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Corporate governance mechanisms, accounting results and stock valuation in Canada
|
[
"Canada",
"Corporate governance",
"Accounting information",
"Equity capital",
"Boards of directors",
"Corporate governance practices",
"Book value of equity",
"Accounting performance",
"Market value of equity"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In response to several financial scandals starting with Enron, the US Congress enacted the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) of 2002 to, among other things, set new or enhanced corporate governance standards. This led the Securities_and_Exchange_Commission (SEC) to adopt dozens of rules to implement the SOX. SOX covers issues such as auditor independence, corporate governance, internal control assessment, and enhanced financial disclosure.Using an agency theory framework, several academic studies, mostly conducted in the USA, have since examined if these governance regulations have an effect on corporate value and performance. From that perspective, the goal of corporate governance is to minimize agency costs by reducing the adverse selection and moral hazard problems, thus affecting corporate value. The results of this line of research are mixed. In this paper, we maintain that the main reason for these weak and contradictory findings is the difficulty in examining this issue in an environment where all listed companies are required by both the SOX and the SEC to apply the same rules thus leaving little room for variability between them. We wish to contribute to this international debate by using the Canadian institutional setting where corporate governance guidelines are recommended rather than imposed by law. This should allow greater firm discretion in their choice of governance practices.Indeed, in Canada, most corporate governance \"best practices\" are set through recommendations or guidelines (soft law) established by provincial market authorities such as the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC). The only regulatory or \"hard law\" requirement concerns the audit committee's responsibilities and composition (MI 52-110)[1]. In other words, firms are only required to disclose their governance practices whatever they may be (NI 58-101).To revisit this issue of whether governance matters from a different angle, we also use an agency theoretical perspective to run a partial least square analysis on a sample of 355 observations representing 199 Canadians firms. We find that among the various corporate governance mechanisms recommended by the OSC, most are not value relevant except for the independence of directors, the use of stock options and the number of board meetings (NBM), which are negatively related to the book value of equity and net income. Globally, the incidence of corporate governance practices seems relatively limited. We interpret these findings as shedding light on the fact that governance aimed at reducing agency costs or the risk of appropriation by insiders may only indirectly affect value and performance, which would explain the quasi-absence of significant statistical relations.The remainder of the paper proceeds as follows. In the next section, we briefly present the traditional agency theory framework behind the presumption of a relation between governance and firm value or performance. We also review the empirical literature on the subject. Section 3 presents the research methodology. Findings are presented and discussed in Section 4 while we conclude in the last section.\n2. Theoretical framework and previous empirical evidence: According to Shleifer and Vishny (1997), corporate governance deals with the ways in which suppliers of finance to corporations assure themselves of getting a return on their investment. This definition takes an agency theory perspective where governance costs must be incurred to minimize adverse selection and especially ex post moral hazard agency problems. To minimize these agency costs, a good corporate governance system should combine some type of large investors with legal protection of both their rights and those of small investors (Shleifer and Vishny, 1997, p. 739). Picou and Rubach (2006) also refer to corporate governance as being the construction of rules, practices, and incentives to effectively align the interests of the agents (boards and managers) with those of the principals (capital suppliers).In this perspective, corporate value can be maximized by reducing agency costs and by inducing managers to behave in the interests of shareholders. Consequently, an important objective of governance research is to identify which particular mechanisms contribute to the maximization of corporate value. One of the prominent features of corporate governance that has attracted much scrutiny from academics and regulators is the independence of board directors from management. There is a general consensus that independent directors are more effective at monitoring management (Kim et al., 2010) and ensuring that the competition among managers stimulates actions consistent with shareholder value maximization (Fama, 1980).Several studies mostly conducted in the USA before and after the enactment of the SOX have examined the links between the presence of independent directors on the board and corporate performance (Barnhart et al., 1994; Barnhart and Rosenstein, 1998; Hermalin and Weisbach, 1991; Bhagat and Black, 2002; Bozec, 2005; Krivogorsky, 2006; Nicholson and Kiel, 2007; Bhagat and Bolton, 2011). The results are mixed.Furthermore, the possibility for independent directors to hold regular meetings without the presence of non-independent directors or management is also encouraged by the OSC in order to reinforce their effectiveness. To date, few researches have addressed the impact of this corporate governance practice.The recommendation regarding the separation of the chief executive officer (CEO) and the chairman of the board functions is also aimed at reducing agency problems and create value. Kyereboah-Coleman and Biekpe (2006) and Krivogorsky (2006) have observed a significant negative relationship between CEO/chairman duality and the returns on equity or assets. Bai et al. (2004) observed that when this leadership structure exists, it negatively affects the market value of the firms. Elsayed (2007) records an impact, but only in certain industries.The participation of a CEO on other boards can also have a negative impact on corporate value and performance. On the one hand, this participation is likely to consume time otherwise spent on the regular activities of the firm. On the other hand, the CEO may benefit from this opportunity to develop business relationships with other directors that might eventually accept a seat on the board of the firm that he manages. However, those clubby relationships between CEO and other directors can modify the motivations of the directors in monitoring the CEO and senior management.In addition to ways of monitoring management, firms implement incentives that aim to tie the executives' wealth to the wealth of shareholders, such as managerial equity ownership, stock options and loans to managers. Jelinek and Stuerke (2009) explore the impact of managerial equity ownership on agency costs. They find a non-linear relationship which implies that, above a certain level, managerial equity ownership becomes less successful as a corporate governance mechanism, and at higher levels may even be counter-productive. Because of this phenomenon, regulators have encouraged firms to disclose information on these incentives.To summarize, instead of regulating each individual practice, the OSC is requiring firms to publish a statement of governance practices where the mechanisms discussed above and several others are exposed. For instance, they have to disclose whether they have put in place a formal system to evaluate the performance of the board, list the other boards where its directors sit, cite their attendance records at board and committee meetings, and quote the fees the auditors receive for their audit and consulting services. Thus, we propose to examine if corporate governance disclosure is value relevant.\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Model and variables measurement\n4. Results: 4.1 Descriptive statistics\n5. Conclusion: The objective of this study was to investigate the relationships between corporate governance practices or mechanisms and firm value, as measured by accounting and market data. We resorted to a structural approach by using a partial least square regression model. The results show that most of the individual governance practices do not seem to be associated with firm value. On the contrary, certain mechanisms such as the percentage of independent directors, the NBM, and the percentage of outstanding stock options seem to be associated to lower performance.This study extends the current findings by examining the presumed link between individual corporate governance practices and firm value in a context of principles-based governance standards. The results show that, even in such a setting, mimetism seems to lead to the adoption of similar governance standards. This in turn may mitigate the expected relation with firm value.Several studies have aggregated all available governance mechanisms by creating or using existing indexes. We have gone to the other end of the spectrum by using a series of individual mechanisms. Future research should aim at examining the possibility that certain corporate governance configurations, namely a subset of governance practices, may trigger firm value.We recognize the limits of this study. The potential interrelationships between the corporate governance practices and the contextual variables are not taken into account except for the industrial factor. Recent studies tend to show that certain governance mechanisms are connected to each other and can be more effective in certain contexts (Bozec, 2005; Gani and Jermias, 2006; Boujenoui and Zeghal, 2006). Future research should aim at addressing this issue.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between corporate governance practices or mechanisms and firm value, as measured by accounting and market data.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Partial least square analyses were performed on a sample of 355 observations from 199 Canadian listed companies. The greater variability allowed under the Canadian principles-based institutional setting than under the rules-based USA SOX environment is well-suited for these tests.\nFindings: - Results suggest that some governance practices, namely the percentage of independent directors on the board, the use of stock options and the frequency of board meetings are significantly and negatively related to the firm's net book value or income. However, most individual governance practices appear to have no significant impact on the firms' market value.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The potential interrelationships between corporate governance practices and contextual variables are not specifically taken into account, except for the firms' industrial sector. It is also possible that certain governance mechanisms jointly impact firm value.\nPractical implications: - This study does not support the current emphasis by regulators on governance practices which mainly concern the monitoring function of the board as opposed to its strategic one.\nOriginality/value: - The paper uses Canada as a laboratory where companies are \"invited\" rather than \"required\" to follow corporate governance best practices. This greater corporate discretion in the choice of governance practices provides the variability necessary to test the effect of governance on firm value. Furthermore, in the interest of triangulation, a model seldom seen in the governance literature is used to examine the impact of governance mechanisms on firm value and performance, as measured by accounting and market data.\n",
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Pull factors of the shopping malls: an empirical study
|
[
"Retailing",
"Environment",
"Convenience",
"Shopping mall",
"Commercial attraction"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The importance of shopping malls as retailing formats has become increasingly remarkable, and today the mall culture plays a significant role in consumers' lifestyle. But shopping malls have become more than simply a place to shop, and social factors justify a deeper research on shopping malls, such as the leisure shopping, which is a browsing activity characterised by seeking pleasurable experiences and stimulation of the senses rather than an intent to purchase something (Sinha and Uniyal, 2005; Backstrom, 2011). Today, consumers demand commercial areas not only for purchasing, but also for recreational shopping and to enjoy the company of other people; thus being related to social factors, since one of the key motivations behind shopping was to enjoy the social interaction with family members or friends (Backstrom, 2011). However, shopping malls should meet customers' needs in a satisfactory way, in order to achieve return visits behaviour (Anselmsson, 2016).\n2. Theoretical framework: 2.1 Rationale for the study: the S-O-R model\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Variables and measurement scales\n4. Results: 4.1 Measurement model\n5. Conclusions: Understanding the shopping malls' patronage behaviour is a critical issue for retail managers, since it enables to identify and target those consumers most likely to purchase. So, on the basis of S-O-R paradigm, our study addresses RQ1, and the answer to this question would be \"the shopping mall tenant variety, followed by the internal environment and the leisure mix\". More precisely, our findings highlight that customers' shopping mall patronage behaviour and purchase intention are related with and increases when the shopping mall offers tenant variety with different stores and commercial offers, a pleasant and attractive internal environment and the leisure mix.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: This study addresses the following question: \"What factors attract customers to the shopping mall?\", since the commercial attraction of this major retailing format is an undertaken variable. So, the purpose of this paper is to provide an empirical analysis of the main commercial pull factors of the shopping malls in order to attract potential customers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: For this purpose, the authors provide and empirically test a conceptual model considering the variables convenience, tenant variety and specialisation, internal environment, leisure and communication. Data were analysed through structural equation modelling on a sample of 253 customers.\nFindings: The findings suggest that tenant variety and the internal environment of the mall - understood as an adequate tenant mix and a pleasant, attractive environment - are the main determinants of attracting customers. However, the convenience of the shopping mall and the communication activities do not show a significant influence as pull factors.\nOriginality/value: The results obtained suggest that marketing managers have numerous tools to influence customers' intention to visit and patronise shopping malls.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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The role of shared leadership in enhancing the quantity and quality of team performance: The influence of perceived task complexity
|
[
"Team performance",
"Shared leadership",
"Perceived task complexity",
"Team errors",
"Social network approach"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Modern organizations see team work as an important factor in improving the quality of decision making within an institution therefore research into how teams are managed has become a key focus for research. Shared leadership has been viewed as increasing both the quantity and quality of team performance with the majority of studies considering measures of performance quantity. Performance quality has been examined through looking at the role shared leadership plays in preventing team errors which can lead to pronounced and unintended consequences. In examining these issues an understanding of how to build the most effective teamwork within an organization can be developed.\nShared Leadership: Rather than leadership being in the hands of a single formal leader, shared leadership broadly distributes leadership responsibility so that people within a team lead each other to enhance team effectiveness and achieve organizational goals. A team can be considered effective if it achieves its' goals (performance quantity) and avoids errors (performance quality). Shared leadership has been shown to enhance performance quantity through measures of self-ratings of the amount of work completed, growth, grades and scores. Information and knowledge are shared rather than centralized as when team members see themselves in similar roles interaction and communication are more frequent and effective. This leads to higher levels of team performance. This increased communication and interaction may also lead to enhanced performance quality as team errors are more likely to be identified and corrected preventing negative consequences. Where team members share leadership they are more likely to feel comfortable in identifying potential errors and suggesting solutions.\nPerceived Task Complexity: There are two aspects to the complexity of a task:\nTheoretical models: The social network approach (SNA) examines the patterns of connections that emerge in a team and the leadership relations that form between individuals. This study uses the SNA approach to explain shared leadership. By mapping the leadership relations within the group and examining patterns of communication and authority this can then lead to an understanding of how team errors can occur and be avoided.\nThe influence of shared leadership on team performance and the moderating effect of task complexity: This study examines the influence of shared leadership on team performance in terms of quantity and quality and in addition the moderating effect of task complexity on this relationship.\nCommentary: The review is based on \"Shared leadership effectiveness: perceived task complexity as moderator\" by Muller et al. (2018), published in Team Performance Management: An International Journal. This research paper examines the influence of shared leadership on team performance in terms of quantity and quality and in addition the moderating effect of task complexity on this relationship. The results suggest that teams sharing leadership showed better team performance and made fewer errors. They achieved higher levels of quality of performance. In addition, if the team members viewed the task as highly complex then the quality of their performance was increased. Therefore for organizations to optimize team performance shared leadership should be promoted, the SNA should be used to develop interventions and training and influencing perceptions of task complexity should be considered as an important strategy to stimulate shared leadership in teams. This paper has an original approach by testing for the first time how perceived task complexity moderates the relationship between shared leadership and team performance and by developing an original team task to investigate shared leadership.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to examine the influence of shared leadership on team performance in terms of quantity and quality and in addition the moderating effect of task complexity on this relationship.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data was gathered from 26 teams of students from a major university in Germany who completed a laboratory team decision-making exercise.\nFindings: The results suggest that teams sharing leadership showed better team performance and made fewer errors. They achieved higher levels of quality of performance. In addition, if the team members viewed the task as highly complex then the quality of their performance was increased.\nPractical implications: Therefore for organizations to optimize team performance shared leadership should be promoted, the SNA should be used to develop interventions and training and influencing perceptions of task complexity should be considered as an important strategy to stimulate shared leadership in teams.\nOriginality/value: This paper has an original approach by testing for the first time how perceived task complexity moderates the relationship between shared leadership and team performance and by developing an original team task to investigate shared leadership.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Towards greater likelihood of project success: Leadership style and goal clarity can help
|
[
"Transactional leadership",
"Transformational leadership",
"Projects",
"Goal clarity"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Various factors are widely acclaimed as crucial to organizational performance. Innovation is typically high on most lists, whereas strategy is similarly regarded. And what about people? Few companies get far without talent and many recognize this through their efforts to provide valuable development opportunities.\nWhy leadership matters: These and other elements such as operational efficiency and the availability of key resources are clearly important. But it is arguably leadership that has the biggest influence of all when it comes to delivering lasting success for a firm.\nBuilding relationships for success: Transformational leadership seems to be endorsed by numerous observers. Those who adopt this style are typically able to inspire and motivate those around them. Much of this is attributable to the fact that such leaders show genuine concern for their followers and strive to make sure their individual needs are met wherever possible.\nA more coercive approach: It is the actual process which is the focal point of transactional leadership. This style involves an exchange, whereby leaders and followers have respective obligations to meet. In essence, team members are expected to produce quality work and are then rewarded in return. These contingent rewards can be material or psychological in nature.\nGoals and responsibilities must be clearly defined: But no matter what leadership style is adopted, it is imperative that all stakeholders involved are fully aware of their responsibilities and the goals associated with the project. If a certain degree of ambiguity prevails, then failure becomes a more distinct possibility.\nComment: The review is based on: \"Leadership styles, goal clarity, and project success: evidence from project-based organizations in Pakistan\" by Raziq et al. (2018), published in Leadership and Organization Development Journal. Effective leadership is crucial to enhancing organizational performance and successful project completion. Firms can become better positioned to achieve desired outcomes if leaders adopt an appropriate style and ensure that responsibilities and project goals are well defined.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: Leadership style can have a significant effect on organizational performance and successful completion of projects. Transformational leadership is potentially the most ideal option because of its emphasis on relationships, collaboration, and team member autonomy. However, the contingent reward element of transactional leadership might also be incorporated into a strategy that is more likely to prove effective if project goals and the responsibilities of those involved are clearly defined.\nOriginality/value: The briefing saves busy executives and researcher's hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
R&D in Sweden and manufacturing in China: a study of communication challenges
|
[
"China",
"Product development",
"Communication",
"Sweden",
"Culture and language differences",
"R&D-manufacturing interface"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Severe competition puts pressure on companies to constantly deliver novel products of high quality and low cost (Liker et al., 1999). To cope with competition, companies strive to shorten their product development cycles (Riis et al., 2007) and reduce manufacturing costs through relocation of manufacturing facilities to low-cost countries (Yongjiang, 2003). For example, the global manufacturer Electrolux states in the annual report that the company strives to increase the production and procurement in low-cost regions (Electrolux Annual Report, 2011). As a result, geographic distance often increases between R&D and manufacturing. This enforces changes in processes and communication patterns in the R&D-manufacturing interface due to differences in national culture, time zone and language (Karandikar and Nidamarthi, 2006). The management of information is thus affected and geographically separated team members have to rely on different types of information technology such as e-mails, teleconferencing, messaging systems, etc. when they communicate (Smulders et al., 2002; Hinds and Bailey, 2003). Although utilization of information technology can potentially reduce travel time and cost (Pearlson and Saunders, 2009), team members might not be prepared psychologically to work virtually. Communication challenges related to facial expression, vocal infections, verbal cues and gestures might therefore occur in distant settings (Bergiel et al., 2008; Pearlson and Saunders, 2009).\nLiterature exposition: Uncertainty and equivocality\nResearch design: The research was carried out as a real-time, longitudinal study of a single product development project (Stake, 1995; Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007; Siggelkow, 2007). The project was selected based on a number of criteria. First, to be able to capture the dynamics in the R&D-manufacturing interface we searched for a project that could be studied in real-time from early project start to full-scale manufacturing. Real-time, longitudinal studies provide the potential of grasping contemporary events (Yin, 2009) and are rare in the literature (Page and Schirr, 2008). Second, the exploratory nature of our study called for a project in which we could get access to detailed data from multiple sources (Yin, 2009). Third, we searched for a project in which a new assembled product of reasonable complexity was developed, because product/process fit uncertainty relates to the novelty and complexity of the product and affects the need of R&D-manufacturing coordination and communication (Adler, 1995). Fourth, the project should face a dispersed setting where R&D and manufacturing were carried out in different countries.\nCase description: The Beta project\nAnalysis part I: communication challenges associated with national culture and language differences: From the case description it is evident that the Beta project faced a certain degree of uncertainty and equivocality. A number of new, non-verified design solutions were introduced in the Beta project and contributed to the level of uncertainty (Liker et al., 1999). Information about the design solutions had to be produced, via tests in laboratory and practice, during the project in order to find out if they would function as intended. As the product was to be manufactured in the newly acquired Asian facility, the Swedish engineers did not initially have complete information about the manufacturing requirements. Furthermore, the product was aimed at the high-end consumer market and the segment was new to both the Swedish engineers and the Chinese engineers. Whereas the Swedes mainly had experience from developing products for professional users where performance and quality were critical success factors, the Chinese had primarily been working with low-cost products.\nAnalysis part II: managing the communication challenges: In addition to illustrating a number of communication challenges that are related to geographic distance, which implies differences in national culture and language, the Beta project also demonstrates a number of ways which can be used to manage the challenges.\nDiscussion: This paper has addressed communication challenges related to geographic distance between R&D and manufacturing engineers in a product development project faced with uncertainty and equivocality. Specific emphasis was set on differences in national culture and language as a consequence of the geographic distance. Three communication challenges have been identified that are strongly associated with differences in national culture and language:\nConclusions and suggestions for further research: The findings are summarized in Figure 3, which depicts that when culture and language differences exist, several communication challenges in the R&D-manufacturing interface can follow. These challenges might, in turn, amplify the levels of uncertainty and equivocality in a product development project. The figure also shows some ways to deal with the challenges that were identified in the empirical study.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore communication challenges related to geographic distance, with emphasis on differences in national culture and language between R&D and manufacturing engineers, in a development project faced with uncertainty and equivocality.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The results originate from a longitudinal single-case study of a commercial product development project.\nFindings: Three communication challenges are identified: clarity of shared information, intention to share information, and responsiveness to information received. The challenges are strongly associated with differences in national culture and language. The study also indicates that the communication challenges cannot only be handled by the use of rich communication media, but also by employment of communication media of low richness such as e-mails or \"picture books\".\nResearch limitations/implications: The single-case study approach limits the ability to generalize the findings. Future research should thus focus on additional studies of geographically separated R&D and manufacturing.\nOriginality/value: The results from the study provide important insights for the management of product development in geographically dispersed settings. The findings emphasize the need to consider potential differences in national culture and language within a product development team. Acknowledging these differences and managing them properly can support efficiency of product development projects.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Interview with Celia de Anca
|
[
"General management",
"Globalization",
"Equal opportunities"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Celia de Anca is currently the Director of the Centre for Diversity in Global Management at Instituto de Empresa Business School. She was previously the Director of Corporate Programs at the Euro-Arab Management School (EAMS), Granada. She has also worked for the Fundacion Cooperacion Internacional y Promocion Ibero-America Europa. (CIPIE) and at the International Division of Banco de Santander.\nWhat inspired you to write this book?: We launched the Center for Diversity in Global Management at IE Business School four years ago. Since then we have been working with a number of corporations on issues related to diversity, and we were really surprised at the level and quality of the different initiatives that many corporations were developing.We wanted to contribute to corporate diversity by fitting all these wonderful initiatives into a practical guide that could help others to initiate their own, and to make the management of diversity into an understandable framework for action.Our aim in writing this book was, through theoretical analysis complemented by practical application and validation in business contexts, to find a reference point; the past and present that lead naturally to a future of increasing harmonization of the company with its environment.\nWho do you hope will read it?: The book intends to give a theoretical framework as well as serve as a practical tool that can be helpful in understanding some of the relevant issues in diversity management and thus help implement diversity policies. It is therefore oriented to the business world and specifically practitioners, researchers and consultants.We also hope to raise the interest of people who wish to understand one of the main trends in the business world today, which is that of focusing on the people within the organization.\nWhat makes diversity such a key issue today?: The economic and business environment in which the majority of companies move has changed radically over the last decade. This has resulted in significant change in the way that companies are managed, and in the new skills and competences they now require. Some of these changes have had profound effects on society, and on the way in which roles are perceived; roles that often imply specific abilities and skills.Culture, the incorporation of women or generational changes are just some of the factors that currently influence companies. Other important elements include technological advancements that have brought about the integration of the disabled into mainstream work environments, bringing with them universal capacities as well as insights into how they perceive environments. In short, today's companies are increasingly open to the idea that diversity can contribute a great deal to the firm's capacity to innovate. If personal realization brings a noticeable difference to the creative and innovative capacity of employees, successful diversity management of culture, gender and age can translate into a major qualitative leap in organization and performance.Taking advantage of the differences can lead to innovation for the organization, finding new ways of making processes and products. Such innovation will help the organization to survive in competitive times like ours.\nHow has globalization affected diversity?: Globalization, and increasingly multi-cultural environments, is one of the main factors affecting companies today. In the 1970s we got used to the idea of \"thinking globally and acting locally\", but, without wanting to negate the value of this concept today, it is becoming more and more difficult to differentiate between the global and the local, when teams represent a wide range of cultures, and when multinational markets coincide in the same geographic environment. This multiculturalism, if managed effectively, enables the company to grow by assimilating concepts and ways of working that are culturally different but complementary at the same time.To the extent that we are able to overcome the globalization-diversity debate, we should not look at globalization as something negative; we should look at it with the sense of security that comes from catching sight of an amazing opportunity.\nWhat opportunities can diversity bring to organizational development?: Companies such as JPMorgan Chase, BP, Shell, American Express and Ford have embarked on major reform processes in recent years which, from senior management down, propose an important change of strategy that aims, in the medium term, to be able to utilize to the maximum the potential of their workforce. The reason for this is not just social justice, but rather the belief that an increase in diversity, if managed well, represents an important source of potential for the company that will enable it to respond more efficiently to demand, with a wider range of opinions and the kind of greater flexibility necessary to compete in a market that is constantly changing.Policies aimed at improving the dialogue between the company and its stakeholders about diversity have resulted in greater diversity in all areas of the company, which has helped to improve society's image of the company.\nIs the business benefit argument for diversity a new one?: Diversity is not new ... diversity has probably always been with us, feeding the most open forms of human genius. The difference now lies in the richness that can be achieved by managing this fundamental asset, which differentiates and renews all of humanity.What is new is the benefit resulting from managing this diversity, not only for the corporation but also for the people involved in the organization. The idea of creating a vision of the company as a flexible organism that grows and innovates to the extent that its members can grow and innovate.\nWhat are the main obstacles to managing diversity?: The way people work depends to a large degree on behavior generated by the culture, gender and personality of each individual. It is precisely this diversity that can be the principal source of innovation in the company; but at the same time it can also be the cause of conflicts and tension.Diversity, understood as putting different people in different positions, does not necessarily guarantee success; quite the opposite in fact. If the different points of view and opinions are not handled well then the decision-making process can become enormously difficult. Diversity has to be managed in such a way that differences are transformed into a catalyst of business success.\nIt is interesting that the epilogue of the book is kept in the experts' own languages. What effect does the use of English as an international business language have on diversity?: We wanted give a \"diversity flavor\" to the book and that is the reason we insisted on keeping the epilogue in the different languages of the experts.We recognize however that English is the lingua franca of today's business world - the vehicle most people use to negotiate and work. However, each culture still uses the vehicle in different ways to accommodate their own cultural peculiarities.One of the challenges in today's business world is the risk of ignoring the cultural differences; thinking that using the same language will mean we all think the same, which can lead to major misunderstandings. In today's business world it is important to read beyond the language.\nWhat is your view of the use of quotas to promote diversity?: It is a difficult issue that generates a great debate in most areas of our society.My personal view is that quotas in a first stage are normally good at shaking up a situation that for some reason has stagnated. At some stage, however, they should be replaced by more long-term programs and policies that help leaders move up in a more natural way.\nHow can corporate leaders instill a culture of diversity?: In recent years, corporations have developed useful policies for managing diversity. These policies differ in much the same way that the objectives of the different companies differ. The priority for some companies is to establish a good reputation for themselves and so position themselves in the market; in such cases CSR policies are likely to be among their priorities. Other companies, on the other hand, need policies that will enable them to hold on to their brightest talents, particularly at difficult times when they have to downsize, when it is likely that policies of flexible working patterns will be adopted to help them meet the needs of their employees. Some companies need to innovate, and in this case they need to develop the individual capacity of high-potential employees.There is no single correct recipe, nor is there a guide to implementation; today's corporate leaders should be aware of the needs and opportunities at his/her disposal, and then implement different policies. The paces might be different, as might the visibility of the results. It is not a case of setting out a plan of action with rigid targets designed to achieve radical change at the three levels of action; rather, it is about beginning a step-by-step journey affecting the different levels of action, with greater or lesser emphasis on each, which in the long term will lead to the creation of an integrated, continuous learning organization. This can then act as a whole, but as a whole made up of highly developed individuals who are capable of creating and innovating.\nWhat challenges does the future hold for workforce diversity?: Society is changing rapidly; the business world is becoming more global by the day, new groups are entering the market and the climate is becoming more and more competitive. Diversity at all levels of the organization is an imperative that is recognized by the majority of international companies. But at the same time, the ever increasing diversity of the workforce brings with it a whole new set of problems and conflicts which corporate leaders in the future will have to be able to solve if they want to create flexible, diversified organizations capable of creating and innovating within a single vision and unique strategy. The challenge for the twenty-first century manager is to find a balance between diversity and the aims and objectives of the company.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to provide an interview with Celia de Anca on corporate diversity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper provides an interview with Celia de Anca exploring the background to and impact of her book Managing Diversity in the Global Organization coauthored by Antonio Vasquez.\nFindings: - Celia de Anca provides views and opinions about the managing diversity in organizations.\nOriginality/value: - The paper provides an insightful interview with Celia de Anca.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Does partial quantity rationing of credit affect the technical efficiency of dairy farmers in Punjab, Pakistan? An application of stochastic frontier analysis
|
[
"Pakistan",
"Asymmetric information",
"SFA",
"Credit constraints",
"Quantity rationing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Pakistan's dairy industry is considered a cornerstone of the national economy. The country has a herd of approximately 63 million animals, which is the third largest in the world, and nearly 35 million people are engaged in dairy-related enterprises. Additionally, Pakistan is ranked among the world's top milk-producing countries (GOP, 2016). However, despite substantial contributions to the national gross domestic product , the dairy industry in Pakistan is facing structural changes due to the implementation of intensive precision production systems, rapid industrialization, geographical shifts, and technological advancements. Apparently, the industry is growing in terms of annual milk production, but a significant gap between the demand and supply for milk is increasing every year at an alarming rate. FAO (2011) documented that this apparent growth in Pakistan is the result of an increase in the numbers of milk-producing animals, rather than an increase in the level of productivity per head.\n2. Theoretical model and identification of partial quantity rationed: Prior to the field survey, a theoretical model was constructed for identifying partial quantity rationed of credit. The theoretical model (see Figure 1) systematically explains the situations of non-rationing of credit, partial quantity rationing of credit, total quantity rationing of credit, and other cases of credit constraints. It is important to mention that in this study, our particular objective was to estimate the effect of partial quantity rationing of credit on the technical efficiency. The study, therefore, does not consider the other cases of credit constraints. As stated above, partial quantity rationing of credit arises when financial institutions disburse insufficient amounts to the borrowers. In case of total quantity rationing, financial institutions may directly reject the loan applications, considering previous loan record, lack of guarantors, insufficient collaterals, etc. Recent studies conducted by Mehmood et al. (2017) in Pakistan reported that total and partial quantity rationing of credit usually arise because of control monitoring and asymmetric information. On the other hand, if farmers had requested for loans from financial institutions and received the desired amount, they were considered as credit non-constrained.\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Stochastic production frontier and inefficiency-effects models\n4. Results and discussion: 4.1 Maximum likelihood estimates of production frontier\n5. Conclusions and policy implications: Dairy farmers in Pakistan are in an ideal position to fulfill the country's milk demand and go on to lead the international dairy market. To be able to do so, these farmers need to enhance their efficiency and productivity level, which in turn is possible only if they have an improved access to credit. The results indicated that various factors such as the education level of the household head, cross-breed and imported cattle, and electric chaff cutter, all had significant positive impacts on technical efficiency, followed by diversified sources of income. In the case of the interest rate on the principal amount and partial quantity rationing of credit, we found significant negative effects on technical efficiency of dairy farmers, hence rejected H0, i.e., partial quantity rationing of credit had no effect on the technical efficiency and accepted the alternative hypothesis. In addition, the mean level of technical efficiency in the surveyed areas was 85 percent, which implies that there still is an opportunity to increase the milk production in Pakistan using the existing level of production inputs.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the effect of partial quantity rationing of credit on the technical efficiency of dairy farmers in the Punjab province of Pakistan.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Prior to the field survey, the authors constructed a theoretical model for clear identification of partial quantity rationed dairy farmers. Data from 154 dairy farmers were collected that represented three districts of the province. The collected data were analyzed in two stages: first, the efficiency level of dairy farmers was estimated using a stochastic frontier approach; second, the authors employed an inefficiency-effects model to estimate the effect of partial quantity rationing of credit on technical efficiency.\nFindings: The results revealed that education level of the household head, cross-breed and imported cattle, and electric chaff cutter, all had significant positive impacts on technical efficiency, followed by diversified sources of income. Conversely, the analysis of our key variables, interest rate on principal amount and partial quantity rationing of credit had significant negative effects on the technical efficiency of dairy farmers in selected districts of the Punjab province in Pakistan.\nOriginality/value: The study will be an important contribution to the existing credit constraints and technical efficiency literature and will particularly help the rural financial institutions in terms of approving the loan amount according to the actual requirements of the borrowers. The study's findings and subsequent recommendations will be useful for policy makers in achieving the actual production level, bringing down the poverty levels and ensuring food security in the country.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Knowledge acquisition through process mapping: Factors affecting the performance of work-based activity
|
[
"Knowledge acquisition",
"Process mapping"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: A significant volume of literature explores the way in which business process improvement initiatives, tools and approaches can provide benefit and competitive advantage for modern businesses (Syddell, 2005; Verstraete, 2004; Alavi, 2003; McCurry and McIvor, 2001; Mason-Jones et al., 2000; Segerstedt, 1999; Bowen and Youngdahl, 1998; Ugadawa, 1995; Drucker, 1990). Recent literature considers the application of performance improvement tools and techniques beyond the bounds of manufacturing organisations where they were first developed (Bateman et al., 2013). However, such improvement initiatives may still fail due to many complex factors (McLean and Antony, 2013).\n2. Literature review: A recurring criticism of the extant knowledge transfer literature is the relative lack of appropriate empirical testing and evidence to support theoretical concepts and organisational knowledge-models, a lack of common terminology to express the conceptual building blocks, and a tendency to focus upon the process of knowledge transfer and organisational learning rather than the process of knowledge creation (Schreyogg and Geiger, 2007; Nonaka et al., 2006; Eunni et al., 2006; Chan et al., 2005; Leonard and Sensiper, 1998; Nonaka, 1994).\n3. Activity Theory as a theoretical framework: Engestrom (2000a) emphasises Activity Theory among researchers in a range of disciplines as a useful tool for studying and understanding work. Skaret et al. (2002), in accord with this study, adopt the notion of knowing, and note Activity Theory's ability to provide insight into knowledge-generative activities that are dynamic and continuous processes.\n4. Methodology: This study comprises longitudinal, Participatory Action Research (PAR) study of three organisations engaged in PMapping in order to effect business process improvements. Whyte (1989) proffers PAR as a form of research that is rooted within the action research paradigm but distinct from other ways in which it is practiced. PAR is offered as a middle-ground that \"combines participant observation with explicitly recognised action objectives and a commitment to carry out the project with the active participation in the research process by some members of the organisation studied\" (p. 369). Adopting a role that is deeply embedded within the research context affords advantages that arguably cannot be achieved by other approaches. As Vinten (1994) states \"by being immersed in the events in progress, the researcher hopes to be in a position to obtain much more information and a greater depth of knowledge than would be possible from the outside looking in\" (p. 30).\n5. Analysis: This section is presented according to the structure of Activity Theory. Each section comprises the findings from the three organisations that were observed. Where it is pertinent, changes in approaches or the perceptions of individuals over time are presented in broadly chronological order. Participant statements are quoted throughout the Sections 5 and 6 to illustrate the findings.\n6. Discussion: The activity of PMapping was found to be of considerable value as a knowledge-generating approach within improvement projects in a variety of organisational contexts. Undertaking the activity of mapping business processes afforded the individuals responsible for the initiatives a mechanism for gaining detailed understanding of each organisation's practices.\n7. Conclusions: PMapping is a technique that is widely used to assist in organisational development and improvement. It is deemed to be capable of uncovering and capturing the knowledge that resides within both people and processes in organisations. This study makes several important contributions to knowledge and to business practice.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Business improvement initiatives have benefit for both an organisation's operational effectiveness and its knowledge acquisition capabilities. These have a synergistic effect upon the ability to gain and maintain competitive advantage. Among the multitude of approaches that can be adopted process mapping (PMapping) is widely used. The purpose of this paper is to examine the utilisation of PMapping for undertaking business process improvement and the resultant acquisition of knowledge among those that are involved in its performance and the subsequent use of process maps (PMaps).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Adopting the notion of\nFindings: It finds that PMapping is a useful technique for conducting business process improvements and acquiring knowledge of organisations and their people. It also finds that PMaps are useful knowledge repositories that have value beyond aiding the development of improved business processes. Socialisation is a key determinant of knowledge coproduction and transfer. This study finds that it occurs in formal and informal modes between individuals engaged in PMapping.\nResearch limitations/implications: The choice of PMapping technique may have significant influence upon the knowledge that is acquired by individuals and organisations during business process improvement initiatives. Future research should explore the relationship between PMapping methods, their knowledge-generative potential and the usability of the resultant PMaps.\nPractical implications: Organisations undertaking business process improvement initiatives should take account of those factors that mediate its undertaking and its knowledge-generative potential. The objectives of improvement initiatives and of specific activities such as PMapping need to be carefully considered. Changes in objectives need clear communication and justification, and the purpose and benefit of such changes must be weighed against the potential detrimental effect that they may have upon the workforce. Inconsiderate goals setting and changing can lead to individuals coming under significant psychological and sociological pressures.\nOriginality/value: This research furthers the understanding of knowledge acquisition and business process improvement in non-manufacturing environments. It identifies the challenges involved in adopting PMapping as a business improvement tool. It also provides insight into the use of the tool as a technique for fostering knowledge acquisition in individuals.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Staying connected: The communication between organizations and their environment
|
[
"Communication management",
"Stakeholder analysis",
"Negotiating",
"Channel relationships"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Many authors stress that continuous reflection by organizations on their environment, their \"biotope,\" is a prerequisite for survival. Although numerous models can be found for depicting and categorizing this outside world (for an overview, see Mitchell et al., 1997; Greenley and Foxall, 1997), relatively little attention has been given to the way such continuous reflection can be achieved. For specific stakeholder groups, abundant literature is available, including consumer groups (market research) or governments (public affairs), but there is no global and systematic overview of the communications activities required. The principle that communication is a cornerstone in the strategic operation of an organization is well accepted, especially in the field of corporate communication (Massie and Anderson, 2003). In practice, however, we see a lot of variety in the way an organization structures its communication with the outside world (Fleisher, 1998; Goodman, 2001). A better and more systematic exploration of the basic ideas of what has to be done communicatively to get \"in tune\" with the environment is therefore the next step.In this paper, we offer such an overview. A starting point is the model of core dependencies. Next, a scheme is presented that denotes the communication modalities at stake. We reflect on different modalities, including the way they relate to one another. Finally, we discuss the merits of the approach, as well as the questions it raises, especially concerning the communication costs that are part of an all-embracing strategy that deals with an extended environment.The practical value of having a good overview is twofold. On the one hand, it provides a better insight into the range of activities a communications manager has to deal with in the strategic planning phase and in the execution phase, and therefore the model can be used to get a more balanced distribution of costs and efforts. On the other hand, it reveals the kinds of competences that are at issue, and therefore criteria can be derived to evaluate existing competence profiles. These criteria are useful in the recruitment of communications specialists, as well as in the training and supervision of staff members. For communications research, the presented model can be applied in comparative studies of corporate communication practices and how these relate to performances. In this way, the merits of an all embracing strategy may be assessed.\nOrganizations and their environment: We begin by presenting a model that categorizes different types of dependencies between an organization and surrounding groups. This model, based on the work of Esman and Bruhns (1966), encapsulates the manifold accomplishments that have to be achieved in the field of corporate communication. The surrounding groups all \"have an interest in the actions of an organization and (...) the ability to influence it\" (Savage et al., 1991, p. 61). This influence can be expressed through different strategies, including: exit strategies (withholding resources, financial or material), legal strategies (lawsuits against a firm) or voice strategies (stimulating awareness on certain issues) (Maignan and Ferrel, 2004).Our definition of stakeholder groups is therefore quite narrow and excludes those in the contextual environment that, although affected by organizations, lack the intention or resources to influence these organizations. We assume that our perspective is realistic in that it recognizes the difficulty of coping with groups whose influence cannot be felt. Also, internal groups such as employees are excluded because they themselves in our view constitute the organization. We distinguish between the following five groups (Figure 1).Enabling groups, governmental agencies, make a certain production possible within the bounds of law. As Reich (1998, p. 15) says, all corporations \"are, after all, creations of law; they do not exist in a state of nature.\" Input groups provide the assets for an organization: money (shareholders), personnel (the market of employees), knowledge (research institutes, advisers) and material necessities (providers). Output groups consist of consumers, but these same consumers can act as citizens if the output is defined in societal terms (Nyborg, 2000). Then there are groups with comparable goals, with whom the organization can compete or collaborate, and, finally, normative groups (NGOs, media, religious organizations, political parties), who advocate opinions about the organization in terms of right or wrong.Each of these five groups creates a challenging agenda for continuous communications orientation and action, especially concerning:* the dynamics of each relationship; and* the interactions among the five groups and sub-groups.For instance, active citizens can influence normative groups, who influence media, who influence the government. This constantly changing network makes an organization vulnerable (while at the same time creating a stream of unexplored opportunities).Now to the heart of the matter: what can be done, in terms of communications, to ensure that organizations get in tune with their environment?\nLinking, but how?: Many attempts have been made to distinguish different types of communication. We briefly discuss three approaches.The first approach is based on the diversity of channels. Here, we can make a distinction between face-to-face communication and mediated communication, or between one- and two-sided communication, or between communication that reaches the eye, the ear, or a combination of both. Useful as these distinctions may be (especially for a practical decision like the choice of the medium), their value in relation to a general strategic communications approach is restricted because, for instance, we cannot ignore the intentions of the sender.This is the point of entry for the second approach, in which the ultimate aims of communications activities are categorized. In this connection, Rogers and Storey (1987) make a distinction between an information campaign, which has the objective of increasing knowledge, a persuasion campaign, which has the objective of changing attitudes, and a mobilization campaign, which has the objective of changing behavior. van Ruler (2004), in her \"communication grid,\" also makes a distinction between information and persuasion. In fact, one of the present authors also made this distinction in his working plan for mass communication (van Woerkum, 1991). However, the problem with it is precisely the relation between these desirable effects. We usually convey information not only to increase knowledge, but also to influence attitudes and behavior (and we try to change attitudes in order to change behavior). These outcomes appear in a hierarchy of effects (McQuail and Windahl, 1995). Even in everyday-life conversations, the simple act of \"informing\" is seldom unaccompanied by other intentions (Potter, 1996). Certainly in our case, where communication is designed strategically from the beginning, the separation of one of the effects - such as information versus persuasion - can create a lot of discussion. According to Pfan and Wan (2006, p. 126) \"persuasion continues to be an integral function of public relations. It is intrinsic to public relations activities aimed at external publics.\" We think they are right, and, therefore, we will not follow this line.We would like to include intentions, however. Our third approach is to link intentions not to ultimate effects but to intermediate effects. We see communication as a way to learn about our environment, and as a tool to position the organization in this environment. In addition, we are of the view that communication is needed to form effective relationships and to solve conflicts of interest (e.g. to come to an agreement). From this we select the basic activities that constitute our typology. Learning about our environment means \"exploring.\" Positioning, creating a correct and positive image, leads to \"informing\" (which is thus not separated from persuasion). These are activities with relatively limited need for interaction (a channel argument comes in here). The other (interactive) activities are \"relating\" (to form good relationships) and \"negotiating\" (to arrive at agreements in the event of different interests). These four modalities can stand alone, but at the same time influence each other, as we shall see.Our typology is inspired by several authors. \"Informing\" is of course, the traditional task of any communications specialist and therefore does not need much explanation. Nobody will overlook this modality. The importance of \"exploring\" as a basic activity is well illustrated by Sutcliffe (2001) in her extended article about organizational environments and organizational information processes. The interactive modalities are presented by Grunig and Grunig (1992, p. 320) in the exploration of their two-way symmetric model, \"a major component of excellence in public relations and communication management.\" \"Relating\" derives from \"relationship management,\" an important trend in our profession (Ledingham, 2003). \"Negotiating\" is included in van Ruler's (2004) grid under the name \"consensus building.\" Theoretically, the negotiation perspective is well developed by authors such as Pruitt and Carnevale (1993).We first analyze each modality in its purest form before looking at the connections between them.Exploring\nMixed forms: We have explained the basics of four communications modalities. However, the mixed modalities that arise from combinations of these four ideal types are interesting as well. We provide a short account of six intermediate forms shown in Figure 2.Exploring - informing\nConclusion: The ideas presented here about organizations and the challenges they must confront in the domain of corporate communication are not new. What is lacking in the general discourse, however, is a well-considered and structural overview of different communication tasks, how they are related, and how they can be managed coherently using state-of-the-art perspectives on effective communication. Compared for instance with the financial domain, the corporate communications domain exhibits markedly less evaluation, control and planning. Yet, much can be gained or lost through the use of a balanced corporate communications policy, given the need to stay connected to changes in the world beyond the organization itself. Just as in the financial domain (communications) credit is a key factor for survival.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to systematically explore the basic ideas of what organizations should do to get \"in tune\" with the environment they depend on.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Literature was selected and studied in the domain of corporate communication, interactive modalities, and negotiation, and related to communication-management of organizations.\nFindings: - The paper offers a well-considered and structural overview of different communication tasks, how they are related, and how they can be managed coherently using the state-of-the-art perspectives on effective communication.\nPractical implications: - The paper provides a model that gives a better insight into the range of activities a communications manager has to deal with in the strategic planning phase and in the execution phase. Therefore, the model can be used to get a more balanced distribution of consts and efforts. In addition, the paper reveals the kinds of competences that are at issue, and therefore criteria can be derived to evaluate existing competence profiles. These criteria are useful in the recruitment of communication specialists, as well as in the training and supervision of staff members.\nOriginality/value: - Although numerous models can be found for depicting and categorizing the environment of organizations, little attention has been given to the way such continuous reflection can be achieved. This paper offers a global and systematic overview of the communication activities required. The model, developed in the paper, can be applied in comparative studies of corporate communication practices and how these relate to performances.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Consumers' risk perception, information seeking, and intention to purchase genetically modified food: An empirical study in China
|
[
"Risk perception",
"Genetically modified food",
"Information seeking",
"Intention to purchase"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Since its introduction, genetically modified (GM) food has been surrounded with extensive and long-term controversies. People around the world have intensely debated the advantages and disadvantages of GM food (Wunderlich, 2016). On the positive side, applying GM technology to food production can decrease costs and provide convenience in increasing farming productivity as well as the vitamin content of food (Lopez Montesinos et al., 2016; Zhu and Xie, 2015). However, many prior studies have indicated the adverse effects of using GM technology in food production in various aspects (Prati et al., 2012; Hudson et al., 2015), such as ecosystem, gene transfer to wild plants' DNA and animal welfare. Consumer reactions are critical for the substantial development of new food products (Chen and Li, 2007; Zhang et al., 2018). In the case of GM food, consumer attitude and behavioral response affect commercialization (Frewer et al., 2013) as well as the decision making of stakeholders related to food industries, such as governmental policymakers, farmers and agro-biotechnology enterprises (Lopez Montesinos et al., 2016; Rodriguez-Entrena and Salazar-Ordonez, 2013).\n2. Theoretical framework and model development: Fishbein's (1963) multi-attribute attitude model provides relevant insights to study consumer behavior. With Fishbein's model as basis, Bredahl's (2001) attitude model suggests that consumers' intention to purchase GM food is influenced by risk perception, which is affected by knowledge. After reviewing a great number of evidence on consumer behavior, Costa-Font et al. (2008) illustrated an explanatory process of GM food acceptance that states consumer decision making as a multi-stage process. In their model, consumers' intention to purchase GM food is driven by attitude, which is influenced by risk perception associated with GM food. Moreover, knowledge is considered as a predictor of risk perception. Indeed, the present study is inspired by Costa-Font et al.'s (2008) framework by adapting the information flow from knowledge to risk perception, followed by attitude and purchase intention. Moreover, understanding consumers' information behavior is important to marketing decisions (Lioutas, 2014) that can influence consumers' attitudes and behavioral response (Kuttschreuter, 2006). Thus other than the key elements in Costa-Font et al.'s (2008) framework, this study emphasizes the role of information behavior (refers to information need and information seeking here) in predicting attitude and purchase intention.\n3. Research method: 3.1 Sample and data collection\n4. Results: Considering the conceptual model described in this study, consumers' intention to purchase GM food is explained by multiple variables. Structural equation modeling (SEM), which is one of the widely used ways of multivariable analysis, is suitable for analyzing the collected data. The SEM analysis was conducted by AMOS. According to Anderson and Gerbing (1988), two-stage analytical procedures were performed subsequently. First, a measurement model was created and estimated by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to test reliability and validity. Second, a structural model was established and conducted with SEM analysis to verify the hypothesized relationships of proposed model under the condition of a satisfactory measurement model.\n5. Discussion and conclusions: The study aims to investigate the determinants of consumers' perception and intention to purchase GM food. The study is inspired by Costa-Font et al.'s (2008) framework by adapting the information flow from knowledge to risk perception, followed by attitude and purchase intention. This study also focuses on the role of information behavior in predicting purchase intention. Empirical results confirm that knowledge is a significant determinant of consumers' risk perception and purchase intention toward GM food, supporting previous studies (Vecchione et al., 2015; Hudson et al., 2015). Great knowledge can reduce consumers' risk perception and increase their intention to purchase GM food.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore consumers' intention to purchase genetically modified (GM) food from the perspective of risk information.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A conceptual model was proposed in which intention to purchase GM food is stimulated by the combination and complex effects of knowledge, risk perception, information need, information seeking and attitude. A face-to-face questionnaire survey was conducted in Jinan, Shandong Province. A total of 757 valid samples (55.6 percent of women vs men) were involved to conduct structural equation model analysis.\nFindings: Results demonstrated that attitude is the most important predictor of intention to purchase GM food. Attitude, in turn, is predicted by risk perception and information seeking. Risk perception is a significant determinant of information need and information seeking. Moreover, information need influences information seeking. Finally, knowledge plays a critical role in risk perception and intention. Overall, the explained variance of the model is 66 percent.\nOriginality/value: The study provides new insights explaining intention to purchase GM food by constructing a conceptual model from the perspective of risk information. In this model, knowledge, risk perception, information need and information seeking are all based on information related to GM food, resulting in attitude and intention to purchase.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Effect of TB behaviour change communication (BCC) intervention in Enugu state, southeast Nigeria
|
[
"Africa",
"Communication",
"Nigeria",
"Behaviour change",
"Media",
"Tuberculosis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In Nigeria, efforts have been made in recent times to expand and strengthen tuberculosis (TB) control; however, progress so far has been limited. Case detection and cure rate still remain below the World Health Organisation's (WHO) target of 70 and 85 per cent, respectively. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO, 2009), the country's case detection rate doubled between 2000 (12 per cent) and 2008 (24 per cent) and treatment success rate increased to 82 per cent; these indicators still remain among the lowest of the high-burden TB countries. The World Health Organisation (WHO, 2007) claims that the enhancement of advocacy, communication and social mobilisation (ACSM) at country level has been a major strategy in attaining global targets since the launch of the \"Stop TB\" strategy in 2006. The strategy is aimed at improving case detection and treatment adherence, combating stigma and discrimination and empowering people affected by TB. A growing body of evidence demonstrates that an integrated and sustained ACSM strategy can positively impact on a country's ability to achieve or even surpass case-detection targets (WHO, 2007; Rahevar et al., 2011). WHO (2007, p. 3) defines communication about TB as \"activities designed to create and improve knowledge among the general public about TB, TB control services and to improve interpersonal communication\". Communication coverage indicators include the percentage of the population who are aware that a chronic cough could be a sign of TB, that testing and treatment are free and that the disease is curable.\nMethodology: Study area\nResults: Socio-demographic characteristics of respondents (Table I)\nDiscussion: Generally, access to media was higher among urban residents than their rural counterparts and more households had access to radio than television. This is probably because acquisition and use of radio is cheaper and depends less on electricity which is less readily available in the rural areas. Radio thus provides wider communication reach than television. Most people in both localities listened to radios or watched television in the evening, usually after retiring from the day's activity. News either in English or the vernacular was the most common programme listened to or watched. The TB BCC message was aired usually in the morning just before or immediately after the National Network News. However, considering that most people listened to radio in the evenings, there is need to adjust the timing of the message to evening hours probably before, during or after the local news in the evening.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: In 2007, Nigeria commenced a nationwide behavioural change communication (BCC) intervention to increase uptake of tuberculosis (TB) care services. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effect of TB BCC intervention on knowledge and perception of TB in Enugu state, southeast Nigeria.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This is a cross-sectional study carried out in December 2009 in which a total of 1,200 respondents (620 males and 580 females) from six local government areas (three urban and three rural), selected by multi-stage sampling technique were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire.\nFindings: The survey showed that most of the respondents had access to radio and about half to television. Access to media was significantly higher in urban areas than rural areas. Radio and community were the commonest sources of information of TB. The majority of the respondents were aware of that there was a message, however, ability to recall the content of the message varied. Significant association was observed between knowledge of the health education message and knowledge of TB transmission, that TB is curable and of appropriate care-seeking behaviour. Access to this media health education intervention was determined by age, gender, educational status, literacy, religion and access to media.\nPractical implications: The study showed that TB BCC is associated with high-level awareness of TB disease and appropriate care-seeking behaviour. Socio-demographic characteristics and locality were found to influence access to mass media communication. Therefore, consideration should be given to the appropriateness of medium of communication in the design of TB BCC. However, there is need to combine it with other strategies to reach the disadvantaged population.\nOriginality/value: This study is the first population-based survey to ascertain access to TB-related BCC intervention and its effect on knowledge and care-seeking behaviour of this study population.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
High performance work systems: the gap between policy and practice in health care reform
|
[
"Health care",
"Public sector reform",
"Organizational performance",
"Australia"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: There have been considerable worldwide concerns about hospital performance in patient safety and quality (HMSO, 2001; McLean and Walsh, 2003; World Health Organisation, 2001; Committee on Quality of Healthcare in America, 2001; Baker and Flintoff, 2004; Duckett, 2003), with evidence that hospitals have not been successful in achieving acknowledged best practice in quality health care delivery (Dwyer and Leggat, 2002; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2004; Braithwaite and Hindle, 1999; Ibrahim and Majoor, 2002). In an effort to address this lack of performance, as well as improving health system productivity, efficiency and controlling costs, many developed countries are embarking on reform of public health systems.Studies of high-performing organisations in a variety of industries have consistently pointed to a positive relationship between high-performance work systems (HPWS) (also referred to as high-performance workplaces, high-commitment workplaces, high-involvement work systems and high-performance practice) and organisational performance (Delaney and Huselid, 1996; Guthrie, 2001; Youndt et al., 1996; Barraud-Didier and Guerrero, 2002). Although many of these studies have been carried out in manufacturing, which is a very different industry from health care (Preuss, 2003), there are increasing numbers of health care studies from around the world finding positive correlations between aspects of HPWS and improved patient outcomes (Harmon et al., 2003; Aiken et al., 1994; West et al., 2006; Harley et al., 2007; Laschinger et al., 2001). However, a meta-analysis suggested that service-based industries did not demonstrate the same strength in effect of HPWS as that achieved in manufacturing (Combs et al., 2006).Despite the stronger effects recorded in manufacturing, there is mounting evidence of a positive relationship between HPWS and organisational performance in health care, yet there is little evidence that HPWS exist in health care organisations, which may begin to answer why public hospitals have not achieved best practice health care. Of greater concern is that there is little evidence that the health system reform agenda has recognised and addressed basic human resource management issues (Bach, 2000) that would enable HPWS in health care organisations. This paper draws together the findings from a number of studies we have completed that first of all, demonstrate the link of HPWS with organisational performance, including the perceived quality of patient care delivered. Secondly, we show that despite the growing evidence for HPWS in health care, in Australian public hospitals there is little evidence of the implementation and maintenance of HPWS, and while there is rhetoric around aspects of HPWS in reform policy, there is almost no focus in the implementation of the reforms. We then comment on the reasons for this lack of emphasis.\nBackground: The Australian health care system is characterised by fragmentation, with both national and state and territory governments controlling various parts of the system. For example, the national government carries responsibility for doctors through the Medical Benefits Scheme, but gives responsibility for public hospitals to the five states and two territories, with negotiated agreements known as the Australian Healthcare Agreements. As with most health care systems in developed countries, the public system has difficulty coping with the increasing demand associated with the ageing population and chronic conditions, and with the rising costs of service provision. Although there is a two-tiered system with both public and private providers, Australians can generally access free health care.Most recently recommendations of the National Health and Hospital Reform Commission (2009), which clearly assigned responsibility for sectors of the public health system to reduce this fragmentation, were accepted by the national government. This has led to the announcement of an ambitious program of health reform that all of the states and territories, except Western Australia, have signed up to. The program of reform focuses largely on system governance and funding, with a focus on strengthening primary health and exerting greater national standards for public hospitals. Consistent with other health system reforms, little attention was paid in the design of the reforms on the health care workforce. The Commission did make a strong plea for clinical engagement to guide the health reforms (National Health and Hospital Reform Commission, 2009), but this in itself is concerning as an HR environment comprising HPWS would guarantee appropriate engagement of the clinical and non-clinical workforce.High-performance work systems\nMethods: This paper reports on the results of studies we have completed in the Victorian (Australia) public health care sector (Bartram et al., 2007, Leggat et al., 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010; Young et al., 2010; Bonias et al., 2010; Stanton et al., 2010). The studies used a combination of quantitative and qualitative methodologies. For the quantitative data collection two organisational level surveys and a system level survey were completed. The organisational level questionnaire was provided with the pay slips to all 240 staff within a rural hospital (30 per cent response rate) and 1700 staff of a regional hospital (32 per cent response rate) (Studies 1 and 2) to measure HPWS, selected HRM outcomes (such as job satisfaction, empowerment, staff turnover) and perceived quality of patient care. The questionnaire was sent to all levels of management and staff including medical, nursing, allied health, clerical and administrative, and support staff.The system level questionnaire was mailed to a sample of 536 Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) (50 per cent response rate), Human Resource Managers (90 per cent response rate) and other Senior Managers (49 per cent response rate) in all 132 public hospitals and community health services in the State of Victoria, Australia (Study 3). This questionnaire was designed to measure HRM policy, practice and outcomes (e.g. number of staff leaving voluntarily, hours lost doe to local disputes, number of hours lost through injury, etc.) within the organisations from the perspective of the three types of managers. We also completed interviews with senior managers and focus groups with the middle and line managers of two rural hospitals and one regional hospital (Studies 1, 2 and 3) to examine the enactment of the HRM policies and practices within the organisations. Finally key documents related to the proposed health system reform for Australia were reviewed to gage the emphasis on human resource management and workforce in the planned reforms.Measures\nResults: The results have been comprehensively published in seven studies (Bartram et al., 2007; Leggat et al., 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010; Young et al., 2010; Stanton et al., 2010) and space does not permit replication of all of these results here; only a summary is presented (Table I). First, the system-level study demonstrated positive relationships between HRM functions and HRM outcomes within health care organisations throughout the state (Bartram et al., 2007), suggesting a link between effective HRM and intermediate organisational HR outcomes such as absenteeism, grievances and staff turnover. Second, the organisation-level studies, focusing on HPWS, HRM attitudinal outcomes and perceptions of quality of care, consistently identified a positive relationship between these constructs, with evidence of a mediating relationship of selected HRM attitudinal outcomes. In the study of the links between HPWS, affective commitment, social identification with the work group and job satisfaction among all hospital staff we found HPWS were positively associated with affective commitment, job satisfaction and social identification of employees with their colleagues (Young et al., 2010). In the study of the relationship between HPWS and perceptions of quality of care among nurses, we found that HPWS was related to psychological empowerment, which was related to the perceptions of the quality of care of the nurses. This relationship was moderated by job satisfaction and psychological empowerment mediated the relationship between HPWS and perceived quality of patient care (Leggat et al., 2010). These findings, coupled with those of other researchers (Purdy et al., 2010; Laschinger and Wong, 1999, Scotti et al., 2007) are building strong support for a model where high-quality care delivery is linked to a bundle of HRM practices, largely identified as HPWS.Yet, our system-level study of the current state of HRM within health care organisations within Victoria showed a general lack of strategic HRM, including HPWS, within the health care organisations of this state (Leggat et al., 2008), with larger hospitals demonstrating fewer aspects of HPWS than smaller community health services (Leggat et al., 2006). We also found that different levels of managers had different perceptions of their organisation's strategic HRM, with CEOs generally reporting a more positive view of HRM than the other senior managers (Bartram et al., 2007). Consistent with this message, more detailed case study showed limited leadership in HRM and a distinct lack of within group agreement on HRM within our case study health care organisations (Stanton et al., 2010).Recent policy documents also support a lack of basic HRM within the health care system. The fact that a National Health and Hospitals Commission and a multitude of state reports have identified clinical engagement as a requirement for system reform (National Health and Hospital Reform Commission, 2009; Garling, 2008; Davies, 2005), suggests that the public health system is a long way off having high-performance work systems in place. Given that HRM is linked not only with effective ongoing operations, but with the potential to make changes (Leggat and Dwyer, 2002), this leads to the concern that the system is not ready for the changes required for reform.\nDiscussion: Our results show consistency with other studies, suggesting that high-performance work systems; specifically, selective hiring, extensive training, teams and decentralised decision making, information sharing, transformational leadership and effective job characteristics, such as appropriate workload, role clarity, and employee control are positively related to organisational performance in health care. Moreover, for different occupational groups there was some suggestion of mediation and/or moderation of this relationship by attitudinal HR outcomes, such as job satisfaction, social identification and psychological empowerment. Our results add to the mounting evidence of the importance of HRM practices in ensuring the desired organisational outcome of high quality patient care.Health care is a labour-intensive industry requiring effective human resource management practices (Stanton, 2008), yet we found little evidence that the health care sector in Victoria (Bartram et al., 2007, Leggat et al., 2005, 2006), and likely in other parts of the world (Saltman and Figueras, 1997; Rigoli and Dussault, 2003; Franco et al., 2002), has been effective at ensuring these aspects of human resource management are in place. We found that CEOs generally reported a more positive view of HRM than the other senior managers (Bartram et al., 2007). This may be linked to the distinction between HRM policies and practices (Wright and Boswell, 2002), with CEOs focused on the policy and other managers more concerned with the practice. However, \"an organisation may have an abundance of written policies concerning [HRM] and top management may even believe it is practiced, but these policies and beliefs are meaningless until the individual perceives them as something important to her or his organisational well-being\" (Van Den Berg et al., 1999 p. 302).It is suggested that HPWS impact on three areas within an organisation:1. the work organisation;2. the management of the production (or service delivery) processes; and3. employee relations (Belanger et al., 2002).This would suggest that health system reform initiatives would be concerned at ensuring HPWS were included in the reform \"package\", as health system reform typically addresses the work organisation and production, and is conditional on workforce participation. The literature suggests that if HPWS were in place there would be a much greater chance of success in the implementation of system reforms, but the very nature of the public health care system provides barriers to HPWS in each of these three dimensions, as outlined below.The organisation of work: parallel threads of specialisation\nConclusions: Our research has added to the growing body of knowledge, suggesting a positive relationship between high-performance work systems in human resource management and organisation performance - specifically perceptions of the quality of patient care delivered within health care organisations. But our research has also highlighted that within these health care organisations there is little evidence of implementation and maintenance of the necessary components of HPWS.We believe that the implementation of HPWS within public health care organisations in Australia has been hampered by the nature of the provision of health care. In particular, the public health care sector demonstrates an antiquated work organisation, which was designed to serve different patient needs from those presenting to health care organisations today. Constrained by this outdated model of work organisation, the production processes resist management and there is a general lack of support within the Australian industrial relations framework. Given the policy-practice gap we have found between the worth of HPWS and the existence of HPWS in the sector, we believe that leaders in health care organisations should focus on ensuring human resource management systems, structures and processes that support HPWS as an essential and necessary component of health system reform. There is a strong need to reorient organisational human resource management policies and procedures in public health care organisations towards high-performing work systems.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Studies of high-performing organisations have consistently reported a positive relationship between high performance work systems (HPWS) and performance outcomes. Although many of these studies have been conducted in manufacturing, similar findings of a positive correlation between aspects of HPWS and improved care delivery and patient outcomes have been reported in international health care studies. The purpose of this paper is to bring together the results from a series of studies conducted within Australian health care organisations. First, the authors seek to demonstrate the link found between high performance work systems and organisational performance, including the perceived quality of patient care. Second, the paper aims to show that the hospitals studied do not have the necessary aspects of HPWS in place and that there has been little consideration of HPWS in health system reform.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper draws on a series of correlation studies using survey data from hospitals in Australia, supplemented by qualitative data collection and analysis. To demonstrate the link between HPWS and perceived quality of care delivery the authors conducted regression analysis with tests of mediation and moderation to analyse survey responses of 201 nurses in a large regional Australian health service and explored HRM and HPWS in detail in three case study organisations. To achieve the second aim, the authors surveyed human resource and other senior managers in all Victorian health sector organisations and reviewed policy documents related to health system reform planned for Australia.\nFindings: - The findings suggest that there is a relationship between HPWS and the perceived quality of care that is mediated by human resource management (HRM) outcomes, such as psychological empowerment. It is also found that health care organisations in Australia generally do not have the necessary aspects of HPWS in place, creating a policy and practice gap. Although the chief executive officers of health service organisations reported high levels of strategic HRM, the human resource and other managers reported a distinct lack of HPWS from their perspectives. The authors discuss why health care organisations may have difficulty in achieving HPWS.\nOriginality/value: - Leaders in health care organisations should focus on ensuring human resource management systems, structures and processes that support HPWS. Policy makers need to consider HPWS as a necessary component of health system reform. There is a strong need to reorient organisational human resource management policies and procedures in public health care organisations towards high performing work systems.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Role of integration-segmentation on work-family interface of insurance sector employees in India
|
[
"Gender",
"Work-family enrichment",
"Work-family conflict",
"Work-family boundaries"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Work and family are closely interlinked domains of an employee's life. From Kanter's (1977) to Ruppanner and Huffman's (2014), research on the nature of these linkages has captured the attention of researchers for long and deflated the myth of separate spheres of work and family. The rise of the 24/7 knowledge economy, facilitated by technological developments such as smart phones, internet and laptops has also made it possible for employees to have 24/7 communication with work concerns (Kossek et al., 2012). While it has impacted the efficiency at work, it has also posed newer challenges for individuals and organizations by making the lines between work and family fuzzy. This has stimulated scholars to focus on the boundaries between work and family to gain more clarity on work-family experiences (Ashforth et al., 2000; Ilies et al., 2009; Kreiner et al., 2009; Matthews et al., 2010; Nippert-Eng, 1996). However, very few of these studies have focussed on empirically examining the role of boundary management style of the individual on her/his work-family experience.\nLiterature review: WFC and WFE\nStudy objectives: In summary, the primary objective of the study is to examine how boundary management style relates to important work-family outcomes, more specifically, WFC and WFE. This is a response to calls for empirically examining the role of boundaries. While doing this, the study attempts to make two other secondary contributions to key issues in the work-family literature. First, it attempts to explore if there are gender differences in experiencing WFC and WFE. Second, it simultaneously examines the occurrence of WFC and WFE and attempts to find how they are related to each other.\nMethod: Design\nResults: As explained earlier, correlational analysis of the scores obtained on the Resource Priority Measure enabled us to arrive at 78 Integrators and 78 Segmentors. To compare the effects of integration and segmentation on the different indicators of WFC and WFE, analysis of variance was resorted to. Prior to that, care was taken to see that the requirements of independence of cases, normality and homogeneity of variances were satisfied for conducting ANOVA. The between groups design of the study ensured independence of cases by ensuring that the respondent belonged to a mutually exclusive group. Means of the dependent variables of the groups were tested for skewness and kurtosis and it was found that they were normally distributed. Further, according to the Central Limit Theorem with large sample sizes, sampling distributions of means are normally distributed regardless of the shapes of the distribution of the variables. According to Keppel (1991), the F test was commonly held to be robust to violations of homogeneity of variance assumption except when unequal group sizes are involved. In this case, the groups were of equal size. To be doubly sure, the dependent variables were also subjected to Levene's test for equality of variances which indicated equal variances across both groups for the different dimensions of WFC and WFE. Analysis of variance performed on the time-based work-to-family conflict scores and strain-based work-to-family scores of Integrators and Segmentors reveals that the effect of integration vs segmentation is significant (see Table I). The effect of integration vs. segmentation is not significant for behaviour-based work-to-family conflict F (1, 155)=0.953, p>0.05, although Integrators had higher scores than Segmentors. Analysis of variance performed on the work-to-family conflict scores reveals that the effect of integration vs. segmentation is significant with F (1, 155)=6.961, p<0.01. The mean work-to-family conflict scores was significantly higher for Integrators (M=17.1, SD=2.04) than for Segmentors (M=15.8, SD=1.98).\nDiscussion: The integrated segmented difference on WFC\nConclusion: In summary, it can be seen that Integrators have reported higher levels of WFC in both directions, i.e. work-to-family conflict and family-to-work conflict. In contrast it is found that those individuals who operate from a segmented boundary strategy report less WFC in both directions. As compared to Segmentors, it is found that Integrators report greater WFE in both directions, perhaps because for them the boundaries between work and family are more blurred. It is also interesting to note that there are no gender differences in the experience of WFC and WFE.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Researchers have used different approaches to understand how individuals combine work with family, one being boundary and transition management. However, very few studies have focussed on empirically examining the role of individual boundary management style on work-family experience. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap by examining the role of integration-segmentation on work-family conflict (WFC) and work-family enrichment (WFE). Two secondary purposes are to explore gender differences in work-family experiences and to examine the relationship between WFC and WFE.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The predictor variable in the primary study is integration (with two levels segmented and integrated). Different measures of WFC and WFE are criterion variables. Survey method was used to collect data from 156 life insurance professionals including 64 women employees in India. The average age of the sample is 35 years (SD=6.56). Boundary strategy of integration or segmentation between work and family is determined by measuring similarity in resource priority between work and family. Median split technique is used to delineate the groups.\nFindings: The study has three key findings: employees with integrated boundary strategy report greater levels of both WFC and WFE; no gender differences exist in the experience of WFC and WFE; and WFC and WFE were found to be unrelated to each other.\nOriginality/value: The paper empirically studies the role of boundaries on WFC and WFE of insurance employees. It is a response to researchers' call to integrate boundary theory with spillover theory and examine the role of integration-segmentation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Organizational culture and information systems strategic alignment: Exploring the influence through an empirical study from Tunisia
|
[
"Organizational culture",
"Information system",
"Strategic alignment",
"ERP post-implementation",
