a franchisor-franchisee relationship. It also highlights the role of individual personality factors in a franchisor-franchisee relationship, extends prior work on relational dimensions from channels to the franchising context and provides managerial conclusions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Applying fuzzy LinPreRa cognitive map to evaluate strategic alliance partnerships for outlying island duty-free shop
|
[
"Duty-free shop",
"Fuzzy cognitive map",
"Fuzzy linguistic preference relation",
"Strategic alliance partnerships"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Research topics related to the channel strategic alliances have gradually drawn the attention of scholars in the marketing and circulation management fields (Li et al., 2010), such as exploring the partnerships among strategic alliance members and entrepreneurial values (Chen and Tseng, 2005) as well as the factors influencing strategic alliance relationship development (Wu et al., 2012; Tang and Hsu, 2018). In addition, Gedeon et al. (2009) and Holmlund and Hobbs (2009) also investigated the factors influencing the termination phase of strategic alliances. Hence, there are complex factors influencing the developing process of strategic alliance partnerships among businesses themselves and alliances that are worth studying for the development of channel strategic alliances. Even though previous studies have considered the concept of the development of strategic alliance relationships to discuss the factors influencing the establishment of long-term cooperative relationships (Jiang et al., 2008). Despite the availability of research results indicating numerous factors, previous studies have been unable to explain the ways in which these factors transpire and to validate the stability of factors influencing channel partnership development. Waheed and Gaur (2012) applied an interpersonal trust-development perspective and viewed customer dependence as customer perceived market uncertainty, product importance and product familiarity. They also pointed out the positive effect of customer dependence on customer trust in the context of interpersonal buyer-seller relationship.\n2. Literature review: Many academicians are enticed to objectives of investigating and measuring factors for strategic alliance partnerships development. In this paper, we review previous literature regarding the concept of relationship quality and influence factors of strategic alliance partnerships development. This study also reviews relative methods including fuzzy LinPreRa ANP and FCM in order to evaluate critical factors of partnerships for channel strategic alliance development.\n3. Constructing a fuzzy LinPreRa cognitive map for strategic alliance partnerships: This study utilizes the FCM and fuzzy LinPreRa ANP method to constructing a fuzzy LinPreRa cognitive map to explore the relations, interactions and importance of factors and the conditions of interactive impacts during various stages of strategic alliance partnership establishment. Empirical research was also conducted on the relationship management of outlying islands' duty-free shop strategic and an in-depth clarification of the factors influencing them was provided. Key factors to be considered in the maintenance and development of strategic channel partnerships were further proposed. A quality management strategy was introduced for the outlying island duty-free shop to develop long-term strategic alliance partnerships. The following are three major steps for constructing fuzzy LinPreRa cognitive map.\n4. Empirical application for strategic alliance partnerships: This study utilizes outlying island duty-free shops as the object of empirical applications, which refers to the places of business where goods and merchandise are sold to tourists in the Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu areas. Through registrations with customs and agreements with city authorities, sales targets of duty-free goods are generally limited to tourists who are holders of passports, travel documents or identification credentials. Simultaneously, duty-free shop merchandise sold to tourists must be limited to noncommercial use. The scope of tax exemption includes business tax, customs duty, excise tax, tobacco and alcohol tax and health tax on tobacco products. Merchandise sold by the outlying island duty-free shops includes foreign goods and products in stock from bonded warehouses, logistics centers, bonded factories, export processing zones, scientific industrial parks, agricultural science and technology parks, free trade zones and other bonded areas.\n5. Analysis results for empirical application: 5.1 The results of associative sentence collection between outlying island duty-free shops and collaborating firms\n6. Research conclusions and managerial implications: When maintaining partnerships in the process of B2B collaboration, the differences in the concept of cooperative strategy may stem from different stances based on the perspective of strategic alliance partnership. Therefore, many factors contribute to the quality of maintenance of the partnership. Hence, the Company E is used as the object of exploration of the relationships between outlying island duty-free shops and collaborating firms to formulate a fuzzy LinPreRa cognitive map, as well as to explore the significant important influencing factors affecting strategic alliance partnerships establishment. Through visualizing and quantizing the image analysis results, valuable managerial strategies can be provided to outlying island duty-free shop managers for developing strategic alliances partnership with collaborating firms.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to apply a fuzzy LinPreRa cognitive map to evaluate the interaction and importance of factors affecting the development of strategic alliance partnerships between the outlying island duty-free shops and existing collaboration firms in duty-free shops. Meanwhile, the key factors should be considered in establishing strategic alliance partnerships while analyzing and comparing the perspectives of owners for outlying island duty-free shop and partner vendors of collaborating firms along with differences of influencing key factors on partnership quality.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study incorporates a fuzzy linguistic preference relation analytical network process (fuzzy LinPreRa ANP) in the fuzzy cognitive map (FCM) method to formulate a fuzzy LinPreRa cognitive map to evaluate the interactions and importance of key factors and the conditions of interactive impacts during the establishment of strategic alliance partnerships. The authors use the outlying island duty-free shops in Taiwan as the empirical subject to illustrate how the fuzzy LinPreRa cognitive map is applied. In-depth, interviews and questionnaire surveys are conducted to collect and evaluate respondents concerning key factors affecting strategic alliance partnerships establishment.\nFindings: The following three findings based on the results of empirical analysis: first, the administrative behavioral patterns of managers for strategic alliance partnerships encompass shared values and goal coherence, while the associative statements are located on the first layer of fuzzy LinPreRa cognitive map core associations, which illustrates that businesses attach great importance to conceptual ideas. Second, integrity and reputations of both parties are the governing mechanism of strategic alliance partnerships, influencing mutual reputation. Third, the relationship of strategic alliance partnerships refers to the profit opportunities of both parties and their ability to respond to the market, including future development, regional indicators, marketing capabilities, brand multiplicity and customer retention. However, it can be inferred that such associative factors are located in the outer layer or belong to noncore associations, which means that both parties' abilities to respond to market reactions are weakened.\nPractical implications: This study provides valuable relationship managerial strategies to maintain long-term partnerships for outlying island duty-free shops and their alliance collaborating firms including strengthened relationships of both parties' managers to achieve common values and consistent objectives; improved beneficial value of both parties in strategic alliance partnerships; continued close communications to enhance the quality of strategic alliance partnerships; and establishment of personnel training mechanisms and strict formulation of management rules for strategic alliance partnerships.\nOriginality/value: The main valuable contributions are included the fuzzy LinPreRa cognitive map by combining two different decision methods including FCM and fuzzy LinPreRa ANP is proposed to help decision makers to improve the evaluation quality and calculation efficiency for critical elements' interaction and importance; the fuzzy LinPreRa cognitive map can clarify considering significant factors when maintaining strategic alliance partnerships and further provide valuable relationship managerial strategies to maintain long-term relationships for duty-free shop owners and their alliance collaborating firms.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
An interaction and interface design framework for video digital libraries
|
[
"Video digital libraries",
"User interface design",
"User-centered design",
"Human computer interaction",
"Framework",
"Digital libraries",
"Information retrieval"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: From a user-centered definition, digital libraries are interactive retrieval tools that are accompanied with the fundamental expectation of allowing human users to use and interact \"in the loop.\" The nonlinear and iterative interaction process between users and digital libraries is facilitated by user interfaces and other system functions that enable the retrieval of items from (many times) centralized and domain-specific or specialized collections. Video digital libraries pertain to those projects and corresponding retrieval systems that strive to disseminate digitized video information to users; the developmental processes involved for these types of resources can be notably complex and comprise different considerations for design and information delivery. Video digital libraries have been developed to make available and accessible collections that pertain to a variety of different topics of video, including educational, entertainment, archived news, cultural heritage, and other types of collections.\nObjectives and problems: This article presents a user-centered analysis that strives to generalize findings and observations about the interactive video retrieval process. The specific objectives of this article include:\nLiterature review: Although theoretical findings in user-centered video retrieval are limited, which presents one motivation for this study, prior research in information, library, computer, and cognitive science shape the survey presented here. This section further supports the findings of this analysis, presented in the following sections, by reviewing user-centered interactive video retrieval research along with selected relevant theories from information seeking, retrieval, and interface design. Experimental studies evaluating individual or specific system prototypes are the norm for disseminating results in the field; while these studies are critical for progressing our knowledge of the technical aspects of video retrieval, many base findings solely on systematic measures for evaluation (recall/precision). User-centered video retrieval research warrants independent evaluation as the user can affect the interactive process, even in terms of retrieval or search effectiveness (Christel, 2008a). Experimental studies from a user-centered perspective with the potential to be applied as general guidance, beyond one developed resource or system, contribute to the literature that is relevant to this study. Furthermore, the research surveyed in this section specifically comprises a higher-level or overarching review of studies relevant to user-centered or interactive IR; however, in the following Framework section, another selection of more experimental studies that inform the specific aspects of the developed framework are reviewed to support the arguments presented there.\nFramework for interactive video digital libraries: This section presents the framework, which is central to this analysis, to describe both general user interactions and corresponding designs of video digital libraries. The diagrams, or visual depictions, of the conceived framework are shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2; both figures, together, are components of the overall concept or framework developed from this study, not necessarily separate frameworks in and of themselves. Each depiction informs the other; e.g. interface design (Figure 2) is informed by user interaction (Figure 1) and vice versa. Both components of the framework, i.e. user interaction and interface design, will be described in turn. This developed framework is specific to interactive video retrieval, as there are considerations applicable specifically for video not found in any preexisting model. The general aspects of the framework are first set up, prior to presenting the analytical findings that are supported by a literature base comprising both conceptual and experimental research.\nImplications and limitations: Of the positive implications resulting from the acceptance of frameworks and other generalizations of information-related phenomena, they are typically accompanied with sets of limitations or lined with various assumptions. While some of the positive practical implications of this article were detailed from the development and presentation of Figure 2, i.e. supportive interface features, included here is a discussion of further benefits for digital libraries and interactive video retrieval, two areas that warrant theoretical frames to support development and evaluation. While the previous section lays out the core findings of this article, the perceived value of the developed framework arises from its potential use. Subsequently, and as expected, the observed limitations that inherently accompany a proposed framework must be thoroughly described.\nFuture work and conclusions: With the multidimensional composition and granular structure of video information, it can be a rather perplexing, yet significant, process to generalize user interaction and suitable interface designs for video digital libraries. The different factors and influences that can potentially arise during an interactive video retrieval session will obviously lead to variations from what will be presented in any proposed framework, perhaps even more variability than what typically accompanies other theoretical models in social and information sciences. Considering the non-exact nature of human information behaviors, interaction models, such as the one presented here, are approximate; exact depictions or generalizations (of what human users do) are difficult to capture and/or summarize. In other words, frameworks cannot always match what is happening in every context or situation, and there will be actions demonstrated by users that will contrast with the envisioned use or even regular trends.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present a framework applicable to interactive video retrieval. The objective of the framework is so that it can be applied conceptually for understanding users and use of video digital libraries, and also practically for designing retrieval components like user interfaces.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The framework was developed through a user-centered and analytical approach, and serves as an initial attempt at generalizing how users interact when searching and browsing digital video, throughout different situations, along with the general designs that can be supportive.\nFindings: The framework is two-fold, yet, together, comprises one set of conceptual findings. The first component of the framework depicts generalized user interactions throughout varying contexts of an interactive video retrieval process, followed by a second component, an illustration of the resulting supportive interface designs or sets of features. Cautions from previous studies not to over generalize the interactive process were heeded.\nResearch limitations/implications: The implications for such research are based on the understanding that video retrieval will benefit from the advancement of user-centered foundations, which can guide and support design decisions for resources like digital libraries.\nOriginality/value: The need for this study is rather straightforward: there is currently not enough conceptual research of interactive video retrieval from a user-centered perspective, which contrasts with other areas of information retrieval research where the interaction process has been thoroughly examined for a variety of domains and contexts with implications for different retrieval tools like OPACs, search engines, and article databases.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Knowledge management and succession planning in SMEs
|
[
"Knowledge attrition",
"Turnover",
"Employees turnover",
"Succession planning",
"Knowledge management",
"Small to medium‐sized enterprises",
"Germany"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Knowledge has become the most important strategic factor of firms (Spender, 1996), as it is associated with firms' capabilities to achieve a competitive advantage (Teece, 2001). Accordingly, firms have to find ways to adequately manage it. This presents a particular challenge for smaller firms as they usually lack the suitable resources in order to make full usage of their knowledge stock. Under such conditions, this knowledge stock is particularly at risk in situations of staff turnover and/or long-term absences, as the small staffing level does not allow for an immediate replacement. Moreover, the exit of long-term organization members cannot be mastered without certain disruptions (Parise et al., 2006). It is not uncommon in smaller firms that other staff members take the place of a departed employee in addition to their own workload, or the position remains vacant. Additionally, the firm's knowledge stock is likely to suffer from knowledge attrition, particularly its human capital and relational capital, as the critical tacit knowledge is mainly in the minds of the leaving organization members (Droege and Hoobler, 2003).This brief discussion clearly illustrates the close connection between knowledge management and succession planning, and the importance of having suitable measures in place to tackle the challenge of turnover or long-term absence. Both topics have been studied extensively. However, there is a tendency to focus on large businesses. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) seem to be neglected, particularly if the two topics are linked. Against the background of the SMEs' significance to many countries, this situation can be assessed as unsatisfactory. Previous studies have shown that there is an absence of systematic knowledge management (e.g. McAdam and Reid, 2001; Wong and Aspinwall, 2005) and succession planning approaches (e.g. Sambrook, 2005; Ip and Jacobs, 2006) in many SMEs. If measures are implemented, they may be regarded as less sophisticated. However, this does not mean that suitable approaches to tackle the problem of knowledge loss are less significant to SMEs success. Instead it can be argued that a suitable handling of knowledge is an especially important factor as to whether a firm survives or not.Therefore, the aim of this work is to examine and understand how the danger of knowledge attrition unfolds in the case of a German medium-sized business in the printing sector. The discussions in this paper are a follow-up of an on-going research project in this firm. Initial findings of this project were published elsewhere (Durst and Wilhelm, 2011). The present paper is organized as follows. In section 2 the literature related to the research aim is briefly reviewed. Section 3 then describes the method employed to come close to the research problem. Following this, the results are outlined, and in the final section the conclusion and study's implications are presented.\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 Knowledge management in smaller firms\n3. Research methodology: Keeping the aim of this study in mind, an exploratory (qualitative) research approach appeared to be more appropriate. The selection of a qualitative approach allows researchers to get close to participants and their thinking in order to scrutinize the entire research problem (Maykut and Morehouse, 1994).The company selected for the study is a German medium-sized enterprise active in the printing sector. Firms which are active in this field are often medium-sized companies and try to distinguish themselves through quality and service. Sales are done in house but also via outside representatives. These companies put a strong emphasis on research and development (R&D) because constant product improvements and innovations are necessary to give them a competitive edge. During the R&D periods often external knowledge resources are consulted. Focusing on a single case gives researchers the opportunity to understand the particulars (Tengblad et al., 2005). In this situation it is the firm's handling of the danger of knowledge attrition.Access to the company was established due to a former work relationship of one of the authors. The unit of analysis was the individual organization member of the firm. With regard to the selection, the intention was to include individuals representing different departments and positions. This would allow the researchers to obtain insights from different perspectives helping them to reduce any biases given rather than relying just on one group of individuals, e.g. executive staff. The individuals were selected together with one of the managing directors of the firm. In total, fourteen individuals were involved in the study.Data was collected through qualitative interviews. This type of interview is regarded as suitable to \"understand the 'what' and the 'how' but also [...] the 'why'\" (Saunders et al., 2009, p. 313). More precisely, data were collected by conducting semi-structured interviews with the fourteen staff members of the firm. The semi-structured approach is regarded as appropriate when very little is known about the subject in hand (Maykut and Morehouse, 1994).An interview guide supported the interview process. Open-ended questions were formulated underlining the paper's explorative character. The application of an interview guide facilitated the aspect of uniformity in view of comparisons of the interviews conducted (Guion, 2006). Having developed the first draft of the interview guide, a pilot interview was conducted with an individual who was working in a different firm but with the same organizational structure. This course of action led to some amendments to the way the questions were worded. The final interview guide focused upon the following points: identification of critical staff within the firm, the effects of knowledge loss as perceived by the interviewees and the ways used to store and share knowledge/information. The interviews lasted between one and two hours and took place in the interviewees' work environment. They were tape recorded and later transcribed, and took place between April-June 2009 and February 2010. The characteristics of the interviewees are summarized in Table I.In general, the length of service of the participants varies from 5 to 40 years, and they have therefore proved themselves to be very loyal to the company. As a result, it can be expected that the participants have accumulated a lot of in-house experience and know-how during the length of their service.Data analysis was based on the Miles and Huberman (1994) data display and analysis approach. Consequently the data analysis process involved three sub processes comprising data reduction, data display, and drawing/verifying conclusions. The primary task of the data reduction process was to select and simplify the collected data. Then the reduced set of data was displayed with the help of figures and matrices. Using the data displayed and the literature enlisted, enabled drawing conclusions. In this process both researchers were actively involved which allowed for different perspectives (Eisenhardt, 1989).\n4. Presentation of findings: Before presenting the findings, some background information of the surveyed company is provided.The company designs and manufactures printing machines. It is located in Southern Germany and was founded in 1953. In the past, the company was mainly financed by its own capital. Profits made were re-invested into the company to enable continuous development and keep ahead of the competition. The staff was constantly trained and retrained. IT and staffing structures were regularly improved to adapt to changes within the printing industry. All this changed when the company was taken over by a US-American printing press manufacturer, which slowed down the investments to repay interest and debt taken on to finance the takeover. This led to a destabilization of the firm and finally ended in a management buy-out in 2003. As a result, the company is currently managed and run by three managing directors of equal standing. In 2009 the company suffered an enormous fall in turnover due to the global economic recession. As a result the only investments which have been made since then were those absolutely necessary for the company's continued survival.It has to be pointed out that due to the structure of the company, the managing directors are actually \"active co-workers\" rather than pure managers. They are essentially involved with the day-to-day running of the operational activities. The company currently has a staff of 80 people.4.1 Identification and importance of key organization members\n5. Conclusion and implications: The study's aim was to gain a better insight into how a medium-sized company manages the danger of knowledge attrition. More precisely, the specific interest was in the danger of knowledge attrition caused by organizational turnover or long-term absenteeism of critical staff members. It is important to highlight the link between knowledge management and succession planning because it can cause immense direct and indirect costs. If companies, particularly SMEs fail to tackle the problem of knowledge attrition it may strongly affect their survivability. Against the background of changing demographics, this problem might be even worse.The study's findings clearly demonstrate that the organization members are aware of the danger of knowledge attrition. However, the precarious financial situation the firm is facing does not allow for the development and implementation of measures to tackle the problem of, for instance, undocumented knowledge, the dominance of tacit knowledge, or the selection and training of successors. Additionally, the firm's management neglected to introduce suitable processes during good times, which might have been the consequence of the management's too strong integration into the firm's day-to-day business at the expense of strategic issues (Hofer and Charan, 1984). Notwithstanding, it is the management's task to establish processes that enable the firm to tackle the future, particularly in a strained economic position. The authors conclude that at present the application of a contingency approach might be useful. This should fall back on the already given fundament. The research has demonstrated that each department is documenting their knowledge etc. to a certain degree. This excellent basis should be expanded by gradually introducing a firm wide standardized documentation approach. Given the present situation in the firm studied, respectively the characteristics of SMEs, this process should not lead to any disruption to business operations (Anderson and Boocock, 2002). The personal assistant to the management directors could take charge of this project. As the firm is apparently disposing of a favorable corporate culture, the close ties among the organization members should be used to save some of the critical organization members' tacit knowledge as well as relational capital. This would lower the firm's vulnerability if these people were to exit and consequently would help the firm to keep its responsiveness. The emphasis should be particularly on the knowledge that is needed to get problems solved or specific work done. This could happen through more dialogue between staff closely working together. In turn it is highly recommended that the dialogue is based on different forms of communication (e.g. words, illustrations etc.) to increase the likelihood of turning tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge (Nonaka, 1994).From a theoretical point-of-view, the findings provide some fresh insights into how smaller firms deal with the danger of knowledge loss. These insights are important as they show the difficulty related to the implementation of succession planning activities in a precarious financial situation in which the entire firm's activities are centered on the execution of current orders. In such a situation it is understandable that the owners or managers do not \"waste\" resources in analyzing suitable succession alternatives. The same conclusion would probably true for other situations in which quick responses are required. Academics researching in this field need to consider how to find a balance between the rather long-term approach of succession planning and the short-term approach often found in SMEs as a means to retaining responsiveness. It further underlines that academics should detach themselves from having a large firm thinking, as this will not work out in a small firm context that is primarily driven by urgent operational matters.From a practical point-of-view, this study points out the need for firms to engage in activities related to succession planning respectively knowledge retention to tackle the danger of knowledge attrition. This is particularly important given the aging workforce and the lack of suitable followers due to skill shortage (Burke, 2011). For universities and other education institutions the findings clearly reveal that there is a need to stronger incorporate the handling of knowledge loss into their curriculum, to help future managers and business owners to better tackle this issue in an increasingly knowledge driven business environment (respectively in firms with an aging workforce).Several limitations to the study must be noted. Firstly, the results were gained from a single organization, which made statistical generalization not possible. Taking the exploratory nature of the study into consideration, one might be able to make an analytical generalization (Yin, 2003). Secondly, the fact that the selection of interviewees was discussed with and chosen by one of the managing directors may have led to a slightly biased outcome. On the other hand, this individual can be viewed a door-opener needed to get access to the organization members. A final limitation might be related to the fact that the study was based on a cross-sectional design, thus changes in the firm's succession planning/knowledge management activities have therefore not been the focus. An examination of these limitations could positively influence the design of future studies. The integration of knowledge management and succession planning needs more attention and development in order to better understand knowledge attrition.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - An ignorance of knowledge attrition caused by employee exits is considered as careless and can lead to considerable consequences regarding both a firm's financial capital and intellectual capital, or in other words an ignorance of the danger of knowledge loss is associated with a missing or improper succession planning. The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of how a medium-sized firm copes with the danger of knowledge loss due to employee exit or long-term absence.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data were obtained through semi-structured interviews with 14 organization members from a German medium-sized enterprise operating in the printing sector. These participants represented different departments and positions.\nFindings: - The findings demonstrate the influence of a precarious financial situation on activities related to knowledge management and succession planning. Although the organization members are aware of obvious needs for improvement within the firm, their actual scope of action is centered on the execution of current orders.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The data are cross-sectional and were collected in one organization. Future studies should consider longitudinal designs across multiple organizations.\nPractical implications: - Based on the findings some suggestions were derived that may help firms facing similar circumstances.\nOriginality/value: - The study's findings provide fresh insights into how an established firm tackles the issue of knowledge attrition and its likely implications for the firm's performance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Comparison of Chinese and Indian consumers' evaluative criteria when selecting denim jeans: A conjoint analysis
|
[
"China",
"India",
"Clothing",
"Emerging markets"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: China and India are two of the world's most important emerging markets. China's economic growth rate is the world's fastest, and India's is the second fastest. The GNP of China ranks sixth in the world and India ranks seventh. Together, China and India account for 40 percent of the planet's population. Forecasts state that by the middle of the century, the two countries could account for half of the total global output (Engardio, 2005, August 22). Along with these impressive figures, the potential of the countries as apparel retail markets is also significant. China represents the world's second largest apparel retail sales market, after the US (Baker, 2007,). India shows a remarkable 20 percent growth per year in brand apparel market sales (Mozumder, 2006).\nLiterature review: China and India: two emerging apparel retail markets\nMethod: Respondents and data collection\nResults: The conjoint program provided in SPSS 12.0 was used for analysis. Before running conjoint analysis, the respondents who mistakenly marked the preference other wrong, such as putting the same rank twice or incomplete ranking, were excluded through the examination of response in two ways. First, the Pearson correlation between preference orders marked by respondent and reproduced by conjoint program was checked. Second, the value of Kendall's tau for three holdout cards was examined. Through this validity check, 152 for China and 150 for India were found suitable for further analysis. Table IV summarizes the relative importance of each attribute and the part-worth of each attribute for both China and India.The relative importance of the five apparel attributes can be judged by reviewing the averaged relative importance percentage. For Chinese consumers, price was the most important attribute (27.26 percent) followed by fitting (23.40 percent), brand country of origin (16.98 percent), quality (16.90 percent) and design (15.47 percent). For Indian consumers, fitting was the most important attribute (23.32 percent), followed by brand country of origin (20.50 percent), design (20.13 percent), price (19.62 percent) and quality (16.40 percent). The significance of attribute importance differences between the two countries was assessed by means of one-way ANOVA. The importance of quality and fitting was not significantly different between Chinese and Indian consumers. However, there were significant differences in the importance of brand country of origin, design, and price between the two countries. The importance of brand country of origin (F=3.54, p < 0.1) and design (F=14.41, p < 0.01) was significantly higher in India than in China. On the contrary, the importance of price was significantly higher in China than India (F=7.36, p < 0.01).Examination of the utility of attribute level shows that both groups of consumers preferred a pair of jeans that features US brand, medium price, high-end quality, and high level of fitting. However, Chinese respondents prefer traditional style jeans, whereas Indian respondents prefer trendy style jeans. The value of best utility jeans for Chinese customers was 2.15 and for Indian customers was 1.53.\nConclusion and discussion: Summary and discussion of major findings\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - US apparel firms have been relatively slow exploring Chinese and Indian apparel markets, despite the countries' tremendous growth potentials. To help US apparel firms successfully enter these promising markets, this study aims to compare evaluative attributes that Chinese and Indian consumers utilize when purchasing denim jeans.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data were collected in Shanghai, China and Bangalore, India.\nFindings: - The results of the study confirmed that Chinese and Indian consumers ranked attributes differently. Chinese consumers placed the highest importance on price, followed by fitting, brand country of origin, quality, and design, whereas Indian consumers placed importance on fitting, brand country of origin, design, price, and quality, in descending order.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Caution needs to be exercised in generalizing the findings since the data for this study were collected from one city in each country. The study tested the idea that the importance of attributes would be different between Chinese and Indian consumers as their cultures and retail development stages differ. This idea was supported in conjoint analysis.\nPractical implications: - The findings indicate that a regional approach, assuming that all Asian markets are the same, is inappropriate. Thus, US apparel firms need to pay careful attention to differences in each Asian market.\nOriginality/value: - China and India have been compared frequently in various ways: growth potential, market size, and population. Surprisingly, however, no study has attempted to compare Chinese and Indian consumers' evaluative criteria for apparel products. This is the first empirical study to show the differences between Chinese and Indian consumers in evaluating apparel products.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Emotional empathy and front line employees: does it make sense to care about the customer?