"PLS approach"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: During the last decades, the topic of information system (IS) alignment with the business strategy has received increasing attention in IS research (Baker et al., 2011; El-Mekawy et al., 2015; Gerow et al., 2015; Reich and Benbasat, 2000; Renaud et al., 2016; Tallon and Pinsonneault, 2011). In a recent study by the Society for Information Management, strategic alignment of IS appears as one of the top three issues for chief information officers (CIOs) (Luftman and Derksen, 2012). It is of significant importance because the strategic alignment of IS and organisational performance is correlated (Al-Surmi et al., 2019; Chan et al., 1997; Corteau and Bergeron, 2001; Ilmudeen et al., 2019). Besides, failure to align the IS with an organisation's strategic objectives may bring about the failure of the system (Ravishankar et al., 2011). IS alignment remains a critical issue for corporate executives and CIOs. Prior studies pointed out that IS alignment is a multidimensional construct and that firms have traditionally experienced a high degree of complexity in achieving it (Ilmudeen et al., 2019).\n2. Literature review: what is the rank of organisational culture in IS strategic alignment literature?: 2.1 IS strategic alignment: towards an informal dimension\n3. Research model: 3.1 Research concepts\n4. Research methodology: 4.1 Research field and data collection\n5. Data analysis and findings: 5.1 PLS results: outer model evaluation\n6. Discussion and implications: This research's purpose was to understand the organisational culture's influence on IS strategic alignment, particularly, the most significant culture types, according to the CVF (Cameron et al., 2006). The results are summarised in Table VI, through which, two research proposals are suggested.\n7. Contributions: 7.1 Theoretical contribution\n8. Conclusion, limitations and future research directions: This research aimed to shed light on organisational culture's influence on the IS strategic alignment. In order to obtain empirical evidence for this relationship, a survey was carried out, based on a sample of 160 BMs of 53 large companies located in Tunisia with international activities and being in the post-implementation operational use phase of their ERP systems. Using the PLS approach, the results show that clan culture's influence on the IS alignment along with the strategic priorities is significant.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Information systems (IS) strategic alignment is a significant chief information officers (CIO) and top management issue because of its impact on a firm's performance and profitability. Previous studies have primarily examined informal dimension's influence on IS strategic alignment. Nevertheless, a few research works have emphasised cultural dimension's effect. The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate and bring out organisational culture's influence on IS strategic alignment. Notably, it highlights the most significant culture types, according to the Competing Value Framework (Cameron et al., 2006).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Empirical setting comprises a quantitative approach using a survey based on a sample of 160 business managers (BMs) of 53 large companies located in Tunisia with international activities and being in the post-implementation operational use phase of their enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The partial least square (PLS) method has been used for data analysis.\nFindings: The results provide an empirical evidence supporting a positive and significant organisational culture's influence on the IS strategic alignment. The findings also show that \"Clan Culture\" (Internal/Flexibility-oriented culture) positively influences IS alignment along with the strategic priorities. These findings provide guidance and help understand how, through clan culture, the company can contribute significantly to the success of its ERP systems strategic alignment during the most critical phase, namely, post-implementation.\nOriginality/value: Despite abundant work related to IS alignment topic, little research, to the authors' knowledge, has been undertaken in considering organisational culture's influence. Thus, this research aims to fill this gap and to raise new questions about IS alignment. First, this study puts together organisational culture (through the Competing values Framework) and strategic alignment (through the IS use dimension) in a single research model to analyse four culture types' direct effect on IS alignment. Second, this study is innovative in its use of the ERP post-implementation as an empirical framework. The post-implementation phase is often played down in research work in favour of the upstream pre-implementation phases. Furthermore, the findings bring together theoretical and practical insights on both IS-business strategic alignment and ERP post-implementation. Thus, future research could emphasise the role of clan culture in the efficiency of ERP systems strategic alignment during the usage phase. Building on these findings, BM, CIO and top management are advised to promote this culture type based on communication, information sharing and the spirit of internal partnership - so that their ERP systems are used appropriately and aligned with the company's strategic priorities.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Provision and usage of open government data: strategic transformation paths
|
[
"Open data",
"Open government",
"Open data provision",
"Open data usage",
"Patterns of provision and usage of open data",
"Strategic transformation path"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The importance of data is gaining recognition around the world. Companies are looking for new business insights and opportunities by analyzing the data accumulated through business activities across firm boundaries. This trend indicates the increasing value of interoperable data that are easily accessible and usable by anyone or any system (Jetzek, 2016). Governments in many countries are also exerting similar efforts to meet this trend by actively disclosing government data to the public as \"open data\" that can be used by the public and private sectors (Conradie and Choenni, 2014). The benefits of open data range from political and social benefits (e.g. Gonzalez-Zapata and Heeks, 2015), to economic benefits (e.g. Zeleti et al., 2016) and operational and technical benefits (e.g. Janssen et al., 2012). Given these benefits, an increasing number of countries have invested massive funds and various resources to establish open data portals for their government's data release (Zhao and Fan, 2018). According to a global report, the number of countries operating open data portals increased from 77 in 2013 to 115 in 2016 (Davies, 2013; Iglesias and Robinson, 2016).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Definition of open data\n3. Research methodology: As aforementioned, this study attempts to analyze the cases by collecting data from the open data portals of 13 countries that provide all information on the provision and usage of open data together. Through this exploratory case study approach, we attempt to understand the status and patterns of provision and usage of open data. The following are the reasons for choosing a case study: case studies provide a variety of insights into understanding and interpreting phenomena by looking at representative examples from diverse perspectives (Cooper and Schindler, 2008); and this study is an early attempt to understand the status of open data provision and usage and grasp patterns inductively. Therefore, based on this study, further specific and empirical open data provision and usage research and theoretical development can be possible areas for future research.\n4. Data analysis: Formulas (1)-(6) were rescaled to values between 0 and 1 through normalization because the ranges of values across countries were different, as summarized in Table II. Figure 2 shows the visualization of the values in Table II to derive meaningful patterns from the data analysis results.\n5. Patterns of provision and usage of open data: Figure 3 was derived to gain a better understanding on the status of provision and usage of open data in Figure 2(c). First, to derive meaningful patterns from the analysis results, data set categories were reclassified into ten common categories (Figure 3). The reclassification was conducted for each of the 13 countries. Second, the provision and usage scores for each of the ten categories were recalculated. Third, we calculated the average value of the open data provision and usage for countries that belong to each quadrant in Figure 2(c). For example, the bottom left quadrant of Figure 2(c) includes eight countries. The average value of open data provision and usage scores for each of these eight countries was calculated accordingly. Finally, to examine the patterns of open data provision and usage levels in 13 countries, we rescaled the values derived from the previous step through normalization. Figure 3 displays the patterns of provision and usage of open data in each quadrant, and Table III summarizes their main characteristics.\n6. Discussion and implications: next steps for sustainable growth: The ultimate goal of all countries should be to reach the top right quadrant shown in Figure 3(d). Countries in this quadrant should have the following characteristics: a pattern simultaneously driven by the government (i.e. supply side) and the market (i.e. demand side); a pattern with high levels of open data provision and usage; a pattern wherein all data categories are equally important in terms of data provision and usage; and open data provision and usage as the main concerns of service delivery and public accountability. To meet these characteristics, a reciprocal relationship should be developed between the government and the market (Sieber and Johnson, 2015). For example, before releasing open data, the government needs to understand user requirements, such as types of data sets to be opened and prioritization of certain data sets. Users can contribute toward improving data set openness and updates by providing feedback on issues that may occur in utilizing the data sets. Consequently, this pattern is denoted as \"interaction-driven pattern\" (Pattern 4).\n7. Conclusion: This study revealed the importance of developing both the supply (provisioning) and demand (usage) sides of open data in the context of open government initiatives. The proposed patterns and transformation paths represent clear elements to help governments develop open data agenda. Following the guidelines suggested in this study, governments may be able to reduce potential risks and increase expected benefits when they establish and manage open data portals for their government data.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: To create the expected value and benefits through open data, appropriate provision and usage of data are required simultaneously. However, the level of provision and usage of open data differs from country to country. Moreover, previous research on open data has only focused on either open data provision or usage. To fill the research gap, the purpose of this paper is threefold: first, to understand the current status of the provision and usage of open data; second, to identify patterns in the provision and usage of open data; and third, to provide appropriate future directions and guidelines for the transformation paths of each pattern.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors analyzed the data collected from open data portals of 13 countries that provide information on the provision and usage of open data together.\nFindings: The authors identified four patterns of the provision and usage of open data, namely, availability-driven, government-driven, market-driven and interaction-driven patterns. Furthermore, three strategic paths of transformation reach a high level of open data provision and usage, namely, data provision-focused, data usage-focused and balanced transformation paths.\nOriginality/value: This study provides a foundation that enables researchers to build a holistic theory that can integrate fragmented and incomplete knowledge of open data and usage, particularly in the context of government.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A multidimensional approach to employee participation and the association with social identification in organizations
|
[
"Employee participation",
"Employee relations",
"Work identity",
"Health services"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Through decades of organizational research, researchers and practitioners with different organizational approaches have been interested in employees' participation in organizational decisions, e.g. the management and the humanistic approach (Dachler and Wilpert, 1978). The management approach focuses on participation as an instrument to enhance employees' attachment and loyalty to their organizations. The humanistic approach views participation as beneficial to human growth and satisfaction of social needs. Both of the approaches suggest that participation may improve employee's evaluations of their relations to the organization (Summers and Hyman, 2005).\nBackground: Research in employee participation has investigated how participation effects employees' relations in terms of affective, motivational and identification attributes, applying constructs like organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behaviour (VanYperen et al., 1999; Tesluk et al., 1999). Wilpert (1998) criticizes the abovementioned and similar constructs of employees' relations to the organization for lacking theoretical background and he characterizes their definitions as \"fuzzy\". Since, the construct of social identification is founded on comprehensive research specifying mechanisms and processes associated with social identification (Haslam, 2001), Wilpert's criticism does not apply when it comes to social identification. Thus, social identification is a valuable construct when investigating the association between participation and employees' relations to their organization. Various studies have shown that social identification is related to both organizational commitment and job motivation (Mael and Tetrick, 1992; Riketta, 2005; Wegge et al., 2006).Social identification is defined as \"the extent to which the group is valued and self-involving\" (Haslam, 2001). The construct is based on Tajfel's (1978, p. 63) definition of social identity as:[...] that part of an individual's self-concept which derives from his [or her] knowledge of his [or her] membership of a social group (or groups) together with the value and emotional significance attached to that membership.According to the social identity theory, individuals evaluate the groups or organizations they belong to in terms of status. High status implies a positive social identity or high social identification (Tajfel, 1978; Tajfel and Turner, 1979). This approach to social identity has later been developed by Turner et al. (1987) who propose that status may also derive from comparing with other ingroup members on the status dimension, i.e. intragroup status or standing (Tyler and Blader, 2003). Following these later theoretical notions, Fuller et al. (2006) argue that employee participation is linked with organizational identification \"because it signals inclusion [and] that the organization values the individual's opinions ... \" (p. 823). Their field study of hospital employees showed that employee participation was positively related to employees' perceived respect, i.e. their status within the organization, and, in turn, related to social identification with the organization (i.e. organizational identification). The study applied Steel and Mento's (1987) scale to measure participation in decision making. Despite their intention to measure the degree of influence in participation, only one item explicitly deals with degree of influence. The four remaining items deals with the mere access to participative decision making and this is not necessarily the same as having much influence in the decision-making process. Further, the scale by Steel and Mento (1987) deals with participation at an individual level and only issues affecting the individual's work or work group. In short, participation is uni-dimensionally conceived and operationalized. Since, participation may also be viewed as a multidimensional construct (Dachler and Wilpert, 1978) it is relevant to ask what dimensions of participation are linked with organizational identification?Dimensions of participation\nHypotheses: The present study elaborates on the assumption that participation is positively associated with social identification because participation signals status and inclusion. If this assumption is correct, any form of participation in decisions on both proximal and distal issues will signal inclusion and status. Further, the hypotheses are based on the assumption that the intensity of participation signals the participants' degree of status and inclusion. In sum, the hypotheses state that intensity of all dimensions of participation is positively associated with social identification. Further, theories on organizational identity point to the possibility of multiple foci for identification, i.e. organizational subgroups may be targets of social identification (Albert and Whetten, 1985; Haslam, 2001). Subscribing to this view, the present study includes both subgroup and organization as foci of social identification. Thus, social identification with the occupational group is suggested as a mediator and social identification with the organizational is applied as dependent variable.The first group of hypotheses concerns the individual form of participation. It is suggested that the single employee's degree of influence signals degree of inclusion and status, and therefore the degree of influence is positively associated with social identification in the organization:H1. Individual influence on proximal and distal issues is positively associated with organizational identification.The organizational subgroup's influence is associated with the inclusion and status of the subgroup in the organization. The occupational groups are salient subgroups in hospital organizations. Therefore, the second group of hypotheses suggests that the degree of influence of occupational groups be positively associated with social identification in the organization:H2. The occupational group's influence on proximal and distal issues is positively associated with organizational identification.In a hospital department, the occupational group is related with the employee's function in the hospital organization. Therefore, identification with the occupational group is suggested to mediate in the association between participation and organizational identification.H3. Occupational group identification mediates the associations between individual and occupational group participation and organizational identification.The influence of all the employees as a group signals that all employees are valued in the organization and consequently is associated with higher social identification with the organization:H4. The influence of the entire group of employees on proximal and distal issues is positively associated with organizational identification.\nMethodology: Design and data collection\nResults: A total of 166 employees filled in and returned a questionnaire (76 per cent response rate): 77 per cent of the medical secretaries, 64 per cent of the physicians and 78 per cent nurses replied. All the participating nurses and medical secretaries were female; 13 the participating physicians were males and 10 were females. This distinction reflected the gender composition of these occupational groups at the department.Descriptive statistics and correlations\nDiscussion: The purpose of the study is to investigate whether the different dimensions of employee participation are associated with social identification with the organization, and whether occupational group identification mediates the relation. Following the notion that participation signals status and inclusion, influence in all dimensions of participation was expected to be positively associated with occupational group and organizational identification. The results show that individual influence on proximal issues is positively associated with organizational identification. The results from the correlation and regression analyses show that the association is positive, linear and that the independent variable statistically predicted the dependent variable. The rest of the hypotheses about other dimensions of participation being associated with organizational identification are not supported. Further, the correlation analyses indicate linear associations between most of the employee participation dimensions. The results also show that occupational group identification does not mediate the associations between employee participation and organizational identification.The significance of the individual proximal dimension of participation\nConclusion: The results show that individual influence on proximal issues is directly and positively associated with organizational identification. The finding may be explained by the involving nature of direct participation in decisions about relevant issues. This explanation qualifies the prior suggestion that participation merely serves as a signal of inclusion and status: dimensionality of participation matters too. The results also show relationships between other dimensions of participation and individual proximal participation. This lead to the suggestion of possible indirect effects of other participation dimensions on organizational identification, though future research is to confirm this.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Employee participation is often suggested to improve employees' relations to the organization. A multidimensional perspective on employee participation may heighten its specificity. The purpose of the present paper is to investigate the relationships between multiple dimensions of employee participation and social identification.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study applies questionnaire data from 166 hospital employees, i.e. nurses, physicians and medical secretaries, in a cross-sectional design. Hierarchical regression analyses were applied to investigate the hypothesized associations.\nFindings: - The results showed that individual influence on proximal (i.e. work-related) issues predicted organizational identification. The relevance of proximal issues and psychological involvement in relation to direct participation were suggested to explain why this particular dimension of participation is directly associated with organizational identification. The result qualifies the theoretical notion that participation symbolically signals inclusion and status in the organization.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The result emphasizing participation in decisions about work issues may be limited to the highly meaningful patient work in the health care context. Future studies are to establish if the findings may be generalised to other contexts.\nOriginality/value: - The originality of the study lies in the applied combination of participation dimensions, the inclusion of organizational identity at different social foci, and the application of social identity as a theoretically well-grounded concept of employees' relations to their organization.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
First-generation college graduates: A phenomenological exploration of their transition experiences into the corporate sector
|
[
"Graduate employment",
"College to work transition",
"First-generation college graduates",
"First-generation college students",
"First-generation graduates",
"Transition challenges"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: First-generation college graduates are almost a forgotten group when it comes to research on post-degree employment outcomes. In this article, we use the US Department of Education's, NCES (2014) definition of first-generation students in higher education based on their parents' level of education. We use the term first-generation students to refer to students from families in which neither parent has attained a college degree and the term first-generation graduates refer to college graduates who hold at least a bachelor's degree but hail from families in which neither parent has attained a bachelor's degree.\nResearch questions: Two research questions guided this study:\nSignificance of the study: In a socio-political context in which higher education is perceived as the most certain means of social mobility, it is imperative to explore if such a perception holds good for all graduates regardless of their backgrounds. The rising number of first-generation students in higher education today commands a serious exploration of their post-education opportunities. The level of education of parents largely determines the social class of college students (Thomas and Quinn, 2007), and therefore, it is imperative to investigate if and how a structural barrier such as first-generation status influences students' access to positions appropriate to their qualifications after graduating from college. Additionally, the rising costs of earning a college degree might mean that first-generation students who generally came from low income families bear a heavy financial burden and, therefore, delayed access to post-bachelor's level employment or they settle for underemployment (employed in positions below their qualifications), thus impacting them more than their privileged peers.\nLiterature review: Our literature search was conducted using the key terms of first-generation college graduates and college graduate employment. However, available literature on first-generation students was mostly focused on 'students' (as opposed to graduates) and covered issues of their access to higher education, school-to-college transition, academic attainment, experiences within higher education or comparison with their peers who were not first-generation students on academic attainment. Literature on the employment experiences of first-generation college graduates was almost non-existent. The search was then extended to include college-to-work transition, employability, career decision-making, career preparation and career self-efficacy. This section presents literature on first-generation students under two primary areas of focus: first-generation students and four-year graduate employment.\nMethodology: As the first author, I used a phenomenological approach to explore the lived experiences of first-generation graduates related to their college-to-work transition to investigate how my participants made sense of their transition experiences (Creswell, 2007; Smith and Osborn, 2008).\nFindings: All participants in the study were very grateful to their families for being a major source of motivation, encouragement and emotional and at times financial support during their student years and beyond. They were cognizant of the advantages of being a first-generation student and were proud of their achievements and what they were able to give back to their families and the next generation based on their educational and professional experiences. The graduates saw first-generation status as a motivating factor that pushed them to try harder, be resourceful and seek out mentors and role models in the professional world. At the same time, the challenges they faced in the process of seeking graduate employment within the corporate sector made them consider the role that the educational background of their families played in the process of college-to-work transition. Analysis led to three major themes across the conversations:\nDiscussion: The findings section presented a description of the lived experiences of the participants as first-generation graduates around their transition into employment in the corporate sector. In the discussion section, we present our speculations on their experiences in the light of \"social, cultural, and perhaps even theoretical contexts\", as suggested by Larkin et al. (2006, p. 104). So the discussion section outlines a commentary on the participants' sense making (Smith and Osborn, 2008) drawing on existing research and prior knowledge (Larkin et al., 2006). Analysis of the transition experiences of the participants indicates that the main documented disadvantage first-generation students had was coming into college with a lack of information, awareness, guidance and abilities to make well-informed academic decisions, consistent with Horn and Nunez (2000) and Vryonides (2007).\nImplications: This study was conducted in a single corporate organization in mid-western USA, and therefore, the findings may not be generalized. With this limitation in mind, this section suggests possible implications for practice and theory, as well as future research studies.\nConclusion: While the challenges first-generation graduates face within higher education continue to be documented, to date there is inadequate research on what happens to first-generation college students when they graduate. The findings that we have presented suggest that level of parental education continues to impact students even after four years or more in college and influences their career prospects. These findings indicate a need for further investigation as documented above. The research also points towards the need for policy and programmatic changes within higher education and within the world of work that support the college-to-work transition of first-generation college graduates.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the experiences of first-generation college graduates in the USA, as they transitioned from higher education into employment in the private sector. First-generation college graduates are from families in which neither parent had a bachelor's degree.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper used phenomenology to gain an understanding of the transition experiences of first-generation college graduates employed within the corporate sector.\nFindings: First-generation status influences the experiences of students beyond college and limits their awareness of and access to graduate employment. Lack of college education in the family affects the graduates' career decision-making, familiarity with corporate culture and expectations, preparedness for the corporate sector and restricted access to people with the ability to ease their entry into the sector. These translate into transition outcomes such as starting at entry-level positions not requiring a college degree, delayed access to graduate-level positions, having to engage intentionally in additional efforts to reach graduate-level positions and potential to be discriminated against during the recruitment process, albeit unintentionally.\nResearch limitations/implications: Is first-generation status yet another structural contextual factor that influences career decision self-efficacy? Is the influence of FG status common across sectors? Longitudinal studies need to be conducted across sectors, regions and countries.\nPractical implications: There is a need to sensitize faculty and career service staff to career-related challenges of first-generation students and for programs and policies that increase awareness of these students regarding professional environments and expectations. There are social justice implications for recruitment strategies and overcoming discrimination.\nOriginality/value: This paper explored first-generation college graduates' experiences, an issue hitherto not explored in depth.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
African American women leadership across contexts: Examining the internal traits and external factors on women leaders' perceptions of empowerment
|
[
"Gender",
"Empowerment",
"Leadership",
"Race",
"African American women"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: There is a lack of literature that adequately captures the leadership perspectives of African American women related to their leadership development, beliefs, and perceptions of empowerment, especially in light of the historical barriers that exist. Although African American women continue to represent a growing talent within the workforce (Bagati, 2008), the vestiges of those barriers can breed bias and discrimination which impact their ascension to leadership positions. There is also a long history of White men leading and being entrenched in the top levels of business, management, and political ranks which is indicative of a tradition that limits African American women's rise to senior leadership and management positions and perpetuates a glass ceiling (Ryan and Haslam, 2005; Weyer, 2007). Furthermore, in such environments, African American women are less likely to obtain guidance training on advancement opportunities (Guadagno, 2010). Therefore, it is vital that they have the ability to develop personal power, influence to affect others, and work with others and the most effective way to show interpersonal power is to first understand the process of the struggles and oppressed structures that have been present among women leaders (Gutierrez, 1990).\nHistorical background of African American women and leadership: African American women remain fairly unrecognized in historical discourse and literature related to leadership, in comparison to African American men, although they made significant contributions and were indispensably present in key historic events and efforts. African American women have long taken a leadership role in society, which is evident through a series of foundational events such as establishing schools, aiding associations and movements, and fighting alongside African American men for equality in society and in politics. Nonetheless, as historian Paula Giddings (1984) wrote, \"society failed to see them as a distinct political and social force\" (p. 82). For example, African American women played a role in getting people out to vote and in shaping political decisions in their communities and were present as they viewed themselves as having a stake in African American men's franchise (Franklin, 2011). Furthermore, although African American women performed a variety of roles comparable to those of African American male leaders, African American women's experiences in social movement participation and leadership, like the civil rights movement, were tinged with the constraints of race, gender, and class that generally prohibited them from being the articulators, spokespersons, and in the media (Barnett, 1993). As Andrew Young pointed out in his eulogy at political activist Fannie Lou Hamer's funeral:\nAfrican American women leading and empowering through organizing: Even at the time when African American women were expected to humble themselves because of their enslaved and subservient existence in the nineteenth century, they worked for empowerment and community growth through leadership and activism. Particularly, Ida B. Wells' anti-lynching campaign garnered national and international attention and helped launch African American women's clubs and the civil rights movement, which brought African American women to the forefront of the struggle regarding African Americans and women's rights (Giddings, 1984). Through leadership and empowerment, African American women created influential and progressive movement in this nation's history, the Black Women's Club Movement that began in the late nineteenth century (the 1890s) and continued into the twentieth century. The purpose of organizing the social aid and advocacy clubs across the country was not \"for race work alone, but for work along the lines that make for women's progress\" (Ammott and Matthaei, 1996, p. 163). The Black Women's Club Movement established educational, political, well-being, and economic support networks and programs across the country (Knupfer, 1996). Specifically, the Colored Women's Leagues of Washington, established in 1892, established a kindergarten and engaged in benevolent acts such as rescue work followed by the establishment of the National Association of Colored Women in 1895, that set up girls' homes, hospitals, and other social agencies. (Franklin, 2011). Local and national clubs, such as the White Rose Industrial Association, Phyllis Wheatley Associations, the Women's Loyal Union, the Women Wage Earners Association, the National League for the Protection of Colored Women, and the National Council of Negro Women, were key in reform efforts but the movements declined in importance once politics became more of the focus for African Americans. Nonetheless, the movement provided a foundation for the formation of future groups engaged in leadership and activism (i.e. the NAACP and the Urban League which were active in the civil rights movement). However, after the civil rights and women's empowerment movements, more opportunities became available for African American women than in previous generations. Unfortunately, as explained by Bower and Wolverton (2009), \"even though the civil rights and women's movements kicked open doors for two previously excluded groups, it didn't mean the welcome mat was out\" (p. 3).\nAfrican American women in positions of leadership: In spite of the history of African American women engaging in leadership practices, they have been excluded from the cycle of progression in leadership in the labor force (Andersen and Collins, 1992). Though finally recognized as citizens, Jim Crow Laws and Black Codes restricted African Americans from many civil liberties including their ability to obtain certain employment or pursue education at various institutions (Roback, 1984), which prevented them from being adequately prepared for or integrated into the labor market. African American women in the labor market were in unskilled, low-paying positions such as domestic and personal service jobs (Rutherford, 1992). By the late 1970s, strides were made by African American women in the workplace stemming from the Civil Rights movement, which brought forth civil rights decrees and laws (i.e. the establishment of the United States Commission on Civil Rights, the civil rights acts, the creation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the desegregation of schools) and Affirmative Action, which aimed to eliminate barriers that kept minorities and women out of the economic mainstream through the initiation of positive measures to ensure a true equal opportunity for them (Feagin and Porter, 1995). In addition, litigation aimed to remove barriers and prompt the movement of women into occupations from which they had been historically been excluded, including the Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, did not equally benefit African American women (Rutherford, 1992). Although newfound job and career opportunities for African Americans emerged, gender role stratification by class persisted (Collins, 2000).\nTheoretical context of intersectionality: Being an African American woman is a unique experience within itself because race and gender are social and cultural constructions directly related to both racism and sexism and rooted in discrimination (Wilson, 1989), which can impact their participation in leadership roles and leadership development. Collins (2000) argued that historically, African American women in leadership positions have been excluded, discredited, oppressed, omitted, and devalued throughout the business industry. For example, many African American women leaders are relegated to lesser authoritative positions and lower pay (Bell and Nkomo, 2001). Such rigid discriminatory practices associated with this intersectionality can impair and limit African America women's growth and opportunities to advance to executive leadership positions in organizations.\nTheoretical context of self-authorship: Self-authorship, first developed by Kegan (1994), is the internal capacity to generate one's own beliefs, identity, and relationships, shifting from allowing external authority to influence decisions, values, and beliefs toward an internal ownership of one's values and beliefs. Berger (2012) built upon the work of Kegan by discussing an adult progression of development in professional contexts and identifying four forms of mind: self-sovereign (thinking primarily about self); socialized (awareness grows and an individual begins to see themselves in relation to the rest of the world), self-authored (ability to maintain own values and beliefs while considering multiple perspectives), and self-transforming (a complex process of perspective-taking to transform and expand one's own belief system). Described as knowledge that \"is constructed in a context based on relevant evidence\" (Baxter Magolda, 1998, p. 41), self-authorship includes a relatively enduring way of understanding and orienting oneself to challenging situations in a way that recognizes the contextual nature of knowledge and balances this understanding with the development of internally defined goals and a sense of self (Baxter Magolda, 2001). How we understand new experiences, based on our understanding of previous experiences, influences how we understand ourselves, how we relate to others, and how we make meaning of new experiences in our work and life (Baxter Magolda, 1999). In essence, \"people actively construct or make meaning of their experiences--they interpret what happens to them, evaluate it using their current perspective, and draw conclusions about what experiences mean to them\" (Baxter Magolda, 2004, p. 31).\nMethod: Q methodology is known for exploring issues that are correlated with individuals who are influenced with personal feelings and opinions. It allows people to express different points of view and gives them the freedom to communicate their perspective on diverse situations (Zabala and Pascual, 2016). Q methodology is a technique used that involves a combination of both qualitative and quantitative research with the goal of gathering data that focuses on understanding why people think certain ways while forming their own opinions (Brown, 2004). Q methodology research begins by defining the domain of subjectivity and once the domain is established, the researcher collects a pool of subjective statements - termed the communication concourse - which captures the breadth of positions. Qsortware (www.qsortware.net) was used for this research study to effectively create a Q-sort methodology. The concourse development involved several steps which included collecting the items, selecting the Q sample (items), formulating the Q statements that define those items, and validating the Q sample based on the literature. The statements were derived from various scholarly literature related to levels of empowerment and women leaders and chosen based on commonalities. The methods to collect the items included the use of a systematic review (Qsortware) that allowed each individual to participate electronically. After each participant used the software, then the interview questions were provided for clarity and accuracy on the perspective of empowerment and their leadership.\nData analysis: The data collected were analyzed first by sorting through all the data from each woman who was interviewed and participated in the Q-sort. Next, the data were interpreted through \"comparisons and contrasts between the positioning of items in the reconstructed Q-sorts representing each factor\" (Cross, 2005, p. 210). Software was used to run the correlation for the Q-sort and compare and contrast the scores. Afterwards, a factor analysis was conducted, which was used to approach the \"structure of the subjectivity gathered from individuals that are subject to a factor analysis and results in factors that only represent segments of subjectivity\" (Rozalia, 2008, p. 873). The purpose of this analysis was to identify factors (words) used in the study to compare all individuals' responses based on different points of view. It determined the variability among the variables, which were the women leaders, and identified any correlation between the individuals' points of view (Rozalia, 2008).\nResults: Statistically significant factors are discussed based on the internal traits that women leaders perceive as contributing toward empowerment in leadership roles and the external factors that women leaders perceive as contributing toward empowerment in leadership roles. The loadings consisted of a three-factor rotation that assists to further examine the data collected. There was a small probability of running these loadings on these women's points of view below 0.05 to show they were statistically significant. The correlations and their significance among the variables represented whether they were meaningful under these factors. The internal traits labeled each factor to represent a certain style of leadership and empowerment. Factor 1 was self-driven, Factor 2 was focused on setting an atmosphere, and Factor 3 was being an influencer. The external factors labeled each factor to represent ways these women believed empowered groups or others in their leadership roles. Factor 1 represented being integrity, Factor 2 focused on advancement, and Factor 3 focused the attention on engagement and productivity among the groups. The loadings show the internal traits of each woman leader in the area they believed is the most important regarding empowerment. Tables VI and VII provide data related to the factor loadings using participants' Q-Sort for the internal traits and external factors, respectively.\nConclusion and recommendations: The rankings from the Q-methodology demonstrated some similarities in the women's experiences in leadership regardless of ethnicities. Most of the African American women leaders did perceive the best way to empower others in their leadership role was to provide opportunities for their subordinates to produce professional growth. When these women were individually interviewed, there were significant differences among the African American women leaders when compared to the Caucasian, Biracial, and Hispanic women leaders. The spoke of being overlooked, marginalized, and undervalued in the workplace while working hard as well as not having any room for error in their leadership roles. These findings support the conclusion of Parker and Oglive (1996) that African American women behave strategically to restructure potentially constraining situations in their leadership roles to ensure success due to the influence or race and gender-related constraints while operating in dominant culture organizations and dealing with the racial and sexual dynamics in society at large.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to examine women leaders from diverse career backgrounds and ethnicities to discover their perspectives of their leadership roles and empowerment to determine similarities and differences among them, focusing on the perspectives of African American women.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The review process began with a comprehensive review of African American women in history in the context of leadership and empowerment. Next, a Q-sort methodology was used as a semi-qualitative approach for women leaders to rank words of empowerment and facilitate discussions among these women. The Q methodology is known for exploring issues that are correlated with individuals who are influenced with personal feelings and opinions.\nFindings: The paper concludes that perceptions of leadership roles differ among the African American women leaders when compared to other ethnicities. The results support the idea that women from diverse ethnic backgrounds have different experiences in the workplace, and these experiences influence how they identify factors they perceive as beneficial to them in terms of their perspectives on leadership and empowerment. Several themes emerged for African American women leaders including being overlooked, marginalized, undervalued and unappreciated in their professions as leaders due to their dual minority status. As it is now as it was in the past, such barriers can deter or stop progression for African American women leaders.\nOriginality/value: The history of African American women in leadership roles is scantily recognized or not recognized at all. This paper highlights leadership roles and barriers for African American women currently in leadership roles in contrast to other women. The issues they face are still similar to those faced by African American women in earlier decades in spite of increased career mobility. A relatively understudied topic in leadership and management history in general, this paper provides a unique lens from which to build awareness about the leadership roles and empowerment of African American women and to effect needed change.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Effect of information quality of employment website on attitude toward the website: A moderated mediation study
|
[
"Playfulness",
"Website attitude",
"E-trust",
"Information quality",
"Usefulness"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The mode of job recruitment has witnessed a significant transformation in last two decades. With the advent of information technology, both the job seekers and providers tend to move toward technology-based recruitment platform as an alternative to the traditional mode of recruitment (Sylva and Mol, 2009). This is basically due to the benefits it provides to both the employer, in terms of reduced recruitment time and cost per employee, and the employee, who is offered increased convenience such as submitting job application via online channels with a click of the mouse (Selden and Orenstein, 2011; Yoon Kin Tong and Sivanand, 2005). Thus, today's recruitment takes place increasingly through online channels, and it is undoubtedly hailed \"the new recruitment frontier.\" Recruiting applicants through corporate employment website is an emerging facet of e-recruitment and is a rich platform for job search, information gathering, and assessing the person organization and person job fit. Furthermore, it is an intermediary free recruitment channel that offers enhanced value for potential job applicants by providing \"direct,\" \"any time,\" \"anywhere access\" to job search.\nLiterature review: E-recruitment\nConceptual framework and hypotheses formulation: The study followed affective-cognitive model (ACM) by Shiv and Fedorikhin (1999) to formulate the conceptual model. The ACM was originally proposed in consumer behavior literature to explain the information processing routes consumers take when they are confronted with a decision-making task. In this study, we extended the ACM to an e-recruitment context to explain how job seekers' evaluation of website information quality influences their behavioral-related outcomes. According to ACM, in any choice-making task, individuals generally use two processing routes to form their behavioral reactions. In the first route (cognitive route), the process is relatively more deliberative and controlled than the second and is likely to prompt cognitions. Since these cognitions are more deliberate in nature, the generation of the same would occur when the resources are consciously allocated by the same individual. The second route (affective route) is likely to occur in a relatively automatic manner, which will elicit affective reactions in an individual's mind and these reactions would vary in terms of valence (positive to negative) and its intensity. Since this processing route is automatic in nature, these lower-order affective reactions are likely to be elicited even if processing resources are sparsely allocated or constrained in a decision-making task. The model also explains the fact that if the processing resources are constrained in a choice task, the individual behaviors are influenced more by the generated affective reactions. On the other hand, if the processing resources are available, the behavior related to the choice task is more influenced by cognition than affect. On the basis of the ACM framework, we assume that information quality of e-recruitment websites direct the job seeker to use cogitative route (usefulness), affective route (playfulness), or both. These two routes play a significant role to influence their attitude toward the website.\nResearch methodology: Data collection\nData analyses: A structural equation modeling with ML estimator was used to test the conceptual model. First, all missing cases were identified and deleted from the data set. A list-wise deletion approach was used, as this technique is suitable when proportion of missing value cases is not too high. Then, multivariate normality was examined by checking skewness and kurtosis of the observed variables (Bollen, 1989), and it confirmed that there is no indication of violation of the assumption. The examination of outliers also supported for no outlier problem (Tabachnick and Fidell, 2007). Then, following the two-step procedure recommended by Anderson and Gerbing (1988), we validated and tested the model. These two steps are detailed in following sections.\nDiscussion and conclusion: This study provides support for a new integrated theoretical model in the e-recruitment setting. The results suggested that information quality dimensions of e-recruitment websites have significant and positive impact on perceived usefulness and playfulness, which in turn influences job seekers' website attitude. From the examination of the results (standardized coefficients), it was found that among the three information quality dimensions, the most important dimension which influences job seekers' perceived usefulness and playfulness is information relevancy, then it is information accuracy, and the least important one is information timeliness. Furthermore, job seekers' perceived usefulness and playfulness of the website served as mechanisms in the relationship between information quality dimensions and website attitude of the job applicants. From the examination of the standardized coefficients, it was also found that perceived playfulness (compared to usefulness) is the most important mediator which transmits the effect of information quality dimensions to create website attitude. Finally, job seekers' e-trust was a conditional factor which shapes the relationship between perceived usefulness and attitude toward the website, i.e., perceived usefulness creates favorable website attitude among those job seekers with higher perceived e-trust compared to those with lower e-trust. The results also supported that job seekers' e-trust strengthens or weakens the relationship between perceived playfulness and website attitude, i.e., playfulness will lead to higher level of website attitude if they feel higher level of e-trust. In total, this research extends the understanding of the relationship among information quality, perceived playfulness, perceived usefulness, e-trust, and job seekers' website attitude in the context of e-recruitment.\nTheoretical and managerial implications: This research brings at least two critical implications to the existing research on e-recruitment. First, this research presents a novel integrated model for predicting the mediating role that perceived usefulness and playfulness play between information quality of the e-recruitment websites and job seekers' website attitude, whereas previous studies had focused on the relationship between information quality and website attitude only (Van Birgelen et al., 2008; Sylva and Mol, 2009). This understanding fulfills the gap in the extant literature with regard to the intervening mechanism through which job seekers' evaluation of information quality of the recruitment website influences their attitude toward it. Second, in e-recruitment research, most researchers have empirically investigated the direct relationship among satisfaction, value, and behavioral intention by using a specific context/area or case study (Stone et al., 2006; Girard and Fallery, 2009). This study, first time in the e-recruitment setting, incorporated the moderating role of e-trust and examined its role as a boundary condition to strengthen or weaken the impact of the intervening mechanisms to form job seekers' attitude toward the e-recruitment websites.\nLimitations and directions for future research: This study does contribute to e-recruitment research in some aspects, but it is limited in other aspects, which provides directions for further research. First, as an integrated theoretical model for e-recruitment setting, this study uses data from one of the emerging economies, India. Future researchers can use the conceptual model proposed in this study in different cultural contexts with different business environment to achieve generalizability. Second, the number of job portal used to obtain the job seekers' database was limited to only one due to time and resources constraints. Future research can include several other job portals to gain more desirable insights into the phenomenon. Third, as outlined in the study, a fictitious website was created for the purpose of the study. Future studies can benefit by conducting the study through laboratory experiments and in a real employment website setting, as it is likely to yield more enriching results.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate an empirical model examining the job seekers' perception about information quality of corporate employment websites and its impact on their attitude toward the websites through perceived playfulness and usefulness. Furthermore, the study also examines the job seekers' e-trust as condition under which these mechanisms generate website attitude.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A sample of 385 active job seekers was selected through systematic random sampling. A web-based questionnaire was used to elicit responses for the study. Structural equation modeling was used to validate the proposed model.\nFindings: Results indicate that the information quality dimensions positively influence perceived playfulness and perceived usefulness, which in turn evoke the website attitude. Furthermore, e-trust was found to moderate the above said relationships.\nOriginality/value: The study contribution lies in an empirical validation of a model showing the mechanisms and the condition through which the relationship exists between perceived information quality of e-recruitment websites and job seekers' website attitude, and thus responds to the call for additional research that generalizes the influence of information characteristics of websites on job seekers' behavioral outcomes.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Investigation of green marketing tools' effect on consumers' purchase behavior
|
[
"Malaysia",
"Green marketing",
"Brands",
"Advertisements",
"Buying behavior",
"Labelling"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Over the past decades, concern about the environment has become not only a significant public issue but also a crucial topic in academic research. A sharp rise in environmentalism has emerged in the US and western Europe. A positive change within consumers' behavior towards environmental related products can be seen due to the increased level of environmental awareness since the 1970s (Alwitt and Pitts, 1996). This change contributed to the start of the green revolution to prevent further damage to the environment. Malaysia is also following the same tools to protect the environment.Throughout the years, Malaysia has demonstrated serious commitment towards environmental management to achieve environmental objectives, such as, launched the Product Certification Program, Malaysia's national labeling program by the Standards and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia (SIRIM). This eco-labeling scheme emerges with the purpose of providing information to consumers in order to identify environmental products and their specifications. Other considerable national environmental policies which were endorsed by the Agricultural Department and Federal Agriculture Marketing Authority (FAMA) and the Malaysian Energy Commission are related to agricultural products and energy efficiency (EE). The developments observed in Malaysia show the efforts taken through green marketing initiatives to encourage consumers into taking account the environmental aspects in their purchasing behavior. Naturally, the change in consumer's behavior where those who worry about the environment will indicate their concerns through different behaviors like checking the products which they are going to purchase to ensure they are buying ethically (Suchard and Polonski, 1991).Green marketing tools such as eco-label, eco-brand and environmental advertisement will make easier perception and awareness of green products attributes and characteristics, consequently, guiding them into purchasing environmentally-friendly products. Applying these policy tools plays an essential role to switch consumer's actual purchasing behavior to buy environmental friendly products, therefore, reduce the negative impact of synthetic products on the environment.Studying the determinants of consumers' green purchase behavior would benefit green marketers. Although studies on the influence of green marketing tools on purchase behavior has been the focus of some of recent studies, majority of them have been conducted in industrialized countries (Bleda and Valente, 2008; Chatterjee, 2009; Chan, 2004; Davis, 1993) but the findings often contradict each other. Therefore, the findings may only be relevant in certain cultural, time and geographical context. Due to the complexity in consumers' green purchasing behavior, generalization is often not meaningful under different cultural and demographical context. According to Ottman (1992a, b) and Peattie (1992) demand and attitudes for green products is likely to be uneven across different market segments and cultures. Consequently, research on the effect of green marketing tools on purchase behavior in emerging Asian markets is considered to be well-timed. In addition, this kind of research can provide some insights to green marketers regarding how they can expand their operation in Asia especially in Malaysia.In particular, the objective of this paper is to examine if the green marketing tools (i.e. environmental advertisement, eco-label and eco-brand) as a variable, affect the consumer's actual purchasing behavior among Penang's consumers (state in Malaysia).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Green marketing tools\n3. Method: 3.1 Sample and procedure\n4. Findings: Factor analysis was utilized on four study variables to provide information included in several variables into a small number of factors. Thus, the basic structure of the domain could be discovered and would facilitate the interpretation of underlying domains (Sekaran, 2006; Hair et al., 1998).All constructs were subjected to principle component analysis with Varimax rotation. The solution was using the criterion of eigenvalue greater than 1.00 with the cumulative percentage of above 50 percent and factor loading for each item should load 0.50 or greater are considered significant while loading lower than 0.35 on other factors are acceptable (Hair et al., 1998).Green marketing tools have been used as an independent variable to specify the impact on actual purchasing behavior. The variables include three dimensions: environmental advertisement, eco-label and eco-brand. These three dimensions were combined for factor analysis. A factor analysis on 16 items (four items environmental advertisement, six items eco-label and six items eco-brand), was performed to measure this construction and four identifiable dimensions, appropriately named as environmental advertisement, eco-label, eco-brand and one dimension for trust perception to eco-label and eco-brand (Table I).The results have shown similarity with the study by Nik Abdul Rashid (2007), in his research, perception towards eco-label had only two identifiable dimensions, listed as awareness of the label and trust in label. All remaining items had a factor loading of between 0.63 to 0.91 and the eigenvalue of 2.80, 1.81, 1.55, and 1.1 respectively. The four factors cumulatively contained 72.76 percent of the variance in the data with KMO of 0.65 and significant Bartlett's Test of Sphercity.The reliability test was carried out for four dimensions, resulted Cronbach alpha 0.78, 0.70, 0.84 and 0.54 respectively for environmental advertisement, eco-label, eco-brand and trust in eco-label and eco-brand.Only one dimension was extracted from four items measuring the actual purchase behavior since the solution cannot be rotated. The eigenvalue extracted was 2.52 and captured 63.19 percent of the variance in the data with KMO 0.77 and significant Bartlett's Test of Sphericity. Reliability test performed gave a 0.80 on Cronbach alpha.From the factor analysis results, one dimension to green marketing tools was added (trust in eco-label and eco-brand).Multiple regression analysis was performed to analyze the relationship between a dependent variable and independent variables and addressed hypothesis (Coakes and Steed, 2001; Hair et al., 1998).A descriptive analysis using mean and standard deviation of two variables to help researchers understand the respondent's perception of variables and other detailed analysis that were performed. A summary of all descriptive statistics are provided in Table II.Respondents agree that environmental advertisements are effective techniques to enhance their information about environmentally friendly products and purchase green products (mean=3.72), moreover, they recognize the eco-label (mean=2.91), trust to eco-label and eco-brand (mean=3.15), and rely on those in order to their purchase behavior. For eco-brand majority of respondents seems aware of eco-brands and knows that symbol of products reliability the value of mean in above prove this assumption (mean=3.19).In order to test the hypotheses formulated and identify significant predictors of consumer's purchase behavior, a multiple regression was carried out. Based on the result shown in Table III below, eco-brand (b=0.17, p<0.01) and trust to eco-label and eco-brand (b=0.19, p<0.01) are positively and significantly associated with actual purchase behavior, thus, it could be concluded that H1b and H1d are accepted.The effect of eco-label and environmental advertisement on actual purchase behavior were not significant at all with b=-0.09, p>0.05 and b=0.04, p>0.05. Hypotheses H1a and H1c are rejected.\n5. Discussion and implications: The main objective of the study was to explore the relationship between consumer's actual purchase behavior and green marketing tools (eco-label, eco-brand and environmental advertisements). With the changes resulting from factor analysis, a modified research model emerged and one more dimension was added to green marketing tools that was named trust in eco-label and eco-brand.An investigation on the coefficients of each dimensions of green marketing tool shows eco-brand and trust in eco-label and eco-brand as the positively significant variable related to actual purchase behavior. it seems eco-branded products have been commercially successful due to its positive public image, which lead consumers to purchase and causing the growth to brand loyalty (Ginsberg and Bloom, 2004). It appear that awareness of eco-brand among Malaysian consumers and their attention to buy environmentally branded products were influenced by their belief in the benefits of green products and protect the environment by purchase of eco-branded products.Since the introduction of national eco-label in Malaysia (1999) no significant increase as resulted even for those consumers who have enough knowledge about eco-labels regarding their purchase behavior. It seems that using this tool to increase green products purchase by consumers in Malaysia, will not be significant. According to Nik Abdul Rashid (2007), there is a missing factor that could increase purchasing behavior of green products to higher level and it would be the trust in the eco-label itself. The study of Nik Abdul Rashid (2007) also shows trust in eco-label between knowledge of green products and purchase intention has not been significant in Malaysia.Environmental advertisement is also another dimension of green marketing tool that is not significant with purchase behavior. The environmental advertisement's mean of (3.72) demonstrates that a majority of the respondents believed environmental advertisement enhances their knowledge on green products and they also consider green advertisement guides consumers into making an informed purchasing decision. However their belief has no influence on their purchase behavior concerning buying green products.One of the factors contributing to the failure of applying environmental advertisements to enhance purchase behavior is due to low credibility of green advertisements among consumers (Kilbourne, 1995). According to Davis (1993), the factor resulting to consumer's weak response to environmental advertising is not the consequence of consumer's unwillingness to take action and change their behavior to purchase green products; rather consumers are unwilling to change their purchase behavior given the manner in which \"green\" products have been promoted and advertised. One of its specific reasons is the lack of specificity in many environmental claims that may have resulted in consumers forming a negative view of the green advertisement and advertised products. Therefore, this condition would unlikely lead to the purchase of environmental friendly products.In terms of Penang's consumer, as mentioned in the above paragraph, the result of the mean indicates that Penang's consumers believe that the environmental advertisements increases their knowledge about green products. Mass media, television and newspapers are two major media in Malaysia to acquire information by people (Mat Said et al., 2003) however, due to the lack of environmental advertisements in Malaysia; people are not familiar with most of the alternative products.In this study, the relationship between trust in eco-label, eco-brand and purchase behavior are found to be significant. This means that the respondent's trust in eco-label and eco-brand has a positive effect on consumer's actual purchase behavior. Without consumer's confidence and trust of eco-label and eco-brand, it is very difficult to convince them to make purchase decisions. Based on their trust in eco-label and eco-brand, they will choose the environmental friendly products that are less harmful to the environment than their alternatives.Whitson and Henry (1996) note that only few studies (e.g. Nik Abdul Rashid, 2007; D'Souza et al., 2006; D'Souza, 2004) have been done on consumer's purchase behavior and environmental labeling.The similarity between results of this study and Nik Abdul Rashid's (2007) study could be seen in terms of trust in eco-label. Furthermore, both studies were conducted in Malaysia and the findings express the Malaysian consumer's trust in eco-label and eco-brand that influence their intention to purchase and also their actual purchase behavior.Nik Abdul Rashid (2007) argues that eco-label (also eco-brand in this study) is a new concept in Malaysia not only in terms of existence but as strategies that are utilized by marketers to influence on the purchase behavior. He also describes the lack of any critical efforts by marketers and producers to develop the trust in eco-label and eco-brand among Malaysian consumers and thus, whatever trust they have would likely to be accidental and this is generated from the consumers' interaction with environmental issues. The same assumption may be used for this study as well. Since eco-brand and trust to eco-label and eco-brand is found to be important in influencing green purchase behavior of consumers, it is suggested for the green marketers and the manufacturers to pay particular attention to eco-branded products.The implication of this study to governmental policy is providing a few guidelines for government to formulate the green policies such as providing promotional incentives to those green products manufacturers who are truly green in their manufacturing processes, encouraging the public to buy products with eco-label.Secondly, government can raise campaigns to promote public awareness of eco-labels as it is proven in this study that trustfulness of eco-labels can exert a significant influence in green purchase behavior of consumers. With the increase awareness on eco labels, it would help in promoting green consumption among consumers. However, government should be monitoring the credibility and trustworthiness of messages carried in eco-labels. Besides, government should endeavor to inform citizens about the meaning and availability of the new eco-labels and eco-brands and the benefits of using eco-labeled and eco-branded products to environment (Rios et al., 2006).\n6. Limitations and suggestion for future research: While conducting this research, certain limitations were identified, with some suggestions for future studies; it may provide helpful insight to be considered in generating a new framework.First, this study was limited to consumers of Penang (one of the states of Malaysia) and did not cover all states in Malaysia. In future studies, it would be ideal to consider all states of Malaysia or at least some of the larger states. Secondly, this study is conducted on general eco-brands. As such, future studies could focus on a specific eco-brand such as Body Shop or Himalaya for a better understanding by respondents. Additionally, choosing a specific eco-brand can provide respondents with the opportunity to compare eco-branded and the non eco-branded products thus generating a more reliable response.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this research is to determine the effect of green marketing tools on consumer's actual purchase behavior in case of Penang (Malaysia).\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A survey was carried out on 250 Chinese, Malay, Indian and other races that represent the Penang population. Factor analysis, Cronbach alpha and multiple regression were used to identify factors impact on Penang consumers actual purchase behavior.\nFindings: - The result revealed that customer's trust in eco-label and eco-brand and their perception of eco-brand show positive and significant impact on their actual purchase behavior.\nPractical implications: - The paper provides practical information for green marketers and producers of green products in Malaysia.\nOriginality/value: - This paper offer helpful guideline for government to formulate the green policies such as providing promotional incentives to green products manufacturers and encouraging public to buy products with eco-label.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Exploring the synergy between entrepreneurship and innovation
|
[
"Entrepreneurialism",
"Innovation",
"Australia"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This paper argues that a combination of entrepreneurship and innovation holds the key to organisational sustainability in this period of rapid change and non-linear dynamics. The study investigates the relationship between entrepreneurship and innovation. A review of the literature reveals that some studies have dealt with the process, structure, and strategy of either entrepreneurship or innovation (Littunen, 2000, Cornwall and Perlman, 1990, Caird, 1988; Casson, 1982), and that others have touched on the conceptual relationship between the two (Schumpeter, 1934, Drucker, 1994, Legge and Hindle, 1997, Kanungo 1999, Sundbo, 1998). However, there have been few empirical studies that explore the synergies between the two.The aims of the present study are therefore:* to contribute to an understanding of the complementary nature of entrepreneurship and innovation through an empirical study of various organisations; and* to develop an integrative framework of the interaction between entrepreneurship and innovation.The study addresses two main research questions:1. How are entrepreneurship and innovation related to each other?2. What are the crucial factors affecting the development of entrepreneurship and innovation, and how does interaction between them affect the commercialisation of innovations?The study took a qualitative approach to exploring the synergies between entrepreneurship and innovation and to analysing the factors that foster the interaction between the two. Case studies of six entrepreneurial and innovative organisations and in-depth interviews with senior managers were conducted to complement a comprehensive literature review of entrepreneurship and innovation. This empirical study contributes to an understanding of the existing theories and practices of entrepreneurship and innovation.\nLiterature review: There has been no consensus in defining entrepreneurship and innovation in the exiting literature. Some studies have dealt with entrepreneurship and innovation by investigating the personality and psychology of entrepreneurs and innovators (Littunen, 2000, Caird, 1988; Casson, 1982). Others have talked of the nature of entrepreneurship and innovation in organisations (Goffin and Pfeiffer, 1999; Martin, 1994). This literature review summarises a diverse spectrum of views about entrepreneurship and innovation and the relationship between them. The review also touches on cultural issues because they have a profound influence on the development of entrepreneurship and innovation (Herbig et al., 1994).Entrepreneurship\nMethodology: Research design\nResults: Perceptions on entrepreneurship and innovation behaviours\nDiscussion: Propositions\nConclusion: This empirical study has explored the synergies between entrepreneurship and innovation through a review of the principal literature in this field and six case studies of entrepreneurial and innovative organisations in Australia. The study has found that:* entrepreneurship and innovation are positively related to each other and interact to help an organisation to flourish;* entrepreneurship and innovation are complementary, and a combination of the two is vital to organisational success and sustainability in today's dynamic and changing environment;* entrepreneurship and innovation are not confined to the initial stages of a new venture; rather, they are dynamic and holistic processes in entrepreneurial and innovative organisations; and* organisational culture and management style are crucial factors affecting the development of entrepreneurial and innovation behaviour in organisations.The study also shows that the entrepreneurial and innovative organisations studied in this research are facing problems with the implementation of entrepreneurship and innovation. Because entrepreneurship and innovation are systematic behaviours (Drucker, 1994), systematic efforts are required to incorporate them into the operations of organisations. The \"5Ss\" model proposed in this paper is designed to address this need. Entrepreneurship and innovation should be regarded as ongoing, everyday practice in organisations, and this paper has contributed to the development of such an attitude. Nevertheless, more systematic and comprehensive studies are required in this field.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To contribute to an understanding of the complementary nature of entrepreneurship and innovation through an empirical study of various organisations; and to develop an integrative framework of the interaction between entrepreneurship and innovation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study takes a qualitative approach in exploring the synergies between entrepreneurship and innovation and in analysing the factors that foster an interaction between the two. Case studies of six entrepreneurial and innovative organisations and in-depth interviews with senior managers were conducted to complement a comprehensive literature review of entrepreneurship and innovation.\nFindings: - The study has found that: entrepreneurship and innovation are positively related to each other and interact to help an organisation to flourish; entrepreneurship and innovation are complementary, and a combination of the two is vital to organisational success and sustainability in today's dynamic and changing environment; entrepreneurship and innovation are not confined to the initial stages of a new venture; rather, they are dynamic and holistic processes in entrepreneurial and innovative organisations; and organisational culture and management style are crucial factors affecting the development of entrepreneurial and innovation behaviour in organisations.\nOriginality/value: - Entrepreneurship and innovation should be regarded as ongoing, everyday practice in organisations, and this paper has contributed to the development of such an attitude.This empirical study contributes to an understanding of the existing theories and practices of entrepreneurship and innovation in organisations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
A sustainable quality assessment model for the information delivery in E-learning systems
|
[
"Quality",
"Information delivery",
"Quality assessment",
"Quality characteristics",
"Quality models and frameworks",
"Quality of e-learning system"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Rapid development in internet technologies makes this universe possible to become a global village. However, it is not possible to achieve this goal of globalization without global information, and global information cannot exist without global education. Undoubtedly, with the advancement of information and communication technology (ICT), this universe is becoming global village, and universities are adopting the latest information and communication tools in forming this universe as a global village. Higher education institutions (HEIs) are switching to ICT for the better, efficient, effective and flexible learning, i.e. e-learning. Integration of ICT in education has created new horizons in the form of electronic learning (e-learning). It is a useful tool for teaching, learning and training to the users especially in remote areas. E-learning has generated a lot of new opportunities in education by extending the potential to reach the new learners to deliver education (Arif et al., 2014). Numerous world-leading universities are offering courses through the use of ICT to the distant learners to become \"dual mode universities\" to attract more and more learners from the remote areas (Farid et al., 2015a, 2015b; Islam and Selim, 2006). HEIs round the globe are looking at the advancements in ICT as the savior in coping with their different problems including cost and quality (Selim, 2007). This steady growth rate in the adoption of e-learning has raised different questions about its quality, e.g. how can we measure quality, what are the minimum indicators for the quality of e-learning systems and so on.\n2. Literature review: The term e-learning has different meanings in various contexts. In the higher education arena, it refers to the case where learning is performed through internet-based delivery of information, contents and programs (Chang, 2016; Nicholson, 2007). Web browsers have been used as a tool for the interaction with learners and other information systems (IS) like e-learning. These systems provide an environment to alleviate learning and teaching activities among learners, teachers and institutions (Hassanzadeh et al., 2012). E-learning environment (sometimes also known as e-learning tools) consists of learning management system (LMS), content management system (CMS), knowledge management system (KMS) or contents authoring tools (Babu, 2005; Moore et al., 2011; Wilen-Daugenti, 2009). E-learning environment is an IS, based on World Wide Web (Lee and Lee, 2008). The Web is an ideal platform for offering a lot of related information to the learners. According to IEEE Learning Technology Standard Committee:\n3. Research design: Selection of the appropriate research model is a critical task for any research or study. As what is going to be concluded is based on the research method. For this study, pragmatic sequential fully mixed mode method has been used. One of the major reasons of adopting mixed mode method is the integration of qualitative and quantitative research approaches. The researcher emphasizes on the research problem instead of focusing on methods and uses all available approaches to understand the problem (Creswell, 2013). This reflects that mixed method research is an approach in which a strategy uses more than one types of research methods associated with both qualitative and quantitative data (Easterbrook et al., 2008). Mix mode research is gaining popularity among researchers, as it unfolds almost unlimited and exciting potentials for future research (Johnson and Onwuegbuzie, 2004; Johnson et al., 2007). This mode of research is becoming the third major research paradigm, as it is widely used in various fields including social, behavioral and health sciences as well as in applied sciences (Bentahar and Cameron, 2015; Castro et al., 2010; Creswell et al., 2011). Empirical investigation has been carried out during the quantitative part of the research identifying the quality characteristics which are crucial for the quality assessment of e-learning system for the localized environment of HEIs of Pakistan. To identify the quality sub-characteristics associated to each quality characteristic at level one, the method of semi-structured interviews (qualitative) from e-learning experts have been conducted. A complete process and steps adopted for the proposition of the SQAMELS is illustrated in Figure 1.\n4. Proposition of the model: A sustainable quality assessment model for e-learning systems from software perspective is proposed on the basis of the results obtained after statistical analysis of the empirical study. The proposed model describes the characteristics of \"good\" e-learning system. However, when we discuss the important component of e-learning system, we are referring to the information content which indicate or describe the qualities of information inside the e-learning. Hence, in other words, the model is also describing about information content of a system which need to be delivered to the appropriate reader or audience. Key aspects of the proposed model are discussed in the context of HEIs of Pakistan. The construction of the proposed model based on two studies. First is an exploratory study conducted to identify the most crucial challenges of e-learning in various dimensions and second is the SLR performed to deepen the understanding of the research focus by examining the state-of-the-art quality models and frameworks proposed for the quality of e-learning systems. Both studies contribute in the construction of quality assessment model for the localized environment of HEIs of Pakistan in software perspective.\n5. Implications for research and practice: This research has significant implications for HEIs in assuring quality of their e-learning systems. Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) and VU of Pakistan, and other HEIs in the country engaged in e-learning or planning to transform to this lifelong learning model may benefit from this research in adopting e-learning system. In addition, virtual and open universities of the developing countries may also benefit from this research. Moreover, our work attracts researchers and academicians by providing guidelines for further research regarding quality assurance and assessment of e-learning systems. This research also helps government agencies and the policy makers dealing with higher education, in assessing and assuring the quality of their e-learning systems.\n6. Limitations: E-learning systems are very broad and consist of various dimensions. These dimensions include pedagogical, personal, institutional, software, technical cultural, social and so on. All dimensions are important for the successful implementation and promotion of e-learning system. The scope of this study covers the quality assessment of e-learning systems in only software perspective for the HEIs of developing countries such as Pakistan. Therefore, this study is not addressing other perspectives of the e-learning systems.\n7. Conclusion: Quality itself is difficult to measure, and it is really a critical matter to assure the quality of a software system especially e-learning system. The most important aspects of e-learning quality are user, manager and developer aspects. Most of the e-learning quality models (80 per cent) are proposed in educational perspective only and are lacking to consider the software aspect of the e-learning system. However, some of the identified models (18 per cent) have considered only one quality factor, i.e. usability, functionality and efficiency, up to some extent. On the basis of SLR and our investigations (quantitative and qualitative), we have proposed a sustainable quality assessment model to assess the quality of e-learning system in software perspective. The proposed model comprises three major dimensions including system quality, service quality and charisma. Good service quality confirms the best delivery of information to all stake holders of an e-learning system. These dimensions are further constitutes of quality characteristics. These characteristics are grouped to certain types of operations based on the functionality provided by quality characteristic. These operations are network, existing and future. The process of PCA has been applied to extract the crucial quality characteristics on the basis of the collected data from e-learning experts. Logistic regression is deployed to gauge the significance of each quality characteristic toward the overall quality of e-learning system. Before proceeding with statistical modeling, Cronbach's alpha has been used to ensure the reliability of collected data.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to propose a sustainable quality assessment approach (model) for the e-learning systems keeping software perspective under consideration. E-learning is becoming mainstream due to its accessibility, state-of-the-art learning, training ease and cost effectiveness. However, the poor quality of e-learning systems is one of the major causes of several failures reported. Moreover, this arena lacks well-defined quality assessment measures. Hence, it is quite difficult to measure the overall quality of an e-learning system effectively.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A pragmatic mixed-model philosophy was adopted for this study. A systematic literature review was performed to identify existing e-learning quality models and frameworks. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with e-learning experts following empirical investigations to identify the crucial quality characteristics of e-learning systems. Various statistical tests like principal component analysis, logistic regression, chi-square and analysis of means were applied to analyze the empirical data. These led to an adequate set of quality indicators that can be used by higher education institutions to assure the quality of e-learning systems.\nFindings: A sustainable quality assessment model for the information delivery in e-learning systems in software perspective has been proposed by exploring the state-of-the-art quality assessment/evaluation models and frameworks proposed for the e-learning systems. The proposed model can be used to assess and improve the process of information discovery and delivery of e-learning.\nOriginality/value: The results obtained led to conclude that very limited attention is given to the quality of e-learning tools despite the importance of quality and its effect on e-learning system adoption and promotion. Moreover, the identified models and frameworks do not adequately address quality of e-learning systems from a software perspective.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The impact of cash transfer programs on Brazilian's well-being
|
[
"Human capabilities",
"Well-being",
"Poverty",
"Cash transfer",
"Capability",
"Entitlements"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: There exists a consensus that the cash transfer programs significantly reduced absolute poverty in Brazil. However, it is also broadly agreed that poverty manifests itself through different kinds of hardships and affects the well-being of people in multiple dimensions. Nonetheless, beyond this, there are few chances of consensus in academic opinions and explanations. Each approach is defensible, but has different elements that are often hard to conciliate. This study does not intend to defend the existence of a universally dominant concept of poverty nor the qualitative superiority of a particular measure or public policy to eradicate it. The purpose is to use the available data to investigate if there is any evidence of differentials in the well-being achievements between beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of cash transfer programs whose income is above the official poverty line and below the relative poverty line, and to test the hypothesis that income from cash transfer programs is a worsen entitlement than income received from work. I limit the sample to those people whose income is above the official poverty line and below the relative poverty line. Moreover, I distinguish two categories of individuals: the beneficiaries and the non-beneficiaries of cash transfer programs. The former category gathers people that are \"artificially\" not poor, since they depend on the cash transfer programs to overcome the absolute poverty line. The latter category is related to the ones that are \"truly\" not poor, as they do not receive any help from social programs. According to the Ministerio do Desenvolvimento Social (2013)[1] the percentage of the Brazilian population living below the absolute poverty line dropped 40 percent in the last ten years reaching 10.2 percent in 2011. Such poverty reduction has different explanations. It is partially, due to the economic growth that increased labor market opportunities, and partially the result of the governmental cash transfer programs. Most of the population who left absolute poverty still remains in relative poverty and/or is socially vulnerable. Although not being counted as income poor, they can still face deprivation in other dimensions. From 2004 to 2011 the number of people who were receiving money from cash transfer programs rose from 8,632,852 to 16,947,643 and most of them would be in absolute poverty if they were not receiving governmental help.\n2. CA and the role of entitlements: 2.1 Capability deprivation and entitlements\n3. Indicators, data and structural equation model: 3.1 Indicators and data\n4. Results: I will now present and discuss the estimation results. The results for the first structural model using the absolute and relative poverty lines as lower and upper boundaries, respectively, are presented in Table II - structural part, and in Tables III and IV the measurement part, Section 4.1.\n5. Final considerations: The main aim of the paper was to investigate whether income from cash transfer program was a worsen entitlement to well-being and capability promotion than income from work. The results obtained from the estimated model support the CA hypothesis except for the food capability of the very poor (who would be absolutely poor if not receiving income from the program). Such results are interesting and help to better understand the power and the limits of the cash transfer programs and poverty reduction strategies. They suggest that when people face extreme poverty they will benefit from the program. After the very basic capabilities are satisfied, income transfers are not sufficient way to improve capabilities.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to investigate if there is any evidence of differentials in the well-being achievements of two groups which will be called the \"artificially\" and the \"truly\" not poor; and second, to test the hypothesis that income from work is a better entitlement than income received from social programs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The author used data from the 2008 Brazilian Household Budget Survey and selected two groups. Both groups are composed of people living between the absolute and the relative poverty line. The group that is living above the absolute poverty line only due to cash transfer programs will be considered the \"artificially\" not poor. And people who are out of absolute poverty but not receiving any help from social program are considered the \"truly\" (and not absolutely) poor. The hypothesis was tested using structural equation modeling.\nFindings: The results support the hypothesis that people who are not receiving income from cash transfer programs achieve a higher level of well-being in the dimensions of housing and food. Food and housing capabilities affect each other and such result reinforces the multidimensionality of the Brazilian poverty.\nResearch limitations/implications: The main limitations refers to the restrict number of dimensions and to the necessity to adapt the indicators available to answer the paper objectives.\nPractical implications: The paper results can help the policy makers to better understand the cash transfer programs attainment and boundaries.\nSocial implications: The paper results highlight that the cash transfer programs, even being useful to improve people well-being, are not sufficient to promote human capabilities and are not truly undertaking the multidimensional deprivations of the poor.\nOriginality/value: The paper compares two groups of people living with identical amount of income acquired from different origins.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
University campuses in spatial transformation: A business model typology of case Aalto University
|
[
"Facilities management",
"New ways of working",
"Interdisciplinary learning",
"Spatial transformation",
"University campus management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Because of technological advantages, the concept of space seems to be shifting from being a static form designed for a pre-defined purpose for specific group of people to a dynamic, multi-purpose interconnected space of flows as suggested by Castells (2004). Castells' theory of spatial transformation in the information age outlines the spatial transformation to take place in three abilities: function described by the axis of local and global, Meaning described by the balance between individualism and communalism and Form described by the balance between Space of places and Space of flows. He proposes an alternative definition for space as \"the material support of time-sharing social practices\".\nExamples of university campuses in spatial transformation: Harrison and Hutton (2014) refer to Temple (2007) who stated that physical manifestation of universities is a thing of the past as learning will increasingly take advantage of information and communications technology (ICT) becoming independent of specific spaces, and to Drucker (Forbes, 1997) who predicted that university campuses will turn into relics as they would not survive the next 30 years. Even though a large part of university campus designs still mainly support learning in the traditional sense by providing massive auditoriums focused on teacher-centered pedagogies, and assigned individual offices with low utilization rates, there is also an increasing amount of examples across all five continents of how spatial transformation is changing university campus design principles, actions and processes.\nMethodology: According to Yin (2003), the qualitative case study approach should be used; that is, when the boundaries are not clear between the phenomenon and context, contextual conditions should be covered as they are relevant for the phenomenon (Baxter and Jack, 2008). The approach of this paper is a qualitative holistic case study with embedded units as suggested by Yin (2003), which only serves to better illuminate the cases in question. Decision of using this approach derives from the interest of understanding the motivations and operations of different cases in the same campus as each has been initiated and is run by a different stakeholder. The typical pitfall in this research type for novice researchers is - after analyzing the individual subunits - the inability of returning to the global issue that they initially set out to address (Yin, 2003), which is avoided here by reflecting the cases on the spatial transformation theory (Castells, 2004).\nResults: The resulting typology consists of four types of business models explored through five lenses that overlap with the elements outlined in the RCOV model (Demil and Lecocq, 2010): offering, customers, resources, costs and revenues. In this chapter, the results are presented analysis by analysis.\nDiscussion: The findings indicate the diversity of university facilities both in their formats, principles and in the ways they are operated. The expansion from academic siloes that provide lifelong learning in their specialized areas of research toward interdisciplinary siloes that have an understanding and expertise in a specific stage of the learning curve seems to expand the ways the case campus is operated. The highly specialized units focus more on the earlier part of the education, and the applying units focus on the latter part. This is how T-shaped individuals with deep knowledge on a specific subject, but wide understanding of numerous disciplines, are ought to be educated as conceived by Guest (1991) and further popularized by chief executive officer (CEO) of IDEO, Tim Brown.\nConclusions: The cases outlined in this study indicate that spatial transformation is happening in practice. However, as the cases differ in terms of their core tasks, they require varying processes and principles based on which they are managed. From the university campus management organization, the spatial transformation requires ability to balance between individual and communal demands, local and global focus, project-based pioneer projects and standardized hierarchical projects. To support the core tasks of universities, the campus managers and university administration should thus support multiple business models and processes enabling interdisciplinary, cross-organizational actions to take place in their campuses. Rather than facilitating or managing the facilities per se, the essence of their work seems to shift towards orchestrating the communities.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts of spatial transformation in the Network Society on facilities management principles in the context of an interdisciplinary university campus.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study reports a holistic case study with eight embedded units in one interdisciplinary university campus in Finland through a business model approach.\nFindings: The findings propose that spatial development projects should be examined holistically on three facilitation layers, namely, social, physical and virtual, through five business model lenses of Offering, Customers, Revenue Streams, Resources, and Cost Structure. Based on the findings, four main business model types can be identified and distinguished mainly in terms of collaborating with different partners and supporting a different core task of the university.\nResearch limitations/implications: The cases are highly context-dependent, and their business models are ever evolving, which is why the dynamics of the development processes should be studied in more detail. The types of business models differ fundamentally, which is why their evaluation criteria could be tailored accordingly.\nPractical implications: The results suggest that the spatial transformation requires multiple supporting processes and principles, expanding the roles of the campus managers: finding a balance between localization and globalization, and individualism and communalism; collaborating with internal and external parties; identifying potential grass root spatial development projects to be supported; and engaging users in their expertise. The strengthening impact of social facilitation is capable of opening new business opportunities.\nOriginality/value: This study indicates that the spatial transformation is happening in practice and offers guidelines for dynamically reacting to it from the facilities management perspective.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Does transformational leadership always matter in frontline service roles?
|
[
"Work motivation",
"Intrinsic motivation",
"Customer service ability",
"Employee service performance",
"Substitute for leadership"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The critical role of frontline service employees (FSEs) in building and maintaining relationships with customers (e.g. Bettencourt and Gwinner, 1996; Kim and Carlson, 2016; Liao and Chuang, 2007) and their performance in driving the success of any service firm (e.g. Agnihotri et al., 2014; Coelho et al., 2011; Kim and Carlson, 2016; Popli and Rizvi, 2017) has been well established in the literature. Thus, understanding the circumstances that unlock FSE superior service performance has significant implications for recruiting, selection and retention of well-qualified and high-performing FSEs. Previous studies have highlighted the importance of a transformational leader (hereinafter TFL) in providing FSEs guidance and inspiration to handle challenging tasks (Morhart et al., 2009; Shannahan et al., 2013; Yu et al., 2013).\nTheoretical background and hypotheses development: Transformational leadership\nMethods: Sample and procedure\nResults: The results of our analysis are reported in Table II. It was hypothesized in H1 that enjoyment of work weakens the effect of TFL on employee service performance, such that the higher enjoyment of work, the weaker the relationship between TFL and employee service performance is. The results (Model 3, Table II) indicate that the interaction effect of enjoyment of work and TFL on employee service performance is significant and negative (B=-0.10; t-value=-2.29; p<0.05), providing support for H1. Simple slope analysis further shows that the effect of TFL on employee service performance is weaker for high (B=0.09; t-value=1.52; p>0.10) than for low (B=0.30; t-value=5.23; p<0.01) levels of enjoyment of work (see Figure 2).\nDiscussion: Theoretical implications\nLimitations and future research directions: Although this research presents many theoretical and practical contributions, this study has four limitations and as such the findings should be interpreted against them. First, while the proposed hypotheses are supported, the cross-sectional nature of the research design limits any interpretation of causal relationships among the variables. However, we did perform a number of analyses using variables from a number of sources to buttress the internal validity of the findings. A longitudinal design can address this issue. Second, our justification for the key moderating variables focusing on FSE's intrinsic motivation of enjoyment of work and driven to work and customer service ability was based on the self-determination theory (Deci and Ryan, 2000; Ryan and Deci, 2000) and motivation-ability theory (Boulding and Staelin, 1995; MacInnis et al., 1991). Yet, other potential variables may also affect the relationship between TFL and employee service performance. Future studies may extend the current study and explore additional moderating effects such as FSE's personality (i.e. big five personality traits), extrinsic motivation (i.e. rewards), or different types of intrinsic motivation rather than enjoyment of work and driven to work. Third, a lack of generalizability is another issue. Our data came from a service industry - namely hair salons operating in the Asia-Pacific region. Although employees' tasks and role were largely no different from those in Western countries, cultural differences between Eastern and Western cultures may play a role here. Finally, the practices in different industries might also be different. Therefore, future research may consider extending these findings into the Western context and/or different industries.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of frontline service employees (FSEs) motivation (enjoyment of work and driven to work) and ability (customer service ability) in the relationship between TFL and employee service performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This is a survey-based study which involves 534 FSEs and 135 supervisors in a hair salon setting. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the proposed hypotheses.\nFindings: Results show that TFL is significantly related to employee service performance; this relationship is enhanced with the presence of driven to work; yet, it is neutralized with the presence of enjoyment of work. Further, the three-way interaction of TFL, enjoyment of work and customer service ability as well as TFL driven to work, and customer service ability are negatively associated with employee service performance.\nPractical implications: The results advance service managers' understanding of the importance of FSEs motivation and ability if they are to fully reap the benefits from their FSEs. The role of leader is not always effective in all situations. FSEs with high level of enjoyment of work and customer service ability would least rely on the guidance and support from the supervisors.\nOriginality/value: This research is one of the first to examine the role of subordinate's characteristics (motivation - enjoyment of work and driven to work and ability - customer service ability) as the key moderators in the relationship between TFL and employee service performance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The mediation effect of customer satisfaction in the relationship between service quality, service orientation, and marketing mix strategy to customer loyalty
|
[
"Service quality",
"Customer satisfaction",
"Customer loyalty",
"Service orientation",
"Marketing mix strategy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: One of the factors determining the level of success and quality of a company is the company's ability in providing services to its customers. The company's success in providing high-quality services to its customers, the achievement of a high market share, and an increase in the company's profit are highly determined by the approach used. The consequence of the service quality approach of a product has an important essence for the company's strategy to survive and achieve success in competition. The advancement of civilization and people's lifestyle are a locomotive that has attracted the business world to keep running. In this globalization era, the competition between companies in the business world is getting increasingly fierce. Basically, a competition is a positive thing. In the business world, through competition, every company will be motivated to improve its quality in order to avoid failure in competition.\n2. Theoretical review: Marketing is one of the main activities conducted by a company in order to survive. Among the various functions within a company, marketing is a function that has more contact with consumers/customers. The essence of modern marketing thinking and practice today is to understand, create, communicate, and provide value and satisfaction to customers. Therefore, a company needs to know how to market a product or service properly in order to make the product or service produced not only can meet customers' needs but also, more than that, to provide satisfaction to the customers.\n3. Research methodology: This is explanatory research which intends to examine and explain the simultaneously casual relation between variables by examining the research hypotheses. This research also explains the respondents' perception (explanatory perceptional research) because this research is connected with the behavior of human beings. The research population consisted of all customers of mobile phone providers domiciled in Malang in 2016. Since it was impossible to get the exact number of customers, the number of the population in this research was infinite. The sample consisted of 200 respondents.\n4. Research findings: 4.1 Goodness of fit in SEM\n5. Discussion: Findings of the research show that the service quality in the telecommunications sector, especially in mobile phone providers, has a positive relationship with and a significant effect on customer satisfaction. The reason is that the service quality provided by mobile phone providers to its service users manages to make its customers significantly satisfied with it. Service quality consists of a number of dimensions, namely, responsiveness (fast and accurate responsiveness), tangibility (physical appearance), empathy (sincere and individual attention), reliability (reliable, timely, accurate and exact services), and assurance (guarantee/assurance in capabilities of the company/mobile phone provider). All of those dimensions are significant to meet the expectation, achievement, suitability, and the desired satisfaction of the customers of mobile phone providers. Perception of service quality is defined as perception or impression relating to the service quality of a telecommunications service provider perceived by customers. Findings of this research show that the customers perceived the service quality provided by the company as meeting their expectation. This suggests that what customers expect from the service quality is the same as what they perceive. It means that the mobile phone provider manages to provide service quality expected by its customers, so that the service quality is able to provide satisfaction to its customers. Thus, in evaluating service quality provided by a company or organization, the service quality should meet customers' expectation that can lead to satisfaction.\n6. Conclusions and suggestions: On the basis of the research findings and discussion relating to the effect of service quality, service orientation, and the marketing mix strategy on customer satisfaction and loyalty, the following conclusions can be drawn: service quality, service orientation, and the marketing mix strategy have a significant effect on customer satisfaction, which means that H1, H3, and H5 are accepted. Service orientation and customer satisfaction have a significant effect on customer loyalty, which means that H4 and H7 are accepted. On the other hand, service quality and the marketing mix strategy do not have a significant effect on customer loyalty (direct effect). Based on the Sobel test to investigate the mediation effect, it can be seen that customer satisfaction serves as a mediation variable in the relationship between service quality, service orientation, and the marketing mix strategy and customer loyalty, which means that H2, H4, and H6 are accepted under some conditions (by using the mediation effect). Based on the conclusions of the research findings, there are some suggestions that become the implications of the research findings. First, the service quality provided by the telecommunications industry needs to be improved in order to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, especially for the mobile phone providers in Malang. Second, customer satisfaction and loyalty can be improved by improving service orientation. A mobile phone provider, which is aware of its shortcomings and responds to such a condition by fixing them immediately, is a company that has a better prospect of progress compared with the other companies that are not responsive to making improvements. It means that service orientation is needed in order to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty. Third, in order to maintain and improve customer loyalty through improved service quality, the management of mobile phone providers should pay attention to the special directly related process of services to the customers such as ease in terms of administrative services, good networks, addition of BTS, and, more importantly, improvement on customers' confidence toward the programs offered by the mobile phone provider. Lastly, determination of the marketing mix strategy adapted to the service quality offered is among the solutions to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty from the aspect of the marketing mix. Efforts made by a mobile phone provider in an attempt to win the competition, especially in the telecommunications business, are to apply an efficient marketing mix strategy and to provide services which are both satisfying and decent. Future research is expected to conduct a deeper analysis of the theory used in this research so that more complex measurement of the indicators can be undertaken.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediation effect of customer satisfaction in the relationship between service quality, service orientation, and marketing mix strategy to customer loyalty, in a study in Telkomsel-Indonesia. The product used in this research will take the telecommunication service product categories with a number of products available in the market. In this research, the telecommunication service products of Telkomsel with various features as the research objects were studied.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The population of this research is Telkomsel customers who use the products of Halo, As and Simpati, domiciled in Malang, 2016. Since it was impossible to get the exact number of customers, the population in this study is infinite. The study had a sample size of 200 respondents. This research uses the structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis techniques along with AMOS methods.\nFindings: The quality of service, service orientation, and strategy marketing mix applied by the company are not all variables can directly affect customer loyalty, but must first going through satisfaction. Which means that companies must first need to understand what the customer needs through variable service quality, service orientation, and marketing mix strategy so that the customers feel loyal when the level of satisfaction is resolved. The service quality provided by the telecommunications industry needs to be improved in order to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty of telecommunications services, especially for Telkomsel in Malang.\nOriginality/value: Originality for this paper shows: mediation effect (using the Sobel test) customer satisfaction on the effect of service quality, service orientation and marketing mix strategy to customer loyalty; location of the study (no previous research for this relationship): telecommunication services in Malang, Indonesia.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Reducing employees' turnover in transactional services: a Lean Six Sigma case study
|
[
"Six Sigma",
"Lean production",
"Human resource management",
"Employees turnover",
"Service industries"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the power of Lean Six Sigma in the human resource (HR) area of a business and remove the myth that Lean Six Sigma is only applicable to manufacturing operations: can Lean Six Sigma improve the HR activities of a company? What are the key opportunities and obstacles to its use in such activities? A case study, detailing the application of such methodology to a HR department, will also be analysed through this paper.\nLiterary review on Lean Six Sigma in HR: Lean Six Sigma is a business improvement methodology that aims to maximise shareholders' value by improving quality, speed, customer satisfaction and costs: it achieves this through merging tools and principles from both Lean and Six Sigma.Lean and Six Sigma have followed independent paths since the 1980s, when the terms were first hard coded and defined: Lean originated in Japan (within the Toyota Production System), and Six Sigma from the USA (within the Motorola Research Centre):* Lean is a process improvement methodology used to deliver products and services better, faster and at a lower cost. Womack and Jones (1996) defined it as:* [...] a way to specify value, line up value-creating actions in the best sequence, conduct those activities without interruption whenever someone requests them, and perform them more and more effectively. In short, lean thinking is lean because it provides a way to do more and more with less and less - less human effort, less human equipment, less time, and less space - while coming closer and closer to providing customers with exactly what they want.* Six Sigma is a data driven process improvement methodology used to achieve stable and predictable process results, reducing process variation and defects: Snee (1999) defined it as \"a business strategy that seeks to identify and eliminate causes of errors or defects or failures in business processes by focusing on outputs that are critical to customers\".While Lean is all about speed and efficiency, Six Sigma concerns precision and accuracy: Lean ensures resources are working on the right activities while Six Sigma ensures things are done right the first time.Lean Six Sigma uses tools from both toolboxes, in order to get the better of the two methodologies, increasing speed while also increasing accuracy.Benefits of Lean Six Sigma in the industrial world (both manufacturing and service) include:* ensuring services/products conform to what the customer needs (voice of the customer (VOC));* removing non-value adding activities (waste);* reducing the incidence of defective products/transactions;* shortening cycle time; and* delivering the correct product/service at the right time in the right place.Although being extremely successful in manufacturing in the last two decades, the application of Lean Six Sigma in the service industry has been less spread, amid fears that the processes in the service industry do not lend themselves to the rigorous set of statistical tools of Six Sigma.Even more in doubt is the application of Lean Six Sigma into HR practices, where the focus is on managing the human capital of the organisation, something which is notoriously difficult to pin down with strict metrics.When Motorola originally implemented Six Sigma in the late 1980s, obtaining astonishing results, the company was then faced with the dilemma of how to reward its employees for those successes (Gupta, 2005): this was the first time Six Sigma and HR practices came into contact, and a more accurate definition of HR practices was needed.If in the past the term HR was related only to administrative functions (e.g. payroll, timekeeping, etc.), the term has increased substantially in the last few decades to include the acquisition and application of skills and strategies to maximise the return on investment from an organisation's human capital (Milmore et al., 2007).HR management is the strategic approach to the management of all people that contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business (Armstrong, 2006): as such it includes, but it is not limited to, personnel administration. In effect, it includes all steps where an employee and an organisation come into contact, with the potential of adding value to the organisation (Ulrich, 1996).As such, and merging terminology from Lean and HR, we define the following seven points as the human capital value stream map:1. attraction;2. selection;3. orientation (or induction);4. reward;5. development;6. management; and7. separation.The human capital value stream map is a Lean technique that identifies the flow of information or material required in delivering a product or service to a customer (Womack and Jones, 1996); human capital is the accumulated skills and experience of the human force in an organisation (Becker, 1993).The human capital value stream map (Figure 1) is the flow of human capital required for an organisation to deliver its products or service to customers, the objectives of which are briefly described below:* Attract. To establish a proper employer's brand that attracts the right calibre of individual.* Select. To select the best possible candidate for the job.* Orient. To ensure new employees are properly trained and integrated in the organisation.* Reward. To ensure compensation packages are appropriate and in line with the market.* Develop. To individuate talent and ensure career progression.* Manage. To supervise and administer the day-to-day job.* Separation. To track reasons for voluntary leavers and to maintain a constructive relationship.It is possible to apply Lean Six Sigma tools to each step of the human capital value stream map, in order to eliminate waste in the HR processes (Wyper and Harrison, 2000). For each step in the human capital value stream map it is necessary to establish proper quantitative metrics that allow objective assessment and control of the process step (Sullivan, 2003): this makes use of the more quantitative statistical tools from the Six Sigma toolbox possible.Establishing HR metrics can be controversial, with different parts of the organisation having different objectives (Jamrog and Overholt, 2005), but the answer to these simple questions may help to focus the real value each step can provide:* What is the expected deliverable of the step?* What are the relevant metrics and key performance indicators of the step?* What are the opportunities for defects in the step?For recruitment, for example, the answers to the above questions may be as follows:* Hire, in the shortest possible time, new members of staff to fulfil a certain job.* The number of days to fill a vacancy (also define the acceptable norm for the organisation).* Any job remaining vacant for longer than the acceptable norm.Similar thought process can be performed for the other steps: having set metrics for each step of the human capital value stream map, an organisation is now in the position to apply Six Sigma define, measure, analyze, improve and control (DMAIC) to it.We now review an example of DMAIC methodology application into the realm of HR.\nA case study: The case focuses on a Six Sigma project conducted in the HR function of a large multinational company in the service sector: the objective of the project was to reduce employees' voluntary turnover.The company was experiencing a very high voluntary turnover among its employees, with highs of 40 per cent in specific regions and/or functions. Although a certain level of employees' turnover was considered positive, as it allowed the company to right size its business based on the seasonality, its current level was considered by senior management as excessive and harmful to the business.The recruitment and training costs of a new member of staff were $5,000, and in the previous year the company had to hire 5,500 new members of staff, for a total cost of $27.5 million. This number did not include the productivity lost during the learning curve of a new member of staff, but just took into account the expenses for recruiting and training them.As such, this project was selected as a high priority and given the right amount of resources, both in terms of support and commitment from senior management and in terms of budget.Sponsor of the project was the vice president for global talent management, who assembled a project team led from a Six Sigma Black Belt, and with members from various departments within the HR organisation (recruiting, training, compensation and career development).Problem statement\nConclusion: This paper deals with the application of Six Sigma in HR in a service company. The goal was to reduce the turnover rate from 35 to 25 per cent; independent variables and factors were collected using survey data, and improvement actions determined on the basis of the analysis of these data. The main results were as follows:* a reduction in turnover from 35 to 25 per cent; and* cost savings of $1.3 million on an annual basis.In conclusion, we can state that Six Sigma can be used to improve administrative processes, such as HR processes: implementing the Six Sigma DMAIC breakthrough methodology in HR follows the same path as implementing it in any other part of the organisation.However, there are some specific key learning points and challenges to the HR area, such as:1. difficulty in establishing an appropriate measurement system analysis and metrics;2. data collection can be extremely difficult, as the project team is dealing with very sensitive issues; and3. difficulty to perform any pilot or design of experiment: any of these is going to impact on the behaviour of staff, making it difficult to accurately measure its results.As a result, projects may last longer than the standard four-six months and a wider use of tools such as brainstorming and \"Kaizen\" workshops with domain experts may be necessary (Lee et al., 2008).While this case study deals with employees' turnover, other examples of potential Six Sigma projects in the HR function are:* reduction in time and cost to hire a new employee;* reduction in training costs;* reduction in cost of managing employees' separation;* reduction in administrative defects (payroll, benefits, sick pay, etc.); and* reduction in queries from employee population to the HR department.Every area of an organisation needs to perform better, faster and cheaper, to keep the company ahead of the competition and be able to satisfy ever increasing customers' expectations. HR is no exception: more cost effective and streamlined HR processes will create value for the organisation, instead of just being a support act for management (Gupta, 2005).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The case study aims to illustrate the application of Lean Six Sigma into the human resource (HR) function of a service industry corporation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study draws on process information and primary data from a real project.\nFindings: - The study describes improvements in the HR management attributable to Lean Six Sigma: decrease of employees' voluntary turnover and increase in employees' satisfaction.\nOriginality/value: - Although being extremely successful in the last two decades in the manufacturing sector, the application of Lean Six Sigma to the service industry in general, and HR management in particular, has been a controversial topic: this study illustrates how its application can reduce employees' voluntary turnover rate and increase their satisfaction, hence increasing the return on investment of human capital.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Integrating business analytics into strategic planning for better performance
|
[
"Business analytics",
"Performance management",
"Strategic planning",
"Corporate strategy",
"Germany"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Over the past two decades, the advancement of business analytics has brought powerful instruments to performance management systems. These analytical tools, such as decision support systems, expert systems, and data mining systems, offer algorithms to perform analytical operations that uncover complex patterns and relationships (Baars and Kemper, 2008). Today, these instruments provide increasingly valuable support to strategic planning and performance management of companies, who are often inundated with information. This often causes information overload on the part of decision-makers who seek to process all relevant information on their own (Bouquet et al., 2009).This problem of information overload has intensified over the past decades, due to the development of more comprehensive data storage opportunities: Regardless of which questions arise in a company's management, there is plenty of data for extensive analyses and multiple answers. Substantial data supply also requires a profound knowledge of a company's performance creation structure and dependencies. This knowledge is the basis for the effective application of analytical tools and efficient decision support to a manager. The sensible integration of business analytics in a performance management framework is therefore key to the successful decision support of business analytics.This paper addresses, first, the analysis of performance effects associated with business analytics to uncover the competitive advantage gained by these tools. Second, recommendations concerning business analytics' usage in a performance management framework are formulated to guide managers to successful application.Based on the research background in section 2, section 3 sheds light on the current state of business analytics application. Furthermore, this empirical survey also examines factors that restrict an intensive application of business analytics. Based on these findings, section 4 makes recommendations on how to exploit business analytics' value added in the performance management context. We also provide evaluations on what we can expect from these analytical tools and which expectations are false. Section 5 contains conclusions, limitations and further research.\nKey promoters of business analytics: Current research addresses three factors as key promoters of successful business analytics application. These promoters have emerged due to globalization and individualization, which have resulted in an increasingly dynamic and complex business environment (Mason, 2007).Data overload\nPerformance effects of analytics in practice - learning from champions: An empirical survey was conducted to gain insights into business analytics application for strategic performance management using a fully structured questionnaire. Eighty-nine of 247 companies in Germany's high-technology sector answered our survey, representing a satisfactory response rate of 36 percent. These companies, each consisting of more than 1,000 employees, are in the mechanical engineering and automotive industries. These two industries were chosen due to their capital-intensive production systems, which require long-term adaptive thinking and usually involve business analytics application experience.To gain insights into analytical tool design and application, the sample is divided into two groups, according to firms' company performance. The first group forms the \"champions\" and consists of 35 companies that, compared to their primary competitors, indicated both superior profit and superior sales development. Forty-one companies reported mean or inferior profit and/or sales development and are labeled the \"follower\" group. The remaining 13 respondents did not answer the performance question and were eliminated from analysis.Characteristics of strategy planning styles\nHow to integrate analytics into performance management: A multilayer performance management framework\nConclusions: Interest in analytics' application in strategic planning is growing among both practitioners and scholars. Based on the results of an empirical survey conducted in Germany's automotive and mechanical engineering industries, we found that an analytical planning style is positively associated with better performance. While better-performing firms do not differ in formal reporting or intuitive assessments in the strategic planning process, they differ significantly concerning the application of comprehensive, rational data analysis. Interestingly, lower-performing firms acknowledge this competitive advantage and express the desire for intensive application of analytics.Consequently, recommendations for the integration of business analytics in strategic performance management should help managers understand the analytical toolbox's value added. At the same time, sensible application of business analytics should be facilitated by focusing on the key improvements provided by analytics.The empirical results are constrained to the characteristics of Germany's automotive and mechanical engineering industries. Nevertheless, other industries as well as industries in other countries, such as consumer or retail businesses, also face turbulent environments, which call for analytical support in the strategic planning process.This study should encourage further research concerning analytical tools, how they can be best applied, as well as aspects of organizational integration. We trust that this study reveals the main advantages of rational data analysis and that this brings analytics closer to organizations.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Over the past few years, developments in business analytics have provided strategic planners with promising instruments for dealing with turbulent environments. This study aims to reveal whether or not the application of business analytics in strategic planning contributes to better company performance, and to formulate recommendations on how to integrate business analytics in companies' performance management systems.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Based on a survey conducted with 89 respondents from high-technology firms, a group comparison between firms with strong performance and those with weak performance reveals significant differences between the two groups' strategic planning processes and application of business analytics.\nFindings: - The empirical survey's results show that better-performing companies are characterized by a more sophisticated analytical planning process. Lower-performing firms acknowledge this competitive advantage. Based on these findings, the authors develop recommendations on how to integrate business analytics in performance management contexts.\nResearch limitations: - The empirical study's results are limited to high-technology industries in the cultural setting of Germany.\nPractical implications: - The empirical results emphasize the competitive advantage gained by applying business analytics. The recommendations concerning analytical performance management should help managers to sensibly integrate the analytical toolbox in performance management contexts.\nOriginality/value: - This paper combines insights on the best usage of business analytics from the perspective of strategic planning experts, with recommendations for the integration of business analytics into the performance management framework from an academic perspective.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Building a positive candidate experience: towards a networked model of e-recruitment
|
[
"Human resource management",
"E-business",
"E-recruitment",
"Network business models",
"Network theory",
"Personnel recruitment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The principles of the networked society, proposed by Castells (2000), suggest that competitive advantage accrues to businesses that are best able to exploit appropriate networks in order to recruit quality talent. Recent developments such as the increasing dominance of Facebook and LinkedIn and the development of the web towards a more ubiquitous, personalised, connected environment that is highly personalised have only heightened this opportunity.\nE-recruitment: Despite the high UK unemployment rate in 2012, the online recruitment market shows continued growth, Bersin & Associates reported in 2012 that LinkedIn's recruiting service saw a 136 per cent revenue increase in the 2011-2012 financial year (Bersin & Assocates, 2012). Facebook's social recruiting tool, BranchOut, is rapidly growing and Morgan (2012) reported 3.4 million users.\nThe structure and role of networks: The web itself is a network, a group of interconnected nodes which comprise a complex system of people who exchange information for social or professional reasons. Networks are not linear two-way interactions, they are complex processes, webs and feedback loops (Scharnhorst, 2003). This complexity is a crucial element to creating order, where order and disorder, order and change are dimensions of the same process. Order from chaos is realised through spontaneous order (or self-organisation). These are scale free, random approaches, which are seen in the social hubs online where individuals congregate forming an ordered network centred around one or more shared interests (Schueler, 1997).\nNetwork analysis: The issue with the network theories discussed above is that they describe and explain but cannot be readily applied to business where validation and measurement is required. Figure 1 details the core measurable elements of a network.\nBusiness applications of network theory: Numerous business models include a network-based foundation to add value to the business activities and increase profit margins. Barney's (2001) resource based view sees the firm as a collection of resources and capabilities. Intranets for employees, extranets for supplier management and web sites for customer interaction now form part of most business models. However there is little focus on leveraging the network of the web for talent acquisition.\nResearch methods: The limited e-recruitment research conducted to date means that there were no previous models or theories against which to test assumptions. This necessitated an exploratory interpretive approach to the research in order to propose theoretical explanations and practical models. Grounded theory supported this approach and provided a reputable framework from which an interpretive process was followed to generate a theory (Saunders et al., 2009).\nFindings and discussion: How companies conduct e-recruitment:\nConclusion and recommendations: We have shown that currently there is a disconnect between the reality and desired state of e-recruitment among businesses, with resource, cultural and knowledge limitations hindering progress. Despite this, businesses acknowledge the value that can be realised from effective e-recruitment campaigns and have implemented basic CCS solutions. However, they continue to rely on agencies and job boards due to the perceived risks associated with social media.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The ubiquity of the social web has forced online recruitment to change dramatically. This paper introduces the first e-recruitment network business model, the Private Talent Network(c) to support the practice of online talent resourcing.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Grounded theory was the research approach adopted, using mixed method data collection and triangulation of results. A study of six FTSE100 companies was conducted from different industries. This was an explorative study into network theories and models in context of e-recruitment.\nFindings: The key outcome was the identification of a positive candidate experience. This was central to realising cost benefits and candidate quality and was influenced by nine internal and external factors. Theoretically actor network theory provided a flexible and representative framework of the online ecosystem adopted by businesses for talent resourcing.\nResearch limitations/implications: Limited to UK FTSE100 target group only, the research is presented as a first step in defining a structured e-recruitment business model.\nPractical implications: Direct support to enable practitioners to improve or/and initiate e-recruitment initiatives and further this management discipline.\nOriginality/value: Drawing on actor network theory the Private Talent Network(c) is proposed as the first e-recruitment network business model.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Do the heterogeneous determinants of life satisfaction affect differently across borrowers of diverse credit sources? A propensity score approach
|
[
"Life satisfaction",
"Selection bias",
"Ordered probit",
"Propensity score",
"Rural credit"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Many credit institutions point that lending to the uncollateralized poor living near to the poverty line has an impact which goes beyond the simple money recognition (Becchetti and Conzo, 2013). Indeed, the World Relief Organization claims that \"the world of microfinance opens the door of opportunity for the poor - providing the dignity and satisfaction that comes from working to support one's family. Microfinance is about much more than just money. It helps create stability at home, teaches individuals how to thrive, and fosters self-respect and community well-being.\" To answer these claims, it is obligatory to widen the scope of credit access impact examination through considering not only standard economic variables but also non-monetary wellbeing indicators.\n2. Determinants of life satisfaction: some existing studies: The association between non-monetary and monetary determinants of life satisfaction is of growing attention in recent time because social sustainability, local empowerment and active participation in development projects are fundamental for one's success (Becchetti and Conzo, 2013). Loan to the uncollateralized poor borrower may conceive the capacity of a borrower to contribute in social life and to create economic life as an \"iceberg\" which helps them to save from social exclusion. This is also evident from high repayment rates despite loans are uncollateralized. This is because of the role of assortative matching (Ghatak and Guinnane, 1999), peer monitoring (Stiglitz, 1990) and dynamic incentives in the presence of individual progressive loans (Wydick, 2001). Beyond these monetary incentive-based rationales, the loss of the two \"invisible pillars\" (social recognition and self-esteem) which may originate from non-repayment may be enough to avoid moral hazard (Becchetti and Conzo, 2013). Thus, it is vital to evaluate the impact of credit access on non-monetary life satisfaction indicators of borrowers.\n3. Data and methodology: 3.1 Data source and the sample\n4. Results and discussion: The results of the marginal effect of ordered probit model are presented in Table IV. Our findings show that on the pooled sample, an increase of one unit of non-borrower household (WNB) reduces the probability of declaring the highest life satisfaction score by 0.002 percent in comparison to the borrower households. This indicates the positive association between life satisfaction and borrowing, and this result is consistent with the result of Taylor et al. (2009) in which they found the positive relation between financial capabilities and life satisfaction through reduction of anxiety and depression.\n5. Conclusions: Lending to the uncollateralized poor living close to the poverty line has an impact which goes beyond the simple money recognition. This study is conducted in Assam, India, to evaluate the non-monetary effect of credit access by providing an econometric framework which controls the problem of selection bias. The paper uses a quasi-experiment design to gather primary data. Ordered probit model is used to evaluate the non-monetary impact of credit access, and the propensity score approach is used to check the robustness of the ordered probit model. Our study confirms the positive association of credit access to life satisfaction of borrowers. We have observed that, in general, rural borrower's life satisfaction is influenced by the ability and capacity to work (AHH), the VPA of the borrowers as well as some other lenders' and borrowers' specific factors. But, the direction of causality of the factors influencing borrowers' life satisfaction is remarkably different across credit sources. The paper argues that it is possible to improve the life satisfaction score of rural borrowers by providing them exposure to access formal credit sources. Further, the study recommends for productive investment opportunities to semiformal and informal borrowers while improving their life satisfaction score.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the non-monetary effect of credit access by providing an econometric framework which controls the problem of selection bias.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study is conducted in Assam, India and uses a quasi-experiment design to gather primary data. The ordered probit model is used to evaluate the non-monetary impact of credit access. The paper uses a propensity score approach to check the robustness of the ordered probit model.\nFindings: The study confirms the positive association of credit access to life satisfaction of borrowers. It is found that, in general, rural borrower's life satisfaction is influenced by the ability and capacity to work, the value of physical assets of the borrowers as well as some other lenders' and borrowers' specific factors. But, the direction of causality of the factors influencing borrowers' life satisfaction is remarkably different across credit sources.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study argues to provide productive investment opportunities to semiformal and informal borrowers while improving their life satisfaction score. Although the results are adjusted for selection and survivorship biases, it is impossible with the available data to assess which non-income factors explain the findings, and therefore this limitation is left to future research.\nOriginality/value: The study contributes to the literature of rural credit by assessing the probable differences among formal, semiformal and informal credit sources with respect to non-monetary impacts.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Instagram fashionistas, luxury visual image strategies and vanity
|
[
"Fashion marketing",
"Brand communication",
"Trust",
"Social media",
"Luxury branding",
"Instagram",
"Brand recognition",
"Brand trust",
"User-generated content"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A luxury brand is defined as a branded product or service that has the following characteristics delineated by Tynan et al. (2010, p. 1158): \"high quality, expensive and non-essential products and services that appear to be rare, exclusive, prestigious and authentic, and offer high levels of symbolic and emotional/hedonic values through customer experiences.\" Thus, with regard to traditional market segmentation, luxury brands are expected to evoke uniqueness and exclusivity through high quality, premium pricing and controlled exclusive distribution. Recently, however, luxury brands and fashionistas (\"designers, promoters or followers of the latest fashions,\" Merriam-Webster, 2019) increasingly leverage Instagram for strategic marketing communication. Due to the strong impact of its curated visual content and image-filtering interface, Instagram has become a go-to-advertising platform for brands' integrated marketing communication (Statista, 2017) and a tool for fashionistas' strategic self-promotion (Adler, 2016). Prominent luxury fashion brands boost their Instagram presence to connect with consumers, create new luxury value, and to ultimately increase brand equity. Fashionistas feel gratification through Instagram followers' acknowledgment of their fashion sense when sharing pictures of accessorizing themselves with luxury items and posting brand hashtags such as #Chanel.\nTheoretical frameworks and hypothesis development: Luxury brand posts on instagram and brand recognition\nMethodology: Sample and procedure\nResults: Two-way interaction effects on brand recognition (hypothesis1)\nDiscussion: Theoretical contributions and managerial implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Luxury fashion brands harness the power of Instagram and fashionistas for strategic brand management. This study aims to test interaction effects among luxury brand posts' Instagram source type (brand versus fashionista), visual image type (product-centric versus consumer-centric) and consumers' characteristics (vanity, opinion leadership and fashion consciousness) on brand recognition and trust.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A quantitative 2 (source type: brand versus fashionista) x 2 (branded visual image type: product-centric luxury versus consumer-centric luxury) between-subjects online experiment (N males = 195 and N females = 182) was conducted by recruiting participants from MTurk.\nFindings: Logistic regression analyses indicated two-way interaction effects between sources and visual images on brand recognition. Brand recognition was higher for product-centric images when the source was the fashionista, whereas brand recognition was equivalent regardless of the image type when the source was the brand. Logistic regression and multiple regression analyses revealed the moderating effects of sources and visual images on the association between consumer traits and branding outcomes.\nPractical implications: Meticulously choosing effective methods of showcasing branded content and persuasive luxury visual image strategies via Instagram is more important for fashionistas than for established brands in increasing brand recognition. Instagram fashionistas are more effective in increasing females' brand trust through delivering product-centric visual images when targeting women with high vanity, opinion leadership and fashion consciousness. Brands as the Instagram profile source are more persuasive in increasing males' brand trust through delivering product-centric visual images when targeting men with high vanity.\nOriginality/value: This experiment provides theoretical discussions and empirical findings about social media influencer marketing and managerial implications for Instagram-based luxury branding. This research revolves around the overarching theme of the interactive effects of multifaceted branded contents and market segments in social media influencer marketing environments.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Accounting-related research in PPPs/PFIs: present contributions and future opportunities
|
[
"Public private partnership",
"Private finance initiative",
"Public sector accounting",
"Public sector investment",
"Value for money",
"Private finance",
"Partnership"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: It has been over a decade since Broadbent and Laughlin initially outlined a research agenda for considering private finance initiative (PFI)/public private partnership (PPP) schemes (see Broadbent and Laughlin (1999), later refined in Broadbent and Laughlin (2004))[1]. In response to growth in such schemes in the UK at the time (see Figure 1), a renewed British impetus for partnership coinciding with the election of the Blair \"New Labour\" government in 1997 (Commission on Public Private Partnerships, 2001), and a later recognition that growth in the engagement of PPPs for public services could also be observed in many jurisdictions around the world, Broadbent and Laughlin (1999, 2004) sought to stimulate academic inquiry into the diverse implications of PPP schemes by outlining an accounting-related research agenda for policy (described as \"macro\" implications) organization-level control and practice (\"micro\" implications), and linkages between these dimensions (\"macro\"/\"micro\" interface).In aid of this, Broadbent and Laughlin (1999, 2004) outline a range of pertinent research issues relating to PPP schemes warranting further investigation, as outlined in Table I. Using a combined adaptation of the scholarly agenda outlined in Broadbent and Laughlin (1999, 2004) as a guiding framework, this paper reviews and critiques accounting-related research investigating the implications of PPP schemes for public investment. In particular, this review concentrates on research contributions aimed at further understanding role and effects of accounting matters in a broad sense (e.g. techniques, policy, concepts, and/or values) as it relates to the assessment, management, control, reporting, accountability and associated institutional and policy directions connected to these schemes. The Broadbent and Laughlin (1999, 2004) research agenda offered a useful framework for organising this review, as it presents a broad-scoped research agenda encompassing issues important to both PPP policy and practice, as well as being highly relevant to public debates sustained about the drivers, use and value of PPP schemes. As such, it provided a simple but effective means for deriving themes to guide analysis and critique of the extant literature in an academically and practically relevant way. For these reasons, this review focuses on five research themes adapted from the Broadbent and Laughlin (1999, 2004) research agenda, being:1. the underlying nature and rationale for PPPs;2. processes and procedures aiding decisions to undertake PPPs;3. processes and procedures for ex post evaluations of PPPs;4. the merit and worth of PPPs; and5. PPP regulation and guidance.The substance of each of these themes will be described as they are addressed.This review/critique of the literature is both timely and important for the consolidation of knowledge and the growth of research in this area. In the intervening years since Broadbent and Laughlin (1999), a significant body of work has accumulated, examining a range of matters that follow on from Broadbent and Laughlin's research agenda. Over this time, PPP schemes have also attracted a lot of public attention regarding their appropriateness for public service provision. As the latest manifestation of new public management (NPM) reform (Hood, 1991, 1995), PPPs have been popularised as a facilitator of public service improvements in line with progressive government, resulting in their proliferation in many countries across the world. At the same time, PPP schemes have been vigorously criticised for further embedding private-sector values in public sector policy and practice. Further, the effects of the global financial crisis has seriously impacted the availability of private financing for PPP schemes (Farquharson and Encinas, 2010; Infrastructure Partnerships Australia, 2009; KPMG, 2009), leading some to question the viability of the \"PPP model\" going forward, despite the fact that many governments remain interested in exploring partnership opportunities. Given these developments, synthesising the substantive contributions of research in this area presents an important opportunity for reflection, to consider the legacies and potential future directions of this research.The rest of this paper is structured as follows. Section 2 presents a review of the extant literature, outlining the contributions made to each of five themes identified previously. Sensitised by the PPP five research themes mobilised and drawing from observations about directions that the literature has taken to date, Section 3 presents a commentary on opportunities that future accounting-related PPP research could fruitfully pursue. Section 4 presents concluding comments.\n2. Literature review: what have we learned about PPP schemes?: This section reviews the extant literature investigating accounting-related matters (as characterised in the Introduction) in the context of PPPs, organised by the five research themes outlined previously. The search for relevant papers for this review passed three main stages. First, an extensive online search of scholarly accounting journals was undertaken up to December 2010. The list of journals searched:* Abacus.* Accounting and Business Research (ABR).* Accounting and Finance.* Accounting and the Public Interest.* Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal (AAAJ).* Accounting Forum.* Accounting Horizons.* Accounting, Organizations and Society (AOS).* Accounting Research Journal.* Australian Accounting Review (AAR).* Contemporary Accounting Research.* Critical Perspectives on Accounting (CPA).* Financial Accountability and Management (FAM).* Journal of Accounting and Public Policy.* Journal of Accounting and Economics.* Journal of Accounting Literature.* Journal of Accounting Research.* Journal of Business Finance and Accounting.* Journal of International Accounting Research.* Journal of Management Accounting Research.* Management Accounting Research.* Pacific Accounting Review.* The Accounting Review.* The British Accounting Review.* The European Accounting Review (EAR).Papers of interest to this review were also likely to be published in journals outside of the accounting literature (such as in public management and administration journals). So in addition, several databases (ABI/INFORM Global, EBSCO Business Source Premier, Emerald, JSTOR, and Science Direct) and Google Scholar were searched to locate such articles in an attempt to draw together as comprehensive a set of relevant literature as possible. In all, 97 publications were identified for inclusion in this review, reflecting the contributions of 107 (co-)authors over a period of 14 years (refer to Figure A1 of the Appendix for the most frequent (co-)authors appearing in this literature), and sourced from a range of accounting journals and non-accounting publications (see Figure A2 of the Appendix). An interesting point to note about the sources reported is the proportion of this work published in \"non-accounting\" outlets (60 per cent), comprising publications focusing on public sector administration/management/policy (e.g. Public Administration and Public Money & Management), as well as other outlets further afield (e.g. Human Relations, International Journal of Project Management, and BMJ). This perhaps indicates that interest in issues relating to Broadbent and Laughlin's research agenda extend beyond accounting academe, which is encouraging. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Figure A2 of the Appendix also reports that the papers published in accounting journals were all located in non-US outlets. Reasons for this may be two-fold. First, while PPPs have been utilised in the USA in transport, technology, water, prisons, health and welfare, and urban regeneration (Grimsey and Lewis, 2004), interest in such schemes has been described as muted and variable (Broadbent and Laughlin, 2004), although government policy and regulatory developments in recent times are attempting to change this (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2010). Second, much of work reviewed here is substantively and methodologically distinct from the style of research typically accepted by the US accounting journals. As indicated by Figure A3 of the Appendix, the most popular research methods in this domain have been some form commentary/normative analysis (26 per cent), case/field study (26 per cent), or archival/content analysis (24 per cent, much of which is qualitatively oriented) - methods that are not in keeping with the penchant of North American accounting journals for publishing \"empirical tests of economics-based models using large, archival data sets\" (Merchant, 2010, p. 116). The popularity of commentary/normative analysis is also noteworthy. Such \"armchair theorising\" (Broadbent and Guthrie, 1992), while important for driving debate, can only make a limited contribution to public policy development without complementary empirical research, particularly given recent calls for more evidence-based policy (Broadbent and Guthrie, 2007). Echoing concern raised by Broadbent and Guthrie (2007) about public sector accounting research more generally, a continuing emphasis on commentary/normative publications could place the relevance and contribution of academic work to PPP policy and practice at risk. Another remarkable element of the literature is that only 29 per cent of the papers reviewed explicitly specify some form of theoretically informed analysis (see Figure A4 of the Appendix). Also, the geographic orientation of this literature stands out. Figure A5 of the Appendix shows that 60 per cent of the extant literature focused on PPP developments and experiences in the UK. While this might be expected given the relatively high profile of PPP use and debate in this jurisdiction, and the location of the most prolific authors in this area (see Figure A1, Appendix), it means that the extant literature has largely overlooked PPP developments elsewhere in the world particularly in non-Anglo domains, which are considered in only 7 per cent of the papers reviewed.The analysis of accounting-related research in PPPs just presented provides a descriptive snapshot of the \"landscape\" of this literature. The following sections take this preliminary analysis further, by examining in more detail the substantive contributions that this literature makes to the five research themes adapted from Broadbent and Laughlin's (1999, 2004) research agenda.2.1 Nature of and rationale for PPPs\n3. Comments on the extant literature and future research opportunities: As is evident from the literature reviewed above, a wide variety of issues has been examined in relation to the five themes derived from Broadbent and Laughlin (1999, 2004), which are summarised in Table VI.The extant literature has critiqued motivations, discourses and influences that have shaped PPP developments. It has made important contributions to explicating the deficiencies of and values associated with financial calculations used to assess VFM and manage risks for proposed PPP schemes. Extant work has highlighted the scant development of ex post evaluations of PPP schemes, and has offered advice on how this could be remedied. The literature has drawn attention to the conflicting evidence, difficulties and ambiguities in substantiating the merit and worth of PPP schemes. It has also flagged important challenges in making PPPs appropriately transparent and accountable.Sensitised by the PPP research themes discussed to this point and drawing from observations about directions that the literature has taken to date, what follows is a commentary on opportunities that future accounting-related PPP research could fruitfully pursue. This discussion about current directions and future opportunities is organised around the following themes:* looking beyond the \"technicalities\" of partnership;* problematising critical explanations;* internationalising knowledge;* considering post-procurement implications;* attending to the implications of the global financial crisis; and* addressing research impact on policy and practice.While the extant research directions are by no means exhausted, and can still be productively enhanced by future investigations along similar lines, the commentary offered in this section highlights that accounting-related PPP research also needs to start branching into other relatively unexplored areas in order to expand our knowledge of these schemes, particularly in terms of problematising and appreciating the pragmatic challenges associated with how PPP schemes are constructed and operate in practice.3.1 Looking beyond the \"technicalities\" of partnership\n4. Conclusions: The aims of this paper are to examine the contribution of the extant literature in terms of the role and effects of accounting in PPP arrangements and to consider the current research gaps and possibilities for future research in this area. The paper was structured around several research themes derived from Broadbent and Laughlin (1999, 2004). While this paper presents the many contributions made to date in understanding PPPs and their institutional context, it also highlights a number of areas to which the PPP research agenda can be extended. On this basis, several potentially fruitful research opportunities within this field are proposed, which mainly have in common a need to question the nature and functioning of PPPs and to further consider the complexities of PPPs in action. Given that PPPs are now well established in many countries around the globe, and that the number and economic value of these arrangements is steadily growing, expanding the PPP research agenda in the ways suggested in this paper are viable and essential. As has always the case in this research domain, there are likely to be challenges in pursuing the suggested research opportunities, particularly where information on the detailed workings of PPP procurement and/or operation is sought. Overcoming these challenges will not be easy, but this does not mean that they should be shied away from. Rather, it is hoped that the aforementioned research opportunities give cause for researchers to address these access barriers with renewed vigour, in aid of developing and expanding the potential of academe's contribution to a constructive public debate on the nature, structure, working, governance, merit and limits of PPP schemes.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to review research investigating the implications of public private partnership (PPP) schemes for public investment, focusing on the role and effects of accounting as it relates to the assessment, management, control, reporting, accountability and policy direction of these arrangements. Based on this review, it aims to offer reflections on future directions for this research agenda.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper derives five research themes adapted from the PPP research agenda outlined by Broadbent and Laughlin as a framework to guide a literature-based analysis and critique of the relevant PPP literature published up to December 2010.\nFindings: - The review highlights the range of interesting contributions that extant accounting-related research has made to current knowledge about PPP policy and procedure. From this, concentrations of research effort are identified (its largely technical, critical, procurement-oriented and Anglo-centric focus), and opportunities for future research are proposed. With regard to the latter, the opportunities proffered have in common a need to question the nature and functioning of PPPs, consider the complexities of PPPs in action, and explore connections between research and practice.\nOriginality/value: - The main contributions this paper makes relate to understanding the \"state of the art\" of accounting-related PPP research, the progress this research agenda has made in line with Broadbent and Laughlin's agenda, as well as insights into fruitful directions future research could take.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Benchmarking top Arab banks' efficiency through efficient frontier analysis
|
[
"Data analysis",
"Benchmarking",
"Banks",
"Resource efficiency"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Sustained high oil prices over the past two years have continued to drive growth in banks based in the Arab world's main oil producing states. A certain degree of banking sector liberalization in some states, plus some economic diversification, have also boosted the success of the financial industry in this part of the world. Saudi Arabian banks dominated the upper reaches of the table of the top 100 Arab banks with four out of the top five financial banks and eight out of the top 20. A further six of the top 20 are registered in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), while other Gulf banks make up the remainder. Despite the overall strength and success of their economies, North African banks are minor players in the region overall. Attijariwafabank is the top-ranked North African Bank, followed by National Bank of Egypt one position lower at 25th. Indeed, the absence of an Egyptian bank in the higher echelons of the table (see Appendix) may indicate the level of competition in that country, as a total of 12 Egyptian banks are among the region's top 100 The Egyptian government has made significant progress in recent years in transferring control and ownership of the country's banking services to the private sector and it is hoped that several of the country's banks will be able to grow over the next few years on the back of their greater freedom (Ford, 2006).Despite the unprecedented growth in the banking industry in the Arab world, research on performance and efficiency of the Arab banking industry is virtually nonexistent. Measuring efficiency levels at the Arab banks is an important issue for managers and investors alike. Consumers also benefit from efficient resource usage and allocation because this may mean lower prices and more professional service (Anderson et al., 1998; Prajogo, 2007). Although widely employed to evaluate bank efficiency in the West (Rickards, 2003), Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is less well known within the banking sector in developing countries, and the Arab countries are no exception. In this research we fill this research gap through some initial analysis on top commercial banks in the Arab world, an area where there has been virtually no previous research. The paper also contributes methodologically through the use of various non-parametric DEA methods that provide considerable information for business analysis. More specifically, the purpose of this research is twofold to:1. assess the efficiency of the top Arab banks using 2005 operating data; and2. develop separate benchmarks for possible reductions in resources and possible increase in outputs used by top Arab banks.The rest of the paper is organized as follows. The next section reviews relevant literature. The following section summarizes the methodology used to conduct the analysis. The subsequent section presents empirical results of the efficiency levels of Arab banks. After a brief preliminary data analysis, this section first sets out efficiency scores derived from estimating the basic DEA models; it also presents sensitivity analysis of DEA-derived efficiency scores as a rough validity check on the results. Next, the paper sets out some managerial and policy implications of the analysis. The final section deals with research limitations and explores avenues for future research.\nLiterature review: During the late 1980s and particularly in the 1990s, the DEA method has been used extensively to evaluate banking institutions. In their review, Berger and Humphrey (1997) count 130 studies on the efficiency of the banking industry in 21 countries; 116 of them were published between 1992 and 1997.Miller and Noulas (1996) examined the efficiency of large US banks. They found overall technical efficiency (TE) of around 97 per cent. However, the majority of banks were found to be too large and experiencing decreasing returns to scale. A second stage regression analysis showed that pure TE is positively related to bank size and bank profitability.Bhattacharya et al. (1997) used a two-stage DEA approach to examine the impact of liberalization on the efficiency of the Indian banking industry. In the first stage a TE score was calculated, whereas in the second stage a stochastic frontier analysis was used to attribute variation in efficiency scores to three sources: temporal, ownership and noise component.Alirezaee et al. (1998) utilised data from 1,282 bank branches in Canada to conduct numerical experiments relating to DEA results to sample size. They found that the average branch efficiency score varied inversely with the number of branches in the sample and directly with the total number of inputs and outputs. They also cautioned that using relatively small sample sizes in a model with as few as three inputs and three outputs could lead to a substantial upward bias in efficiency scores.Seiford and Zhu (1999) examined the performance of the top 55 US banks using a two-stage DEA approach. Results indicated that relatively large banks exhibit better performance on profitability, whereas smaller banks tend to perform better with respect to marketability.Cook and Hababou (2001) studied both the sales and service efficiencies of bank branches. They extended the standard additive DEA modelling approach using goal programming to derive optimal efficiency scores while accounting for shared branch resource inputs.Drake and Howcroft (2002) assessed the relative efficiency of UK clearing bank branches using DEA method. This paper utilised the basic efficiency indices and extended the analysis by examining the relationship between size and efficiency.Yildirim (2002) evaluated the efficiency of Turkish commercial banks between 1988 and 1999 using DEA method. Results suggest that over the sample period both pure technical and scale efficiency measures showed a great variation and the sector did not achieve sustained efficiency gains.Using a bootstrapping DEA technique, Casu and Molyneux (2003) investigated efficiency across European banking systems. Results suggest that there has been a slight improvement in bank efficiency levels since the implementation of the EU's Single Market Programme.Krishnasamy (2003) used both DEA and Malmquist total factor productivity index (MPI) to evaluate bank efficiency and productivity changes in Malaysia over the period 2000-2001. The results from the analysis indicated that total MPI increased in all the bans studied. The growth of productivity in these banks was attributed to technological change rather than TE change.Lo and Lu (2006) employed a two-stage DEA approach including profitability and marketability to explore the efficiency of financial holding companies (FHCs) in Taiwan. Factor-specific measures and BCC (Banker-Charnes-Cooper) model were combined together to identify the inputs/outputs that are most important and to distinguish those FHCs which can be treated as benchmarks. Results show that big-sized FHCs are generally more efficient than small-sized ones.Wu et al. (2006) integrated DEA and neural networks (NNs) to examine the relative branch efficiency of a large Canadian bank. Findings suggest that the predicted efficiency using the DEA-NN model has good correlation with that calculated by DEA, which indicates that the predicted efficiency using the DEA-NN approach is a good proxy to classical DEA approach.Studies on performance evaluation and efficiency of the banking industry in the Arab world are rare in extant literature. Notable among them are Al-Faraj et al. (1993), Chaffai (1997) and Al-Shammari and Salimi (1998). Al-Faraj et al. (1993) used DEA to evaluate 15 bank branches of one of the largest commercial banks in Saudi Arabia. The results indicated that 12 branches were efficient. Chaffai (1997) evaluated the TE in the Tunisian banking industry. Results of this study showed that TE of labour and capital inputs are decreasing over time and labour input is more inefficiently used than capital input. Al-Shammari and Salimi (1998) evaluated the comparative operating efficiency of banks in Jordan using a modified version of DEA. The results suggest that the majority of banks investigated are fairly inefficient over the period 1991-1994. Table I summarises previous research conducted to evaluate bank efficiency using DEA.From this brief review we find that although numerous studies have attempted to assess banks efficiency in the West and other parts of the world, very few studies have focused on measuring efficiency in the Arab world. The lack of empirical research in this area confirms Atiyya's (1992) findings concerning the lack of empirical research into Arab management practices in general. In this investigation we aim to fill this research gap by empirically evaluating banks efficiency in the Arab world.\nMethodology: Data envelopment analysis\nResults: Preliminary data analysis\nImplications: Systematic benchmarking through efficiency measurement is one method managers can use to benchmark the efficiency of their banks. The process of benchmarking may be used to identify useful best business practices, innovative ideas, effective operating procedures, and winning strategies that can be adopted by a bank to accelerate its own progress by ensuring quality, productivity, and cost improvements (Chang and Lo, 2005; Seydel, 2006; Eisenberg and Hsieh, 2007). In contrast with piecemeal examination of single performance indicators, global efficiency techniques used in this study can offer Arab bank managers a rounded assessment of their banks' performance. Unlike targets that are based on individual performance measures, global efficiency measures can offer local managers the freedom to set their own priorities, and to seek out improvements along dimensions of performance where they believe that gains are most readily secured. DEA results can also be used by Arab bank managers to support other objectives, such as allocating finance or identifying the priorities for inspection and improvement of performance.As shown in Table II, several banks in our sample have been found to be operating at a decreasing return to scale, and it is better for the management of these banks to refrain from further investments in these banks, as their outputs do not seem to be proportional to the inputs invested in them. On the other hand, banks found to be operating under an increasing return to scale may prefer to expand their operations in the future. However, it should be noted that because of the different production mix, the return to scale relationships of the larger banks are likely to be nonlinear (Ramanathan, 2005), and this may warrant further research.One of the important implications of this study is that efficiency measures facilitate the publication of \"league tables\" or rankings of entire Arab banks. Some authors believe that such rankings nurture public interests in the performance of organizations, promote accountability and stimulate a search for improvement (Hibbard et al., 2003). Finally, it is hoped that Arab bank managers have the possibility to analyze organizational practices of the peer groups and that they are able to improve their future efficiency by adapting these practices for their inefficient banks.\nLimitations and future research: Like any other study, the present study has several limitations that warrant more research. First, it may not always be possible for a bank to ever become efficient because several of the inputs may not be under the full control of management. Therefore, it must be clear that some DEA targets might be impossible to be achieved in practice. DEA results are obtained from the application of a mathematical algorithm, without considering specific conditions and restrictions of a bank. It is in the hands of managers to skilfully use these results as a support for decision-making. Second, the selected variables in the present study might not be exhaustive, and the data set is short. Staat (2001) has showed formally how DEA efficiency scores are affected by sample size. Future studies may use larger sample size and panel data with different sets of inputs and outputs to test the robustness of the results. Third, this study used a cross-sectional data set to evaluate the efficiency of the top Arab banks. However, Sengupta (1995) suggests that competitiveness or efficiency can better be evaluated through analysis of average efficiencies across time. Future studies may use longitudinal designs to assess time-varying efficiency. Fourth, as suggested by Bauer et al. (1998), for the frontier-based efficiency scores to be useful, the estimated scores should be positively correlated with traditional non-frontier based measures of performance. Avkiran (1999) also suggests that assessment of banks operational performance through DEA should be complemented by ratio analysis that measures financial performance of the bank. He recommends that as a sound managerial practice, profitability measures should be compared with DEA results and significant disagreements investigated. Therefore, future studies should test the existence of positive rank-order correlations between efficiency scores obtained from DEA analysis and traditional efficiency measures such as financial ratios. This test would give assurance that frontier measures are not simply artificial products of the assumptions made regarding the underlying optimisation techniques used. Finally, it should be noted that previous studies (Weill, 2004) have found a lack of robustness between parametric and non-parametric approaches used to evaluate efficiency. Therefore, future studies of Arab banking industry should compare efficiency scores based on parametric and nonparametric techniques.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The major aim of this research is to measure the relative efficiency of the top 100 Arab banks. The sensitivity of the results is also investigated.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data envelopment analysis DEA method was used to evaluate the relative efficiency of Arab banks. Cross-sectional data for the year 2005 were used to conduct the analysis.\nFindings: - The results indicate that the performance of several banks is sub-optimal, suggesting the potential for significant improvements. Separate benchmarks were derived for possible reductions in resources used, and significant savings are possible on this account.\nOriginality/value: - From a policy perspective, this study highlights the importance of encouraging increased efficiency throughout the banking industry in the Arab world.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Managing social responsibility in Chinese agriculture supply chains through the "a company + farmers" model
|
[
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Supply chain integration",
"Quality performance",
"A company + farmers",
"Chinese agriculture"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Over the past few decades, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has received a large amount of attention in research and in practice (Kilian and Hennings, 2014; Eriksson et al., 2013b; Eriksson and Svensson, 2014; Bai et al., 2015). As an example, financial misrepresentation at leading companies such as Enron (Prentice, 2003) and WorldCom (Hitzig, 2004) led to extensive loss of investor savings, prompting passage in the USA of the Sarbanes - Oxley Act to improve the accuracy of corporate financial reporting (Bernardi and LaCross, 2005). CSR continues to evolve in practice, and its reach now often extends to supply chain partners, including suppliers, customers and logistics providers (Eriksson and Svensson, 2015). For instance, consumers and non-government organizations (NGOs) criticized clothing company Nike, Inc regarding sweatshop labour issues at its overseas suppliers. Nike, Inc initially denied it had any responsibility for its supply chain partners but later shifted its stance under increased public pressure (Zadek, 2004). The entire clothing industry now takes a more diligent approach to supply chain CSR, including extensive codes of practice in relation to supplier labour (Emmelhainz and Adams, 1999; Andersen and Skjoett-Larsen, 2009).\n2. Theoretical background: CSR can be defined as companies' voluntary integration of social and environmental concerns in their business processes and in their relationships with other companies and stakeholders (Galbreath, 2009; Lopez and Fornes, 2015). As companies adopt social and environmental practices, they can achieve economic benefits by reducing costs, increasing productivity and profits and enhancing corporate image and reputation (Eriksson and Svensson, 2016). However, for supply chains to be successful in terms of CSR, companies, including all suppliers and manufacturers in the chain, need to increase their own awareness and act in a socially and environmentally responsible manner. They are anyway obliged to comply with environmental laws and regulations and to meet national and international standards, and this obligation can be seen as an aspect of CSR. The applications of CSR to the supply chain have emerged in the past 15 years. Poist (1989) provided early consideration of social responsibility in the supply chain, suggesting a \"total responsibility\" approach that adds societal issues to traditional economic drivers. Murphy and Poist (2002) contended that although supply chains have been slow to adopt CSR, it has been increasing in importance. Carter and Jennings (2004) established the importance of CSR in supply chain decision-making with case study and survey research.\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Questionnaire design and measurement of variables\n4. Discussion: 4.1 Hypothesis testing\n5. Conclusion: Experience indicates that food and agriculture in China are prime issues for public concern over perceived supply chain-CSR deficiencies. This paper explores empirically the effects of supply chain integration on food quality and the interrelations among farmers' trust in the company, farmers' different types of relationship commitments to the company and supply chain integration, where individual farmers in the organizational pattern of \"a company + farmers\" are being integrated with the company. The theoretical model for \"trust - relationship commitments - supply chain integration - quality performance\" is established. A total of 462 sets of survey responses were collected, and empirical analysis on the relations between all variables of \"a company + farmers\" was conducted using the structural equation model. The findings provide a theoretical basis and practice guidelines for agricultural enterprises' management of supply chain integration under the pattern of \"a company + farmers\". In particular, supply chain integration has positive influences on quality, and trust has greater effects on integration than does normative relationship commitment. The conclusions provide the company with theoretical and practical guidelines to improve the quality of its primary agricultural products and thereby enhance the competitive advantages of Chinese agribusiness.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has received a large amount of attention in research and in practice. As a response to the growing awareness of and concern about social and environmental issues, an increasing number of companies are integrating their supply chains and building an alliance of \"a company + farmers\". The overall research question of this study is derived from the literature, and this paper aims to identify factors that influence the integration of the agriculture supply chain and to explore the relationship between these factors and quality performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The analysis is based on questionnaire survey data collected from 462 Chinese farmers under the organization pattern of \"a company + farmers\". A structural equation model is applied in the empirical analysis of the relations among trust, relationship commitments of different types (normative and instrumental), supply chain integration and quality performance.\nFindings: An understanding of the various influences on supply chain integration and quality performance is important in relation to CSR in Chinese agriculture. The results show that supply chain integration has positive effects on quality performance. Moreover, farmers' normative relationship commitment to the company is positively related to supply chain integration. However, farmers' instrumental relationship commitment to the company does not significantly affect the degree of integration between farmers and companies. Furthermore, trust has positive influences on the two types of relationship commitment and on supply chain integration.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings provide a theoretical basis and practice guidelines for agricultural enterprises to manage CSR under the pattern of \"a company + farmers\". The results help enterprises to acquire detailed information about the entire process of agricultural production, improve the quality and safety of primary agricultural products and enhance the competitiveness of Chinese agricultural products in the market.\nOriginality/value: The e-book shows that enterprises working within Chinese agriculture supply chains have a long tradition of working with CSR and supports cooperation between the European Union and China on food and agriculture.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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In today's global environment organizational culture dominates national culture!