|
[
"Role conflict",
"Services",
"Stress",
"Employees",
"Service delivery",
"Emotional dissonance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article.\nFLEs and role conflict: The distinctive nature and challenges of boundary spanning roles were initially explored in the sales context (Adams, 1976; Behrman and Perreault, 1984). The essential feature of boundary spanning is the requirement to partner with someone outside the organization while simultaneously representing that firm's interests (Adams, 1976). It appears that the resulting sales environment is naturally stressful, almost to the point of implying that stress is inherent to the job design (Behrman and Perreault, 1984).As the services economy grew, investigators logically extended this theoretical frame, examining the potential costs of incongruent demands on service providers within a role theory paradigm. Inside this conceptual framework, conflict manifests as the FLE violates the requirement of one role while fulfilling the demands of another. A classic example of this would be trying to respond to customer requests without disregarding the firm's policies.Two decades of empirical research clearly indicate that FLEs do experience role conflict and that there are negative consequences for both the organization and the FLE due to this stressor. At the organizational level, role conflict has been associated with reduced work performance and work quality (i.e. Churchill et al., 1974; Singh, 2000; Varca, 1999). In addition, the human consequences of role stress are increased burnout, lowered job satisfaction, and reduced commitment to work (i.e. Singh et al., 1994; Singh et al., 1996).In the face of these disheartening data, researchers have focused on managerial practices that might mitigate or moderate the consequences of role conflict. Employee empowerment, supervisory support, task control, and generalized managerial climate have all been related to role conflict (i.e. Hartline and Ferrell, 1996; House, 1981; Schneider, 1980; Singh, 2000; Singh et al., 1996; Varca, 2002). The impact of individual difference characteristics among FLEs, such as locus of control and self-efficacy, has also been assessed (Anderson, 1977; Hartline and Ferrell, 1996).In spite of the growing research focused on role conflict, we do not know what FLE behaviors are associated with stress during the service encounter. However, a growing body of stress research does offer certain insights in this area. It is interesting and somewhat ironical, but the literature suggests that role conflict should decrease to the extent that FLEs do not care about the customer, that is, do not behave with emotional concern for the customer. Why would this make psychological sense?\nEmotional labor during the service encounter: In its basic form, stress is a transaction between a person and her/his circumstances (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984). As perceived environmental demands outstrip resources, individuals experience stress. That gap between what \"should\" be done and what \"can\" be done creates the stress (Folkman, 1984). If unable to master it, human beings will try to escape it in more subtle ways. Often this involves altering one's view of the perceived discrepancy between the external crisis and one's ability to meet it.For FLEs, the crisis could arrive when it is apparent that you lack enough decision authority to creatively resolve a customer problem. Placed in this situation, a service worker could help the customer by extending her/his personal authority and offering a novel solution. However, the FLE must then be concerned with the limits of company policy, hence the role conflict and experienced strain. An organizationally safer tactic for handling the conflict would be to distance oneself psychologically from the situation, essentially lowering the emotional impact of the \"conflicted\" moment. Psychologically, it is less stressful to fail at something that you do not care about than confront the knowledge that you cannot master salient demands. Thus, there should be a payoff in terms of reduced stress, if one does not personally or emotionally appreciate \"conflicted\" moments.The idea of emotional labor echoes throughout the literature on service encounters. Researchers have used terms such as identity, empathy, and personal concern to argue that quality service hinges on some sort of relational connection between FLE and customer. This idea is basic to several theoretical models and also makes intuitive sense (i.e. Ashforth and Humphrey, 1993; Bitner et al., 1990). That is, FLEs will provide quality service if they care about the customer. However, if that connection between the provider and customer makes the service encounter more meaningful, it could also result in greater perceived stress for the FLE. If fact, the logical extension of this argument would be that it is psychologically healthy - less stressful - for FLEs to maintain emotional distance from customers, although this violates a central premise for service quality.There is some evidence of this phenomenon in the stress literature. Studies indicate that workers physically distance themselves from stressors through increased absenteeism (i.e. Cooper and Smith, 1985). True, it would be difficult for an FLE to physically walk away from a customer during a service encounter but not so risky to \"walk away\" psychologically. Any emotional distance between oneself and the source of stress should be associated with diminished role conflict. In other words, the lack of emotional labor during service encounters could result in reduced psychological pain in the form of lowered role stress. This is a powerful negative reinforcement paradigm.\nCurrent research question: Much of theoretical and applied literature on service encounters speaks to the positive payoff that comes when service workers identify with customers. For this reason, the conceptual framework outlined above has to be disquieting to customer service managers. It suggests that FLEs might psychological profit by not caring about customers.The present study grew out of the practical concern to test the above logic. During a series of focus groups, the critical role of empathy and emotional resilience resonated with FLEs and their supervisors. Service representatives continually pointed to the emotional costs of trying to serve clients with difficult problems. They were describing specific moments of role conflict. The implications for stress among FLEs and quality service for customers were obvious. For this reason, we decided to conduct a study that examined the relationship between role conflict and emotional labor during service encounters. Using the conceptual framework previously outlined, we hypothesized that:Q There will be a significant positive relationship between displays of empathy toward customer, a form of emotional labor, and role conflict among FLEs.In sum, the interface between customer and organization is a stressful place to work. In spite of considerable research, we are still unclear about what behaviors are associated with role conflict among FLEs. To further our understanding, we tested the research hypothesis that role conflict is associated with emotional labor.\nMethod: Participants and job setting\nResults: Data were analyzed with 226 usable surveys collected across the 230 respondents. The sample was 65 percent White, 19 percent African-American, 14 percent Hispanic, and 2 percent other. Women comprised 84 percent of the participants and FLEs averaged 8.68 years experience as service representatives.Scales\nDiscussion: This study extends the literature in several interrelated ways. First, the results lengthen the existing research stream demonstrating service work as stressful. Second, the emotional empathy scale details specific job tasks that are simultaneously critical to the customer experience and stressful for the FLE. It is clear from the data that it is an emotional struggle for service providers to show courtesy, withhold frustration or display patience. These results are new to the literature. Third, the results indicate that there are payoffs for the service provider, namely reduced stress, if he/she is emotionally detached from the customer.Results: interpretation and limitations\nConclusion: Researchers have argued for decades that stress is an inescapable feature of customer contact work. The present study is consistent with this view. It paints a picture of FLEs placed in the dilemma of displaying emotional labor during the service encounter but paying the price of increased role conflict in the bargain. It appears there is a negative reinforcement pattern during service encounters - a reduction in emotional pain - for service providers who are detached from customers. No marketing manager is going to advise their FLEs that the psychologically healthy thing to do is not to care about the customer, although that is what the present data suggest. Rather, the challenge now is to build work environments where front line employees are motivated to embrace emotional labor during service encounters.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to examine the relationship between empathy and role stress among front line employees (FLEs). The goal was to test the hypothesis that emotionally critical aspects of the service encounter are central to role conflict.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A total of 226 FLEs completed a survey that measured role conflict. The instrument also included measures of empathy - the degree to which FLEs engaged in emotional labor during service encounters.\nFindings: - FLEs who reported more time spent engaged in empathetic behavior or saw empathetic behavior as critical to service quality also reported significantly higher role conflict.\nPractical implications: - Unfortunately, these data suggest that emotionally identifying with the customer relates to stressful service encounters for FLEs. This presents challenges to FLEs who truly identify with customer complaints and to organizations that rely on positive customer experience as a strategic tool for marketing services.\nOriginality/value: - Role conflict research historically identifies service encounters as stressful. The present findings add to the literature by focusing on the intrapersonal world of FLEs and examining how their empathetic behavior relates to that stress.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The relationship between person-organization fit and job satisfaction
|
[
"Stress",
"Mediation",
"Moderation",
"Job satisfaction",
"Service industry",
"Person-organization fit"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The increased recognition of employees as a critical resource in the global marketplace has sustained academic interest on the effects that person-organization (P-O) fit has on employee work attitudes and behavior (Hoffman and Woehr, 2006; Cooper-Thomas and Wright, 2013; Peng et al., 2014). P-O fit pertains to a match between individual and organizational characteristics (George, 1992; Kristof, 1996). Achieving a high degree of P-O fit is seen as key in retaining workforces with high flexibility and the organizational commitment necessary to meet competitive challenges. Consequently, in P-O fit studies, work attitudes (defined as evaluative tendencies toward one's job) such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intention are among the outcomes most frequently examined (Verquer et al., 2003; Silverthorne, 2004; Ambrose et al., 2008).\nLiterature review and hypotheses: P-O fit on job satisfaction\nResearch method: Sample and procedure\nAnalyses and results: Descriptions and correlations\nDiscussion: As expected and demonstrated, P-O fit is related to the organizationally relevant outcome of job satisfaction (Cooper-Thomas et al., 2004; Westerman and Cyr, 2004). Our research confirms that P-O fit positively predicts job satisfaction; but importantly then shows that job stress mediates this relationship. This is consistent with the widely accepted P-E fit approach to stress among organizational stress researchers (Eulberg et al., 1988). Therefore, high P-O fit can improve an employees' working state, which is also the primary premise and management foundation for building a harmonious organization.\nLimitation and future research direction: Despite the promising findings of this paper, there are some limitations associated with the current research that should be addressed in future work.\nConclusion: This study has tested an integrated mediation and moderation model of the relationship between P-O fit and job satisfaction. We integrated the theory of COR into our understanding of the process of linking P-O fit to employee work attitudes. Evidence was found for a mediating role of job stress in the relationship between P-O fit and job satisfaction and for a moderating role of supervisor support in this relationship. These results expand current knowledge regarding the relationship between P-O fit and outcomes. It is important that HR practices choose qualified employees based on the assessment of their fit or help employees to meet the requirements of the organization, which in turn reduces job stress. Supervisors should help employees to solve the real problems they are facing, rather than meeting their own or the organizations' other needs. The current study made recommendations that are essential to the advancement of P-O fit research in general.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Drawing upon the theory of conservation of resources to argue the importance of job stress as an important variable that mediates the person-organization (P-O) fit-job satisfaction relationship, and supervisor support as an important moderating variable that moderates the relationship between P-O fit and job stress, the purpose of this paper is to test a moderated mediation model.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected from 225 employees in 12 catering service organizations in Beijing. An integrated mediation and moderation model was evaluated.\nFindings: The study illustrates both some new mechanisms and the boundary conditions between P-O fit and job satisfaction. Job stress mediates the relationships between P-O fit and job satisfaction; supervisor support moderates the linkage of P-O fit, job stress, and job satisfaction. The corresponding moderated mediation model was supported.\nResearch limitations/implications: The question of causality cannot be determined because of the cross-sectional research design; self-report is a necessary strategy for the assessment of subjects' appraisals. However, it requires some caution in interpreting the results.\nPractical implications: The findings offer a better understanding of the way P-O fit is able to affect job satisfaction. Actions designed to promote P-O fit may be useful in reducing employees' stress and result in higher job satisfaction. To enhance the relationships between P-O fit and employees' job satisfaction through supervisor support, supervisors should develop a positive form of reciprocation by helping employees to solve the real problem they are facing.\nOriginality/value: No previous studies have investigated influencing factors of employees' satisfaction from the perspective of individual and organizational interfaces.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Post-adoption online shopping continuance
|
[
"Internet shopping",
"Consumer behaviour",
"Innovation",
"Electronic commerce"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The proliferation of online shopping has stimulated considerable research examining consumer acceptance of the internet as a shopping channel (Childers et al., 2001; Yoh et al., 2003; Keen et al., 2004; Ha and Stoel, 2009). However, most of the extant research has focused on initial adoption of the internet for shopping, whereas little research has explored post-adoption behaviour. Initial adoption of the internet as a shopping channel does not guarantee continued online shopping, as discontinuance may occur at any stage of adoption due to unsatisfactory trial outcomes or usage experiences (Rogers, 1995). Indeed, initial adoption is only the first step; the success of the online retail channel depends more heavily on the continued use of the internet to purchase an increasingly wide range of products than on initial adoption (Parthasarathy and Bhattacherjee, 1998; Shih and Venkatesh, 2004; Limayem et al., 2007). This study attempts to identify predictors of the continued use of the internet (online shopping continuance) after its initial adoption as a shopping channel.Innovation continuance refers to post-adoption behaviour in general (Karahanna et al., 1999; Limayem et al., 2007). We refer to online shopping continuance as the continued use of the internet for product information search and purchase after initial adoption. Innovation continuance is not simply an extension of adoption (Karahanna et al., 1999) as the factors predicting initial adoption are not necessarily the same as the factors driving continuance (Parthasarathy and Bhattacherjee, 1998; Huh and Kim, 2008; Limayem and Cheung, 2008). Innovation attributes are the best predictors of behavioural intention to adopt an innovation (Rogers, 1995) but they may not be the best predictors of online shopping continuance. This research examines the effects of innovation attributes - relative advantage and enjoyment - and both channel and product risks on post-adoption online shopping continuance.Research demonstrates that actual usage behaviours have more salience in explaining continuance than do the antecedents of initial adoption (Venkatesh et al., 2003). In fact, post-adoption usage patterns tend to vary across consumers who have different usage needs and demonstrate different degrees of use innovativeness (Huh and Kim, 2008; Shih and Venkatesh, 2004). Links between usage behaviours, as well as usage behaviours and continuance, need to be examined to better understand and predict innovation diffusion (Anderson and Ortinau, 1988; Shih and Venkatesh, 2004; Huh and Kim, 2008). Furthermore, post-adoption online shopping behaviours may differ when purchasing search versus experience products (Klein, 1998). Online shopping for search products - whose qualities the consumer can adequately inspect online prior to purchase (e.g. books) versus experience products - whose qualities cannot be adequately determined prior to purchase (e.g. apparel), represents two different usage patterns and two different levels of internet usage (Girard et al., 2002). How these two internet usage patterns are linked to post-adoption online shopping continuance has not yet been examined. Therefore, this research also examines the links between online shopping patterns for search products versus experience products and post-adoption online shopping continuance.The proposed conceptual model of online shopping continuance (Figure 1), empirically tested via a national sample of online shoppers, contributes to the marketing literature on consumer innovation diffusion by extending the consumer innovation adoption process to the post-adoption context. Further, the empirical findings provide valuable practical insights regarding the factors that help to maintain consumer loyalty to the channel and lead to the online purchase of an increasingly wide range of products.The next section describes the theoretical foundation for the research, followed by the conceptual model of online shopping continuance (Figure 1), hypotheses (Table V), the methodology and an analysis of data. Finally, the empirical results and the implications of those results for practice and further research are discussed.\nTheoretical background and conceptual model of online shopping continuance: Innovation adoption is a temporal sequence of stages including initial knowledge of an innovation, attitude formation, decision to adopt, use of the innovation and reinforcement of the adoption decision. Considerable research on the diffusion and adoption of innovative technologies focuses on initial adoption where the dependent variable in most studies on the adoption of the internet as a shopping channel is the subject's behavioural intent to adopt the innovation (Shim et al., 2001; Liu and Wei, 2003; Yoh et al., 2003; Pavlou and Fygenson, 2006; Lennon et al., 2007). However, the decision to adopt an innovation is just the first step toward the diffusion of the innovation (Shih and Venkatesh, 2004). Sustaining and increasing post-adoption use of an innovation is more important than initial adoption (Parthasarathy and Bhattacherjee, 1998; Bhattacherjee, 2001; Shih and Venkatesh, 2004). Thus, promoting continued and/or expanded use of the innovation is essential to the diffusion of the innovation (Parthasarathy and Bhattacherjee, 1998; Limayem et al., 2007).Scholars in information systems (IS) have begun studying adoption and post-adoption use of IS (Karahanna et al., 1999; Jasperson et al., 2005; Castaneda et al., 2007) finding that predictors of initial adoption are not equally effective in predicting or explaining post-adoption use. Actual usage behaviour is a critical link between initial trials and continued use of an innovation (Cooper and Zmud, 1990; Zhu and Kraemer, 2005); however, post-adoption use differs from the initial trial with respect to both the extent to which the innovation is used and the ways it is used (Ram and Jung, 1990; Shih and Venkatesh, 2004; Huh and Kim, 2008). Shih and Venkatesh (2004) argue that usage patterns can be categorised according to the variety and rate of usage and propose a use-diffusion model with a fourfold use typology classified as intense use (a high variety and rate of usage), low use (a low variety and rate of usage), experimental use (a high variety and low rate of usage) and specialised use (a low variety and high rate of usage). However, they did not examine the links among the proposed usage patterns even though they agreed that users may move from one user category to another. Furthermore, they did not consider the possible links between these identified usage patterns and intent to continue using the innovation.Post-adoption behaviour includes repurchase, repeated usage or replacement with upgraded products after the initial adoption. Understanding these post-adoption behaviours is as important as understanding initial purchase behaviour, since understanding post-adoption usage is essential to better targeting potential buyers and promoting products in a long-run (Shih and Venkatesh, 2004). Research that attempts to understand post-adoption behaviours has found that demographics, attitudes, perceptions and search activities and purchase history, all impact repurchase and replacement purchases of previously adopted products (Bayus, 1991; Kim et al., 2001; Grewal et al., 2004). Huh and Kim (2008) found that post-adoption behaviour, particularly the use of innovative features, plays a critical role in developing users' intention to upgrade consumer durable products. However, using the internet as a shopping channel is not the same as the repurchase of consumer durable products as will be further discussed. Therefore, the impact of different usage behaviours on continued online shopping needs to be examined.Online shopping behaviour and online shopping continuance\nMethod: Data collection\nAnalysis and results: Construct validation\nDiscussion: It has been argued that new insights into adoption conceptualisation are likely to be quite useful to marketing managers and social policymakers since diffusion theory is frequently used to explain dissemination of new systems, technologies, products, services and regulatory initiatives (Gatignon and Robertson, 1985; Shih and Venkatesh, 2004; Jasperson et al., 2005). Rather than focusing only on initial adoption intentions, this study examines actual usage behaviours and intended continuation, as well as the links between actual usage behaviours and continuance because the diffusion of technological innovations depends on developing new knowledge and new patterns of experience (Gatignon and Robertson, 1985). Findings suggest that post-adoption usage of online shopping typically starts with usage that involves less risk and cognitive effort and then moves to more extensive and complicated usage. With more experience, online consumers more consistently use the internet for a variety of shopping purposes. We therefore treated search product purchasing and experience product purchasing as two different types of usage due to the different level of risks and cognitive effort involved. We hypothesised a causal path from online purchase of search product to online purchase of experience products. We tested the commonly held assumption that individuals who adopt an innovation will use all the functions of the innovation, especially in the case of new technologies that are capable of performing multiple functions (Shih and Venkatesh, 2004).Responding to a call to examine the links between actual behaviours in a post-adoption context (Huh and Kim, 2008), this research examined the links between actual purchase behaviours and continued usage intention finding that purchasing experience products online has the most salient effect on continuation. These findings indicate that users who have successfully integrated an innovation into their lives are more likely to continue using the innovation and to use it more extensively. This is consistent with previous research findings indicating that consumers who use the innovative functions of a new product more often are more likely to adopt updated products than those who use only the basic functions (Huh and Kim, 2008). More importantly, these findings support Gatignon and Robertson's (1985) proposition that the diffusion of technological innovations will depend on users developing new knowledge and new patterns of experience.We also found that those innovation attributes predicting initial adoption do not play the same role in the post-adoption usage context, supporting previous research conclusions that new adopters employ a richer set of beliefs than their more experienced counterparts do when making usage decisions (Karahanna et al., 1999). Our findings are also consistent with previous findings indicating that the predictive importance of hedonic or functional benefits on attitudes toward the use of a particular technology/system will depend to a large extent on the primary purpose of the system/technology (Heijden, 2004; Kim and Forsythe, 2007). Moreover, we found that behavioural variables (e.g. actual use of the internet to purchase products) have a more significant impact on online shopping continuation than do belief variables related to the internet retail channel. These findings are consistent with previous findings. For instance, Venkatesh et al. (2002) reported that when they included prior usage behaviour as an additional antecedent, all other determinants, including behavioural intention and inherent motivation, became insignificant.This study has significant implications for e-tailing managers. First, post-adoption behaviour should be considered a robust predictor of channel-loyal customers. Focusing solely on improving online shoppers' favourable perceptions and attitudes toward shopping online might not be effective in terms of promoting more sales since actual usage behaviours are the most salient factors on predicting continued online purchases. Second, consumers' perceptions regarding the internet as a shopping channel impact their usage differently depending on their usage needs and patterns. Specifically, perceptions of relative advantage of the internet as a shopping channel consistently have greater impact on initial adoption and post-adoption actual usageof an innovation than do other innovation characteristics. Given that perceptions of hedonic performance impact the online purchase of experience products, online retailers, especially those selling experience products, need to deliver hedonic value to their shoppers in order to promote online shopping continuation (Liu and Forsythe, 2006).As customers become more comfortable with the online shopping channel, they overcome general channel risks when shopping for search products. However, when they buy experience products, it is product risk, not channel risk, that may truly inhibit online purchase. Consequently, product risks still impact use of the internet in buying experience products. Therefore, e-tailers who do a better job reducing perceived product risks will perform better than their competitors will (Nikolaeva, 2007). These results also suggest that it may be more efficient for e-tailers to promote sales among shoppers who have purchased experience products online, as they are more likely to continue using the channel for purchases.To attain greater external validity, these results should be reconfirmed with various experience and search product categories or in an online decision-making process requiring a great deal of cognitive involvement. Furthermore, to more accurately examine the transitions in an individual's usage behaviour, observation of online purchase behaviours during a longer time frame will be helpful. Finally, incorporating more external variables such as marketing campaign measures and e-tailer promotion actions into consumers' post-adoption behaviour model could make the model more comprehensive and explanatory.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine post-adoption usage of the internet as a shopping channel. It aims to examine the effects of innovation attributes on post-adoption shopping behaviours to determine whether factors predicting initial adoption will be effective in predicting post-adoption. It also aims to examine the links between two usage patterns (purchasing experience product versus search product) and online shopping continuance. The paper also seeks to compare strength of identified links among innovation attributes, online purchase behaviors and online shopping continuance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An online survey of a national sample of online shoppers identifies online purchase behaviours for search and purchase goods; data are analysed using structural equation modelling to test the proposed model and the hypotheses.\nFindings: - The analysis finds support for the proposed research model and indicates that experience product purchasing has the most salient effect on online shopping continuance. Innovation attributes predicting initial adoption do not play the same roles in post-adoption usage.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The survey suffered from self-selection and self-reporting limitations normally associated with a panel sample.\nPractical implications: - Post-adoption actual use behaviour is the most robust predictor of channel-loyal shopping behaviour; therefore, focusing solely on improving online shoppers' favourable perceptions or positive attitudes toward shopping online might not be an efficient approach.\nOriginality/value: - This research contributes to the marketing literature on consumer innovation diffusion by extending the consumer innovation adoption process to the post-adoption context.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The creative minds of extraordinary pastry chefs: an integrated theory of aesthetic expressions - a portraiture study
|
[
"Qualitative research",
"Narrative inquiry",
"Portraiture",
"Chefs",
"Aesthetic expression",
"Culinary creativity"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The culinary profession is imperative to the hospitality industry's workforce. Chefs are no longer bounded to the persona of nourishers. Rather, the profession has evolved to signify entertainers, influencers, activists and instigators of new scientific knowledge and artistic trends (McBride and Flore, 2019; Zopiatis and Melanthiou, 2019). Recent studies have attributed this evolution to their creative capacities (Horng and Lee, 2009; Lee et al., 2019; Leschziner, 2015; Stierand et al., 2014), portraying chefs as \"artists\" and \"creators\" (Lee, 2020; Stierand and Dorfler, 2016), resembling influential figures capable of instigating new foodways, trends and conversations for the world to follow (Lee, 2020; McBride and Flore, 2019; Page, 2017). Chefs, in this sense, are more than just mere culinarians; they are vital to society's functioning.\n2. Theoretical framework: Our theoretical framework was informed by two aesthetic theorists - John Dewey and Wassily Kandinsky. In the coming sections, we introduce both theories, and demonstrate how integrating the them informed our definition of culinary creativity.\n3. Methodology: portraiture: We adopted portraiture as our qualitative methodological approach. Pioneered by Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot and Jessica Hoffmann Davis in their seminal text, The Art and Science of Portraiture (1997), portraiture is positioned in the larger discourse of social science inquiry, distinctive in its blending of art and science. It captures the subtlety and complexity of human experience, processes and life stories. Portraiture draws features from phenomenology and narrative inquiry, rendering artistically and empirically written \"portraits\" that reflect themes and patterns of participants' experiences (Lawrence-Lightfoot and Davis, 1997). Epistemologically, portraiture is positioned under constructionism, as knowledge and meaning are (co-)constructed. Portraiture uses an interpretivist theoretical perspective, pursuing meanings that are relative (time, context, value bound) with researchers who are interactive with participants.\n4. Findings: portraits of creative culinary expressions: In the coming sections, we narrate the creative essences of nine extraordinary Malaysian pastry chefs' when creating desserts - the material form of their creative expressions (Dewey, 2005; Kandinsky, 1977, 1979). To the pastry chef extraordinaire, desserts represent more than just a sweet finisher to a meal, but are rather meticulously constructed items that materialize a chef's imaginative thoughts into reality.\n5. Discussion and conclusion: 5.1 Summary of portraits: the essences of culinary creative expressions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to demystify the creative experiences of an extraordinary group of pastry chefs - The Malaysian World Pastry Team, champions of the 2019 World Pastry Cup. The authors adopted an expressionist theoretical lens informed by two aesthetic philosophers - John Dewey and Wassily Kandinsky.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A two-year portraiture was conducted - a qualitative methodology that draws features from phenomenology and narrative inquiry, rendering artistically and empirically written \"portraits\" that reflect themes and patterns of participants' experiences. In-depth interviews, observations and material artifacts were collected amid a journey alongside nine extraordinary Malaysian pastry chefs.\nFindings: Presented in story structures, the authors offer three \"portraits\" of culinary creativity, each representing a core essence of the creative phenomenon: creative harmony in the form of sensorial and symbolic poetry; imaginative episodes as a hypnotic state of inspiration and incubation; and the creative duality of scientific rationalism and artistic fashion. The authors delineated the intricacies of each theme by presenting them as individual narratives.\nResearch limitations/implications: The portraits indicated that culinary creativity reflects an organic and emancipating aesthetic experience that is unbounded by formative structures or sequential processes. This provides a novel theoretical view that moves beyond conventional studies' capitalistic frameworks, and toward the intimate viewpoints of the chef-creators. Specific contributions are discussed.\nOriginality/value: Through a unique qualitative approach and an aesthetic theoretical framework, this study provided a novel perspective on the culinary creative process. The aesthetic view captures culinary creativity through the eyes of the creator, a viewpoint less considered, yet imperative to the culinary profession.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Share of voices in corporate social responsibility (CSR) news: A comparison of sources used in press releases and news coverage
|
[
"CSR",
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Sources",
"News coverage",