|
[
"Business performance",
"Supply chain management",
"Supplier evaluation",
"Continuous improvement",
"Organizational performance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In today's global environment, in order to remain competitive companies need to continually satisfy their customers (Jamrog et al., 2008). Kuster and Vila (2011) describe success as a measure of companies being competitive within the global market. Competitiveness requires delivering high quality product on time, and at prices customers are willing to pay. Business performance is based on these metrics (Bible et al., 2006). Supplier development increases supplier involvement and interaction, and is critical in achieving high quality, on time product, at competitive prices. Supplier development activity requires resources and a structured approach.\nLiterature review: The literature review is broken up into subtopics which discuss various aspects of the literature search. It is divided into either national culture or organizational culture (Vecchi and Brennan, 2009). Global sourcing and cost reduction initiatives drive companies to work with a diverse set of suppliers. There was not significant research surrounding culture's impact on continuous improvement methodologies. However, in researching the broader topics there was significant literature regarding the major topics of suppliers, continuous improvement, and cultural differences. The key was reviewing the large amount of literature and extracting key pieces of information as it related to suppliers, their cultural differences, and how the cultural differences impacted the continuous improvement methods. The literature review concludes with a discussion on the literature found concerning the methodologies used by researchers in understanding culture and its differences in regards to continuous improvement methodologies.\nResearch methodology: The purpose of the research methodology is to describe the approach used to conduct the research. This was an action research study. Action research was most appropriate, as there was direct back and forth interaction with the suppliers with the goal of learning from the research and improving the supplier performance for MSDPC. Suppliers were encouraged to participate and interact with the researcher in order to improve their performance.\nResults: Data was collected in two fashions. The first was quantitatively through the use of the IMSS revision IV survey, as well as supplier performance data. The second method was through qualitative measures, which were more subjective in nature and conducted by the researcher, through observations and discussions. The survey was given to 14 companies in 11 countries. The companies were selected based on their key impact to MSDPC. Ten of the surveys were returned (71.4 percent). Surveys were returned from Canada, Poland, Mexico, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Estonia, and India. Surveys were not returned from the UK, the USA, or Japan. In addition to the surveys, on site visits were conducted at seven countries. The companies in the UK and the USA were visited with results documented, even though they did not return the survey. Estonia and India were not visited by the researcher.\nConclusions and summary: National culture and organizational culture impact how continuous improvement methods are received, implemented and deployed by suppliers. Previous research emphasized the dominance of national culture over organizational culture. The countries studied included Poland, Mexico, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Estonia, India, Canada, the USA, the UK, and Japan. The research found that Canada was most receptive to continuous improvement, with China being the least receptive. The study found that organizational culture was more influential than national culture. Company leadership and vision was stronger than the national cultural attributes. Isomorphism and benchmarking is driving continuous-improvement language and methods to be more universally known within business. Business and management practices appear to take precedence in driving change within in organizations.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The specific problem this research addresses is whether cultural differences, national or organizational, impact how effectively the continuous improvement process is received within the supply chain in order to improve supplier performance. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research design used a mixed methods approach, combining quantitative and qualitative research.\nFindings: The research found that Canada was most receptive to continuous improvement, with China being the least receptive. The study found that organizational culture was more influential than national culture. Isomorphism and benchmarking is driving continuous-improvement language and methods to be more universally known within business. Business and management practices appear to take precedence in driving change within organizations.\nResearch limitations/implications: The sample size and countries involved was very small and limited to key medium sized distributed power company (MSDPC) suppliers. This limited diversity and may have introduced supplier selection bias, as well as survey response bias.\nPractical implications: This research concludes that organizational culture is more dominant over national culture and the influence of leadership within the organization drives the impact of continuous improvement.\nOriginality/value: With isomorphism and the fact that businesses want to be successful, continuous improvement language and methods are becoming more universally known. Business and management practices are now taking precedence in driving change within organizations. Organizational culture is now more influential than national culture.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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A construct of the "ethos of codes of ethics" (ECE): the case of private and public Sweden
|
[
"Ethics",
"Business ethics",
"Private sector organizations",
"Public sector organizations",
"Sweden"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the twentieth century, industrialised economies around the world enacted legislation to protect free trade, securities dealings, consumers, suppliers, stockholders and more recently other stakeholders. These legislative initiatives were often precipitated by behaviour that initially appeared unethical, but in time was made illegal (Ferrell et al., 1998; Carasco and Singh, 2003). Subsequently, as the powers of these large corporations grew they were confronted by greater expectations from society to behave in an ethical manner (Cleek and Leonard, 1998; Cohan, 2002; Sorensen, 2002). Errant companies were lambasted in the media (Collier, 2000; Wheeler et al., 2002), charged for corporate crimes, and litigation was brought against them by citizens who had fallen victim to their malfeasance.The need for standards that transcended differences in laws and cultures was also the driving force behind various attempts by international organisations to regulate the conduct of global companies (Carasco and Singh, 2003). For example, the OECD proposed the Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the United Nations constructed its Global Compact document (Carasco and Singh, 2003). In North America, such pieces of legislation as the US Sentencing Guidelines for Organisations in 1991 and the Sarbanes Oxley Act in 2002 were enacted to complement an already exhaustive raft of legal measures to guide business in their dealings.The spread of globalisation meant that many companies expanded rapidly into new markets and into uncharted waters for their organisation. Their employees began to interact cross-culturally and they were confronted by a milieu of different standards for the conduct of business. Some of these standards created ethical dilemmas for the staff involved. Whilst the 1977 US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act banned bribery to foreign officials, new terms were \"invented\", such as \"facilitation payments\", in order to enhance one's chance of business success in some of these newer foreign markets. People were still sceptical that these new terms were just the \"Emperor's new clothes\", and as stakeholder groups they began to put pressure upon companies to state their intentions in a formal way, such as is evidenced by a code of ethics. Many of these companies turned to codes of ethics as a means of showcasing to society that they had an interest and a desire in being ethical in the marketplaces in which they conducted business.In a model that goes beyond philosophically based ethics, Stajkovic and Luthans (1997) use social-cognitive theory as a means to identify factors that influence business ethics standards and conduct. They propose that a person's perception of ethical standards and subsequent conduct is influenced by institutional factors (e.g. ethics legislation), personal factors (e.g. moral development), and organisational factors (e.g. code of ethics). Within the cultural context, the key antecedent factors interact together to influence the ethical standards of people and organizations (Stajkovic and Luthans, 1997). Corporate codes of ethics are an important organisational factor and are the emphasis of the research reported in this paper.Berenbeim (2000) cites three trends as evidence of the growing importance of corporate codes of ethics:1. the globalisation of markets and the need for core principles that are universally applicable;2. the acceptance of these codes as part of corporate governance as illustrated by increased participation of boards in their development; and3. the improved ethical literacy of senior managers as illustrated by the increasing sophistication of the codes.While globalisation has led to increased competition that may lead to unethical corporate conduct, there is also the possibility that globalisation has facilitated the spread of corporate ethics programs. Hence, a corporate code of ethics is viewed as an important adjunct in developing ethical standards in organisations in areas such as ethical bodies, ethical tools, ethical support procedures, internal and external ethical usage. These areas are described further in the frame of reference. Our outlined framework is in part based upon Svensson et al.'s (2004) comparison of Swedish private and public sectors and Wood's (2002) partnership model of corporate ethics.The objective of this research effort is to develop and describe a construct of the ethos of the codes of ethics (i.e. an ECE construct) in the private and public sectors of Sweden. Accordingly, it takes a cross-sector approach to codes of ethics amongst the top private sector companies and the top public sector organisations. The paper then examines the measures put in place by the dual sample in order to describe the ethos of their codes of ethics.\nFrame of reference: This section provides a frame of reference to underpin the ECE construct. It is divided into a selection of principal areas:* ethical bodies;* ethical tools;* ethical support procedures;* internal ethical usage; and* external ethical usage.A number of sub-areas are also described under each heading.Ethical bodies\nMethodology: The methodology of this research is based upon two sectors, namely the private and the public sectors of Sweden. Some methodological adaptations were required, all of which are described in this section.A three-stage research procedure was used and conducted in order to examine the ethos of codes of ethics in private companies and public organisations of Sweden. In Stage 1, an adapted questionnaire was developed for each sector. The private sector companies and public sector organisations were asked to answer up to 30 questions about the methods used by their organisations to inculcate an ethical ethos into the daily operations of the organisation, its leadership and its employees. The aim of the questionnaires was also to obtain from the participants a copy of their code of ethics, if they had one. The second stage involved content analysis of the codes of ethics supplied by the survey participants. The third stage involved a more detailed follow-up of a smaller group of private companies and public organisations that appeared to be close to or to represent best practice in respect to codes of ethics in Sweden. The outcome of Stage 1 of this three-stage research procedure is reported in this article.Private sector\nEmpirical findings: A selection of univariate and multivariate statistical techniques (e.g. Norusis, 1993, 1994) was used to describe the dual-sector sample of data collected and to analyse it in terms of the ethos of codes of ethics. The outcomes of the statistical techniques are summarised in Tables I-VI.The dual sample is dominated by large companies/organisations according to the selection procedures applied (see Table I). More than 93.5 per cent of the Swedish private and public samples have an annual turnover of more than 2,500 million SEK. This provides support for the focus on the ECE construct of large organisations in Sweden.The largest interval in the dual sample regarding full-time equivalent staff is the interval of 1,001-5,000 employees (see Table II). For example, 42 per cent of the sample belongs to this interval. The second largest interval is 501-1,000 employees (i.e. 21 per cent). Approximately 90 per cent of the sample has more than 500 employees.Table III indicates that half of the organisations in the dual sample have indicated that they possess of a code of ethics (48.4 per cent). It should be noted that the research reported in this paper is based upon the organisations that have a code (i.e. n=137) and accordingly are able to provide insights and share their views on their ethos of codes of ethics.Univariate analyses - questionnaire items\nImplications: The previous sections of this paper have reported a research effort to develop and describe a cross-sector construct based upon a dual sample in the private and public sectors of Sweden that reflects the ethos of codes of ethics (see Figure 1). It has been introduced and labelled as an ECE construct. We believe that it makes a contribution to theory and practice in the field as it is based on a dual sample. It makes a contribution to theory as it outlines a construct for the benefit of other researchers working in both the private and the public sectors. It provides a point of reference. We also believe that it may be of managerial interest as it provides a grounded framework of areas to be considered in the implementation of the codes of ethics in both private companies and public organisations.The private sectors and the public sectors in developed countries have traditionally been different, yet over the last few years, with the deregulation of marketplaces, the public sector in particular has tended to adopt many of the attributes of the private sector in terms of its orientation towards conducting its business. One such area that has attracted increased interest from both sectors is the area of ethics.A deregulated marketplace has been a major change for Sweden as the deregulation paradigm is one anchored in Anglo-Saxon tradition rather than in Nordic tradition. This new deregulated marketplace has posed new challenges for public sector entities and forced them to confront changing conditions that impact on the way that they need to manage their operations. This realisation may have led them to adopt practices that they have witnessed in the Swedish private sector.An important implication for private sector companies when trying to benchmark the best practice of ECE could be to examine the approaches of the public sector entities. The public sector has been different and the approach taken recently by public sector entities regarding ECE may provide innovative and valuable insights into how to enhance the efforts of private sector companies. Likewise, public sector entities may gain valuable knowledge by examining best practices in the private sector. As each sector has become more convergent rather than divergent in their ECE then each may be able to learn valuable lessons from the other to enhance their respective ECEs in their sector.\nConclusions and limitations: The multivariate techniques used in the statistical analysis indicated that the ECE construct consists of five dimensions (see further details in Tables V and VI):1. ethical bodies;2. ethical tools;3. ethical support procedures;4. internal ethics usage; and5. external ethics usage.We believe that it may be seen as a cross-sector construct. In fact, it is based upon a dual sample of research data in both the private and the public sectors (see Figure 1). Tables I and II show that the dual sample is based upon large companies/ organizations. The reported ECE construct is unique as it is based on a cross-sector sample seldom seen in the literature. While the outcome of statistical analyses indicated a satisfactory factor solution and acceptable estimates of reliability measures, there are some research limitations that should be stressed. They provide a foundation for further research in the field and testing of the ECE construct in other cultural and dual settings.It should be noted that the ECE construct has been derived from large companies and organisations in the private and public sectors ni Sweden, which may indicate less applicability to smaller operations (see Tables I and II). Another limitation may be the validity and reliability across other cultural samples. The dual sample contains a variety of different types of operations, but it may not be transferable to other countries. Furthermore, the outcome is based upon data from private companies and public organisations that indicated they had corporate codes of ethics (see Table III). Therefore, a suggestion for further research is to examine the ECE construct in other countries/cultures that differ from the ones in this research effort, performed in the private and public sectors of Sweden. This would require a society with a public sector that is comparable to the one examined.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The objective of this paper is to develop and describe a construct of the \"ethos of the codes of ethics\" (i.e. an ECE construct) in the private and public sectors of Sweden.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper takes a cross-sector approach to codes of ethics amongst the top private sector companies and the top public sector organisations. The paper then examines the measures put in place by the dual sample in order to describe the ethos of their codes of ethics.\nFindings: - The multivariate techniques used in the statistical analysis indicated that the ECE-construct consists of five dimensions: ethical bodies, ethical tools, ethical support procedures, internal ethics usage, and external ethics usage.\nResearch limitations/implications: - It should be noted that the ECE construct has been derived from large companies and organisations in private and public Sweden, which may indicate less applicability to smaller operations. Another limitation may be the validity and reliability across other cultural samples. The dual sample contains a variety of different types of operations, but it may not be transferable to other countries.\nPractical implications: - The outcome is based on data from private companies and public organisations that indicated they had corporate codes of ethics. Therefore, a suggestion for further research is to examine the ECE construct in other countries/cultures that differ from the ones in this research effort performed in the private and public sectors of Sweden.\nOriginality/value: - The ECE construct introduced makes a contribution to theory and practice in the field as it is based upon a dual sample. It makes a contribution to theory as it outlines a construct for the benefit of other researchers working in both the private and the public sectors. The authors also believe that it may be of managerial interest as it provides a grounded framework of areas to be considered in the implementation of the codes of ethics in both private companies and public organisations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Adjusting P/E ratios by growth and risk: the PERG ratio
|
[
"Price earning ratio",
"Business development",
"Strategic objectives",
"Numerical analysis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The so-called internet bubble became, in a way, the short-lived revenge of growth-oriented investors. For many years, practitioners and academics produced a vast number of studies showing the superiority of value strategies over growth strategies. Then, in the second half of the 1990s, even Warren Buffett seemed to have gone out of fashion.After three consecutive down markets (2000, 2001, and 2002), however, value investors came back with a vengeance. At the same time, growth investors went AWOL, growth companies gave up most of the gains accumulated during the bull market, and even long-forgotten dividends came back into fashion.Despite this rollercoaster of up and down markets, there seems to be a wide consensus about the fact that value strategies outperform growth strategies in both the US and in other countries. Capaul et al. (1993) report that value outperformed growth in the US, Japan, and Europe by an average of 40 percent over the period 1981-1992[1]. Bauman et al. (1998) extend the previous study in terms of time (1985-1996) and coverage (21 countries) and confirm that value outperforms growth, though not necessarily in every country or every year. Many other studies report results consistent with these findings.The debate, then, is not so much about whether value outperforms growth (it does), but about why this happens. Fama and French (1992, 1996) argue that value strategies outperform growth strategies simply because the former are riskier. In their view, this is the logical consequence of market efficiency. Chen and Zhang (1998) subscribe to this view, and report results showing that value outperforms growth in the US, Japan, Hong Kong and Malaysia, and that value is riskier than growth.Lakonishok et al. (1994), on the other hand, argue that value strategies yield higher returns because they exploit the suboptimal behavior of investors. In their view, inefficient markets underprice out-of-favor (value) stocks, and therefore investing in them does eventually pay off[2]. Arshanapalli et al. (1998) subscribe to this view, and report results showing that value outperforms growth in international markets, and that value strategies are not riskier than growth strategies.This article is not a \"value versus growth\" study but an inquiry into the much-less explored \"value versus value\" issue. The purpose of this study is not to compare the performance of low P/E (value) and high P/E (growth) strategies. Rather, it is to compare the performance of a low P/E strategy relative to that of two alternative value strategies. One is based on the PEG ratio, a valuation tool widely used by analysts, that adjusts the P/E ratio by growth. The other is based on the PERG ratio, a magnitude introduced in this article that adjusts the P/E ratio by both growth and risk.Thus, the purpose of this article is two-fold:1. to propose a new tool, the PERG ratio, that can be used for stock valuation and, by extension, for implementing trading strategies; and2. to assess the performance of strategies based on the proposed tool relative to that of strategies based on existing and widely used measures of value.The sample is limited but the results are encouraging: portfolios sorted by PERG ratios outperform, on a risk-adjusted basis, those sorted by both P/E ratios and PEG ratios. The results reported also cast some doubts on strategies based on the popular PEG ratio, which is generally outperformed by strategies based on both P/E ratios and PERG ratios.The rest of the article is organized as follows. Section 2 briefly reviews the basics of P/E ratios and PEG ratios; section 3 introduces the PERG ratio; section 4 reports and discusses the empirical evidence; and section 5 provides an assessment. An Appendix concludes the article.\n2. Relative valuation: the P/E ratio and the PEG ratio: Value strategies are largely based on selecting stocks that are cheap relative to some fundamental variable. P/E ratios are used to select stocks that are cheap relative to earnings per share (EPS); price-to-cash flow ratios to select stocks that are cheap relative to cash flow per share; price-to-book ratios to select stocks that are cheap relative to book value per share; and so on[3]. Of all the tools of relative valuation, P/E ratios are arguably the most widely used by analysts.2.1. The P/E ratio\n3. A new tool of relative valuation: the PERG ratio: It was mentioned above that two of the main fundamentals that may explain differences in P/E ratios across comparable companies are growth and risk. PEG ratios adjust P/E ratios by growth, thus removing the impact of this factor. But what about risk? Take two comparable companies with the same P/E and expected growth in EPS but different risk. Would the fact that these two companies have the same PEG necessarily lead you to conclude that they are equally attractive? If not, doesn't the PEG then give an incomplete picture of relative value?To illustrate, go back to companies A (P/E=10 and g=5 percent) and B (P/E=20 and g=10 percent) above. Recall that, given their P/Es, A appeared to be more attractive than B, but after adjusting by growth both companies appeared to be equally attractive. But what if company A had a beta of 1 and company B a beta of 0.5? Would a rational investor still consider A to be more attractive than B? If not, doesn't the PEG then give an incomplete picture of relative value?3.1. The PERG ratio\n4. The evidence: There are at least two approaches designed to assess the impact of a given variable on returns. The standard statistical analysis intends to answer whether the chosen variable significantly explains the variability of returns. An economic analysis, on the other hand, intends to assess the performance of portfolios based on the chosen variable relative to the performance of portfolios based on alternative variables. The analysis in this article belongs to the latter category.A caveat, however, is in order. It is well known that statistical inference is highly dependent on the existence of outliers. In response, many researchers implement economic analyses (usually with monthly rebalancing) with the sole purpose of verifying and strengthening the results of statistical analyses (see, for example, Fama and French (1998); Barry et al., 2002). That is not the goal of the economic approach in this paper, which does not seek to reassess the validity of statistical results. Rather, it seeks to determine which of the portfolio-selection tools considered generates the best medium- and long-term portfolios.The central question in this article is whether PERG-ranked portfolios outperform portfolios ranked by P/E ratios and PEG ratios. The data used consists of a sample of 100 companies selected with the only restriction that they had returns available in Datastream for the full sample period of January 1975-September 2002[7]. The Appendix shows all the companies in the sample as well as the industry they belong to.4.1. Parameter estimates and portfolio formation\n5. Conclusions: For many years academics and practitioners have been debating the \"value versus growth\" issue. Although there seems to be a consensus on the fact that, in the long term, value outperforms growth, there is no agreement about why this is the case. This article tackles a related but different topic, which can be thought of as a \"value versus value\" issue.P/E ratios are one of the valuation tools most widely used by analysts, and are the key variable in many value strategies. The simplicity of P/E ratios, however, can be deceptive. There is nothing trivial about choosing an appropriate benchmark P/E, or determining whether the difference between a given P/E and its appropriate benchmark is due to fundamentals or to mispricing.Differences across P/E ratios may be due to many factors, but are largely driven by differences in growth and risk. The PEG ratio improves upon the P/E ratio by adjusting the latter by growth. However, the PEG ratio does not make any adjustment for risk; the PERG ratio proposed in this article does.The sample used to assess the empirical usefulness of the PERG ratio is limited, and therefore the results reported should be considered tentative. Still, the evidence reported and discussed does show that PERG-based strategies outperform, on a risk-adjusted basis, value strategies based on P/E ratios and PEG ratios. This outperformance occurs regardless of whether portfolios are not rebalanced, rebalanced every ten years, or rebalanced every five years.These results could certainly be validated by using a larger sample of US stocks and a longer time period. They could also be reinforced by assessing the performance of all the strategies considered with a sample of stocks from several international markets. Both are possible and are certainly valuable lines of future research.Due to its simplicity and plausibility, the PEG ratio rapidly became a popular and widely used valuation tool. However, this ratio ignores the fact that differences in P/Es may be due not only to growth but also to risk, which in turn ignores the fact that all modern financial theory is based on a risk-return trade-off. Furthermore, the evidence reported above does not support using the PEG as the basis of a value strategy.The PERG ratio proposed in this article, which adjusts the P/E ratio by both growth and risk, has an advantage over the PEG ratio: it does take risk into account. That, plus the fact that PERG-based strategies outperform on a risk-adjusted basis strategies based on both P/Es and PEGs, should make it an attractive tool to add to the arsenal of valuation tools used by analysts.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to compare the performance of a low-P/E strategy relative to that of two alternative value strategies, one based on the PEG ratio and another on the PERG ratio (a magnitude introduced in this article).\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The data used consists of a sample of 100 US companies between January 1975 and September 2002. Portfolios are formed on the basis of different valuation ratios, and their performance is compared in order to determine the best-performing strategy.\nFindings: - Portfolios sorted by PERG ratios outperform, on a risk-adjusted basis, those sorted by both P/E ratios and PEG ratios. This outperformance occurs regardless of whether portfolios are not rebalanced, rebalanced every ten years, or rebalanced every five years.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The sample of stocks is not large. The results could be validated by using a larger sample of US stocks and a longer time period, as well as by using a sample of stocks from several international markets.\nPractical implications: - The PERG ratio proposed in this article improves on the PEG ratio, adjusting the latter by risk. That, plus the fact that PERG-based strategies outperform on a risk-adjusted basis strategies based on both P/Es and PEGs, should make it an attractive tool to add to the arsenal of valuation tools used by analysts.\nOriginality/value: - A new valuation tool is proposed, called the PERG ratio, that adjusts P/E ratios by both growth and risk (or, similarly, PEG ratios by risk).\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
New service system as an information-seeking context: Investigation of an unfamiliar Discovery Service
|
[
"Information retrieval",
"Usability",
"Digital library",
"User study",
"Discovery Service",
"Information-seeking",
"New information service",
"Social science"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: New internet-based information services and applications are increasing in number and variety. Understanding the information-seeking (IS) process and developing systems and strategies to support it are central goals of information science. A new information service system could influence user IS behaviour significantly; however, such a system has seldom been considered in IS research despite the current rhetoric that more human-centric systems and research are required. In this study, this gap was addressed by investigating users' IS behaviours relative to a new information service, such as a Discovery Service system. A quality research study design that included questionnaire survey, observation, thinking aloud and interviews was employed, and content analysis was conducted to understand and classify the users' IS behaviours.\nBackground: The objective of most IS studies is to discover useful information about the habits and preferences of individuals or groups in order to design appropriate systems and services that can facilitate IS behaviours (Belkin et al., 1982a, b; Ellis, 1989, 1993; Kuhlthau, 1993). Previous researchers have developed models related to IS behaviour; especially, the models proposed by Wilson (1981), Ellis (1989) and Kuhlthau (1993) have received significant attention. Wilson's (1981) model of information behaviour includes stress/coping, risk reward and social learning theories as activating mechanisms that motivate an individual to search for information. Ellis' (1989) behavioural model is presumably the earliest model to consider IS as a type of cognitive process. Ellis' model focussed on six cognitive stages, i.e. starting, chaining, browsing, differentiating, monitoring and extracting. Kuhlthau's (1988, 1991, 1993) information search process model is a six-stage model that includes affective, cognitive and physical domains.\nMethodology: To gain a thorough understanding of IS behaviours, an in-depth study that complements survey methods is required (Gable, 1994). Therefore, a mixed-method approach that includes interviews, user observations, thinking aloud and survey was employed in this study.\nFindings: Process of IS under unfamiliar Discovery Service\nDiscussion: Characteristics of IS behaviour under new service system\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purposes of this paper are to understand the user information seeking (IS) process under a new service system, to explore how users construct strategies and to identify the influences of the new service system on the IS process and behaviour.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A quality research study design that included questionnaires survey, observation, thinking-aloud and interviews was employed. In all, 20 participants from 12 social science disciplines at Sichuan University, Chengdu, China were observed using the proposed Discovery Service system. The user IS process characteristics and taxonomy were analysed, and the stages matrix of IS under new system was built.\nFindings: Users' IS processes under the new system proved to be very complex. The features of three process stages, i.e. searching, scanning and verifying stages, and four different behaviour patterns were identified. Moreover, characteristics of IS behaviour under the new service system were described.\nOriginality/value: User IS behaviour was addressed in a new service system context in this study, as has seldom been done in previous IS research. A comprehensive and user-centred understanding of users' exploratory practices in a new service system context was obtained, which will inform the development of information services for digital libraries. In addition, it indicated that the uncertainty of the IS process should be addressed by considering the relationships among IS, information retrieval and user-computer interaction.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Product ethnicity and perceived consumer authenticity: the moderating role of product type
|
[
"Country of origin",
"Product evaluation",
"Authenticity",
"Product type",
"Product ethnicity",
"Product involvement"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: As the quest for consumers becomes increasingly global, international marketing research takes on greater importance. Country of origin (COO) research represents one of the most studied areas in international marketing (Pharr, 2005). COO seeks to understand how consumers perceive foreign products emanating from a particular country.\nPerceived authenticity: Individuals, firms and industries work to establish their authenticity by emphasizing various distinctive social and cultural characteristics. It is widely acknowledged that authenticity is a critical dimension for consumers, and it can be assessed along dimensions such as production methods, product styling, connections to a particular location and firm values (Belk and Costa, 1998; Beverland, 2005, 2006; Beverland and Farrelly, 2010; Grayson and Martinec, 2004; McCracken, 1986; Peterson, 2005; Wang, 1999). Such tactics of asserting authenticity are used in selling a wide range of products (Anand and Jones, 2005).\nProduct ethnicity: COO research suggests that many consumers make stereotypical connections between certain product categories and their COO, calling this phenomenon \"product-country matches\" (Roth and Romeo, 1992) or \"product ethnicity\" (Usunier and Cestre, 2007). Usunier and Cestre (2007) suggest that consumers associate some product categories with one COO (i.e. Russian vodka, Italian pasta) or several countries (i.e. cars from Germany, Japan and the USA). These associations impact consumer perceptions of the product category through a particular matched country image. For example, a study of consumers in Ireland, Mexico and the USA demonstrates a positive relationship between consumer perceptions of the congruent PE and their purchase intentions (Roth and Romeo, 1992).\nProduct evaluations: Authenticity is not a static attribute. Consumers judge authenticity based upon an object's originality or genuineness (Beverland, 2005; Grayson and Martinec, 2004; Rose and Wood, 2005). Research supports influence of authenticity on product evaluations in numerous product contexts, including beer (Beverland et al., 2008), luxury wines (Beverland, 2005), reality television (Rose and Wood, 2005), tourist destinations (Grayson and Martinec, 2004) and theme parks (Costa and Bamossy, 2001). Beverland and Farrelly (2010) find that most consumers are on a quest for more authenticity in product choice, and their personal goals are satisfied through the consumption of those authentic products. Such associations with authenticity would influence attitudes and behaviors toward the products. The desire for authentic goods and services translates into choosing a product based on how well its iconic attributes (e.g. craftsmanship, design and character) match the features of original and traditional products even if non-authentic alternatives are superior (Nijssen and Douglas, 2011). Because consumers desire and seek out authenticity, we can expect such consumers to evaluate products perceived to be authentic in a more positive light. Therefore, the following can be posited:\nProduct involvement: This study posits the impact of PE on authenticity without distinguishing the level of product involvement of consumers. Baughn and Yaprak (1993) suggest that consumer involvement with product may be particularly important in COO research. Prior research defines involvement as the \"general level of interest in the object or the centrality of the object to the person's egostructure\" (i.e. enduring or product involvement) or \"an internal state variable that indicates the amount of arousal, interest, or drive evoked by a particular stimulus or situation\" (Mittal, 1989). It is a well-studied construct linked with many different contexts, such as advertisements, products and purchase decisions (Zaichkowsky 1985). Laurent and Kapferer (1985) identify four dimensions of involvement:\nStudy 1: Methodology\nStudy 2: the moderating role of product type (experience goods versus search goods): In Study 2, we replicated Study 1 with the US sample and further investigated the moderating role of product type in the impact of PE on authenticity. This study extends literature discussing the proposed relationship in the context of experience goods relative to search goods. Nelson's(1970, 1974) classification of products as search versus experience goods rests on the certainty whether consumers can judge product quality prior to purchase and consumption or not. For search goods, dominant attribute information can be obtained before buying the product, whereas for experience goods, evaluation and consumption occur simultaneously as attribute information cannot be obtained or is too costly to obtain. Information gathering becomes a vital task undertaken by consumers to overcome the uncertainty of product quality inherent in experience goods (Huang et al., 2009; Neelamegham and Jain, 1999; Weathers et al., 2007). Consumers must rely upon the product's implicit and explicit cues to make quality judgments, thus symbolic benefits are particularly important for experience products.\nGeneral discussion: The study provides strong evidence of the full mediating role of perceived authenticity in consumer evaluations of foreign goods in the context of COO, particularly PE. Congruent product-country match increases a level of perceived authenticity, resulting in positive consumer evaluations. It is perhaps the most interesting finding of this study. This paper also discovers the moderating role of product type in the impact of PE on authenticity. Experience goods accentuate the impact of congruent PE on authenticity relative to search goods.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate an antecedent of perceived authenticity in the relationship between product ethnicity (PE) and evaluations of foreign products. Moreover, the present study explores roles of product involvement and product type as moderators in the relationship between PE and authenticity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A pretest was conducted to guide the selection of the product type utilized in the survey. With 200 South Korean panel data in Study 1, hypotheses were analyzed using multiple regression following the procedures outlined by Baron and Kenny (1986). With 288 US panel data in Study 2, mediation effects were analyzed using PROCESS by Hayes (2013).\nFindings: The study provides strong evidences of the full mediating role of perceived authenticity between PE and consumer evaluations of foreign products. Experience goods accentuate the impact of congruent PE on authenticity relative to search goods. However, the product involvement as a moderator is not significant.\nPractical implications: International marketing practitioners should attend to the importance of how source country consumers perceive the authenticity of foreign product. In particular, insights from findings will provide international marketers with a means to assess the efficacy of strategic communication messages designed to establish a perception of authenticity in the minds of consumers and a more effective approach to market segmentation in the foreign markets.\nOriginality/value: This study suggests the addition of authenticity into future studies of country of origin (COO) effects. As authenticity fully mediates the relationship between PE and product image evaluations, this study suggests the congruent product-country match as a signal of authenticity, in addition to product image. Moreover, this finding extends literature on COO effects by discussing the importance of authenticity in the context of experience goods relative to search goods.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Crisis management for secondary education: a survey of secondary education directors in Greece
|
[
"Risk",
"Greece",
"Schools",
"Crisis management",
"Secondary education management",
"Greek secondary education",
"Secondary education"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Crises are present in contemporary societies (Mitroff, 2001). Crises are hard to predict in terms of when, how and why they occur, and can be large or small scale. The majority of crises tend to be small scale and most of them are easily contained. Nonetheless, schools and school systems need to be prepared to deal with all types of crises, foreseeable or not. However, emergency-type crises are the ones typically associated with the development of a crisis management plan at the school level (Brock et al., 2001). From this perspective we consider crisis management mainly related to emergencies, and less so in a generic risk management context (Starr, 2012).\nThe Greek secondary education echelons and the lack of formal crisis management: The Greek education system may appear as relatively complex, due to the large number of institutional structures it contains. Administratively it is based on a mechanistic, bureaucratic model, hierarchically organized into a pyramid with the minister of education being the equivalent chief executive and the elementary schools forming the base of the pyramid. Greece's educational system is depicted in Figure 1.\nDescription of the research: The scope of this research is to investigate how crises originating in the basic educational unit may affect the tactical echelons of the administration structure, in particular the regional administration level. Through this approach we are able to indirectly portray the characteristics of an idealized crisis management framework that is suitable for the Greek secondary education settings and determine the current practices in crisis management despite the lack of a formal crisis management system.\nResults and observations: For the purposes of the survey a crisis was defined as a critical event that has an effect of school operation, including events such as natural disasters, accidents, violence, political turmoil, social turmoil, and so on.\nSummary and conclusions: In this paper we present the outcomes of survey for designing a formal crisis management system in Greece. The survey was conducted at in the prefecture-level management for secondary education in Greece. Our survey was conducted with the population of 253 directors of education and former Education officers with a response rate of 50 percent. Our main objective was to elicit design principles for a crisis management system that are adapted to the Greek reality through the experience of the respondents, which, on average was close to three decades.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The Greek secondary education system lacks a formal crisis management system. The purpose of this paper is to address this problem as follows: elicit current crisis management practices, outline features for designing a formal crisis management system in Greece.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research is based on a survey conducted with the directors of secondary education and the interpretation of the survey results. Due to the echelon structure of secondary education the directors are experienced educators with plenty of experience. They are in a unique setting to be able to combine the managerial perspective with field experience, both of which are important for managing crises.\nFindings: First, events of sociopolitical nature are considered as important crisis triggers. Second, there is tendency to expect extended involvement of the state. Third despite the lack of a formal system, current practices are relevant and tend to mimic formal systems.\nResearch limitations/implications: In practice the lack of a formal system does not impede crisis management to be applied in secondary education units.\nOriginality/value: There is no other survey on crisis management at the directors' level that we are aware of. The findings outline existing practices from a tactical perspective, and can serve as a guide for designing a formal crisis management system that is suited for secondary education in Greece.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A model of value-creating practices, trusting beliefs, and online tourist community behaviors: Risk aversion as a moderating variable
|
[
"Trusting beliefs",
"Risk aversion",
"Stickiness",
"Solution acceptance",
"Value-creating practices"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the past decade, many online users worldwide have engaged in online community activities not only to share views on particular products but also to acquire valuable sources of innovation (Brogi, 2014; Seraj, 2012). The rise and popularity of online community activities may stem from the certainty of consumers' trusting (cognitive) beliefs toward online community interactions in comparison to that for offline community agents (e.g. travel agents) (Lovelock, 2004). This clearly reveals that trusting beliefs (TRB) should be considered a key construct in the cognitive-behavioral model of online community participation. In this regard, a number of studies have focused on the effectiveness of TRB based on the subdimensions of honesty (or integrity), benevolence and competence, which can be used as a catalytic precondition for consumers' decision-making in online communities (Benbasat and Wang, 2005; McKnight et al., 2002; Wang and Benbasat, 2008). Along these lines, a recent study shows the significant role of TRB in enhancing the level of behavioral intentions to follow travel advice offered in online travel communities (OTCs) (Casalo et al., 2011). However, there is insufficient empirical evidence regarding the relationship between TRB and behavioral intentions in OTCs. Therefore, a better understanding of the role of TRB in terms of the cognitive-behavioral model in the context of OTCs is needed by both researchers and practitioners.\nLiterature review: Value-creating practices\nResearch methods: Measurement\nResults: Demographic characteristics of respondents\nDiscussion: A clear understanding of TRB is crucial for the successful management of online communities. Given this recognition, the overarching objective of this study is to identify the key concepts that serve as independent, moderating and dependent factors with respect to TRB in a model of OTCs. For this heuristic objective, this study integrates the literature on value-creating practices, TRB involving honesty, benevolence and competence and behavioral outcomes such as SOA and STI based on the theoretical and empirical background in diverse realms (e.g. Web-based interactive behaviors). In this way, the study extends the OTC literature by focusing on TRB, which serves to convert between value-creating practices and behavioral outcomes.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: In the context of online travel communities (OTCs), this paper aims to identify the relationships between value-creating practices, trusting beliefs, solution acceptance and stickiness and the moderating effects of risk aversion on the relationship between trusting beliefs and solution acceptance and on that between trusting beliefs and stickiness.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A total of 408 survey responses obtained from Amazon website panels were used to test the proposed hypotheses through a structural equation modeling analysis.\nFindings: The results show that three dimensions of value-creating practices, namely, social networking, community engagement and brand use, had positive effects on trusting beliefs; trusting beliefs had positive effects on solution acceptance and stickiness; and solution acceptance had a positive effect on stickiness. Risk aversion moderated the trusting beliefs-stickiness relationship.\nResearch limitations/implications: A key limitation of this study is related to the sample collected from Amazon website panels, which may limit the generalizability of results to other OTC members. The results have important theoretical and practical implications in OTC settings. For example, OTCs should be used by members as key platforms for acquiring trust information prior to their behaviors.\nOriginality/value: This study extends the OTC literature by integrating different research realms into the proposed research model for a better understanding of the relationships between value-creating practices, trusting beliefs and OTC behaviors.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Cooperative adoption of complex systems: a comprehensive model within and across networks
|
[
"Organizations",
"Telecommunication networks",
"Business‐to‐business marketing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this issue.\nIntroduction: In today's increasingly competitive global marketplace, companies create value and ensure survival based on their ability to manage the complex web of suppliers and customers comprising their value chain. At the heart of this process is the accurate, timely, and complete disclosure of information between value chain partners to enables the types of coordinated action mandated by exchange partners (Handfield and Nichols, 1999). This coordinated action is facilitated by inter-organizational systems (IOS) such as EDI (electronic data interchange), ERP (enterprise resource planning), and VMI (vendor managed inventory), which act as electronic information conduits between partners. IOS systems commonly include hardware, software, network facilities, procedures and rules, data/databases, and knowledge exchange between two or more firms (Barrett and Konsynski, 1982). As such, IOS are complex, involving substantive changes in the operation of individual firms, with requisite adoption extending to encompass other networked firms.Unfortunately, IOS are a two edged sword and most of the advantages of these systems are also its major drawbacks. Specifically, sharing between organizational units decreases flexibility in the network by increasing idiosyncratic investment and increases firm vulnerability to potentially unethical behaviors of both partners and outsiders who might effectively breach system security (Emmelhainz, 1990). Add to this the tangible and intangible costs of adoption, including acquisition costs and short-term productivity declines, and it is easy to see why adoption of such systems is problematic (Emmelhainz, 1990; Iacovou et al., 1995). Now add to these difficulties by imagining the inter-organizational effort needed to encourage adoption by networked firms and the potential power struggle between them and you get some idea of the difficulties encountered.Extant research on organizational adoption suggests that organizational adoption is more complex and this complexity increases as the number of firms affected increases (e.g. Tornatzky and Fleischer, 1990; Wang and Tsai, 2002; Srinivasan et al., 2002). The very nature of inter-organizational adoption adds an additional layer of complexity to the organizational process, since adoption in this context (termed cooperative adoption) is often initiated by a major value chain partner (the focal firm) who encourages other networked firms (the recipient firms) to adopt an IOS system to facilitate the exchange and flow of transaction information (Barber, 1991; Hausman and Stock, 2003). In networks, we might more accurately model this as focal firms, recognizing that several firms may band together to encourage adoption among a group of recipient firms. Effective cooperative innovation adoption requires recipient firms implement the system without creating conflict that might damage the relationship between recipients and focal firms.Network theory argues that each firm is embedded within multiple overlapping networks, such that changes in one network impact their functionality and relationship with firms in other networks to which they are members. This web of relationships is analogous to an ecosystem, in that changes tend to ripple through the system affecting the appropriateness of individual strategic decisions. Additionally, in a focal firm-initiated adoption, the recipient firms may perceive some level of pressure as the focal firm uses its leverage to influence their adoption (Pitts, 1991) or members lobby for alternate strategies. Since networks are self-organizing systems, where cooperation occurs through the successful negotiation of numerous local internal and external relationships, individual firms have the ability to either acquiesce to the demands of the focal firm or reject those demands (Ritter et al., 2004). Recipient firms who are \"coerced\" into cooperation by stronger partners may not be totally committed to the implementation of the system and their lack of commitment can hinder networked firms from realizing the system's full benefit. Moreover, use of leverage by the focal firm (or other network firms) might negatively impact the relationship between one or more recipient firms; a danger that might outweigh the benefits of IOS adoption.The dominant paradigm in the diffusion/adoption literature involves the role of information exchange in driving the process, including the bass model (Mahajan et al., 1990) and Rogers's (1995) treatment of adoption. These models presume awareness of an innovation is a major limiting factor in its adoption and extensive research has investigated factors that promote the flow of this awareness to non-adopters, as well as adopter traits and product features that promote adoption. Certainly, awareness of the innovation and its relative advantages contribute significantly to our understanding of the adoption decision by the focal firm, but do not go far enough in explaining how the innovation moves from the focal firm to those recipient firms whose adoption is needed. Less research has fully developed the role of inter-organizational and social forces between actors involved in the adoption process, although this aspect is alluded to in the Bass model through the interpersonal communication construct. Maute and Locander (1994) contend that adoption is better understood by looking at these social forces.Prior research associated social aspects of adoption has been fragmented, focusing on evaluating a relatively small number of variables that potentially impact the adoption of specific IOS, while ignoring the breadth of forces acting on this adoption. In addition, while existing models define intra-firm variables affecting the decision, dyadic and network factors impacting adoption of these systems have been largely ignored. Finally, existing models tend to be static and fail to model the sustained use of the innovation (implementation) and the ultimate effect of the process on the network. To fill this void, a multi-level model of adoption is needed, incorporating empirically tested financial, economic, and interpersonal variables that may influence the decision to adopt and implementation of an innovation (simply referred to as adoption) proposed by a focal firm. This paper develops a model to facilitate understanding of the first level of this model, the network level.There are two major advantages to the model developed in this paper over existing ones. First, the model is more holistic, proposing relationships between a very broad number of potential influential variables acting at the network interface.. Second, the model proposes relationships affecting the adoption process within the network, recognizing the effect of these variables on multiple firms and how that effect might be different in the network context than within an individual firm. In developing this framework, we integrate work on inter-organizational adoption (cf. Tornatzky and Fleischer, 1990; Hausman and Stock, 2003; Wang and Tsai, 2002; Srinivasan et al., 2002), with insights from other types of adoption and innovation literature, especially those alluding to the social nature of adoption like, Maute and Locander (1994) and Rogers (1995). These perspectives are combined with other adoption research (both in organizational and consumer adoption) and empirical evidence from the inter-organizational adaptation and relationship literatures (cf. Anderson and Weitz, 1992; Anderson et al., 1994; Heide and John, 1990; Venkatesh et al., 1995; Wilson, 1995).\nThe process of inter-organizational adoption: Several different approaches have been used to understand the functionality of networks. This section will review the contributions of these approaches to the emerging model of network adoption. We begin with population ecology - a set of theories borrowed from the biological sciences to understand the interrelationships of different species occupying and competing in the same habitat. We then move on to a discussion of adoption within human social systems.Networks and population ecology\nConceptual framework of cooperative adoption: Prior models of organizational adoption are primarily limited to the intra-organizational context where the firm makes an adoption decision and employees subsequently decide whether to use the innovation (cf. Zaltman et al., 1973). Our framework builds on these models, specifically postulating critical relationships functioning in the interface between firms. It categorizes network-level determinants of cooperative adoption into four major factors: structural factors, influence factors, which include various efforts the focal firm (or firms) might use to encourage recipient adoption, and relational factors, which include inter-organizational social exchange characteristics, reflecting the composition of the network. The next section will develop specific propositions underlying this model. Although not modeled in this study, the organizational and individual-level factors identified in Frambach and Schillewaert (2002) might also have substantial impact on adoption or utilization of the technology.\nNetwork level determinants of IOS adoption: Structural factors\nConclusion: In developing this framework, we integrated work on inter-organizational adoption (cf. Tornatzky and Fleischer, 1990; Hausman and Stock, 2003, Wang and Tsai, 2002; Srinivasan et al., 2002), with insights from other types of adoption and innovation literature (cf. Gatignon and Robertson, 1989; Maute and Locander, 1994; Rogers, 1995) and empirical evidence from the inter-organizational relationships literature (cf. Heide and John, 1990; Venkatesh et al., 1995; Wilson, 1995). The proposed framework represents the first attempt to generate a holistic categorization of salient variables that might modulate the cooperative adoption of IOS innovations or other complex innovative technologies and ideas. As noted earlier, most adoption researchers have mainly focused on evaluating a few variables that impact the adoption of specific technologies by a single firm or consumer, mostly disregarding a holistic consideration of factors that might shape cooperative adoption, especially in a network context. Arguably, the synthesis of several factors from previous research offers a more inclusive framework to better understand the cooperative adoption process.Cooperative adoption is also a special case of inter-organizational cooperation. Thus, the model may facilitate understanding of other types of inter-organizational cooperation necessary to reach strategic goals or to adapt to any number of internal or external changes. This commonality between cooperative adoption and other types of inter-organizational cooperation increases the contribution of this study to the organizational literature.\nManagerial implications: As industry rapidly moves toward a networked economy, cooperation among individual firms involved in overlapping network relationships is critical for success (Achrol and Kotler, 1999). Managing these diverse relationships allows networked firms to respond to environmental opportunities with a minimum of stress (Wilkinson and Young, 1994). Unfortunately, the literature on this topic is under-developed. Firms used to the competitive paradigm need guidance on the incorporation of cooperative strategies into their internal operating procedures, as well as their external relationships. The model developed in this study is an important step in this direction by clearly delineating the principal factors that may influence the decision to adopt innovations across a broad range of variables.The study draws the manager's attention to inter-organizational influence factors as well as relational factors under their direct control. In addition, strategies for dealing with structural factors, over which they have little control, are presented. Importantly, the effect of these variables on adoption has been modified from the perspective of an individual firm or dyad, to the more complex situation encountered in networks. Further, the study focuses on \"soft side\" or social variables that appear to be critical in encouraging cooperation in the absence of bureaucratic governance mechanisms, since these are fundamentally absent from network relationships. These variables feature open communication prominently as a means of building trust and allowing participation. Open communication also builds social ties and generates social capital to facilitate cooperation and empower champions.In dealing with these factors, it appears that firms must first establish a supporting organizational culture, since it seems implausible that firms can act cooperatively in their inter-organizational encounters and bureaucratically in their intra-organizational relationships. Specifically, firms must establish good internal lines of communication that rely on encouraging employees to work cooperatively toward mutually beneficial goals and build strong internal relationships among departments and their employees.The model also suggests some context specific factors affecting the network adoption process, specifically size of firms.\nFuture research: Obviously, one of the most pressing issues is empirical testing of proposed relationships. Toward that end, we are planning a two-step approach, the first qualitative and the second quantitative. The use of grounded theory to further develop the model while simultaneously testing the model appears appropriate (Glaser and Strauss, 1967). By using multiple informants representing firms both within the network and across networks this methodology achieves both improved specificity and generalizability.The first step is designed to capture intricacy in the proposed relationships, specifically potential mediator/moderator relationships between proposed variables and cooperative adoption. For example, the perceived benefit of the innovation may be influenced by the extent of the prospective adopter's involvement in the network. For example, a supplier or recipient firm with strong social ties with a focal firm may perceive the benefit of an innovation recommended by the focal firm as very high, due the high level of trust that may have been cultivated over a long period of time. Moreover, as suggested earlier, trust and communication may be related in some way, yet is not modeled in order to ensure the parsimony of the model. There may be additional interrelationships among modeled variables that have not been elucidated in extant literature. Further, qualitative data collection is designed to capture context factors affecting these relationships.The final rationale for including qualitative data is to ensure modeling of all major factors impacting cooperative adoption. External variables acting on the network may affect cooperative adoption are one example that appears salient. Specifically, the response of customers and suppliers outside the focal network may impact the decision. There are also other variables mentioned in this discussion that have not been specifically modeled, such as social capital. Thus, despite efforts to develop a holistic model, the result is sub-optimal. Quantitative data collection will further test proposed relationships, quantify the impact of proposed factors on cooperative adoption, and tease out additional contextual factors.Another pressing need is to develop an understanding of the specific factors affecting implementation and continued use of the innovation. It is possible these are some of the same factors involved in the adoption process, but there may be additional factors that become critical at this stage in the process or the relative importance of proposed factors might shift during the implementation stage. Given the criticality of implementation for sustained benefit from the innovation, an understanding of these factors is important.This study has, as promised, developed one level of the multilevel model for understanding cooperative adoption in networked organizations. Another level is at the inter-organizational level, where some firms may be promoting adoption while other firms lobby for other innovative solutions or the status quo. The question of how these political and social dynamics affect the cooperative process is unclear. Certainly, some of the same factors function in the inter-organizational interface, but how these affect and are affected by network level forces requires further development.The next level in this multilevel model is the organizational level and several studies attempt to model influential variables at this stage (cf. Gatignon and Robertson, 1989; Frambach and Schillewaert, 2002). These models have not been empirically tested and there may be additional variables acting within the organization affecting implementation, which is not well incorporated into these models. The final level, the individual level appears to have received the most conceptual development and empirical testing of the model components. Thus, testing at this level is not deemed necessary.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study was to develop a better understanding of cooperation among members of network firms.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An extensive literature review of industrial cooperation/adaptation was conducted, especially research pertaining to industrial adoption of communication technology across partner firms. This review was combined with elements of population ecology, as it has been applied to business networks, and other sociological aspects of inter-firm relationships to develop a set of propositions related to cooperative adoption.\nFindings: - This is a conceptual paper, so there were no quantifiable results. Instead, the paper contains a number of propositions related to the relational, structural, and influential aspects that affect adoption and sustained use of innovative products in a network context.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The lack of empirical support for hypothesized relationships is the major limitation. However, the study provides guidance toward empirical testing and suggests a number of managerial implications resulting from the understandings provided by the proposed relationship.\nOriginality/value: - This study helps extend earlier models developed to understand intra-organizational adoption to reflect the more common situation where adoption occurs within and affects a network of related firms.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Barrier analysis of supply chain finance adoption in manufacturing companies
|
[
"Benchmarking",
"AHP",
"Supply chain management",
"Barrier analysis",
"Micro, small and medium enterprises",
"Supply chain finance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Globalization, coupled with competitive pressure, has resulted in complex and dynamic supply chains across the world (Juttner et al., 2003; Xu et al., 2003; Manuj and Mentzer, 2008; Creazza et al., 2010). This has caused companies to be more concerned about the coordination and collaboration of their stakeholders for optimizing supply chain operations (Mentzer et al., 2001). Though companies and academics have focused on the flow of goods and information, the financial aspect of supply chains has often been neglected (Pfohl and Gomm, 2009; More and Basu, 2013). Inconsistent financial flows and irregularities in working capital have paved the way for a new area of research, namely, \"supply chain finance (SCF).\"\nLiterature review: Financial challenges are one of the critical concerns of supply chains (Croom et al., 2000; Mentzer et al., 2001). Despite these challenges, the research community has only just begun to analyze empirically the significance of the financial flows in firms' profitability (Raghavan and Mishra, 2011; Liu and Cruz, 2012). A recent literature review paper by Gelsomino et al. (2016) analyzed 119 research papers on SCF domain and found two major SCF approaches, namely, the finance oriented and supply chain oriented, which are the short-term services offered by financial institutions, and an internal affair focused on working capital optimization, respectively. Song et al. (2018) compared SCF solutions provided by financial service providers and commercial banks to MSMEs using in-depth case studies. They found that SCF solutions offered by financial service providers are better in minimizing information asymmetry. Lekkakos and Serrano (2016) investigated the impact of reverse factoring on MSMEs through a multi-stage dynamic problem. The study found that reverse factoring helps to unlock more than 10 percent of the supplier's working capital, which leads to high operational performance. Liebl et al. (2016) has also found that reverse factoring provides win-win situation to supply chain partners. Wuttke et al. (2013) laid the theoretical foundation for financial supply chain management (FSCM) through 8 case studies and 40 interviews. The research categorized FSCM into pre-shipment FSCM (before invoice release) and post-shipment FSCM (after invoice release). The study concluded that pre-shipment FSCM helps to improve the upstream working capital, whereas post-shipment FSCM strengthens the working capital position of the buyer. Bank credit is one of the major sources of SCF for companies across the world. Jing and Seidmann (2014) examined the merits of bank and trade credit in supply chains. The study found that trade credit is better in mitigating double marginalization when the production costs are relatively low compared to bank credit. There are many financial consequences of taking bank credit; hence, SCF could be the future of supply chain financing. Sahay and Mohan (2003) carried out an extensive study on the supply chain practices followed by Indian industries. The study was based on a joint survey covering 156 organizations. The findings of the study proposed that the supply chain strategies and business strategies in Indian firms should be aligned and form partnerships to reduce inventory levels and enhance infrastructure. Tripathy et al. (2016) identified and established a causal relationship among the success factors of supply chains in Indian MSMEs using structural equation modeling (SEM) based on the responses of 105 managers. The authors found that information technology holds the key position in achieving a competitive advantage in Indian MSMEs, followed by customer information. The study completely neglected the financial aspects of supply chains. Berger Allen and Udell (2006) developed a conceptual framework for analyzing the issues related to SME credit availability in the USA. The study concluded by stating that the financial institution structure and the lending infrastructure in a country is affected by government policies. At the bottom of the chain is the technological aspect of finance. The study further indicated that the presence of foreign financial institutions compared with state-owned financial institutions is likely to cause higher SME credit availability in developing nations. State-owned institutions were criticized, the study pointing out that they appear to be unsupportive of SMEs in developing nations. Caniato et al. (2016) provided a reference framework for the motivations to implement SCF solutions by analyzing 14 cases of Italian companies and concluded that SCF application has to consider other non-financial variables, such as partner relationships, digitalization collaboration, during its implementation. The study suggested that future research needs to focus on IT-enabled SCF platforms, which have not been addressed so far.\nSolution methodology: A detailed questionnaire was framed after preparing the literature review and consulting experts. This questionnaire was circulated among various companies in the manufacturing industry. From the scrutiny of the collected questionnaires, common barriers to SCF implementation were finalized. The AHP technique was employed for understanding the essential key barriers.\nResults and discussion: Barrier category\nConclusions and scope for future research: A benchmarking framework to ease SCF adoption in manufacturing companies has been shown in this paper by trimming down the difficulties of identifying the barriers for the concerned stakeholders. This paper has employed a three-phase methodology to identify and prioritize the essential barriers to the implementation of SCF. An extensive survey has been carried out in 101 Indian MSME units which identified 37 barriers under six headings in the first phase. Experts' interview using the Delphi technique has been carried out in the second phase to finalize the barriers. The analytic hierarchy process methodology, with sensitivity analysis for validation, is used in the final stage to prioritize and rank the barriers.\nManagerial and practical implications: Identifying the challenges related to SCF adoption in companies ensures easy and systematic implementation of SCF solutions. The current study contributes to theory, policy and practice with respect to supply chain management and SCF. The results of the study have been discussed with the experts to examine the relevance and managerial implications as discussed below.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Companies all over the world have recently started to adopt supply chain finance (SCF) solutions in their supply chains to reduce the payment defaults and simplify the bill settlement process. The purpose of this paper is to identify and prioritize the barriers to adopting SCF in micro, small and medium enterprises.\nDesign/methodology/approach: It employs a three-phase methodology to identify and prioritize the essential barriers to the implementation of SCF. An extensive survey has been carried out in 101 Indian MSMEs in India which identified 37 barriers under six heads in the first phase. Experts' interview using the Delphi technique has been carried out in the second phase to finalize the barriers. The analytic hierarchy process methodology, with sensitivity analysis for validation, is used in the final stage to prioritize and rank the barriers.\nFindings: Results show that financial and information technology barriers are prominent in SCF adoption followed by financial challenges. Among specific barriers, the disclosure of sensitive company information to competitor barrier acts as an essential barrier followed by poor technological capability of MSMEs.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study is limited to SCF adoption of MSMEs in a developing nation. Extensive research is required in order to derive a global trend.\nPractical implications: The current research contributes to the stakeholder theory and transaction cost economics. Observations made in the current research can encourage organizations to incorporate stakeholders' concerns into the adoption of SCF solutions. The study provides a more in-depth view of such challenges and a benchmark, which will help companies to adopt SCF solutions more effortlessly. Moreover, policy makers across the world can explore these serious issues and amend or introduce new policies to facilitate companies' implementation of supply chain financial solutions.\nOriginality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study which identified and prioritized SCF adoption barriers of MSMEs in a developing nation. This study is also novel in adopting a hybrid analytical hierarchy process-sensitivity analysis for ranking the SCF barriers in an MSME context. SCF studies often emphasize only on the reverse factoring aspect of SCF. The current study considers many innovative aspects of SCF, such as pre-shipment financing, dynamic discounting, inventory financing, collaborative logistics, etc.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Enhancing the contribution of volunteering to career commitment with friendship among university students
|
[
"Students",
"Career development",
"Social capital"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Investigating the contributions of volunteering and friendship to the career commitment of college student is the aim of the present study. Career commitment means identification with and evaluation of career explored and chosen for life during college time, according to the identity development perspective (Negru-Subtirica et al., 2015; Stringer and Kerpelman, 2010). This perspective states that career commitment is integral to identity development during emerging adulthood, which characterizes college students (Stringer and Kerpelman, 2010). Hence, career commitment is conducive to the youth's adjustment and life satisfaction (Dennis et al., 2005; Lannegrand-Willems et al., 2016). Realizing the import of career, college students usually ponder and plan their careers for effective engagement (Rogers and Creed, 2011). Locating ways to facilitate career commitment is therefore a desirable goal for policymaking for human and economic development (Hirschi, 2009). Meanwhile, volunteering, as organized by educational or social service institutions, is also a policy concern for promoting human development (Fleeson, 2001; Lister et al., 2003). Such a policy specifically proposes that the volunteering facilitates career commitment in the student (Coulter-Kern et al., 2013; Taylor and Pancer, 2007). Furthermore, the contribution of volunteering is likely to increase with friendship, as indicated by interrelationship or relational density among the student' friends (Raskoff and Sundeen, 2001; Sherrod et al., 2002).\nSupposed contributions of volunteering and friendship to career commitment: The contributions of volunteering, friend network density, and their interaction to career commitment are plausible, according to social capital theory. Social capital theory maintains conditions for the impact of social capital, which means helpful, reciprocal, trustworthy, close, and accessible social relations (Bassani, 2009; Bouchard et al., 2012). The relations are helpful because they provide resources, including aid, information, advice, counseling, money, and other materials, to satisfy needs or enable instrumental actions (Jarrett et al., 2005). Such help consists in volunteering and friendship, which represent the sources of social capital because of the principle of reciprocity maintained in social capital theory (Bassani, 2009; Hamilton et al., 2006). The principle states that friends and related people sustain their social capital by helping each other. Crucially, social capital theory posits that the help is great when the relations are durable and their resources are renewable to characterize them as capital (Robison and Ritchie, 2010). Such help furthermore increases with aggregation of and thus reinforcement among various components of social capital (Bassani, 2009; Pearce and Denton, 2009). The help of social relations that qualify as social capital has prevailed in academic achievement and getting employment (Baay et al., 2014; Pong et al., 2005).\nMethod: Participants\nResults: Career commitment, on average, was at the mid-level among the students (M=51.2 and 52.0 on the 0-100 scale for Waves 1 and 2, respectively, see Table I). At Wave 1, 51.1 percent of the students had participated in the volunteering program of the university, though the level of volunteering, on average, was rather low (M=28.5 on the 0-100 scale). In contrast, social desirability, on average, was rather high (M=68.7 and 70.6 for Waves 1 and 2, respectively). Friend network density at Wave 1, on average, was also rather high (M=70.4).\nDiscussion: The contribution of volunteering and friendship network density to career commitment in university students demonstrates the relevance of social capital theory to the students' career development. Accordingly, volunteering (with five-level scoring) at Wave 1 indicated a significant positive but weak effect on career commitment at Wave 2. In this juncture, volunteering represents an integral input or investment to reap social capital. This supports H1. More crucially, the effect of the volunteering, either based on five-level scoring or dichotomous scoring, was significantly stronger with greater density in the friend network at Wave 1. This reveals the reinforcement of the structural component of social capital. For instance, friend network density or closely knitted friendship would encourage the translation of volunteering into career commitment. This support for H3 particularly strengthens social capital theory by testifying the synergistic effect of multiple social capital factors (Bassani, 2009). That is, the effect verifies the logic about the strength of social capital in the theory, such that combination of social capital factors makes social capital and its effect stronger.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Encouraging college students to volunteer is a supposed but uncharted way to contribute to their career commitment. Clarifying the ways of the contribution is therefore necessary. From the social capital perspective, volunteering and network density among friends represent social capital to reinforce each other. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to study the enhancement of the contribution by the density.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The examination employs a two-wave panel survey of 410 university students to estimate the effects of volunteering and friend network density at Wave 1 on career commitment at Wave 2. Essentially, the examination adjusted for biases due to sample attrition and self-selection into volunteering.\nFindings: Volunteering at Wave 1 showed a significant contribution to career commitment at Wave 2. Moreover, the contribution significantly increased with friend network density at Wave 1.\nResearch limitations/implications: Findings from this panel survey of university students in Hong Kong require future research for substantiation. For instance, such research can apply an experimental design to volunteering to guarantee the internal validity of the contribution of volunteering.\nPractical implications: Social capital theory is applicable to the promotion of career commitment. Specifically, optimizing the strength of social capital through the combination of volunteering and friendship is promising.\nOriginality/value: Empirical support for the application of social capital theory to career development is evident. Particularly, the joint contribution of volunteering and friendship is demonstrable.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Feminizing leadership in the Middle East: Emirati women empowerment and leadership style
|
[
"Middle East",
"Family",
"Women executives",
"Empowerment",
"Islam",
"Transformational leadership"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Since the inauguration of The Women's Movement in 1828, Western women have scored significant practical gains transforming their duties from primitive domestic tasks into managerial and leadership positions. In Arab societies, women from urban areas showed considerable improvements in education, employment and social participation (El-Ghannam, 2002), while trivial and insignificant change has so far occurred in rural areas. Seeking greater freedom and entrenched rights, Arab women played major roles in the uprising of the Arab Spring revolutions, but their aims and hopes were thwarted with the rise of radical Islamists, with respective ideology grounded on radicalism and patriarchal structures rather than real principles of Islam (Bayoumi, 2013). The case of UAE is different, unlike its neighboring counterparts, of the nation's best achievements would probably be \"the evolution and growing prominence of Emirati women as partners and contributors in this remarkable nation-building process\" (MNFCA, 2007, p. 1). While the Arab societies are currently in confusion (Sidani, 2005), struggling with their political, social and financial developments, the UAE continues to show rapid growth in terms of infrastructure and economy (2007). Emirati women today are at the \"forefront of the workforce in the UAE in both the government sector and a growing number in the private sector\" (2007, p. 1), constituting fundamental part of the nation's workforce. In recent studies published by the World Economic Forum (2012, 2013), the United Arab Emirates is reported to be leading the 12 Arab states in reducing the gender gap, with strengths rooted in the areas of educational attainment and political empowerment of women.\nTheoretical and conceptual framework: The current status of the Emirati women was captured through the lens of the Emirati society: the influence of the national government, the orientation of family and the concept of adhering to Islamic work ethic, on Emirati women empowerment and their leadership style. The adopted theoretical framework led to the inductive development of the following model (Figure 1) that was assessed in terms of its appropriateness to the Emirati context.\nResearch method: A qualitative case study approach of inquiry was adopted, where the current status of Emirati women was captured through the personal construct of the lived experience of a number of women. Research questions that seek to understand and exploit people's experiences and how they construct their worlds, would call for qualitative design (Merriam, 2009).\nFindings and discussion: The interviews resulted in descriptive findings derived from comparing the perspectives of the four subjects, leading to the final study model (Figure 2). The comparison approach was significant in highlighting the possible commonalities and discrepancies. Data analysis confirmed the relevance of the initial model, where the subjects indicated the significance influence of the key factors (the role of the national government, IWE and family) on their empowerment, and the strong link prevailing between the empowerment of Emirati women and their adherence to transformational leadership styles. However, two new key factors impacting empowerment emerged, namely, the influence of rulers' leadership and balancing work/life commitments. In addition, this study draws attention to the silent challenges that Emirati working women are facing in their career.\nLimitations: The number of participants form the major limitation to the used research methodology and design, as the more subjects being interviewed, the richer collected data ought to be.\nImplications: The study strived to portray an unambiguous picture to the impact of the parenting role and Islam work ethics in relating positively to women and prompt them to develop crucial societal and professional skills, in a country where expatriates and Westerns dominate the population body. It shapes the UAE National Government as a unique example and role model to local governments in other Arab countries, regarding empowering women, helping them to achieve excellence.\nRecommendations: This study attempted to unfold the cultural and societal factors in empowering women, but did not touch upon the participation of women in civic activities and parliamentarian seats, therefore, it would be worth exploring. In addition, though some silent challenges facing Emirati working women were highlighted in subjects' responses, the constraining factors for empowerment were not strongly addressed in the interview guide, hence, it would be crucial to investigate.\nConclusion: Finally, through capturing leading women's experiences, this study delineated on the serious government commitment to ensure national women's participation in decision-making positions. This brings about Emirati women's accountability to keep up to the expectations, through achieving further success and as Al Awadhi indicated, \"in other countries, women have had to fight for their political rights, whereas women in the UAE have been granted these rights, so let us never take our rights for granted\" (MNFCA, 2007, p. 4). Moreover, this study pointed out to the proper coordination and cooperation between the family as a unit and the governmental efforts to empower women, on which otherwise it fails. Finally, it attempted to present Islam as a positive-oriented guide for the participation of women in workforce, aiding in nation prosperity.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to form an empirical study, stemming from a Middle-Eastern context, on eliminating gender discrimination and achieving women's empowerment. It aims to develop a conceptual model on the principal social and cultural factors inducing the success of Emirati women in attaining senior leadership roles and shaping their leadership style to be transformational. Moreover, it examines the comparability and divergence of the accumulated data on the empowerment of Emirati women in an international context from existing international literature.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The design of the study was based on data gathered from face-to-face, semi-structured interviews with four Emirati women occupying the highest leadership positions in various fields, followed by thematic analysis.\nFindings: Data analysis confirmed the significant influence of the study's key factors, namely, the role of the national government, Islamic work ethic and family, on the subjects' empowerment and their adherence to transformational leadership style. However, two new k ey factors impacting empowerment emerged, namely, the influence of rulers' leadership and the efforts in balancing work/life commitments. The findings led to the development of a study model on Emirati women empowerment and leadership style, reflecting the appropriateness of international literature on the Emirati context. Particularly, it is the social and economic circumstances of the nation supported by policies form the major source of empowerment, in addition to the important role that family capital and business ethics play. Remarkably, the challenges facing Emirati working women ought to be different than the rest of the Middle East.\nOriginality/value: A dearth of literature pertaining to women's leadership exists; however, they were mostly carried out within Western contexts that may not be applicable to Arab societies because of cultural and religious differences. The study strives to portray an unambiguous picture to the significant impact of the parenting role and Islam work ethics in relating positively to their daughters and prompt them to develop crucial societal and professional skills, in a country as UAE where expatriates and Westerns dominate the population body. In addition, it shapes the UAE national government as a unique example and role model, to local governments in other Arab states, to learn from regarding supporting women, helping them to achieve excellence. Aiming for feminizing leadership, the Emirati women leadership styles are explored in an attempt to demonstrate the capacities and potentials of Emirati and Arab women in positions of power and influence. It is assumed that this study will help in bringing confidence in Emirati women capabilities, inducing a change in attitudes towards Arab women managers and encouraging employment in non-traditional feminine based jobs.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Do framing messages increase support for earthquake legislation?
|
[
"Risk communication",
"Framing effects",
"Fatalism",
"Disaster preparation",
"Earthquake legislation",
"Numerical format framing",
"Risk tolerance",
"Valence framing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Research has explored how to increase preparation behaviours for hazards such as earthquakes (e.g. Solberg et al., 2010; Paton and McClure, 2013). However, there is a need to understand how to encourage people to evaluate earthquakes as a risk for which they not only can prepare, but should prepare. In order for communications about risks to be successful, it is useful to understand the effects of different types of message. Also, given the differences between hazards, it is valuable to test communication strategies in specific contexts. Research has examined communications around various risks such as traffic accidents (e.g. Lucidi et al., 2006), flooding (e.g. De Boer et al., 2014), and climate change (e.g. Bertolotti and Catellani, 2014). However, there is less research on risk communications for earthquakes.\nThe context of the study: New Zealand (NZ) offers an appropriate setting for this application, as the country is located on major fault lines and has suffered significant recent earthquakes. In 2011, a devastating earthquake struck near Christchurch, NZ, a city that few citizens thought to be at risk. A total of 185 people were killed and $40 billion of damage incurred. Earthquake-prone buildings accounted for most the deaths (Brower, 2013), causing an upsurge in conversations about preparation.\nThe use of building standards to enhance preparedness: A key way of improving preparedness is to heighten new building standards. Following the destructive Christchurch earthquakes in 2011, the NZ Government developed nationwide legislation for buildings standards to reduce similar destruction in the future. This legislation will require the strengthening or demolition of all public buildings that engineering assessors judge to fall below 34 per cent of the new building standards (Building (Earthquake-prone Buildings) Amendment Bill, 2013).\nRisk communication and valence framing effects: This new legislation provides an opportunity to test the effectiveness of different strategies in risk communication in an applied context. Research on the framing of risk messages shows that different ways of phrasing identical information influence judgements of risk - these are termed \"framing effects\", the most common of which is valence framing (Levin et al., 2002). One type of valence framing varies information about the goal of a behaviour, where messages present either a positive result of performing a behaviour or a negative result of not performing that behaviour (Levin et al., 2002). Applied to earthquake preparation intentions and judgements, framing the outcomes of preparing negatively increased these intentions more than positively framed outcomes (McClure et al., 2009). Similar effects have been shown in other areas such as flood risk (De Boer et al., 2014) and climate change (Bertolotti and Catellani, 2014).\nNumerical format framing: In addition to valence framing, numbers can be framed in different formats, for example, as a frequency, ratio, or percentage. Research has identified effects of numerical format framing in contexts of financial and consumer decisions, such as understanding nutritional information on food packaging (Tangari et al., 2014), donation decisions (Dickert et al., 2011), and lottery gambling (Oudhoff and Timmermans, 2015). The application of numerical formats to risk perception is more limited; the research that does exist usually manipulates the expression of the probability of that risk (see Visschers et al., 2009 for a review). Fair et al. (2008) found that scenarios presenting the risk of coronary heart disease increased participants' risk perceptions more when described as a ratio than as a percentage. Similarly, presenting the likelihood of released psychiatric patients committing a violent act led to higher risk judgements when expressed as a frequency than as a percentage (Slovic et al., 2002).\nThe present study: As with valence framing, numerical formats have seldom been applied to the context of natural hazards, and specifically earthquake risk. Thus, demonstrating these effects with earthquake risk may not only add another area where they can be used beneficially, but may enhance understanding of how and when these framing effects occur and thereby the effectiveness of risk communications in diverse domains. This study addressed the lack of research examining attribute valence (hereafter valence) and numerical format frames in the area of earthquake risk perception. Earthquake-strengthening legislation is an important issue in any country vulnerable to earthquakes, so exploring framing effects in this context can provide insights on the usefulness of framing for risk messages with real-world relevance. Further, given the high risk of earthquake damage in many countries, knowing which risk communications are more effective can inform attempts to increase preparation.\nMethod: Design\nResults: Descriptive statistics\nDiscussion: This study tested the effects of two types of framing, valence and numerical format, on support for legislation requiring the strengthening of earthquake-prone buildings. The primary aim was to identify the most effective risk communications to increase support for this legislation.\nOther predictors of support for building legislation: In addition to the results for the framing manipulations, several other measures predicted support for the earthquake legislation, including knowledge of the legislation, aligning with previous findings showing that information about flood risks increased risk perception, regardless of whether information is framed positively or negatively (Terpstra et al., 2014). Support for the legislation was also strongly predicted by belief in the efficacy of strengthening, suggesting that risk communications ought to not only communicate about the risk but also emphasise that strengthening buildings reduces earthquake damage. While neither experience of earthquakes nor preparation predicted support for the legislation here, in contrast with previous research (De Boer et al., 2014), these two variables did correlate with each other, suggesting that this experience motivates preparation.\nLimitations and future directions: While these findings on risk communication have useful implications and applications, we acknowledge that many other factors influence preparedness for natural hazards, including risk perception, fatalism, judgements of benefits and costs, insurance, and people's experience of previous disasters (Eiser et al., 2012; Lindell and Perry, 2000; Paton and McClure, 2013; Slovic, 2000; Solberg et al., 2010). These all play an important role in preparation. However, risk communications such as framing have been shown to be affective in several domains and they contribute to the suite of strategies used to engage voluntary action to prepare. This suggests that despite other factors influencing earthquake preparedness, the way risks associated with earthquakes are communicated to the wider community can also impact preparedness.\nConclusion: Past research on risk communications shows that there is not a straightforward connection between information and action (Paton and Johnston, 2001). The findings here that both valence and numerical format frames affected concern, support for earthquake building legislation, and comparative risk tolerance. This result suggests the value of both types of frames in risk communications. Furthermore, the significant predictors of support for the earthquake legislation and the role of earthquake experience and gender as interaction variables point to the influence of individual differences. Earthquakes and other hazards are events for which people can and should prepare, and this study clarifies how psychological knowledge can be used to maximise the effectiveness of risk communications to increase preparation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand how framing messages about earthquake risk affect judgements about legislation requiring the strengthening of earthquake-prone buildings.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Scenarios described the legislation with a general population sample (n=271). Two types of framing effects were examined in a 2 (valence frame: positive or negative or positive) by 2 (numerical format frame: frequency/number or percentage) experimental design.\nFindings: Scenarios reporting the number of earthquake-prone buildings (negative frequency format) increased support for the earthquake-strengthening legislation more than the same message framed positively (frequency number of resilient building) or as a percentage. Demographic variables such as previous earthquake experience and gender interacted with the framing effects, and other variables also predicted support for the legislation were identified.\nResearch limitations/implications: These results have direct implications for the use of framing effects messages in communications about earthquake risk and the wider domain.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study to show that the way the risk is framed affects citizens' judgement of the value of earthquake legislation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Consumers' need for uniqueness: short-form scale development and cross-cultural validation
|
[
"Unique selling proposition",
"Consumer behavior",
"Product differentiation",
"Cross‐cultural studies"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: All individuals crave uniqueness to some extent (Fromkin, 1972; Snyder, 1992; Snyder and Fromkin, 1977, 1980), making need for uniqueness (NFU) a universal trait (Burns and Brady, 1992). NFU affects consumers' need for uniqueness (CNFU), exhibited through their acquisition and display of distinctive products (Lynn and Harris, 1997a, b; Snyder, 1992; Snyder and Fromkin, 1980; Tian et al., 2001). CNFU drives individuals to pursue dissimilarity through consumption in an effort to develop a distinctive self and social image (Tian et al., 2001). Thus, the display or use of products can serve as expressive symbols of uniqueness (Snyder and Fromkin, 1977).Consumers establish their uniqueness through various uniqueness-seeking behaviors in response to environmental inputs that increase or decrease their perceptions of similarity to others (Tian et al., 2001). Research has documented that NFU affects behaviors such as a desire for or customized scarce products, the pursuit of innovative consumption, and a preference for unique shopping venues (Lynn and Harris, 1997a, b). CNFU's outcomes include purchasing/displaying novelty, vintage, antique, personalized, or handcrafted goods, as well as purchasing in nontraditional outlets such as antique stores, garage sales, and swap meets (Tepper, 1997).CNFU has been operationalized with 31 items along three dimensions: creative choice counterconformity, unpopular choice counterconformity, and avoidance of similarity (Tian et al., 2001; Tian and Mckenzie, 2001). However, this extensive CNFU scale challenges scholars and respondents, which might have hindered further research on it. Also, with such a long scale, there is always a concern about redundancy between closely related items. In addition, Drolet and Morrison (2001, p. 201) argued that shorter scales reduce monotony, costs, and response bias, and more particularly \"an increase in the number of items encourages inappropriate response behavior and gives rise to positively correlated error term across items within respondents.\" Thus, there is a need to develop a short-form and parsimonious CNFU scale that will also adhere to its three-dimensional conceptualization (Steenkamp and Baumgartner, 1995).Additionally, since CNFU (like NFU) has been conceptualized as a universal cross-cultural trait (Tian et al., 2001; Tian and Mckenzie, 2001), it is essential to establish its scale's cross-cultural validity for promoting cross-cultural research. Cross-cultural validation and measurement invariance are necessary for using scales across countries. Cross-country comparisons and generalized research conclusions depend on study constructs having the same meaning in different research contexts (Douglas and Craig, 1993; van Herk et al., 2005; Myers et al., 2000; Mullen, 1995; Sharma and Weathers, 2003; Steenkamp and Baumgartner, 1998).Previous CNFU studies have been mostly single-country-based and have used mostly US samples (Tian et al., 2001; Tian and Mckenzie, 2001), raising a concern about the cross-cultural validity of the findings. Thus, there is a need to test the cross-country reliability and validity of the CNFU scale. To the extent that a short-form CNFU scale exhibits acceptable psychometrics, scholars would be able to use it with an added level of confidence.In sum, this study was designed to contribute to CNFU research in two ways. First, it develops a short-form CNFU scale that meets the dual challenge of item parsimony and maintenance of the original conceptualization of the CNFU construct (Steenkamp and Baumgartner, 1995). Second, this study tests the cross-cultural reliability and validity of the short-form CNFU scale with data from Israel, the Palestinian authority (referred to as a country in this paper), and Slovenia (the choice of countries is explained in a later section).\nLiterature review: Consumers' need for uniqueness\nMethod: Samples\nResults: Phase I: psychometric assessment and scale reduction\nDiscussion: This paper sought to develop a short-form version of Tian et al.'s CNFU scale and to determine its cross-cultural invariance in Israel, Palestine, and Slovenia. In general, the data support the within-group validation and the cross-national equivalency of the new CNFU-S scale through SEM models, a powerful and rigorous test of within- and between-groups' validation (Sharma and Weathers, 2003; Steenkamp and Baumgartner, 1998). The reduced scale also exhibited the same nomological validity as the original. Thus, the improved psychometrics of the reduced scale did not harm the nomological validity of CNFU.Theoretical implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate cross-culturally a short-form, consumers' need for uniqueness (CNFU) scale. The length of the original scale (31 items) might have hindered its diffusion in research when questionnaire length and respondent fatigue are major considerations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper uses survey-based data from Israel, Slovenia, and the Palestinian Authority and uses a combination of statistical techniques, such as EFA, CFA, and structural equation modeling.\nFindings: - In general, support was found for the cross-cultural reliability and validity of the new, short-form CNFU scale.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Future research can use the short-form scale with additional confidence in its cross-cultural reliability and validity.\nPractical implications: - First, since CNFU appears not to be culturally bound, marketers can identify cross-country segments of high-CNFU individuals and use standardized marketing campaigns to reach them. Second, marketers of unique products can use the antecedents identified in this study to develop and encourage CNFU. Third, the findings can be used to design advertising campaigns such as by emphasizing the social context of consumption of high-uniqueness products.\nOriginality/value: - An original and first presentation of a cross-cultural validation of a parsimonious CNFU scale.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A hierarchical model for e-supply chain coordination and optimisation
|
[
"Supply chain management",
"Electronic commerce",
"Algorithmic languages"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Information and communication technology, which brings about e-business, has created much impact on almost every sector of the society in recent years. The emergence of e-business has advanced the application of supply chain management (SCM) to e-manufacturing and brings about global manufacturing. Conversely, recent review shows that global manufacturing has increased the complexity of SCM, and supply chain coordination and optimisation have become essential elements of manufacturing strategy. Thus, organizations have moved from centralized, vertically integrated, single-site manufacturing facilities to geographically dispersed networks of resources that collectively create value for customers. These extended enterprises may be consonant with a single multinational organization or, as is increasingly the case, a set of strategically aligned companies to capture specific market opportunities. They are designed to provide the speed and flexibility necessary to respond rapidly to windows of market opportunity.Traditional supply chain practices and technologies that integrate productive and logistical activities within a company are necessary but not sufficient for competitive success. New supply chain practices and technologies such as e-business and e-manufacturing, must now link production and logistics processes in different organizations across geographically dispersed locations. Examples of organisations that have employed new supply chain practices to improve their competitiveness include Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Chrysler, Lear, AlliedSignal, and Wal-Mart (Stock et al., 2000). The so-called e-business enabled supply chain, or e-supply chain management, is an emerging manufacturing and business strategy that enables the power of e-business to be integrated with manufacturing operations and various supply chain units through the use of internet and other tether-free technologies (Luo et al. 2001a, b). It accelerates product realisation, manufacturing and delivery, and results in a shorter product cycle time, lower cost, better response to customer needs and improved customer services.\n2 Moving towards a hierarchical coordination and control of supply chains: The integration of e-business and supply chain requires information in the entire supply chain to be linked. In so doing, it enables a smooth information flow from suppliers to customer service network through the internet, tether-free technologies and computational tools (Wohlwend and Fulton, 2005; Cheng and Lin, 2004; Lee, 2003). Such an e-business information flow network lays the foundation for a better-coordinated material flow network from customer order to production, storage, distribution and delivery (Figure 1). It is possible for demand data as well as supply, inventory and manufacturing capacity data to be made visible to all companies within a manufacturing supply chain. However, the dynamics of the enterprise and the market make the planning and control of the supply chain difficult even with the help of the above-mentioned information flow network.Many researchers (Luo et al., 2001a; Ettl et al., 2000) attempted to integrate various functions of an enterprise. Software agents (Dumond and Roche, 2000), Petri nets and graph (Khoo and Yin, 2003; Raghavan and Viswanadham, 1999), dynamics modelling, blackboard-based system (Ito and Salleh, 2000), and simulation (Archibald et al., 1999) were used to deal with various supply chain problems. From the review, it has been established that much work has been done in supply chain design, restructuring and functional optimisation. These include optimisation of the location of facilities, transportation and inventory so as to bridge the gaps among the various functions of a supply chain and the gap between theory and practice. It appears that most researchers focus on strategic issues such as:* preservation and development of internal activities (Huiskonen and Pirttila, 2002);* the relationship among demand, inventory level and customer service level (Ettl et al., 2000); and* restructuring of supply chain to maximise its profit (Hwang, 2002).2.1 Planning, control and operation schedule\n3 A hierarchical model for e-supply chain coordination and optimisation: As mentioned in Section 2, in order to provide an enabling infrastructure, which is generic, flexible and sophisticated enough to incorporate important supply chain features so as to promote supply chain coordination and derive a near global optimised plan and schedule, a distributed hierarchical model of a supply chain is fundamental and critical. Here, a framework for supply chain optimisation, which supports the hierarchical coordination and optimisation of the entire e-supply chain, is proposed.As shown in Figure 2, supply chain optimisation and management have different levels, from strategic and long-term, such as supply chain design, modelling and simulation, to operational but short-term levels, such as production scheduling. It has been established in Section 2 that the integration of planning and scheduling with supply chain optimisation is a difficult task. The necessity of carrying out such a task includes:* Long-term management objectives usually conflict with operational objectives. For example, manufacturing operations may attempt to maximise the throughput and lower cost, while this may directly affect the inventory level and increase the inventory level of downstream operations. Minimising inventory level is a long-term management objective, which contradicts maximising manufacturing throughput in this case.* Supply chain units traditionally operate independently. The mechanism to promote the integration and coordination currently is still at strategic level (Lendermann et al., 2001). Effective coordination and integration at operational level are much more difficult due to the complexity of communication, information sharing and shielding, searching for a global feasible or optimal solution.* A supply chain especially an extended one, which includes suppliers' and customers' supply chain networks, might be enormous in terms of the number of supply chain units. This drastically increases the complexity and decreases the efficiency of the coordination.This paper attempts to address the above by examining issues concerning scheduling and supply chain optimisation. It includes the realization of a hierarchical model for supply chain coordination and optimisation along the entire supply chain units, such as suppliers, manufacturing plants, warehouses, distribution centres and customers. It possesses the ability to support an extended supply chain environment, which takes into consideration suppliers' and customers' supply chain networks.3.1 A framework\n4 Routing and sequence optimiser: A work order may have multiple routings that denote the flow of materials, i.e. materials flow. Basically, materials flow captures the sequence in which materials move from suppliers (raw materials) to manufacturers (finished product), and to customers (delivery) as shown in Figure 4. For each routing of a work order, it may use different materials (Figure 5) and go through different manufacturing plants. For this reason, a work order may have different cycle time, different cost and delivery date when applying different routings. In summary, these routings have different:* materials/manufacturing/transportation/inventory/delivery cost;* delivery date; and* cycle time; and so on.Since, the capacity of each supply chain unit such as a manufacturing plant is limited, a near optimal routing and a work order process sequence are necessary for a mixture of work orders and products. Furthermore, management level strategies can be incorporated into the prototype system. By selecting a proper combination of routing and work order process sequence, better plans can be generated for the entire supply chain, which is effective in maintaining or even increasing customer service level, reducing inventory, transportation and production costs, and lowering the safety stock level.4.1 Multiple population search strategy for RSO\n5 Supply chain virtual clustering: A number of techniques can be used to solve clustering problems. These include matrix formulation, graph theory and artificial intelligence (AI). These techniques possess good potentials to be employed for the identification of virtual unit-transportation-work order families. As discussed in Section 2, a comprehensive representation and a hierarchical model of a supply chain is fundamental and critical to incorporate the multiple level decision-making and optimisation.Typically, in optimising a supply chain, customer orders, product flows, supply chain units, transportation, customer service level, and other resources and constraints are used as inputs to a simulation program, an optimisation program or a heuristic rule-based engine so as to derive a product plan or recommendations of inventories. As already mentioned, a complex e-supply chain optimisation problem can hardly be solved by traditional GAs due to combinatory explosion. An approach based on virtual clustering is proposed here to reduce the search space. The approach is likely to help derive the near optimal or at least good-enough solutions for a complex supply chain efficiently. The supply chain units, transportation and customer orders as shown in Figure 9 can be virtually and dynamically organised into different unit-transportation-work order families based on some similarity measures before optimisation. A work order family can then be processed totally within a unit-transportation family. Computational efficiency can be improved as a large-scale supply chain optimisation problem has been compartmentalized into relatively small sub-problems.Similar to GT in part classification, similar supply chain units and work orders can also be grouped into a family based on their characteristics, that is, similarity measures, such as routings, due date and priorities of work orders, loading of a manufacturing plant and/or the location of the customer and the distribution centres.To guide the process of virtual clustering, the criteria to determine the similarity of supply chain units, transportation and work orders are listed as follows:* inter cell/intra cell transportation;* product cycle time;* operating cost incurred;* transportation cost;* customer service level;* balance loading of supply chain units; and* due date.After determining the unit-transportation-work order families by the proposed virtual clustering approach, work orders are simply processed and optimised within the respective families. This helps in speeding up the distributed planning and scheduling process. The above-mentioned virtual clustering approach has the following characteristics:* Compartmentalize a supply chain problem into sub-problems so as to decompose a complex problem into a number of manageable and small problems. This will expedite flow planning and scheduling. Although a trade-off between the speed of the optimisation and the quality of the results may exist, by using an appropriate similarity measure, it is possible to derive a near global optimal or \"good-enough\" solution.* Help to split a supply chain optimisation problem purposefully instead of blindly so that it can be run on multiple distributed computers concurrently with less interference.* Use as a plug-in and can be easily integrated with existing supply chain optimisation systems.5.1 Virtual clustering using fuzzy set\n6 Supply chain order scheduler: A supply chain has various customer requirements and multiple end products with shared components and capacities. In order to fulfil customer order, materials and components from suppliers are transformed into final products by manufacturing and assembly plants, distributed to warehouses and distribution centres and finally delivered to customers. The optimal schedule of an individual supply chain unit may contradict the requirements of other units and even deteriorate the overall performance of the entire supply chain. In order to handle such complex scheduling problems within an e-supply chain environment, a distributed intelligent coordination and scheduling mechanism is therefore necessary (Khoo et al., 2001).In this work, an overall architecture for an agent-based distributed scheduling system (ADSS) for e-supply chain is proposed and implemented. The ADSS consists of two subsystems, the supply chain scheduling master (SCSM) and the supply chain scheduling client system (SCSC). The SCSM maintains all the domain knowledge and scheduling information in its database and communicates with all the SCSCs, which represent the supply chain units in the e-supply chain environment. The SCSM also provides a negotiation locale for the supply chain unit agents to resolve any conflicts among local optimised schedules when they try to obtain the near optimal schedule for the entire supply chain. Basically, the ADSS is supported by and built on top of the e-business information flow network, which enables the communication and coordination of geographically dispersed networks of resources. The SCSC works out the local near-optimal shop floor schedule by retrieving the necessary information from the SCSM. The ADSS is built on top of an existing GA-enhanced dynamic scheduler by which the near-optimal local schedules are derived (Khoo et al., 2000). Figure 11 shows the overall architecture of the ADSS.Two types of agents are deployed, namely the supervisory agent of SCSM and the supply chain unit agent of SCSC. The roles and functions of the supervisory agent and supply chain unit agent are described as follows.6.1 Supervisory agent\n7 Conclusions: The proposed e-business information flow network that is derived from the integration of e-business and supply chain enables seamless information flow from suppliers to customer service network via the internet. It provides the basis for a better-coordinated materials flow network from customer order to production, storage, distribution and delivery. The dynamics of enterprise and market make the planning and control of supply chains difficult even with the help of the above mentioned information network. Thus, it is necessary to realize a mechanism that is able to take advantage of the e-business information network, share production plans and capacity of the entire supply chain, and allow each supply chain unit to collaborate instead of optimising locally individual processes at every stage.In order to address the above-mentioned issues, a hierarchical model for e-supply chain coordination and optimisation is proposed. The hierarchical model, which comprises three modules namely RSO, SCVC and SCOS, can be used to facilitate planning and optimise the detailed schedules of various supply chain units such as manufacturing plants, suppliers, warehouses, distribution centres and customers. The work also reveals that:1. With the aid of a GA and TS-based MPSS, the RSO is capable of generating preferred routings, transportation modes and work order plan under the constraints of customer service level, cycle time and cost.2. With the introduction of the so-called supply chain's unit-transportation-work order families using fuzzy virtual clustering, the SCVC is able to:* down-scale supply chain problems;* split a supply chain optimisation problem so that it can be run on multiple computers concurrently;* help to speed up the search procedure; and* use as a plug-in for existing supply chain optimisation systems.3. By introducing an agent-based distributed scheduling system (ADSS) which is supported by and built on top of the e-business information flow network that enables the communication and coordination of geographically dispersed networks of resources, integration of scheduling with supply chain optimisation is achievable.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The integration of e-business and supply chain enables seamless information flow from suppliers to customer service network via the internet. It also enables better-coordinated materials flow from customer order to production, storage, distribution and delivery. The purpose of this paper is to describe the work that leads to the realisation of a hierarchical model for e-supply chain coordination and optimisation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The model is based on an e-business information flow network in order to respond rapidly to the dynamics of e-supply chain and market. It can be used to realize management level strategies, and facilitate the planning and control of detailed operation schedules of supply chain units in an e-supply chain environment. Three main modules are discussed. They are routing and sequence optimiser (RSO) with the aid of a GA and TS-based multiple population search strategy (MPSS); supply chain virtual clustering (SCVC) based on fuzzy virtual clustering; and supply chain order scheduling (SCOS) using an agent-based distributed scheduling system.\nFindings: - These modules enable: the generation of preferred routings, transportation modes and work order plan under such constraints as customer service level, cycle time and cost; the formation of supply chain's unit-transportation-work order families using a clustering approach to down-size supply chain problems and increase computation efficiency; and the integration of scheduling with supply chain optimisation in order to facilitate the control of a supply chain with the aid of an agent-based distributed scheduling approach.\nOriginality/value: - This paper proposed a hierarchical model for e-supply chain coordination and optimisation that is capable to solve large-scale problems. A MPSS using GA and TS was depicted in detail to expedite the RSO.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Public trust in the aftermath of natural and na-technological disasters: Hurricane Katrina and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear incident
|
[
"Disaster",
"Hurricane Katrina",
"Civic trust",
"Fukushima Daiichi"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The probability of catastrophic events grows greater as a result of our socio-technological dependence on science and industry. Modernization has forced humanity to live within a context of risks that demonstrate the interlocking nature of risks in a trans-systemic, trans-national and trans-disciplinary dynamic of world risk society (Beck, 2006). Although modern societies are increasingly becoming \"risk societies,\" the questions now do not revolve around the sheer number of serious risks, but rather their inevitability (Giddens, 1990) and the fact that these risks are intertwined with our personal lives (Misztal, 1996). Beck (2006, p. 341) maintains that \"[g]lobal risk serves as a wake-up call in the face of the failure of government in a globalized world [...]\" where international discussions of the interrelated risks are put on display where risk communication and the question for the appropriate role of government as information broker is assessed. Hewitt (1983) and Freudenburg (1993, p. 915) states, \"[...] natural disasters are severely disturbing; in conjunction with the physical damage to landscapes[1], they expose the fallacies in the scientific and technological realm.\" Technological and natural-technological hybrid disasters (natech)[2] disrupt the social fabric, making a rapid recovery with a protracted disruption and human suffering more the norm now more than ever before. After the initial impacts of the disasters, trust in the local government's ability to perform its primary responsibilities can eventually erode if government institutions and individual leaders do not communicate effectively. Appointed and elected officials are responsible for pre and post-disaster preparedness strategies that assist or fail to assist the residents directly impacted by the disaster. Government institutions, policy makers' decisions and policy implementation influence the impacted public's perception of their leaders and the level of trust they have in both civic institutions and individual leaders.\nUnderstanding trust: Trust, for Giddens (1990, p. 29) carries with it a connotation that there is something stronger than \"hope\" placed in individuals and actors in a modern society; the belief is \"I hope I have no reason to doubt\" the individuals in place to protect me. Giddens' concept of risk redirects the notion of once taken for granted assumptions of trust bound in traditional institutions in a traditional society to the understanding of risk as a complex multi-dimensional sociological understanding of the conditions of trust (Misztal, 1996). Hence, danger and risk (Beck, 1992; Giddens, 1990, 1994; Luhmann, 1988, 1990), wherein risk is viewed as another powerful construct to understand the complex multi-dimensional sociological understanding of the conditions of trust. Public trust in government has been defined in terms of different types of relationships, with different implications for trust. The relationship between the public and the government can be described as fiduciary, or held in trust, and is characterized by asymmetrical power (Wray et al., 2006). In this role, the citizen places their trust in a government institution and cannot control or monitor its performance (Wray et al., 2006). The citizen trusts that the agent will perform in his/her (the citizen's) interest and not his/her (the agent) own interests (Thomas, 1998). Trust also develops through mutual relationships and interpersonal exchanges. Mutual trust is also a component of public trust in government. These relationships and the expectations they prompt are particularly important in determining how the public will respond to government efforts and emergency response (Thomas, 1998; see Wray et al., 2006, p. 48). Government officials and emergency responders who interact with the public and develop mutual trust relationships may be more effective sources for communicating emergency risk information. Perceptions that agencies and officials are shirking their civic duties may obstruct efforts to promote public safety (Wray et al., 2006, p. 48). Wray et al. (2006; pp. 48-50) lists three broad categories of trustworthiness factors important to this study including: first, public perceptions of the government; second, personal experience; and third, trustworthy organizations.\nAnalysis: Public trust after Hurricane Katrina (2005)\nConclusion: public trust in an age of mega disasters - policy and social implications: Although the Fukushima Daiichi accident did not cause any immediate fatalities from radiation, the risk perception toward nuclear power facilities deteriorated to the point that the Japanese government and the company that operates the nuclear power plant (TEPCO) are facing a lack of public support to restart nuclear reactors (Pineda-Solano et al., 2013). To rebuild trust, civic leaders, institutions, and industry will have to infuse a culture of transparency in the way routine activities are undertaken. In both cases, the recovery has been a long-term process. In the case of Katrina, the disaster exposed the local, state and federal government's inadequacy to handle a large scale disaster and its failure to act on previous knowledge they acquired from other \"Katrina-like\" disasters; this was enough to compromise the bonds of trust between the citizens and the government. For the government to rebuild trust in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast territories they must handle every forthcoming disaster in that region effectively and efficiently. The citizens of Louisiana cannot endure another unprecedented catastrophe without their leaders taking precautionary steps pre-and post-disaster to ensure a \"best-case-scenario\" in the mist of turmoil. Demonstrating to the public that they are taking the necessary steps to assure that indirect and direct impacts of a disaster will never have to be witnessed by its citizens again, is a necessary action that needs to take place for trust to be regained.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze public trust during the aftermath of technological and hybrid natural-technological/natech disasters - Hurricane Katrina (2005) and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown in Japan (2011). The work identifies common themes, actions and inactivity that can lead to citizens distrusting the government after disasters.\nDesign/methodology/approach: News reports from the two areas leading newspapers formed the body of the Hurricane Katrina and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown case studies. Of key interest were emerging themes of trust and/or distrust during the immediate impact phase of the disaster in addition to government failures and social breakdowns resulting in a loss of trust in government institutions and individual leaders.\nFindings: The series of examples illustrate how specific action or in-action by local and federal governments served as a catalyst for a loss of trust in government institutions and individual leaders in government while proposing potential strategies to help public leaders reduce distrust during times of crisis.\nResearch limitations/implications: The two limitations were the use of only newspapers and the passage of a new law in 2013, the \"Specially Designated Secrets Protection Law,\" designed to limit news reporting of the press in Japan on the issue of nuclear radiation exposure of the general public in Japan, some of the new data are not available.\nPractical implications: The research concludes by offering specific ways to regain trust after a perception of failure during pre- and post-disaster management in the age of mega disasters. The paper lists several recommendations that can be practically implemented to develop a culture of transparent communication, civic engagement in planning processes and inspire trust among stakeholders.\nOriginality/value: While the paper identifies barriers to establishing trust among government agencies, the citizenry and private industry, it seeks to help inform policy frameworks regarding the importance of the government's ability to sustain a strong sense of trust that engenders civic participation in preserving or regaining trust in the aftermath of disasters.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Free upgrades with costly consequences: Can preferential treatment inflate customers' entitlement and induce negative behaviors?
|
[
"Entitlement",
"Consumer ethics",
"Free upgrade",
"Opportunistic behavior",
"Preferential treatment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Imagine you get an upgrade on a long-haul flight from an airline you have never flown with before. How will you react? Will you appreciate it? Will you immediately become a loyal customer of this airline or will you expect more perks and unexpected benefits during your flight? Would you react differently on such an upgrade if you were a loyal customer of that airline? This research sheds more light on the consequences of preferential treatment and investigates reactions of various groups of customers on such treatment.\nTheoretical framework: Preferential treatment\nOverview of the present research: The aim of the present research is to gain a better understanding of how companies can more effectively provide preferential treatment, based on how different types of customers react to receiving preferential treatment or not. We investigate preferential treatment that is \"unearned\" in the sense that the selection of customers for preferential treatment is not based on effort or loyalty (Jiang et al., 2013), and we do so within the ubiquitous context of free upgrades in service encounters (e.g. hotels and airlines). We examine its psychological effect on feelings of entitlement \"in the current moment,\" that is, as a dynamic state that is susceptible to external influences. Finally, we also examine effects of preferential treatment and entitlement on opportunistic behaviors directed both at the specific service provider and at other companies and customers more generally, and among both new customers and repeat customers of the given company.\nMethods: A total of 167 participants located in the USA (66 per cent aged 21-34, 44 per cent female) completed the study online for $0.40. They were recruited through Amazon's Mechanical Turk, which has been extensively validated as a source of representative and reliable data (Buhrmester et al., 2011). Participants were randomly assigned to the upgrade or control group. Participants in both groups read descriptions of two hotel rooms, including a detailed list of amenities available in the standard room and the deluxe suite (see Table I).\nResults and discussion: Most participants (97 per cent) correctly identified their room allocation, thus validating the preferential treatment manipulation. Five participants who failed this manipulation check, and an additional nine who failed the attention check, were excluded from further analysis. However, the results did not change when those participants were included. As expected, PES scores indicated that participants in the upgrade group felt significantly more entitled (M = 4.48, SD = 1.14) than participants in the control group (M = 3.94, SD = 1.41), t(151) = 2.62, p < 0.05, d = 0.42. Also as predicted, CES scores revealed that participants in the upgrade group were significantly more inclined toward opportunistic behavior (M = 2.96, SD = 0.72) than those in the control group (M = 2.62, SD = 0.69), t(151) = 2.99, p < 0.01, d = 0.48.\nMethods: A total of 127 students from an English business school (71 per cent aged 21-24, 68 per cent females) completed the study for course credit. The study used a 2 (treatment: upgrade, control) x 2 (customer tenure: repeat, new) between-participants experimental design. Participants were asked to imagine that they booked an economy class seat on an overseas flight (Appendix 2).\nResults and discussion: Manipulation checks and control measures\nGeneral discussion: Theoretical implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Companies often provide preferential treatment, such as free upgrades, to customers. The present study aims to identify a costly consequence of such preferential treatment (i.e. opportunistic behavior) and reveal which type of customer is most likely to engage in that negative behavior (i.e. new customers).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Across two experimental studies, the authors test whether preferential treatment increases customers' entitlement, which in turn increases their propensity to behave opportunistically. Moderated mediation analysis further tests whether that mediated effect is moderated by customers' prior relationship with the company.\nFindings: Preferential treatment increases feelings of entitlement, which consequently triggers customers' opportunistic behaviors. New customers are more likely to feel entitled after preferential treatment than repeat customers, and hence new customers are more likely to behave opportunistically. Preferential treatment also increases customers' suspicion of the company's motives, but suspicion was unrelated to opportunistic behavior.\nResearch limitations/implications: Future research may focus on other marketplace situations that trigger entitlement and explore whether multiple occurrences of preferential treatment provide different effects on consumers.\nPractical implications: Present findings demonstrate that preferential treatment can evoke opportunistic behaviors among customers. The authors suggest that preferential treatment should be provided to customers who previously invested in their relationship with a company (i.e. repeat customers) rather than new customers.\nOriginality/value: Prior research has focused more on the ways companies prioritize their repeat customers than how they surprise their new customers. The present research instead examines preferential treatment based on customers' relationship with a firm (i.e. both repeat and new customers) and demonstrates behavioral and contextual effects of entitlement.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Implementing sustainability in small and medium-sized construction firms: The role of absorptive capacity
|
[
"Construction industry",
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Absorptive capacity",
"Organizational learning",
"Responsible sourcing",
"Sustainability standards"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Corporations are increasingly recognising the importance of sustainability (Caprar and Neville, 2012), particularly given its potential as a driver to help reduce costs, manage risks, engage in innovation and drive internal change (Azapagic, 2003). Traditionally environmental issues (e.g. waste reduction, energy efficiency and carbon) have been at the forefront, influenced by legislation and numerous industry and government commitments. As a result, the sustainability and supply chain management (SCM) literature is relatively rich in its coverage of environmental issues (Ashby et al., 2012). Lehtonen (2004) recognises that the social dimension has the least coverage; perhaps because devoting sufficient attention to this represents a challenge (Klassen and Vereecke, 2012); Seuring and Muller (2008) also report that integration of the three sustainability pillars is rare.\nSustainability in the construction industry: Sustainability for the construction industry can be termed \"sustainable construction\", which comprises many processes to deliver built assets to enhance people's quality of life and stakeholder satisfaction (Adetunji et al., 2003). An organisation can be said to be embracing sustainability in a holistic manner when it has taken appropriate actions to address environmental, social and economic issues (Lozano and Huisingh, 2011), although the environmental pillar is often prioritised at the expense of economic and particularly social issues (Klassen and Vereecke, 2012). This is surprising given that neglecting these can represent a considerable risk to the organisation, and that standards and schemes focusing on the social aspects of an organisation's operations (e.g. ISO 26000; BSI British Standards, 2010) do exist. However, Ahi and Searcy (2013) report a shift in this focus, perhaps due to highly publicised stories in the media. For example, exposure of companies such as Nike (e.g. DeTienne and Lewis, 2005) and Primark (e.g. Jones et al., 2009) in the 1990s and more recently Apple (Garside, 2013) for use of child labour and sweatshops in Asian manufacturing sites, caused negative press and unwanted attention from stakeholders, leading to tarnished reputations and public condemnation of their actions.\nA focus on RS: The joint government and industry strategy for sustainable construction (Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (DBERR), 2008) set, as part of its targets, that by 2012, 25 per cent of construction products should be procured from schemes recognised for RS. Attention to this agenda has been accelerated by the publishing of the BES 6001 (Building Research Establishment (BRE), 2009) framework standard and numerous other industry targets and commitments (e.g. UK Contractor's Group (UKCG), 2012). For example, around 92 per cent of UK concrete (Sustainable Concrete Forum (SCF), 2010) and 90 per cent of UK brick (Brick Development Association (BDA), 2012) is available with an RS certificate. Construction contributes around 7 per cent of GDP in the UK (Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (DBIS), 2013), and so a significant volume of material is now available through RS approved schemes. In addition, RS is seen as market driven through points that are available in sustainability assessment schemes (such as the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BRE, 2014a) and CEEQUAL, the sustainability assessment, rating and awards scheme for civil engineering; CEEQUAL, 2015). It is also viewed as a quasi-voluntary agenda, given that a lack of engagement with the standard may limit business opportunities, with customers opting to buy products from certified competitors. Glass (2011) reports that the absence of a common definition of RS means that understanding varies widely, with the term apparently often used interchangeably with terms such as ethical sourcing and sustainable procurement. This research will therefore use RS as a lens, given its relatively wide coverage of holistic sustainability issues within the construction supply chain.\nOrganisational learning and sustainability implementation: Introduction of sustainability policies and processes can be considered as organisational change processes, involving a degree of learning over time (Maon et al., 2009). Senge (1990) introduced the concept of the learning organisation: fundamentally, organisations can only learn once there is collective individual learning. Learning processes of organisations are inherently different from those in individual learning as they are reflected in organisational culture (Love et al., 2000). Despite this, organisations themselves cannot learn per se (Love et al., 2000), as knowledge is bound within individuals making up the organisation. It can thus be inferred that organisations must provide resources to their employees for supplementing knowledge, such as training programmes.\nMethodology: The research methodology was based on the case study approach due to its examination of contemporary events (Yin, 2009) and its unique ability to aid theory development through consideration of in-depth insights of empirical phenomena and their contexts (Dubois and Gadde, 2002). Here, implementation of sustainability standards, as exemplified by RS, is assumed to represent a \"complex issue\", given its limited research, literature and generated related theory.\nResearch findings: Company A: precast concrete products manufacturer\nDiscussion: The contrasting experiences within the two cases suggest that organisational structures and norms have a significant role to play in implementing sustainability standards. Our results especially highlight the importance of effective organisational communication as a key enabler of positive attitudes to change.\nConclusions: The findings of this study suggest that working to a given standard can enable a company to benchmark performance and improve \"housekeeping\" on site. The sustainability agenda is a core concern of many organisations and industries, and as such, being able to demonstrate positive engagement with this agenda is likely to become increasingly important in being awarded contracts or meeting customers' criteria. Certification to standards is the most tangible means of demonstrating engagement with sustainability (Upstill-Goddard et al., 2012). They can enable an organisation to demonstrate a benchmark level of performance, and standards themselves can help to promote commonly accepted processes and practices (De Colle et al., 2014). They also evidence engagement with sustainability while opening up business opportunities and hence competitive advantage. As RS is a key indicator of sustainability at the product and organisational level, achieving a \"benchmark\" level of performance can provide assurance to customers that sustainability has been considered holistically within the organisation and its supply chain. For the SME, a key concern is generating enough business to keep afloat. Pursuing the sustainability agenda can act as an enabler to generating more work, often rendering sustainability compliance crucial to the success of the business. Despite this, particularly in the case of the SME, sustainability certification will only be considered if it will have a positive financial impact on the business. In short, unless the SME is asked specifically for evidence of a given certificate, it may be viewed as a costly and unnecessary activity. The argument for CSR engagement as corporate philanthropy (cf. Murray and Dainty, 2009) does not appear to be true in the case of the SMEs investigated here, who are motivated by the extrinsic reward that achievement of standards can generate.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: Construction organisations are becoming increasingly aware of the impacts of their operations, from both an environmental and, more recently, a social viewpoint. Sustainability standards can enable an organisation to evidence a benchmarked level of performance against a particular issue. To date, research on standards has largely focused on the operational and administrative aspects of their enactment, rather than how they might affect - and be appropriated by - organisational actors. The purpose of this paper is to examine how capacity for learning can affect the success of implementing standards within two construction SMEs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Taking an organisational learning and absorptive capacity (ACAP) perspective, this research uses the case study approach and abductive logic to understand what role learning plays with regard to sustainability standard implementation.\nFindings: The results reveal that strong communication channels and commitment to training programmes increase the capacity for implementing standards, but that SMEs tend only to approach standards if they see immediate financial benefits stemming from their implementation.\nPractical implications: SMEs provide a challenging context for the implementation of sustainability standards unless there are significant external levers and extrinsic motivation for them to be embraced. Care should be taken in incorporating these aspects into the future design of standards that are more aligned with SME needs.\nSocial implications: Stakeholders should seek to apply pressure to firms to positively influence engagement with sustainability standards.\nOriginality/value: The role and importance of ACAP is an underdeveloped debate in the certification field. This study is the first that links the process of implementing a standard with the ACAP of an organisation.\n",
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] |
An exploration of "Working against racism: the role of trade unions": Professional insights
|
[
"Racial discrimination",
"Trade unions",
"Equal opportunities"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: On 24 February, 2006, I was a participant at the conference jointly organised by the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and Working Lives Research Institute (WLRI) which took place at the TUC headquarters in London's Great Russell Square. The focus of the deliberations at the conference was the report of an investigation into the role of trade unions in combating discrimination and xenophobia in five European countries, although it centred on the UK. The report, entitled \"Working Against Racism: The Role of Trade Unions\", is a collaboration between the WLRI and the TUC. It particularly focused on three sectors, including London transport, retailing, and two large hospitals in the London areas. Participants at the conference included academics, researchers, trade unionists and race equality officers, and about 60 delegates were in attendance. The main speakers were Professor Mary Davis (Deputy Director of the WLRI and report co-author), Gloria Mills (President of the TUC), Wilf Sullivan (the TUC's Race Equality Officer and report co-author), Sukhwant Dhaliwal of the WLRI and Jennifer Moses (Assistant Secretary of National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers).The conference was well organised and very lively from the onset. In his opening remark, the chairperson, Professor Steve Jeffrey, Director of the WLRI, noted that even though there has been a major policy shift in the last 20 years across the whole labour movement in Europe and the discourse or language used about racism are much better than they used to be, the reality in the workplace floor is still very different. He said, \"The thing that shocked us almost from the start is how in some areas little progress has been made\". In her address, Gloria Mills acknowledged \"we have come a long way in dealing with the issue of race equality but there's so much that needs to be done\". She argued that although people are talking about equality and diversity, \"they do not actually set in an anti-racist context\". She said, \"I think if you're going to talk about diversity, valuing people, respecting them, treating them with dignity, looking at their culture, background, and experiences, then we really do need first of all to have an anti-racist approach ... you cannot value diversity unless you deal with racism\". She opines that anti-racism has been excluded from the diversity agenda and derided the notion of outsiders trying to define the issues of racism. She said \"We really need to look at the language we use and to ensure that our experiences as British citizens and British black trade unionists actually defines that struggle and not accept the definition of others of our struggle and experiences\".The union was under the spotlight and as expected, Mills, as the union president, vigorously defended her constituency. She argued that the TUC has been in the forefront of challenging the major social issues - whether it is racism, fascism, homophobia or the war in Iraq - and has promoted the agenda of tolerance, respect, dignity, equality and social justice. Mills, however, acknowledged that more work still needs to be done, especially in developing a clear strategy and agenda based around anti-racism. According to her, the culture of the union needs to be changed if the body of union policies regarding the major social and political issues are to yield dividends. She identified the need for the union to review its employment practices and ensure that more people from black and minority background are employed in trade unions and not disproportionately in the lower grades. She said, \"When I looked around the Governing Council Board, it dawned on me that it would take another twenty years to have another black woman president on the General Council if we did not ensure that we have more black people coming through in the structures of the movement\". On the issue of collective bargaining, she feels the union is underutilising existing legal provisions and could do more for its members by taking more strategic litigation cases not just on race but on equality across the board. In her conclusion, the TUC president declared \"Challenging discrimination and promoting equality is at the heart of what want to particularly do. We want equality now, not in 200 years, but now\".In her presentation of the report, Mary Davis noted that the study has shown what most black workers in Britain already know; that racism is endemic in British society and despite mission statements, the law, trade union policy, and a variety of initiatives over the years, it is nonetheless still an ever present factor in the workplace. Mary Davis and Gloria Mills agreed on the usefulness of the litigation approach in combating discrimination. However, Davis did not support adoption of this approach based on the report's finding that black members have developed expectations of the legal process being the only route to justice in the absence of effective collective bargaining in the workplace. In essence, there is an increasing reliance by the unions on the legal framework to tackle individual problems of discrimination in the workplace. This has resulted in race discrimination being treated by most union representatives as an individual matter, with the consequence that issues of discrimination have been externalised from the workplace. Furthermore, the study found that given the low level of likely success of cases submitted to the Employment Tribunal, the intercession of cautious trade union practice with black members' expectations has resulted in a negative view within black communities of the relevance of trade unions to the working lives of black people.Interestingly, covert and institutionalised racism still exists within some trade unions according to the report. Fundamentally, trade unions should be combating racism, but the report states that they are more likely to be tolerating racism through their inactivity. It was suggested that the unions are not representative of their membership and are not listening to their black members. Apparently, serious tensions between trade unions and black members have been caused by a tendency for both to adopt individual approaches regarding what can be achieved. The issue of blackness and its operational use in the report was also discussed at the conference. Mary Davis defended their use of the term \"Black\" to inclusively refer to all ethnic minority people of all background. She compares this to the use of \"Worker\" by the labour movement to refer to all workers regardless of profession, occupation or background. Sukhwant Dhaliwal and Jennifer Moses also took this position. According to Sukhwant \"We need to get back to the issue of black identity ... there is a range of racism we're facing in the society, but there is a common thread\". Jennifer said \"we need to move on from the debate about colour; we need to leave the colour shades to deluxe and stick to the real issues\". The observation that the study did not explore religion was also defended based on the argument that it is a dividing factor which sometimes dissipates the collective response necessary for collective action.A panel debate on \"Race versus Diversity\" presented the participants with the opportunity to express their views on the issues and opinions were fairly mixed on the subject. Mary Davis argued that recognising diversity hinges on understanding what the barriers are and what racism really is. She said \"True diversity can only be achieved when genuine equality is won and genuine equality can only be won when we do take up the fight against what prevents it and in this case the fight against racism\". Wilf Sullivan said \"if we are talking about diversity, the discussion tend to be about people's individual's life chances, whereas when we talk about anti-discrimination or race discrimination, we are talking about dealing with the sustained barriers that face black people because of the way the labour market operates\". Sukhwant Dhaliwal did not think that equality and diversity are opposed. She said \"the issue of race equality on one hand and diversity on the hand are not oppositional issues; they are not two separate issues; it's not a dichotomy we're talking about\". Gloria Mills argued that diversity is often spoken of within the context of economics without having a moral ethical framework in terms of disproportional access, i.e., unequal access to opportunities, way people are treated, etc. She maintains that the whole issue of racial differences is about power relations, exploitation, subjugation, and domination and these issues have to be addressed when talking about diversity. She said \"I have no problem with the notion of diversity because we're all different ... but what defines the way we're treated is not just the economic framework within we operate, but its also the way in which we are viewed because it's our differences ... it's my skin colour that defines the way I am treated, (and) my gender in a number of areas ... so whilst it (diversity) is set in an economic framework, you have to look at the issue about equality, about ethics, about morality\".Some participants expressed the view that diversity has relegated equality to the background and that the issues of inequality and racism have been watered down significantly in the process. Some think that the use of diversity is a cop-out by employers and a ploy by managers to \"change the subject\" or shift the emphasis from issues of discrimination. Zita Holborne of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) said \"in the civil service, the word diversity is being used more frequently to replace the word equality ... to replace looking at discrimination issues ... the managers using this phrase don't actually understand themselves what diversity means ... some of them think it means equality when they are using diversity\". The PCS is one of the UK's largest trade unions, representing members involved in governmental services in both the public and private sectors. A TUC officer seized on Sukhwant Dhaliwal's comment that diversity and equality are not dichotomous to suggest that the union should capitalise on the business case for diversity by seizing the initiative in redefining the issues with the aim of making them their own. He said \"the business case and the diversity strategy and the way they are presented by employers actually offers us a chance, opens the door for us to negotiate and claim those polices for ourselves ... to change the language, to change the culture\". John Hughes of the London Fire Brigade accused the union of not caring enough and supporting workers in fighting against racism. He said \"what they (union) find important is getting the numbers of people in trade unions\".In conclusion, I believe the weight of evidence presented at the conference suggests that unions are not doing enough to combat racism and risk alienating their black constituency unless they venture out of their comfort zone and start to tackle those issues that their members really care about. Recognition of the extent to which black union members are disillusioned and feel let down should lead to concrete and positive steps in addressing their concerns. It is not surprising that a delegate directly accused the union of only caring about numbers (i.e. revenue) and not the problems affecting the members. It will be interesting to know to what extent this sentiment is shared amongst the grassroots. The union's response to this charge that members need to start making things to happen in their local constituent rather than expecting the central leadership to do everything for them seems like an attempt to deflect attention from their failings. There is no doubt that the unions have come a long way in their fight for equality. The fact that the TUC president is not only black but also a woman is a strong indication of this. However, in my view, union leaders could either pat themselves on the back and rest on their laurels or push harder for more changes until the fight against racism is comprehensively won. Trade unions need to rebuild confidence within the black community and improve organisation, participation, and recruitment of black members in the movement.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To report on conference deliberations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The report is generated through general observations, notes, and tape recordings.\nFindings: - Racism is still endemic in british Society. Trade unions risk alienating their black constituency unless they venture out of their comfort zone and rebuild confidence within the black community and improve organisation, participation, and recruitment of black members in the movement.\nOriginality/value: - This report is valuable in exposing the problems the trade union movement in the UK is faced with and the extent to which black members are at odds with trade unions regarding the approach to adopt in fighting discrimination in the work place.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
An empirical study on the online learning experience of MOOCs: Indian students' perspective
|
[
"PLS-SEM",
"MOOCs",
"Hedonic motivation",
"CoI framework",
"Online learning experience",
"Technical barrier"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The evolution of internet-based technologies has impacted all aspects of our daily life activities and education has not been left behind. It has triggered changes in the way learning is delivered. The physical classrooms are losing their dominance as the only place of learning (Nguyen, 2015). Technology-mediated learning delivered via online education methods is becoming common place for students across the spectrum ranging from ninth standard in school to postgraduate and even doctoral level education (Henrie et al., 2015). It is now possible to learn a new skill or course completely online without ever attending a physical \"brick and mortar\" classroom. Such possibilities have also given rise to research in the area of online higher education which has attracted the attention of various researchers' to study the online learning phenomenon scientifically. The demand for online courses is also picking up worldwide by students (Nguyen, 2015). The governments have started incentivizing the online courses due to the sheer potential benefits from these courses. The governments have also initiated policies such as one-laptop-one-child or cheaper tablets or free subscription with a nominal fee for certificates that may ultimately impact the country's educational effectiveness (Henrie et al., 2015).\nResearch objectives: The emphasis of the research is to investigate the online LE of the learners in MOOC programs with the following objectives:\nLiterature review: The literature review encompassed various purely online learning research undertaken by various scholars and researchers from 2000 to 2018. In recent years, technology-mediated learning or computer-based learning has witnessed changes from instructor-focus to learner-centric course design. Many scholars affirmatively concluded that online learning is a suitable alternative to traditional classroom-based education, especially to overcome challenges such as high costs, difficulty to reach mass base of learners and providing anytime, anywhere course delivery. The onboarding of a new student does not cost as much as that required in a traditional classroom setting (Bartley and Golek, 2004; Jung and Rha, 2000; Nguyen, 2015; Bowen, 2013).\nCoI framework: CoI framework has been the most widely referred theoretical framework to study online education (Anderson, 2016; Swan and Ice, 2010; Befus, 2016; Stenbom, 2018; Harrell and Wendt, 2019; Kozan and Caskurlu, 2018; Lee and Kim, 2018; Kilis and Yildirim, 2018; Kazanidis et al., 2018). It covers all the three dimensions - social, teaching and cognitive aspects of online learning environment comprehensively (Caskurlu, 2018; Swan et al., 2009; Stenbom, 2018; Vaughan et al., 2013; Harrell and Wendt, 2019; Kozan and Caskurlu, 2018; Lee and Kim, 2018; Kilis and Yildirim, 2018; Kazanidis et al., 2018). CoI framework describes the relationship between these three core elements and finds the significant factors that affect learning in any given online education system. TP studies the design and organization, facilitation and direct instructions related to online course delivery. SP studies the interaction between online course participants and CP studies the application of learning and improved thinking of course attendees (Caskurlu, 2018; Stenbom, 2018).\nOnline learning experience (LE): The E-LE survey conducted by Pieri and Diamantini (2014) provided emphasis on usage, convenience and usefulness of the platform for learning. Hence, LE is defined as - \"the ease of use, convenience to learn and usefulness of online courses for learning.\" Students found to have good LE were proficient in the usage of technology for learning (Stokes, 2003) and it provides the ease for usage of online learning course (Umrani-Khan and Iyer, 2009). Online learning courses facilitate sense of self-directed accountability (Woldab, 2014) and tend to develop meaningful learning (Pillay and James, 2014).\nTechnical barrier (TB): TB represents the students comfort with the hardware and software utilized for online learning and overall system (Muilenburg and Berge, 2005). It was mentioned by Schilke (2001) that TB is an important factor for persistence in distance education. TB is divided into two issues - access/cost and technical problems (Muilenburg and Berge, 2005). The learners consider technology as an obstacle to learn online rather than a facilitator for learning (Foster, 2018). In this study, access/cost is not considered as most of the telecom service providers in India are providing cost-effective 3G/4G internet access. Only technical problems are considered here as MOOCs are the new online training methods/medium used in education.\nHedonic motivation (HD): HD is the pleasure, fun, excitement and enjoyment of using the technology which is a vital factor for usage and acceptance of technology (Panigrahi et al., 2018; Brown and Venkatesh, 2005). It is crucial to consider the hedonic and playfulness of the online learning systems while designing it (Kiili, 2005) as learners needs to enjoy the learning process. The hedonic aspect is important for online learning to provide the LE to the learners (Huang et al., 2019). Hence, to study the LE, HD is considered.\nTheoretical model using the CoI framework with two context-specific constructs: Many studies on online education provide emphasis on the CoI framework (Befus, 2016; Anderson, 2016; Swan and Ice, 2010). LE is an important variable to study in any MOOC as it depicts the quality and effectiveness of the MOOCs (Kiili, 2005; Zhang, 2016; Gamage et al., 2016). MOOCs which are properly designed as per the learner's need, ensured that the interactivity and ease of understanding the course content would provide good LE to students (Gamage et al., 2016; Lu et al., 2017; Pieri and Diamantini, 2014). This research also considered TB (inhibitor) and HD (enabler) as these two contextual factors need to be studied to investigate the LE from the students' perspective using MOOC courses (Kiili, 2005; Muilenburg and Berge, 2005). To provide better explanatory power to the CoI framework, this study extends the CoI framework by adding two context-specific variables. The CoI framework does not capture the TBs in terms of the familiarity of the learners with the online learning technical tools used in MOOCs, lack of technical assistance and software skills (Muilenburg and Berge, 2005) which is one of the crucial inhibitors to the LE. HD which represents the element of fun, excitement, engagement and enjoyment, which is one of the crucial motivation factors for learners (Nguyen et al., 2014) is also not captured in the CoI framework. Hence, the unique contribution of the proposed conceptual model is the extension of the CoI framework by adding these two context-specific variables - one enabler and another inhibitor for the LE. The proposed conceptual framework is depicted in Figure 1.\nHypotheses development: The proposed conceptual model leads to the following set of hypotheses which the study intends to evaluate in the context of MOOCs.\nResearch methodology: The study utilized the analytical approach of research to develop and validate the proposed research model. First, the literature review was done and then the survey instrument was finalized. The data collection was done from the MOOC learners. The detailed description of the survey instrument along with the process for data collection is as follows.\nResearch instrument design: The scale of measurement was considered from the existing studies of CoI (Caskurlu, 2018; Arbaugh et al., 2008; Stenbom, 2018; Saadatmand et al., 2017) which includes TP, CP and SP constructs. The contextual factors TB (Muilenburg and Berge, 2005), HD (Venkatesh et al., 2012; Nguyen et al., 2014; Ali Tarhini et al., 2017) and LE (Woodcock et al., 2015) are utilized from the extant literature. A five-point Likert scale (1=\"strongly disagree\" and 5=\"strongly agree\") was used to measure all the constructs depicted in Table II.\nHigher order constructs formation: The TP, SP and CP are modeled as a higher order (second-order) reflective constructs (Caskurlu, 2018; Arbaugh et al., 2008). TP is made up of three first-order reflective constructs - facilitation, design and organization and direct instruction. SP is made up of three first-order reflective constructs - affective expression, group cohesion and open communication (Caskurlu, 2018; Arbaugh et al., 2008). CP is made up of four first-order reflective constructs - triggering event, integration, exploration and resolution. The scale of measurement for all the first-order constructs in the model were reflective in nature with multiple indicators considered from the existing studies of CoI (Akyol and Garrison, 2011; Caskurlu, 2018; Lambert and Fisher, 2013). The second-order constructs (TP, SP and CP) were measured and modeled following the repeated indicator approach (Becker et al., 2012; Chin et al., 2003).\nSampling and data collection: A panel of seven subject matter experts on MOOCs, consisting of highly experienced professional trainers who developed MOOC courses on SWAYAM and NPTEL MOOC platforms from Indian Institute of Technology, National Institute Technology, Indian Institute of Management, Universities, Government higher education institutions (HEIs) and owners of private MOOC companies were identified before conducting the survey and data collection. The aim, objectives and scope of this research were discussed with them. To confirm the face validity of survey instrument, the feedback and suggestions from these experts were incorporated in the questionnaire for suitability of the constructs and the pilot questionnaire was finalized. The measured constructs were operationalized using a five-point Likert scale. The pilot test (n=230) was conducted among the undergraduate and postgraduate student respondents who were pursuing MOOC certificate courses from colleges, universities and HEIs in Pune and Mumbai cities in India. The respondents were surveyed with the permission of the top-level management of the institutes. The collected data were analyzed in partial least squares structural equation modeling. After obtaining suitable results in the pilot study, the final data collection process was completed. Cronbach's a was checked to test the internal consistency and reliability of the data. The defined constructs and survey instrument are mentioned in Table II.\nDiscussion: It is found that TP contributes positively to SP and CP which implies that TP is important for SP and CP. TP portrays the course content, activities and mentoring for active learning (Caskurlu, 2018; Anderson et al., 2001). All these factors are important to ensure CP (Garrison et al., 2013; Chang et al., 2015). CP represents the inquiry and learning process to construct meaning for which TP is important. TP contributes to CP, as in the process of enquiry the trainers play major role in triggering the learning by suitable course conceptualization, coverage of topics, effective communication and feedback mechanism (Caskurlu, 2018). SP is developed through online learning communities and it helps for purposeful communication and interpersonal relationship development among learners (Schwarz et al., 2012; Zhou, 2016). In MOOC courses, such interaction is ensured by the trainers and course coordinators through discussion forums and online chat platforms which lead to CP (Garrison, 2011).\nImplications: The results offer valuable contributions to the theory of connectivism and the CoI framework in the context of MOOCs. It also provides insights and value to the practitioners, government regulators and policymakers, HEIs, marketers, designers, developers, trainers and course coordinators of MOOCs.\nLimitations and future research directions: This research features the LE of MOOC student learners in India. This is a cross-section study in India which surveyed undergraduate and postgraduate MOOC learners and necessary caution to be taken while generalizing the outcomes. Further studies can be conducted across other countries considering demographic factors like, age, gender, income groups, education and profession. Further, reasons for student's dropout rates in MOOCs, students' satisfaction online and impact of LE on continuation intention of the students in MOOCs can be studied. Future studies can be extended to examine the value of MOOCs, learner's self-regulation, learning intention and students' loyalty toward pursuing MOOC courses.\nConclusion: LE is one of the important parameters considered in MOOC studies; hence, this research develops a model to investigate the factors affecting the LE using the CoI framework and two context-specific variables. The proposed model is supported empirically. It is also found that TP, SP and CP influence the online LE of MOOCs. It is found that TB negatively influences LE but is not significant and HD significantly influences LE for MOOCs. This paper validates the community of enquiry model empirically by adding two context-specific variables. The outcome of this study will help to formulate suitable strategies in the delivery and design of MOOCs to improve the LE of learners.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the online learning experience (LE) of massive open online courses (MOOCs) among the students in India using the lens of community of inquiry (CoI) model and two additional contextual factors.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study conducted a survey using a structured questionnaire among the undergraduate and postgraduate students to examine the LE of MOOCs using the CoI framework and contextual variables - technical barrier (TB) and hedonic motivation (HD). The primary data were analyzed with the partial least squares structural equation modeling technique.\nFindings: The results show that teaching presence (TP) influences cognitive presence (CP) and social presence (SP). SP influences CP. It is also found that TP, SP and CP influence the LE of MOOCs. It is found that TB negatively influences LE but is not significant and HD significantly influences LE positively for MOOCs.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study has a few limitations as it is a cross-sectional study in India, which surveyed undergraduate and postgraduate MOOCs learners, and caution needs to be taken while generalizing the outcomes. Further studies can be conducted across other countries considering demographic factors like age, gender, income groups, education and profession.\nPractical implications: This research highlights the antecedents influencing the LE of MOOC learners using the CoI framework which will help the MOOC designers and marketers to apprehend the factors influencing LE. The results of this research will help them formulate suitable strategies in the design and delivery of MOOCs to improve the LE of learners.\nOriginality/value: This unique research investigates and empirically validates the CoI framework to understand LE of MOOC learners in India. This research extends the CoI framework by adding contextual factors - TB and HD in the context of a developing country.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Measuring the supply chain risk in offshoring countries using data envelopment analysis and the analytic hierarchy process
|
[
"Offshoring",
"Data envelopment analysis",
"Analytic hierarchy process",
"Supply chain risk"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Pressured by limited cash flows resulting from ongoing worldwide financial crisis, a growing number of multinational firms (MNFs) seek ways to outsource its operations in low-cost countries (LCCs). As such, offshoring was often characterized predominantly by the movement of manufacturing activities from the developed economy (high-cost countries) to the developing economy (LCCs). In fact, offshoring from LCCs outpaced those from developed countries for the last decade (Ruamsook et al., 2009). For example, US imports from China grew from $100 billion in 2000 to $482 billion in 2015. On the other hand, US imports from Japan declined from $147 billion in 2000 to $131 billion in 2015, although it rebounded from a decade low of $86.4 billion in 2009 (US Department of Commerce, 2010; US Census Bureau, 2016). Apparently, a major driving force behind this trend has been the price competitiveness of sources of supplies in LCCs vis-a-vis those in developed countries. However, financial gains obtained from offshoring from LCCs can be offset by a multitude of hidden costs (e.g. logistics costs, customs duties, documentation costs, insurance costs, regulatory compliance costs, greasy payments, in-transit inventory carrying costs) and risks (e.g. damage/loss during transit, substandard product quality, foreign currency exchange fluctuations, miscommunication, government bureaucracy, terrorism, piracy) involved in LCC offshoring (Min and Kim, 2011; Min, 2015). Thus, an offshoring strategy targeting LCCs may not necessarily help MNFs achieve their intended goal of saving total supply chain costs. Reflecting this sentiment, there has been an increasing effort among the MNFs to re-shore their manufacturing operations back to the home country from the foreign LCCs. For example, in 2009, the NCR decided to return its production of the most sophisticated lines of ATMs from its plants in China and India to a manufacturing facility in Georgia in the USA. Likewise, GE decided to build two new plants (Schenectady, NY and Louisville, KY) in the USA to make high-density batteries and hybrid electric water heaters previously made in China. To help the MNF make a better tradeoff between in-housing and offshoring and then formulate wiser offshoring strategies, this paper aims to assess the true costs of offshoring from LCCs vs high-cost countries. In estimating these true costs, we factor risks into key cost components. In particular, country-specific supply chain risks will be measured to determine the most desirable offshoring destinations.\n2. Background: In the following subsections, we will discuss major motivations for this study and summarize key prior studies which have become the theoretical underpinning of the current study's supply chain risk classification and assessment.\n3. The assessment of comparative offshoring risks: Once the decision on what to buy and/or produce has been made, the next step for offshoring is to identify potential sources of supply and then evaluate their comparative strengths and weaknesses with respect to relevant performance criteria before selecting the most desirable offshoring option (Min, 2015). Generally, performance criteria relevant to offshoring may include: logistics costs arising from the host country's logistics infrastructure and local employees' logistics competence; order cycle time associated with order fulfillments; product quality; business customs or environments; communication barriers including language barriers; information technology compatibility; local regulations/laws; documentation; and loss or gain resulting from the foreign currency exchange (Min and Kim, 2011). In particular, Ruamsook et al. (2009) discovered that there existed the wide gaps between LCCs and high-cost countries with respect to supplier's information system capabilities, communication infrastructure, business culture and practices, and on-time order fulfillment.\n4. Key findings and managerial implications: Over the last several decades, offshoring (including contract manufacturing) has become a popular strategic option due to its lure of cheap labor and materials in foreign countries. Despite such lure, many MNFs did not reap the cost-saving benefits that they anticipated. Indeed, one-third (34 percent) of the MNFs which was surveyed by the AT Kearney reported that their offshoring strategy did not bring cost savings they expected, while nearly two-thirds (60 percent) of the surveyed companies never reached their operational performance targets (Entrepreneur, 2009). To uncover the hidden danger of offshoring, this paper analyzed the secondary data sources primarily obtained from the World Bank, the CIA World Factbook, and the World Economic Forum using the statistical data analysis, DEA and AHP models. This section summarizes several noteworthy findings of those analyses and provides practical insights into their managerial ramifications. These findings are as follows.\n5. Concluding remarks and future research directions: Min (2016) envisioned that resiliency from volatile global business environments fraught with uncertainty and risk would be the focus of the next decade's supply chain management. In other words, the MNF's ability to absorb potential risks can dictate its business success in a global environment. Such ability is particularly important when the MNF considers offshoring in unfamiliar foreign soils. Nevertheless, research examining the impact of supply chain risks on offshoring is rare. This paper helps the MNF obviate common offshoring blunders stemming from the miscalculation (or misjudgment) of true offshoring costs and hidden risks. This paper is one of the few studies which present the modeling framework to assess the extent of supply chain risks and take into account other offshoring decision criteria such as wealth creation efficiency, logistics efficiency, and business friendliness of the target host countries. However, this paper is not perfect since it relies heavily on the secondary data sources only available for intermittent periods (e.g. biannual data are only available and some data are missing for certain years). In future research, this paper can be extended to:\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: An indiscreet strategy of offshoring from low-cost countries (LCCs) can do more harm than good, since invisible supply chain risks may increase hidden costs and subsequently more than offset cost-saving opportunities. Considering the potential impact of these risks on offshoring, the purpose of this paper is to identify risk factors that significantly hinder the efficiency of offshoring and then measure specific risks associated with offshoring in foreign countries.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper develops performance metrics for gauging the offshoring attractiveness of potential sourcing countries using data envelopment analysis and then identifies the benchmark sourcing country using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP).\nFindings: This study reveals that, defying the conventional wisdom, LCCs are not necessarily the most desirable offshoring destinations. This study also discovers that LCCs tend to be less business friendly, less logistically efficient, and riskier to source than their high-income country counterparts.\nOriginality/value: This paper is one of the first to introduce the concept of wealth creation efficiency for an offshoring decision and consider a host of key determinants such as wealth creation efficiency, logistics efficiency, business friendliness, and various supply chain risks for selecting the most desirable offshoring destination.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Review of supply chain management and logistics research