"Press releases"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Corporations' dissemination of information about their corporate social responsibility (hereinafter CSR) activities is essential for their reputation and legitimacy (Bachmann and Ingenhoff, 2016). The number of newspaper articles published about corporations' CSR activities is positively associated with their CSR reputation (Lee, 2016). Media attention also motivates corporations to be involved in CSR (Gan, 2006; Zyglidopoulos et al., 2012) and to respond to pressures from stakeholder groups (Zyglidopoulos et al., 2009). Thus, corporations are advised to create and execute communication tactics, such as news releases, corporate websites, CSR reports and television advertising, to disseminate messages about their CSR activities (Lee, 2016).\nLiterature review: CSR communication\nMethod: Because of its usefulness in documenting what has been covered (Harris et al., 2001), content analysis has been extensively used in inter media agenda-setting studies (Messner and Garrison, 2011). To address the research questions in this study, the CSR-related press releases from the two electricity providers in Hong Kong, CLP and Power Assets, and the subsequent news coverage resulting from these press releases were studied. These two electricity providers were selected because they enjoyed the monopoly of serving two different parts of Hong Kong. Their decisions could affect the entire population. CLP was ranked second and Power Assets was ranked 13th in Hong Kong for their CSR performance (Oxfam Hong Kong, 2009). An empirical study on CSR found that the Hong Kong population prioritized economic performance as a CSR practice but was not as supportive of CSR as their counterparts in Shanghai (Ramasamy and Yeung, 2009). Kim and Ji (2017) found that Hong Kong people were similar to their Western counterparts in their preference for non-corporate sources for CSR communication because of higher perceived credibility.\nFindings: This study found that the number of sources used ranged from zero to seven. In the press releases, the number of sources used varied by the CSR theme (kh2=91.71, df=42, p=0.000). In total, 34.2 percent (n=69) of the press releases used one source, and 37.62 percent (n=76) used two sources. In the news coverage, the number of sources used also varied by the CSR theme (kh2=125.62, df=42, p=0.000). In total, 33 percent (n=345) of the news articles used one source, and 25.3 percent (n=264) of them used two sources.\nDiscussion: Sources cited in news stories affect how the audience perceives the news stories; the selection of sources could also determine whether the audience agreed or disagreed with the story (Bosch, 2013). As corporations are not the only ones influencing the agenda on CSR, other social actors also have access to influencing the CSR discourse (Ihlen, 2008). Because CSR does not have fixed meanings and could have various labels attached to it (Windell, 2007), CSR should be understood and communicated in association with the different groups associated with it.\nConclusion and limitations: In response to calls for more research on understanding the production of CSR-related news (Carroll, 2011), this study examined the use of sources in CSR-related corporate press releases and news coverage. The findings showed that the representation and share of voices, as reflected in the sources cited and the tone of these sources, were different in the press releases and news coverage. The news media collected additional information from sources other than those provided to them in the press releases by the corporations and that the news media increased the voices of some groups (by quoting them more) and decreased the voices of some groups (by quoting them less). Particularly, company representatives were cited less across the different CSR themes. This study also has limitations. The dataset was from two electricity providers and 17 newspapers in Hong Kong, so the findings might not be generalizable to other industries and countries. Further research could be conducted to replicate the study in other industries and countries. Experimental research could also be undertaken to investigate whether the sources used in CSR-related news stories affected audience's perceptions of the stories. Interviews with news reporters would be helpful for understanding the process they went through to select sources for CSR-related news stories, gather additional sources for the stories and achieve balance, objectivity and neutrality in the stories.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The use of sources in news coverage affects news audience's perceptions of news events. To extend existing research on inter media agenda-setting and agenda-building effects of CSR-related news, the purpose of this paper is to explore the representation and share of voices in CSR-related news by investigating and comparing the use of sources in press releases and news coverage.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study content-analyzed the 202 CSR-related press releases published by the two electricity providers in Hong Kong and 1,045 news articles related to the press releases over a five-year period. A total of 402 quotes from the press releases and 1,880 quotes from the news coverage were analyzed, including the types of sources cited, the tone of the sources and variations in the use of sources across seven different CSR themes.\nFindings: Although company representatives were quoted the most in both the press releases and news coverage, NGOs, government representatives and industry analysts were the most frequently cited for negative comments in the news coverage. Differences were found between the press releases and news coverage in terms of how frequently different sources were cited, the tone attributed to those sources, and the choice of sources across different CSR themes.\nOriginality/value: The findings reflect that corporations are not necessarily the most influential voice in CSR and that other groups also have their views represented in the news media. The representation of these voices differed by CSR themes. Corporations are advised to further explore what and how different voices are represented in the news coverage in relation to their CSR activities and to consider these voices when making decisions about CSR.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Stranger in a strange land; enabling information resilience in resettlement landscapes
|
[
"Information literacy",
"Transition",
"Refugees",
"Resilience",
"Information",
"Health information"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Resilience is an ability to bounce back in times of stress, and communities that have endured significant trauma or risk have been a focus of research in psychology, social welfare and public health. Common among these studies is a view of resilience as being imbued with a type of stretchiness that supports the ability to bounce back after adversity. There is also an emphasis on the subjective experience: on personal traits, emotional and institutional support, spirituality and religiosity. While an inability to find information is often alluded to, missing from these studies is an understanding about how mastery of the information environment, through information practices such as information literacy can act as a critical strategy to reduce uncertainty in times of transition.\nHow is resilience conceptualised?: Early work in resilience research and still much of the focus today, centres on the negative effects of adversity and the psychology of individual responses to adverse situations or conditions (Hutchinson and Dorsett, 2012; Luthar et al., 2000; Masten and Wright, 2010). The locus of this research is primarily focused on risk factors in relation to chronic illnesses in adults, and vulnerability in relation to children (Pooley and Cohen, 2010, p. 30).\nLearning to go on: becoming information resilient: The concept of information resilience emerges from a recently reported study of health literacy and the health information experience of resettling refugees (Lloyd, 2014). The study investigated how resettling refugees build an understanding about the health information landscape of their new country and developed ways of knowing to inform their health-related decision making (Lloyd, 2014). The methodology for this study has been described in detail in Lloyd (2014) and is briefly summarised here as a qualitative study that employed grounded theory method to analyse data. The study sample comprised 20 participants, mainly of African background, which in itself is culturally diverse. Data were collected through a series in-depth semi-structured interviews, which were transcribed by transcriptionists trained in complex accents and then checked by the researcher against the audio recording.\nDiscussion: situating a conception of information resilience in library and information science: Information resilience emerges from this research as a concept that enables library and information science researchers to focus on the information literacy practices (activities and skills) and strategies that people must engage with to cope with the disruption of their knowledge base and their need to re-establish information landscapes that reflect changed or altered situations and ways of knowing. While numerous definitions and descriptions of resilience are present in the broader literature, a key marker that appears to be missing from these is the identification of knowledge disruptions and the creation of knowledge gaps that are caused when situations alter or significantly change (e.g. because of trauma), or when adverse conditions prevail. This disruption creates gaps in the information landscape and uncertainty that require the transition from unknowing to knowing and rebuilding of cultural capitals to enable people to transition and build new information landscapes. To further frame information resilience, the concept of social and cultural capital building are introduced as a theoretical lens, because social relationships are often cited as a catalyst for building social capital, but more importantly they are central to the resettlement experience and act a catalyst for resilience (Bourdieu, 1986; Portes, 1998).\nWhat is information resilience?: Researching issues related to resettlement from an information-focused perspective emphasises the role of information and people's experience of information and learning how to go in a new environment. The use of the term information resilience, describes the outcome of practices such as information literacy and places emphasis on the central role that access and use of information plays in enabling people to transition through times of uncertainty. While other fields recognise that there is a need for information, research in these fields tend to focus on producing descriptions that highlight the process or attributes of resilience. The result is the underlying catalyst -the need for information - and response - the operationalization of skills that address the need - are still largely missing from the literature.\nConclusion: The increased movement of people across the globe has implications for all professions including researchers and practitioners in the library and information science professions. Understanding the implications of transition and resettlement from a perspective that inherently understands the role of information (or lack of it) in people's lives put us in a unique position of being able to make a significant contribution that can impact on the lives of people whose lives are now fraught with uncertainty.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce and explore the concept of information resilience.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The concept of information resilience emerges from a qualitative study that explored the health information experience and information practices of resettling refugees. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were employed and the data collected were analysed using an grounded theory approach.\nFindings: The present study describes information resilience as an outcome of information literacy practice. As an emerging concept information resilience has the potential to focus research attention towards the critical role that information and information practices such as information literacy have in supporting people whose knowledge bases, social networks and information landscapes have become disrupted during transition.\nPractical implications: Public libraries role in support the development of information resilience is considered.\nSocial implications: The paper draws from a study of the health information experiences of refugees during resettlement (Lloyd, 2014). The concept of information resilience emerges as an outcome of information literacy practice, for people whose knowledge base has become disrupted; and, who because of this disruption, must engage with new information environments and construct new information landscapes to rebuild social capital and bridge the transition into a new community.\nOriginality/value: Introduces the concept of information resilience as a focal point for investigating transition from an information studies perspective.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Sodexo seeks to get more women into 300 top jobs: Executive team drives quest for greater gender equality
|
[
"Gender",
"Women",
"Equal opportunities",
"Armed forces",
"Recruitment",
"Awards"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An international food and facilities-management firm that is committed to ensuring that a quarter of its 300 top jobs are filled by women by 2015 has won the 2012 Catalyst award in north America for exceptional business initiatives that advance women in the workplace.\nLeader in diversity and inclusion: \"At Sodexo, 57 percent of our 380,000 employees in 80 countries are women but the number decreases as one moves up the hierarchy,\" said Rohini Anand, chief diversity officer. \"The recommendations of Swift should help us to move forward pragmatically and accelerate our efforts to make Sodexo a leader in diversity and inclusion.\"The Catalyst prize is awarded based on year-long evaluation. Award winners are assessed against criteria including senior-leadership support, employee engagement, innovation, business rationale, communication, accountability and measurable results.\"The pioneering initiatives we honor with the Catalyst award affect businesses and employees' lives, but their influence also extends beyond corporate walls to families, communities and economies worldwide. Clearly, what is good for women is good for men, business and society,\" said Ilene H. Lang, president and chief executive of Catalyst.\"Catalyst's recognition of Sodexo's diversity and inclusion strategy to advance all employees, particularly women and people of color, is an important milestone for the group in north America,\" said Michel Landel.Sodexo's overall diversity strategy was recognized with the Global Diversity Policy Grand Prize, awarded at the fourth annual Trophees de la Diversite held in France last year.\nTop 100 military-friendly employer: Meanwhile Sodexo has also been named one of the USA's top 100 military-friendly employers for its enterprise-wide focus on hiring, supporting and retaining military veterans and reservists. The company employs some 3,000 veterans, guard members and reservists.The list, by GI Jobs, a publication for post-military employment, recognizes the best corporate recruitment and retention programs aimed at veterans. This is the fourth consecutive year that Sodexo has been included on the list, which is compiled from a review of some 5,000 eligible companies.According to GI Jobs, almost 400,000 new civilian workers annually retire or separate from the military. This is the second-largest pool of talent, behind college graduates, available to US employers. Sodexo has dedicated resources to help these veterans to make the transition from military to civilian leadership.\"Sodexo recognizes that veterans provide a rich talent pool with specialized skills that can contribute to the success of the company,\" said Peri Bridger, senior vice-president and chief human-resources officer. \"Through our mentoring programs, we facilitate a smoother transition for veterans into the civilian workplace and support their professional growth.\"The company believes that a military background translates into successful jobs for veterans with Sodexo because they:* recognize the importance of teamwork and employ it every day;* are accustomed to advancement through their own achievements; and* thrive on new assignments and the challenges of new locations.\nUnique skills of service members: George Chavel, president and chief executive of Sodexo in north America, has reaffirmed support for Sodexo employees who serve in the guard and reserve by signing a statement of support pledging to:* recognize and support US service members and their families in peace, crises and war;* appreciate the values, leadership and unique skills service members bring to the workforce and encourage opportunities to hire guardsmen, reservists and veterans;* honor and enforce the Uniformed Services Employment and Re-Employment Rights Act (USERRA); and* ensure that managers and supervisors have the tools they need to manage effectively employees who have served in the guard and reserve.Honoring Our Nation's Finest with Opportunity and Respect (Honor), the company's military-employee network launched three years ago, has more than 500 members and has established five regional chapters. The mission of the military-network group is to:* provide support, guidance and resources to employees and families connected to the military by offering development opportunities;* constitute a forum to recognize and celebrate contributions made by service members and their families; and* establish partnerships with community groups that support veterans, active duty, National Guard and the military reserve.Sodexo has previously been awarded the Secretary of Defense Freedom Award, the highest federal-level employer recognition for exceptional support of the USA's defense, and the Pro-Patria Award from the Maryland Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, the highest state-level award to a civilian employer.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to describe how international food and facilities-management firm Sodexo is trying to increase the number of women in its top jobs, and why the company particularly welcomes job applications from former members of the military.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper explains the background to these policies and the successes they have achieved.\nFindings: - The paper highlights the company's ambition to ensure that a quarter of its 300 top jobs are filled by women by 2015. It details the work of the Sodexo Women's International Forum for Talent (Swift), which includes 20 of the company's senior female executives, representing 12 nationalities, who propose specific actions needed to help women to achieve top-management jobs.\nPractical implications: - The paper explains that the company believes that a military background translates into successful jobs for veterans with Sodexo because they: recognize the importance of teamwork and employ it every day; are accustomed to advancement through their own achievements; and thrive on new assignments and the challenges of new locations.\nSocial implications: - The paper highlights the benefits of making best use of the talents of women and veterans.\nOriginality/value: - The paper describes award-winning initiatives designed to get more women into top jobs and to employ the talents of guardsmen and veterans.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Building a global management pipeline
|
[
"Reinforcement",
"Measurement",
"Senior management",
"Leadership development"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Leadership for frontline supervisors in manufacturing is necessary for success in today's global economy. Consistency of supervisory/management practices across the organization ensures that management practices are the same no matter the location.\nWhy now?: Hollister Incorporated has been successful for nearly 90 years. In bringing to life Hollister's People Strategy, one of the highest-priority needs identified by Senior Management several years ago was the development of critical frontline management skills at all of its locations and plants. Hollister has an extensive workforce in Europe, Asia, and Latin America as well as North America. This would help first-line managers lead more productive teams, and help Hollister build a strong pipeline of skilled managers ready to step up to leadership positions.Some of the critical skills identified and taught are: communicating as a leader; managing performance; coaching; leadership based on the situation; managing conflict, leading change and building highly effective teams.These topics are divided into three, three-day modules. One challenge was that Hollister frontline managers are scattered in plants and facilities around the globe, and often had not met one another. This provided a great forum for them to meet, learn and grow together, while getting a stronger understanding of other parts of the organization.\nPartnership in development and delivery: Hollister wanted to make this new program a \"big deal,\" and felt that awarding a diploma or certificate would be one way to make the achievement concrete. More importantly, earning a management-skills certificate demonstrates that an individual has worked on a variety of competencies to become a more effective frontline manager. Since Hollister has a very small internal training staff, they had always planned to partner with an outside organization. Lake Forest Graduate School of Management brought experience and faculty that are practitioners, not academicians - who could provide frontline managers with concepts and skill models they could put into practice in the plants.\nHow does this program strengthen the culture? How does senior management support it?: Most Hollister Associates would tell you that Hollister is a great company to work for; they have a strong focus not only on their customers, but on their Associates as individuals with real value of their own. The ability to take part in a Company program like this is strong evidence that Hollister is committed to helping managers develop their knowledge, their skills, and their careers. The feedback about this program has been extremely positive. People clearly appreciate the investment that the Company is making in their individual development.Senior management (the chairman and CEO, the president, and VPs) have all been involved with the overall plan from the start. It was presented to this group and they approved both the concept and funding. All officers have been kept up to date on the program and all senior managers have received business impact reports.The chairman and CEO kick off each new group with a company strategy overview. He personally attends each graduation ceremony. The CFO attends a session on finance and answers financial questions of the participants. Other senior officers speak at the graduation dinner honoring the participants. Each officer nominates participants for the program from their departments. Class mix matches the workforce numbers in each department, so each class is truly representative of the organization.The strongest sign of support is the funding that has been provided to meet the growing demand for the program. While the program is annually funded in the operating plan, interest in and demand for it has led to a large waiting list. Senior management has stepped up and funded the extra classes.\nWhat's the advantage of bringing people in from around the world to Libertyville and Lake Forest? Why not do this online?: There are numerous advantages of bringing people to one location:* Relationship building. Hollister has continually grown domestically and internationally over the last few years. While Associates worldwide work with one another on different teams and projects, many have not met one another. Once a face-to-face meeting has occurred, relationships and trust grow at a quicker pace.* Understanding. Participants obtain a better understanding of other participants' communication styles. They see body language and physical nuances that are not visible through online meetings. This again builds trust and understanding.* Sharing experiences/culture. Having a greater opportunity to share and the ability to discuss different viewpoints and how different cultures would handle a given situation is also important. Even when an online session is interactive, the richness of a face-to-face discussion/debate is tempered if not lost. People do not interact the same way when the media is just technology-based.* Social. People who share a meal come together in a different and better way. Barriers are lowered, stories are shared, and business ideas are discussed in an environment that is open.* Exposure. Participants meet leaders outside the course at briefings and meals - officers and other associates - growing their network within the company.* Commitment. Participants have a stronger feeling about being a part of the fiber of the overall company. They see that they are not alone or a member of just a manufacturing location but a valued contributor to a large and important enterprise. Hollister core values stress the respect and dignity of all associates. Physically being a part of the larger group, being at corporate headquarters, and being part of a global course adds to this feeling of belonging.\nHow do you reinforce the program back on the job? How is the learning furthered?: A reinforcement letter and/or job aid is sent after a module is completed. This material builds on what was learned and practiced in the face-to-face sessions. It helps remind the participant about the session and gives them a visual support.About six-to-eight weeks after each module, a conference call with participants and faculty is conducted. The call consists of a short review of the material and then sharing of skills used and applied. These calls last one-and-a-half hours and are offered at times convenient so that all participants have the opportunity to attend. These have been immensely successful, because participants share with one another how they have applied the skills learned in the program, describe successes as well as get advice for problem areas. Everyone gains from both telling their story and discussing others'.The participants' supervisors are always copied in all communications. This prompts their manager's to discuss the learning and the interaction with participants and helps reinforce the learning.\nSuccess measures: Success of the program is measured through both Return on Learning Investment and the Success Case Method process from Robert Brinkerhoff. Of the graduates, 94 percent reported that they acquired new knowledge and skills and changed their behavior as a result of the learning. A total 84 percent reported that new management behaviors led to positive business results. The greatest gains were in communication styles, performance management and coaching. Graduates reported that their learning has brought about significant changes in them as managers - in the way they perceive and deal with their direct reports. They also said the program produced benefits which included improved cross-functional and cross-cultural awareness and the building of new intra-organizational networks.\nBest practices: * We found it valuable not only to build the list of topics by checking with a number of trusted resources, but also to run that draft curriculum by senior management. Having their confirmation and support has been invaluable in building the program and making it successful.* In running the program itself, the follow-up phone conferences are useful in helping participants learn from their colleagues, and in making everyone feel accountable to actually put their learning into practice at work.* It is extremely important to communicate internally. The manager of each participant is copied on all follow-up correspondence, so the bosses know what is going on. We also distribute a report that shows the impact of the program on the business.Doing all of these aspects has allowed Hollister to strengthen frontline supervisory teams in all of their manufacturing facilities around the globe. It has helped associates have a greater understanding of the different functions and how they interact. And it has Hollister poised to move frontline managers into other positions as the need develops, knowing that they have a stronger management base as well as network within the organization in order to work both efficiently and effectively.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to share best practices of a global, frontline leadership development program.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Lake Forest Graduate School of Management worked with Hollister Incorporated to develop and deliver a program that provided consistent leadership growth for global frontline leaders of the organization. The program was supported by senior management in a number of ways to ensure success and commitment. Both live classroom and online elements ensured a program that maximized participants' time and transfer of learning. The Success Case Method was used to measure results and the value of the program for Hollister Incorporated. Best practices are identified to help others who want to embark on similar training for their frontline leaders.\nFindings: - The paper finds that: live, classroom-based leadership development brings added value to organizations through informal learning and networking and strengthens culture; partnerships with colleges can ensure curriculum stays current and relevant as well as providing outside expert voice; virtual reinforcement ensures application of skills on the job; and measurement using the success case methodology provides quantitative and qualitative results, including 94 percent report behavioral change and improved cross-functional and cross-departmental awareness.\nOriginality/value: - The reader of this paper is able to learn best practices established over five years of delivering frontline leadership development to a global audience.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Trust in open innovation - the case of a med-tech start-up
|
[
"Case studies",
"Trust",
"Collaboration",
"Open innovation",
"Start-up"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Open innovation (OI) continues to generate research interest (Carlsson and Corvello, 2011; Elmquist et al., 2009; Greco et al., 2015; West and Bogers, 2014). Researchers have engaged with the phenomenon related to how companies can advance their innovation scope and also divest ideas that do not create a fit with the company's own business focus (Chesbrough, 2012). Furthermore, the collaborative efforts of OI have been emphasised (e.g. Gassmann and Enkel, 2004). While it has been acknowledged that OI may take many different forms and also be \"open\" to different extents (e.g. Dahlander and Gann, 2010; Moilanen et al., 2015), the dominating research perspectives on OI have emphasised resource and skill complementarities between companies (cf. Vanhaverbeke and Cloodt, 2014). But such fit would, as is argued in this paper, only provide a partial explanation as to whether companies manage to collaborate in OI processes.\nTheory: OI and its openness\nResearch design: Based on the absence of knowledge about the antecedents to trust in OI processes, and specifically so in relation to start-ups, a qualitative case-based research design was employed (Siggelkow, 2007). OI involves dynamic processes that are dependent on the context, and which may unfold over time with extensive interaction between collaboration parties. The case study is also a good choice since it can help to refine gaps in existing theories (Siggelkow, 2007), and for offering new understandings about a phenomenon where little is known (Eisenhardt, 1989). Furthermore, theorising from case data is presumed to generate accurate, interesting, and testable ideas (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007).\nThe case of Medical Analysis Ltd: The start-up company Medical Analysis developed a technology that improves health diagnostic systems. Instead of using traditional laboratory equipment that often is large in size and expensive to acquire, the company attempted to develop a technology with the ability to conduct advanced diagnostics with the help of an electronic chip. The start-up's intended solution would be able to run a wide variety of parallel tests through a single drop of body fluid, and hence diagnose many different kinds of medical conditions easier, faster and cheaper than before. The technology was composed of two parts: a simple reading unit and a diagnostic technology that would be integrated in the chip. The business concept rested upon the idea that the chip would be a consumable; as a consequence, the sales of the chip would be where Medical Analysis could achieve revenues. The customer segments identified were central labs and primary healthcare institutions. The start-up also saw the possibility that patients could use the solution in their homes. The development process of the technology and the chip took several years, and consisted of many different types of OI collaborations.\nAnalysis: Table I summarises the various OI collaborations in the case study.\nConclusions: This paper described and discussed the importance of trust in OI. Specifically, it concerned itself with the antecedents of trust and focussed on a start-up's OI processes with collaboration parties. The paper points out that as trust was not entirely established, OI collaborations were discontinued. This resulted from how at least one of the antecedents of trust being perceived as missing at the trustee. The case points to how the start-up often perceived the goodwill to be lacking by the collaboration party, while the collaboration parties abandoned the collaboration based on not trusting the start-up competence-wise. While previous experience with the same collaboration party was not present in the case, a consequence of the start-up setting under study, experiences from other collaborations affected later ones, as did the trustee's connections to other parties.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The literature has shown great interest in open innovation (OI), and also discussed its degree of openness based on, for example, the number of parties involved. Less is known, however, about what makes OI processes work. The purpose of this paper is to describe and discuss the importance of trust in OI, and the paper specifically focusses on a start-up company's OI processes with collaboration parties. The paper points out how a lack of trust antecedents may disable such OI processes.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The empirical part of the paper consists of a case study on a medicine technology start-up. Interviews and analyses of secondary sources made up the main data capturing methods. Each collaboration between the start-up and another party is analysed through three trust antecedents: contractual, competence based, and goodwill.\nFindings: The paper shows how either party may have chosen to discontinue the collaboration, based on the lack of competence or goodwill antecedents to trust. Specifically, the case indicates how the start-up discontinues the collaboration based on a perceived lack of goodwill, while the collaboration party bases its decision on competence deficits by the start-up.\nOriginality/value: The paper contributes to previous research through describing OI related to start-ups, and introducing trust antecedents as prerequisites for OI. To the literature on trust, trust mutuality makes a research contribution.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Deterring sustainability in higher education institutions: An appraisal of the factors which influence sustainability in higher education institutions
|
[
"Higher education",
"Sustainable development",
"International organizations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In 2001, Kofi Annan argued that the biggest challenge in this century is to transform sustainable development from abstract to real for all the people in the planet (United Nations, 2001). However, as reported by the United Nations, \"the progress towards the goals established in Rio de Janeiro has been slower than it was supposed to be and in some cases we are worse than ten years before\" (Economic and Social Council, 2001).Recently, the UNESCO (2004) announced the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development which aims to promote education as a basis for a more sustainable human society and to integrate sustainable development into education systems at all levels.Education for sustainable development is a contentious concept that has been present in many official agendas at higher education institutions since, at least, a decade ago. Unfortunately, progress on campuses has not been as fast as expected because there is a general lack of adequate conditions.Early experiences on campuses have not only demonstrated many opportunities but also many problems and barriers to the successful implementation of sustainability programs. Some university-based leaders have expressed their concerns about the slow pace in higher education institutions towards sustainability (Roome, 1998; Boyle, 1999; Leal Filho, 1994).Sustainable development has slowly permeated in universities not only through courses. According to Velazquez et al. (2004) education, research, outreach and partnership, and sustainability on campus are the four strategies used in higher education institutions around the world for achieving sustainability.Invariably, all sustainable initiatives have had their ups and downs. Programs such as Tuft Clean (Creighton, 1998), the HE 21 Project (ACU, 1999) and many others that were in their time very successful now have ceased to be. Others have survived and moved on to new phases of existence. It was very predictable. According to Blaze and Wals (2004), in a postmodern world, pathways towards sustainable universities are unlikely to develop without friction, controversy, and conflict.\nMethodology: It was conducted as a literature review of published and unpublished articles, conference proceedings, university reports, books, and website documents. It was not to target any specific discipline. However, most of the materials were from engineering, economics, sociology, and related sciences. The time frame of the literature review was from 1990 to 2002. Important references prior to 1990 were also analyzed. The ultimate goal of this literature review was the identification of the factors that could obstruct the implementation of the sustainability initiatives in higher education institutions as a way for assisting key players to improve the effectiveness of their potential or current sustainability initiatives and being ready for the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development.\nOverview of problems: It is not easy to predict the repercussion of a single or combination of barriers to a sustainability initiative. Barriers and obstacles mentioned in Table I have impacted in different ways the progress of sustainability initiatives depending on the context and circumstances of the university where they are being implemented.Hence, order in the list does not represent any implied ranking of importance. However, barriers are presented from the highest to the lowest degree of incidence presented in the sources of information utilized.Lack of awareness, interest, and involvement\nConclusions: During the last decade, thousands of people, at all levels, in higher education institutions around the world began to consider sustainability as a key element in education for sustainable development. However, the process of becoming a sustainable university is still in its infancy.As outlined in this paper, the adequate conditions for the successful implementation of sustainability programs do not exist. There are many obstacles preventing the success of sustainability initiatives on campuses around the world.Some of the possible factors listed here have contributed to slow the progress towards the goals established in Agenda 21 and it is very likely they would affect the success of the UN Decade for Education for Sustainable Development. Even impacting in a different way, it seems that there are not strong differences in the obstacles to be overcome by sustainability leaders around the world when trying to promote sustainability in higher education institutions. Yet, a university's conservative organizational structure and the lack of awareness of the university community seem to be the greatest obstacles to be overcome by the people responsible for sustainability initiatives.Until the lack of sustainability policies or the existence of policies with zero enforcement on many campuses is not longer a problem, cultural awareness seems to be one of the best strategies for implementing sustainability initiatives.It is intended to bring here all the possible difficulties that are preventing sustainable initiatives. However, even though the list of barriers addressed here is extensive, it is very likely that there exist other problems that are hampering the implementation and good progress of sustainability related initiatives. Those obstacles also need to be addressed.The hesitancy to discuss obstacles in journal papers, conferences, or others communications means it is a common practice among people responsible for documenting sustainability initiatives. The motive could be the insecurity to keep their initiatives working due to reprisals from superiors.Becoming a \"Sustainable University\" is not as easy as theorizers thought years ago. The UNESCO has given a big step announcing the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, but it surely will take more than a decade.Meanwhile, it is essential that people responsible for sustainable initiatives transform barriers into challenges, to ignore the critiques and keep working, focusing the energy on actions more than words.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To explore some of the factors that could obstruct the implementation of the sustainability initiatives in higher education institutions as a way for assisting key players to improve the effectiveness of their potential or current sustainability initiatives and being ready for the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - It was conducted a literature review of published and unpublished articles, conference proceedings, university reports, books, and website documents. It was not target any specific discipline. However, most of the material was from engineering, economics, sociology, and related sciences. The time frame of the literature review was from 1990 to 2002. Important references prior to 1990 were also analyzed.\nFindings: - The adequate conditions for the successful implementation of sustainability programs do not exist. There are many obstacles preventing the success of sustainability initiatives on campuses around the world. However, sustainability initiatives on campuses are flourishing despite these difficulties.\nOriginality/value: - Usually, literature about sustainability on campus is focused most on good experiences, paying little or no attention to describe the issues hampering their evolution. What went wrong is mentioned without sufficient consideration or given a secondary status making it impossible to learn from bad experiences. This paper reveals several failures as a way to anticipate solutions for overcoming institutional barriers confronted in particular situations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Context, not predictions: a field study of financial analysts