|
[
"Supply chain management",
"Research",
"Literature"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Logistics research is influenced by economic and behavioral approaches. The economic approaches focus its attention on cost minimization and profit maximization while behavioral approaches focuses on psychological and sociological aspects (Mentzer and Kahn, 1995). Owing to the influence of two entirely different thoughts many researchers have shown their concern towards research methods in supply chain management (SCM) and logistics, either by giving suggestion on quantitative side (positivist paradigm or analytical school) or on the qualitative side (interpretive paradigm or behavioral school). The primary purposes of our paper are to examine the status of logistics and SCM academic research in the last five years, to compare current research trends with past research directions in terms of methodologies applied, and to discuss implications for future research. For purposes of comparison, we have patterned our study after the earlier published research reviews by Dunn et al. (1994), Mentzer and Kahn (1995) and Samuel (1997).Researchers who in the past shown their concern towards analytical school were influenced by positivist methods they are Dunn et al. (1993, 1994), Mentzer and Flint (1997) and Chen and Paulraj (2004). In positivist method reality is considered to be objective, tangible, and fragmentable. People are considered to be deterministic and reactive. Usually research findings in this paradigm are considered value free, time free and context independent. The concern shown by the researchers are such as:* logistics research community should move into the realm of scientific methods which will help researchers in scrutinizing the \"axioms\" of logistics more rigorously;* there is a need for scientific analysis and testing of latent variables and suggested a methodology for testing them;* explaining the precise meaning of the concept of validity in empirical research; and* identifying and consolidating various supply chain initiatives and factors to develop key SCM constructs conducive to advancing the field.Those researchers who have shown their concern towards behavioral school are usually influenced by interpretive methods are Ellram (1996), Kent and Flint (1997), Stock (1997), Mentzer et al. (2001), Naslund (2002), Lewis and Suchan (2003), Dubois et al. (2004) and Mangan et al. (2004). Interpretivism has the goal to understand a phenomenon. Research findings are time specific contextual and idiographic and causality is unattainable. The concerns shown by the researchers are such as:* recommending case study and action research methods;* suggesting that how logistics research and theory development could benefit from borrowing and applying existing theories from other disciplines stressing that there is a need of more behavior research;* introducing new theories to logistics researchers, e.g. structuration theory a research approach derived from sociology;* mentioning the limitation of the quantitative methods, e.g. optimisation of various parameters is not a useful approach due to interdependence among supply chain, where there are no boundaries to optimise within; and* providing multi-dimensional insights into research problems, e.g. recommending methodological triangulation, i.e. combining qualitative and quantitative methodology.There is also another class of researchers who have not directly suggested any methodology, but have contributed in advancing the discipline at times. New (1997) suggested that research agenda in SCM should not be driven by industrial interest alone. Arlbjorn and Halldorsson (2002) examined logistics knowledge-creation activity with respect to its content, context and processes. Soonhong and Mentzer (2000) proposed that the concepts such as marketing concept, a market orientation, relationship marketing, and SCM are not separate. Svensson (2002) stressed that there is a need for a generic re-definition and expansion of the theoretical boundaries of SCM towards the incorporation of horizontal dependencies between marketing channels in the marketplace. Svensson (2003) mentioned that the current theory generation of SCM often tends to omit marketing theory (i.e. generally) and the ultimate consumer's perspective (i.e. specifically).1.1 Existing reviews of research papers\n2 Methodology of review: Since the objective of this paper was to look for trends in research methods and to determine implications for future research. For this purpose all the papers published in JBL, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management (IJPDLM), and Supply Chain Management: An International Journal (SCMIJ) in last five years (from 1999 to 2003) are reviewed. According to Gibson et al. (2001) IJPDLM and JBL are the highest rated journal in Europe and US. SCMIJ comes at sixth position in European top 20. We have assessed the state of research in SCM and logistics by examining the research design, number of hypothesis testing, research methods, data analysis techniques, innovative data sources, level of analysis and country of authors in a subset of three academic journals (442 papers). Then the review results are compared with the Dunn et al. (1994), Mentzer and Kahn (1995) and Samuel (1997) to look for trends. Next section presents the summary of review and discussion.\n3 Summary of review and discussion: This section contains the summary of review. We have assessed the state of research in SCM and logistics by examining the research design, number of hypothesis testing, research methods and data analysis techniques used in all the 442 papers.3.1 Research design applied\n4 Conclusions: This paper has attempted to provide an overview of the body of the papers published in last five years. As stated, this survey has attempted to provide an introductory picture of the body of paper published in last five years. In general, the papers reviewed were based on empirical research (about 57 percent). But the good development in the discipline is that out of total empirical papers the empirical qualitative papers are about 36. Additionaly, in some papers the framework of doing qualitative research was also suggested. Research in logistics has employed a limited set of paradigms for too long. But now with the research agendas of various researchers there is shift in research methodologies in the discipline. Researchers have realised that the time has come to expand our limited set of worn-out paradigms and consider new research methods from paradigms used in our sister fields. This broadening of our perspective would contribute substantially in advancing the logistics theory, and on the other hand, research will be more relevant for practitioners. Subsequent subsections present the gaps identified in the research, significant findings of the report, and future directions of the research.4.1 Gaps identified\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To examine the state of logistics and supply chain management (SCM) research in the last five years from the standpoint of existing methodologies. The state of research is assessed by examining the research design, number of hypothesis testing, research methods, data analysis techniques, data sources, level of analysis and country of authors.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The review of SCM and logistics research is based on 442 papers published from 1999 to 2003 in the following three academic journals Journal of Business Logistics, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, and Supply Chain Management: An International Journal.\nFindings: - Major findings show that there is an increase in the direct observation methods like case studies. In general, the research is more interpretive in nature. Survey method is still holding the highest position. More advanced techniques are being used for data analysis in empirical studies and there has been an increase in hypothesis testing. The trend in survey research is moving from exploratory to model building and testing.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The gaps identified in the review were: there are very few inter disciplinary studies; innovative application of secondary data is lacking, (c) research at inter organisation level is scanty; and the current state of research has failed to integrate all the firms in the value chain and treat them as a single entity.\nOriginality/value: - The methodological review will provide increased understanding of the current state of research in the discipline.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The sustainability of urban renewal projects: a model for economic multi-criteria analysis
|
[
"Sustainability",
"Urban renewal",
"Discrete Linear Programming (DLP)",
"Economic evaluation of projects",
"Multi-criteria analysis",
"Projects portfolio selection problems"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Abstract: Local governments are increasingly called upon to ensure the optimal allocation of scarce resources at their disposal, relevant for proper territorial transformation and development.\n2. Integrated evaluation models and urban renewal processes: The development of plans and projects requires not only technical and design analysis, but also economic evaluations capable of integrating aspects of sustainability into the decision-making process with a view to achieve inter-generational equity. These aspects are not adequately taken into consideration if traditional income and economic growth indicators are used as a means to express a judgment on territorial policies (Larson and Gobelli, 1989; Gray and Larson, 2003). Instead, multi-criteria methodologies are imposed, using which it is possible to rationalise choices driven by complex and often conflicting multiple objectives (Ghasemzadeh and Archer, 2000; Song et al., 2016).\n3. Operational research to support decision-making systems: The decision-making theory includes a series of studies aimed at analysing what a decision is, what a decision problem is and how it can be resolved. This theory represents a branch of operational research, developed on the basis of a renewed attention regarding topics of bounded rationality and the regime of uncertainty within which the collective decision-making processes develop (Falcone et al., 2009, p. 34).\n4. Optimisation algorithms for multi-criterial evaluation: Operational research, also known as the decision-making theory, models complex systems in order to make them evolve towards the desired objectives. It provides tools to support the decision-making activities in which it is required to manage limited resources with the aim of maximising (or minimising) an objective function.\n5. A model for sustainable urban renewal: Among the resolution algorithms that the operations research makes available, the B&B algorithm is preferred for the selection problem among n projects of urban renewal. This is due to the fact that it makes it possible to foresee the complexity of the problem to be treated in advance with the consequent reduction of the calculation time, both when compared to the dynamic programming algorithms as well as the cutting-plane algorithms. The B&B is based on a procedure called divide et impera, which turns the solution of a \"difficult\" problem into the solution of two or more simpler sub-problems.\n6. Case study: A set of 30 projects was taken into consideration for public funding and for the urban renewal and recovery of property of historical and architectural value.\n7. Conclusions: The proposed econometric model makes it possible to obtain the optimal combination of projects for urban renewal with a view to achieve the sustainable development of the territory.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: The decisions taken today relating to urban renewal interventions are rarely supported by logical and operational methodologies capable of effectively rationalising selection processes. For this purpose, it is necessary to propose and implement analysis models with the aim of promoting the sustainable development of the territory. The purpose of this paper is to define a model for the optimal allocation of scarce resources.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The Discrete Linear Programming (DLP) is used for selecting investments aimed at achieving financial, social, cultural and environmental sustainability.\nFindings: The proposed model lends itself to the construction of investment plans on behalf of both types of decision makers, of both a public and a private nature.\nResearch limitations/implications: All projects are evaluated according to multi-criteria logics, so that it is possible to find compromise solutions, in accordance with the stakeholders' different preferences.\nPractical implications: The model, written with A Mathematical Programming Language using DLP logics, is tested - case study - so as to define an investment programme finalised for urban renewal of a vast area.\nSocial implications: The proposed econometric model makes it possible to obtain the optimal combination of projects for urban renewal with a view to achieving the sustainable development of the territory.\nOriginality/value: Using the proposed model, all projects are evaluated according to multi-criteria logics, so that it is possible to find compromise solutions, in accordance with the stakeholders' different preferences.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
A paradoxical dynamic in a service labyrinth: insights from HIV care
|
[
"Integrated care",
"Capital consumption",
"Complex service systems",
"HIV care",
"Service fragmentation",
"Service labyrinth"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The provision and management of care in service contexts such as aged care, childcare and chronic conditions involve interwoven \"configurations of people, technologies, and other resources that interact with other service systems\" (Patricio et al., 2011, p. 180). HIV care, for example, requires not only integration across multiple disciplines in primary, secondary and tertiary clinical sites but also integration with social workers, community support organisations, providers of optional support services and providers of public funding. In such \"complex human-centred service systems\" (Breidbach et al., 2016, p. 458), the achievement of integrated care - defined as a patient-centred philosophy aimed at providing quality, comprehensiveness and continuity of care across a range of care-related needs through collaboration between multiple service providers and service systems (Bunger, 2010; Danaher and Gallan, 2016) - represents a significant and on-going concern for consumers, service providers and policymakers.\nA Bourdieusian lens on complex service systems: Scholars have acknowledged the challenge of integrated care due to the complex nature of human-centred service delivery systems (Breidbach et al., 2016; Bunger, 2010; Danaher and Gallan, 2016). However, where complexity theories have been applied in shaping health-care systems (Mowles et al., 2010), such approaches hold that the techno-rational assumptions of systems theory can be transposed into fundamentally human systems. Hence, the approaches to care reform, to date, have been \"insufficiently social\" (Mowles et al., 2008, p. 818). To clarify this social dimension, we use Bourdieu's (1984) capital consumption theory as an analytical lens for understanding the complex dynamics of care-related service systems.\nMethod: Research context\nFindings: Our analysis led to the concept of the service labyrinth as an informing metaphor for understanding the social dynamics of an HIV care service system. We define a service labyrinth as a service system characterised by complex, inter-related and frequently shifting maze-like networks of service actors and social, financial, material and technological resources, requiring consumers to navigate through nonlinear, uncertain and potentially puzzling service consumption experiences. The service labyrinth emphasises several properties already identified in the literature relating to complex service systems: their involvement and integration of multiple actors and resources (Patricio et al., 2011), their adaptive and dynamic nature (Chandler and Chen, 2016) and a degree of uncertainty (Tien and Goldschmidt-Clermont, 2009). What is less explicit, however, are notions of tension, conflict and contestation.\nDiscussion: This research contributes to the growing dialogue on the importance of services integration to improve patient-centred care (Bunger, 2010; Danaher and Gallan, 2016) and ultimately the well-being of PLWHA. Our exploration of an existing HIV care service system highlights the important role of marketing theory in advancing the agenda of integrated care. Notably, our Bourdieusian practice-based focus on the social dynamics of the HIV service labyrinth encourages theorists, policymakers and managers to reframe their assumptions of, and approaches to, integrated care in the following ways.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: While theories of complex service systems have advanced important insights about integrated care, less attention has been paid to social dynamics in systems with finite resources. This paper aims to uncover a paradoxical social dynamic undermining the objective of integrated care within an HIV care service system.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Grounded in a hermeneutic analysis of depth interviews with 26 people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and drawing on Bourdieu's (1984) theory of capital consumption to unpack dynamics of power, struggle and contestation, the authors introduce the concept of the service labyrinth.\nFindings: To competently navigate the service labyrinth of HIV care, consumers adopt capital consumption practices. Paradoxically, these practices enhance empowerment at the individual level but contribute to the fragmentation of the HIV care labyrinth at the system level, ultimately undermining integrated care.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study enhances understanding of integrated care in three ways. First, the metaphor of the service labyrinth can be used to better understand complex care-related service systems. Second, as consumers of care enact capital consumption practices, the authors demonstrate how they do not merely experience but actively shape the care system. Third, fragmentation is expectedly part of the human dynamics in complex service systems. Thus, the authors discuss its implications. Further research should investigate whether a similar paradox undermines integrated care in better resourced systems, acute care systems and systems embedded in other cultural contexts.\nOriginality/value: Contrasted to provider-centric views of service systems, this study explicates a customer-centric view from the perspective of heterosexual PLWHA.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Information outreach interventions to promote the information access, use and exchange in the rural areas of Pakistan
|
[
"Pakistan",
"Barriers",
"Information access",
"Health-care information outreach programme",
"Primary care physicians",
"Rural settings"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Primary care physicians (PCPs), like all physicians, require access to the latest health-care information to support the care of their patients. Access to information resources in their health-care facilities enables self-reliance and better approach to informed patient care decisions. Limited access to the latest, most reliable and wide-ranging information resources results in compromised patient care which is a fundamental problem that rural PCPs face in developing countries such as Pakistan. The problem is particularly acute when the effectiveness of potential interventions is considered (Naeem and Bhatti, 2015; Rural Health Research and Policy Centre, 2009). Without this information being accessible to the majority of health workers in their practice settings, ineffective practices cannot be removed, and new, beneficial practices cannot be introduced. Instead, rural PCPs are likely to remain dependent mostly on ad hoc-related learning events, such as attending workshops and conferences.\nResearch questions: The study attempts to answer the following research questions:\nLiterature review: Information divide between rural and non-rural practice settings\nMaterial and methods: The study is conducted using a lens of post-positivism philosophical world views. The researchers adopted a quantitative research design. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in primary and secondary health-care settings of the Punjab province in Pakistan. It is essential to understand how health services are provided across provinces in Pakistan. Public health and health-care services function as an integrated health system that is administratively handled at the level of districts. Presently, Punjab has 36 districts that contain 127 tehsils. A tehsil is an administrative sub-division of a district and is administratively subdivided into union councils.\nFindings: Demographic information\nDiscussion: Our findings establish \"limited internet access,\" \"non-availability of required equipment (e.g. computers)\" and \"inadequate training facilities on the use of information resources\" as the principal barriers preventing PCPs from accessing and using information from their practice settings. These findings are comparable with the findings of a content analysis of the impact of outreach programs sponsored by the US NLM (Huber et al., 2011), which showed that inadequate training facility and scheduling training sessions as barriers to information access in rural settings. The findings also endorse the barriers reported in previous studies such as non-availability of the internet (Turner et al., 2008; EbELL, 2009; Ogbomo, 2012), lack of equipment, poor telecommunications infrastructure (Marshall, 1992; Naeem and Bhatti, 2015; Naeem and Bhatti, 2016b), access to computers (Fama et al., 2005) and technical problems such as lack of hardware and software (Huber et al., 2011).\nConclusion: The results of our study identifies limited internet access, non-availability of required equipment, and lack of training facilities as the principal barriers preventing health-care professionals from accessing, using and exchanging health-care information in the primary and secondary health-care facilities of Punjab, Pakistan.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study is a part of the doctoral dissertation that proposes concrete measures to improve health-care information outreach program for rural health-care professionals in primary and secondary health care in Punjab, Pakistan. This study aims to report on the barriers to accessing and using online health-care information from rural settings of the Punjab province of Pakistan.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in primary and secondary health-care settings in the Punjab province of Pakistan. The study's population consisted of the rural primary care physicians (PCPs), who were geographically dispersed across 2,873 different remote health-care settings across Punjab. These practice settings included 2,455 basic health units, 293 rural health centers, 89 tehsil headquarter hospitals and 36 district headquarter hospitals.\nFindings: Limited internet access, non-availability of required equipment and lack of training facilities were identified as the main barriers. PCPs' gender, previous enrollment in post-graduation programs and type of health-care facility were significant factors in the perceived barriers related to both \"non-availability of required equipment\" and \"inadequate training facilities on the use of information resources\".\nPractical implications: The findings of the study hold some important practical implications for different stakeholders. This study identifies and addresses the barriers to accessing and using health-care information for PCPs in rural settings. The success of the health-care information outreach program in Punjab, Pakistan, should rely on the eradication of these barriers.\nOriginality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first large-scale study in Pakistan that assesses the barriers and proposes ways to overcome these barriers to effectively access and use health-care information.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
An attributional perspective of aggression in organizations
|
[
"Attributions",
"Aggression",
"Violence",
"Cognitive schema",
"Perception",
"Motivation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Aggression in the workplace can have profound negative effects on both organizations and the people within them. Therefore, efforts to understand why employees aggress in the workplace continue to remain a top priority for both researchers and practitioners alike. Aggression research has evolved quickly over the last few decades, yet numerous research opportunities still exist.\nTheoretical evolution of aggression research: Workplace aggression is \"retaliatory aggression by an employee or former employee of an organization against individual(s) within the organization, with the intent to do harm\" (Martinko and Zellars, 1998, p. 5). Early research focused on instinct theory (Freud, 1920) and the frustration-aggression hypothesis (Dollard et al., 1939), arguing that aggression is an instinctive human response to the perceived obstruction of personal goals. Later, a social learning theory perspective (Bandura, 1983) explicated how aggression can be learned through social interactions. Cognitive appraisal theories (Smith and Lazarus, 1990; Weiner, 1985) later argued that individuals make attributions when they experience psychological discomfort or negative outcomes. These attributions influence behavioral responses to reduce the discomfort or rectify the outcome (e.g. aggression). Recently, interactive perspectives like affective events theory (Weiss and Cropanzano, 1996) and the elaboration likelihood model (Petty and Cacioppo, 1986) have been used to argue that individual and situational factors interact, influencing differential processing of trigger events that result in different forms of aggression. This brief evolution illustrates how aggression research has advanced from emphasizing one-dimensional intrapersonal or environmental factors to describing complex interactions between multiple intrapersonal and environmental variables.\nOrganizational aggression frameworks: Early workplace aggression frameworks focused on either the role of organizational or employee intrapersonal factors in predicting aggression. Studies emphasizing organizational influences (e.g. Baron and Neuman, 1996; Folger and Baron, 1996; Folger and Skarlicki, 1995; Greenberg, 1993; O'Leary-Kelly et al., 1996), concentrated on characteristics such as rigid rules, oppressive working conditions, and aggressive culture. Despite finding associations between organizational factors and aggression at the organizational level, these frameworks failed to explain how individuals differ in their reactions to environmental stimuli.Early studies that emphasized employee intrapersonal factors inappropriately cast perpetrators of aggressive acts as disenfranchised loners who attribute personal problems to workplace factors (Silverstein, 1994; Willingham, 1998). Individual profile types were found to be inadequate predictors of aggression and were limited because they ignored environmental factors. Later models began addressing these limitations were overcome when researchers (e.g. Beugre, 1998) by incorporated intrapersonal, organizational, and social/culture factors into integrative models of workplace aggression.Despite these advances, models of organizational aggression failed to fully articulate how employee individual differences influenced cognitive processing of environmental events that led to aggression. Martinko and Zellars (1998) proposed a cognitive appraisal model of workplace aggression and argued that employees' attributional processing of organizational events were important in understanding why some employees, but not others, engage in aggression. Empirical studies began focusing on employees' attributions in order to understand how employees' interpret environmental factors related to aggression (Douglas and Martinko, 2001; Martinko et al., 2006; Martinko et al., 2005; Martinko et al., 2002; Martinko and Moss, 2004).\nAn integrative attributional model of aggression in the workplace: We integrate theoretical and empirical research on attributions and aggression over the last 15 years and propose an attributional model of workplace aggression (see Figure 1). Each variable in the model and the rationale for its inclusion is discussed in the sections that follow. Propositions are suggested for relationships not yet empirically tested. Future directions for attribution and aggression research are discussed.Trigger events\nAttributional moderators: Not all people respond in the same way to trigger events (Weiner, 1986). Aggression research demonstrates that a variety of organizational factors and individual differences contribute to an employee's propensity to assign causes to workplace trigger events. These specific factors are discussed below.Organizational factors\nDifferential processing of trigger events: Douglas et al. (2008) used affective events theory (Weiss and Cropanzano, 1996) and elaboration likelihood (Petty and Cacioppo, 1986) to argue that trigger events are differentially processed along three routes, differing in the degree of cognitive elaboration and processing speed. The specific processing route influences subsequent aggression. This conceptualization helped move aggression research from simple declarative models to more complex procedural ones that address why and how workplace aggression occurs.The slowest route, labeled the \"premeditated route\", involves \"considerable cognitive effort involving willful and, at times, prolonged deliberation\" (Douglas et al., 2008, p. 429) and follows a traditional attributional perspective (Weiner, 1986). Individuals who make external and stable attributions for negative events are likely to experience emotions like anger and respond aggressively (Aquino et al., 2004; Dodge and Coie, 1987; Dodge et al., 1990). Research shows that negative affective states influence subsequent strength of negative attitude formation (Eagly and Chaiken, 1993; Forgas and Smith, 2003; Petty, 1995), which result in deliberate and planned acts of aggression.A speedier route, labeled the \"attitude route\", unfolds such that pre-existing negative attitudes influence emotions, which in turn influence post hoc attributions made for trigger events (Fazio and Olson, 2003). Research shows that attitudes, represented by categorical evaluations (Petty and Cacioppo, 1981) and stereotypes and prejudice (Wright and Taylor, 2003), can exert powerful effects on human perception, emotion, and behavior (Albarracin et al., 2005; Fazio and Olson, 2003). Attitudes can be automatically initiated (Bargh, 1999), require less cognitive processing capacity (Schwarz and Clore, 1996), draw out emotional reactions such as anger (Mackie et al., 2000), and guide spontaneous behavior (Olson and Fazio, 2006). Post hoc attributions, or attributional justifications, are made from these strong pre-existing attitudes and emotional connections (Crandall and Eshleman, 2003; Trope and Gaunt, 2003). Self-fulfilling prophecies may also bolster this cognitive pathway to aggression (Smith et al., 1999; Wright and Taylor, 2003).The fastest route, labeled the \"affect route\", requires the least cognitive elaboration and unfolds such that trigger events cause strong and instant affective reactions, influencing the attributions made, and finally attitude formation. On occasion, emotions can overwhelm cognitive processes and behaviors (Brief and Weiss, 2002; Forgas and George, 2001) and substantially bias individuals' access to and use of related thoughts, ideas, memories, and interpretations (Forgas, 2002). Studies show that anger can impair rational decision-making (Berkowitz, 1994) and established behavioral habits (Zillmann, 1988), and can facilitate aggression (Lazarus and Cohen-Charash, 2001). Intense affect can inhibit construction of social information (Forgas and Smith, 2003) and result in long-lasting attitudes that may inform future interactions (Bryant and Zillmann, 1979). The pervasive influence of affect creates a more direct and instantaneous pathway to aggression than when more cognitive elaboration is undertaken.Each route involves attributions, affect, and attitudes. The key distinction is the order in which they occur, impacting the latency of aggression. The premeditated path begins with an attribution for a non-routine trigger event, which impacts the type of emotion felt and then attitude formation about a target. Aggression comes after careful deliberation. The attitude path begins when a trigger event elicits an existing negative attitude about a target, which generates a negative emotion and an unplanned aggressive response. Post hoc attributions are made for the event after the aggression occurs. The affect path begins with an intense negative affect reaction to a trigger event and instantaneous aggression. Attributions are made after the aggression response, and reinforce strongly held attitudes about a specific target.These routes to aggression are likely inter-dependent. Specifically, \"it seems plausible that the processing of a series of trigger events leading to workplace aggression often graduates from cognition- to attitude- to affect-initiated processing- a gradual process that involves the replacement of effortful deliberation with increasingly automatic and implicit processing and that, at the same time, increasingly biases an individual's information processing and behavior\" (Douglas et al., 2008, p. 436).Trigger moderators\nModerators for expressed aggression: Behavior moderators\nManagerial implications: When managers fail to handle factors associated with employee aggression, organizations may be held liable for aggressive acts (Fenton, 1990). Our attributional model suggests managers can recognize their employees' attributional tendencies, monitor employees' attitudes and emotions that are early warning signs of aggression, and proactively manage employees' construal of workplace events (Martinko et al., 2006). This can be accomplished in several ways.Managers should cultivate personal relationships with their employees. Quality interactions give managers insight into employee attributional processes and may help the manager anticipate aggressive responses. To go one step further, managers can preemptively manage employee interpretations of important or negative organizational events (Harvey et al., 2010) and/or coach employees to make more productive attributions (Campbell and Martinko, 1998). This is known as attributional retraining (Martinko and Gardner, 1982). Making employees aware of their biases may enable them to adjust their attribution styles to become a source of empowerment (Harvey et al., 2006) rather than a precursor to aggression.Managers should also address strong employee attitudes (Douglas et al., 2008). Managers can present employees with new knowledge (Wood et al., 1995) or encourage the self-generation of beliefs that counteract negative attitudes (Petty, 1995). In doing so, managers may weaken or neutralize employees' cognitive knots (Fazio, 1989) and lessen the likelihood of attitude-generated aggression.No single managerial approach will likely alleviate the possibility of employee aggression. Taken together however, these strategies may attenuate the effects of harmful attributional biases and attitudes that increase employees' propensity to aggress and decrease the chances that they will rely on their own biased interpretations for workplace events (Wood et al., 1995).\nDirections for future research: Our attributional model presents several research opportunities. Many relationships in our model are conceptual and in need of empirical investigation.Aggression often begins with a trigger event, yet little research has informed what constitutes one. A conceptual typology or categorization of trigger events could inform and structure which types of trigger events might lead to specific types of aggression (Bensimon, 1994). This typology could involve a continuum from minor to major events. Some events may provoke aggression faster than others. Given that employee individual differences influence susceptibility to trigger events (Neuman and Baron, 1997) and cognitive processing (Douglas et al., 2008), having a typology would facilitate testing whether individual differences interact with specific types of events. For example, do high negative affect employees process minor trigger events (e.g. an insult from a coworker) differently than major trigger events (e.g. being laid off) and what type of aggression is likely to result from each? Additionally, since employees' attribution styles influence if and how they aggress, attribution styles may also be associated with the type of trigger event that results in aggression. For instance, employees with more external attribution styles could be triggered more often by minor events than employees with internal attribution styles (Martinko et al., 2002).Cognitive knots (Douglas et al., 2008) deserve further investigation. Specifically, do individuals differ in their propensity to develop cognitive knots? Some employees may be more prone to escalating negative cognitive and attitudinal cycles, such as those high in NA or trait anger. Likewise these same individual differences may influence when an employee reaches a \"tipping point\" resulting in aggression. Research on forgiveness and grudges (Witvliet et al., 2001) and injustice perceptions (Jones, 2009) may inform this line of inquiry. Another interesting question is how will aggression influence cognitive knots? While expressed aggression may strengthen existing negative attitudes and further strengthen cognitive knots against a specific target (Douglas et al., 2008), it may also alleviate feelings of disequilibria (Martinko et al., 2002) and reduce strongly held attitudes. If so, we need to know if these changes are likely to be temporary or permanent.Event-blurred and event-specific aggressions are related to cognitive knots and also merit further research. Strong cognitive knots are argued to result in event-blurred aggression (Douglas et al., 2008); however, researchers are unaware of which events contribute to these knots. For example, one employee may allow all anger-provoking and/or frustrating events contribute to an eventual aggressive response against a non-specific target, whereas another employee may compartmentalize specific events and only aggress against specific targets that have caused past frustrating events. Conversely, is event-specific aggression always due to the specific target within the current event or in part due to prior unrelated events? Following this line of thought, it is conceivable that individuals develop specific cognitive knots for each specific target of frustration. A greater understanding of how individuals classify and attribute events will help determine where aggression may be eventually directed.Our attributional model contends that aggression occurs through one of three cognitive-processing sequences (Douglas et al., 2008). Assessing which routes are used most often would advance the validity of our model and further refine it. Additionally, we are unaware of research that shows if and how individuals employ specific tendencies in expressing aggression. Measuring which cognitive sequence occurs for aggression incidents, and how frequently, may require new measures. For example, a measure might ask subjects to recall a prior aggression incident and structure questions to assess how that decision to aggress was made. Qualitative methods may also prove beneficial in diagnosing specific employee and general aggression patterns in the workplace.\nConclusion: Our integration of the attribution and aggression literature shows that the causes of aggressive behavior in organizations are complex and best understood as an interaction between both environmental factors and cognitive processes, with an emphasis on attributions, attitudes, and emotions as the integrating mechanisms. We hope our model will help researchers focus on the relationships that will be most fruitful in understanding and preventing incidents of organizational aggression.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper emphasizes that employee attributional processing is a vital element in understanding employee aggression in organizations. The purpose of this paper is to summarize attributional perspectives and integrate recent theoretical advances into a comprehensive model.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper achieved its objectives by reviewing and integrating research and theories on aggression, cognitive processing, and attribution processes to explain how employee aggression unfolds in the workplace. Propositions are suggested.\nFindings: - It was found that early conceptualizations proposing that employee attributions and attribution styles would play important and significant roles in predicting employee aggression were supported by recent research enabling theoretical advancements.\nOriginality/value: - Over the last 15 years, research advances show how attributions influence employee aggression. This paper integrates recent theoretical advances with prior empirical evidence and provides a comprehensive model exhibiting how attributions influence aggression in the workplace.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Students' attitudes towards sustainable development in Serbia
|
[
"Sustainable development",
"Students",
"Higher education",
"Attitudes"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The interest in the role of higher education in achieving a sustainable future has been growing since the United Nation (UN) Conference on the Human Environment, held in 1972 in Stockholm (Calder and Clugston, 2003) and especially since the UN Conference on Environment and Development (held in 1992), as well as during and after the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development when the universities were recognized as the disseminators of knowledge and research in the field of sustainable development through the implementation of numerous international projects and the adoption of a number of recommendations, strategic documents and charters related to education for sustainable development (Lukman and Glavic, 2007; Fadeeva and Mochizuki, 2010; Rieckmann, 2012).\nMethodology: Research problem\nFindings and results: Analysis of the descriptive indicators shows that all scales used in the survey are distributed according to the normal distribution of data (Sk and Ku < 1), which is a prerequisite for performing further statistical analysis (Table 2).\nThe main statistical analysis in the context of the study aim and objectives: Within the first study objective, the empirical arithmetic mean of the scale, which examines how students understand the concept of sustainable development, the value of the empirical arithmetic mean of the scale (ASE = 50.2) is higher than the value of the theoretical arithmetic mean of the scale (AST = 45.0), indicating that the respondents have a strong attitude towards understanding the concept of sustainable development (Table 3).\nDiscussion: The examination of the students' understanding of the concept of sustainable development has shown that the students mostly support the items development is not sustainable if it is not just and if it does not meet the needs of our planet's population majority (64.7%) and if technology neglects the ecological effects, it becomes a part of the social problems (63.7%), which indicates that the majority of the students understand sustainable development issues and generally accept the concept of sustainability.\nConclusion: Based on the presented results, it can be concluded that the general hypothesis of the study that the students have a positive attitude towards the concept of sustainable development and the need for implementing the content pertaining to sustainable development into the higher education institutions' curricula was partially confirmed.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine university students' attitudes towards the concept of sustainable development and towards the need for the implementation of education for sustainable development into the higher education system. To that end, the paper explores in a process-oriented focus which drivers and barriers are experienced as being the most important ones and how they relate to one another.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study is based on the questionnaire for the evaluation of attitudes towards the concept of sustainable development. This instrument consists of 9 batteries with 83 items presented in the form of the five-point Likert scale. The questionnaire evaluated different aspects of respondents' attitudes towards the concept of sustainable development, but students' attitudes in relation to the items from the following subscales will be presented for this paper: understanding the concept of sustainable development, position of sustainable development in the system of higher education, sources of information about sustainable development and entities responsible for sustainable development. The study sample consisted of students from the University of Novi Sad, specifically from the faculties with accredited programs in the field of humanities and technological sciences.\nFindings: In general, students recognized the main determinants of sustainable development and they support an integral approach to sustainability, i.e. the need to include the knowledge, values and skills for sustainable development in the higher education programs. In addition, they identified a number of obstacles and the uncertainties of overcoming them. In this regard, the students did not recognize the responsibility of the higher education institutions as the key responsibility or their own responsibility in relation to sustainable development, which can be related to their feeling of marginalization and the doubt that their behaviour and decisions can influence the development of the local society, as well as the development of the society as a whole. On the other hand, the respondents acknowledged the role, the importance and the responsibility of the mass media in the process of developing the attitudes towards and opinions about the problems related to environmental protection and sustainable development.\nPractical implications: The results of the study indicate the students' attitudes towards sustainable development, thus making the directions for higher education reform clearer and in line with the present needs for sustainable development in Serbia. The obtained results can serve as a recommendation to the governing structures, i.e. to the relevant ministries of education and environmental protection, as well as to the universities in terms of which direction their process of planning and creating paths of sustainability should take. This is particularly important in the case of the Republic of Serbia, which is currently in the process of joining the European Union and responding to the requirements set by the process of negotiation for Chapter 27 in terms of improving the strategic framework and plans for the education for sustainable development and building the capacities in response to climate change. On the other hand, linking the results of this research with the results of similar studies around the world contributes to the further enrichment of the scientific knowledge base in this field and confirms the need for stronger and united efforts on the path to a sustainable future. It is a fact that, regardless of the national, economic, socio-political and cultural context, there is a global lack of success in shaping a humane and sustainable relationship between man and nature. Therefore, the results of this research should be considered as an invitation for new research initiatives regarding the ways to support the positive attitudes of students towards the concept of sustainable development and to facilitate their further development in the educational process, as well as in other academic domains.\nOriginality/value: This research is inspired by the fact that, in the Balkan countries, education for sustainable development has not been extensively discussed within the scientific discourse on higher education for sustainable development. This is one of the first papers to provide data about students' attitudes towards the concept of sustainable development and the need for its implementation in the higher education system in Serbia. The value of the paper lies in its potential to help understand the role that different drivers and barriers play in higher education for sustainable development.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Using design thinking to improve patient experiences in Japanese hospitals: a case study
|
[
"User studies",
"Health services",
"Japan",
"Furniture",
"Hospitals"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: While companies worldwide face increased pressure to generate innovations on a predictable basis through disciplined processes, many companies in Japan encounter particular challenges due to Japan's business history and culture. A strategy of constant incremental enhancements of existing products and business models - which has in many cases brought great success to Japanese companies - is deeply ingrained. Organizational dynamics in Japan further encourage a thorough and detailed approach to work, at the expense of risk-taking and championing of breakthrough ideas. A manufacturing-driven mindset dominates and handicaps Japanese companies as services become increasingly central to growth even in industries historically centered on producing goods. Japan has also until recently lagged in the application of qualitative research methodologies, which can provide seeds for innovations that transform and transcend existing product and service categories. This article gives a brief case study of the use of qualitative research tools by K.K. Daishinsha, a Japan-based marketing consulting firm, to help a large Japanese company develop an attractive offering in a new category.\nRadical change in Japan's healthcare sector creates opportunities: Okamura Corporation was founded in 1946, and grew with the post-Second World War Japanese \"economic miracle\" to become the nation's largest office furniture manufacturer, with 2007 sales over $2 billion and over 2,700 employees at 96 offices throughout the country. The company has focused on delivering total solutions for space utilization in offices, laboratories, schools, and commercial facilities to drive its main business of manufacturing and selling steel furniture. The company is particularly strong in Japan's half a dozen major urban centers where much of the nation's business activity and office space are centered. However, many of its sales offices are located in more rural areas and must rely on demand from non-commercial sectors such as schools and Japan's health care system.In particular, the hospital sector in Japan is undergoing intense disruptive changes that create new opportunities for Okamura. In 2006, a full 21 percent of Japan's population was 65 years or older, as compared to 11.2 percent in the USA. Yet despite the obviously growing demand for health care services brought by these demographics, Japan's fully nationalized health insurance system is under severe pressure to control costs to avoid further swelling of Japan's national debt, which is already the highest among the G8 nations as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP). Tightly limited government reimbursement levels for services provided by hospitals have led to financial stress and the start of a consolidation of Japan's highly fragmented hospital sector, with the number of hospitals in the country declining 6 percent between 1995 and 2005.Many Japanese hospitals offer neither scale nor specialization. With patients guaranteed free choice of hospital by the national health insurance system, Japanese are flocking to popular hospitals while leaving many other facilities in desperate straits. Hospitals must increasingly differentiate themselves and actively market to patients. But in general, hospitals in Japan have been very \"doctor-centered\", with little focus on the patient's point of view or experience; the Japanese system requires that medical doctors run all hospitals, so professional management and marketing skills are rare. Hospitals are looking to their trusted vendors of supplies and services for guidance.Sensing an opportunity, Okamura's sales force increasingly targeted hospitals. The company discovered, however, that its dominant position and accumulated experience, regarding the needs of office furniture clients, did little to differentiate itself in the increasingly competitive hospital furniture market. Okamura turned to Daishinsha for qualitative research to uncover new insights that could drive innovative offerings of solutions for hospitals. Daishinsha aimed not simply to help Okamura develop a product, but also to develop solutions that allow hospitals to create reasons for patients to choose their facility. Along with targeting patient satisfaction, Daishinsha sought to help discover solutions that would address hospital concerns about return on investment (ROI) and the risk and management of change. Another goal was to put in place a continuous process of monitoring and improving solutions. By fostering within Okamura a focus on adapting solutions over time to evolving client needs, Daishinsha helped the company consider the possibility of newer business models, such as leasing and offering outsourced services to hospitals, beyond the specific hospital furniture products that might be sold.The project consisted of two phases: a background research stage and a qualitative research and analysis stage.\nDiscovering the need through interviews: Phase I: background research\nAnalyzing results and developing a prototype: Phase II: qualitative research and analysis\nMichi Annai-kun: your friendly guide: Named in Japanese as \"Michi Annai-kun\" which translates roughly as \"Your friendly guide\", the wayfinding system was intended to help patients who tended to get lost even after listening to an explanation from the receptionist about where to go. Such patients often hesitated to ask for help from the staff they met en route (who seemed busy with other tasks) and found little guidance from the typically poor signage in Japanese hospitals. Even after finding their way to a treatment station, many patients would become confused later trying to remember how to return to the lobby.The proposed wayfinding system included an electronic system for displaying each patient's route and waiting time as well as landmarks that would evoke positive feelings in patients and would make it easier for staff to give directions. The designers created a system that could be retrofitted to existing facilities rather than just being used in new construction. The use of seasonal design elements that can be changed offered the opportunity to periodically refresh the hospital environment as well as a built-in reason for regular interaction between the Okamura staff and its hospital customers. The user-friendly screen interface would show the correct route as well as waiting time when the patient inserted his or her treatment card. Ease of use for patients in wheelchairs was taken into account in the design.While the authors had hoped to report here on initial sales results, the high standards of quality of both Okamura and its customers mean that such new products cannot be rushed to market without exhaustive testing. As a result, the release date has been set for November 2008 so at press time sales figures are not yet available.Still, this case offers an example of how Japanese companies are moving towards a more service-oriented model and an increased interest in learning from exploratory customer research (see Box 1). This project represents Okamura's very first use of qualitative research. Not only did it enable Daishinsha and Okamura to innovate strategically and show a path to a stronger presence for Okamura in the hospital market, but it also highlighted the potential value of deep user research in product development for the entire medical market. It also suggested the possibility of meaningful application of these relatively cost-effective deep user research methods to other fields. User personas in particular can be an extremely valuable asset to firms by focusing product development and sales and marketing strategy on deeply-derived images of how customers feel and behave and what they really need and want. When manufacturers can ground product development in the \"evidence-based\" deep user research methodologies and thus incorporate direct communication with customers and users into the process, the barriers that separate a manufacturer's product development and sales groups from their clients such as hospitals can be significantly lowered.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The paper seeks to use a case study to describe work by a Japanese qualitative research specialist with leading office furniture manufacturer to spur innovation in product development and sales strategy in a newly targeted hospital furniture market. It aims to show how qualitative research can allow product development and sales teams to accelerate learning and pace of innovation by providing a window on needs in new market segments from a customer's point of view.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A two-phase study included phase one interviews with experts in and from outside the hospital field, which were analyzed at a workshop with the client choosing the research theme and identifying key topics. Phase two involved user observation at hospital lobbies and non-hospital settings, plus in-depth interviews with patients and hospital staff. Three patient experience styles were identified and personas created for each type. Personas and further analysis facilitated creating criteria for interaction, emotional and functional design. Detailed functional design criteria were used to generate five service ideas and 11 product ideas leading to creation of prototype product.\nFindings: - The study finds that lobby is key factor in shaping overall patient experience. Waiting and navigation are negative patient experiences that not adequately addressed. As frequency of hospital visits increase, patients move from anxiety to irritation to boredom. Severity of illness and patient activity level affect patient desire for engagement with surroundings while waiting. Kiosk displaying map and waiting time meet the urgent needs of anxious patients and support others. Modular design elements updated seasonally vary the physical environment of the hospital and provide context for periodic contacts by sales staff with client hospitals.\nOriginality/value: - This study highlights the reality that ample opportunities exist for successful user-centered innovations in Japanese healthcare. This study offers insights into patient waiting experience at hospitals and offers a methodology for user-centered research in healthcare setting.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Culture of open access in the University of Kashmir: a researcher's viewpoint
|
[
"Serials",
"Publishing",
"Surveys",
"Research",
"India"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nBackground: The last couple of years have seen the acceptance of open access (OA) publishing as a desirable goal by institutions, research funders, libraries and some publishers, to the point that action has been taken by these parties towards achieving it. Scholars themselves, however, have proved somewhat resistant. Once they understand the aims of open access they have embraced the concept with open arms, since it is scholars who stand to benefit most from its inception, as has been specified by Tonta et al. (2007), Turk (2008), Kurtz et al. (2005), Antelman (2004), Lawrence (2001) and Eysenbach (2006).Many researchers actively take part in what constitutes a social movement to make their work accessible to their colleagues and to the general public at large in the rapidly changing publishing environment by self-archiving it. One motivation for researchers to make their articles openly accessible is to gain research impact (Brody, 2007). Lawrence's (2001) landmark studies, in addition to a growing number of studies, have confirmed that an OA article is more likely to be used and cited. The more the article is used, cited and applied, it is better for the researcher's career. While universities, libraries, and funding agencies all have their own reasons to advance OA, only researchers can make it happen (Suber, 2004).It is instructive to revisit once more the primary motivations of researchers with respect to publishing their work. If they do not publish their work remains obscure and their life's toils become worthless. On a more mundane note, they publish because it is the overt expression of their effort and it also offers a way of measuring, albeit fairly crudely, their \"worth\". Finally, researchers publish because it is expected of them, by their employers and their funding bodies. Some researchers have already made the link between the opportunities of the digital age (new dissemination channels), visibility, and eventual impact, as witnessed by the reasonably high numbers of researchers who have put their articles up on their websites for all to access, along with other information about their professional activities. This is, however, the least satisfactory way to self-archive since from the users' point of view locating articles placed on websites, even in the age of Google Scholar, can be a haphazard process, and from the provider's end there is no systematic provision for long-term access of any individual articles.\nIntroduction: The University of Kashmir has always been the highest seat of learning in Kashmir. Because of a number of constraints, for example lack of information communication technologies, geographical and digital divide and dialect, the research output of this thriving institution has been restricted to the shelves. Not only output, but access to the information was also confined because of lack of awareness on the part of the users. The online revolution, and especially the open access movement, has changed the whole scenario of information dissemination and access by scholars in the University of Kashmir. A survey of scholars in the University was undertaken to obtain an understanding of their knowledge and experience with open access. Their familiarity with the new open mode of scholarly communication process was studied.\nScope: Both financial and time constraints restricted the study to Science and Social Science scholars only.\nObjectives: The main objectives of the study were to:* ascertain researchers' experiences of, attitudes to, and perceptions regarding the open access movement; and* determine the relevance of OA content to research.\nLiterature review: The concept of open access emerged during the late 1990s. Though the movement is quite recent, the literature is quite considerable. Advances and innovations in scientific journal access and retrieval in the last decade have revolutionized the scientific communication process. The period 1997-1998 in particular could well be designated as a \"sea change\" as forward-thinking individuals predicted the coming transformation of traditional methods of searching, accessing, and retrieving scientific information (Holoviak and Seitter, 1997; Morton, 1997; Resh, 1998). Swan (2006) describes open access as emerging from a long history of scholarly communication, which has always been closely tied to changes in technology and economics. It is generally assumed that most scholars typically select journal articles, monographs and conference papers as references. The development of the internet has increased their ability to find and use sources providing references that previously were not available. Researchers who have the skills of searching the internet can now easily access working papers, unpublished reports and other grey literature that previously would have been inaccessible (Herring, 2002).The important factor for all authors to embrace the open access movement is the impact on their work: if an improvement can been seen due to open access they will be willing to use open access routes (McVeigh, 2004). Citation impact of open access journals started in the late 1990s, but research has been conducted extensively since 2000. Lynch (2006) is of the view that an increased elimination of barriers to the use of scholarly literature can be achieved through open access with compelling advantages. Access to the content of journals via the web provides a new metric for measuring the impact of articles - electronic citations can be considered to be comparable to bibliographic citations in assessing the impact of published works. The correlation between citation counts provides a measure of the usefulness of selected articles called the \"citation impact\". Citation impact can be used as a measure of the impact an article has within its particular field. An article being widely read and cited is an indication that it has had an influence on other researchers within the field (Brody, 2007). The earliest study about the citation impact of electronic journals on scholarly communication was conducted by Harter and Kim (1996), who analysed the citation impact of 39 e-journals published between 1993 and 1995 and found that less than 2 per cent of references were to e-sources and only 0.2 per cent were to online journals. They concluded that e-journals had almost no role in scholarly communications, but also noted that this might change over time. Herring (1999) reported similar findings in his study conducted in 1996. According to his findings, 2.1 per cent of the total references were to electronic resources. A study by Swan and Brown (2004) found that there had been an increase in the percentage of researchers self-archiving their work. About 20 per cent of researchers use the web to increase visibility, accessibility, usage and the impact to published work (Brody et al., 2007). An increased access generates increased impact. Open access itself does not necessarily provide more citations. Access only allows the articles to be read by a large number of scientists, who later on judge the quality of the work. OA makes scientific papers more visible and increases their research impact (Lawrence, 2001; Harnad and Brody, 2004; Antelman, 2004). OA articles are cited more often by other researchers, thereby bringing their authors more recognition and prestige, and providing them with incentives to do more research. Recent studies have begun to show that open access increases impact (Hitchcock, 2004).Despite a significant growth in the number of research papers available through open access, principally through authors self-archiving in institutional archives, it is estimated that only 20 per cent of the papers published annually are open access (Hitchcock, 2004).Field differences and disciplinary cultures have also played an important role in the OA movement since the mid-1990s. Similar concerns made some researchers shy away from self-archiving their contributions through their personal websites or institutional archives. While almost all articles in sciences (e.g. physics and mathematics) have currently been made open access, the percentages are much lower in social sciences and arts and humanities (e.g. 60 per cent in economics, 25-30 per cent in political science, psychology and sociology, and less than 20 per cent in anthropology and geography). Only 5 per cent of social scientists self-archive their papers (Antelman, 2006).The research of citation impact of open access journals started in the late 1990s, but research has been conducted extensively since 2000. Researchers found different rates of open access articles in each discipline; that is why they used the expression \"disciplinary culture\". Becher and Trowler reported about the differences within hard and soft sciences. Open access articles in hard sciences received more citations than those in soft sciences (Becher and Trowler, as cited by Turk, 2008).Lawrence (2001) also argues that online availability varies by discipline. Odlyzko (2003) is of the view that open access has the potential to release considerable economic benefits for the research and academic sector.\nMethodology: The study was based on data collected from University of Kashmir scholars belonging to the Science and Social Science faculties. A predefined close-ended 14-item questionnaire was distributed among the selected scholars. The selection of scholars was based on stratified disproportionate sampling, in which sample size for the departments of both faculties was confined to four, as only four research scholars were enrolled in the Department of Psychology. This technique was employed with the aim of achieving the best and most acceptable results. The sample was representative in terms of subject. Of 326 registered scholars 84 were considered, of whom 52 belonged to the Science faculty and 32 to Social Sciences. The questionnaire was distributed in the third week of March 2008 and the responses were collected up to 18 April 2008. Scholars of the Computer Science Department were not available during the study period and no research scholar was registered in the Department of Media Education Research Centre (MERC). Excluding these two departments, a 100 per cent response was obtained from the selected scholars of other departments. In order to give a better understanding about the concept of OA a simple definition was appended to the questionnaire. The data collected were then tabulated using Microsoft Excel for analysis.\nDiscussion: Type of web resources used\nConclusions: Researchers at the University of Kashmir mostly rely on web resources to carry out their research programs as they are effective tools for increasing the scope of their research in contrast to the immense restrictions faced in accessing information through the traditional print mode. Previously, financial constraint was a major hurdle between the researchers and the scholarly content available on the web, but in the current climate voluminous free content is available to scholars. Scholarly communication at the University of Kashmir has been difficult in the past because of a number of reasons, ranging from geographic and economic to political. Due to the emergence of OA, scholarly communication influenced authors to a greater extent and they have now become key players in its emancipation, which in turn has resulted in easy, fast and efficacious communication among scholars. It has opened up the possibility of breaking down barriers of space, time and capital by providing a platform where scholars can share research freely, primarily by increasing the global reach of scholarly communication. Although the concept of OA has gained momentum in other parts of the world, it is still in the early stages among scholars at the University of Kashmir, thus signifying the need to increase their awareness of OA. The political breakdown from 1989, which has hindered educational processes, needs to be revived in such a way that there is less impact on the educational system. Continuous curfews and strikes in the valley also deprive the researchers of this latest buzz (open access) and its benefits in the scholarly communication market. Lack of knowledge on the part of faculty and library professionals is also a major cause for lack of awareness of OA among the researchers. Research funding agencies should also evolve up dramatically in sensitising researchers about the open access movement. Authors also need to shed off their traditional method of disseminating information through age-old models. A dearth of goodwill on the part of authors and the Allama Iqbal Library (Central Library, University of Kashmir) to embrace OA also has to be exterminated by their joint efforts. The extremist approach of the authors, as well as the library, not to make their content freely available in OA mode, should changed and in order to spawn their scholarly works, an institutional repository should be set up at Allama Iqbal Library, which will surely solve the problem of the global migraine caused because of closed access to information. Furthermore, library professionals have to play a key role in making researchers aware of the benefits of OA. Self-archiving by authors should be promoted and seminars, workshops and tutorials should be conducted to make authors more inclined to OA, which will mobilize the scholarly content at the University of Kashmir. In order to live in this OA information age, researchers should be provided with the skills to live and work effectively with OA, and it is here that the role of the Department of Library and Information Science is played. A cooperative venture between library professionals, faculty and researchers may provide a solution to make the researchers aware about the sea changes in the field of scholarly communication and their direct and positive results on academic communities.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - A survey of University of Kashmir scholars was undertaken in 2008 to ascertain their experience, attitudes and perceptions about the open access (OA) movement. The purpose of this paper is to report the survey's findings.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study was based on data collected from scholars belonging to the Science and Social Science faculties at the University of Kashmir. A pre-defined, closed-ended, 14-item questionnaire was distributed among 84 research scholars. The selection of scholars was based on stratified disproportionate sampling in which the sample size for the departments of both faculties was confined to four scholars, as only four research scholars were enrolled in the Department of Psychology.\nFindings: - The majority of the scholars consulted both open access as well as library-subscribed resources. Of OA resource users, four-fifths consulted journals and two-fifths consulted books. Colleagues (57.14 per cent) were the main referral sources of OA awareness with the least intervention from library professionals. Scholars (95.23 per cent) retrieved OA content via search engines. About 21 per cent remarked above 60 per cent relevancy of OA content related to their research need. The majority of scholars considered OA useful to publish their work quickly, boost their productivity as an author and increase citations of their work. One third reported awareness of more than two OA journals. About 30 per cent reported OA journals as a source of publishing their work, whereas just 10 per cent deposited their works in OA repositories. Overall, Science scholars had the edge over their Social Science counterparts in acceptance of open access.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The research highlights the viewpoints of only 84 scholars out of 326 registered scholars in the fields of Sciences and Social Sciences at the University of Kashmir.\nOriginality/value: - Research of this kind has not been carried out before at the University of Kashmir. The paper discusses open access awareness among the researchers of the University of Kashmir with recommendations for information professionals and teaching faculty to acquaint researchers with the benefits of open access.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Increasing business-to-business buyer word-of-mouth and share-of-purchase
|
[
"Satisfaction",
"Loyalty",
"Business-to-business",
"Share-of-purchases",
"Word-of-mouth communication"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this issue.\nIntroduction: Business executives and marketers have long recognized the benefits associated with increasing buyers' word-of-mouth communications (further referred to as WOMC) and share-of-purchases (also called share-of-wallet, further referred to as SOP; Buttle, 1998; Keiningham et al., 2005). Given that the fundamental objective of any profit-sharing company is profit-making, understanding factors that directly influence buyer spending and WOMC continue to garner much interest from practitioners and researchers. Although WOMC and SOP have both acted as interesting lines of inquiry for the past decade, much of our understanding can be attributed to retailing scholars (Reynolds and Beatty, 1999; Reynolds and Arnold, 2000).\nConceptual framework and hypotheses development: Figure 1 depicts a buyer engaged in a dual relationship with a salesperson and a selling firm. First, the study begins by examining buyer satisfaction, loyalty and WOMC regarding the salesperson in relation to buyer satisfaction, loyalty and word-of-mouth about the selling firm (H1-H3). Following this, the expectation that increases in buyer satisfaction will lead to increases in loyalty with the salesperson (H4), as well as the firm (H5) will demonstrate the satisfaction-loyalty linkage in a multi-level b-t-b setting. Buyer satisfaction with the salesperson will then be examined as a predictor of WOMC concerning the salesperson (H6), while satisfaction with the selling firm and WOMC about the selling firm will be expected to yield a positive relationship (H7). With respect to buyers loyalty to a salesperson and selling firm, this study hypothesizes that WOMC at each level will materialize based on prior relationships formed and maintained over time (H8 and H9). The model then conceptualizes satisfaction with the salesperson and satisfaction with the selling firm as motivators for increased SOP (H10 and H11).\nMethodology: Sample\nResults: Measures\nDiscussion and managerial implications: Research question one\nLimitations and future research: While the current study extends the existing body of knowledge in the marketing literature by examining the given model within a b-t-b context, several limitations are present that generate avenues for future research. First, the sample has 177 respondents. Although this sample is sufficient enough to find large effects, this sample is slightly below the 200 recommended to run a structural equation model (Hair et al., 2010). Future research may want to examine the given model using a larger sample size.\nConclusions: The aim of this study was to develop and test a model that predicts customer's WOMC and SOP using buyers engaged in b-t-b procurement. Like emerging research that examines the buyer's relationship with the salesperson and selling firm as different relationships, this study explores the buyer-seller relationship as containing multiple dimensions. While the study finds support for 8 of the 11 linkages, this study highlights similarities and differences between retail and b-t-b relationships. While this study is able to predict both buyers' WOMC and SOP, this study highlights concerns that surround the measurement of the constructs. Overall, this study provides a strong reference point to continue to develop and expand the literature examining:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to examine the satisfaction-loyalty framework on word-of-mouth communications (WOMC) and share-of-purchases in situations where business-to-business (b-t-b) buyers have a relationship with both the salesperson and the selling firm.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study uses an online panel to examine respondents with b-t-b purchasing authority for their given firm. Lisrel 8.52 was used to examine the proposed structural model.\nFindings: This study finds that satisfaction, loyalty and WOMC with regards to the salesperson directly impacts satisfaction, loyalty and WOMC with the selling firm, respectively. Also, the study finds that certain levels of buyer satisfaction and loyalty impact post purchase behavior and spending.\nResearch limitations/implications: Several contributions emerge from the proposed model to advance relationships within b-t-b markets by examining methods in which salespeople can directly influence their company's financial outcome in the form of increased customer spending; examining methods for increasing buyers' WOMC; expanding the current body of knowledge examining the buyer-selling firm relationship as two unique, but related, relationships; and further revealing the dichotomy between consumer markets and b-t-b markets.\nOriginality/value: This research authenticates the need to examine satisfaction, loyalty and WOMC from a multi-level perspective in b-t-b environments. Further, the understanding of share-of-purchases is advanced.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Team coaching and innovation in work teams : An examination of the motivational and behavioral intervening mechanisms
|
[
"Work teams",
"Team innovation",
"Team coaching",
"Team goal commitment",
"Support for innovation",
"Team working",
"Innovation",
"Coaching"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Innovations are recognized as a pivotal factor in the success of organizations in a world-wide competitive context, because they can lead to financial gains, increased productivity, improved social processes, and enhanced satisfaction (Bowen et al., 2010; Cho and Pucik, 2005). A team-based approach may help to get through the process from generating creative ideas to successfully implementing these ideas (Mumford et al., 2002; Drach-Zahavy and Somech, 2001; Sacramento et al., 2006). Thus, innovations in the workplace may be designed and implemented at the team level (Drach-Zahavy and Somech, 2001). According to West and Wallace (1991), team innovation may be defined as \"the intentional introduction and application within a team, of ideas, processes, products or procedures new to the team, designed to significantly benefit the individual, the team, the organization, or wider society\" (p. 303). This conceptualization of innovation implies intentional attempts to obtain expected benefits from changes (West and Anderson, 1996). The successful innovations implemented by team members may then be diffused to other teams, which may strengthen organizational response to environmental pressures.\nThe role of team coaching in regard to team innovation: Team coaching as a style of leadership is characterized by an emphasis on the development of members' capabilities to attain higher levels of accomplishments (DeRue et al., 2010). Consistent with the behavioral framework of coaching (Hackman and Wageman, 2005), team coaching may notably include such behaviors as setting clear expectations, providing recognition and feedback, and stimulating problem solving (DeRue et al., 2010; Ellinger et al., 2011a; Grant and Cavanagh, 2007; Konczak et al., 2000; Liu et al., 2009; Morgeson, 2005; Wageman, 2001). Specifically, team coaching implies that team leaders set clear expectations by clarifying team goals in terms of desired results (e.g. quality, productivity, and delivery time), which increases team members' understanding of the desired outcomes and raises their willingness to reach these outcomes (Morgeson et al., 2010). By providing recognition, team leaders reinforce desirable behaviors and good performance, which motivates team members to devote their effort on their team's behalf (Liu and Batt, 2010; Pearsall et al., 2010). Team coaching is also characterized by providing feedback that identifies the areas of improvement with which the team members need to deal in order to sustain progress toward team goals (Hackman and Wageman, 2005; Stoker, 2008). Feedback helps team members to develop a clear sense of what is and is not working in their team. In regard to deficiencies, team leaders may provide constructive feedback by suggesting means to improve existing ways of doing things. When teams encounter a problem, team leaders may encourage team members to think through solutions, rather than imposing the solutions on them, which allows room for experimentation and initiative by their team members (Hamlin et al., 2006). Team leaders may engage in these coaching behaviors concurrently on a day-to-day basis in their interaction with team members (Ellinger et al., 2005).In this study, we posit that team coaching may enhance innovation in work teams. Consistent with the functional perspective of leadership (e.g. Burke et al., 2006; Kozlowski et al., 2009; Morgeson et al., 2010), leaders who engage in coaching behaviors are likely to prompt motivational and behavioral processes that are conducive to innovation. Indeed, a central idea of coaching is helping team members to attain higher levels of accomplishment by emphasizing the development of team capabilities intended to improve the ways to achieve team goals (Ellinger et al., 2005; Hamlin et al., 2006; Wageman, 2001). Thus, team leaders who adopt a coaching style are likely to boost members' commitment toward team goals. Team goal commitment represents a motivational mechanism that enables team members to sustain their effort to innovate and avoid abandoning their team goals in the face of difficulties. Furthermore, a coaching style of leadership allows team members the freedom to decide how to achieve the desired results (DeRue et al., 2010), which bolsters team members to involve themselves in the innovation process that encompasses both the generation of creative ideas (i.e. novel and useful ideas) and the implementation of these ideas within the teams (Bledow et al., 2009; Cheung and Wong, 2011). Team members who are highly committed to their team goals are likely to take action to further enhance their results and to better reach their goals (Grant, 2006), which is reflected by exhibiting support for innovation. This behavioral process, that translates members' intentions into actions, may in turn increase team innovation. In the following sections, we examine in greater depth the theoretical foundations of the intervening mechanisms explaining why team coaching may positively influence team innovation.Team coaching and team goal commitment\nMethod: Participants\nResults: Preliminary analyses and data aggregation\nDiscussion: In this study, our main goals were to examine the relationship that team coaching may have with innovation in work teams and to identify the motivational and behavioral intervening mechanisms in this relationship. We focussed on team coaching given that this style of leadership is particularly consistent with the development-implementation process inherent to innovation (Bledow et al., 2009). Results showed that team coaching is positively related to team innovation. Thus, team leaders who engage in coaching behaviors are likely to create favorable conditions to facilitate innovations by team members. This style of leadership is conceptually distinct from other leadership styles, such as transformational leadership, supportive leadership, and empowering leadership (e.g. Eisenbeiss et al., 2008; Rafferty and Griffin, 2006; Srivastava et al., 2006). Indeed, the distinctive feature of team coaching is the focus on the development of team capabilities that improve team results. Considering the positive findings of the current study, further studies would be helpful to investigate, at the empirical level, the distinctiveness of team coaching compared with other styles of leadership.Our findings extend previous research on leadership and innovation by examining both the motivational and behavioral intervening mechanisms linking team coaching and team innovation. Results indicated that team coaching is positively related to team members' commitment to team goals. Consistent with expectancy theory framework (Klein et al., 1999), team leaders may build in their team a collective commitment to team goals by enhancing attractiveness and expectancy of goal accomplishment, which can be done by engaging in effective coaching. As hypothesized, results also indicated that team goal commitment is positively related to support for innovation. Team goal commitment represents the motivational mechanism that sustains team members' attention and efforts over long periods of time (Locke and Latham, 1990). By focussing on achieving results, team members are more likely to support innovation in order to respond to these requirements (Janssen, 2000). Taken together, these results mean that coaching leaders can help to build team members' goal commitment and trigger their willingness to produce and implement creative ideas to facilitate goal attainment. Considering that the innovation process is demanding and time consuming, team members need to be motivated to move through this process (Mumford et al., 2002).Unexpectedly, results revealed that team coaching may exercise a direct effect on support for innovation. This direct effect means that team leaders exhibiting coaching behaviors may encourage team members to engage in an innovation process of developing and implementing new ways of doing things. This unexpected finding may be explained by social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986). According to this theory, individuals learn by observing others and tend to reproduce the behaviors that lead to positive consequences. Thus, by observing their team leader exhibiting coaching behaviors, team members may acquire innovation-relevant skills and may be able to provide practical support to innovation in their team. Indeed, these leader behaviors represent concrete actions that facilitate purposeful changes in terms of problem identification, idea generation, and idea refinement. In other words, a coaching leader serves as a good model for innovative purposes. The direct effect of team coaching on support for innovation may also be explained by reinforcement theory (Luthans and Kreitner, 1985). Indeed, when team leaders provide recognition for members' efforts to improve their capabilities, they encourage members to persist in engaging in support for innovation. The positive relationship found between team coaching and support for innovation is consistent with Edmondson's (1999) study that shows that team leader coaching is positively related to team learning behaviors (which share some conceptual similarities with support for innovation).As expected, the results supported the positive relationship between support for innovation and team innovation. This finding is consistent with the meta-analysis of Hulsheger et al. (2009). Thus, the extent to which team members enact behaviors that are conducive to change is likely to increase the degree of innovation in their teams. In other words, team members are more likely to innovate when they provide practical support to the development of new ideas and the implementation of new ways of doing things.Our study investigates the relationship between team coaching and innovation within work teams and the underlying mechanisms of this relationship by using a sample of face-to-face teams. The study findings may be of interest to virtual teams \"in which members are geographically dispersed and coordinate their work predominantly with electronic information and communication technologies\" (Hertel et al., 2005, p. 69). Indeed, these teams are often created to nurture innovation in organizations. Virtual team leaders who highly rely on electronic communication technologies may experience challenges in trying to foster innovation. In this setting, coaching behaviors may be particularly critical considering that team members may feel disconnected from one another and from the team purpose (Fiol and O'Connor, 2005). Consequently, the use of electronic communication technologies, which represents a dimensional attribute of team functioning (Hertel et al., 2005), may have a moderating effect on the relationship between coaching behaviors and team innovation, such that this relationship is stronger when the teams rely highly on electronic communication technology. This expected moderating effect would be consistent with Purvanova and Bono's (2009) study that reveals that the relationship between transformational leadership and team performance is stronger in virtual teams than in face-to-face teams. More research is needed to shed light on the differences regarding the effect of face-to-face and electronic coaching on team members.Study limitations and direction for future research\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This study aims to examine the role of team coaching in regard to team innovation by considering motivational and behavioral intervening mechanisms.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Based on a multisource approach, data was gathered from 97 work teams (341 members and 97 immediate supervisors) in a public safety organization.\nFindings: - Results of structural equation modeling analyses indicate that the relationship between team coaching and team innovation is mediated by team goal commitment and support for innovation. Specifically, team coaching has a direct effect on support for innovation and an indirect effect on this behavioral team process through team goal commitment. In turn, support for innovation may improve the implementation of successful team innovation.\nPractical implications: - In a global competitive context, innovation represents a key leverage to generate a competitive advantage. Team leaders who engage in coaching behaviors toward their subordinates are likely to foster innovation within their work team. Thus, organizations may benefit by designing and implementing interventions aimed at developing team leaders' coaching skills and encouraging them to consider coaching as a core managerial responsibility.\nOriginality/value: - On the whole, this study highlights the role of team coaching as a key leverage to stimulate successful innovation in work teams and the motivational and behavioral mechanisms that intervene in this relationship.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Process innovation and performance: the role of divergence