|
[
"Habitus",
"Bourdieu",
"Capital",
"Field",
"Buy-side analysts",
"Sell-side analysts"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: There is a great deal of evidence in the accounting and finance literature supporting the claim that the work of analysts is subjective and prone to bias (O'Brien et al., 2005). These findings, however, sit uneasily with many studies and text books which suggest that analysts play a critical role in the functioning of the capital market. Indeed, many text books suggest that analysts help to keep the market efficient, first by collecting and processing information from various sources including financial statements and then by disseminating information to market participants (Beaver, 1998; Palepu et al., 2010). There is also substantial evidence in the academic literature that the research outputs of analysts affect share price formation (Twedt and Rees, 2012; Asquith et al., 2005; Frankel et al., 2006). Why do investors rely on analysts' work despite well-known inefficiency and bias? Are they valued in the market because of their quantitative skill or their prediction of numbers, or is there something else? This paradox provides us with an interesting setting in which to examine how analysts add value to investment decision-making processes and interact with other actors (e.g. investors, buy-side analysts, fund managers (FMs hereafter)); our contribution lies with the examination of this setting.\n2. Prior literature: Academic literature on financial analysts is voluminous and, within certain terms of reference, varied. Beunza and Garud (2007) usefully divide this literature into three broad streams: first, mainstream accounting and finance literature; second, neo-institutional and behavioural work; and third, emerging sociological perspectives on financial intermediaries, of which analysts are one group. In this literature review we will outline some of the main findings and limitations from these streams of literature in order to pave the way for our own Bourdieusian theoretical framework which we argue in the subsequent section constitutes a novel addition to the third, sociological stream of literature on financial analysts.\n3. Theoretical framework: In order to understand the richness of analyst work, what is therefore needed is a perspective that: first, does not presume the primacy of stock recommendations; second, takes account of institutional pressures without ignoring the importance of calculative practices; third, attributes agency, whether circumscribed or not, primarily to individuals and groups rather than objects; and fourth, is reflexive vis-a-vis its research object. For this, we draw from the work of Pierre Bourdieu and his key concepts of field, habitus and capitals.\n4. Field work: The paper presents the results of a longitudinal, qualitative research project conducted between 2002 and 2007. Interviews were undertaken with 49 investment analysts in two phases. In phase 1, interviews with sell-side analysts were conducted. In phase 2, interviews with buy-side analysts were undertaken. Initial contact was made by e-mail, outlining the objectives of the research, discussing the research outputs and providing an assurance of confidentiality. For the sample of sell-side analysts, we selected the top 15 firms from the Extel Survey (www.extelsurvey.com) and conducted a small number of 40-minute interviews within their equity research departments. Out of the 15 firms, ten agreed to participate in the study. Some 31 analysts employed within these ten firms formed the sell-side sample for the research. This sample covered five broad sectors; financial (five analysts), industrial (nine analysts), media (four analysts), retail (four analysts) and technology (nine analysts)[6]. The analysts' range of experience varied from three to 16 years with a mean value of six and a half years; they covered a total of 139 companies. The sell-side analysts' interviews were followed by 18 semi-structured interviews with buy-side analysts. In our buy-side sample, seven analysts covered technology and media, four retail and industrial/media, three technology only, one pharmaceutical only and three covered more than two sectors. The buy-side analysts' experience varied from two to 15 years with an average of six years. The sample buy-side analysts were responsible for PS51 billion investment in total. The Appendix provides interviewee details.\n5. Findings: The main aim of this paper is to understand the role that analysts play in investors' decision-making processes: what do sell-side analysts do in a technical sense and how might they influence buy-side analysts' decision-making processes? Since prior research shows that trade commissions from buy-side analysts act as important incentives for sell-side analysts (Groysberg et al., 2011b), we present evidence on buy-side analysts first (Section 5.1). In the buy-side analysts' section, we explore their decision-making and the role of output from sell-side analysts in this process. We then present evidence on sell-side analysts (Section 5.2) to explore how they rationalise what it is that they actually do.\n6. Discussion and conclusion: In this paper, we have examined a paradox that exists in the literature: why do investors rely on analysts' work despite well-known inefficiency and bias in their forecasts? Our interviews with analysts produce interesting results. We find that sell-side analysts play a complex and multi-faceted role in the market that goes beyond merely forecasting. Indeed, forecasting is something of a red herring. What buy-side analysts are looking for is the multifarious skill set of the weather forecaster who can describe the interaction of different events, not precise predictions about where it will rain tomorrow. Context is valued over precision and the assumptions underlying forecasts are more important than the forecasts themselves.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the nature of the work that financial analysts actually do in the context of the market for information and to further open up research in this area to qualitative and sociological inquiry.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A field study with 49 financial analysts (both buy-side and sell-side) was undertaken in order to understand the work that they actually do. This field study was theoretically informed by the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu.\nFindings: The authors find, in contrast to both conventional wisdom and assumptions in prior (mostly quantitative) literature, that the primary value of sell-side analyst work lies not in the recommendations that analysts ultimately produce, but in the rich contextual information that they provide to buy-side analysts. In order to successfully provide this information, analysts have to embody large amounts of technical capital into their habitus.\nResearch limitations/implications: Much research in this area erroneously presumes that forecasting is the primary function of analysts. Analyst work needs to be understood as multifarious and requiring a well-developed habitus that is attuned to the accumulation of both technical and social capital. Future qualitative research might usefully explore in more detail the way in which corporate managers interact with analysts. The present study solicits the viewpoints only of the analysts themselves. The organisational context of the analysts was not explored in detail and the interviews were pre-crisis, which possibly explains why the technical capital of sell-side analysts was extolled by interviewees rather than lambasted.\nOriginality/value: The paper is one of few studies to look at analysts from a qualitative and sociological perspective. It both complements and extends both emerging sociological work on financial intermediaries and qualitative work on the \"market for information\".\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Effects of the biophilic atmosphere on intention to visit: the affective states' mediating role
|
[
"Mediating effect",
"Shopping centres",
"Intention to visit",
"Affective states",
"Biophilic atmosphere",
"Structural equations model"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Relationships between the physical environment and the consumer response in specific service contexts is a topic that requires more research (Wakefield and Blodgett, 2016), particularly in the field of retail marketing, where models need to advance in practice and retail thinking with innovative findings (Parsons and Descatoires, 2016). In this line, research in environmental psychology has shown that exposure to environments based on nature has beneficial effects on the behavior of people (Joye and Bolderdijk, 2014). Spaces or areas with vegetation (biophilic design) are a strategic opportunity to promote the well-being of people (Joye et al., 2010). It can be applied to the management of specific and wider trade environments such as shopping centers, due to its constant growth, transformation and evolution to better serve consumers (ICSC, 2018).\n2. Literature review and hypotheses development: 2.1 Atmosphere of the shopping center\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Data collection and sample\n4. Results: As mentioned in the methodological section, the constructs were first validated by confirmatory factor analysis. Although all items showed univariate normality (A <= 1, Miles and Shevlin, 2001), the Mardia test pointed out that multivariate normality was non-existent (Hernandez et al., 1995; Schermelleh-Engel et al., 2003). Consequently, models were run under the estimation method of weighted least squares estimation method. Then, scales' unidimensionality was assessed. As can be seen in Table II, the Cronbach's alpha scores guarantee a high level of reliability for all constructs (Nunnally and Bernstein, 1978). As well as assessing convergent validity, the CR and the AVE were calculated. Results showed satisfactory internal consistency and proportion of explained variance for the constructs (Table II). To assess discriminant validity, the MSV and the ASV were also calculated. The values obtained showed a high degree of uniqueness. Finally, the CFA presents significant (p < 0.001) and greater than 0.74 factorial loads. The CFA fit indexes are also satisfactory (kh2/df = 1.994, df = 51, GFI = 0.936, AGFI = 0.903, CFI = 0.929, RMSEA = 0.050, TLI = 0.909, IFI = 0.931; Table II).\n5. Discussion: The findings indicate the influence of the biophilic atmosphere on affective states and the intention to visit. Also, it is shown that affective states mediate in this relationship and effect. Consequently, the disposition and perception of a biophilic atmosphere in shopping centers can mean a competitive advantage for retail distribution, attracting a greater number of visitors and, perhaps, affecting traffic builder measures and purchases.\n6. Managerial implications: The research into shopping centers has been mainly focused on analyzing the variables of attraction (Gomes and Paula, 2017), due to its effect on the intention to visit (Chebat et al., 2010; El-Adly and Eid, 2016), considering itself as a place of shopping, leisure and entertainment for all types of consumers. Consequently, our results suggest to managers of shopping centers and marketing practitioners, the possibility of optimizing the visit experience of their consumers by incorporating natural environmental elements (for example, plants, shrubs, trees, gardens, water sources and green areas), due to their direct and indirect effects on the intention to visit. In fact, we consider it pertinent to also suggest the incorporation of scenarios that duplicate real natural environments (for example, paintings, photos and videos of natural landscapes or vegetation) given that affective responses can also be triggered by imitations of real nature (Joye, 2007). This may favor the creative possibilities of designers, architects and managers of these commercial formats to imitate natural elements, in comparison with the greater effort required to care for and maintain real natural environments (Joye et al., 2011).\n7. Limitations and future research: This research is the first to analyze the effect of a biophilic atmosphere on affective states and the intention to visit, considering that its applications in service environments, shopping centers and retail formats is in an initial stage (Rosenbaum et al., 2018). Consequently, future research will have to study the exact mechanisms of biophilic stimulation that lead to the formation of affective states and changes in approaching behavior, preference and purchases, taking into account that commercial attraction is the result of various factors, such as the variety of the offer, the convenience of access, the entertainment services and the physical environment, among others. These matters should be addressed to improve the state of theoretical and applied knowledge.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to analyze how a biophilic atmosphere inspired by nature influences customers' affective states and intention to visit shopping centers, and to empirically test how affective states affect and mediate the relationship between the nature-based atmosphere and behavior or intention to visit.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Four hypotheses are examined empirically through a model of structural equations using control variables. A survey of 403 consumers distributed in 24 large shopping centers was used.\nFindings: The findings indicate the influence of the biophilic atmosphere on affective states and the intention to visit. Also, it is shown that affective states mediate in this relationship and effect.\nPractical implications: The research suggests that shopping centers are potentially places to take advantage of people's natural predisposition. Thus, they can combine biophilic architecture and atmosphere with other more traditional factors of attraction to increase the likelihood of visiting. A biophilic atmosphere can improve the attraction capacity within a highly competitive environment, where design and management of space is a topic of special value.\nOriginality/value: By incorporating the perception of the biophilic atmosphere in consumer evaluations when visiting shopping centers, this research has shown its influence on visiting intentions through affective states. The research proposes an alternative model that can increase and stimulate the attraction of demand and loyalty, as well as strengthening new paths in the field of retail and services marketing.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Performance management in public universities: overcoming bureaucracy
|
[
"Performance management",
"Italy",
"Public universities",
"Outcome"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Since the early 1980s, the \"New Public Management\" began its spread. Starting from Anglo-Saxon Countries, public management reforms consisted in \"[...] deliberate changes to the structures and processes of public sector organizations with the objective of getting them (in some sense) to run better\" (Pollitt and Bouckaert, 2000/2004/2011, p. 8).\nLiterature review: As known, performance information has a very important role. According to Behn (2003), \"From performance measures public managers may learn what is not working.\" However, performance management literature evidences different meanings of performance (Hood, 1991; Pollitt and Bouckaert, 2000/2004/2011; Jorgensen and Bozeman, 2002; Poister, 2003; Meneguzzo, 2005; Hatry, 1999/2006; Radin, 2006; Newcomer, 2007; Voets et al., 2008; Talbot, 1999, 2010). Among these, Van Dooren et al. (2010, p. 17) highlight that \"The conventional definition of performance uses the metaphor of the production process. Performances are outputs and outcomes of activities.\" Therefore, performance is strictly connected with outputs and outcomes.\nMethodology: Sample and data collection\nResults: We estimated two regression models.\nDiscussion: The findings indicated that the quality of performance plans was not very high, but on average an improvement in the PMI was registered from 2011 to 2014. This is an important element that evidences a slow, but relevant development of learning on performance management in several organizations examined. However, in some cases organizational learning on strategic planning did not improve.\nClosing remarks: The paper investigated the quality of performance management systems of 29 (48 percent) Italian public universities, considering the span of performance measurement systems, by means of the comparison of their performance plans 2011-2013 and 2014-2016, that referred to the first and the second performance management cycle, respectively.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Considering a micro performance perspective, the purpose of this paper is to analyze whether and to what extent the adoption of better performance management systems could improve the performance levels of a public university.\nDesign/methodology/approach: With reference to a period of four years (2011-2014), the quality of performance management systems of 29 Italian universities (response rate: 48 percent) was examined and the possible effects on performance levels of these institutions were analyzed by means of statistical methodologies (multiple regression analysis). Outcome indicators were considered.\nFindings: The findings indicate the need to go further \"measurement,\" and to take care of performance \"management,\" especially in complex organizations as universities, where academicians identify themselves more with their professions than with the organization and where technicians and administrative employees might look at the performance-based reform with \"bureaucratic eyes.\" A fruitful cooperation between the professional soul and the bureaucratic one is paramount.\nOriginality/value: Studies which analyze organizational factors that could affect the adoption and implementation of performance management systems are rare, and use in prevalence qualitative methods or refer to machine bureaucracies, not many to professional ones as public universities. Moreover, the performance management literature in a public university context deepens the topic of the selection of KPIs and the focus is mainly on macro performance or on management tools for gathering and analyzing performance measures.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Applications of the experience sampling method: a research agenda for hospitality management
|
[
"Experience sampling method",
"Multilevel model",
"Hospitality management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Most of the existing research in hospitality management has applied a cross-sectional design to collect data, which benefits the collection process but ignores the causal effect (Min et al., 2016). A cross-sectional design usually investigates the prevalent outcome of a specific topic for a given population, thus providing a \"snapshot\" of the outcome at a specific point in time (Levin, 2006). However, collecting data for one-time only cannot explain whether the conclusion is changeable as time goes by (Kothari, 2004), such as the relationship between emotional exhaustion during work and tiredness or sleep quality afterwards. In addition, when the research questions refer to past experiences, participants' answers may be incomplete or biased because of memory errors, such as the emotional state at work or the sleep quality a couple of weeks ago. Meanwhile, thoughts, feelings and action intentions are highly likely to fluctuate in the short term (Bird, 1992), and when the research is related to those variables, the findings may vary across different points in time during data collection. For example, the participants may feel very frustrated the first time they are questioned, but they may report that they are motivated by the frustrating situation as time goes by, or they may not remember it a week later. To summarize, a cross-sectional design cannot satisfy the requirements of every type of research, especially when the research investigates variables with a high possibility of fluctuation over time.\n2. An overview of experience sampling method: The ESM became popular in clinical research, health research and social psychology research during the 1990s, and recent decades have seen an explosion in the use of ESM for organizational behavior research (Scollon et al., 2003). The acknowledged earliest researcher to use a precursor of today's ESM was Flugel (1925), who conducted a 30-day study of emotions. Later studies that used a method that best resembled the current form of ESM include Csikszentmihalyi et al.'s (1977) study on adolescents, which coined the terminology ESM and Brandstatter's (1983) research on mood across situations. In some disciplines, ESM is also known as ecological momentary assessment (EMA; Shiffman et al., 2008). Although ESM and EMA arose from different research traditions, they are similar in terms of collecting self-reported real-time data on emotions, behaviors and cognitions (Trull and Ebner-Priemer, 2009). Introducing random signaling and attempting to explore intrapsychic phenomena distinguish the current forms of ESM from earlier forms (Scollon et al., 2003). Data collection for ESM includes both qualitative data, such as repeated open-ended questions (Quinlan Cutler et al., 2018), and quantitative data, such as repeated questionnaires (Sloboda et al., 2001). In this paper, the quantitative data approach is discussed, including the issues relating to data collection and data analysis. In our illustrative example, a quantitative ESM design is used to give an easy-to-follow demonstration.\n3. Critical issues in applying experience sampling method: Many key decisions are required in planning and conducting a research that uses ESM. According to Conner and Lehman (2012), when planning and conducting ESM research, scholars should determine the timetable for data collection, develop measures, select a technology platform (if needed) and recruit research participants. In this section, we will critically discuss the processes for data collection and data analysis. Based on those discussions, we will determine suitable research topics for using the ESM in hospitality management research.\n4. Illustrative example of hospitality study that uses experience sampling method: This section provides an illustrative example of how the current authors have used ESM for hospitality research. The example reported here was designed to examine how one of the emotional labor strategies (surface acting) influences employees' daily sleep quality through their daily negative emotion: tiredness. Assumptions about the relationship among surface acting, tiredness and sleep quality are based on the conservation of resources theory, which describes the impetus for humanity to maintain existing resources (Hobfoll, 1989). When resources could not be reacquired, employees would feel pressurized. Emotional labor referred to \"the management of feeling to create a publicly observable facial and bodily display\" (Hochschild, 1983, p.7). Inspired by Goffman's (1978) dramaturgical approach, Hochschild (1983) proposed two strategies for employees to manage emotions: surface acting and deep acting. Surface acting is defined as employees' adjustment of emotional expression to match the requirements of the organization, which involves \"faking\" the expected emotions. Surface acting can be considered as a type of resource loss, which will lead to negative results, such as tiredness and poor sleep quality. In addition, studies have verified that low energy level (e.g. feeling tired) is negatively related to the sleep quality (Andrykowski et al., 1997; Knudsen et al., 2007). Because individuals' daily negative emotions and daily sleep quality could be correlated, and negative emotions and sleep quality are changeable over short periods of time, ESM is appropriate for investigating such relationships. Figure 2 presents the theoretical model of this example.\n5. Conclusions, implications and future research: This paper provides an overview of the development and application of the ESM, with a special focus on hospitality management research. Researchers can benefit from using ESM when their research topics are related to fluctuations in short-term variables. Although one extant paper, which is qualitative in nature, (Quinlan Cutler et al., 2018) introduced ESM to the tourism field, it did not explain how to use ESM to examine the relationships among variables. Thus, this paper is the first in the hospitality field to provide a hands-on demonstration of ESM, and it shows in particular how to use a multilevel model to analyze ESM data. We hope that this paper will contribute to a wider use of ESM in the hospitality disciplines. The usage of this method is still in development, and we believe that with increasing understanding and engagement of ESM, researchers in the hospitality field will be able to answer more complex research questions and, in so doing, will enrich the development of ESM in turn.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to provide researchers in hospitality management with a comprehensive understanding of the experience sampling method (ESM) and to engage them in the use of ESM in their future research. With this critical discussion of the advantages and challenges of the method, researchers can apply it appropriately to deepen and broaden their research findings.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study chooses an empirical example in the context of hotel employees' surface acting, tiredness and sleep quality to illustrate the application of ESM. Based on the example, this paper conducts a two-level modeling in Mplus, including a cross-level mediation analysis and mean centering.\nFindings: This paper demonstrates the applicability and usefulness of ESM for hospitality research and provides a detailed demonstration of how to use the statistical program Mplus to analyze ESM data. With this paper, researchers will be able to consider how to engage ESM in their future studies.\nOriginality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this paper is among the first to provide a hands-on demonstration of ESM to hospitality researchers. The authors call for more research in hospitality management to use ESM to answer complex and pressing research questions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Comment on "Consumer cultural identity...": global citizenship and reactance
|
[
"Commentary",
"Cultural identity"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The review piece by Strizhakova and Coulter (2019) makes several important and commendable suggestions for future research on consumer global/local cultural identity, emphasizing the need \"to more carefully consider the similarities as well as the distinctions between consumer identity beliefs and consumption-based beliefs.\" They also draw attention to the emergent local/nationalistic resistance to the forces of global consumer culture. In this commentary, we connect these two points, and argue that a consumer's global identity is manifest not only in the domain of consumption and consumer culture, but also in a conceptually and empirically distinct domain, concerning empathy with universal human needs, and this second type of global identity is less likely to lead to the kind of local/nationalistic reactance that Strizhakova and Coulter flag for attention. We also point out below that local and national identity are not necessarily the same, and may lead to different outcomes.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the review paper by Strizhakova and Coulter (\"Consumer cultural identity: local and global cultural identities and measurement implications\") and offer several observations that extend the discussion into new territory.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A short essay.\nFindings: The authors pinpoint a lack of research attention within the global consumer culture literature into a manifestation of global identity that can be termed \"humanistic global identity.\"\nOriginality/value: The paper contends that the reactance (conflict) Strizhakova and Coulter point to, which may occur between global and local identity and culture, is more likely in a culture and consumption domain than in a \"shared-humanity\" domain.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Understanding drivers of performance in the 3PL industry in Hong Kong
|
[
"Operations management",
"China",
"Competitive analysis",
"Corporate strategy",
"Distribution management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In recent years, an increasing number of studies have examined the conceptual and theoretical development of operations strategies (Boyer and Pagell, 2000; Ward and Duray, 2000; Spina and Zotteri, 2001; Zhao et al., 2002; Badri et al., 2000; Gavetti and Levinthal, 2004; Sum et al., 2004; Boyer et al., 2005; Lowson, 2005; Pilkington and Fitzgerald, 2006). While some efforts focused on specific relationships between some constructs, such as competitive environment and operations strategy (Ward et al., 1995; Amoako-Gyampah and Boye, 2001), and operations strategy and business performance (Butler and Leong, 2000; Ward and Duray, 2000; Spina and Zotteri, 2001; Zhao et al., 2002), relatively little emphasis has been given to the identification of an overarching framework which addresses the relationship among multiple constructs, from competitive environment to operations strategy, operational performance and business performance. Besides competitive environment as a business environment, the participation of different management functions in the formation of strategy internally, referred to as functional involvement, may also influence the choice of the company's operations strategy. Both competitive environment and functional involvement may play an important role as external and internal factors that influence the choice of operations strategy for the company. The postulated overarching model will enhance our understanding of how these factors not only impact on the strategic operations direction, but also how this translates into improved operational and financial performance.This research paper aims at providing a relational framework as applied to the third-party logistics (3PL) industry in Hong Kong, which plays a crucial role in the region and faces strong competition in local and overseas markets, in particular from 3PL providers from mainland China. Furthermore, it has not been studied extensively by previous researchers (Zhao et al., 2006). In this study, 3PL refers to \"a relationship between a shipper and a third party which, compared with the basic services, has more customized offerings, encompasses a broad number of service functions and is characterized by a long-term, more mutually beneficial relationship.\" (Murphy and Poist, 1998). The 3PL in this study is also consistent with Lieb and Randall (1996) definition \"3PL involves outsourcing logistics activities that have traditionally been performed within an organization. The functions performed by the third-party can encompass the entire logistics process or, more commonly, selected activities within that process.\"With China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), the logistics industry in Hong Kong is set to grow even faster and plays an increasing role in mainland China, which is becoming a new manufacturing base in the world. Currently, the transport, storage and communications industry constitutes about 10 percent of Hong Kong's GDP, with employment in the transport and storage industry making up about 9 percent of total employment in Hong Kong (www.censtatd.gov.hk). Hong Kong has successfully transformed itself from a port for transport and transshipment of Chinese manufactured or distributed goods, into a premier international transportation and logistics hub for the Asia-Pacific region. Hong Kong's efficient infrastructure of air and sea transport remains its strongest advantage amongst other competitors in the region. For example, Hong Kong airport is ranked the busiest airport for international cargo (www.hongkongairport.com) and is one of the best transshipment centers Lin et al. (2005), with 52 percent of the world's population reachable within eight hours by air. The Hong Kong International Airport is the biggest in the world in terms of international throughput, and has been ranked first in tonnage handled since 1996. The Hong Kong Container Port is continually ranked the second busiest port in the world (http://www.pdc.gov.hk/docs/2007Sep.pdf). 3PL providers in Hong Kong play an important role in the Asia Pacific region, especially in mainland China. For example, as one of the premier 3PL providers in the world, DHL built their first tier Central Asia hub in Hong Kong, and IBM appointed DHL to operate their spare parts center in Hong Kong to serve its Asia Pacific sales region. Furthermore, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge will further tighten Hong Kong's relationship with the Pearl River Delta area of mainland China. It is a giant proposed series of bridges and tunnels that will connect the west side of Hong Kong with Macau and Zhuhai (west side of the Pearl River Delta). The proposed 29-km bridge will make it one of the longest bridges in the world and is expected to reduce travel time by road between Hong Kong and Zhuhai or Macau from 4.5 h-40 min.The increased competition in the Hong Kong logistics industry has forced many 3PL providers to review their strategies and customer value propositions. Despite the practical importance of 3PL providers in serving manufacturers, distributors and retailers in the growing Chinese hinterland and the wider Asia-Pacific region, few high quality 3PL strategy studies have been conducted in Hong Kong to help us understand the industry (Yeung et al., 2006; Zhao et al., 2007), with no study investigating the relationships among competitive environment, functional involvement, operation emphasis and performance for 3PL providers in Hong Kong.The objective of this study is to build and empirically test a model where, in response to different competitive environments and various degrees of involvement of different management functions in strategy formulation, the operations emphases develop. The operations emphases in turn influence operational performance and ultimately financial performance. The model will be empirically estimated using a survey of Hong Kong 3PL service providers.\nTheoretical foundations and conceptual model: Operations emphasis\nResearch methodology and analysis: Data collection\nDiscussion and managerial implications: Operational performance and financial performance\nConclusions and limitations: This study proposes an overarching framework to better understand drivers of performance in the 3PL industry through investigation of the relationships between external and internal environments (e.g. competitive environment and functional involvement), operations emphasis, operational performance, and financial performance; based on a path model tested using data collected from the 3PL industry in Hong Kong. Our study suggests that 3PL providers adopt an appropriate operations emphasis on differentiation and/or low cost in the wake of the extent of competitive environment faced by the organization, and have their functional departments involved in the formulation and planning of this operations emphasis. The execution of operations emphases and the involvement of functional departments will result in corresponding operational performance objectives, which in turn will drive operational performance which directly impacts financial performance. It was found that strict adherence to a low cost operations emphasis will not lead to improved financial performance.This study contributes to the classical environment-strategy-performance theories. For example, this study is one of the first 3PL logistics studies focusing on the internal/external environment, operations emphasis, and performance in 3PL industry. This study extended Ward et al.'s (1995) influential study from manufacturing industry to the 3PL industry. This study restructured the major construct of \"environment concerns\" in Ward et al.'s (1995) study and identified local and international competition from Ward et al.'s (1995) \"competitive hostility\" dimension. It also combined the remaining item in \"competitive hostility\" with other major items in the other three constructs to form a new construct, termed \"operational challenges\". It is reasonable that our study incorporated the new dimensions of competition that were not emphasized by Ward et al. (1995) because, in today's global competitive environment, competition is fiercer than it was a decade ago. Besides the impact of competitive environment on operation strategy examined by Ward et al. (1995), this study also identified the impact of functional involvement on operations emphasis and performance in 3PL industry. Compared with Ward et al.'s (1995) investigation of the indirect effects of environment and operation strategy on performance, this study investigated the direct and indirect effects of internal/external environments, and operations emphases on both operational and financial performance. Our study will help global academicians to understand logistics activities in China since few high quality 3PL studies have been conducted in China (Zhao et al., 2007). This study also contributes to the practices of logistics companies. For logistics service providers, this study presents a comprehensive understanding of the external and internal environments, operations objectives, and business performances, from which managers can draw some valuable insights to improve their company's business performance.Like all empirical research, there are some limitations in this study that open up avenues for future studies. Future research may extend the generalizability of the results over a larger market area, as the current results are only directly relevant to the Hong Kong and Asia-Pacific markets in which competition is keen and where 3PL is a relatively well-established industry. Future replication studies in an emerging or developing 3PL industry with less competition, such as in mainland China or other regions, will contribute further to theory development of this study. Second, future research can investigate the effect of time through a longitudinal study, as the current study was cross-sectional by design. Third, the model developed is not exclusive; future research can explore additional factors that may influence strategies and performance in the 3PL industry, such as firm size, business ownership, and environment dynamism. Additional studies also offer the scope of examining issues such as technology adoption, information sharing, strategy formulation, operations practices, and benchmarking. Fourth, this study did not separate companies into high and low performer groups, or 3PL provider categories across customer segments or industry types. Future studies could also shed light on a better understanding of the differences between high and low performers, or different 3PL provider groups, and the process that may enable a low performer to turn into a high performer across different 3PL provider groups serving different customer segments, across varying industries.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The aim of this paper is to develop an overarching framework to better understand drivers of performance in third-party logistics (3PL) linked to the operations strategy literature.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A path model is specified and estimated based on constructs and relationships grounded in the literature, as well as self-developed constructs, using empirical data from 159 3PL providers in Hong Kong.\nFindings: - Some dimensions of internal and external environments have positive influences on differing operations emphases. Furthermore, operational performance is positively affected by corresponding operations emphases and functional involvement. Finally, good operational performance can bring about better financial performance. However, strict adherence to the low cost operations emphasis will lead to worse financial performance.\nOriginality/value: - This research provides a novel overarching framework to link competition in the market place, challenges in the operations and functional involvement through operations emphases to operational and financial performance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Jungian archetypes and dreams of social enterprise
|
[
"Jungian psychology",
"Scotland",
"Non‐profit organizations",
"Organizational culture",
"Change management",
"Entrepreneurialism",
"Jungian archetypes",
"Social enterprise",
"Cultural change"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In this paper we aim to explore a less frequently explored aspect of organizational identity and the way in which organizational culture change may have repercussions at the unconscious, psychodynamic level. In the wake of financial exigencies global and national, current UK government policy now suggests that social enterprises, organizations which seek to address the problems of disadvantaged groups and individuals through commercial fund raising, should originate from interested groups and individuals, and be financed by them (Cameron, 2009; Muir, 2010). This follows a trend to apply business principles and processes to non-commercial organizations, and research has suggested that social entrepreneurs are often unhappy with a cultural shift from philanthropy to profit making (Dart, 2004; Chell, 2007). We question the view that the unease is simply a refusal to accept economic realities and the need to be commercially solvent, and suggest that the deeper intuitive patterns of human behaviour, which Jung called \"archetypes\" (Jung, 1969a, Jung, 19681) have significant influence on the way that individuals and organizations respond to culture change, whether sought or imposed.The article thus contributes to the literature on psychodynamic approaches as a means of understanding responses to cultural change, in this case by social entrepreneurs in north-east Scotland. Jung was keen for individuals to become effective at understanding their own unconscious motives through a rigorous process of analysis (Jung, 1969c, 1ff), and in more recent times the principles of Jungian analysis have been applied to the study of organizations (Mitroff, 1983; Bridges, 2000), as well as to the question of organizational change (Carr, 2002; Matthews, 2002). The specific contribution of the current article, however, lies in considering, in Jungian terms, the nature of the relationship between individuals and their organizations, and the archetypes influencing both.Jung (1969a, p. 440) appeared to suggest that archetypes are underlying ground themes - in effect, a psychic inheritance common to humanity. They are not accessible in themselves, except through dreams and fantasies, but their influence can be seen in the actions of those driven to act out an archetypal pattern. We argue that, in Jungian terms, in situations of fundamental cultural change, competing archetypes may be in play: those influencing individuals and those influencing their organizations. These archetypal patterns may be held in balance, but equally may conflict. Jung suggested that individuals or communities which lack understanding of psychic processes risk being \"overwhelmed by archetypes\" - and as a consequence behave in exaggerated or bizarre ways (Matthews, 2002, p. 462).The safeguard against such possession by archetypes is the development of individual consciousness and the integration of unconscious aspects (Jung, 1964), a process called by Jung \"individuation\". He regards personality not as a given, but an achievement, and to achieve psychic unity it is necessary to address the shadow side of the psyche, where we hide the less developed or imperfect aspects of ourselves. Complete individuation is probably beyond human endeavour, except by a few exceptional individuals, but Jung suggests it is a mark of the psychically healthy individual to attempt it as a type of everyday heroism (Jung, 1967, 56f). Failure to attempt it can mean projecting less desirable aspects of the self onto other people or the external environment (Jung, 1969b, 138f), and attendant neurosis. The Jungian writer Robert Bly (1988/1992) described the process as \"eating the shadow\", that is, accepting the contents of the psyche which are underdeveloped or unwanted as parts of one's self, and refraining from projecting them.In this conceptual paper we investigate, in Jungian terms, the relationship between the archetypal patterns influencing individuals and their organizations in times of change, and the consequences if the two are in conflict. Because of the ubiquity of organizations in our lives, organizational leaders encourage their members to mirror the behaviours, attitudes and values of the organization through concrete rewards and symbols (Carr, 2002), and in this context archetypes can be powerful \"stakeholders of the organizational mind\" (Mitroff, 1983). Social enterprises in particular may be seen (for example, by Castoriadis (1987/2005) as symbolic structures which bridge the gap between the unconscious and the social order. Discussion by social enterprise scholars of the change from charitable to commercial organization (Kellock Hay et al., 2001) may focus on the macro-context (Stein, 2007) and not always account adequately for non-rational responses to the proposed changes. A consequence of reliance on rationalist approaches to make change happen may, as Fotaki (2006) discovered, involve those affected in attempted emotional \"dispersal\" by constant frenetic activity. If social enterprises are to be increasingly financially self-supporting, to replace state funded initiatives to address disadvantage and social malaise, it is necessary to understand the psychodynamic issues affecting the entrepreneurs who are expected to make the idea work.Consequently, we begin with a review of two separate strands of literature: that of social entrepreneurship and its nature, and that of the psychodynamic approach to understanding change, with its emphasis on the influence of archetypal patterns, suggesting that the former may not always adequately consider the non-rational drivers affecting individuals involved with social enterprise organizations, especially when the challenges they face may unconsciously attack deeply held ego-ideals (Carr, 2002). The methodology for the initial project and subsequent analysis through the lens of Jungian thought is described. An account of the main findings is followed by a discussion of the implications, and a summing up.\nLiterature review: The \"Macro\" context of social enterprise\nResearch methodology: Forms of social enterprise have existed in Scotland for centuries, and there are now over 3,000 examples (Social Firms Scotland, 2012). Enjoying relative economic affluence because of the impact of the energy sector, north-east Scotland has a significant number of social enterprises, and, as a historically rural economy, it has also been used to develop self-help initiatives. In order to discover how change from reliance on grant funding was affecting their work, leaders of five organizations were selected which provided a purposeful sample of organizations with different histories, cultures, organizational structures, management approaches and that were operating within different industry sectors and facing different commercialization challenges. The aim of the sample was to provide maximum variation in terms of models and practices of social enterprise. Details of respondents, and the change issues affecting them and their organizations, are provided in Table I. Both the managers who were involved in the data collection, and their organizations have been given pseudonyms and some of the details relating to their sectors and organizations have been suppressed or altered in order to maintain anonymity of respondents.Since our research question was centred on neither the individual leaders, nor their organizations, but rather on the relationship between the two, it was important to research the leaders within their organizational contexts, but also to access their world views. The data were therefore collected using a two stage approach. During the first phase of the study, each of the leaders was shadowed for between one and two working days. Shadowing involves following an individual for a sustained period of time, noting all their conversations, behaviours and habits, while prompting them to provide a \"running commentary\" on what they are doing (McDonald, 2005). Thus each shadowing episode provided two data streams: observation data about what was done, where, when, how and with who; and this is supplemented by the commentary of the leaders which helps the researcher to understand the motives, beliefs, values and constraints underpinning the behaviour that is observed. Together these data streams give a rich and detailed picture of a day (or days) in the life of the leader, contextualized within the specific organization. During the second phase of the data collection, each of the leaders that had been shadowed was then interviewed. The interviews were semi-structured, in-depth interviews which lasted between one and two hours each. General themes for interview questions were clustered around:* what respondents saw as the main challenges for their organization;* what they considered the organization's purpose to be: purely social or in part commercial; and* whether, in view of the government's interest in social enterprise as a commercial operation, they believed their organization would need to make changes in its strategic aims, operations, or services.The interviews also presented the opportunity to further explore the organization ideals and ego ideals suggested through the shadowing episodes.It is argued that the process of being shadowed by the researchers, and in that context spending some time reflecting on their own values and actions, could have assisted the respondents to develop a process of \"active imagination\", whereby consciousness is preserved but judgement is suspended, enabling the individual to access some of the unconscious drivers (Jung, 1968, pp. 24-40).Data analysis\nFindings: Respondents were well informed about the challenges facing their organizations, particularly the need to combine philanthropy with commercial acumen. In Jungian terms, what all the actors articulated to some extent was that \"social enterprise\" was experienced by its proponents as two competing ideals: \"social\" and \"enterprise\". These two archetypes at the same time extended and challenged each other, but ultimately were rival ideals which were held in constant tension and were mediated through the practices of the organizations and their leaders.We will begin by looking at the meanings of each of these conflicting ideals for the organization leaders and then we will go on to consider how these tensions became manifest within the organizations they managed through their practices.An enterprise ideal\nDiscussion and conclusions: In Carr's (2002) study, education professionals faced rapid changes to their organization-ideal - one which in most cases had previously matched their ego-ideal, as educators. Now that they were required to be managers, many could not assimilate that role as a new ego-ideal, and suffered psychic and consequent physical distress as a result. In the case of this sample of social entrepreneurs, the situation was not so clear cut. It may be true to say that in the past, the ego-ideal of such people would have been that of the benevolent philanthropist.However, the respondents in our study appeared to have a number of different ego-ideals. Malcolm and Flora see themselves as a type of \"benevolent gang leader\", fighting for the underdog (as self-identified underdogs themselves) and regard their commercial colleagues as \"stuck up little suits ... who drive to crush everything around them\" (Malcolm). In Jungian terms one is the shadow side of the other: one can be either a freedom fighter or an evil capitalist. For Bill and Ewen, both \"escapees\" from the commercial sector, the opposite picture is presented. They regard themselves as sensible realists who struggled to engage with \"tree huggers\" or \"pink fluffies\" - the implication being that such latter individuals are unrealistic and deluded. In psychodynamic terms this is an example of \"splitting\" by both sides (Carr, 2002). As a defensive process, individuals dichotomise the world into \"good\" and \"bad\" objects: \"us\" and \"them\" in other words. Here it is seen as a way of defining one's identity, as capitalist/sensible realist or tree hugger/freedom fighter. For both groups, the other group is the Shadow, the unacknowledged and unconsidered archetype. Respondents reflect back into their organization their own perception; where Ewen and Bill see \"small business\", Flora and Malcolm see \"socialist alternative\".The ideals of our respondents represented their \"dreams\" of organization, in that, like TE Lawrence's \"dreamers of the day\", they sought to act on their dreams, or imaginings of what their organization should be. The individuals we studied were all action-oriented, possibly extraverts in Jungian terms, seeking to enact at a conscious level the influence of archetypes of the unconscious. Only one respondent, \"Rob\", had, it seemed, achieved a degree of individuation such that he is able to realise there are different archetypal patterns at play in his organization, and is able to refrain from projecting away the less desired areas of his, and the organization's unconscious. He is able to integrate the split and refuses to project his less developed qualities, in this case as a business leader: \"I love profit! I am going for profit as much as I can! The important thing is what you do with [it].\" Rob is like a \"sleeper\" in his organization, in the sense of an ideologically driven spy who appears to fit in, until required to take action contrary to the organization's overt values. In this role he is able to negotiate the ambiguities of the different roles he might have to perform. He uniquely appears to be able to tolerate the ambiguity of acting both as commercial manager and social revolutionary: in psychodynamic terms he has reconciled ego-ideal and organizational ideal.In Jungian terms, Rob may be regarded as an example of an everyday hero: he may never reach the level of individuation of Jung's self-actualizing personality (Jung, 1967, 284f). He has, however, what might be regarded as vocation by Jung, and to fulfil that vocation he has made significant attempts to understand his own inner life. In the process he both accepts the parts of himself which may be less developed, and refuses to accept the projections of his board that would turn him into an infallible leader figure.If Freud's main developmental emphasis was on childhood psychic development, Jung's was on the development of adulthood, where adults are generally assumed to be less concerned with differentiation, and more with a search for integration and the transcending of opposites. The question is how far this reconciliation of opposites is always achievable for leaders of complex organizations. In contemporary social enterprises, where potentially conflicting archetypes are at work, it represents a particular psychodynamic challenge.Future developments\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to consider a psychoanalytic explanation for the challenges facing social entrepreneurs in Scotland.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A qualitative approach was used, in an exploratory study involving semi-structured interviews with, and observation of, a purposive sample of social entrepreneurs.\nFindings: - Respondents exhibited a sense of splitting between the archetype of hard driving business leader and that of social reformer. One respondent was able successfully to integrate the two roles through an intuitive understanding of psychodynamic processes.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This was an exploratory study with a small sample.\nPractical implications: - In a period of financial challenge for the UK economy, presenting new challenges for social enterprises, the findings add to researchers' understanding of apparently irrational responses to change.\nOriginality/value: - There is limited research into the impact of archetypes on business behaviours and the paper aims to extend the literature.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Social media and Chinese consumers' environmentally sustainable apparel purchase intentions
|
[
"Social media",
"Sustainability",
"Apparel",
"Chinese consumers",
"Influence of peers"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: As global apparel companies strive to implement strategies to be more environmentally friendly and socially responsible, many fashion brands have begun to actively communicate information regarding the product development procedures of environmentally sustainable apparel (ESA), and the specific ways they reduce the use of harmful chemicals in apparel production (Reiter and Kozar, 2016; Song, 2017). China is the largest consumer market for the apparel industry with a population of 1.4bn and rapid economic growth. Clothing expenditures are projected to reach $2.2 trillion by 2020 (Thompson, 2014). Currently, there is no organized means to educate consumers on sustainability efforts in the Chinese apparel industry (Reiter and Kozar, 2016). Consumption patterns among Chinese consumers have been shown to be based solely on fulfilling self-interest and concerns and not because of outside social or environmental issues (Rapp, 2016). This brings up a fundamental question as to how Chinese consumers can improve or change their purchase intentions toward ESA, which is defined as apparel that is \"produced and consumed through processes in which resources are not depleted or permanently damaged\" (Kang et al., 2013, p. 443).\nLiterature review: WeChat and environmentally sustainable apparel\nHypotheses development: Subjective norm, attitude and purchase intentions\nMethod and results: Sample and data analysis procedure\nDiscussion and conclusions: Consumers are becoming more interested in environmental and social responsibility, and apparel companies are responding to those demands by changing traditional business practices, becoming more transparent, and offering environmentally sustainable and socially responsible apparel (Song, 2017). However, consumers' interest and knowledge toward apparel sustainability has not immediately resulted in sustainable apparel consumption behavior. To engage consumers in ESA purchases, our research adopted TRA and examined two assumptions of the prototype willingness model as cognitive and social reaction to behavior. Through conducting a survey using Chinese consumers as the sampling framework, our study findings revealed that as Chinese consumers learn about social and environmental issues, there is a subjective norm link to positive attitude toward, and possible ultimate purchasing behavior of, ESA. More importantly, Chinese consumers' engagement with social media and influence of peers via social media acted as important social influences that were tied directly to increasing ESA purchase intention.\nFuture research and limitations: There are several limitations to this study that may lead to future research opportunities. First, our research focused on the purchase intention of ESA among Chinese consumers. Results of this study may be valuable in a global context as it is one of the few to explore Chinese consumers' purchase intentions of ESA as the Chinese market's buying power is exponentially growing. Therefore, future research can examine how Chinese consumers' purchase intentions are truly linked to ESA consumption behavior. Moreover, a cross-cultural study to explore other countries' influences of social media on ESA purchasing decisions can be examined to better understand the differences between countries' consumers. Not only do different countries have different values related to social media but also young generations are more socialized through social media. It may be an important step to understand social media's influences on ESA and general purchase decision processes.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Social media and sustainability are changing Chinese consumers' consumption behavior in notable ways. Few apparel industry sustainability efforts are enforced or well known in China. As China operates its own social media sites, it is necessary to study Chinese social media, rather than Western types, in order to understand its influence on Chinese consumer behavior with regard to sustainability. By extending the theory of reasoned action (TRA) and the prototype willingness model, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how Chinese consumers were taught their environmentally sustainable apparel (ESA) consumption behavior through social media, and also how the influence of peers affected their purchase intentions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A total of 238 survey responses were collected and analyzed from a Chinese research firm in 2016. In accord with the study objectives, an exploratory factor analysis was first conducted, and then a two-step analysis of a structural equation model was employed for hypothesis testing. To test the significance of hypothesized mediated effects, a bootstrap procedure with 2,000 bootstrap samples from the original data was used to compute bias-corrected 95% CI for indirect effects. Moreover, hierarchical regressions were demonstrated to verify the unique contribution of social media influence.\nFindings: The study findings support the previous literature that indicated positive attitudes toward environmentally sustainable purchasing behavior increased as Chinese consumers learned about social and environmental issues. Also, results of the analysis revealed that Chinese consumers' engagement with social media and their peers were important social influences that were directly tied to increasing sustainable apparel purchase intentions.\nOriginality/value: By extending two grand theories of the prototype willingness model theory and the TRA, this study underlines a novel link between the influence of social media and ESA purchase intentions among Chinese consumers. Results are valuable in a global context as it is one of only a few studies to explore Chinese consumers' purchase intentions of ESA through an exclusive social media platform - WeChat - in China.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The Chinese wine market: a market segmentation study
|
[
"Market segmentation",
"Consumer behaviour",
"Chinese wine market",
"Product/brand positioning"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Marketing is designed to facilitate exchange to satisfy human needs and wants and market segmentation lies at the heart of international marketing. Firms have to understand the similarities and differences between customers in international markets in order to meet their needs (Kotabe et al., 2011). The focus of this paper is on exploring key segments in the Chinese wine market and consequently drawing conclusions for Australian wine exporters. China is the focus of this paper because: first, Australia is a major wine exporter to this country; second, China is one of the fastest growing wine markets in recent years; and third, it has great potential for continued growth.\n2. Literature review - market segmentation: Market segmentation is defined as the division of the total market into homogenous segments of consumers with similar needs and wants and the segmentation process addresses the needs of each subgroup more efficiently (Marshall and Johnston, 2010). Marketing researchers have long recognised differences between groups of consumers as opportunities in the market (Raaij and Verhallen, 1994); for instance, a niche market for organic wine has been exploited by wine marketers in recent times. Although markets can be segmented in several ways, one way is to segment according to seven categories, namely, demographic factors (age, income, sex, etc.), socio-economic factors (social class, stage in family life cycle stage), geographic factors, psychological factors (personality traits, lifestyle), consumption patterns (heavy, moderate and light users), perceptual factors (benefit segmentation, perceptual mapping) and brand loyalty patterns (Jain et al., 2012). It has been posited that consumer personalities, values and lifestyles are important indicators of brand association because when consumers evaluate brand image or make a decision about a product, they also associate the brand image or the brand personality with their own (Aaker, 1997). According to Kotler (1988), market segmentation is a three-step, sequential process, entailing market segmentation, market targeting and positioning. Segmentation is the process of identifying the potential consumer(s) for a specific product or service, examining the most effective base(s) to describe consumers and developing the segment description (Kotler and Keller, 2008; Hooley et al., 2008). This is followed with the targeting step, which is to evaluate and select the most attractive segment(s) from a list of groups identified earlier (Hooley et al., 2008). Finally, with a clear target market, positioning can then take place. Positioning is the \"act of designing the company's offering and image to occupy a distinctive place in the minds of the target market\" (Kotler and Keller, 2008, p. 308). A successful positioning strategy is achieved by using marketing mix variables, especially design and marketing communications (Jain et al., 2012). Successful positioning means that the target market understands the company's brand values and is loyal to the brand (Kotler and Keller, 2008).\n3. Research methods: A survey was developed which consisted of 16 questions. Included in the survey were questions designed to elicit socio-demographic information, purchase outlets used, price paid per wine bottle, wine attributes sought, frequency of wine consumption, sources of information used and so forth. The survey was informed by the literature and it was pilot tested on a convenience sample. Based on feedback from the participants, some questions were reworded to avoid ambiguity.\n4. Findings: The following section reports basic descriptive analysis.\n5. Discussion: The results for this study show that the frequency of wine consumption is affected by gender. The literature in the western world suggests that wine purchasing, once seen as male behaviour, has changed due to the sale of wine in supermarkets (Beverland, 2003). However, a recent study by Forbes (2012) concluded that gender is not a useful variable for segmenting the global wine market. One study of Chinese university students found that females were more knowledgeable about wine and expressed more positive interest in future wine drinking than males (Li et al., 2011). However, a qualitative study (Liu and Murphy, 2007) found that wine buying was seen as the man interest in future Asian markets, wine is perceived to be more masculine than feminine (Bretherton and Carswell, 2001) and the Chinese have a male dominant drinking culture and tradition of swallowing alcohol quickly to calls of \"gambei\" when toasting (Heathcoth and Barlow, 2007). These conflicting findings suggest that more research is needed to explore the impact of gender on wine purchasing behaviour in China.\n6. Conclusions and recommendations: This study is an exploratory one that attempts to identify and describe various wine consumer segments in China, which is an important and emerging wine market for Australian wineries. Market segmentation is designed to improve understanding of consumers' needs, achieve effective resource allocation and help identify opportunities in the market (Kotler et al., 2009). The study revealed three segments based on benefit segmentation: first, \"the extrinsic attribute-seeking customers\"; second, \"the intrinsic attribute-seeking customers\"; and third, \"the alcohol level attribute-seeking customers\". In addition, the market can be segmented according to preferred sources of information: first, \"the traditional word-of-mouth sourcing customers\"; second, \"the traditional media information sourcing customers\"; and third, \"the new media/social network information sourcing customers\". Wine marketers need to emphasise high quality, taste, health, brand name, value for money and origin such as coming from a respected, foreign wine-growing region in promotional activities. Although extrinsic cues are important to consumers, this study suggests that a new segment is emerging. As Chinese consumers become more experienced wine buyers, they rely more on intrinsic cues, such as taste and quality, and seek out value-for-money wines for regular consumption. Price is a difficult variable to control given the power of distributors in China, but one way to exert more control over marketing strategy is to establish joint ventures or local bottling facilities in China. Providing factual information and scientific evidence (if available) on red wine's health benefits would be advantageous. In addition, use of social media marketing along with wine-tasting initiatives will be critical in influencing consumer decision making. There was a very low level of familiarity with Australian brands. As there were some gaps in respondents' knowledge of Australian wine, exporters could attract more customers by providing information on the brand. Traditional media advertising, social media marketing and events such as wine fairs, supermarket in-store tastings and wine tasting nights in restaurants, could be held to communicate with consumers and educate them about wine brands and regional wine appellations.\n7. Limitations of study: This study had a number of limitations such as the use of a convenience sample. The sample was self-selected and therefore may not be representative of all wine buyers in China. A sample size of 407 is comparable in size to many other studies, but it cannot plausibly claim to be representative of all wine purchasers across all regions in China; nevertheless the sample is large enough to answer the exploratory questions posed in this study. Several concerns exist regarding the use of internet-based surveys. First, coverage bias (the fact that some people do not have access to, or choose not to use the internet) and lack of familiarity with internet tools (Solomon, 2001). The online survey method may have precluded other potential participants such as light online users, older consumers and those with a low technology acceptance level. Cluster analysis requires the judgement of the researcher and \"formal procedures for assessing the reliability and validity of clustering solutions are complex and not fully defensible\" (Malhotra and Birks, 2000, p. 612). Further research is needed to substantiate and enrich academic understanding of major market segments in the Chinese wine market. Finally, the use of more complex segmentation bases, such as personality, lifestyle and values, may yield a deeper insight into the Chinese wine consumer in future studies.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine how the Chinese wine market can be meaningfully segmented and to explore marketing implications for the Australian wine sector.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research is descriptive in nature, using an online survey to collect quantitative data on wine consumer behaviour. A total of 407 responses were obtained. Data analysis included descriptive analysis (frequency distributions) and cluster analysis.\nFindings: The research identifies three clusters of wine consumers: \"the extrinsic attribute-seeking customers\", \"the intrinsic attribute-seeking customers\" and \"the alcohol level attribute-seeking customers\". These groups of consumers were categorised using a behavioural (benefit) segmentation base.\nResearch limitations/implications: The use of an internet survey and convenience sample limits generalisation of the findings. The adoption of a behavioural basis in conducting the segmentation is a limitation. The use of more complex segmentation bases, such as psychographics, may yield a richer understanding of the Chinese wine consumer in future studies.\nPractical implications: The customer profiles provide Australian wine marketers with an insight into Chinese wine consumer behaviour. Brand positioning can be improved by ensuring that the brand emphasises certain product attributes which the segments value when choosing wine.\nOriginality/value: Little previous research on market segmentation has been conducted in mainland China. For Australian wine marketers, this study provides a baseline study into market segmentation and may assist with targeting and brand positioning decisions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The MAYA principle as applied to apparel products: The effects of typicality and novelty on aesthetic preference
|
[
"Aesthetics",
"Preference",
"Apparel",
"Novelty",
"Apparel design",