|
[
"Marketing strategy",
"Organisational innovation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Process innovation is the extent to which a firm introduces ideas or improvements in processes or organizational procedures (Anderson and West, 1996). It is specific to each organization and considered a key determinant of performance (Damanpour, 2010; Piening and Salge, 2015). Despite this, however, two clear limitations apply to the process of innovation literature. The first is the relatively small amount of empirical evidence available regarding the relationship between process innovations on performance. The second is the inconclusive results (Piening and Salge, 2015; Chiva et al., 2014). Indeed, positive effects (Ar and Baki, 2011; He and Wong, 2004), a negative effect (Mavondo et al., 2005) and both positive and negative effects are reported (Baer and Frese, 2003).\nBrief literature review: Process innovation has an internal focus and typically concerns techniques of producing and marketing goods or services and may be reflected through, for example, lean product development processes or total quality management practices, and focuses on improvements in effectiveness and efficiency (Piening and Salge, 2015). In contrast to product innovation, process innovation has not been frequently studied. Yet, in almost all industries process innovations are possible, in contrast to product innovation, and process innovations have the potential to influence performance (Jimenez-Jimenez and Sanz-Valle, 2011). For example, process innovation may create advantages that are difficult for competitors to observe and imitate (Damanpour, 2010). Piening and Salge (2015) even go as far as to suggest that process innovation because of its continuous contribution to improving the technological and administrative processes, is one of the most important sources of competitiveness for firms in dynamic or fast-moving industries. However, because of the difficulties in properly implementing process innovations, the advantage may disappear and the literature on process innovations (Table I) suggests a chequered pattern of positive associations between process innovation, negative associations and nil associations. The task of this paper is to contribute to this literature by presenting a novel lens through which to consider process innovations; divergence. Our theory and analysis are at the firm level and we aim to explain both the drivers and outcomes of process innovation using this lens.\nThe concept of fit: Studying divergence is useful as it concerns a contingency at the individual (firm) level. Accordingly, we take a contingency approach that is based on the fit as matching and fit as moderation notions. (Venkatraman, 1989). First, we discuss the fit as a matching perspective, then, the drivers needed to achieve fit, and finally, the fit as a moderation perspective.\nHypotheses: For each hypothesis, we argue separately why positive and negative divergence may relate to lower performance. We do this first for environmental uncertainty, then turning to competitive intensity.\nMethod: Data\nAnalytical approach: Our analysis requires us to consider:\nResults: Key findings and tests of hypotheses\nDiscussion and conclusions: In this paper, we explore the performance effects of process innovation. Rather than suggesting a general process innovation-performance relationship (as previous studies have done), we argue that the level of process innovation that best fosters performance depends on individual firm attributes. Thereby our study offers three new novel insights to the understanding of process innovation.\nFuture research and limitations: Our theory and findings suggest that divergence can reduce performance. Much like, for example, transaction cost theory where divergence has been argued to reduce performance (Mooi and Ghosh, 2010), we call for further theory development that explicitly accounts for how drivers account for innovation, relative to which performance is explained. Such further development is important as it moves the discussion on innovation away from its focus on developing greater innovation to one where the match between the organization and its environment to innovation is central.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Process innovation is a key determinant of performance. While extant literature paints a clear picture of the drivers of process innovation, the effect of process innovation on performance has received little attention. This paper aims to examine how the divergence of process innovation impacts performance. Divergence concerns the extent to which the observed level of process innovation diverges from the expected level of process innovation. Positive divergence occurs when the observed level of process innovation is higher than expected while for negative divergence the opposite occurs. In turn, the authors consider how divergence acts as a driver of performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors use survey and archival data from 5,594 firms across 15 countries. The authors analyze the data using an advanced two-step random-effects estimator that accounts for the multi-level data used.\nFindings: The authors find negative divergence to reduce performance under high competitive intensity, whereas positive divergence is detrimental under high environmental uncertainty.\nResearch limitations/implications: The authors present new and unique insights into the relationship between divergence and performance. The authors argue that each firm has an \"ideal\" level of process innovation, based on their resources and business environment, relative to which performance diminishes. Specifically, the authors argue that divergence from the firm's expected level of process innovation is associated with the reduced performance during high environmental uncertainty or high competitive intensity. Furthermore, the authors argue that there can be \"too much\" process innovation. This nuance of the majority of prior empirical studies in this area suggests that more innovation is always better for firms. The more nuanced approach reveals that the process innovation-performance debate should not focus on more or less innovation per se, but on how innovation is constructed and supported.\nPractical implications: Some argue the existence of an academia-practitioner gap, with both living in different worlds (Reibstein et al., 2009). The findings suggest that theory is not only useful to practitioners but also has a crucial and central role regarding decisions relating to efficiency and effectiveness of scarce resources, in the field of process innovation. More specifically, the authors demonstrate that the prior study on process innovation seems to be useful in that relative to a theory-predicted level, divergence diminishes performance in the global sample of companies across a wide range of industries. In addition, the authors suggest that firms should not strive for more innovation per se. The findings suggest that positive divergence or too much innovation is detrimental for performance under environmental uncertainty, while negative divergence or too little innovation is harmful to performance under competitive uncertainty. Moreover, the divergence approach is also useful for comparing performance to that of other firms, typically referred to as benchmarking.\nOriginality/value: This paper is useful and important for managers and theory development as it provides insight into situations where a firm may have \"too little\" or \"too much\" process innovation. Thus, divergence advances understanding as, in contrast with the previous study, the authors do not suggest that more innovation is always better.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
From food defence to food supply chain integrity
|
[
"Food safety",
"Food security",
"Fraud",
"Terrorism",
"Food defence",
"Public perception"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Public perception of the European Union (EU) food industry was severely shaken by the 2013 horsemeat (Avery, 2014) and milk alflatoxin (Le Blond, 2013; Dutch News.nL, 2013) scandals, as well as foodborne disease outbreaks and scares (Bernard et al., 2002; Covaci et al., 2008; EFSA, 2008; Buchholz et al., 2011). The cumulative effect has led many consumers to question how safe our food really is. These scandals have had significant economic impact on the food industries involved.\nFood supply chain integrity: In Europe we are privileged in having both food security, with a wide choice, and strict food safety requirements. But as the scandals show, the system is not perfect. Food supply chain integrity is a complex and multifaceted concept (Elliot, 2014; Lipp, 2014). It encompasses food safety, security, traceability, origin authenticity, quality attributes and product information resulting in a final food product with integrity. The consumer automatically assumes that food available for purchase is safe to eat unless quality cues, like changes in consistency and sensory perception, prompt them to think otherwise (Grunert, 2002; Verbeke et al., 2007). Consumers purchase food based on their personal basic and credence integrity requirements, such as safe food which is inherently assumed by the consumer (basic requirement) and quality features (credence requirements, like protected origin products) that the consumer obtains from product labelling and prior experience (Green et al., 2003; Grunert, 2002). Product integrity is therefore a combination of basic and credence requirements and food scandals, like the horsemeat scandal, challenge consumer confidence (Barnet et al., 2016).\nDevelopment of food defence guidelines: In the EU, the food industry (producers, processors, distributors, wholesalers and retailers) has the prime responsibility for ensuring that retail foodstuffs are safe for human and animal consumption. Historically, food operators have used HACCP to identify potential hazards and have designed their control measures accordingly (EU, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006; Codex, 2003). The HACCP methodology is based on scientific data derived from human health risk assessments (Figure 1). However, the HACCP system does not address deliberate acts against the food industry and food supply chain. The laboratory analyses, aimed at detecting biological, chemical and physical hazards that might naturally or accidentally occur in that food product, are, on the whole highly specific. The tests identify harmful pathogens, toxins and certain chemical contaminants but are not suited for the detection of novel contaminants that are not normally found in that food supply chain (Everstine et al., 2013; Pedersen et al., 2016). It can take considerable time between sampling, analysis and official notification of product recall. The food and feed may have already been distributed and consumed prior to issuing an obligatory product recall notification through the rapid alert system for food and feed (Potter et al., 2012; RASFF, 2015; Stocker et al., 2011).\nChallenges to the adoption of food defence practices by the food industry: The current approach to food defence in the EU was assessed during the EDEN project (end-user driven demo for CBRNe, www.eden-security-fp7.eu) by asking food industry (food safety authorities, testing laboratories, public health authorities) and Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear (CBRN) end-users (first-responders, civil defence and policy makers) as well as EDEN partners what the current gaps and needs were in responding to CBRN incidents in their field. There were 169 participants divided between four workshops, 17 attended two of the workshops, nine attended three whilst the remaining 108 only attended one of the workshops. In total, 30 per cent of the participants had experience of direct relevance to the EDEN food scenarios. End-users, during this series of workshops, highlighted a need for further guidelines and training on risk assessment methods that have been adapted to food defence (Gerevini et al., 2014; Mo Bjorgo et al., 2014). They also reported a general lack of industry, public health and consumer awareness with regard to food defence practices. The possibility for sharing best practice guidelines and adaptation of crisis management methodology from other fields such as CBRN was suggested. Crisis management techniques build upon the security cycle matrix which stepwise address what is needed to prevent (prevention), be prepared for (preparedness), respond to (response) and recover from (recovery) a crisis (Boin and McConnell, 2007). This way of thinking, combining pro-active measures with reactive measures, is not only relevant for large scale catastrophes affecting critical national infrastructure but also can be relevant for smaller scale incidents in critical infrastructure like the food industry (Figure 2). Figure 2 shows how the security cycle could be applied to the food supply chain given that official food safety testing methods, based upon HACCP, were not enough to detect intentional chemical contamination under the conditions tested during the EDEN project (Pedersen et al., 2016).\nResults from EDEN and SNIFFER detection tools: A range of detection tools, for targeted and untargeted detection, tamper-evident solutions, command and control integration systems as well as traceability systems were tested during the EDEN project food demonstrations. Baseline detection capabilities were assessed by testing contaminated food matrices (cooked ham, baloney, sugar, salt, water) using standard food safety methods (Pedersen et al., 2016; Sittaramane et al., 2016). The official food safety methods were not able to detect to high levels of rat poison, norovirus, Bacillus spores or mercury chloride in food matrices (baloney, cooked ham, salt, sugar and water) that would not normally contain these agents. A number of non-targeted detection tools were tested on their ability to detect the same contaminants in the same matrices (food and water samples). The technologies employed varied from spectral analysis and fluorescence to near infra-red technology for the non-targeted detection of chemical and biological contaminants. Targeted detection tools focussed on identifying the biological and chemical agents using molecular and mass spectrometry methods, respectively. Tool providers were sent a set of 11 reference samples in each matrix containing known levels of contamination from no contamination to very high levels of contamination (biologicalx1010 and chemical 40,000 parts per million (ppm)). The food contamination scenarios developed in EDEN were based upon the final product containing 109/g or 400 ppm of contaminant which was arbitrarily called high levels of contamination. A ten-fold increase or decrease represented the next level of contamination. Each tool provider was asked to analyse these reference samples in triplicate and report which were contaminated (reference panels described in further detail in Pedersen et al., 2016). The tool providers then participated in one or more proficiency tests with each test containing four samples of unknown contamination status. They had to report which samples were contaminated and if possible identify and quantify the contaminant. A number of the tools tested showed promise (Sittaramane et al., 2016) with some providing an alert when different brands of sugar and salt were used in the reference samples and proficiency test samples, once the system had been trained to identify the one brand. Some of the tools were also able to identify levels of biological and chemical contamination at levels well below that described in the scenarios (EDEN working papers).\nChallenges in combining food defence with food chain integrity: Detecting contaminants in food is not straightforward be it food safety or food defence. It is understandable the food industry focusses on food safety agents rather than food defence agents given the need to optimise costs and that food defence is not a legal requirement. Therefore it is important that food defence practices complement food safety practices. Detection tools need to be able to discriminate between safe and dangerous levels of naturally occurring and deliberate contaminants to ensure that legal limits are not exceeded (Nature Editorial, 2015). There is a lack of standardised testing material and methods for many of the potential contaminants (Alexander et al., 2012). The occurrence of naturally occurring toxins in foods as well as heavy metals requires particular attention (Choi et al., 2014; Dolan et al., 2010). Testing methods need to be able to differentiate between hazardous and non-hazardous analogues of a compound, like inorganic arsenic, linked to cancer, and organic arsenic which naturally occurs in seafood (Hojsak et al., 2015; Borak and Hosgood, 2007). The situation is similar with mercury in fish where the common mercury cation has to be differentiated from hazardous methyl-mercury levels, which can cause neurological and developmental deficits (Newland et al., 2006). Many of the detection methods are only suited for laboratory testing and portable, fast and reliable new methods are required to allow chemical and microbiological controls on the production line.\nImplications for the future: Critical societal infrastructure includes our food supply chain. Food defence practices can help ensure food supply chain integrity especially with regard to intentional and unintentional contamination of food products. Policy makers and operational managers in the food industry need to continue to include food defence as part of an integrated approach to food supply chain integrity both at a local, national and EU level given the global origin of the foods available to European consumers. Food defence methods and guidelines, such as TACCP, VACCP or Carver+Shock are already available and should be adopted and implemented across the entire food supply chain. This needs to be done in such a way as to have greatest effect, yet simultaneously, minimise the food producers' economic burden. New technology requires extensive testing, within each production system, prior to integration in commercial production lines. EDEN and SNIFFER have provided evidence of the benefits of non-targeted and targeted detection tools but these have only been tested in a limited number of food production systems and with a limited range of pathogens and chemical agents. Researchers should continue to test non-targeted detection systems, as well as targeted detection tools, in a wide range of food matrices and with a wide range of potential biological and chemical contaminants, not just those relevant for food safety incidents or product authentication.\nConclusion: Our food supply chain is complex and maintaining food supply chain integrity is especially challenging. However food defence practices can help prevent deliberate contamination, be it motivated by economic, revenge or ideological reasons, and thus build consumer confidence. It is far cheaper to prevent an incident from occurring than dealing with the aftermath of a large foodborne disease outbreak. Food defence should therefore be an integral part of food supply chain integrity and not just an afterthought in the wake of an incident. The detection tools investigated by EDEN and SNIFFER have potential but a wider range of contaminants and food matrices needs to be investigated before these tools could be broadly adopted.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Consumer confidence in the European food industry has been shaken by a number of recent scandals due to food fraud and accidental contamination, reminding the authors that deliberate incidents can occur. Food defence methods aim to prevent or mitigate deliberate attacks on the food supply chain but are not a legal requirement. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how proactive and reactive food defence practices can help prevent or mitigate malicious attacks on the food chain and also food fraud, food crime and food safety. The authors look at how food defence differs from food safety and how it contributes to food supply chain integrity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Food defence has been the focus of two different EU FP7 security projects, EDEN and SNIFFER. Food industry stakeholders participated in workshops and demonstrations on food defence and relevant technology was tested in different food production scenarios.\nFindings: Food industry end-users reported a lack of knowledge regarding food defence practices. They wished for further guidelines and training on risk assessment as well as access to validated test methods. Novel detection tools and methods showed promise with authentication, identification, measurement, assessment and control at multiple levels of the food supply chain prior to distribution and retail.\nPractical implications: The prevention of a contamination incident, prior to retail, costs less than dealing with a large foodborne disease outbreak. Food defence should therefore be integral to food supply chain integrity and not just an afterthought in the wake of an incident.\nOriginality/value: It is argued that food defence practices have a vital role to play across the board in unintentional and intentional food contamination incidents. The application of these methods can help ensure food supply chain integrity.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The relative importance of improvement routines for implementing lean practices
|
[
"Operational performance",
"Organizational learning",
"Necessary Condition Analysis",
"SMEs manufacturing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: As small- and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises (manufacturing SMEs) seek to increase their operational performance in terms of quality, delivery and costs (Slack et al., 2010), they can turn to lean management, which is known to increase operational performance (Womack and Jones, 2003). Lean practices are a set of methods, procedures, techniques and tools aimed at continuously creating customer value and reducing product lead time (Shah and Ward, 2007). To implement lean practices, certain improvement routines have been found necessary. Improvement routines are referred to as learned patterns of behaviour that enable high levels of sustained involvement (Bessant and Caffyn, 1997). However, manufacturing SMEs find it difficult to develop these improvement routines (McGovern et al., 2017; Shah and Ward, 2003; White et al., 1999). To provide guidance for SMEs in this development, this study explores the relative importance of individual improvement routines at various degrees of lean practice implementation for increasing operational performance in manufacturing SMEs.\n2. Improvement routines for implementing lean practices and increasing operational performance in manufacturing SMEs: This section explains the link between organisational learning and continuous improvement and summarises the literature on the relationships between aggregate improvement routines with lean practices and operational performance, before delving deeper into the importance of individual improvement routines. Given the scarcity of literature on this subject, research in large enterprises is described before elaborating on their specific role in SMEs. As previous research has shown a link between lean practices and operational performance (Shah and Ward, 2003; Womack and Jones, 2003), research on the link between routines and lean practices as well as operational performance is described. As the aim is to explore the relative importance of individual improvement routines, consistency was important and, therefore, only papers that studied improvement routines as identified by Bessant and Caffyn (1997) or Bessant et al. (2001) were considered.\n3. Methods: This section describes the sample and measures and how a Between-Case Comparison Analysis (BCCA) (Dul and Hak, 2012) and a Necessary Condition Analysis (Dul, 2016) were conducted.\n4. Findings: The findings confirm that lean practices mediated the relationship between improvement routines and operational performance in this study's set of manufacturing SMEs, and that individual improvement routines were not equally required for the implementation of lean practices.\n5. Propositions on different improvement routines for various degrees of lean practices: The aim of this study was to explore the relative importance of individual improvement routines at various degrees of lean practice implementation for increasing operational performance in manufacturing SMEs. A data set from manufacturing SMEs was analysed using BCCA and NCA.\n6. Recommendations for future research: This study was based on a Dutch sample and small set of cases, which does not allow for generalisation to other contexts and types of companies. Although Dabhilkar et al. (2007) found no national differences amongst the relationships between improvement routines and operational performance, this study took a novel approach. Future research should replicate this approach and study improvement routines as necessary conditions in different countries and industries, and/or use suitable samples to test the propositions developed in this study. This should preferably be done using longitudinal data to provide more insights into the interrelationships between individual improvement routines. In addition to replication studies, more in-depth studies should be conducted on the importance of improvement routines to better understand the underlying reasons for their relative importance and their dynamic relationship with lean.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper examines whether and when improvement routines are critical for implementing lean practices in small- and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises (SMEs). Improvement routines such as \"employees initiate and carry through improvement activities\" are generally seen as an important means to achieve the full benefit of structural lean interventions. Womack and Jones (2003) suggest that these improvement routines should be developed as the company becomes more experienced in lean. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relative importance of individual improvement routines at various degrees of lean practice implementation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A Between-Case Comparison Analysis (Dul and Hak, 2012) and a Necessary Condition Analysis (Dul, 2016) were performed on self-assessment data from 241 respondents at 38 Dutch manufacturing SMEs.\nFindings: The importance of improvement routines depended on the degree of lean practice implementation. Lean practices could be implemented to some extend without developing specific improvement routines, yet certain routines were necessary for more advanced implementations of lean. These routines relate to employees conducting shared improvement activities and in the most advanced cases to aligning different improvement activities.\nOriginality/value: These findings question existing lean implementation models that neglect improvement routines and indicate the need to integrate improvement routines into every lean transformation for it to be sustainable.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The nutritional and toxicological value of organic vegetables: Consumer perception versus scientific evidence
|
[
"Consumers",
"Perception",
"Organic foods",
"Vegetables",
"Safety",
"Belgium"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The health benefits of an adequate consumption of vegetables and fruit and the role of this food group in preventing a variety of diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, certain cancers and obesity, has been recognised for quite some time now (Steinmetz and Potter, 1996; Ness and Powles, 1997; Hu, 2003; Bes-Rastrollo et al., 2006). In relation to other foods, vegetables and fruits are important sources of vitamins, minerals, trace elements, dietary fibre and a large variety of beneficial phytochemicals. Although these plant foods are perceived as healthy by the majority of consumers, the dietary recommendation of eating at least five portions of fruits and vegetables a day is often not met by an important share of the population in many countries (WHO, 2003; Pomerleau et al., 2004).Besides nutrients, fruit and vegetables may also contain less favourable substances like environmental contaminants (e.g. nitrates, pesticide residues) and pathogenic micro-organisms (and their metabolites).Growing consumer concerns about the quality and safety of foods due to the presence of these harmful contaminants are considered to be one of the major motives for the increased demand for organic foods (Magkos et al., 2003a). The popularity of organic foods is reflected in the growth of the organic foods market in Belgium and other European countries (Abando and Rohner-Thielen, 2007; Samborski et al., 2007). When comparing the market share of organic product groups in the Belgian market, it seems that vegetables have the second largest share after eggs. The present study is focused on vegetables.The way in which consumers perceive organic-products has been investigated in a number of studies, and has been reviewed for example in Bonti-Ankomah and Yiridoe (2006). However, until now no study on consumer perception of organic food in general, or organic vegetables in particular, has yet been undertaken in Belgium.Based on existing consumer science literature, organic foods are mainly perceived as healthier and safer compared to conventional foods. From a scientific point of view however, there is currently not enough evidence to unconditionally recommend organic foods over conventionally produced foods (Williamson, 2007; Hoefkens et al., 2008). In response to a potential mismatch between consumer perceptions and scientific facts, the objective of this paper is to explore Flemish consumer's (subjective) perception of organic vegetables, relative to conventional vegetables, and to compare these findings with current scientific (objective) knowledge and consensus. This investigation and comparison generate new insights for further research and communication for both organic and conventional vegetables.\nMethodology: Study design and subjects\nResults: Sample characteristics\nDiscussion - facts versus perception: Toxicological advantage of organic vegetables versus conventional vegetables\nConclusion: Important gaps have been observed between consumer perception and current scientific evidence concerning the nutritional and toxicological value of organic vegetables compared to conventional vegetables. Although current scientific literature cannot state that organically produced vegetables are superior to conventionally produced alternatives, consumers on average belief that organic vegetables are better. In other words, consumers in general seem to overestimate the nutritional and toxicological benefits of organic vegetables, with the exception of synthetic pesticide residues. The gap between facts and consumers' perceptions appear to be the largest for the health character, nutritional value and microbiological safety of vegetables, especially among older consumers with children. The contaminant and nutrient content of organic vegetables are the two major drivers, among considered attributes, for consumers to believe in the health advantage of organic over conventional vegetables. The mismatch is also stronger when the consumption frequency is higher, but is independent of gender, place of residence, education and income level. Where science is more undecided, consumers' perception of organic versus conventional vegetables may be based on stereotypes, image transfer and emotion instead of factual knowledge and personal experience. In the future, more research is needed to strengthen scientific evidence about relative benefits and risks of organic compared to conventional vegetable consumption, as such that consumers can make decisions based on correct and objective information. Future research is also needed to verify the results of the present study that is based on a relatively small sample size and non-probability convenience sampling method, with larger and statistically representative consumer samples. An important basis for further research is now provided as new insights into basic beliefs and perceptions of a sample of Flemish consumers concerning organic versus conventional vegetables are generated here.Managerial implications from this study mainly pertain to product positioning and communication strategies. The present study indicates that organic vegetables benefit from favourable consumer perceptions, some of which cannot be backed up scientifically. From the perspective of the organic vegetable sector, it seems dangerous to exploit propositions that are not fully scientifically backed up in their product positioning and communication strategies. A recommendation from this study would be to capitalise rather on emotional value than providing rational argumentation for the choice of organic vegetables. An opposite strategy could obviously be recommended to the conventional vegetable industry. Given the inconclusiveness of current scientific evidence, it is recommended from a public and health policy point of view, to further aim at stimulating vegetable consumption in general without differentiating between the eventual organic or conventional origin of the produce.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The present study aims to explore and compare consumer perception and scientific evidence related to food quality and food safety aspects of organic versus conventional vegetables.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Primary data on consumer perception were gathered in 2006-2007 through a consumer survey with Flemish adults (n=529) and compared with scientific evidence from literature. Consumers of organic and conventional vegetables were selected by means of a convenience sampling procedure. Subjects were asked to complete a self-administered questionnaire concerning the perception of the nutritional and toxicological value of organic relative to conventional vegetables. Data processing and analysis included descriptive analysis (frequency distributions), data reduction (Cronbach's alpha test, factor analysis), bivariate analysis (correlations, t-test, ANOVA) and multivariate analysis (stepwise multiple regression).\nFindings: - It was found that organic vegetables are perceived as containing less contaminants and more nutrients, and as such, being healthier and safer compared to conventional vegetables. However, not enough evidence is currently available in the literature to support or refute such a perception, indicating a certain mismatch between consumer perception and scientific evidence. The gap between perception and evidence is larger among older consumers with children. The perception is stronger when the consumption frequency is higher, but is independent of gender, place of residence (rural or urban), education and income level. Also non-users, on average, perceive that organic vegetables have a nutritional and toxicological advantage over conventional vegetables.\nResearch limitations/implications: - A non-probability convenience sampling method was applied which limits generalisation of the findings beyond the sample characteristics.\nOriginality/value: - This paper is original in comparing consumer perception and scientific facts related to both nutritional and safety aspects of organic versus conventional vegetables.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Why mindfulness at work matters - the 'reboot' for emotional intelligence development
|
[
"Emotional intelligence",
"Development strategies",
"Mindfulness",
"Compassion",
"Practitioner-Based research"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Mindfulness matters because it has rapidly transitioned from the marginal to the mainstream. Here I offer my reflections as an emotional intelligence (EI) practitioner-researcher on the reasons why and what we need to think about when implementing workplace mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs).\nWhy mindfulness: why now?: My curiosity began in 2011, when I asked in an article what is the fuss all about? I was curious about how such a seemingly counter-cultural idea was gripping popular imagination and, albeit embryonically, corporate attention. One answer is that mindfulness offers an antidote to the volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous (VUCA) world we now inhabit. The unprecedented political, social, economic, technological and environmental challenges demand increasing levels of resilience from individuals, organizations and societies.\nMindfulness is the \"Upgrade\" on EI interventions: It matters because mindfulness increases levels of EI (Charoensukmongkol, 2014). To date, EI design principles have largely been rooted in cognitive-behavioral models of self-awareness; developing our capacity to think about the link between our thoughts, feelings and behavior. Mindfulness-based EI programs do this and hone those skills needed to notice somatically what in the present moment we are feeling in our bodies; our embodied EI. Incorporating mindfulness practices into EI training specifically enables us to more skillfully navigate the \"amygdala hijacking\" through harnessing, not just the wisdom of our minds but also the \"intelligence in the flesh\" (Claxton, 2015).\nThe power of neuroscience: It matters because this movement toward integration between mind and body is supported by scientific advances in neuroscience and an increasing emphasis on the need for practitioners to think systemically. In terms of EI development, put succinctly, neuroscience provides the evidence; mindfulness, the intervention; and resilience, the outcome.\nWorkplace MBIs in the UK - the rhetoric and the reality: In 2013, I looked at what progress had been made in implementing organizational MBIs. Who was doing what and how? While there was still more talk than action, I found there were \"green-shoots\" appearing in the UK. Two Scottish local authorities were pioneering an MBI with the aim of bringing more mindfulness and compassion into social care practice and the social care workplace. Other organizations in finance, the media, higher education, government and health have also been adapting and developing MBIs. While in some instances the primary intention is to improve wellbeing by equipping individuals to cope with our VUCA world, interest is also fuelled by a very real desire to create more compassionate and mindful organizations.\nSo what have we learned so far?: In 2015, I drew together some of these early pioneers and encouraged them to write about their work as a way of sharing their learning to help us to think about the 'do's and 'don'ts of implementing mindfulness training. I was eager to generate practitioner-based research that challenged the \"McMindfulness\" argument and misperception that mindfulness was being exploited by unscrupulous corporations to get more out of their staff.\nImplementing O-MBIs - top ten tips \"From the field\": While there is still a bit of a debate about whether mindfulness in the workplace is a legitimate topic of interest by organizational scholars, organizational practitioners are actively engaged. And through this work, we are beginning to gather practitioner-generated evidence as to why mindfulness at work, matters. Distilling these findings, here are the top ten tips \"from the field\":\nConclusion: In this journal, Marques (2014) talked of karma, describing mindfulness as \"a tricky thing\". She noted how we can go mindlessly through life, but eventually the day will come when we will wake up and become conscious of our actions. While scholars argue mindfulness has been conceptualized in different ways and definitions stretched, mindfulness matters at work because it responds to the shift in individual and collective consciousness. With VUCA, we have woken up. Whilst mindfulness is an intervention that increases EI, improves wellbeing, nurtures creativity and raises performance, it is also much more. It is a cultural vehicle carrying with it a call for us to rethink organizations and to \"be\" and \"do\" things differently. To do this, we, as developers, first have to become emotionally intelligent, mindful and adaptive practitioners:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The paper aims to inspire practitioners to look critically at how and in what ways mindfulness can enhance emotional intelligence interventions. The paper also aims to provide practical and evidence-based guidance on what and how to design, implement and evaluate mindfulness-based emotional intelligence (EI) programs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper adopts a critical, practitioner-perspective on mindfulness as it transitions into the workplace. The author draws on her own work in the field of EI practice and research and the experiences of peers who have implemented mindfulness-based interventions to offer insights on how to navigate the \"mindfulness phenomenon\" to enhance EI interventions.\nFindings: A series of practical steps on how to implement organizational mindfulness-based interventions (O-MBIs), distilled from case studies, entitled \"top ten tips from the field\".\nResearch limitations/implications: The author argues that whilst organizational scholars debate as to whether mindfulness is a topic worthy of interest, practitioners are already engaged and generating practitioner-led research.\nPractical implications: Mindfulness is rapidly capturing development and learning practitioner attention, yet there is little empirical work that is initiated by practitioners and shared with practitioners. This paper goes some way to helping peers navigate what has been described as the \"mindfulness phenomenon\".\nSocial implications: Many commentators have noted that we operate in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world. We are trapped in a \"prison of busyness\", and the author argues that the popularity of mindfulness, not only in the workplace but more broadly in society, is indicative of the need to equip people to cope and a desire to create more compassionate and mindful organizations.\nOriginality/value: The paper summarizes themes captured in what has been described as a seminal book in the practitioner literature on mindfulness in the workplace. It is designed to provoke readers into looking critically at their existing EI programs and examine how and in what ways, a holistic, embodied practice (mindfulness) can hone the skills of attention, focus and presence. With the intention of facilitating kinder and more compassionate individuals and organizations, potentially leading to more mindful and ethical societies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Looking after the pennies how to maximize returns on retail training
|
[
"Training evaluation",
"Retail chain",
"Return on investment in training"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nReview: What is the least glamorous role within the modern organization? Accountants are usually the butt of jokes about boring jobs and even more boring people who count the pennies. Receptionists also receive their fair share of flak, as does anyone working in office services or in a call center. However, one job above all others seems to garner more than its fair share of negative comments, and it is the position of the helpless training and development officer.\nTraining to win: Why? Well put simply, those involved in training have the singular most impact and ability to change behavior on the most people in a business. Sure, a boss can inspire their team - but it is only one team, not a whole company. And while a CEO can inspire a whole organization, can they demonstrably change actions and behaviors? It would be some boss who could do that. And yet the trainer does this, or has the opportunity to do it, every single day. But how can they ensure they make the most of their chance, and who's training will benefit the firm the most?\nThe fifth element: To review training effectiveness, the author combines two previous studies to identify an ideal pathway for training that includes five levels. This \"ladder\" of training evaluation is as follows:\nTraining evaluation: As it is recognized that training evaluation is both more important and more difficult the higher up the ladder organizations have to go, the study focused on the top two levels. However, it is worth noting that for the lower levels, these are not universally followed despite the fact that they will help HR departments determine the efficiency not only of the firm's employees in their own roles, but also in their own effectiveness in implementing training protocols.\nNext level: If the delivery of results were all seen to increase against KPIs, that is still not enough to call the training a success, as this does not account for the cost of the training in the first place, and therefore, the return on that investment is not known. This fifth and final levels can be the most difficult to understand, and in the study, the author looks at the 21 per cent increase in sales and tried to isolate the other factors that may have contributed to this increase that were not dependent on sales training improvements, for example, increased footfall in stores. After stripping these effects out, it is reckoned that sales training contributed to a 10 per cent increase in revenues in 2015, or almost EUR1m.\nComment: The article \"Establishing the financial returns arising from an evaluation of a retail training programme\" (Olexova, 2018) by Cecilia Olexova, is a hugely persuasive exercise in underlining the importance of training in an organization. This is not just through the profitable outcome and return on investment it shows but also the weight it gives the argument in favor of HR departments in taking training seriously, and following through on any training that is given as far as possible. Only by showing return on investment of training will full implementation of it be secured.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: What is the least glamorous role within the modern organization? Accountants are usually the butt of jokes about boring jobs and even more boring people who count the pennies. Receptionists also receive their fair share of flak, as does anyone working in office services or in a call center. However, one job above all others seems to garner more than its fair share of negative comments, and it is the position of the helpless training and development officer.\nPractical implications: The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.\nOriginality/value: The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent, information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The food safety culture in a large South African food service complex: Perspectives on a case study
|
[
"South Africa",
"Food hygiene training",
"Food safety culture",
"Food safety management",
"Management commitment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Food safety is of major international morbidity and mortality concern with unsafe food a growing global threat (WHO, 2015). It has been conservatively estimated that over 600 million people worldwide (one in ten) become ill annually from foodborne diseases resulting in 420,000 deaths with children at particular risk. A worldwide problem the highest rates occur in Africa with an estimated 91 million cases and 137,000 deaths (WHO, 2015).\nMaterials and methods: Background to the study site\nResults and discussion: Food safety leadership, standards and documentation\nFood safety communication: Food safety goals and required practices need to be communicated down to food handlers. Whilst food safety documentation is important there is much more to food safety communication which needs to be both up and down (Griffith, 2014) with managers \"listening\" an important part of the communication process.\nFood safety training, competence and supervision: Food safety knowledge enables people to practise good hygiene when they are motivated to do so. This should include an understanding of food safety requirements, why they are necessary and the consequences of them not being hygienic.\nFood safety commitment and support: Management commitment is essential to creating and maintaining a positive food safety culture and the success of any culture changes can be predicted by the personal commitment of senior management/owners (Griffith, 2014). Food safety leaders/managers must be proactive in food safety to protect their brand and management commitment is a key requirement of GFSI and other approved standards. This commitment will be consciously or sub-consciously communicated to supervisors and food handlers in, how much time, interest and money is invested in food safety.\nFood safety assessment, monitoring and consequences: The assessment of a business's food safety culture is important in both setting up and maintaining a positive hygiene culture. This requires routine analysis and assessment of the food handling practices and this can be undertaken in a variety of ways, the results should then be linked to consequences (Figure 1). Good evidence exists to show that people's behaviour is influenced by the perceived consequences of their actions (Yiannas, 2009). Mechanisms for assessing food safety and food safety culture can be formal or informal and internal or external. The results of these assessments, e.g. hygiene audit scores should, however, not be seen as an end in themselves but as a vehicle for further improvements. Good hygiene behaviour must be recognised and rewarded with procedures in place to deal with, and improve, poor food hygiene behaviour (Griffith, 2014). Useful as audits are, perhaps historically too much emphasis has been placed by food companies on short term audit results with some companies receiving good audit/inspection scores causing food poisoning soon afterwards (Griffith, 2014).\nOverall discussion and conclusions: Notified or known cases of foodborne disease represent the tip of the iceberg (Griffith, 2010; Tam et al., 2012) and the consequences of failing to provide safe food are becoming more severe for victims, businesses and even countries. Success in food safety must not just be to conform to requirements but to achieve a successful business with satisfied safe customers. Producing safe food consistently, especially in large quantities shortly before consumption requires the use of known food safety practices which in turn is dependent upon an integration of a well-constructed management system in conjunction with an appropriate food safety culture. The latter has been variously described as \"the glue that holds everything together\" (Griffith, 2014) an \"insurance against catastrophe\" (Ades et al., 2014) and with reports that improving food safety culture can reduce food safety issues by as much as 60 per cent[2].\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess elements of food safety management and food safety culture within a prominent South African entertainment, hotel and food service complex.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In this paper a qualitative case study approach was used. Following a comprehensive literature review, based on factors known to be important in developing a food safety culture, in combination with national and international food safety standards, an interview guide was constructed and utilised in a series of semi-structured interviews. The interviewees represented different management levels involved in food delivery but did not include board level managers.\nFindings: Many of the factors considered important in good food safety management, including the presence of a formal food safety policy and the creation and maintenance of a positive food safety culture, were absent. Although a formal system of internal hygiene auditing existed and food safety training was provided to food handlers they were not integrated into a comprehensive approach to food safety management. Food safety leadership, communication and support were considered deficient with little motivation for staff to practise good hygiene.\nOriginality/value: Food safety culture is increasingly recognised as a contributory factor in foodborne disease outbreaks and is the focus of increasing research. However, although every food business has a unique food safety culture there are relatively few published papers concerning its analysis, application and use within specific businesses. This case study has identified food safety culture shortcomings within a large food service facility suggesting there was a potentially significant food safety risk and indicates ways in which food safety could be improved and the risk reduced. The results also suggest further work is needed in the subject of food safety culture and its potential for reducing foodborne disease.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Intellectual capital assessment practices: overview and managerial implications
|
[
"Intellectual capital",
"Assessment strategy",
"Value management",
"Value communication",
"Assessment",
"Decision making"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. The question: This special issue of Journal of Intellectual Capital is devoted to the analysis of the intellectual capital (IC) assessment practices and its relevance for organisations in today's business landscape. Particular attention is paid on the analysis of possible practices that companies can put in place to assess and communicate IC driving value creation mechanisms as well as on the relationships among these practices and other relevant organisational processes and performance dimensions.The relevance of assessing and managing IC is emerged as a key concern starting from 1990s. Managers have recognised that the competitiveness of their organisations no longer resides solely onto traditional financial and tangible resources. Although, they still represent relevant assets, they are not able to guarantee sustainable and differentiating competitive advantages. The twenty-first century organisations are aware that most of their capacity to create value is strongly linked to the ownership and development of organisation's IC (Carmeli and Tishler, 2004; Carlucci et al., 2004; Schiuma et al., 2008). As a result, the concept of IC has become a key notion to denote the overall intangible and knowledge resources at the basis of company's competencies (Barney, 1991; Grant, 1991; Liebowitz, 1999; Wernerfelt, 1984). The understanding of the strategic relevance of IC for company competitiveness and organisations' value creation is related to the characteristics of today's global business landscape. It appears more and more characterised by interconnectedness, interdependence, and a high level of complexity which force organisations to be flexible, proactive and resilient. In the new business scenario most of the traditional strategies, approaches and policies no longer work the way they used to. The new key challenge is the ability to act as intelligent organisations, i.e. as organisations that are able to leverage their IC in order to achieve their business objectives, envision new development paths and integrate continuous transformation into their \"DNA\".The IC assessment, management and communication can be considered as the cornerstone of the development of new business models focused on the valorisation of intangible and knowledge resources in order to prompt creativity, imagination, energy and passion within organisations. They are increasingly emerging as the new competitive factors for creating value in the global business (Marr and Schiuma, 2001; Marr et al., 2004a; Schiuma, 2011).Companies have traditionally measured economic, financial and operational performances, while they have disregarded the intangible and knowledge dimensions of their business. This assessment myopia involves an underestimation of the company's capabilities to create value. Successful companies are those that continuously innovate, take advantages of new technologies and use the skills and know-how of their employees. In this perspective the IC represents the strategic value drivers that need to be assessed and managed (Marr et al., 2004b, c).In particular, the assessment of IC plays a fundamental role to manage the organisational value creation capabilities as well as to disclose and communicate the value of company's components. Two effective metaphors to illustrate these aspects are: the iceberg and the tree's roots metaphors. The first one points out that as the iceberg's mass is mostly hided under the sea's surface, likewise the value of today's company is significantly and increasingly tied to invisible dimensions that take the form of intangible and knowledge assets. On the other hand, the metaphor of the tree's roots aims to communicate the idea that the value creation dynamics of a company are grounded on invisible value drivers that build the knowledge domain of an organisation.The contribution of this special issue focuses on the role of IC assessment and management in devising, operating and implementing the organisation's strategy and processes. The selection of papers collected in this special issue is largely based on the works of the conference \"International Forum on Knowledge Assets Dynamics - IFKAD 2012\" organised in June 2012 in Matera, Italy. At this leading international conference, experts explored the challenges and practices of measuring and managing IC to support value creation and business performance improvements of micro-, macro- and meso-organisations.2. Rationale for IC assessment practices: a strategic perspective\n3. Overview on contributions to this issue: The contributions to this special issue deal with different aspects, which are important for a better understanding the IC assessment practices and its relevance for achieving business excellence of twenty-first century organisations.The main topics covered by the collection of papers deal with: the point of convergence between the process of drawing up the intellectual capital statement (ICS) and the corporate social responsibility statement (CSRS); the exploration of how managers mobilise IC items when approaching their investors and analysts; the relationships among IC management, measurement and reporting practices; the investigation of what Italian Universities consider IC in their performance plans; the relationships between performance management systems (PMSs) and IC in public universities; the analysis of the economic, political and social premises according to which some governmental agencies decide to promote IC reporting in their countries.The first paper by Paola Paoloni and Paola De Martini examines - through an action research perspective - the point of convergence between the process of drawing up the ICS and the CSRS, as forms of voluntary disclosure integrating traditional financial reporting. Methodologically, being consistent with the theoretical framework, it is adopted a qualitative approach based on action research which involved the process of actively participating in a situation of organisational change whilst carrying out research at the same time. The choice of a company operating in the sector of renewable energy sources - specifically Italian GSE - was coherent with the research aims since the company's products and services incorporate a high value not only in terms of the financial capital of the firm but also from its IC and CRS value.The second paper by Johann Graaf analyses how managers mobilise IC items when approaching their investors and analysts. It is highlighted that, to this date, there is a lack of knowledge surrounding the translation processes of IC, from corporate disclosures to the capital market. Little is known of how managers mobilise their IC in order to support analysts and investors to embrace it and consider it as a relevant part of corporate disclosures. The study applies a performative approach to IC, in which framing theory is mobilised to understand the duality of financial indicators. The empirical material is collected through a case study approach, focusing on the interim reporting practices of a Swedish online gaming company. The findings suggest that IC is highly dependent on financial indicators and can therefore not be treated as separated from financial capital. Instead of complementing financial capital, IC is the symptomatic quality of financial indicators, i.e., a way to make sense, contextualise and reconnect a disentangled representation with empirical phenomena.The third contribution by Maria Serena Chiucchi aims to contribute to understanding how the take up of IC management practices can be hindered or leveraged through IC measurement by proposing a multiple case study research referred to a project for measuring and reporting IC. By disentangling the dynamics of how IC was introduced, how the measurement system was shaped, how the measures have (or have not) been used and if and how they have fostered actions referred to IC, the longitudinal analysis of the four cases offers the opportunity to critically analyse which technical, organisational and cultural factors have promoted or hindered IC mobilisation. In this way the paper aims to shed further light on the possible factors which can leverage or hamper the adoption of IC measurement frameworks proposed in theory but rarely applied in practice.The paper by Benedetta Siboni, Maria Teresa Nardo and Daniele Sangiorgi investigates what Italian state universities consider as IC in their performance plans. It is highlighted that universities assume a specific responsibility in the production and dissemination of knowledge and in the investment in research and human resources; consequently, a central role has been given to IC approaches in managing universities. Drawing from this, in 2009 Italy required state universities to issue a performance plan with a section devoted to IC. A content analysis is proposed to discover the type and extent of IC strategies in a group of 44 contemporary performance plans. The findings show a variable focus on IC items, with a particular emphasis on aspects related to the development of relationships with external partners, supporting the idea that nowadays the university sector is strongly investing in the development of relational capital to achieve its third mission.The fifth paper by Vincenza Esposito, Ernesto De Nito, Mario Pezzillo Iacono and Lucia Silvestri sets out to investigate the relationship between PMSs and knowledge in public universities. In particular this paper intends to verify how different choices related to PMS affect the nature of knowledge, in terms of tacit vs explicit dichotomy. In particular, 15 case studies of PMS design in Italian universities are presented. Results show how PMSs (in the different forms presented in the universities' evaluation plans) could represent an important social tool to facilitate the management of organisational knowledge, combining explicit and tacit forms of knowledge.Finally, Laura Girella proposes an alternative way, namely political economy, to investigate how the phenomenon of IC, intangibles and their related practices can also be conceived of as witnessing a shift of attention and efforts from a micro (company) to a macro (institutional) perspective. In particular, the paper addresses the issues of how a business reporting technique, i.e. intellectual capital reporting become of policy interest as well as the rationales, the processes, the actors and the outcomes within a political economy perspective. In order to address these issues, the case of Japan from the end of the 1990s is used as example. In particular, the introduction of the guidelines published by the Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry and others governmental agencies are examined by means of critical discourse analysis.\n4. Conclusions and research implications: The exploitation of knowledge resources, as strategic source for acquiring and maintaining company's competitive advantage requires approaches and tools for IC assessment and reporting. In today's global business, organisations need to integrate the measurement and management of company's tangible assets with the assessment of intangible and knowledge assets.With the aim to address the relevance of shedding light on the IC assessment practices, this editorial delineates an overview of the meaning and the contents of IC assessment strategies. This aims to clarify the strategic intents and to draw some implications about the practices adopted for assess and report IC. Four main IC assessment strategies are proposed. They can be considered as guidelines for organisations and consultants approaching the evaluation of an organisation's IC. The identification of these strategies not only contribute to advance the theory of IC assessment, but also provide insights for managers in order to better define and implement frameworks and approaches for measuring organisational knowledge resources. Especially they support managers in choosing and arranging critical information for defining the most suitable decisions and actions concerning the effective management and development of a company's IC.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: - Acknowledging the strategic relevance of assessing and managing intellectual capital (IC), this editorial first aims to discuss a classification of the IC assessment strategies and second seeks to introduce the main topics investigated by the papers collected in this special issue. The notion of IC assessment strategy is interpreted as the set of economic and managerial decisions and purposes characterising the assessment of an organisation's knowledge assets. It is argued that the definition of a knowledge asset assessment strategy has to take into account two dimensions: on the one hand, the nature of the managerial approach to be adopted for the assessment, distinguishing between \"value management\" and \"value communication\"; and on the other hand, the most appropriate \"evaluation architecture\" to be used in order to gather and report the assessment information for control and decision making.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The approaches, evidences and insights discussed in this introduction result from the integration of the theory analysis with the insights extracted from the discussions that took place at the conference \"International Forum on Knowledge Assets Dynamics\" organized in June 2012 in Matera, Italy. At this leading international conference, experts discussed the importance of intellectual capital for organizational business excellence in the 21st century business landscape, the new IC key-value drivers to focus on in order to face emergent competitive challenges, and the research and management practices most appropriate to address complexity, uncertainty and changes of today's business landscape.\nFindings: - Four IC assessment strategies are proposed, addressing their relevance for management actions. This represents the background to introduce the main topics investigated by the papers that are collected in this special issue.\nOriginality/value: - This editorial outlines the key IC assessment strategies that organisations and practitioners should take into account when designing measurement systems aimed at gathering information to inform IC management actions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Corporate events' performance and corporate governance: the Brazilian evidence
|
[
"Corporate governance",
"Corporate event performance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This paper investigates the relation between corporate governance and corporate events' performance. Firms that engage in corporate events seem to perform at least as bad as similar firms that did not[1]. One potential explanation for such finding relies on issues related to (unobservable) agency costs. Companies in which managers have higher discretion might be more likely to engage in projects that are not optimal for the firm, resulting in lower future performance. Nevertheless, stronger governance mechanisms could mitigate such detrimental discretion, preventing managers to engage in value-destroying projects.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Corporate events\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Sample\n4. Results: 4.1 Events' performance and governance\n5. Conclusion: This paper studies the role of corporate governance in evaluating corporate events' performance. Findings from mean comparisons suggest that event firms have systematically different characteristics compared to their peers. Moreover, univariate analysis suggests that firms that engage in corporate events perform at least as bad as firms that did not.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relation between corporate governance and corporate events' performance. Firms that engage in corporate events seem to perform at least as bad as similar firms that did not. Based on agency theory, the authors hypothesize that lower corporate performance is associated to differences in governance levels.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Bessembinder and Zhang's (2013) approach to evaluate the performance of corporate events has been expanded by considering unique corporate governance features from Brazilian stock market.\nFindings: The results suggest that after controlling for governance levels, event rms and control rms have similar performance. A number of analyses were performed to rule out alternative explanations.\nOriginality/value: The results call attention for the role of agency costs in evaluating corporate events' performance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Gender stereotypes make it harder for professional women to network in Cyprus
|
[
"Networking",
"Cyprus",
"Gender bias",
"Patriarchal"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Companies in Cyprus are missing out on female managerial talent because of deeply engrained cultural stereotypes that prevent females from networking. Research found that successful networking - either formally or informally - was a major factor in reaching higher positions at work. But Cypriot women in the accountancy and academic professions often find themselves excluded from social events simply because of their gender. The study, by Socratous (2018), from Heriot-Watt University, in the UK, described Cyprus as a \"highly patriarchal society\" and suggested that \"networking is a male-dominated game\".\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: The purpose of the study was to examine whether gender bias affects networking for females in Cyprus. The picture that emerged from the interviews confirmed Socratous' feeling that Cypriot cultural norms were a barrier to female networking. Both the male and female participants came up with similar analysis of the problem. The author said that the study was important for companies in Cyprus that might be failing to promote the best people to higher positions.\nPractical implications: The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.\nOriginality/value: The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Buyer-supplier relational paradigm in internationalization process: An Asian emerging country perspective
|
[
"Cultural similarity",
"Internationalization process",
"Communication",
"Importer–supplier",
"Knowledge and experience"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The last three decades have witnessed a significant increase in and development of strong, mutual and collaborative international business (IB) relationships with reliable foreign suppliers that has resulted in relational outcomes, for example, commitment, trust and relationship performance (e.g. Khojastehpour and Johns, 2015; Panahifar et al., 2018; Skarmeas et al., 2016). This has enthused considerable research attention in the formation and management of inter-firm relationship ties (Su and Yang, 2017). Some scholars have integrated both the relational paradigm (Barnes et al., 2015; Leonidou, 2003) and internationalization process (IP) theory (Johanson and Vahlne, 2009) to explain relational mechanisms in international research settings (e.g. Barnes et al., 2015; LaBahn and Harich, 1997; Leonidou et al., 2011; Skarmeas et al., 2016; Yamin and Kurt, 2018). With the growth of network theory, relational paradigms have advanced within many research streams, including sociology, psychology and international relations, over the past three decades (Colchester, 2016; Ge and Wang, 2013; Ogulin et al., 2012).\n2. Review of theories and relevant literature: Comparisons of the internationalization stage models show fundamental differences between the theoretical arguments put forward by Johanson and Wiedersheim-Paul (1975) and Johanson and Vahlne (1977, 2009). Johanson and Wiedersheim-Paul (1975) present a conceptual framework, with an emphasis on PD based on four case studies. However, Johanson and Vahlne (1977, 2009) elaborate empirical theorization based on traditional microeconomics and marketing theory, where the concept of successive and incremental commitment replaces the internationalization stages (Hadjikhani, 1997; Johanson and Vahlne, 1990). IP theory's initial emphasis on the experiential learning of market-specific tacit knowledge for incremental internationalization through market commitment has missed the opportunity to learn from other business networks (Musteen et al., 2014), where long-lasting relationships can facilitate inter-organizational knowledge sharing (Forsgren, 2002). Recent theoretical progressions suggest that relationship commitment is more important than market commitment (Johanson and Vahlne, 2006), and the modern business environment is viewed as a web of relationships of trust and commitment, rather than as a neoclassical market consisting of suppliers and customers only (Johanson and Vahlne, 2009). The present study integrates the Uppsala school of thought to examine the international buyer-supplier trust and commitment relationship in a developing Asian country - Bangladesh.\n3. Developing the research model and hypotheses: Drawing on IP theory (Johanson and Vahlne, 1977; Johanson and Wiedersheim-Paul, 1975) and the expanded concept of commitment-trust (Morgan and Hunt, 1994), this study endeavored to integrate key rational variables. In view of this, a tentative conceptual model was proposed (see Figure 2) to further investigate the causalities of the commitment-trust building process. Given the predominance of the developed country contexts in building and testing the reviewed theories for this study, a two-step process was followed. First, exploratory, qualitative research was undertaken to consider whether importing firm managers in an Asian developing country behave differently. Second, a thorough quantitative technique was employed. The details structural design of this research is presented in Figure 1.\n4. Quantitative research design: 4.1 Research context, population and sample\n5. Data analysis: 5.1 Verification of sample/data bias, non-response bias and assessment of normality\n6. Results and discussion: The modified proposed model and proposed hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling analysis in the AMOS package. The model was found to have a parsimonious fit with kh2/df=1.85, RMSEA=0.061, IFI=0.95, TLI=0.94 and CFI=0.95. Further, the study conducted a bootstrap approximation to examine the standardized indirect (mediated) effect of cultural similarity on knowledge and experience, and commitment, as well as the standardized indirect (mediated) effect of communication on commitment, and knowledge and experience on trust. The results show that all indirect (mediated) effects are significant at the 0.01 and 0.05 levels. Overall, the analyses provide significant support to all hypotheses and to the theoretical as well as derived qualitative model. While developing countries such as Bangladesh experience numerous inherent difficulties deterring the development of durable international trading relationships, the current study findings replicate ways of evading these complications both for importers and for foreign suppliers. The detailed results of the proposed hypothesized model and mediating effects are illustrated in Tables IV and V.\n7. Implications and contributions: Numerous theoretical and practical contextual implications can be drawn from the above findings. Fundamentally, the study findings imply that commitment in IB relationships is a vibrant and indivisible factor, which not only sustains enduring relationships but contribute to building and maintaining a trustworthy exchange relationship for long-term success. Although an anecdotal review clearly reveals that trust is a critical construct in assessing IB relationships, by contrast the qualitative findings of this study have led to the development of a projected relationship that commitment nurtures trust. The study provides support for this prediction, noting that this causal relationship is implied and valid in the context of this research. The explanation can be related to the fact that the importer commitment development process may vary given the typically collective cultural mindset in Asian societies (Hofstede, 1980; Sharma et al., 2006). This also provides an answer to the concern raised by Choi (2004) as to whether commitment begets trust or trust begets commitment. This finding suggests that trust is the most critical factor in an international exchange relationship (Johanson, 2008).\n8. Limitations and future research directions: In this study there are some inherent limitations; however, these may not undermine its unique contributions to the body of knowledge. As this study is a pioneering initiative to integrate many conceptual assertions and claims drawn from IP theory (e.g. Hadjikhani, 1997; Johanson and Vahlne, 2006, 2009, 2011; Liang and Parkhe, 1997; Saleh et al., 2015) to empirically test a model in a new research setting, the findings are tentative. Replication efforts are thus needed within diverse research settings to test the external validity of the current empirical research findings. A further limitation of this study is its relatively narrow scope, which may have an impact on the generalization of the findings. The study focused on importers' perceptions of the importer-exporter relationship from a developing country perspective. A constructive research approach for a future study would, therefore, be to integrate both importer and exporter perceptions based on qualitative and quantitative approaches. Because of the macro and micro environmental differences between developed and developing countries, importers' perceptions on the developing country situation may not be comparable with those of developed countries. Therefore, a comparative study between developed and developing country importers would yield useful information for practitioners, while operating in varying cross-cultural settings. Other possible lines of research include new explanatory variables of the importer-foreign supplier relationship, such as opportunistic behavior and environmental factors, in order to increase the model's explanatory power. Financial variables with other possible theoretical groundings, such as return on investment and market share growth, could also be considered, as opposed to only the behavioral variables explored in this study.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore international buyer-supplier relationships in an emerging developing country context. The study examines a number of factors derived from internationalization process (IP) theory and their impacts in a novel research setting. The relational variables of trust and commitment, and their drivers, are integrated into a model examining importers' perspectives of their supplier relationships.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study applied a sequential methodological approach. Initially, a conceptual framework was developed from qualitative research and then quantitatively validated using structural equation modeling (SEM). The data for this study were collected conducting in-depth interviews and survey questionnaires. For empirical validation, the SEM technique was applied to assess the proposed model.\nFindings: Importing firm managers perceived that the commitment of their suppliers bolstered their trust in the relationship, this contrasts with the conventional contention of a reverse relationship. The findings confirm cultural similarity facilitates communication, leading to increased knowledge and experience of importers, thereby contributing to an enhanced commitment to build trust in the relationship.\nPractical implications: The conceptual framework developed in this study provides a direction to manage and enhance understanding of IP and relationship outcome. The findings have strategic implications for practicing managers in developing and supporting their importer-foreign supplier relationships.\nOriginality/value: This study is unique in assessing as well as validating key constructs of IP theory in an international exchange (importer-supplier) relationship. The study offers completely a new insight in relation to applying IP theory's relational perspectives.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Critical success factors from IT outsourcing theories: an empirical study
|
[
"Critical success factor",
"Communication technologies",
"Outsourcing",
"Case studies",
"Research work"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Information technology (IT) outsourcing is the practice of turning over all or part of an organization's IT functions to an outside vendor. Although IT functions never have been more important to business success, outsourcing is developing in an unprecedented rate. To understand this trend, we have conducted an extensive literature review. We have identified a total of 11 theories that help explain why IT outsourcing is occurring worldwide. These theories are presented first in this paper. Based on these theories, we developed 11 critical success factors in IT outsourcing, one for each theory. These factors are presented next in this paper. We developed the following research question:RQ1. How do practitioners rank critical success factors based on outsourcing theories?\nIT outsourcing theories: The 11 theoretical perspectives presented may help to understand IT outsourcing practices in different settings.Theory of core competencies\nCritical success factors: Based on this extensive literature review of outsourcing theories, we identified the following 11 critical success factors in IT outsourcing:1. Core competence management. The organization has to define its IT needs and manage IT services from the vendor.2. Vendor resource exploitation. The organization has to integrate and exploit strategic IT resources from the vendor together with its own resources to produce competitive goods and services.3. Transaction cost reduction. The organization has to minimize transaction costs by reducing the need for lasting specific IT assets, increase transaction frequency, reduce complexity and uncertainty in IT tasks, improve performance measurements, and reduce dependence on other transactions.4. Contract completeness. The organization must have a complete IT outsourcing contract. The contract should prevent opportunistic behavior in an efficient collaborative environment with balance of power between client and vendor.5. Production cost reduction. The organization has to integrate and exploit IT services from the vendor in a cost effective way to produce competitive goods and services.6. Alliance exploitation. The organization has to develop experience with alliances, develop alliance managers and develop the ability to identify potential vendors.7. Relationship exploitation. The organization has to develop and secure common norms that are relevant to both parties.8. Social exchange exploitation. The organization has to enable social and economic outcomes in the exchange between the vendor and itself such that these outcomes outperform those obtainable in alternative exchanges.9. Vendor behavior control. The organization has to make it easy and inexpensive for itself to find out what the vendor is actually doing. In addition, both outcome-based and behavior-based incentives can be used to reduce and prevent opportunistic vendor behavior.10. Demarcation of labor. The organization has to implement a strict and rigid division of labor between the vendor and itself.11. Stakeholder management. The organization must create efficient and effective communication with and between stakeholders to secure continued support from all stakeholders, to balance their interests and to make the IT outsourcing arrangement so that all stakeholders achieve their goals.\nResearch methodology: In order to understand the inherent complexities and the underlying constructs of managing successful IT outsourcing relationships empirical research was need. The exploratory case studies, conducted through July - September 2004, had the following guiding research question: \"How do client and vendor organizations manage their IT outsourcing relationships?\"The selection of cases was based on an instrumental approach, which means that the case study was carried out to provide insight into issue or refinement of theory. \"The case is of secondary interest; it plays a supportive role, facilitating our understanding of something else. The choice of case is made because it is expected to advance our understanding of that other interest\" (Stake, 1994, p. 237). Three cases were selected for their paradigmatic characteristics in terms of their outsourcing undertaking. In other words, the cases were selected because, the ABB - IBM was a global one; the SAS - CSC contract belonged to the largest buy-outs in Europe; the Rolls-Royce - EDS contract was a mature one. All cases were unique with global client companies from different industries, and all vendor companies were global service providers. In all three international based cases more than a thousand employees were transferred from client to vendor organizations. They provided a broad base of relationship practice, suggesting that a case in each company would be of interest and value to this research study. Table III shows some characteristics of the IT outsourcing relationships studied.Data collection was done through a total of 16 interviews, with questions addressing: enter and exit strategies, phases and activities, contract development, personnel issues, governance structures and relationship management, and knowledge management, with a strong emphasis on what characteristics influenced successful IT outsourcing relationship. For each client-vendor outsourcing relationship, two-three interviewees were selected from each organization. All interviewees were assured anonymity to promote openness. Interviews were either personal meetings or telephone conferences, and lasted from 60 minutes to 95 minutes. Transcript of each interview was sent to respondent for approval. An abbreviation of each case was written and analyzed according to the theoretical perspectives. The individual cases served only as the evidentiary base for the study and were then used in a cross-case analysis. The purpose was not to portray any single one of the relationships. Rather, it was to synthesize the lessons learned from all of them, dispersed throughout separate cross-case issues.In addition, a survey instrument was developed. In the survey instrument, each of the critical success factors was defined and a five-point Likert-scale was applied. All interviewees in the three international based case studies were asked to rate from 1 (low) to 5 (high) the importance of 11 individual factors.\nResearch results: In this part of the paper, we first present survey results. Then we present findings from the case studies to illustrate the most critical success factors. On a scale from 1 (low) to 5 (high), core competence management was found to be the most critical success factors in IT outsourcing relationships, as indicated with the score of 4.67 in Table IV. The score is based on the response from 16 interviews.In all three cases, one important driver of outsourcing was cost reduction. According to neoclassical economic theory, companies will justify their sourcing strategy based on evaluating possibilities for production cost savings. Thus, the question of whether or not to outsource, is a question whether the marketplace can produce product and services at a lower price than internal production. Client companies reported reduction of costs, better cost-performance, and economies of scale, compared to internal IT function.But costs were not the only reasons for none of the client companies. New business strategies and restructuring of client companies was also important drivers. ABB were restructuring around two core business areas, and SAS admitted that IT was not at the core of an airliner. Core competencies theory suggests that activities, which are not core competencies, should be considered for outsourcing with best-in-the-world suppliers. Their outsourcing vendors, IBM and CSC respectively, had IT as their core competence.The ability to handle technological change was also reported as a major issue for outsourcing. Both Rolls-Royce and SAS had a challenge, handling both cost reduction and new technologies at the same time. According to the resource-based perspective, outsourcing is a strategic decision that can be used to fill gaps in the firm's IS resources and capabilities. In the case of Rolls-Royce and SAS, it was a difference between desired capabilities and actual capabilities. Interesting to notice, the transforming of Rolls-Royce from a manufacturing oriented company to a service oriented company, seemed to be a part of the plan. Vendor resources can produce innovation, which might be important for long-term survival of the client. In this specific case, the vendor's ability to do change agentry was an important criterion for vendor selection.In the following, we will present the case studies for the three most critical success factors in Table IV.Core competence management\nConclusion: Based on our interpretation of relevant theories, critical success factors for IT outsourcing relationships were developed. These factors were empirically tested and investigated in three outsourcing relationships. Although cost savings still seem to be the overriding cause of IT outsourcing, the success of outsourcing relationships depends on other factors. Both core competence management and stakeholder management, as identified in this research, are primarily non-cost factors.In this research we have addressed the question of how to successfully manage IT outsourcing relationships. Using well-established theoretical perspectives and our own experiences earned from case studies, our ambition has been to identify critical issues in the complex IT outsourcing process and emerging relationships.Based on the findings three managerial implications are suggested. First, we argue that a holistic approach to IT outsourcing is needed, that recognizes and emphasizes the combination of several critical success factors. These factors have both divergent and convergent implications for management. Being aware of these factors, managers are enabled to recognize relationship problems as they occur and to handle them before they scrutinize the IT outsourcing success. Second, we emphasize the importance of both client and vendor success in an effective IT outsourcing relationship, as the two parties is mutually dependent on one another. Finally, we recognize the complexity of IT outsourcing. When contracts expire there is a need to have an exit strategy focusing not only on the economic success of the IT outsourcing, but also to question issues such as core competence management, access to resources, and the maturity of the relationship.The current research has several shortcomings that should be addressed in future research. Future research should:* more carefully develop the motivation for such studies, elaborate on the specific research questions it addresses, and why these questions are important for research or practice;* more carefully develop and explain how critical success factors can be identified from the various theories; and* clarify the theoretical and empirical contributions this kind of research makes over and above the prior literature in the area.Perhaps future research should focus on one or two theories, explicitly laying out expectations with respect to the theories, and organizing rich data to test expectations. Furthermore, it would be interesting to observe theories where the predictions contradict one another, and using observational data to study conditions for one theory or another to dominate.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This research paper aims to identify and rank critical issues in IT outsourcing relationships.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A total of 11 management theories were applied in this research: theory of core competencies, resource-based theory, neo-classical economic theory, transaction cost theory, contractual theory, agency theory, partnership and alliance theory, relational exchange theory, stakeholder theory, social exchange theory and theory of firm boundaries. The main method used is case studies and survey. Case studies were conducted in three IT outsourcing relationships: ABB-IBM, SAS-CSC, and RR-EDS.\nFindings: - Core competence management and stakeholder management were found to be the most critical success factors. Future research should focus on one or two theories, explicitly laying out expectations with respect to the theories, and organizing rich data to test expectations.\nOriginality/value: - This paper demonstrates that a holistic approach to IT outsourcing is needed that recognizes and emphasizes the combination of several critical success factors. The theory-based factors have both divergent and convergent implications for management.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Public hearings in Thailand's infrastructure projects: effective participations?