"Typicality"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: When linking product design to new product development, there are numerous design principles, consisting of laws and guidelines, that can guide strategic decisions and determine good product design vs bad (Lidwell et al., 2010). To better predict product preference, Berlyne (1971) emphasised certain design principles called \"two-factor theories\", stating that, \"Since the Renaissance, most attempts to specify the conditions making for beauty or aesthetic pleasure have focussed on the necessity of equilibrium between two mutually counterbalancing factors\" (p. 125). Berlyne (1971) also cited Descartes who posited that the most agreeable object \"is not the one that is perceived by it either very easily or with great difficulty but the one that is not so easy to become acquainted with that it leaves something to be desired in the passion\" (p. 125). When considering equilibrium between two factors, a design principle that has received a lot of attention in previous literature is the Most Advanced Yet Acceptable (MAYA) principle, initially coined by Loewy (1951). This principle has been introduced as the logic that explains why consumers prefer a balanced mix of typicality and novelty, and support this mix within the most commercially viable products. That is, both aesthetic properties of typicality and novelty are important for determining product design preference, and ultimately, product sales (Hekkert et al., 2003; Hekkert, 2006; Lidwell et al., 2010). Clearly this principle is critical, as the appearance of a product or product design \"is an unquestioned determinant of its marketplace success\" (Bloch, 1995, p. 16).\nBackground: Typicality and novelty in aesthetic preference\nMethod: To address the purpose of the study and test the hypotheses, an experimental design was employed. This section presents the research design in three phases (see Figure 1). The first phase, Stimuli Selection, focussed on selecting the proper stimuli; the second phase, Pre-Test, supported the reduction of stimuli; and the third phase, Main Study, explored the MAYA principle in three apparel categories. Phases are discussed below in terms of stimuli used, procedure, instrument and sample.\nResults and discussion: Data from the Main Study were initially analysed to examine whether the students' typicality and novelty rating scores were consistent with those of the judges (Phase I). Based on the judges' initial mean evaluations of typicality and novelty of individual product pictures per category, each picture was assigned a value of 1 (high), 2 (medium) or 3 (low) for typicality and the same for novelty. The value of 1 corresponded to the lowest 30 per cent of the judges' ratings. The value of 2 corresponded to the middle 40 per cent of the judges' ratings, while the value of 3 corresponded to the highest 30 per cent of the judges' ratings. Students' ratings were grouped using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVAs) across the high/medium/low picture categories. Findings indicated that the students' ratings were positively associated with the judges' levels for both typicality and novelty in all categories. For instance, results of the students' ratings for pants were positively associated with the judges' levels for both typicality (M1=4.38<M2=5.15<M3=5.52, F(2,987)=25.10, p<0.001) and novelty (M1=3.58<M2=3.76<M3=4.91, F(2,986)=60.87, p<0.001).\nConclusions and implications: In this study, the MAYA principle was examined relative to three types of apparel. Specifically, relationships between the properties of typicality, novelty and aesthetic preference were examined relative to the categories of pants, jackets and shirts. Thus, the relative importance of typicality and novelty in explaining aesthetic preference per category was assessed. Results initially indicated unexpected positive Pearson product-moment correlations between the mean typicality and the mean novelty in all categories. However, when the correlations were calculated on individual pictures, a great majority revealed negative correlations between the mean typicality and the mean novelty in all categories. This suggests that with respect to most stimuli, lower levels of typicality implied higher levels of novelty. Additionally, findings indicate that for the majority of respondents, typicality was the primary predictor of aesthetic preference relative to pants and jackets. That is, there is no evidence that novelty was significantly influential in the aesthetic preference for those products. Nonetheless, both typicality and novelty were significant predictors of aesthetic preference relative to shirts. These findings imply that the preference-for-prototypes theory holds for pants and jackets, while the MAYA principle better explains the relationships between typicality, novelty and aesthetic preference relative to shirts.\nLimitations and future research directions: There are limitations of the method used in this study, mainly related to the selection and characteristics of the stimuli. Product pictures selected only addressed part of the typicality/novelty spectrum, in that most pictures were between highly typical and highly novel. For instance, despite efforts to include an appropriate range of stimuli that covered all possible levels of typicality and novelty, pictures with products that were simultaneously perceived as high in both typicality and novelty were not considered. As the experiment controlled for colour and texture of the fabrics in the pictures, it also controlled for the possibility of some extreme ratings. That is, when controlling for colour and texture in the pictures, the experiment generated a floor and ceiling effect, in that extreme ratings on the properties of novelty and typicality were not achieved. The same floor and ceiling effect in the selection of stimuli was experienced by other researchers testing the MAYA principle with non-apparel products, including Diels et al. (2013) and Hung and Chen (2012). Future studies applying the principle to apparel may consider incorporating colour and texture in the stimuli to generate higher novelty ratings.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: There are numerous design principles that can guide strategic decisions and determine good product design. One principle that has received considerable attention in the literature is the MAYA principle, which suggests that consumers seek a balance of typicality and novelty in products. The purpose of this paper is to test the MAYA principle specific to various categories of apparel. By drawing from the MAYA principle as a two-factor theory, the effects of specific aesthetic properties (i.e. typicality and novelty) of apparel products on consumer response were examined.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An experimental design in three phases was implemented.\nFindings: Results revealed that typicality is the primary predictor of aesthetic preference relative to pants and jackets, while both typicality and novelty are significant predictors of aesthetic preference relative to shirts, suggesting that the MAYA principle better explains aesthetic preference relative to shirts.\nResearch limitations/implications: Understanding consumers' reactions to product design provides potential value for academics as well as practitioners.\nPractical implications: Consideration of both aesthetic properties is needed when implementing the MAYA principle in apparel design.\nOriginality/value: Although studies have examined the MAYA principle relative to consumer products, few have examined how the principle operates relative to apparel products. The definition of a design principle, such as the MAYA principle, assumes that the logic proposed should apply to all types of products. Yet, this empirical study reveals that this is not the case when applied across different apparel categories.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
De-bugging organizational blogging: Initiative will fail if staff don't know what they're doing
|
[
"Communication technologies",
"Corporate communications",
"Employee communications",
"Learning organizations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nImplementation guidelines for successful online dialogue: As organizations come to recognize how social computing technologies can become useful to them, the adoption of innovative communication channels will accelerate. Obvious as it might sound, both managements and employees need to know what the new system is expected to achieve and how to achieve it. Take, for instance, blogs, which are basically online entries building up into an information-sharing dialogue.Some organizations were quick to realize the benefits of using blogs, and research into their organizational uses is growing with several types being identified:* employee blogs;* group blogs;* executive blogs;* promotional blogs; and* newsletter blogs.A centralized project blog can allow project managers to frequently update their teams. Encouraging openness and information sharing through the use of a project blog can help to alleviate the problems of failing to report bad news within a project's development. Blogs can assist in facilitating collaboration that leads to an increase in communication and cooperation.Gavin J. Baxter, Thomas M. Connolly and Mark H. Stansfield of the University of West Scotland worked with the ICT division a large public-sector financial institution - an organization with no prior experience of using blogs - to implement the use of blogs for organizational learning.Five months since the introduction of ICT practice area blogs, no evidence was found of postings stating learning had occurred by team members within and during their projects. It was also observed that during busy periods of project work the blogs were used less frequently and only updated afterwards. It was acknowledged by team members of these practice areas that the blogs are often used solely as a reference tool.\nPosts indicated a lack of understanding: There also appeared to be a lack of awareness of the differences between a blog and a forum as one entry on the business systems analysts' blog stated: \"Howdy BSA's. Thanks for the chance to come along to the BSA forum and tout the idea of using blogs within the practice. As promised a quick how to on getting started with the blog.\"Staff feedback revealed that some are unsure of how to blog and are still unfamiliar with how the blog should be used. Many are also uncertain of what to blog about. A lack of blog moderation or management continuing to be fully behind encouraging the use of the blogs could be attributed towards them developing an uncertain attitude towards organizational blogging.The company also created a blog for its organizational development and learning (OD&L) team for internal communication about team updates, meetings, training courses attended and general feedback. The posts also indicated lack of understanding as to how blogging in organizational contexts should be used. Examples of postings include: \"Friday again, doesn't time fly when you're enjoying yourself? Who's only working on Monday next week? (oops it's me). Hope you have a fabby weekend.\"Posts such as this appear to confirm that though the OD&L team has been shown how to blog by their manager the department is unfamiliar with the concept of organizational learning and its application to blogging.\nGeneric practical advice for managements: Bearing in mind the advantages and pitfalls of implementing blogs, the authors propose a set of practical guidelines for management who may be contemplating using blogs in their organization but who are unsure of how to successfully implement them. The guidelines are generic in that they can be applied to most industry sectors and are more specific to large-scale organizations or SMEs. Their comprehensive guidelines include the following advice:* Decide on blog boundaries. Consider which departments would be willing to trial the use of an internal blog. A department that is more likely to \"buy in\" to the idea of blogging will provide a greater amount of feedback on how successful the pilot study has been. The results of the initial blog use can then be used to inform other staff about the uses.* Choose your blogging software. It is important to think of security concerns if your blog is going to be externally hosted or created through open-source software, especially if company sensitive information will be posted.* Agree on timescales. If your company is busy at specific times of the year then it is best to concentrate on the gradual introduction of blogging when it is less busy.* Importance of management support. Management must see the relevance of using the blogs with regard to the impact they will have on their team areas. It is imperative that once the blogs are up and running that management remain committed to the overseeing of their team blogs and take a lead role in encouraging their members of staff to use it.* Assign a product champion. It is always beneficial to have someone pushing the cause (in this case a blogging initiative). If your organization has a product champion, this will help to support the introduction of new technology.* Backing of staff crucial. Staff members who will be involved in using the blogs must be fully behind the idea otherwise they will be reluctant to blog. It is essential that staff realize that the blogs are there to complement their existing channels of communication and not to replace them.* Promote blog benefits to staff. Staff must be told why the use of blogs is being introduced and how it will impact on their ways of working. A lack of general understanding about using blogs for work will mean that there will be uncertainty on how to use them.* Seek staff opinion and feedback. Maintaining a level of transparency from senior management down when introducing a pilot study will help to allay any concerns that employees might have in using a blog.* Create guidelines on blog use. This will help staff to be aware about what is deemed appropriate in terms of \"blogging etiquette\" as well as providing them with a sense of guidance on things they should be thinking about whilst blogging. Topics might encompass: what is deemed acceptable to publish, providing rich content, maintaining consistency of postings, encouraging feedback, showing respect to your colleagues and addressing the notion of \"thinking before writing.\"* Define the purpose of your blog. If the overall aim and use is not specified from the outset then problems will arise with members of staff being unsure of the reasons for its use.* Education of staff. Staff may be unable to differentiate between writing informally in a company blog as opposed to writing in an e-mail or social networking site.* Monitor success of your blog. If one of the primary reasons for introducing blogs was to promote and facilitate learning among departments or project teams then evidence of learning will have to be identified before it can be measured.Reflecting on how beneficial the blogging venture has been for both staff and the organization itself will allow an informed choice to be made as to whether this communication channel will continue to be used.\nComment: This review is based on \"Organisational blogs: benefits and challenges of implementation,\" by Gavin J. Baxter, Thomas M. Connolly and Mark H. Stansfield, who identify the theoretical link between blogs and organizational learning and describe a case study of how one company reacted to its initial use of blogs. They provide guidelines on how to overcome the challenges of implementing an organizational blog.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: - Bearing in mind the advantages and pitfalls of implementing blogs, the authors propose a set of practical guidelines for management who may be contemplating using blogs in their organization but who are unsure of how to implement them successfully. The guidelines are generic, in that they can be applied to most industry sectors and are more specific to large-scale organizations or SMEs.\nPractical implications: - Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.\nOriginality/value: - The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Development and validation of an organisational commitment instrument for generation Y employees in small and medium-sized enterprises in Thailand
|
[
"Organizational commitment",
"Employee’s generation Y organization commitment",
"Scale validation",
"Organizational questionnaire",
"SMEs’ employee commitment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: New recruits to labour workforces during the past ten years are mostly Generation Y, born during 1980-2000 (Gursoy et al., 2008). People of this generation have communication performance strengths through information technology devices and online social networking (Parsa and Cobanoglu, 2011). They have inherited responsibilities for organisations, societies and nations as replacements for Generation X and Baby Boomers who are nearing retirement. Generation Y grew up surrounded by modern information technology. Their parents, as Generation X, worked away from home and were required to demonstrate knowledge and capability with long working hours to be considered for promotion. As a result, they selected modern communication devices and facilities as equipment for raising their children with the belief that this would improve their future lifestyles. Such a concept resulted in side effects with the need to adapt when working with people of Generation X and Baby Boomers. Generation Y formulate behaviours of constructing relationships from virtual social networks rather than learning and gaining experience through interaction with real people in a human society. These disparities originated from the distant relationship between children and their parents. Additionally, Generation Y mostly have characteristics which include high self-confidence, making decisions without conferring with others, paying scant attention to others, lacking collaborative skills and the aim of success in a short time. Meanwhile, an essential issue involves organisational commitment (OC). Generation Y change jobs frequently, have no patience if they encounter difficult or challenging tasks, do not dedicate physical and mental power in operations, have no pride in their organisation and do not comply with company rules and regulations (McCrindle, 2006; Angeline, 2011; Pratitas, 2011). As a result, Generation Y have low OC. Some dimensions are considered here to examine OC, especially for Generation Y.\nConcept and theory of OC: For many decades, scholars have researched companies and established guidelines to enhance individual outcome efficiency through employees' behaviours. Katz presented a concept of behavioural expression of employees in three aspects including joining and staying with the company, meeting or exceeding performance standards and spontaneously going beyond prescribed roles. Meanwhile, Colquitt et al. (2011) stated that individual outcomes were related to the commitment of employees to deliver expected success as another dimension for considering job performance. In other words, the dimensions of OC represented the final outcome of behaviours that employees expressed to executives to achieve targets.\nOC measurement: One of the most popular scales of OC was developed by Porter et al. (1974) as a questionnaire containing 15 items with a seven-point Likert scale: totally disagree to totally agree. The questionnaire was divided into three terms: strong belief and acceptance of the organisation's goals and values, willingness to exert considerable effort and a strong desire to maintain membership. The samples were officers working in a hospital and the questionnaire was verified by experts and examined for internal congruence with values from 0.82 to 0.93. Later, Cook and Wall (1980) developed a questionnaire on OC in three aspects including organisational identification, organisational involvement and organisational loyalty for three aspects totalling nine items. This questionnaire was based on a seven-point Likert scale from totally disagree to totally agree, and verified by experts for validity and reliability with internal congruence varying from 0.71 to 0.87.\nMethod: Sample and procedure\nData analysis and discussion: Among the 320 respondents, all were Generation Y (20-24 years old). Over three-quarters were female (80.00 per cent) and the remainder (20.00 per cent) were male. Almost all were single (98.75 per cent). A total of 96.56 per cent had experience of less than one year, and 87.81 per cent had income between 10,001 and 20,000 Baht. The service sector was highest (37.19 per cent) followed by the commercial sector (24.38 per cent) and beverage and production at 19.06 per cent.\nConclusions: This empirical data study proposed an OC questionnaire containing questions that encompassed NC, AC and CC dimensions. The questionnaire was validated using EFA and CFA for a sample of 320 Generation Y employees of various SMEs in Thailand. Factor analysis findings confirmed validity of the 16 questions as a reliable performance measurement tool for academics, researchers and practitioners with acceptable significant criteria standards of CR, AVE, convergence and discriminance.\nTheoretical implications: Our research findings have contributed to existing OC concepts and theories by developing and validating a questionnaire that described all dimensions of Generation Y employees in Thai SME cultural contexts. In addition, our results concurred with existing studies detailing NC, AC and CC dimensions of OC and can assist researchers and academics to expand OC literacy in Thai and similar Asian contexts. Furthermore, these results can explain the phenomenon of Generation Y employees who exist as organisational staff and newcomers in the labour market.\nPractical implications: Our study extends the scope of previous concepts and theories from a Western country to Thai and Asian contexts, focussed on the measurement of OC for Generation Y employees. Practitioners, including human resource management and development departments, human developers, managers or organisations can utilise these 16 questions as an assessment tool to effectively survey the level of OC. Results can be used to consider possible employee development methods, especially for Generation Y. In addition, our validation processes have other significant implications for investigating the behaviour of NC, AC and CC dimensions which together shape the concept of OC. The instrument exhibited significant statistics for all three dimensions. First, NC gave moderate forecasts of OC. Results can be applied to explain employee behaviour of Generation Y and use indicators of NC to develop these employees in organisations. Thus, human resource management and development departments, human developers, managers and organisations who wish to encourage and support employee's NC should focus on the indications of NC questions of OC to encourage employees to accept and embrace organisational norms.\nLimitations and future research: Our research results have limitations similar to other studies in this area (Sonnentag, 2003; Saks, 2006; Schaufeli et al., 2006). The OC questionnaire questions may be affected by individual bias of participants as a result of cross-sectional and self-reported data, while findings might be affected by the developing instrument.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Organisational commitment (OC) has become a hot behavioural topic among researchers, scholars and consulting firms. However, OC instruments have rarely been studied and developed by academics in small and medium-sized Thai enterprises (SMEs). The purpose of this paper is to develop an instrument to measure the OC of Generation Y employees in Thai SMEs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A measurement scale for OC was established in three stages. First, 16 questions were developed as a questionnaire based on the concepts and theories of OC, and a survey was conducted for 360 Generation Y employees working in various SMEs. Second, the questions were validated using exploratory factor analysis and, finally, confirmatory factor analysis and convergent validity were tested.\nFindings: The OC instrument presented excellent reliability at 0.865. Three factors of the 16 questions as normative commitment, affective commitment and continuance commitment were extracted. These all passed the general rule of thumb for minimum acceptability of a measurement system.\nOriginality/value: This OC instrument has concrete psychometric measurements and can be applied by researchers, scholars, practitioners and organisations in other settings, especially in the Thai context. Importantly, factor analysis results suggested that the OC questionnaire was suitable for utilisation and application as is, or with minimal modifications, to various business fields and/or settings.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The impact of visual and child-oriented packaging elements versus information on children's purchase influence across various age groups
|
[
"Age",
"Breakfast cereals",
"Child consumers",
"Product packaging",
"Purchase influence",
"Visual elements"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: According to literature, packaging is a critical factor in the consumer decision-making process (Silayoi and Speece, 2007) and gives child consumers the opportunity to have multi-sensorial experiences, as they can touch, manipulate and see the relevant product. Companies that want to reach child consumers effectively in the retail arena will engage in child-targeted marketing through multiple strategies and specifically packaging that can be both health-protective and health-exploitive (see Berry and McMullen, 2008). Furthermore, research suggests that unhealthy food is being increasingly marketed towards children in a health-exploitive way by using appealing colours, words and symbols on packaging (McNeal, 1992; Schor, 2004; Wechsler, 1997). Understanding the persuasion processes of such marketing practices appears important given the childhood obesity worldwide (Powell et al., 2013;\nConceptual background: Packaging recall and age\nEmpirical research: Methodology\nAnalysis and results: The data analysis was carried out in four phases:\nDiscussion: The objective of this study was to understand whether relative recall of visual and child-oriented product packaging elements, including product premiums, induces children to influence household purchases, as previous literature would suggest, but as has been scarcely studied. It was first hypothesized that children would recall only visual and child-oriented elements such as colours, images, brand logos and licensed characters, irrespective of age. The results did not support this. Findings indicated that children would recall different elements of cereal packaging, whether child oriented and visual, informational, or all types, and there was no difference between the older and the younger children. Surprisingly, both younger children and older children remembered informational packaging elements, and in fact, younger children remembered as many informational elements as older children.\nImplications for cereal manufacturers in the retailing context: The study supported the notion that just recall of visual and child-oriented elements of cereal packaging such as colours, images, brand logos, brand mascots, licensed characters and premiums, triggers a higher purchase influence motivation in younger children than recall of all types of packaging elements. It may be that such packaging elements result in higher child appeal and interactive play value for these food products (Gelperowic and Beharrell, 1994; Roberts, 2005), and create kid-ness (McNeal, 1992), which in turn impacts upon their purchase influence. In all instance, overload of elements seems counterproductive on younger children when they do remember that many elements. This study suggests with the Kellogg's Chocos example, that visual aids or symbols are an effective way to highlight important product benefits and attract young consumers' attention (John and Cole, 1986). Currently, cereal companies are moving towards improving the nutritional value of their products to assuage parental fears about the impact on children's health (Hill and Tilley, 2002). However, research across time suggests that most healthy food packaging has tended to communicate only to adults, whereas unhealthy food has been increasingly marketed toward children by using appealing colours, words and symbols (McNeal, 1964; Schor, 2004; Wechsler, 1997). The Kellogg's Chocos pack appears to try to address all these issues and make key informational aspects appeal, to mothers and children, by visually duplicating and reinforcing them. Our study reveals however that this overload of information may be counterproductive for younger children, but may be necessary to reassure mothers. Although we do not imply that Kellogg's main objective is to reduce health exploitive marketing to children, this action is something that all health-focused child-oriented cereal manufacturers should emulate and with children's welfare in mind, we most certainly recommend it. The results also caution cereal manufacturers against making liberal use of very child-oriented packaging elements and they are advised to create a proper balance of child-oriented and other elements on their packaging. Children nine years of age and older, are now becoming old enough to consider other aspects of packaging. Further, overall, children's recall of informational packaging elements impacts upon their purchase influence in a manner similar to their recall of only visual and child-oriented packaging elements and the mean score is quite high.\nLimitations and suggestions for future research: The primary limit of this study is its small-sample size.\nConclusion: Challenging previous research, this study shows that visual and child-oriented elements are not necessarily the miracle ingredient in packaging, as they have no more impact on children in influencing their purchase than any other elements. However, the overload of elements appears counterproductive. In all instances, the vertical nature of the marketing chain is here confirmed and implies that the supermarket and other consumer contexts such as television advertising, brand influences and psychosocial influences of peers and new family trends (Roberts and Pettigrew, 2013) are linked influences when it comes to the impact on children's diet and food consumption. It is important for cereal manufacturers to realize this and attempt to deal with the public health challenge of minimizing manipulative food marketing practices through proper strategizing and implementation of retail packaging.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of recalling visual and child-oriented product packaging elements vs informational content on children's influence on household purchases.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study was conducted using quantitative research among 100 French consumers of breakfast cereals aged six to 11.\nFindings: The paper challenges previous findings. First, the recall of the various types of packaging elements was equivalent across age groups. Second, the impact of visual and child-oriented element recall on purchase influences was high, especially for younger children, but not superior to the impact of recalling informational packaging elements. Third, adding information and other elements to visuals reduced young children's intentions to influence purchases, suggesting that the overload - not the nature - of elements has a negative impact. Fourth, packaging recall seemed weakly related to purchase influence - at least for well-known brands.\nResearch limitations/implications: Further research on larger samples will allow to encompass potential moderators such as brand context, consumer context and packaging stimulus. Research should also compare the positive (reassuring) influence of adding informational elements on mothers to the negative one it has on children's influence.\nPractical implications: These findings can be used to wisely plan retailers' packaging strategy. But all in all, retail packaging represents only one of the many factors which impact upon children's diet and food consumptions and should be reassessed in the face other influences.\nOriginality/value: The findings challenge and expand one's knowledge on the relationship between children and the relative influence of child-oriented elements and information, across age groups.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Intangible assets, international experience and the internationalisation speed of retailers
|
[
"Intangible assets",
"Retailers",
"Speed",
"Empirical study",
"International business",
"Internationalization",
"International retailers",
"Resource based view",
"Knowledge based view",
"Home-region concentration"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: While time has traditionally been a key concern in research on issues, such as new product development and introduction (e.g. Lee et al., 2000; Wong, 2002), research on the speed with which firms expand their operations internationally is scarce at best, in particular, when compared to other questions related to the international expansion such as, for example, entry mode choice (e.g. Blomstermo et al., 2006; Brouthers and Brouthers, 2003; Ekeledo and Sivakumar, 2004; Erramilli, 1991; Erramilli and Rao, 1990, 1993). Although time has been regarded as a central competitive dimension for service sector firms in general, and retailers in particular (e.g. Heskett et al., 1990; Mentzer et al., 2000), due to the simultaneity of production and consumption, intangibility, perishability, or need for customisation in these sectors (Boddewyn et al., 1986; Zeithaml et al., 1985), an \"explanation of conditions under which the speed of international expansion increases or decreases\" remains elusive (Luo et al., 2005, p. 755). Although existing research considers the speed with which firms expand internationally as an important facet of firm internationalisation, there have been few attempts at explaining the speed of firm internationalisation and existing theories explaining firm internationalisation struggle to explain the internationalisation speed of firms (Casillas and Moreno-Menendez, 2013). Coe and Wrigley (2009, p. xvi) echo this assessment for the particular case of research into retail internationalisation based on stage-theory (e.g. Johanson and Vahlne, 1977), which they suggest has \"struggled [...] to account for the rapid recent expansion into non-proximate countries by leading transnational retailers\". In this paper, we draw on the resource- and knowledge based views (RBV/KBV) of the firm to argue that the speed with which firms expand their overseas operations can be explained by firms' possession of intangible resources, in particular, intangible assets (e.g. brand value) and different types of experiential knowledge of international operations. While the emergence of e-commerce allows retailers to increase international sales without a physical presence in overseas markets (e.g. Luo et al., 2005), in this study we focus on traditional retailers for which internationalisation involves the expansion of operations through the establishment of sales outlets overseas.\nThe contingent effect of intangible resources on internationalisation speed: The core assumption of the RBV of the firm is that firms enjoy sustained competitive advantage if they hold resources that are valuable, rare, and difficult to imitate or substitute (Barney, 1991; Dierickx and Cool, 1989). Intangible resources, such as, trademarks, brands, customer lists, patents, but also knowledge and skills, are particularly likely to meet these criteria and thus play a central role in explaining firms' sustained competitive advantage. While both intangible assets and knowledge have been viewed as core resources of firms (Barney et al., 2001), the KBV has extended the RBV by putting particular emphasis on the role that (different types) of knowledge play for firm competitiveness (Kogut and Zander, 1995; Zander and Kogut, 1995). In parallel, research on internationally operating firms has drawn on the RBV/KBV to identify and integrate firms' international experience and knowledge as a central intangible resource of such firms (e.g. Peng, 2001). We argue that both intangible assets (patents, brand value, etc.) and the knowledge obtained through international experience will influence the speed with which (established) firms internationalise their operations.\nData and methods: Research setting\nResults: Table III shows the descriptive statistics and the correlations among our variables. In order to eliminate any issues related to multicollinearity arising from the interaction effects that are introduced in Model 4, we mean-centred the respective variables (Aiken and West, 1991). The last row of the Table III reports the estimated variance inflation factors (VIFs) for our final model (Model 4). The highest VIF (3.77) is below the threshold of 5.0.\nDiscussion: Our study was motivated by the mismatch between the importance of internationalisation speed for firm performance and limited empirical research into the determinants of internationalisation speed. To address this shortcoming we used RBV/KBV to investigate the role of intangible resources for the internationalisation speed of firms in the retail sector.\nConclusion: This study responds to calls for more research on the internationalisation of service sector firms which remains an under-researched topic given that the service sector accounts for two-thirds of world GDP (Kundu and Merchant, 2008; Merchant and Gaur, 2008; WTO, 2010). Our study also answers calls for more attention to the role of speed in the internationalisation of firms (e.g. Andersen, 1993; Bowen, 2007; Li and Li, 2007). Anecdotal evidence and evidence from case studies highlight the increasing importance of time-based competition in general and in particular in the retail sector (e.g. Ghemawat and Nueno, 2006; Lowe and Wrigley, 2010). There is thus a need for a better understanding of the factors that make firms internationalise rapidly as one crucial facet of retailers' response to this time-based competition. By providing novel insights into this issue based on both theoretical and empirical analyses, our study contributes to our understanding of internationalisation speed as an important, yet under-researched phenomenon.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study draws on the resource- and knowledge based views (RBV/KBV) of the firm to explain the internationalisation speed of retail firms.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors use a panel data set of 144 international retailers over a ten-year period and employ feasible generalised least squares analysis in order to assess the effect of intangible assets and international experience on internationalisation speed.\nFindings: The results support direct effects of intangible assets and international experience, while the latter effect is also moderated by firms' home-region concentration.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study investigates the determinants of retailers' internationalisation speed. While research stresses the positive performance effects of rapid internationalisation, future research should investigate the role of internationalisation speed for the performance of retailers empirically. The findings support the usefulness of adopting a RBV/KBV for explaining internationalisation speed.\nPractical implications: The findings imply that firms need to have particular intangible resources before being able to internationalise rapidly. They also show that decision-makers need to be mindful of the effects of international experience in allowing them to expand overseas both within and outside their home region.\nOriginality/value: There has been very little research into the speed with which firms in general and service sector firms in particular expand their operations internationally. Through a theory-based analysis of a newly created panel data set this study provides novel insights into the factors that lead retail firms to internationalise rapidly.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Transnationalism and the transforming roles of professional accountancy bodies: Towards a research agenda
|
[
"Accounting",
"Auditing",
"Public interest",
"Global strategy",
"Transnational regulation",
"National professional bodies"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The accountancy profession represents arguably one of the most vibrant sites of transnationalism, specifically as regards the multinational character of the production and enforcement of professional standards and regulation in general as well as the internationalization of the systems of production, recruitment and professional development of its members. The key intent of this paper is to provide an impetus for a renewed and revised scholarly perspective on the role of national professional bodies - for in the words of Faulconbridge and Muzio (2011, p. 13) such bodies now need \"to be considered as potentially having an international dimension and capability as part of a broader shift towards transnational markets and international division of labour\" (quoting Evetts, 1995, p. 772).\n2. The changing roles of national institutes in an era of independent oversight: In recent years, research exploring aspects of accounting professionalization processes and public policy engagement have been keen to illustrate and rationalize an apparent shift from the previously prominent mechanisms of professional self-regulation towards a wider acceptance of more independent (quasi-state) regulatory arrangements and the establishment of forms of public oversight over accounting professionals and firms. These changes, to a large extent, have been linked to a series of corporate disasters unveiling cases of accounting fraud in the early 2000s in the USA (e.g. Enron and WorldCom) and elsewhere (including the prior-Asian crisis of the late 1990s) (see Arnold, 2009, 2012). It has been reported that, as a result of such changes, the national accounting professions and their member bodies have effectively lost the capacity for \"self-determination\" (Malsch and Gendron, 2011). Instead, such a capacity is thought to have been increasingly shared and re-negotiated within the cohort of new national monitoring and surveillance institutions as well as umbrella organizations established to co-ordinate their activities at a global level. For example, independent bodies with government-like functions - such as the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) in the USA and Haut Conseil du Commissariat aux Comptes (H3C) in France - were established in the first half of the 2000s to monitor the statutory audit profession. Working to coordinate the activities of such bodies have been organizations such as the European Group of Auditors' Oversight Bodies (EGAOB) and the International Forum of Independent Audit Regulators (IFIAR). The EGAOB, for example, was established following the issuance in 2006 of the revised European Statutory Audit Directive requiring that all EU member states set up an effective system of public oversight over statutory auditors and audit firms. The EGAOB was in charge of coordination of such national systems, but has recently been replaced in this role by a new body - the European Securities and Markets Authority (Humphrey and Loft, 2013).\n3. Strategies for global influence: One does not need to go far to find evidence of the increasingly global aspirations of modern-day professional institutes. Words such as \"global\", \"international\", \"worldwide\" have become essential elements in their linguistic repertoire and the persuasive rhetoric they employ to characterize their activity and stature. For instance, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), whose historical roots go back to the formation of the London Society of Accountants in 1908, no longer refers to itself as having any one specific geographical designation. It refers to itself as the global body for professional accountants, with 154,000 members and 432,000 students in over 170 countries[1] and postulates in its mission statement that its ambition now is to \"be a global leader in the profession\" (ACCA, 2011, p. 3) in seeking to cement its image as a body that should no longer be associated with a particular national context but regarded as one with a global identity and significance. With its extensive network of 83 offices worldwide, ACCA resolutely claims it is best placed \"to offer its qualification across the world, [...] enabling mobility and opportunity within a global marketplace for skills and talent\" (ACCA, 2011, p. 2). The ICAEW, even with its national linkages in its title to England and Wales, describes itself as \"a professional membership organization, supporting over 140,000 chartered accountants around the world. Through our technical knowledge, skills and expertise, we provide insight and leadership to the global accountancy and finance profession\"[2].\n4. Discussion and concluding remarks: The central motivation for this paper has been a concern that the existing literature on the transnationalization of professionalization processes has taken a rather narrow view of the strategic and analytical significance of national professional bodies. In essence, the rising influence, dynamism and empirical novelty of transnational institutions on a developing global regulatory stage would appear to have implicitly badged national professional accountancy bodies with a sense of belonging to an old, or, at least, old-fashioned order, especially when coupled with the rise of independent public oversight and the loss of certain regulatory responsibilities on the part of such bodies.\nGlossary: ACCA Association of Chartered Certified Accountants\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The accounting regulation literature has recently devoted a significant degree of attention to delineating the roles of accounting firms as key professional actors in the transnational policy arena. Such a heightened level of scholarly engagement with firms seems to have shifted the focus away from the roles of the national professional institutes. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of not losing sight of the national professional bodies as important players on the transnational governance scene.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The accounting regulation literature has recently devoted a significant degree of attention to delineating the roles of accounting firms as key professional actors in the transnational policy arena. Such a heightened level of scholarly engagement with firms seems to have shifted the focus away from the roles of the national professional institutes. The aim with this paper is to demonstrate the importance of not losing sight of the national professional bodies as important players on the transnational governance scene.\nFindings: The paper provides empirical illustrations and discussion of the transforming agendas and strategies of influence pursued by various national professional bodies as they attempt to reinvent themselves to face up to the challenges of the changing regulatory landscape. Specifically, the paper analyses a range of activities where such bodies are seen to be competing with each other as well as partaking in a variety of collaborative initiatives in their quest to gain/maintain the status of a global/regional professional thought leader.\nPractical implications: The paper is designed to encourage renewed academic debate on the roles and strategies of national professional institutes and highlight opportunities and venues for future research. The paper is also suggestive of the need to refine conceptual perspectives on professionalization processes operational in transnational settings.\nOriginality/value: The accounting literature is lacking in terms of contemporary study of national professional bodies as active institutions with global ambition and strategies of influence. This paper addresses such a shortcoming by analysing the strategic intent and actions of a range of such bodies (revealing, in the process, a quite fascinating complex of activity, competition and cooperation) and calling for a renewed focus on national professional bodies as a way of enhancing contemporary understanding of the workings of the \"global accounting profession\".\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Customer engagement in CSR: a utility theory model with moderating variables
|
[
"CSR",
"Customer engagement",
"Customer loyalty",
"Customer citizenship behaviour",
"CSR in sport",
"CSR preference"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Customer engagement (CE) is considered to be an important customer relationship management construct by service researchers (Banyte and Dovaliene, 2014). Service dominant logic (Vargo and Lusch, 2008), which postulates that consumers are not passive users but active value co-creators, is used to explain the significance of CE (Banyte and Dovaliene, 2014; Kuvykaite and Piligrimiene, 2014; Maslowska et al., 2016). CE frameworks highlight a broad range of positive consequences for the firm including customer retention, customer life-cycle value/customer equity and new product performance (Verhoef et al., 2010). Van Doorn et al. (2010) also identify positive consequences for customers (cognitive, attitudinal, emotional, physical/time and identity) and others (consumer welfare, economic surplus, social surplus, regulation, cross-brand and cross-customer). It appears that CE researchers are recognising the broader impac CE has on society. Moreover, Calder et al. (2016) propose civic orientation (contributing to society) as a form of CE. However, studies examining CE in corporate social responsibility (CSR) are lacking. Nevertheless, research is emerging which demonstrates how tcustomer value co-creation applies to societal initiatives. For example, in the aviation industry, passengers are seen to co-create environmental value through voluntary carbon offsets (Gossling et al., 2009). While there is no agreed-upon, formal definition of CSR and what it encompasses, CSR is understood to include organisational actions which address social and environmental concerns beyond what is required by law (Dahlsrud, 2008; Doh and Guay, 2006; McWilliams and Siegel, 2001; van Marrewijk, 2003).\nLiterature review: The literature review is organised into the three core parts. The first part applies CE definitions and frameworks to conceptualise CE in the CSR context. The second part discusses the relevance of CE in CSR activities for the context of this study, namely sport clubs. The third part uses utility theory and the CE literature to develop the hypotheses tested in this study.\nResearch model and method: This first section outlines the research model that contains the hypotheses tested in this study. The second section describes the sample method and the sample. The third section describes the scales that were used to measure the three core constructs: member preference scores for CSR initiatives, intention to engage in CSR activities and loyalty intention to the football club.\nResults and discussion of findings: This section first outlines the best-worst analysis results and then discusses the findings. The subsequent section presents the WarpPLS SEM results for the reliability and validity analysis of the engagement in CSR and loyalty intention constructs and hypotheses testing analysis. This section also discusses the findings after each of the hypotheses testing results are reported.\nConclusion: This study makes several theoretical contributions to the CE in the services literature. First, this study operationalises and validates the extension of the CE construct to the CSR context. CE research has focused on brand engagement and co-creation of brand value primarily in the context of brand communities (Kuvykaite and Piligrimiene, 2014). This study extends CE research to CE in CSR which focuses on the co-creation of societal value. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that CE in CSR activities is relevant to not-for-profit membership-based organisations. Third, the findings demonstrate utility theory, i.e., customer preferences help to explain CE behaviour and the impact of CE on customer loyalty. As such, the results offer support for studies that suggest that CE is a function of customer characteristics, firm initiatives as well as environmental/contextual forces (e.g. Verhoef et al., 2010; van Doorn et al., 2010). The significance of customer preferences for CSR activities as a driver of CE illustrates the importance of customer characteristics and motivations. The CSR initiatives examined in this study address unique firm initiatives to get customers engaged. The results of this study also reveal that members of football clubs prefer certain types of engagement contexts for engagement (e.g. school-based programmes) over other types of engagement contexts (e.g. multicultural initiatives). Fourth, the results show that engagement mediates the relationship between a member's preference for a community initiative and his/her loyalty, thus it is vital that such initiatives include an engagement strategy. Moreover, engagement with a CSR initiative was found to have the greatest impact on loyalty, suggesting that engaging members in CSR initiatives can be a useful way through which to increase loyalty. A final theoretical contribution of this study is that it highlights the need to include moderating variables (age, gender) when examining the relationship between CE and customer loyalty relationship.\nManagerial implications: The findings of this study also highlight several important managerial implications for sporting clubs and other not-for-profit membership-based organisations. It illustrates the benefit sporting clubs stand to gain from going beyond member participation in attending sports games to engaging members in their CSR activities. The findings clearly show that CE in CSR activities can be used as a strategy to enhance the loyalty of their members. However, when doing so it is important to take customer preferences into account. This is because a member's preference for a CSR initiative has a positive impact on his/her intention to engage with the CSR initiative, suggesting that the type of initiative is important to getting customers engaged. It is paramount for clubs to choose the correct initiatives to not only induce engagement but to induce greater loyalty. In the present sporting context, school-based programmes, football clinics and local charities were most preferred and, therefore, most likely to engage members. Multicultural programmes, pre-game playgrounds and family fun days were least preferred. However, as the large standard deviations on the preferred initiatives suggest that there is some variation in individual level preferences and thus there may be a need to undertake a number of these initiatives.\nFuture research: The scope of this research could be extended through future research in several ways. Future research could address different types of outcomes that may result from the engagement in CSR behaviours. Studies could explore, simultaneously, how CE impacts on societal value, customer's own wellbeing and customer loyalty. For example, engaging parents (who are members) or other members and supporters in school programmes may result in creating opportunities for children to learn the sport, or result in kids and parents becoming more fit, but it may also help parents better their relationship with their children and increase benefits such as member loyalty, and spotting future talented players for the sports club.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Both customer engagement (CE) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) have been linked to customer loyalty. Past studies use service dominant logic and customer value co-creation to explain this relationship. The purpose of this paper is to apply utility theory to develop and test a new theoretical model based on CSR initiative preference to understand the relationship between CE and customer loyalty to the organisation in a CSR platform.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This empirical study uses choice theory in the form of best-worst scaling, and structural equation modelling, to measure the impact of sports club members' choice preferences for a range of CSR initiatives on their intention to engage with the initiative and subsequent loyalty to the club.\nFindings: This study highlights the importance of engaging members in the CSR strategy they prefer as it enhances not only the extra value to the organisation via customer loyalty to the organisation, but also CE with the organisation. Furthermore, the study reveals age and gender impact on the relationship between CE in CSR initiatives and customer loyalty.\nOriginality/value: This study extends CE to CSR behaviours and provides empirical evidence for a unique theoretical framework of CE based on utility theory. It also highlights the need to take into account moderating variables such as customer demographics.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
How do financial constraints and financing costs affect inventories? An empirical supply chain perspective
|
[
"Empirical research",
"Financial constraints",
"Cost of capital",
"Inventory management",
"Interface operations-finance",
"Inventory ownership"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Working capital management is increasingly receiving attention as an important avenue to drive company growth and increase profitability. Especially during the latest economic downturn in 2008-2009, more and more companies were forced to reduce their assets to minimize financing cost and maintain fair credit ratings. Companies typically utilize three levers to minimize working capital requirements: reduce credit days from customers, extend credit days to suppliers, and optimize inventories within the company (Goldberg et al., 2009). Although optimizing accounts payable and accounts receivables has been widely discussed in the finance literature (Brealey et al., 2008), optimizing inventories has mainly been the focus of operations management community for the past decades (Porteus, 2002). In recent years, companies have applied significant effort towards improvement of inventory management practices to reduce stocks: economic order quantities for supplier orders have been implemented to minimize raw material inventories, production set-up processes have been improved and batch sizes have been decreased to minimize work-in-progress materials, and demand forecasting tools have been implemented to cut safety stock requirements for finished goods. In addition, structural changes affecting the supply chain strategy, e.g. outsourcing or postponement, and technological advances, e.g. EDI or RFIDs, have allowed further inventory reductions (e.g. Chen et al., 2005, 2007).\nLiterature review: Two streams of literature are related to our work: research applying secondary empirical data to study supply chain management topics, and research that incorporates financial aspects in supply chain management.\nData and variable description: For the empirical analysis, we use data from different databases. First, we use financial data from publicly traded companies available in Standard and Poor's COMPUSTAT database. More specifically, we use the COMPUSTAT Custseg database and the COMPUSTAT North America Quarterly database for the years starting from 1990 to 2012, accessed through Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS). We analyze all inventory-carrying firms (i.e. manufacturing, wholesale, and retail firms) and use firms with two-digit NAICS codes between 30 and 50. Second, we use data from the Damodaran website and from the CRSP database from the University of Chicago to calculate firm-specific betas and the WACC. To obtain risk-free return rates, we use the bond rates listed at the website of the US Treasury Department. Finally, we use data from the annual retail and manufacturers' surveys published by the US Bureau of Census to obtain the sourcing volumes by industry. To ensure that our results are not influenced by outliers, we apply a few filters on the raw data. More precisely, we delete observations with negative values on total assets, inventories, sales, and cost of goods sold, as these numbers are obviously incorrect. We have tested estimation with and without censoring of outliers - i.e. deleting numbers below the 1st percentile and above the 99th percentile on key variables such as inventories.\nSingle-firm inventory: In this section, we present our empirical models and the estimation results for the single-firm analysis. Recall that our objective here is to analyze whether the cost of capital and financial constraints have any effect on inventory levels at all. The nature of the analyses presented is essentially exploratory. Although there is plenty of research examining the effects of inventory performance on financial performance, the reverse link has not been studied in depth. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first research paper that examines the effects of companies' financial situations on inventory levels.\nInventories in supplier-customer relationships: After reviewing inventory ownership in single-firm situations, we now focus on dual-firm situations consisting of a supplier and a customer. Supplier-customer relationships typically consider significant volumes of inventory and, thus, the allocation of these inventories requires careful consideration. In the following discussion, we analyze which party owns the inventory in the specific relationship. We will distinguish several cases where the supplier has a higher (lower) cost of capital than the customer and is less (more) constrained. We will also show how relative inventory holdings depend on the importance of the supplier for the customer. Note that our final sample developed includes 896 observations of supplier-customer relationships with a total of 140 different customer firms. We lose a considerable number of observations because a single missing value on a key variable prevents us from using the customer-supplier relationship for that year. However, for the results presented here, all relevant numbers could be correctly computed and data could be merged across the different databases we use for the analysis.\nConclusion: Recent years have witnessed a growing wave of companies making significant efforts to increase their profitability through more efficient working capital management practices, which include, among others, the reduction of inventory levels. Based on financial considerations, firms with higher inventory financing cost should hold particularly low inventory as should firms with financial constraints. Many companies try to shift inventory to their partners within the supply chain; however, this practice is not necessarily optimal as it often ignores the financial situation of the different supply chain partners. In our paper, we consider the problem of inventory management in the light of financial considerations using a large sample of firm-level data.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the interplay between a firm's financial situation and its inventory ownership in a single-firm and a two-firm perspective.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The analysis uses different secondary data sources to quantify the effect of both financial constraints and cost of capital on inventory holdings of public US firms. The authors first adopt a single-firm perspective and analyze whether financial constraints and cost of capital do generally affect the amount of inventory held. Next, the authors adopt a two-firm perspective and analyze the inventory ownership in customer-supplier relationships.\nFindings: Inventory levels are affected by financial constraints and cost of capital. Results indicate that higher costs of capital are weakly associated with lower inventories. However, contrary to the authors' expectations, firms that are less financially constrained hold less inventories than firms that are more financially constrained. Finally, the authors find that customers hold the larger fraction of supply chain inventory in supplier-customer dyads.\nPractical implications: The authors' results indicate that financial considerations generally play a role in inventory management. However, inventory holdings seem to be influenced only slightly by financing costs and inventory holdings between supplier and customer seem to be less than optimal from a financial perspective. Considering those financial aspects can lead to relevant financial advantages.\nOriginality/value: In contrast to other recent research, the authors study how the financial situation of a firm affects its inventory levels (not vice versa) and also consider inventories from a two-firm perspective.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Temporary and regular workers fulfill their tasks side-by-side, but in different learning conditions
|
[
"Development",
"Learning",
"Adaptation",
"Client company",
"Interorganization",
"Temporary work(ers)"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A number of studies have highlighted the social differences between temporary and regular staff, emphasising workplace alienation (Garsten, 1999) or exclusion (Augustsson and Olofsdotter, 2008). This paper analyses temporary workers' (temps') workplace learning conditions. Importantly, such analysis shows the preconditions for exchange of skills between temps and regular workers. This is a relatively unexplored topic: most research on temping so far has primarily concerned temps' disposability (see for example Atkinson, 1984; Boyce et al., 2007; Burgess and Connell, 2006; Degiuli and Kollmeyer, 2007; Garsten, 2004), not about the mutual learning relationship a client company (CC) expects with its temps as shown in Jooste and Prinsloo (2013). Garsten (2004) underlines the importance of temp learning and Jooste and Prinsloo (2013) give attention to the need of deeper knowledge exchange between a CC's specific setting and the temp in question. A combination of their results reveals a gap in knowledge worth filling by looking more closely at leaders and employees' expectations of temps. This is the paper's aim.\nPrevious research about temporary work: Companies have various motives for using temps (Burgess and Connell, 2006; Stanworth and Druker, 2006). They may need specific knowledge or skills (Alvesson and Robertson, 2006; Bergstrom et al., 2007) or may need temps to perform duties the regular staff could perform but lacks the time to do so (Atkinson, 1984; Carey, 2011; Forde et al., 2008; Hall, 2006). This paper regards the latter need. Such temps are, however, expected to work in fields with very different qualifications, ranging from medicine to welding.\nTheory: There are two relevant theoretical aspects in interorganisational relations: power relations in between-group relationships and learning. Power relations between groups involve a (staff) group's \"ability and capacity for integration and cohesion among group members\" and are \"the basis for the group's position of power\" (Olofsson, 1999, p. iii). A group's cohesion is therefore a power resource when its members raise the group's limits in relation to members of other groups (Boyce et al., 2007; Carey, 2011).\nMethod: This paper was built on an analysis of 121 transcribed interviews with people active in more than 10 CCs in seven industries (health care, social services, telecommunications, customer service, metal processing, administration, and logistics). The interviewees from TWAs came from seven agencies.\nResults: The analysis begins by distributing selected interview quotes under Ellstrom's (1996) action-theoretical frame of reference (see Table II). Then we analyse the quotes, progressing through Ellstrom's levels of knowledge.\nDiscussion and conclusions: This paper dealt with temps' conditions for learning when their work was leased to a CC. Knowledge of such conditions may help develop and streamline collaboration between TWAs and CCs and increase the efficiency of CCs' orders. Many temps work side-by-side with regular employees but engage in limited parts of the CC's organisation and operate under different organisational conditions than the CC's regular staff (Hakansson and Isidorsson, 2012). Thus, this study could not identify differences between positive and negative learning features on both individual and organisational levels that Tempest and Starkey (2004) describe.\nConclusions: This study has three main conclusions. The first is that organisational subordination and superordination develop where agency staff members are associated with different learning backgrounds. The second conclusion is that as soon as the issue of more advanced learning backgrounds and tasks arise, CCs rely on their regular staff. Thus, the temps and regular staff often work side-by-side but in different learning backgrounds, implying little knowledge exchange between them (see Nesheim et al., 2007). The final conclusion is that CCs use temps not only to allow numerical flexibility but to stabilize themselves and protect the organisation in a way that guarantees regular staff members' internal involvement but not the temps'. CC managers do not distinguish between hiring a resource or expertise and hiring a person.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify temporary workers' (temps') expected conditions for learning when they are leased to a client company (CC) for numerical flexibility.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The analysis is based on a phenomenological approach containing 121 transcribed interviews with employees and managers who were active in more than 10 CCs' in seven industries and from seven temporary work agencies.\nFindings: One important finding is that the CC expects temps not to learn something about the surrounding organization, but to limit themselves only to the concrete tasks assigned to them. Another is that temps' opportunities to influence organizational conditions in the CCs seem to be cut off in a strategic way.\nResearch limitations/implications: Results are valid for interviewees' expressed thoughts and expectations about temps' workplace learning, not about an actual separation between knowledge and actions in the working conditions.\nPractical implications: CCs associate temps with learning backgrounds that allow them to perform subordinate tasks, such as routine, instructional, or regulatory duties. They associate regular staff with more advanced learning backgrounds and tasks more directly related to occupation and workplace. CCs could benefit from accepting the exchange of knowledge and competence between temps and the company, rather than neglecting it.\nOriginality/value: The originality of this paper lies in its contribution to the relatively unexplored topic of workplace learning and leaders and employees' expectations of temps.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Brand gender-bending: The impact of an endorsed brand strategy on consumers' evaluation of gendered mixed-target brands
|
[
"Gender",
"Brand image",
"Brand strategy",
"Brand names",
"Brand personality",
"Brand gender"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Symbolic product types, such as fashion or cosmetics, are an expression of self-image and social identification (Park et al., 1986). This makes it difficult for brands with a strong gendered image, whether feminine or masculine, to be attractive to both men and women. In fact, many managers struggle to maximize their sales for both genders and hesitate between different naming strategies for their mixed-target brands that have a strong gendered image (i.e. feminine or masculine brands targeting both men and women). For instance, Mango decided to appeal to its male customers by launching H.E by Mango in 2008, before switching to Mango man in 2014 (which resulted in huge expenses to rename 240 stores around the world and contributed to an 11 per cent fall in the firm's annual profits) and ultimately returned to Mango in 2015[1]. Quiksilver opted to launch Quiksilver women in 2008, even though its separate brand for women, Roxy, had existed since 1991; however, it discontinued Quiksilver women in 2013 because of underperforming sales, which contributed to a 10 per cent decline in revenue[2].\nTheoretical framework: Brand gender and the influence of Brand name\nStudy 1: impact of the brand name change on the gender-incongruent target: Methodology\nFindings: Impact of the renaming on the perceived femininity/masculinity of the newly created brand system\nStudy 2: impact of the brand name change on the gender-congruent target: Methodology\nResults: Checking the impact of renaming on perceived femininity and masculinity of the newly created system\nDiscussion, implications and conclusions: Theoretical contributions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Mixed-target brands with strong gender identities, whether it be feminine or masculine, are not always successful at targeting both men and women, particularly in symbolic product categories. While attempting to maximize their sales for both targets, managers often struggle to capitalize on a single brand, and they hesitate between different naming strategies. This paper aims to build on brand gender literature and understand these brands' (i.e. brands targeting both men and women) potential to adopt an endorsed brand strategy rather than a branded house strategy.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper uses a before/after experimental design to examine the effect that introducing a gender-incongruent endorsed brand (i.e. feminine endorsed brand name of masculine master brands and masculine endorsed brand name of feminine master brands) can have on consumers' brand attitude.\nFindings: First, adopting an endorsed brand strategy increases the perceived brand femininity of masculine master brands, but there is no increase in feminine master brands' perceived brand masculinity. Second, this strategy has a negative impact on consumer attitude toward the master brand, with a stronger negative effect for feminine master brands than for masculine master brands, which is mediated by the brand gender perception change. Third, a negative feedback effect on the brand's gender-congruent users is revealed.\nResearch limitations/implications: One limitation of this work is that the focus is on one sole extrinsic brand characteristic (i.e. brand name) in our experimental design, which artificially influences the relative brand name importance for consumers. Moreover, the studies offered a short text to introduce the renaming. This may have made the respondents focus on the brand more than they would have in real-world conditions.\nPractical implications: This research provides many insights for masculine or feminine mixed-target brands managers in symbolic product categories, as it shows that changing from a branded house strategy to an endorsed brand strategy appears to be unsuccessful in the short run, regardless of master brand's gender. Moreover, the study reveals negative feedback effects on the attitude toward the initial master brand, following its renaming, in the short run.\nOriginality/value: This research provides a warning to managers trying to gender-bend their existing brands because it can lead to brand dilution. It also emphasizes the asymmetrical evaluation of masculine vs feminine master brands, as manipulating a brand's perceived masculinity appears very difficult to do successfully.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Strategic characterization of process assets based on asset quality and business impact
|
[
"Intellectual capital",
"Strategic decisions",
"Intangible process assets",
"IT process assets valuation",
"Process assets characterization"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Due to current market pressures, information technology (IT) companies need to deliver products and services better, faster and cheaper. Now, more than ever, these companies need to take action to meet their business goals and remain competitive (Lesser and Ban, 2016; Markeset and Bang, 2012; Software Engineering Institute, 2010).\n2. Related work: The related work focuses on three aspects of the proposal made in this paper: the identification and classification of process assets, the linkage of process assets with business goals, and the assessment of process assets.\n3. The strategic intangible process assets characterization (SIPAC) methodology for characterizing process assets illustrated by a real-life example: The goal of the proposed SIPAC methodology is to help IT companies characterize their process assets based on asset quality and business impact. Using this process asset characterization, a company will be able to make decisions on process assets, i.e., decisions that have a positive impact on its strategic, business or tactical goals.\n4. Conclusions and future work: After designing and applying SIPAC, we found that it is useful and provides an insightful new point of view for strategic decision making in the IT industry due to the intangibility of process assets.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present the strategic intangible process assets characterization (SIPAC) methodology illustrated by an example of its application to the field of information technology (IT). This is a pioneering methodology for characterizing the impact and quality of intangible process assets and intellectual capital as levers to achieve organizational objectives. This strategic intellectual capital approach will help to identify both intangible assets and indicators geared to meeting organizational objectives. This is of vital importance since the success of an organization can be construed in terms of goal achievement.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper illustrates an example of the step-by-step application of the proposed methodology at an IT company. The aim is to describe its use in a real case so that other companies can benefit from the replication of the methodology used.\nFindings: The proposed methodology (SIPAC) that the authors have designed and applied has been found to be useful and provide an insightful new point of view for strategic decision making in the IT industry taking into account intangible process assets.\nPractical implications: The proposed methodology has been exemplified in a real case. This should help organizations to use the methodology to replicate the results.\nOriginality/value: Each and every organization has know-how represented by intangible assets. This paper meets an identified need to use intangible process assets as levers to help organizations achieve their business goals.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Cyber human values scale (i-value): the study of development, validity and reliability
|
[
"Value",
"Social media",
"Scale development",
"Cyber human values"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Technological developments and the internet, the most important reflection of these developments, now exist prevalently in all areas of life, and it is apparent that inevitable use of the internet has a more important place in our life. Today, 49.6 percent of the world population (approx. 3,700,000,000) uses the internet (Internet Worlds Stats, 2017). According to the data provided by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (2017), the ratios of access to the internet by household in 2015 were 82.2 percent in European Union and 82.9 percent, in OECD. In this respect, three out of four people in European Union and in OECD countries are internet users. The most important reason for this is the fast adoption of the internet due to its potential. According to the results of a study conducted by Morgan Stanley in 2004, the number of internet users increased to 50 million in five years. This duration was 38 years for the radio and 13 years for television. In addition, it is thought that the internet is more important than the printing press with respect to the spread of information.\nLiterature review: In literature, a number of studies have been conducted on the influence of media on societies and values, and important findings have been reported in the field. Becker and Connor (1981), who have carried out several studies on human values since the 1970s, examined whether values belonging to individuals had influence on mass communication and media use. In their study, the researchers gathered data regarding the daily time spent watching TV and the time spent reading magazines and newspapers. At the end of the study, those watching TV intensively prioritized the value of happiness than those watching it less frequently, while they gave less priority to the values of leading an exciting life and being talented. Similarly, McCarty and Shrum (1993) carried out a study to reveal the relationship between value and behavior. In the study, the pattern between values and the variables of weekly time spent watching TV, types of TV programs watched (movies, TV series, adventure programs, comedy, sports programs and so on), gender, age, educational background and income was examined with the structural equation modeling. At the end of the study, the values differed depending on the gender. For instance, it was seen that in contrast to men, women giving priority to the value of personal satisfaction (easy life, exciting life, pleasure and comfort) tended to watch TV more and that they met these values by watching TV. It was also seen the women giving priority to the value of idealism watched news programs more. Researchers point out in their studies that the value-behavior pattern has quite a complex structure. In another study, Inglehart and Baker (2000) reported that modernism and economic growth systematically have social and cultural outcomes. In this respect, the researchers examined three waves of World Values Survey data (1981-1982, 1990-1991 and 1995-1998) gathered from more than 75 percent of the world's population from 65 countries, and they compared the nations with respect to a total of ten variables. Among these ten variables, five of them included secular-rational values against traditional ones, and the other five included values regarding life and self-expression. The results revealed that the value of family is prominent in traditional societies. In addition, attachment to the authority and being proud of one's own nation were among the prominent values of the traditional society. In brief, in the process of transition from the agricultural society to the industrial society, it is seen that the values are also transformed from the traditional into the secular-rational. Another study examining the relationship between media and value was carried out by Besley (2008), who, used the data collected by European Social Survey in 2004, tested the relationships between values and media use (television (entertainment vs news), newspaper, radio and the internet). European Social Survey has been conducted throughout Europe every two years since 2001 to describe such patterns of more than 30 nations as attitudes, beliefs, values and behaviors and help monitor the change. The results of the study demonstrated that there was a significant relationship between using television for entertainment purposes and internet use.\nMethods: Research objective\nResults: In order to reveal the construct validity of the scale, first, EFA was conducted. Following this, for the purpose of testing the structure obtained via the previous analysis (EFA), CFA was applied. In addition, item analysis was run to determine the scale's capability of discriminating between individuals with respect to the quality measured by the scale.\nDiscussion: According to its simplest definition, cyber human values are the equivalents of the values in today's information society (Huitt, 2004) to those in cyberspace created by the internet. The scale developed focuses on the cyber values that shape individuals' behaviors in social media. Values which direct the behaviors demonstrated in virtual communities formed by social media users and which help establish healthy virtual relationships are the basic human values measured by the scale. The scale items reflect social media users' behaviors accepted to be good and appropriate. The factors of the scale developed were determined with EFA and confirmed with CFA. As result of the analyses, it was found that the scale included five factors and explained 56 percent of the cyber human values. Taking the related items into consideration, the factors obtained were called being peaceful, truth, solidarity, respect and tolerance. The scale factor of being peaceful refers to avoiding giving harm to others in social media, staying away from tension and anger, demonstrating serenity and avoiding trolling others (provoking users, annoying and causing them to demonstrate inappropriate behaviors). In terms of its meaning, this factor is the equivalent of the value type of conformity in the model put forward by Schwartz (1992) and Schwartz (2012). The factor of truth refers to being the same person in a cyberspace as in real life. With respect to its meaning, this factor is the equivalent of honesty and responsibility subscale in Personal Values Inventory developed by Roy (2003). The factor of solidarity refers to users' benevolence and solidarity in relation to social and individual issues in cyberspace. This factor also involves the value of empathy. The factor of solidarity, with respect to its meaning, is the equivalent of the value type of benevolence in the value model put forward by Schwartz (1992) and Schwartz (2012). The factor of respect refers to respecting others in cyberspace, caring their sharings, and paying attention to their sensitivities. This factor, in terms of its meaning, refers the value type of tradition in the value model put forward by Schwartz (1992, 2012). Lastly, the factor of tolerance refers to being understanding and tolerant toward individuals in cyberspace. This factor also involves the values of sympathy and love. In addition, the factor of tolerance, with respect to its meaning, is the equivalent of the value type of universalism put forward by Schwartz (1992, 2012).\nConclusion: The most important result obtained in the present study conducted to develop a cyber human values scale is that digital environments like social media are not artificial environments and that these environments are perceived as an extension of the real world. Therefore, values considered to be important in real world are also considered to be important in such cyber environments as social media. The core personal values in the scale developed do not differ from the value models in the related literature. This result sheds light on the core values of the digital world. In addition, the strongest sub-dimensions of the cyber human values scale which are being peaceful and truth cover values that corresponding to the invisibility feature of cyberspace (Moor, 1985). The factor of invisibility in cyberspace allows demonstrating such unethical behaviors as telling lies in digital environment, giving incorrect information, committing the hate crime, racism, abuse and cyber bullying. For this reason, it could be stated that users in cyberspace give more importance to values that could minimize the negative influence of the factor of invisibility. It is seen that the purpose is to transfer the social peace intended to be achieved in real life into digital life.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a scale to measure the level of cyber human values based on the behaviors of social media users in cyberspace.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper is based on a scale-development process by following a systematic approach. First, the current scales were examined; following this, focus group interviews were held; next, an item pool was formed; and the validity and reliability of the items were tested. The validity and reliability studies of the scale were conducted with 1,495 social media users. An application on Facebook was used to collect the data.\nFindings: As a result of the validity study, 25 items under five factors were obtained. These factors were being peaceful, truth, solidarity, respect and tolerance. The items obtained were capable of discriminating the individuals in terms of the features to be measured by the scale. In addition, the scale was confirmed to measure correctly the structure obtained in line with the fit indices. The internal consistency coefficient of the scale was 0.90 and split-half reliability coefficient was 0.88.\nResearch limitations/implications: The sample has several limitations. Most of the participants were male and the data were collected on social media. Thus, to enhance the validity and reliability of the scale, further in-depth qualitative and cross-cultural studies should be examined.\nPractical implications: This study could provide convenience for practitioners about how to diagnose the cyber human values of the internet users in cyberspace.\nOriginality/value: It was concluded that this scale was valid, reliable and beneficial to measure social media users' levels of cyber human values.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
University-led business support: a case study of a regional programme
|
[
"Universities",
"Survey",
"Renewable energy",
"Programme development",
"Business support"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Business support programmes, particularly for small businesses, exist in virtually all developed countries (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2004; Mole and Bramley, 2006), but there is little consensus over what such schemes should look like in order to achieve optimum business engagement and efficiency. Consequently, the field of business support has been subject of a growing body of research, debate and evaluation studies (Bennett, 2008; Mole et al., 2011).\nThe Renewable Energy Supply Chain Opportunities (RESCO) programme: The West Midlands region has historically been renowned for the strength of its manufacturing and engineering industries. However, the decline of manufacturing and particularly the automotive sector since the 1970s has led to a decrease in both growth and certainty over what the future might hold for the region's businesses (Donnelly et al., 2012). In an attempt to alleviate this, the RESCO programme was developed which was based on the premise that many of the existing engineering skills of West Midlands companies were essentially transferrable and could be \"re-routed\" to meet the demands of the new and growing RE technology markets. At the same time, it was recognised that support in the form of specific advice and guidance would be necessary to help companies, particularly small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), understand these new marketplaces and exploit the opportunities presented by them.\nSurvey of programme participants: In total, three months following the end of the programme, an online survey was administered via e-mail to 131 companies who had received a RESCO business assist. The core of the questionnaire was loosely based on the first three steps proposed by Storey (1998) for evaluating public policies for assisting the small business sector.\nPreference towards group-based activities: The survey asked companies how useful they found each of the support measures they had used. The results, shown in Figure 3, indicate that virtually all of the respondents who had attended the events, SIGs and used the web site found them either useful or somewhat useful. While diagnostics were also largely rated positively, several respondents (8 per cent, four) found this form of support not useful. Respondents were also asked to rank (in order of preference) which RESCO support components they thought were most effective. \"Networking events\" were selected as the most effective element of the programme, followed by SIGs, then diagnostics and lastly the web site.\nImpact of RESCO: When respondents were asked if they thought RESCO had an impact on their company, half said that RESCO had some positive impact on their company and 6 per cent saying it had a strong impact. 40 per cent said the programme did not have an impact while 4 per cent said it had a negative impact. When the latter two respondents were asked to specify why they thought RESCO had a negative impact, the reasons seemed to relate to mismatched expectations: \"We understood that RESCO was intended to assist interfacing with small companies like ours. I was mistaken\" and \"We put resources into this but had little to show for it\".\nProgramme effectiveness: Overall, the RESCO model seemed to work well as respondents were generally satisfied with the management of the programme as well as the consultants delivering the support. Around 80 per cent of respondents rated the application procedure for RESCO support as either good or fair, and a similar proportion (81 per cent) had a positive opinion towards the management of the programme. Over two-thirds (74 per cent) of the respondents were satisfied with the consultants delivering the support.\nSources of funding and management: Respondents were asked who they thought should fund a programme such as RESCO. Over half said the UK government should fund it (59 per cent), followed by approximately a quarter who thought funding should come from the EU (24 per cent). Only few thought that the private sector or the local authorities should provide the funding (6 per cent each).\nKey findings: Preference for networking and group-based activity over one-to-one consultancy\nResearch limitations: The survey was undertaken only a few months after the programme had ended. However, as some programme-related impacts may take longer to materialise, this timeframe may not have given sufficient time for respondents to decide whether the support they had received was of benefit to their company. A follow-up survey would have been informative, but unfortunately was not possible due to lack of resources.\nConclusions and recommendations: This paper contributes to the growing body of research on the effectiveness and impacts of business support programmes by reviewing a regional scheme that focused on helping businesses enter or expand into the RE technology supply-chain markets. The key findings of the study and implications for future programmes are as follows:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present a model of a university-led business support programme that ran in the West Midlands region of the UK. The initiative was designed with the specific aim of assisting businesses to grow into the renewable energy technology markets by engaging them in a spectrum of support activities. A distinctive form of university-industry collaboration was used in the implementation of the programme where the leadership and management roles were carried out by Staffordshire University, while technical consultancy was delivered by external industry experts. The effectiveness of this model is investigated through a survey of businesses assisted by the programme.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The case study first describes the design and rationale of the support programme and then goes on to present findings from a survey conducted with firms who part took in the support programme (41 per cent response rate, n=54).\nFindings: Respondents' overall satisfaction with the programme indicate that the university-business collaborative model worked well. However, the survey findings show that businesses preferred group-based activities over one-to-one, direct consultancy type of support. Results suggest that the overall effectiveness of the scheme could have been improved through greater industry focus and better management of companies' expectations through clearer articulation of the programme's ability and scope for support.\nResearch limitations/implications: The survey was carried out with participating businesses only four months after the programme had ended, which may have limited the time for programme-related impacts to mature and/or materialise.\nPractical implications: The presented model of university-led business support programme and recommendations can be of use to other Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) as well as business organisations seeking to establish such collaborative initiatives.\nOriginality/value: This paper contributes to the discourse on university-industry relationships and the nature of business support programmes by presenting a \"real-world\" case study of a university-led business support initiative. The findings and recommendations may be of interest and use to researchers, HEIs, policy makers as well as business support and training organisations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Priority setting and resource allocation in the US health system: is there a place for hard caps?
|
[
"Resource management",
"Health system decision making",
"Priority setting"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The United States devotes a larger share of its gross domestic product (GDP) to health care and spends more on health care per capita than any other country (Sawyer and Cox, 2018). In 2000, the United States spent 12.5 percent of its GDP on health care while the average for comparable OECD countries (those with GDP above the median of all OECD countries) was 8.2 percent. In 2016, it was 17.9 percent for the United States and 10.7 percent for OECD countries. The gap increased from 4.3 percent to 7.2 percent in 16 years (Sawyer and Cox, 2018). In per capita terms, the United States spent $10,348 in 2016 while the average for comparable OECD countries was $4,908 or less than half (Sawyer and Cox, 2018). Over the entire US population, this represents approximately $1.75 trillion more annually spent on health care than would be spent if the United States spent the same amount per capita as the average of the comparable OECD countries. In other words, the implications of the extra spending on health care in the United States are financially very significant and the sheer size of the total spending, at approximately $3.5 trillion in 2017, puts significant pressure on all payers and crowds out other forms of public and private spending such as other public services or wages. In developing a response to this ongoing pressure, it is useful to look at what is happening in other comparable countries.Clearly ever-escalating healthcare costs are not a problem unique to the United States. There have been many comparisons of the methods to control or contain healthcare costs across countries (The Commonwealth Fund, 2019; Park et al., 2007; Stabile et al., 2013). However, a review of such comparisons yields one obvious difference between the United States and comparable countries: in every other comparable OECD country, government imposes limitations on the rate of growth of at least some parts of the spending on health care. This is known as a form of \"supply-side\" controls. In Canada, for example, the federal funding for health care is capped at a growth rate of either 3 percent or a three-year moving average of nominal GDP growth, whichever is greater (Government of Canada, 2020). In the United Kingdom, the total budget of the National Health Service (NHS) is set annually, in advance, by the central government (The King's Fund, 2017). This type of supply-side control is largely missing from the US healthcare spending management and in our view explains in part the run-away costs in the United States.While hard spending caps are effective in controlling spending growth, their implementation in the face of an ever-growing demand for services leads invariably to difficult choices having to be made. Consequently, a policy around limiting healthcare budget growth needs to be accompanied by an effective framework to make the required tough choices, that is, sound priority-setting practice to ensure that the right choices are made in operationalizing the spending limits. Therefore, to inform the debate on the merits of hard spending caps in the US healthcare system, we provide a perspective on how to do priority setting drawing primarily on our own experience over the last two decades of doing work within this field (in contrast to \"just\" thinking or writing about it). We conclude that indeed there are segments within the US healthcare system where the tools discussed herein would be highly relevant.\nHow is prioritization done effectively?: A priority-setting and resource allocation (PSRA) framework has two basic components: a mechanism to assess the value of interventions and a mechanism to guide the prioritization activity (i.e. making trade-offs between interventions). Our own research in this area covers key aspects of priority setting in health care from value assessment to decision-making including ethical and social considerations. The focus of our work has been across all areas of clinical care and public health and spans regional and local providers of care both within the acute sector and beyond. The prioritization framework we have used in this work is known as program budgeting and marginal analysis (PBMA). PBMA has been used in healthcare systems across the world for over 40 years (Mitton and Donaldson, 2004). This framework is designed to take an organization from the identification of a priority-setting challenge, that is, how to keep total spending within the prescribed cap, to a recommended solution (Mitton et al., 2014). While it is true that there has been mixed uptake of PBMA over the years across countries, there has been quite reasonable success in Canada in particular (Mitton et al., 2014). Here we provide a few details on the two aspects of priority setting before putting forward a perspective for moving forward with these tools in the United States.Value assessment\nWill this work in the US?: We fully acknowledge that spending limits are not of themselves the solution that will curb the growth in healthcare spending in the United States, but they can be an important tool. There are many settings within the US system where spending limitations could be implemented, settings where the party holding the financial risk has the authority to prioritize services and make the tough choices resulting from spending limitations. For example, employer group plans and self-insured employers, which together cover approximately 56 percent of Americans (Berchick and Barnett, 2018), and Medicaid managed care, covering another 17 percent of Americans, are good examples. These contexts are essentially quasi-fixed budgets where choices can be made about what to fund and what not to fund. Making explicit choices provides the opportunity to reallocate resources from one area of care to another, preferably using value assessment tools and a formal decision-making process where these choices are considered.Our intent is not to be prescriptive about MCDA or even PBMA but rather to draw attention to these tools through their use elsewhere. While there is nothing inherently wrong with devoting a larger share of GDP to one sector like the United States does relative to other countries, this undeniably leads to some crowding out of other spending. Since other OECD countries seem to have similar or better health outcomes as the United States with significantly less spending (Sawyer and McDermott, 2019; Peter G Peterson Foundation, 2019), it seems relevant to consider their means of controlling healthcare costs. One such policy instrument is hard caps and through this making the trade-offs explicit through application of a choice-making framework. The aim of this commentary is to pull together current thinking in terms of value assessment, choice making, and lessons learned for application of a formal approach to priority setting in contexts where hard caps and trade-offs are to be considered. The next step should be the piloting of prioritization in such settings to assess the actual impact of the resulting trade-offs in terms of health outcomes.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The United States devotes a larger share of its GDP to health care and spends more on health care per capita than any other country. The sheer size of the total spending on health care, at approximately $3.5 trillion in 2017, puts significant pressure on all payers and crowds out other forms of public and private spending.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In this brief commentary the authors suggest that, as part of the effort to deal with this pressure, the United States should look at borrowing a cost containment strategy from other countries: the use of hard caps on spending growth. The authors draw on our their experience of working with decision-makers over the last 20 years on the topic of priority setting to put forward some ideas on whether there is potential for application of trade-offs in the United States.\nFindings: As hard caps force choices to be made, a necessary condition for successful implementation of this policy is the presence of an effective priority-setting framework to ensure that the right choices are made in operationalizing spending limitations. Work on this topic elsewhere can provide some insight into the use of a criteria-based framework for priority setting that purports transparency in decision-making to achieve value-based decisions.\nOriginality/value: Other countries still have much work to do, but there is a substantial track record of using formal priority-setting approaches that could potentially inform practice in the United States. We suggest that there are key segments of the US healthcare system where the adoption of formal priority-setting frameworks to guide trade-off decisions is feasible. Piloting such activity in these contexts is the next natural step in this line of inquiry.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Shari'ah corporate governance: the need for a special governance code
|
[
"Law",
"Corporate governance",
"Islamic finance",
"Islamic banking",
"Corporate responsibility",
"Shari'ah governance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Corporate governance is a globally debated interdisciplinary notion with numerous attributes (Nobel cited in Krishnan, 2010, p. i). There is no precise definition of corporate governance. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2004) defines corporate governance as \"set of relationships between a company's management, its board, its shareholders and other stakeholders\". Cadbury (1992, p. 15) says \"Corporate governance is the system by which Companies are directed and controlled.\"\nLiterature review: The term corporate governance is reasonably new as it became the limelight of corporate world within the last two decades and this conception is fundamentally not eccentric to Islam (Fotiuh, 2010). Corporate governance has been defined in various manners. The literatures on the shari'ah corporate governance are less compared to that of conventional corporate governance (Siddiqi and Haneef, cited in Hassan, 2009). The modern day scholars (like Lewis, 2005; Saroni, 2008; Hassan, 2009; Malekian and Daryaei, 2010; Slahudin, 2008; Choudhury and Hoque, 2006) have started writing on this subject matter. Malekian and Daryaei (2010) defines corporate governance as \"the way in which the boards oversee the running of a company by its managers, and how board members are, in turn, accountable to shareholders, stakeholders and the company.\" This definition does not cover the accountability of the Board of Directors to God and the society, which are crucial factors in shari'ah corporate governance. Hence, this is a good definition of conventional corporate governance.\nMethodology: This research with its novelty is among the first few to theoretically shed light on the subjects discussed. Hence, the researcher's co-objective was to explore and establish the relations and findings within the conceptual, theoretical and foundational dynamics of the subject. An exploratory research was conducted to identify and accumulate existing literature and based on this information, further analysis and conceptual proliferation was performed. Subsequently, the authors present the findings of this comprehensive and meticulous research on a platter intelligible and graspable to all stakeholders of Islamic corporate affairs.\nEpistemology of Shari'ah corporate governance: Shari'ah corporate governance is a concept that emerged in the nineteenth century after the birth of Islamic banking and Islamic finance. The increase in the number of Shari'ah compliant companies led to the formulation of corporate governance rules which are in line with the Islamic law. It is hard to specify the person who coined the phrase Shari'ah corporate governance and there is also no specific unified Arabic phrase formulated for this (Lewis, 2005). However, Egyptian official translation has come up with the word for governance by pronouncing it as hawkama and this has been approved by the Egyptian Linguistic Department (Sourial, cited in Lewis, 2005). There is also no uniform set of shari'ah corporate governance rules in the world. Different Islamic companies operating in different parts of the world adopt different sets of rules. Some of the jurisdictions of the world like Malaysia has adopted their own shari'ah corporate governance structures.\nShari'ah corporate governance vs conventional corporate governance: why is conventional corporate governance unsuitable for Islamic corporations?: Shari'ah corporate governance and conventional corporate governance is different because the objective of both is unique. There are many models of conventional corporate governance. It is wrong to generalise all the conventional corporate governance models and consider it as one. Each structure has its own attributes, signifies special corporate models and different objectives of corporation (Hassan, 2009). The conventional corporate governance models differ from country to country and region to region. This is evident from the work of Malekian and Daryaei (2010), where they have categorised conventional corporate governance to Anglo-Saxon countries, Germanic Countries, Latin Countries and Japan. Lewis (2005) has classified conventional corporate governance on decision-making basis. He has classified conventional corporate governance to \"managed corporation model\" and \"socially responsive model\" (Lewis, 2005).\nNeed for a special Shari'ah governance code: Corporate images tag with the prefix Islamic needs to be gauged with similar scale of measurements. This would enable all stakeholders to easily measure the level of shari'ah compliance with regards to the conformity to the Shari'ah Governance Code. This would also help cross-border Islamic investments to seek and utilize guaranteed shari'ah compliant corporations. Ultimately, successful implementation of a uniform based Shari'ah Governance Code would allow corporations all over the world to compete within the same shari'ah compliance dynamics. As the ladle for measurement of shari'ah corporate governance would be free of local perceptions and in accordance with the Islamic Worldview. There definitely is a need for a special Shari'ah Governance Code to impose a minimum standard of Shari'ah corporate governance to the Islamic corporations to abide irrespective of their location.\nRecommendation: envisioned model Shari'ah governance code: In a model Shari'ah governance code which is applicable to all Islamic corporations, the following components shall be common, irrespective of their geographical location or localities:\nWay forward: In view of the above, it is imperative to have a special Shari'ah Corporate Governance Code to specifically govern the Islamic corporations. Islamic law is immutable, hence making a specific Code for shari'ah corporate governance would definitely make the task easier for the Muslims and non-Muslims who would want to invest or get any kind of benefit from the Islamic corporations. The special Code shall definitely push and precisely mention the role of the Shari'ah Boards, Board of Directors, management as well as the auditors of the Islamic corporation. All of these organs of the Islamic corporations shall execute their professional duties with the target of gratifying rules imposed by God and the expectations of all stakeholders. Definitely enacting a special Code would promote accountability, transparency, disclosure and clarity without prejudice. This is much closer to the spirit of Islam and is the way to create and manage governance and social responsibility. The viable critical success roots of this are yet to be examined with further research.\nConclusion: For the sake of application of principles of shari'ah corporate governance uniformly, it is imperative to enact a Code for the matter. Enacting a shari'ah corporate governance Code would definitely guide the companies that are classified as shari'ah compliant to move forward in a shari'ah compliant manner that has been universally acknowledged and accepted even though a local or a domestic law for the purpose is absent. It is anticipated that in future a shariah corporate governance Code would be created to complement the ever-growing Islamic Finance industry in the world.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: With the advent of Islamic banking, a new species was added to the banking system which was then, only dominated by the conventional banking. Islamic banking expanded in the world within the last decade and as a result, Islamic finance emerged as an alternative to the conventional finance. This created Islamic companies and Islamic financial institutions which operate based on the principles of Shari'ah or Islamic Law. These Islamic corporate bodies, like the conventional corporate bodies do need good governance rules. In other words, they also need a good, sophisticated \"Shari'ah Governance Code\" which would be based on the principle of Islamic Law. This is mainly because the objective of the conventional and the Islamic Corporate governance is different as conventional corporate governance structure is more focused on the protection of the rights of the stakeholders; while Islamic corporate governance focus on retaining the Islamicity of whole corporation. The objective of this research is, as the title suggests, proposing the reasons why a special governance Code for Shari'ah corporate bodies are needed. This paper would suggest a proper governance structure to the Islamic companies and will also discuss why the conventional corporate governance Codes are unsuitable for the Islamic companies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research which is primarily library based, is an exploratory legal research in nature.\nFindings: In the course of this research, it is found that there is a need to enact a Shari'ah Corporate Governance Code due to the widespread establishment of shari'ah compliant companies in the world. Hence, the authors had discussed the potential content of such a Code in this paper.\nOriginality/value: This research will complement the knowledge based on shari'ah corporate governance and is targeted to the existing and prospective shari'ah compliant companies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.