|
[
"Project management",
"Design and development",
"Public relations",
"Citizen participation",
"Thailand"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Unanticipated difficulties and risks are encountered in the planning and construction of many infrastructure development projects. Special socio-economic and environmental considerations must then be accounted for. Public participation has increasingly become a key element for development projects, creating new ground rules and expectations for environmental management and risk policy decisions (Gregory, 2000). The proposition that greater levels of public participation could improve decisions has also attracted considerable support from decision-making bodies (Mumpower, 2001).Conflicts do occur in projects and are usually caused by differences in attitudes of different project stakeholder groups (Awakul and Ogunlana, 2002). Such opinion diversities can be alleviated via better public participation activities since it is advocated to build stakeholder consensus and enhance administrative decision-making (King and Strivers, 1998; Sanoff, 2000; Klein, 2001). The key difference is the extent to which those involved in the process are able to influence, share, or control the decision-making process (Petts, 1999). Therefore, extensive evaluation of public participation techniques is necessary and needs to be taken into account since growing amount of effort and resources are being spent in such participation activities (TRB, 1999).Evaluation of the public involvement activities is broadly recognized and practiced in the developed countries in several fields such as transportation developments (Rosener, 1978; TRB, 1999), public affairs (Cole and Caputo, 1984), stakeholder process (EPA, 1998), risk management decisions (McComas and Scherer, 1998), environmental decisions (Beierle, 1998), science and technology policy (Rowe and Frewer, 2000) and government administration (Wang, 2001). The effectiveness of public hearing as an instrument in the government's public participation activities in countries with less experience of democracy has also been questioned (Yang and Schachter, 2003; Almer and Koontz, 2004).In recent years, many infrastructure development projects in Thailand have faced strong oppositions due to social and environmental conflicts. To reduce project disputes, the Thai Prime Minister's Office (OPM) issued the Public Hearing Regulation BE 2539 in 1996. Public hearing is widely employed by many government agencies, as it is the only available official means for public participation in development projects. However, public hearings sometimes created more conflicts (Bureekul, 2000; Mantalumpa et al., 2000) and failed to improve stakeholders' perception of environmental soundness of projects (Ogunlana et al., 2001). Skepticisms gradually arose and public acceptability of the process diminished such that it is becoming difficult to have constructive stakeholder participation (Siroros, 2002).To date, there has been little scientific research to specifically assess the performance of public hearings in Thailand. As conflicts may arise when perception and role ambiguities among project stakeholders or public hearing participants exist, the purposes of public hearing may be affected resulting in an insufficient participation process. Through a comparative study, this research aimed to assess the performance of three public hearings by:1. identifying stakeholders' attitudes towards public hearings;2. assessing public hearing participants evaluation and level of satisfaction in order to determine the effectiveness of the conducted hearings; and3. determining relationship of hearing evaluation and satisfaction.\nPublic hearing as a vehicle for public participation: In large-scale construction projects, public participation is used to solicit the views of interested stakeholders. Public hearing is the most commonly used participation method in North America (Parenteau, 1988; Sinclair and Diduck, 1995). Public hearing provides formal opportunity and valuable experience for project stakeholders who may feel more encouraged to participate. However, as Petts (1999) commented, public participation in principle can be distinct from its practice when the project stakeholders have different views on the outcome and process objectives of participation. If the objectives derived for public hearing do not reflect the objectives of all, the differing objectives can have significant impact on the process' effectiveness particularly where they may be in conflict.\nFrameworks for assessing the public hearing performance via its operational effectiveness: Attempts have been made to assess the overall success and effectiveness of the public participation process resulting in frameworks for process evaluation. Renn et al. (1994) focused on the process' fairness and competency. To be fair, all parties affected by the decision should have equal opportunity to participate, present facts and values, and to challenge other participant's statements to influence the decision. To be competent, the method should lead to understanding and agreements. Wilcox (1994) also introduced a guide for effective participation, suggesting appropriate level and phase of participation as well as stakeholder identification.The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA, 1998) assessed the effectiveness of the participation process on four aspects: structure of the process; participation in the process; management of the process; and resources required by the process by means of surveys of stakeholders' perspectives. Beierle (1998) also identified the determinants of effectiveness of public participation programs in terms of six \"social\" goals relating to public education; incorporation of public values into decision-making; improvement of quality decisions; trust building; conflict reduction; and cost-effectiveness. The Transportation Research Board (TRB, 1999) provided indicators to measure the issues of public acceptability, accessibility, good decision-making, education and learning, time commitments, trust, and indirect costs of public involvement.In addition, Rowe and Frewer (2000) specified the \"acceptance criteria\" and the \"process criteria\" that are theoretically essential evaluation criteria for effective public participation. The \"acceptance criteria\" concerns features of a method that make it acceptable to the wider public while the \"process criteria\" concerns features of the process that are liable to ensure that it takes place in an effective manner. The International Association for Public Participation (IAP2, 2003) specified core values for the public participation practices, which are public's right to participate, promised influence of public's contribution on decision-making, communication of participants' needs and interests, participation outreach and facilitation, defining participation procedures, and provision of information for meaningful participation.TRB (1999) also suggested assessing the success of public participation program by measuring the satisfaction level of the participants. The assessment questions include those pertaining to the accomplishment of objectives, and attitudinal changes as a result of participation. Furia and Wallace-Jones (2000) also pointed out that the public involvement process is considered effective when the goals of involving the public are satisfied. Wang (2001) also indicated that consistent public participation would result in public needs to be effectively monitored and prompt responses to such needs being provided, which consequently result in people's satisfaction.\nPublic hearing in Thailand's infrastructure development project: In Thailand, various forms of public participation are used during the EIA and feasibility studies for construction projects. Before 1996, there was no clear systematic procedure on when and how to constructively involve the public. According to the Public Hearing Regulation BE 2539 (OPM, 1996), a hearing may be initiated upon request of the project proponent, the government, or other project stakeholders. The minister or the governor makes decision to hold a public hearing and appoints a committee to conduct the hearing. The committee extends formal hearing invitation to project stakeholders and the general public. Public hearing is then held on the set date and time at the arranged venue. To conclude the process, the committee has to submit a public hearing report to the minister or governor who ordered the hearing.In the past decade, public hearings have faced several problems in Thailand. It has been criticized as an ineffective way to involve the public in a project, since it occasionally causes violent confrontations. However, some hearings were smooth. As there is no continual process for evaluating of performance public hearing and monitoring its implementation, this research addresses an initial framework for assessing public hearing in the Thai context. It compares three public hearings conducted after 1996. The result reflects whether this participatory approach has been useful for project management.\nResearch method: The case study approach was considered appropriate for this research, as it facilitates a deep understanding of the subject and also allows the use of multiple sources of evidence such as archival data, interview results, questionnaire responses, and observations from real situations (Yin, 1994). This research synthesized the studied theoretical frameworks to derive public hearing performance aspects and criteria (Table I). Three cases of public hearings were selected based on their different settings: the On-Nuch Waste Disposal Plant, the Mae Wong Dam, and the Ta Chin River Barrages.The derived performance criteria were used to assess public hearing process integrity (process preparation and execution) and the result (output/outcome) of public hearing. Following the suggestion of Rowe and Frewer (2000), a questionnaire was designed to examine a spread of respondents' attitude towards public hearing practices in development projects in Thailand, their evaluation of the hearing conducted in the project, and their level of satisfaction with the performance aspects of the hearing they participated in. A four-point Likert scale was employed as well as open-ended questions. Random stratified sampling was used to achieve good representativeness of the hearing participants.Five respondent groups include:* Group 1: local government officials;* Group 2: the project proponents;* Group 3: the affected people;* Group 4: the Non-governmental organizations (NGOs); and* Group 5: the academics and experts.These distinct groups of project stakeholders were identified by Awakul and Ogunlana (2002). After the questionnaire has been tested for validity and reliability, it was administered on the field. Most of the respondents received mailed copies of the questionnaire. Some respondents received faxed, emailed, or hand delivered copies. The rate of responses from three case studies is presented in Table II.The level of participants' evaluation and satisfaction with the hearings were analyzed by using the arithmetical means and the visual comparison. To determine the public hearing's performance through its effectiveness, performance indices were calculated based on achievement on process and outcome objectives together with the stakeholders' satisfaction with both the process and its outcomes. Particular attention was drawn to the four performance aspects of public hearing process: structure of the process, participation in the process, management of the process, and resource required by the process.Two performance indices, PFI-PI and PFI-RC, were derived and graphed. The PFI-PI index was derived from the mean of evaluation and satisfaction of process integrity (PI: process preparation and execution) while the PFI-RC index was calculated from the mean of process integrity evaluation and satisfaction with the hearing result and contributions (RC: output/outcomes). The analysis was supplemented by results of open-ended questions and interviews with key informants including stakeholders' group representatives and the public hearing committee members.\nResults: Case studied projects in perspectives\nDiscussion: The effectiveness of the public hearing as a vehicle for public participation in Thailand has been debated. In order to initiate an attempt to scientifically assess the performance of Thai public hearing, this paper argues that the hearing's effectiveness could be determined by examining participants' evaluation and satisfaction with the process performance aspects and the outputs/outcomes. This comparative study investigated practices of three public hearings during the first decade of the implementation of the hearing regulation in Thailand. Public hearing practices may have to be adjusted to make participation as meaningful as possible.Attitudes towards public hearing as a method of public participation\nConclusion: Public hearings have been employed in Thailand's infrastructure development projects when social and environmental conflicts are likely to occur. The government used public hearing to settle disputes. Some hearings were disrupted and failed to proceed while other hearings were accomplished. Skepticisms on public hearing performance continue to rise while there was no scientific measure available to systematically assess the effectiveness of hearings.The research described in this paper aimed to assess public hearing performance by examining the hearing participants' attitude, evaluation, and level of satisfaction with four performance aspects: structure of the process, participation in the process, management of the process, and resource required by the process. Within these aspects, performance criteria were induced based on theoretical frameworks for evaluating public participation. A questionnaire survey was then conducted with hearing participants to ascertain both user-based and theory-based examinations.The results show that the hearing participants had positive attitudes towards public hearing. They were satisfied and gladly accepted the opportunity given to participate. However, the project supporters and opponents disagree in their evaluation and satisfaction depending on their process and outcome objectives. The hearing participants expected the process to better achieve the principles of participation in order to satisfy them. Limited supporting resource prevented the hearings from accomplishing the intended results, particularly participation in the process.To be effective, public hearing should be conducted early with clear articulated goals, objectives, and flexible procedures. Wide coverage of stakeholders, provided with access to complete and accurate information, is desirable. Process preparation should allow high public consultation. Two-way communication with equal opportunity to speak must be ensured. Level of incorporation and influence of public input should be clearly identified. The neutral and transparent public hearing committee is required to encourage open and fair communication, emphasizing on deliberation and consensus. Project technical information should be simplified and explained to the public, as it is the essential resource required for constructive hearing. Opinions from the public and local community should be seriously considered. Finally, the hearing result must be promptly and adequately publicized.This research constitutes a significant step towards the understanding of performance assessment of public hearing implementation in the Thai context. In the first decade of its implementation, public hearing in Thailand has not yet effectively and fully achieved the goals of ideal participation and good governance in project development. As public participation is becoming more crucial to successful project management worldwide, planners should extend their consideration to this essential issue, as it would reduce risks and opportunity losses due to opposition and disruption of project implementation. Positive attitude towards public hearing already opens the gateway to successful project management, leading to project acceptance. Therefore, prudent consideration of each unique situation and experience learned would enhance effective public hearing in which the project stakeholders potentially have influence upon efficiency and effectiveness of project management, economically, socially, and environmentally.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this article is to report the results of research on whether the public hearing in Thailand's infrastructure development projects can be an effective vehicle for the project's public participation and conflict resolution on projects.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The performance of public hearing depends on factors such as the structure of the process, participation, management, and resource required by the process. A case study approach is used to assess the performance of public hearings conducted in infrastructure development projects in Thailand by examining the project stakeholders' attitude by means of questionnaire survey and interviews. Evaluation by hearing participants and their level of satisfaction are interpreted to derive the effectiveness of the hearings. The extent to which satisfaction effects on evaluation is also considered.\nFindings: - It is shown that the hearings had moderate to low effectiveness primarily because the participation and management performance aspects did not meet the participants' expectations. The relationships of evaluation and satisfaction indices were examined. The hearing participants focus both on the process and outcome of hearings.\nOriginality/value: - The research reported the results of scientific assessment of public hearing performance, constituting a significant step towards understanding and implementation of public hearings in the Thai context as well as their influence on the efficiency and effectiveness of the project management concerning the stakeholder values.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The validation of a use innovativeness scale
|
[
"Mathematical modelling",
"Factor analysis",
"Measurement"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: It has been estimated that two-thirds of products fail at average cost of around $US15 million a product. However, as Steenkamp et al. (1999) noted, many major companies, such as Gillette and Hewlett-Packard, rely on new products for profits and growth. Obtaining acceptance for new products is a vital, but extremely risky process, which means a good understanding of consumers' acceptance of new product and services, which has been linked to a personality trait termed innovativeness (Foxall, 1995; Goldsmith, 1990; Midgley and Dowling, 1978; Venkatraman and Price, 1990), is crucially important.Use innovativeness is a related construct that focuses on the ways products or services are used. Consequently, use innovativeness can apply as much to old products and services as to new ones (Price and Ridgway, 1983). A consumer can be use innovative if, for example, they use an old product in a new or novel way (e.g. they might use baking soda to remove carpet stains). Alternatively, a consumer might use new products for old activities (e.g. a consumer could use a computer to keep financial records that were previously kept manually). Like innovativeness, use innovativeness has been suggested to be a personality trait. Price and Ridgway (1983) suggested that use innovativeness had six aspects, which they termed creativity-curiosity, risk preferences, voluntary simplicity, creative re-use and multiple use potential. They found these factors were good predictors of students' innovative use of handheld calculators.Price and Ridgway (1983) argued that use innovativeness was an important predictor of the chances of extending product lifecycles, furthering the product life cycle's growth phase and improving new product acceptance. While conceptually appealing, the usefulness of Price and Rideway's measure is questionable, especially as they reported low alpha reliabilities and factor loadings in some cases. The measure may also encompass a number of constructs, such as creativity, which are often treated as separate measures (Hirschman, 1980). There is clearly a need for a further examination of the use innovation construct and the present study, discussed in subsequent sections, was undertaken for this purpose.\nThe present study: The data were obtained from a larger study of people's computer ownership and use and were collected in a major OECD country by a commercial market research organisation using random telephone interviews on weekends in March, 2002. A total of 302 responses were obtained, providing a response rate of 17 per cent. The final sample was evenly split on gender and included mainly people working in administrative white collar occupations (48 per cent). One-third had a university qualification and a similar proportion (32 per cent) had incomes between $40,000 and $60,000. Price and Ridgeway's (1983) 44-item measure, which includes five sub-scales, was collected as part of the survey and its examination is discussed in subsequent sections.\nData analysis and results: Structural equational modelling techniques were used to analyse the data. The data were screened using the SPSS program (Version 11). A listwise deletion of missing cases was used and outliers were examined to ensure extreme values did not influence the results. The assumptions of normality, linearity and homoskedasticity were assessed by examining skewness and kurtosis values and scatter plot diagrams (Tabachnick and Fidell, 1989). The PRELIS 2 program was used to prepare the input matrices for the development of the measurement models. The input matrices were the polychoric correlation matrix and the asymptotic covariance matrix (which is used for non-normal variables). The weighted least squares estimation method was used, as it is more robust to deviations from normality than the maximum likelihood alternative. The process by which the data was analysed is presented in Table I.One-factor congeneric models were estimated first using the LISREL 8 (Joreskog and Sorbom, 1993) program to examine the measurement properties of the latent variables of interest. A one-factor congeneric model is \"the simplest form of a measurement model and represents the regression of a set of observed indicator variables on a single latent variable\" (Holmes-Smith and Rowe, 1994, p. 6). Such models provide a realistic interpretation of the data by considering the varying degrees to which each item contributes to the overall measure and, thereby; provide a quasi-test of validity. For a model to fit, individual items must all measure a \"composite variable\" of the same kind, and, therefore, they must be valid measures of the single latent trait (Holmes-Smith and Rowe, 1994).The fit of such a model to observed data can be examined in a number of ways (Byrne, 1998). Although the most commonly suggested fit statistic in structural equation modelling is the chi-square (kh2) statistic (with a non-significant chi-square indicating a good fit of the model to the data), the adequacy of this statistic is unknown (Hu et al., 1992). For instance, the failure to obtain a non-significant chi-square may reflect a poorly specified model, the power of the test or a failure to satisfy assumptions underlying the statistical test (Marsh, 1994). In an effort to overcome these limitations, other fit statistics are also used. These include the standardised root mean square residual (SRMR) and the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA).The SRMR is a standardised summary of the average of residual variances and covariances, with values of 0.05 and below generally being suggested as evidence of a good fit (Byrne, 1989), although Kline (1998) has suggested that a value of less than 0.10 is acceptable. The RMSEA statistic provides an estimate of how well the model with the parameter values derived from the sample could be expected to fit the population covariance matrix (Browne and Cudeck, 1993). Values of less than 0.05 indicate a good fit, while values up to 0.08 indicate reasonable fit and values between 0.08 and 0.10 indicate mediocre fit. These statistics were all used in the present study.Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to examine the discriminant validity of the latent variables by testing competing factor structures. As part of the analysis, the fit of a series of hierarchical nested models was compared for relative goodness-of-fit (Byrne, 1998), beginning with the null model, which assumes each item loads onto a separate latent variable. The next model assumed that all items loaded onto a single factor. The last model assumed items loaded onto their respective latent variables. The improvement in fit was indicated by the change in the chi-square, relative to the change in the number of degrees of freedom. Once baseline models were identified, and measures validated, reliability was assessed through Cronbach's alpha (Cronbach, 1951).Results for the measurement models\nConstruct validity: In order to further validate the measure of use innovativeness, further tests of construct validity were undertaken. The measure of use innovativeness, orientation should be moderately positively correlated with innovativeness (showing convergent and divergent validity) and opinion leadership. Use innovativeness should also be positively linked to the overall acceptance of new technology which shows predictive validity.In order assess innovativeness, or an overall favourable attitude towards innovations, unidimensional domain specific innovativeness measure was used. This measure has six items that were summed to form a composite score. This measure had a mean of 13.13 and a standard deviation of 5.50, Conbrach's alpha being 0.87. Two related domain specific measurements suggested by Flynn et al. (1996) were used to measure opinion leadership and opinion seeking. A composite score was calculated for each construct. The first dimension which measured opinion leadership consisted of three items; \"My opinion on information technology seems to count with a lot of people\", \"People that I know pick something in information technology based on my advice\" and \"I often influence people s opinions about information technology\". The alpha reliability for this opinion leadership was 0.89, the mean of this measure was 6.57 and the standard deviation was 12.5. The second dimension measured being influenced by opinion leaders, or opinion followership. This measure consisted of the following items; \"When I consider buying anything in information technology, I always ask for advice\", \"I usually ask other people what type of information technology I should buy\" and \"I feel more comfortable buying something in information technology when I have gotten advice\". The measurement of opinion followership had an alpha reliability of 0.87, a mean of 12.0 and a standard deviation of 2.84.Behavioural innovativeness consisted of a Rasch score of ownership of computer hardware items (see Ward and Soutar, 1997 for further details). A higher Rasch score indicating a greater acceptance of computer technology, based on the ownership of computer hardware.Table VI showed that the construct of use innovativeness was as expected, moderately correlated with innovativeness (Pearson correlation coefficient=0.37, p<0.01), opinion leadership (Pearson correlation coefficient=0.37, p< 0.01), providing further evidence of construct validity. Although, the correlations are not high, less than 0.7, which was evidence of discriminant validity. Further proof of discriminant validity is shown by the non-significant correlation of use innovativeness and opinion followership. There was some support for predictive validity. Use Innovativeness was moderately correlated with behavioural innovativeness (Pearson correlation coefficient=0.26, p< 0.01).\nDiscussion and conclusions: The results showed support for a uni-dimensional measure of use innovativeness. In terms of parsimony the analysis suggests that only nine items are required to measure this construct, much less than the original 44 items as suggest by Price and Ridgway (1983). Evidence for convergent and divergent validity was found for the final measure. In the four-factor solution, items of multiple use potential and creative-reuse loads onto one factor, which is seemed to encompass the measure of use innovativeness. The other items loaded onto other independent constructs or measures of risk preferences, creativity/curiosity and voluntary simplicity. Further evidence of convergent validity was found in subsequent analysis of one versus two factor model of use innovativeness. Given the non-significant change in chi-square, a one-factor solution of the nine items seemed appropriate, the final measure also had an acceptable alpha reliability of 0.79. Conceptually, the new measure makes sense, in that use innovativeness seems to be the sum of the actions of creative reuse and multiple uses of existing products.The measure of use innovativeness, was found to be moderated correlated with the related constructs of innovativeness and opinion leadership, and predicts somewhat the acceptance of new computer technology. There is thus further evidence for the construct and predictive validity of the construct.The measure is of practical relevance to managers and researchers interested in the acceptance of innovations. First, it is a simple measure of nine items that can easily be employed to collect information about a market segment's degree of use innovativeness, and hence possible acceptance of new technology. Second, the measure of use innovativeness gives the manager a greater understanding of a different personality trait that is important in the diffusion of innovations. Third, both managers and researchers can be confident that they are using a reliable and valid measure of use innovativeness, given the results of this research.Implications of the research findings are tempered somewhat by the nature of the sample collected, which can be seen to have a middle class, white collar bias. Although it could be argued that this was an appropriate sample for the nature of this study, that of acceptance of new computer technology. Further research is thus required to replicate these findings in different countries and with much more broader samples for different products and services.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To validate a measure of use innovativeness, or how existing products are used in a novel and innovative manner. The measure has practical significance for innovation research as it consists of only nine items as opposed to the original 44. The use innovativeness measure derived from research predicts acceptance of new technology (in this case computer technology) and could be adapted to other fields of innovation research.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A survey was conducted and structural equation modelling techniques were used to analyse the data.\nFindings: - Evidence for a unidimensional measure of use innovativeness is provided by structural equation modelling. The nine-item measure has fewer items than the original 44-item measure developed by Price and Ridgway (1983) Price and Ridgway and consists of the items of multiple use and creative reuse. The measure was found to be positively correlated with innovativeness and opinion leadership and the acceptance of new information technology. The construct of use innovativeness is thus a practical measurement for use in innovation research.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Some limitations regarding the nature of the sample are discussed. Implications for future research in the diffusion of innovations are also addressed.\nOriginality/value: - The only paper which validates a measure of use innovativeness, so that it has practical and theoretical use in innovation practice and research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Generational differences in workplace attitudes and job satisfaction: Lack of sizable differences across cohorts
|
[
"Attitudes",
"Job satisfaction",
"Employee engagement",
"Generational differences"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Generational differences receive extensive coverage in the media (Stein and Sanburn, 2013). But how much of these differences exist in reality? Some cross-sectional and longitudinal research has suggested that some differences do in fact exist across generations. McCrae et al. (1999) found that older individuals had higher levels of conscientiousness than younger individuals. Twenge et al. (2012) found in a cross-temporal study that Millenials tended to place more significance on extrinsic values (e.g. money, fame) and that civic engagement (e.g. interest in social problems, trust in government) has decreased across generations. Other research has found generational differences in several work values or traits such as work centrality, work ethic, and valuing leisure (Twenge, 2010).\nCurrent study: There are mixed results found in research on generational differences in workplace attitudes and a lack of research specifically focusing on facets of job satisfaction. There are also competing hypotheses on whether these generational differences exist; however, each set of hypotheses have minimal conceptual and theoretical justification despite the fact that the media and organizational leaders believe that these differences exist. Therefore, we feel it is important to conduct additional research on generational workplace differences. We conducted two studies to examine generational differences in workplace attitudes. Study 1 examined the relationship between generational differences and employee attitudes using a cross-sectional design. This study extends Costanza et al.'s (2012) work by providing smaller confidence intervals (CIs) and a more fine-tuned examination of differences at the item-level. Since there is little solid conceptual and theoretical justification for the existence or lack of generational differences in workplace attitudes, we conducted an additional analysis. We identified items that should show generational differences (based on the pop-psychology literature on generational differences) and examined whether these speculations were supported by the data. We also examined a general hypothesis (from Stein and Sanburn, 2013) that Millennials have lower job satisfaction. Study 2 used longitudinal data sets that measured overall job satisfaction in a cohort of individuals and their children.\nStudy 1: Method\nStudy 2: This study replicated the findings of Study 1 using a separate data set that included respondents from both the public and private sectors. The general hypothesis and literature review for Study 2 is similar to Study 1; thus, we focused on describing the methodology and results. Study 2 used data from the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY), which is a longitudinal study conducted by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. As part of the NLSY, 12,698 high-school students were randomly sampled from the US population. They had birth years ranging from 1957 to 1965, placing them in both the Baby Boomer generation (i.e. birth years 1945-1962) and Generation X (i.e. birth years 1963-1978). That said, we adopted a slightly different definition of generation in Study 2. In Study 1, we used the generational cutoffs by birth year; another approach to defining generation is to compare parents and their children, as is often the case in family trees. Thus, in Study 2 we directly compare job satisfaction between the 1979 cohort and the offspring of the female participants, who were studied beginning in 1994 (the offspring of male participants were not surveyed). Both samples were administered a global job satisfaction question, allowing us to compare the job satisfaction of the 1979 cohort to their offspring.\nDiscussion: Our studies showed statistically significant, but practically small, generational differences in work-related attitudes. We corroborated some of past research on this topic (e.g. Costanza et al., 2012; Deal, 2007; Deal et al., 2013); however, we ruled out the possibility that sampling error could have reduced the magnitude of the results in past research. We also found a lack of practically significant generational differences at the item-level on employee surveys. Past studies focused on construct-level differences, leaving open the possibility that generations may differ significantly on item-level attitudes.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the presence of generational differences in items measuring workplace attitudes (e.g. job satisfaction, employee engagement).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data from two empirical studies were used; the first study examined generational differences in large sample, multi-organizational administrations of an employee survey at both the item and general-factor levels. The second study compared job satisfaction ratings between parents and their children from a large nationwide longitudinal survey.\nFindings: Although statistically significant, most generational differences in Study 1 did not meet established cutoffs for a medium effect size. Type II error was ruled out given the large power. In Study 2, generational differences again failed to reach Cohen's cutoff for a medium effect size. Across both studies, over 98 percent of the variance in workplace attitudes lies within groups, as opposed to between groups, and the distributions of scores on these variables overlap by over 79 percent.\nOriginality/value: Prior studies examining generational differences in workplace attitudes focused on scale-level constructs. The present paper focused on more specific item-level constructs and employed larger sample sizes, which reduced the effects of sampling error. In terms of workplace attitudes, it appears that generations are more similar than they are different.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The impact of personality on pay satisfaction among small business managers in the United States and China
|
[
"Innovation",
"Competitive advantage"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Talent is the only consistent factor that truly separates a successful organization compared to a substandard company. Talent is what inspires innovation, fuels growth and shapes the culture of an organization, and they strive to pragmatically train, develop, and incentivize people to reach their full potential in an organization. But, one of the most difficult and challenging aspects that executives and leaders face every single day is how to best incentive their talent. One of the answers to this significant question rests in the idea of pay satisfaction. What this research in the paper is trying to accomplish is to identify how personality affects an individual's level of pay satisfaction. Over the course of the years in pay satisfaction literature, there has been a transformation from the foundational idea that pay satisfaction is unidimensional to the current belief that it is a multi-dimensional concept that is affected by contextual realities and the cognitive complexity of an individual. Now with our current research on how personality plays a factor in the overall pay satisfaction of a person. The conclusions that we arrived at, we believe, provides a picture of how to assist in developing programs and incentives to increase pay satisfaction in a general sense across an organization.\nLiterature review: Personality\nMethods: Sample\nMeasures: Personality - A Very Brief Measure of the Big Five Personality Domains was used to measure personality in entrepreneurs (Gosling et al., 2003).\nDiscussion and conclusion: When reviewing the datasets, there was one very prevalent correlation that stood significant throughout both datasets. The one personality factor that had a strong correlation with pay satisfaction was emotional stability. When looking at what plays a factor in this, Carraher and Buckley (1996) outlines the effect of cognitive complexity in the area of pay satisfaction. But, more specifically, a sub-section of cognitive complexity is self-complexity, which looks at the depth of how individuals understand themselves. It is a person's perceived knowledge of themselves, based upon the number of distinct cognitive structures, or self-aspects, they believe themselves to possess. These self-aspects can include context-dependent social roles, relationships, activities, superordinate traits and goals of the individual (Linville, 1985) which combine to form the larger, associative network of their self-concept (Linville, 1987). The self-complexity theory states that an individual who has a number of self-aspects that are unique in their attributes will have greater self-complexity than one who has only a few self-aspects, or whose self-aspects are closely associated to one another (Linville, 1987). A direct result of self-complexity is the personality construct of emotional stability. The higher the individuals self-complexity, the more emotionally stable the individual will possess a higher sensitivity to the separate constructs of pay satisfaction (pay level, structure administration, benefits).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect personality has on pay satisfaction among small business managers in China and the USA.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research is in attempt to further understanding and provide application of how companies can better incentive talent through compensation and benefit programs. The goal is to extend and deepen the comprehension of how to encourage talent pools to increase intrinsic performance through compensation programs.\nFindings: The measures that were used in this study were the Big Five Personality Test and the Pay Satisfaction Questionnaire.\nOriginality/value: Similar results were found across the two countries, and having primary empirical data such as these is original.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Who endorses whom? Meanings transfer in celebrity endorsement
|
[
"Product endorsement",
"Brands",
"Retailing",
"Case studies"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article.\nIntroduction: Background\nCurrent theoretical and research perspectives: Perspectives on celebrity endorsement\nMethodology: Case approach and context\nResults: The objective of this research phase was to analyse a situation where associations linked with a brand transferred to a celebrity endorser. The levels of analysis for this study were how the story was communicated in the articles, ways in which the characters in the texts were described and the ways in which the articles were written. All levels assessed the degree and nature of interpretation present. The first level was analysed through examining the content and tone of both headlines and the individual paragraphs of the articles. The majority of the headlines included Oliver's name, thereby strongly associating his brand and personality to the content. Only one headline also mentioned the endorsed brand, Sainbury's. This indicates that although the original evaluation and associations were linked to Sainsbury's, the association in the media was made directly to the endorser. This exemplifies a \"reversed\" image transfer process, where attributes are first assigned to the product/brand, through which they transfer to the celebrity. An analysis of the tone and content of the paragraphs revealed that the majority were negative in tone and largely contained direct quotes and descriptions of the situation. The texts examined differed in framing the situation; some presented it as a \"celebrity charged quarrel\", while others concentrated on the environmental issues behind the story. Many articles elaborated on the connection between Sainsbury's and Oliver, thus further strengthening the link between them. The second level of analysis was conducted through identifying the voices in the texts and how they were presented textually. Textual process type present in the texts was formed largely from direct quotes, indicating that interpretation was formed through selecting who was quoted, and not through interpreting the verbiage, which was the case in the stances of environmentalists and campaigners:Environmentalists have accused him [Jamie Oliver] of exploiting his celebrity to promote an unsafe product (The Times, 5 December 2004).Interestingly, the voice of Sainbury's was less heard in the articles, giving more space for Clarissa Dickinson-Wright, Jamie Oliver through his spokespersons, environmentalists or campaigners and different activist groups.Intransitive sentence structures were also used to describe Oliver, giving the impression that he was a subject of an event he did not have control over:Oliver, already reeling from complaints about his London restaurant, is now under assault from environmentalists (The Independent, 19 December 2004).Furthermore, references were made regarding his motives for doing the endorsement:The Naked Chef has been accused of \"selling his soul\" after a Christmas advertising campaign for Sainsbury's had him promoting farmed salmon as healthy, while campaigners say that the practice is damaging the environment and killing off wild salmon stocks (The Times, 20 December 2004).This passage portrays Jamie as a victim of the company coercing him to promote something he would not ordinarily approve. On the one hand, it presents him as slightly naive, while, on the other hand, he also comes across as a hypocrite for appearing to say things just because he is paid to do so.The third level of analysis examined how the stories were told through describing and analysing the expressions and linguistic patterns observed in the articles to assess the degree of interpretation. Regardless of who actually makes the comments in a newspaper, the medium still exercises power in interpreting the situation through selecting whose comments are included in an article. The analysis showed that Oliver was described in two different ways:1. neutrally aiming to position him in the mind of the reader (e.g. \"celebrity chef\", \"TV chef\" or \"a rival of Clarissa Dickson-Wright\"); and2. negatively judging his actions in the situation alluding to promiscuity (e.g. a culinary \"whore\") or directly attacking his personality and morality as below:Oliver has also been called a hypocrite for advertising something that he refuses to serve in his restaurant, Fifteen, where only the freshest wild salmon appears on the menu (The Times, 20 December 2004).I suppose it is hard to say no to PS1million, but he has just swallowed the Sainsbury's line after going to a salmon farm and being shown lots of nice things before going his way (Rod O'Sullivan, Salmon Farm Protest Group, The Times, 20 December 2004).Negative implications were also applied to Jamie Oliver's other business pursuits like his restaurant Fifteen, thereby extending to other parts of his brand. In addition, many of the articles explicitly described him as \"the face of Sainsbury's\". Sainsbury's itself was described neutrally as a \"supermarket giant\", but also positive description as \"the UK's leading fishmonger\" was discovered, although this was included in a quote from a Sainsbury's spokesperson. However, some references to corporate dominance and the quality of food in the UK in general also emerged in the articles:It is a row over whether intensive farming is ruining Britain's sensitive marine environment and whether, as some campaigners claim, retailers are putting profits before safety (The Independent, 19 December 2004).The findings indicate that elements of reverse image transfer process were present in the analysed case, and they were catalysed by an episode of events in the celebrity endorsement relationship. Negative publicity originated from the actions of the brand (stocking products made from environmentally debatable farmed salmon) and only indirectly through the actions of the celebrity endorser. Thus, negative meanings were not only assigned to the brand but also the celebrity endorser. In fact, in many cases meanings were directly associated with the endorser with only implicit references to the brand. The occurrence of this reverse image transfer process suggests that, at least in this case of celebrity endorsement, the partnership could be described as a brand alliance.\nConclusions and implications: The purpose of the research was to identify transfer of meanings and associations to find out whether celebrity endorsement can be considered a brand alliance. This was studied first by reviewing literature of both celebrity endorsement and brand alliance, followed by the case study, and a special episode of negative publicity that emerged during an advertisement campaign. The case research showed the ways in which associations and meanings were transferred from a brand to a celebrity (Figure 3).The case chosen illustrated a situation where the actions of a brand were the original source of the negative publicity, but the actual negativity in the media was associated with the celebrity and not the brand. Meanings were indeed transferred from the brand to the celebrity; negative meanings evoked by the brand were also associated with the celebrity endorser, which suggests that, at least in this case, the partnership could be described as a brand alliance.Theoretical and practical implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Celebrity endorsement is one of the most popular forms of marketing, and this study aims to suggest that celebrity endorsement should be considered as a brand alliance, where meanings and values can transfer from either partner to the other. This paper seeks to report on an exploratory attempt to identify the processes involved and explore whether celebrity endorsement should be considered a brand alliance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - After a review of both celebrity endorsement and brand alliance literature, a case of meaning transfer process was examined. The collaboration between Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd and celebrity chef Jamie Oliver was studied as a case, within which a special episode of negative publicity emerged and was analysed through newspaper articles.\nFindings: - A model for a reciprocal meaning transfer process is proposed and the existence of a brand-alliance-like relationship in the case is established.\nOriginality/value: - The paper is the first qualitative study to examine meaning transfer process in a real life celebrity endorsement context. It indicates the need for managing celebrity endorsement as a brand alliance by suggesting that celebrity endorsement should be considered as an alliance of equals. A model illustrated and supported by a case study is proposed.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The "Nirvana" model: a strategic training management tool to improve productivity: The case of an Indian organization
|
[
"Strategic management",
"Workplace training",
"Productivity rate",
"Competitive advantage",
"Business development",
"India"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This article provides a case study of how proactive training management approach can prime employees to execute business strategies and bring about competitive advantages to an organization. By understanding the current and future skill set requirements, organizations can design appropriate training initiatives to make sure that they attain desired business growth rate in their chosen market space. This proactive approach towards training initiatives in an organization is conceptualized here as Strategic Training Management (STM).\n2. The linkage - business strategy & training management: The linkage between business strategy and training management is well deliberated by prominent researchers in the management field. Hart (1992) developed three approaches - Rationality, Vision and Involvement - as intrinsic parts of a strategy-making process.1. Rationality - a comprehensive, exhaustive and analytical strategy-making process. This process would include identifying the organization's current and future sources of competitive advantage and the competencies required to achieve these.2. Vision - indicates the symbolic role of top management and the extent to which they are capable of motivating employees to adopt their vision.3. Involvement - underlies the crucial importance of involving employees in both the creation and the implementation of any strategy.Porter (1985) proposes cost leadership and differentiation as sources of competitive advantage. He maintains that a low cost position enables a firm to use aggressive pricing and achieve high sales volume. Differentiated product on the other hand creates brand loyalty and premium pricing.Hamel and Prahalad (1994) developed the concept of \"competing for the future\" as an important parameter alongside current competitive advantage. This view requires unequivocal strategizing about how the firm will compete when its current strategy configuration is either cliched or archaic. To achieve future competitive advantage, firms need to figure out what future competencies they will require to remain competitive in the market.\n3. Project \"NIRVANA\" - STM in action: The idea of Project \"NIRVANA\" was conceived by the Human Resource Department of the white goods sales strategic business unit (SBU) of an Indian organization. The Direct Sales employees of this division were selected for this project as they lately got the drift of assorted competitors making an entry into their market with highly aggressive product pricing. The SBU persistently tried to accentuate the importance of establishing a climate of excellence and innovation. However, staff was not achieving any breakthrough sales nor were they keen to take any risks. The top management team of this SBU, with the Head of HR were determined to face the challenge and embarked on competency-building initiatives to increase the productivity level of the sales team. Accordingly, the idea of Project \"NIRVANA\" was envisaged and implemented in that SBU.The broad goal of the project was to \"increase productivity for profit\" i.e. to assess, impart and improve functional and behavioral competencies that would have a direct impact on employees productivity. Management expectations on productivity were based on business plans that linked with the overall business strategy.The steps involved in the project are captured in Figure 1. Various phases of the Project were linked with one another in a sequential manner.Phase I\n4. Identification of target groups: Average performers in each category mentioned in Table I were identified. Average performers were those employees who just touched/qualified the minimum productivity norms.\n5. Expected project outcomes: * Upgrading of identified competencies would increase the productivity level of individual employees.* Project NIRVANA would enable the accomplishment of the new productivity norms, as per the strategic growth plan of the organization.\n6. Actual project outcome: Results for each category of employees were recorded three months after the project implementation. Productivity data showed that:overall productivity (all samples) increased by 63 percent;first-category employees - productivity increased by four times;second-category employees - productivity increased by 93 percent; andthird-category employees - productivity increased by 24 percent.\n7. Challenges: Major challenges that could be involved in such a project are as follows:* After identifying average and below average performers, assessing the competence of employees can pose a challenge if the number of employees and competencies to be assessed is too high. In such a case, competency based HR Software might be needed.* One-to-one therapeutic interventions to address personality alignment issues are time consuming and need the assistance of an experienced clinical psychologist. In this organization, the role was undertaken by the company's training manager.* In order to implement the different types and number of interventions, an enthusiastic team is required to handle logistics at various stages of the project.* A detailed reward and recognition plan must be developed and aligned with the required behavioral and functional competencies to motivate and reinforce the higher level of performance expected.\n9. Conclusion: To sum up, the Nirvana project helped establish new productivity norms and increased the profit of the SBU. The model encompasses both the concept of cost leadership as proposed by Porter (1985) and competing for future proposed by Hamel and Prahalad (1994). Implementation of the model helped to reduce the cost per sale by enhancing the productivity of sales employees. Phase-II interventions focused on the future competencies that would be required for employees to accomplish higher productivity norms based on different product mix.Towards the end of the project, sales employees reported increased motivation and appreciation for the work of the HR Department. They could see how the project had helped them to increase their incentive income through higher productivity.The results of the project were shared with the senior leaders of the SBU. It was recognized that other factors such as marketing support, supply chain management and constant communication with sales employees had also contributed to the sales success. However, senior management were very clear about the key contribution of the Nirvana project and provided further financial support and resources to both continue the project and to reduce its cycle time.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to find out how employee productivity can be increased for profit through implementation of an appropriate functional and behavioural competency training program.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An exploratory study based on primary data collection from the white goods sales Strategic Business Unit of an Indian organization.\nFindings: - There was an increase in the overall productivity of 63 percent after implementation of the project.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The role of other factors in productivity improvement can be further delved into.\nPractical implications: - The success story of the Project can be emulated by other Indian organizations.\nOriginality/value: - The results provided in this project could make a key contribution to the success of those wishing to improve productivity and profit.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Private labels for premium products - the example of organic food
|
[
"Germany",
"Premium products",
"Organic foods",
"Retailing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Since the EU has introduced support for the conversion towards organic agriculture in the early 1990s, the supply of organic food has strongly increased. However, surveys based on consumer interviews show that there is an unsaturated potential of demand for organic products (ZMP, 2001). Furthermore, in Germany the demand for organic products continues to increase. Despite these trends and compared to other European countries, the share of organic products in food retailing remains very small in Germany. According to an estimation of the ITC (2002) the share of turnover with organic products ranges between 1.7 and 2.2 per cent of total food retailing for Germany whereas it is between 2.5 and 3.7 per cent for Austria, Denmark and Switzerland. In light of these numbers, Hamm (1996) concludes that the market for organic products has a much greater potential than currently achieved.Although general grocery stores are the most important shopping location for food for German consumers, the distribution of organic products by general food retailers remains minor (IFAV, 2001). Only 33 per cent of organic products are sold by general food retailing in Germany, while the major share is distributed by nature food stores (Hamm et al., 2002). The powerful position of food retailers can be a reason impeding the successful listing of organic products. Indeed, the concentration of German food retailing has been strongly increasing for years and the CR10 has now reached 84 per cent (M+M EURODATA, 2003)[1]. Because of this market power, retail players may reach favourable purchasing agreements and other strategic advantages in the negotiation with manufacturers and suppliers.The increase in products marketed under private (retailer) labels is considered by economists as evidence for retailer's mounting buyer power (Wieser et al., 1999). Indeed, private labels (PLs) constitute a share of about 45 per cent of organic products sold in the German food retailing (BNN, 2003). This shows how important organic PLs have become for German food retailing. Most food retailers have developed their own organic PL. These organic PL products - sold as premium products - can bear pro-or anti-competitive effects. On the one hand, the large share of organic PLs can increase buyer power of food retailers. Retailers are able to exert pressure on their manufacturers to ensure that they receive products of the required quality and at the lowest possible price. On the other hand, the organic food production sector is characterised by many small manufacturers. For small producers the production of organic PLs implicates lower (entrance) costs in particular by decreasing transaction and marketing costs. Furthermore, PL goods do not have to compete for shelf-space, and producers do not have to pay slotting allowances[2].In the following section of the paper we will review general tendencies in the market for organic products. We then discuss in the third section the pro-and anti-competitive effects of PLs for premium goods such as organic products. These competitive impacts are considered in three categories, those impacting the retailer-supplier relationship, those affecting the horizontal competitive position among retailers and finally those implying the consumer-retailer relationship. In the fourth section, we present some results of a survey of organic food manufacturers and retail companies and their views on the relationship in manufacturing and marketing PL products. The paper concludes with a summary of the major findings of this research.\n2 Trends of organic products and PLs in food retailing: 2.1 Organic products\n3 Competitive impacts of private-label organic products: PLs alter the way in which manufacturers, retailers and consumers interact. They thus influence the competitive nature of the industry and the competitive position of its actors. Assessing the competitive impacts of PL products is a complex task because they alter the interaction among actors along several dimensions. Table II presents a summary of impacts that have been discussed in the literature. We consider the impacts on three levels centred on the retailer as the link between manufacturers and consumers. On each level, impacts may be pro or anti-competitive. In the following subchapters these effects will be described in relation to the market for organic products.3.1 Pro-competitive impacts of organic private-label products\n4 Survey and empirical results: To analyse the relation between the general food retailing and the organic manufacturing industry with regard to the impact of private organic labels we currently are conducting a survey among organic food manufacturers and general food retailers in Germany[7]. Because we are mostly interested in the relationship between manufacturers and retailers, we excluded producers of unprocessed products on purpose. The survey was conducted online from January to July 2004. Companies were selected by internet search and a list of companies exhibiting at the German organic food fair (Biofach, Nuernberg) and were contacted by e-mail or phone and the link to the web interface of the questionnaire was sent to 343 manufacturers and to 50 general retailers[8]. Overall 110 companies of the organic industry (32 per cent response rate) and 14 general food retailers (28 per cent response rate) have filled in the questionnaire.4.1 Company characteristics\n5 Conclusion: This paper analyses the impact of the organic PLs in general food retailing. Organic PLs belong to the class of premium PLs. They are copies of NBs of the same or even of better quality. Organic PLs constitute a remarkable market share of 45 per cent of the organic products distributed by food retailers in Germany. Most German food retailers have developed their own organic PL group. The increase in products marketed under private (retailer) labels is considered by economists as evidence for retailer's mounting buyer power. This also applies to premium PLs like organic PLs. Because of buying power retailers are able to exert pressure on their manufacturers to ensure that they receive products of the required quality and at the lowest possible price. Retailers use premium PL products for image building and for customer binding. On the other hand, organic PLs can lead to pro-competitive impacts. The organic food production sector is characterised by many small manufacturers. For small producers the production of organic PLs implies lower costs in particular by decreasing transaction and marketing costs.The results of a survey among organic food manufacturers and general food retailers in Germany show that nearly half the processors produce organic PLs. Of the surveyed retailers 62.5 per cent sell organic PLs.Retailers can follow different strategies selling their own organic PLs. Retailers hope to improve their image and some feel confident that organic PLs give them the image of a premium retailer. Retailers obtain higher margins and rates of return. Competition among retailers in Germany is very high. Thus, private organic labels allow retailers to distinguish themselves from their competitors. The surveyed retailers sell organic PLs because they care about issues of \"food safety\", \"retail as a brand\" and \"health\". They hope to reach and bind new customers.The surveyed processors of PLs are marginally more satisfied with their degree of market coverage and feel only marginally more dependent from few retailers than companies producing only organic NBs. Both processors of organic PLs and processors producing only organic NBs have to meet requirement imposed by retailers. While entry fees, investment grants and equipment allowances seem to be less important for processors of PLs, they have to fulfil a range of other concessions just as the producers of NB products. This appears to contradict the theoretical literature that claims that PL products do not have to compete for shelf-space and producers do not have to pay slotting allowances. Overall it seems that PLs in the organic food sector have not achieved the importance that would impose an undueful competitive burden on organic manufacturers.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper inquires into the tendency of German food retailers to market organic products as private-label (PL) products.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - After a review of the literature, results of a survey of retailers and processors, are presented.\nFindings: - Interviewed processors of the 62.7 per cent produce organic PL. Retailers sell organic PLs, because they care about \"food safety\", \"retail as a brand\" and \"health\", hoping to reach new customers. Requests for entry fees, investment grants and equipment allowances are less important for processors of organic PLs than for those not producing PLs. However, PL producers have to meet other conditions imposed by retailers and feel slight more dependent on few customers.\nOriginality/value: - The results present the first survey of the competitive relation between organic manufacturers and retailers in Germany.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The inclusion of sustainability in management education institutions: Assessing critical barriers using the DEMATEL method
|
[
"Sustainability",
"Sustainable development",
"Management education institutions",
"Barriers to sustainability",
"DEMATEL methodology"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The Brundtland Report (United Nations [UN], 1987) and the UN conference held in Rio De Janeiro in 1992 (ECO-92) have criticized the existing education system in terms of how sustainability issues are taught, which, if incorporated successfully, would contribute to a sustainable society. As then, the terms \"education for sustainability\" and \"education for sustainable development\" have gained international usage and are at the center of academic discussion at major social, political, economic and environmental forums (Avila et al., 2018; Jacobi et al., 2011), as evidenced by the World Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2002, and the Rio+ 20 summit in Rio De Janeiro, in 2012 (Barbieri, 2004; De Freitas et al., 2012). These agendas encourage what Lozano et al. (2013) called full implementation, i.e. that sustainability should be incorporated in all higher education institution (HEI), management education institution (MEI) and university activities to ensure education for sustainable development (ESD). It is in this context that scientific publications, research institutions and new educational programs, all with an emphasis on sustainability in HEIs have emerged (Figueiro and Raufflet, 2015; Scott, 2012; Sterling and Scott, 2008; Wang et al., 2013). In management academia, the organizations and the natural environment (ONE) division of the academy of management was created in 1991 with the following mission: \"[ONE] dedicated to the advancement of teaching, research and service in relationship between organizations and the natural environment\" (Academy of Management, 2020). Further, composed in 1990 at an international conference in Talloires, France and the Talloires Declaration (TD) is a ten-point action plan for incorporating sustainability and environmental literacy in teaching, research, operations and outreach at colleges and universities. It has to date been signed by over 500 university leaders in over 50 countries (The Association of University Leaders for a Sustainable Future, 2019). Meanwhile, the higher education sustainability initiative was formed in 2012 partnership with United Nations entities, presently with a membership of almost 300 universities, and accounting for one-third of all voluntary commitments.\nLiterature review: Since the early 2000s, \"sustainability\" and \"sustainable development\" have been at the center of discussion in major social, political, economic and environmental forums (Avila et al., 2018; Jacobi et al., 2011). Table I presents the key views/definitions of sustainability. The terms \"education for sustainable development\" or \"education of sustainability\" or \"environmental education\" are synonyms or relatively related terms (Heimlich, 2010; Kopnina, 2015). Elkington (2012, p. 20) argued that \"sustainability\" is conceptualized in a way that makes it possible to operationalize systematically in organizations as a \"principle to ensure that our actions today do not limit the range of economic, social and environmental options available to future generations.\" Owing to the operationalization of the concept, the model that sought to take sustainability to a minimum standard of operation is the \"triple bottom line\" or \"tripod sustainability\" (Elkington, 2012). In the triple bottom line model, the three pillars or dimensions of sustainability are social, economic and environmental. Mauerhofer (2008) presented a three-dimensional sustainability model. This model is an analytical tool for decision support and ranking sustainability dimensions, i.e. socially, environmentally and economically sustainable development.\nResearch methodology: Participants and procedure\nResults and discussion: This paper attempts to explore the different sustainability barriers associated with the inclusion of sustainability in the curricula in MEIs in India. Very few articles are available on the barriers to the inclusion of sustainability in MEI/HEI/university curricula, and no study has been able to conclude the structural relationship among the barriers/challenges to including sustainability in MEIs in the Indian context. In this study, the author follows Figueiro and Raufflet's (2015) categorization of four major of barriers: organizational; terminological; capability-based; and pedagogical. Further, the DEMATEL method has been used to understand the cause-and-effect relationship among the identified barriers that apply to the inclusion of sustainability curricula in MEIs in India. In this method, barriers are rated by experts based on the scale of 0-4, depending upon the impact of one barrier over the other barriers. The values in (di + ri) column (i.e. prominence), shows the overall effect of each barrier criteria throughout the system.\nConclusion: India continues to be in a state of climate emergency, despite the combined efforts from the judiciary, the executive and the legislature in India in highlighting and addressing environmental issues by, for example, laying down new principles to protect the environment, re-interpreting environmental laws and creating new institutions and structures. Future managers, the most powerful stratum of the society, can prove to be the effective change agents, provided they are made to understand the disastrous effects of climate change. When students learn more or take action to improve their environment, they reach out to community experts, donors, volunteers and local facilities to help bring the community together to understand and address environmental issues affecting their neighborhood. We can also use them as a potential instrument in building pressure on related authorities at the local, national and global levels to address climate issues. Although the subject of environmental sustainability has been incorporated in the syllabuses of many academic programs, with some specialist courses even being offered in some colleges in India, it appears to be more of a ritual than a serious effort by the teachers to engage students creatively and raise awareness among them of the issues impacting the environment on which they all depend and to make them take part proactively to improve and sustain it.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify the barriers to including sustainability in management education institutions (MEIs) in India, and subsequently, to analyze the structure of the causal relationships among the barriers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In this study, the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory methodology are applied to analyze the structure of the causal relationships among the identified sustainability barriers.\nFindings: Through an extensive literature review and expert interviews, this paper identified 4 primary barriers and 46 sub-barriers. Encompassing sustainability in Indian MEIs results in changes in behavior involving increased respect for the environment, hence, leading to improved sustainable efficiency.\nResearch limitations/implications: The present study is limited to MEIs in India.\nPractical implications: The inclusion of sustainability in MEIs equips future managers with the economic, ecological and technical knowledge required to demonstrate sustainable behavior in the workplace. It assists also equips managers with the ability to affect social change at an organizational level. MEIs has been acknowledged as playing a crucial role in societal transformations, including the need for transformation toward sustainability.\nOriginality/value: The present study adds to the current knowledge base regarding the structure of the causal relationships among the identified sustainability barriers. To the author's knowledge, this is the first paper to identify such barriers to including sustainability in an Indian MEI context.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Factoring emerging markets into the relationship between global liquidity and commodities
|
[
"BRIC",
"Commodity price",
"Global monetary policy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Debate will continue to exist for some time in regards to the causes of the 2000s commodity \"bubble.\" From Q4 2001 to Q2 2008, the S\n2. Literature review: The theoretical model of Dornbusch (1976) describes the short-run overreaction of exchange rates to money supply growth in the context of \"sticky\" manufacturing and consumer prices. Frankel (1986) adopts this model but replaces exchange rates with commodity prices and suggests that although commodity prices adjust to a magnitude similar to that of the movement in the money supply, prices overshoot in the short run before adjusting back to their long-run equilibrium. This holds whether interest rates or the money supply are targeted. Frankel (2008) further theorizes that lowering the real interest rate increases the overall price of commodities through three channels - supply, inventory, and financial - and finds a negative relationship between the interest rate and prices. However, this relationship is unstable and does not hold after 1980. In addition, non-stationarity of the data are not addressed, which Summers and Thomson (2012) do indeed find. They also find a structural break for their commodity price index in the 1985, where the sign of the relationship between the interest rate and the price index is negative for pre-1985 data and positive for post-1985 data. Money supply shocks have been found to increase relative agricultural prices both in the USA (Lapp, 1990) and New Zealand (Robertson and Orden, 1990).\n3. Model: The endogenous variables included in the system follows that of Sousa and Zaghini (2007, 2008) and Belke et al. (2010), which are focussed specifically on commodity prices and globally aggregated variables. These are (with their variable names in parentheses) output (GDP), consumer price level (CPI), excess liquidity (MON), interest rate (INT), and commodity prices (COM). These variables capture three main markets: the goods, money, and raw materials markets. We must take care to differentiate between monetary effects as indicated by the interest rate and that indicated by \"excess liquidity.\" The two do not always move in step. For example, since the 2008 financial crisis, the Federal Funds rate has been held nearly constant, while the Fed has injected a large amount of liquidity into the system with various novel asset-purchase programs. The order of orthogonalization follows that of Sousa and Zaghini (2007): first is output, then the price level, excess liquidity, the interest rate, and commodity prices. Most importantly, commodity prices are ordered last, because they are supposed to represent the reaction to fluctuations in the other macroeconomic variables in the system.\n4. Data and aggregation methodology: Data were gathered from International Monetary Fund's (IMF) International Financial Statistics, OECD-Stat, World Bank Development Indicators, the Area Wide Model (AWM) data set from the Euro Business Cycle Network, Eurostat, and Bloomberg. Some data from these sources are available quarterly at best, so this dictates the frequency at which the model is estimated. Most of the data were extracted from the IMF, but there are gaps in the data series that are extrapolated by using the growth rate of a similar variable or the same variable from a different source. For example the AWM short-term interest rate is used for the short-term interest rate for the eurozone, but it is only available until Q4 2009, after which the growth rate of the EURIBOR interest rate is used to extrapolate to Q3 2010. More information on how specific gap in the data were filled is available upon request.\n5. Unit root and cointegration tests: To test for a unit root we employ the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF), Dickey-Fuller GLS (DF-GLS), and Kwiatkowski-Phillips-Schmidt-Shin (KPSS) tests. Results are provided in Table II. In general, the tests suggest that the variables are stationary in their first-differences[5].\n6. Empirical results: Granger causality tests are used to examine short-run effects. Referring to Table V, in the ADV sample commodity prices Granger cause GDP and CPI, but this is not the case for the ALL sample. For CPI especially, this is a peculiar result, since the CPIs in emerging countries are more heavily weighted with commodities compared to advanced countries. Therefore, one would expect that at the very least if commodity prices Granger caused CPI in advanced countries, then it would Granger cause it in a sample that included emerging countries as well. Note, however, that CPI in the ADV sample also Granger causes commodity prices.\n7. Conclusion and policy implications: The results of the IRFs and variance decompositions confirm some of the previous findings reported in Belke et al. (2010), Hua (1998), and Swaray (2008) that suggest that positive shocks to liquidity positively impact commodity prices. In particular, both samples suggest that this is a short-run impact that occurs after two quarters. However, in the sample that includes information about liquidity from BRIC countries, excess liquidity positively affects commodity prices after six and seven quarters as well. The insignificant results of Granger causality tests of the effect of monetary variables on commodity prices suggests that this relationship is limited to movements in liquidity that is unexpected by agents in the system. These \"shocks\" could be attributed to a number of factors including exogenous monetary policy changes such as the unprecedented responses by central banks during and after the 2008 global financial crisis.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: What caused the mid-2000s world commodity price \"bubble\" and the recent commodity price growth? Some have suggested that rapid global industrial growth over the past decade is the key driver of price growth. Others have argued that high commodity prices are a result of excessively loose monetary policy. The purpose of this paper is to extend the current research in this area by incorporating emerging economies, the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) nations specifically, into global measures.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper uses a vector error correction (VEC) model and computes variance decomposition and impulse response functions (IRFs).\nFindings: The empirical analysis suggest that the \"demand channel\" plays a large part in explaining commodity price growth whether BRIC countries are included or excluded from the analysis. However, excess liquidity may also play a part in explaining price growth. In addition, factoring in BRIC country data leads to the conclusion that unexpected movements in liquidity eventually explain more of the variation in commodity prices than unexpected demand shocks. This specific result is not caught in the sample that only incorporates advanced economies.\nResearch limitations/implications: Despite the theory of Frankel (1986) and the findings of previous global vector autoregression (VAR)/VEC analyses, interest rates, especially shocks, have a minimal impact on consumer and commodity prices. Perhaps future studies should include an interest rate in their analysis that more closely reflects interest rates associated with information used by commodity consumers, producers, and investors. Some analyses such as Hua (1998) use the LIBOR rate, which is highly associated with developed financial markets in the advanced economies. Data quality and availability in the BRIC countries severely limited the length of the time period analyzed and the frequency of the data. Finding longer sample periods or higher frequency data can help to minimize bias in future research. In this paper, monetary aggregates and short-term interest rates were loosely connected to monetary policy. It would also be interesting to directly examine how special programs like quantitative easing influenced global liquidity.\nPractical implications: The results of the IRFs and variance decompositions confirm some of the previous findings reported in Belke et al. (2010), Hua (1998), and Swaray (2008) that suggest that positive shocks to liquidity positively impact commodity prices. In particular, both samples suggest that this is a short-run impact that occurs after two quarters. However, in the sample that includes information about liquidity from BRIC countries, excess liquidity positively affects commodity prices after six and seven quarters as well. The insignificant results of Granger causality tests of the effect of monetary variables on commodity prices suggests that this relationship is limited to movements in liquidity that is unexpected by agents in the system. These \"shocks\" could be attributed to a number of factors including exogenous monetary policy changes such as the unprecedented responses by the Federal Reserve during and after the 2008 global financial crisis.\nSocial implications: First, empirical research that claims to analyze relationships at a \"global\" level needs to account for the growing influence of emerging economies and not simply the advanced economies. Otherwise, results may be biased as they were when too much of the forecast error variance in commodity prices was attributed to shocks to output when it should have been attributed to shocks to excess liquidity. Second, those who criticize expansionary monetary policy in the advanced countries, especially by the Federal Reserve, for pushing up commodity prices should also direct their attention toward monetary authorities elsewhere, especially the BRIC countries, since information on excess liquidity from these countries adds to the influence that global excess liquidity has on commodity prices. Third, monetary policymakers in the advanced countries need to closely monitor liquidity in the BRIC countries, since the discrepancies between the ALL and ADV samples suggests that BRIC excess liquidity affects commodity prices in a way that cannot be captured by examining advanced country data alone.\nOriginality/value: No other paper in this area looked at the BRIC countries.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
A cross-country comparison of the relationship between ownership concentration and firm performance: does judicial system efficiency matter?
|
[
"Corporate governance",
"Firm performance",
"Ownership structure",
"Judicial system efficiency"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Ownership structures are some of the most important corporate governance mechanisms (Connelly et al., 2010), particularly in contexts characterized by high levels of ownership concentration. Recently, researchers around the world have increasingly explored the influence of ownership structures on firm performance. Several of these empirical studies have shown that in many countries, ownership is concentrated in the hands of a few large shareholders (La Porta et al., 1999; Barca and Becht, 2001; Maury and Pajuste, 2005). Such findings highlight the growing importance of agency conflict arising between large controlling shareholders and minority shareholders (Jensen and Meckling, 1976; Shleifer and Vishny, 1997) rather than traditional conflicts of interest between managers and dispersed shareholders (Berle and Means, 1932).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Ownership concentration: the monitoring and expropriation hypothesis\n3. Method: 3.1 Sample\n4. Findings: 4.1 Descriptive statistics\n5. Comments and conclusions: In this paper, we studied the relationships between judicial efficiency, ownership structure and firm performance. We analyzed a sample of 565 non-financial listed companies operating in Germany, France, Italy or Spain in 2013. Our findings suggested that the effects of judicial efficiency are relevant to the relationship between firm performance and ownership structure. We also showed that accounting-based firm measures, such as PM, tend to generate more significant results than market-based measures (LN_TobinQ) for the analyzed companies. Furthermore, we found that the moderator variable has an important effect on the relationship between ownership concentration and firm performance because it strengthens the intensity of the relationship in countries with low degrees of judicial efficiency (those with higher DT, such as Italy and France).\n6. Limitations and future studies: There are ample opportunities for further empirical research to be conducted based on the present study and the articles discussed above. However, it would be helpful to find ways to improve upon this research even more. More specifically, we cite three main areas of future concentration:\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between ownership structure and firm performance, including judicial system efficiency as a moderator to investigate the joint effects of both explanatory variables. Although prior studies have considered judicial system efficiency by examining de jure investor protection, this study identifies another useful proxy and explores de facto legal protection.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Ordinary least square multiple regression models were used to examine the influence of judicial efficiency, which was measured using the disposition time (DT) and legal origin, as a moderator of the relationship between ownership concentration and firm performance for a sample of 565 non-financial companies listed in Italy, France, Germany and Spain in 2013.\nFindings: This paper shows that de facto investor protection ensured by an efficient judicial system is relevant to the relationship between firm performance and ownership structure. As a moderator variable, DT strengthens the intensity of this relationship in countries with low judicial efficiency, showing that ownership concentration leads to a better enhancement of firm performance and is, therefore, a more efficient governance mechanism in countries in which investor protection is weak.\nOriginality/value: The evidence presented expands the understanding of the link between firm performance and ownership structure. The institutional deficiencies suggest that internal governance mechanisms may substitute for external mechanisms in facilitating efficient governance. This study corroborates policymakers' concerns regarding the efficiency of judicial systems and their role in protecting the rights of minority shareholders. The results suggest a need for more efficient external mechanisms of investor protection to facilitate investment in equity capital. Moreover, this study shows that DT is a more accurate measure of investor protection than the traditional measure of de jure legal protection.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Work life enrichment resolutions: four simple habits worth considering
|
[
"Enrichment",
"Relationships",
"Humor",
"Habits",
"Helping",
"Gratitude"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: It is readily acknowledged that employees are valuable to organizations. As such, organizations have a vested interest in maintaining, motivating, and enriching the work lives of these individuals. Indeed, organizational efforts intended to promote job enrichment and enhance quality of work life have been included among valuable strategies touted to improve employee motivation (Curtis and O'Connell, 2011). Further, job enrichment and quality of work life are topics that have received considerable attention over recent years. This is not particularly surprising since the current nature of the work place and work life of individuals can often be characterized by high pressure, intense demands, and busy schedules. Within this context, individuals often engage in efforts associated with improving some aspect of personal improvement or enhancing their quality of life through the development of desirable habits. Since the contemporary work life for numerous individuals is frantic and busy, this often leaves little time for them to focus on personal enrichment activities. Limited organizational training and development budgets can place additional constraints on possible options. This article summarizes four basic habits, requiring minimal time and cost, which individuals may want to consider adopting in their quest to experience an enriched work life. There are, arguably, a number of additional habits or activities that individuals could also adopt in an effort to enrich their work lives. The four activities were not selected on the basis of empirical or theoretical support. Instead, the four activities were chosen for the practical value and ease of use based, in part, on the personal experiences of the author while working several years as a senior manager of a health care organization in the USA. The four activities also reflect an attempt to address concerns and workplace frustrations often voiced by students who have taken the author's college business courses over the last decade. While these experiences and observations are, admittedly, anecdotal, the potential benefits of these strategies, coupled with the minimal costs required should make these strategies particularly attractive to organizations. Additionally, these strategies may benefit a wide range of employee groups including managers and executives. There are certainly many other possible strategies that could also be considered, but the four specific strategies chosen for this article were selected based on the likelihood that they would derive positive benefits not only for the individuals adopting these habits, but might also have significant, positive implications for organizations.\nEnhance workplace connections by disconnecting: The perpetual emergence of new technologies has provided individuals and organizations with tools that have contributed to organizations in a number of positive ways. Examples of these contributions include, but are certainly not limited to, increased/timely access to information, improved work processes, and the ability to communicate, as well as to conduct business over geographically dispersed locations. Indeed, technological innovations have certainly contributed to increased globalization, making communication and contact across vast distances possible with relative ease. The growing availability of technological tools, coupled with potential benefits, has contributed to individuals increasing the amount of time engaged in the use of technology. In some cases, this could lead to individuals becoming more isolated, spending more time working alone and less time devoted to individuals directly interacting with others in the workplace. This trend merits consideration since employees spend substantial time engaged in communicating and since interpersonal relationships within organizations are typically regarded as important. While interacting with others through the use of technology undoubtedly has value, there is also tremendous significance in personal/direct interactions with others. For example, technology does not readily lend itself to conveying emotion or non-verbal cues which are both important to the communication process. Further, there is evidence that individuals prefer face-to-face communication (Robinson and Stubberud, 2012). Consequently, individuals' work lives (which embody interpersonal relationships) may be enriched by consciously committing to spending less time connecting through technology and more time interacting directly with other colleagues located in their workplace. Investing just a few minutes each day interacting with others directly, rather than sending e-mails or engaging in other forms of technology-based communications could produce long-term dividends including enriched working relationships with colleagues. Organizations can reinforce the development of this habit through the modeling of leaders and managers. Further, simple, low cost training and development initiatives could be provided to employees. These training initiatives could include topics such as the importance or value of direct/face-to-face communication, as well as recommendations for employees on how to balance the use of technology in the context of their daily work lives.\nUse humor or find something to laugh about every day: The fast-paced nature of the contemporary workplace involves competing demands, formidable expectations, and dynamic cycles of uncertainty. These workplace requirements place incredible pressure on individuals to achieve optimal performance. Consequently, stress, fatigue, and burnout are frequent maladies plaguing the workplace. Research and popular literature offer numerous strategies for coping with these negative implications of workplace demands. A relatively simple antidote may be the use of humor or laughter. Indeed, laughter and humor are commonly recognized as having a number of positive physiological benefits, including diminished stress (Buhler, 1991). With the potential benefits in mind, the work lives of individuals may be enriched by intentionally seeking opportunities for the appropriate use of laughter or humor. Further, others in the work place are also likely to benefit since humor and laughter can be contagious. Even a few moments spent reflecting one of the many (appropriate) funny stories/videos that are readily available on the internet can have positive benefits. When using humor, however, it is imperative to sensitively consider differences, as well as personal preferences that may exist across cultures or even within a culture. With these sensitivities in mind, any use of humor or laughter should be professional, respectful, and appropriate, maintaining a sense of dignity, as well as respect at all times.\nDo something unexpected to help someone else: Cooperation and collaboration are hallmarks of effective functioning in organizations. Organizations, by their very nature, are interdependent, necessitating that individuals assist other coworkers in the accomplishment of tasks, functions, and objectives. These actions are often formalized and prescribed through job descriptions, procedures, and organizational processes. Organizations also benefit from informal contributions of individuals, such as organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), characterized by workers going beyond the formal expectations of their jobs, contributing additional efforts that are outside the scope of their formal job requirements (Organ, 1990). Helping is an important element of OCB. While OCB may contribute in positive ways to the organization, individuals may also benefit. By helping others, individuals invariably end up feeling better themselves. These acts of helping others do not need to be complicated or time consuming. There are logically a number of ways that individuals can help others in the workplace. For the sake of illustration, some examples of simple acts of helping others could include: staying a few minutes after work to help a busy coworker get an important mailing sent out, assisting a coworker in stapling reports for an upcoming meeting, or helping a coworker carry needed supplies to their office.\nBe more grateful: It is commonly understood that leaders, managers, and supervisors invest considerable time resolving problems in organizations. As a result, employees are often called on by managers to assist in deploying efforts to address problems. In general, problems tend to have a negative focus since the very nature of a \"problem\" typically connotes that something is wrong or not meeting expectations. The negative focus associated with a recurring attention to problems may, in turn, spill over, impacting overall attitudes and motivation in the workplace.\nConclusion: Workers in today's organizations face increasing pressures and demands that often impinge on the time available for them to pursue activities to enrich their quality of work life. This article summarized four simple habits, with minimal time and cost requirements, that individuals may want to consider adopting in their quest for work life enrichment. Consciously spending more time directly interacting with colleagues, and a little less time interacting through technology could strengthen relationships with coworkers. Further, using humor or finding something appropriate to laugh about each day could have positive implications directly for individuals and also for others in the workplace. Engaging in simple activities to assist others in the workplace could also contribute to improved relationships with coworkers, while also providing intrinsic fulfillment for the individual. Lastly, choosing to focus on work place issues or factors to be grateful for might help shift individuals' attention away from negative work place issues or problems. While there is no guarantee that these habits will accomplish the touted benefits, the simple nature of these habits makes them worthy of consideration.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Workers in today's organizations face increasing pressures and demands that often impinge the time available for them to pursue activities to enrich their quality of work life.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This article summarizes four simple habits.\nFindings: This article summarizes four simple habits, with minimal time and cost requirements, that individuals may want to consider adopting in their quest for work life enrichment.\nOriginality/value: Suggests taking time away from technology in order to interact with colleagues directly, and highlights the importance of humor, collaboration and gratitude in increasing workplace wellbeing.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Challenges and opportunities of digital information at the intersection of Big Data Analytics and supply chain management
|
[
"Challenges",
"Supply chain management",
"Big Data Analytics",
"Delphi study",
"Opportunities",
"Digital information"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Information is the driver of corporate decision making on strategic, tactical, and operational levels (Rai et al., 2006). However, the amount of information and data generated by, available to and collected through companies is growing at a fast pace (McAfee and Brynjolfsson, 2012). This poses a challenge for companies as it complicates the identification and extraction of the most relevant information required for managing the business and the supply chain. The term \"Big Data Analytics\" has been coined in this respect, marking the rise of new opportunities in the exploration and utilization of large data sets (Gupta et al., 2012). Big Data Analytics can be defined as the application of advanced statistics to any kind of stored electronic communication, which may include - but is not limited to - \"messages, updates, and images posted to social networks, readings from sensors, and GPS signals from cell phones\" (McAfee and Brynjolfsson, 2012, p. 5). The aim is to identify behavioral patterns within the data, which eventually allow forecasting future behavior to some extent (Shmueli and Koppius, 2011). Having the potential for triggering a \"management revolution\" (McAfee and Brynjolfsson, 2012, p. 3), and being a key driver for capturing business value (Fosso Wamba et al., 2015), the potential of Big Data Analytics will have direct implications for businesses as \"almost no sphere of business activity will remain untouched by this movement\" (McAfee and Brynjolfsson, 2012, p. 7).\n2. Current research at the nexus of Big Data Analytics and SCM: The emergence of the internet combined with leaps in information technology (Bandyopadhyay et al., 2010), such as storage, network, and telecommunications capabilities, enables companies to have access to large amount of data almost in real time, viewing \"information as a strategic asset\" (Mason-Jones and Towill, 1997, p. 140). It can be expected that recent technological advancements will continue to impact whole supply chains, which become increasingly networked as opposed to the traditional linear setup, therefore adapting to the new information-centric production environment where \"information moves independently of product at internet speeds\" (Kuglin and Rosenbaum, 2001, p. 59). The emergence of the long proposed \"internet of things\" (Ashton, 2009) marks the beginning of this development as technologies and communication solutions are increasingly integrated, from standalone devices in a network to an intelligent object network in which the physical and virtual worlds interact. In this next technology leap, also referred to as the fourth industrial revolution (\"industry 4.0\"), \"cyber-physical systems\" are expected to propel the amount of data generated by and available to companies to unforeseen new levels (Lee, 2008). The attempt to make sense of this intangible growing mass of data is known as Big Data Analytics. In essence, analytics describes the application of advanced statistics to historical data, with the aim to identify behavioral patterns which eventually enable the forecasting of future behavior to some extent (Shmueli and Koppius, 2011). The \"predictive\" nature of Big Data Analytics may likely represent a game changing advantage for supply chains. As such, companies could achieve cost advantages through application of Big Data Analytics as unplanned equipment downtimes can be reduced significantly, allowing the companies to cut buffer inventories, thus enabling the partners to operate a leaner supply chain while eliminating supply risks. It is, however, imperative that information on potential uncontrolled malfunctions is shared with supply chain partners to allow for timely mitigation actions across the chain.\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Applicability of methodology to address the research question\n4. Outlining the findings from the single Delphi study rounds: We will first outline the findings of the three individual rounds of the Delphi study, before they are aggregated and the constructs with highest means presented in detail.\n5. Aggregating the findings: The aim of this section is to distill the key opportunities and challenges linked to Big Data Analytics-infused information usage from the Delphi study results, thereby providing an answer to the research questions. The authors defined cut-off criteria for the further presentation of constructs in order to scope the presentation of research findings to a manageable amount of constructs per cluster. Aiming for a balanced approach not only the constructs with the highest\n6. Discussion and research directions: The contribution of this research addresses the intersection of SCM and Big Data Analytics in an exploratory manner, adding to theory building through conceptual research (Meredith, 1993; Weick, 1995). Accordingly, a Delphi study was conducted with a panel of 15 Big Data Analytics experts from industry. The Delphi study findings contribute to extant knowledge by presenting 43 opportunities and challenges linked to the emergence of Big Data Analytics from a corporate and supply chain perspective. While the conceptualization into corporate and supply chain level as well as opportunities and challenges is not very surprising, it allows the systemizing of identified constructs. These equip the research community with a first set of aspects, which provide the basis to further research at the nexus of Big Data Analytics and SCM. We will turn to the key constructs aggregated into the framework in Figure 2 and discuss each of them separately, thereby linking our research into existing streams of SCM research. As all of these are rather broad topics, we have to stay on an exemplary level and will not be able to offer the in-depth discussion that would be possible for each single construct. This will also be used for pointing toward future research opportunities. Consequently, this implies that a number of references will be used in this section which we did not link to so far. This is a consequence of the rather inductive approach taken in this paper.\n7. Conclusion: As it is the case for most emerging concepts, the use of Big Data Analytics is vividly debated among scholars and the discussion is not limited to the field of SCM. Portraying the emerging transition trend from an analog to a digital business ecosystem, the presented Delphi study findings contribute to extant knowledge by identifying 43 opportunities and challenges linked to the emergence of Big Data Analytics from a corporate and supply chain perspective. These constructs equip the research community with a first collection of aspects, which could provide the basis to tailor further research at the nexus of Big Data Analytics and SCM.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Despite the variety of supply chain management (SCM) research, little attention has been given to the use of Big Data Analytics for increased information exploitation in a supply chain. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to theory development in SCM by investigating the potential impacts of Big Data Analytics on information usage in a corporate and supply chain context. As it is imperative for companies in the supply chain to have access to up-to-date, accurate, and meaningful information, the exploratory research will provide insights into the opportunities and challenges emerging from the adoption of Big Data Analytics in SCM.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Although Big Data Analytics is gaining increasing attention in management, empirical research on the topic is still scarce. Due to the limited availability of comparable material at the intersection of Big Data Analytics and SCM, the authors apply the Delphi research technique.\nFindings: Portraying the emerging transition trend from a digital business environment, the presented Delphi study findings contribute to extant knowledge by identifying 43 opportunities and challenges linked to the emergence of Big Data Analytics from a corporate and supply chain perspective.\nResearch limitations/implications: These constructs equip the research community with a first collection of aspects, which could provide the basis to tailor further research at the nexus of Big Data Analytics and SCM.\nOriginality/value: The research adds to the existing knowledge base as no empirical research has been presented so far specifically assessing opportunities and challenges on corporate and supply chain level with a special focus on the implications imposed through Big Data Analytics.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Consumer sensitivity to delivery lead time: a furniture retail case
|
[
"Operations management",
"Logit model",
"Inventory management",
"Consumer intertemporal choice",
"Delivery lead time",
"Furniture retail"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Delivery time is a key factor when customers make purchasing decisions (MH&L, 2016) and therefore its reduction offers retailers the potential to increase their competitiveness (Mak, 2018). Online retailers compete fiercely by offering shorter delivery times (Lim and Dubinsky, 2004; MH&L, 2016). In the early years of online retail, firms in this sector struggled to compete with the traditional retail firms (Brynjolfsson et al., 2009). However, online retailers identified quick delivery as a relevant factor in competition (Brynjolfsson et al., 2009). This strategy has been so successful that it has dramatically altered consumers' expectations regarding acceptable delivery times (Kumar et al., 2000). Currently, roles appear to have been definitively reversed such that online retailers drive expectations about delivery, and traditional retailers must adapt to compete (Baskin, 2017). To date, many brick-and-mortar retailers have still not confronted this issue; they continue to operate exclusively based on make-to-stock (MTS) policies and physical stores. Nevertheless, operating across multiple channels is becoming a necessary condition for retailers to remain competitive (Brynjolfsson et al., 2009). Consequently, traditional retailers will have to address the issue of delivery time (Ishfaq et al., 2016), and online retailers will have to consider the benefits of offering physical locations such as stores and showrooms (Brynjolfsson et al., 2009).\nLiterature review: Consumer intertemporal choices\nProblem formulation: The aim of this study is therefore to estimate the magnitude of the effect of variations in promised delivery time on retail demand and to determine if other factors moderate this effect. As mentioned above, a context of high-involvement purchases has been selected for the investigation. Consumers tend to exert substantial effort examining external information for high-involvement purchases (Smith and Bristor, 1994; Schmidt and Spreng, 1996), including evaluating product and service attributes by comparing a large number of alternatives (Smith and Bristor, 1994).\nCase under investigation: Context\nMethodology: Methodologically, econometric models were adopted. These models are usually employed for estimating the effect of policies such as assortment decisions, promotions, and price on demand and for isolating the effect of various variables on a single dependent variable (Morikawa et al., 2002; Petrin and Train, 2010).\nResults: Table IV shows the logistic regression coefficients, their statistical significance and the effect of the predictor variables on the odds ratios (Exp(b)). Moreover, it shows the Exp(b) confidence interval at 95%. If the confidence interval does not contain the value 1, then the variable has a significant effect on the odds ratio.\nDiscussion and conclusion: Summary of findings\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Short delivery time is a feature that can influence consumers' purchasing decisions and that retailers compete over fiercely. Accordingly, evaluating the effect of delivery time on demand and identifying marketing-mix variables that alter this relationship may influence retailers' strategies and impact supply chain (SC) performance. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study was performed in collaboration with the largest furniture retailer in Italy, which provided its sales and inventory data for 19,000 units sold over a six-month period in 32 stores throughout Italy. Data were analysed using logistic regression with fixed effects.\nFindings: The value of delivery time for consumers, even in an industry generally characterised by long delivery lead times, is surprisingly high. The evidence reveals that when the delivery time changes from two days to seven days, demand is reduced by 37.5 per cent, although variables related to location and the marketing mix moderate this relationship.\nPractical implications: Retailers can use the findings presented herein to drive their inventory and facility planning decisions and support investments in SC integration.\nOriginality/value: Supply chain management (SCM) studies consider the value of delivery time anecdotally and have neglected empirical estimations of the magnitude of the effects of delivery time on consumer demand. Further, SCM studies have not explored the factors moderating this relationship, although intertemporal choice and service management studies have demonstrated the existence of such factors.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Toward an understanding of consumer perspectives on experiences
|
[
"Consumer marketing",
"Consumers",
"Consumer behaviour"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article.\nIntroduction: The service-dominant (s-d) logic of marketing is underpinned by ten foundational premises (FPs) (Vargo and Lusch, 2008). The role of the customer, vis-a-vis the enterprise or firm, is conveyed in FP6-FP10, i.e.FP6. The customer is always co-creator of value.FP7. The enterprise cannot deliver value, only value propositions.FP8. A service-centered view is inherently customer oriented and relational.FP9. All social and economic actors are resource integrators.FP10. Value is always uniquely and phenomenologically determined by the beneficiary.As such, customers use and integrate their resources to determine idiosyncratic and meaning-laden experiences in the co-creation of value. Their resources include family, commercial and social networks (Arnould, 2007; Gummesson, 2008). Given the importance ascribed to customers through these FPs, there are opportunities to supplement current s-d logic conceptualizations by developing a greater understanding of the nature and complexity of customer/consumer experiences, and the value derived through consumer-to-consumer (C2C) interactions within consumers' family, commercial and social networks. To do so involves a move from a focal firm focus on interactions and relationships to one that has a customer-centric focus (Fournier et al., 1998; Gummesson, 2005; Noble and Phillips, 2004; O'Malley and Prothero, 2004; Szmigin, 2003).From a consumer's perspective, an interaction with any firm is only one of a myriad of interactions (or connections) that influence their consumption experience (Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons, 2001; Pine and Gilmore, 1999; Schmitt, 1999). Much research to date, however, has given primacy to the \"focal firm\" perspective, exploring ways to compete by forging one-to-one relationships with consumers, often to the detriment of consumers. Within the s-d logic of marketing, consumers have primacy as operant resources and represent the key source of competitive advantage (see FP4; Vargo and Lusch, 2008). This provides a stimulus to understand more fully the value consumers derive from their network of interactions within a consumption experience, as well as those with the focal firm. The \"common denominator of a customer centric relational focus is a view of exchange which is driven by the individual consumer perceived benefits from potential exchange partners' offerings\" (Vargo and Lusch, 2004, p. 12).A customer-centric perspective on experiences brings with it the need to develop a better understanding of the value derived by consumers from one particular set of interactions within this network; the consumer-to-consumer (C2C) interactions (Grove and Fisk, 1997; Martin and Clark, 1996, McGrath and Otnes, 1995; Price and Arnould, 1999). Despite long being noted as an important aspect of the service encounter, C2C interactions research has been underdeveloped in the services literature (Davies et al., 1999; Moore et al., 2005; Nicholls, 2005). C2C interactions could involve either close acquaintances or strangers, and can add value for consumers in terms of social benefits (Arnould and Price, 1993; Bhattacharya and Sen, 2003) improved productivity (Bettencourt, 1997; Rodie and Kleine, 2000) and stabilizing effect in some settings (Harris and Baron, 2004). They are integral to network theory conceptualizations of marketing (Gummesson, 2006).In this paper we suggest a framework and process for taking a consumer-centric perspective on experiences and interactions, especially C2C interactions, which are consistent with the FPs of the s-d logic. The framework, coupled with the process - consumer experience modeling (CEM), that also has the potential to provide empirical evidence of resource integration capacity of customers (Arnould et al., 2006; Vargo and Lusch, 2006) - constitute the primary contributions of the paper.The paper is structured as follows. First, a framework for the study of interactions from the consumer perspective is conceptualized. This is presented as a reorientation of existing frameworks that focus on the focal firm, and it explicitly acknowledges the importance of C2C interactions within the network. Second, an example is provided, using the student gap year travel experience domain, of a process for undertaking research in line with the reorientated framework. This process has been labeled \"consumer experience modelling\" (CEM). From the analysis of data on the network of consumer interactions within the experience domain, a range of consumer value enhancers and inhibitors are identified which provide insights as to the benefits that consumers derive from their experiences. A summary of CEM is provided together with managerial implications. The paper concludes with an outline of limitations and suggestions for future research.\nFocal firm versus consumer perspective: Customer and consumer experiences underpin the current emphasis on consumer co-creation of value (Edvardsson et al., 2005; Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004; Vargo and Lusch, 2004, 2008) such that, according to Prahalad and Ramsawamy (2004, p. 137), \"value is now centered in the experiences of consumers\". Experiential consumption research is a key strand of studies into marketplace cultures that strive to identify \"cultural meanings, sociohistoric influences, and social dynamics that shape consumer experiences and identities in the myriad messy contexts of everyday life\" (Arnould and Thompson, 2005, p. 875). The purpose of this section is to offer a framework that takes a consumer perspective on experiences and interactions.Gummesson (1997) and Gronroos (2004) imply that, within the relationship process, it is interactions that form the relationships that develop in the various networks of providers and consumers, and interactions are seen as central to a relationship marketing approach. Much of the work, therefore, on firm-consumer interactions has been developed in the context of relationship marketing.Focal firm perspective\nConsumer experience modeling: a suggested process for undertaking research that has a consumer-centric perspective on experiences and interactions: The process is explained with reference to the gap year travel experience domain.The experience domain: gap year travel\nFindings and general discussion: Recognizing the consumer interaction network\nManagerial implications: The additional understanding of interactions from a consumer experience perspective represents important management information, especially insofar as it challenges experience enablers within an experience domain to construct relationship building strategies that address the identified consumer value enhancers and inhibitors. Such a process may involve examining the synergies gained through the combination of complementary operations of organizational experience enablers, and the management of coalitions within an experience domain, as emphasized in the concept of domesticated markets (Arndt, 1979).The managerial implications for such organizations may involve a consideration of second- and third-order consumer interactions in the context of relationship strategy-making, and a re-thinking about the co-creation of value propositions (Lusch and Vargo, 2006). In the B2B literature, it has been argued that suppliers can, and should provide value propositions \"by making their offerings superior on the elements that matter most to target customers\" (our emphasis), and that this involves customer value research \"which requires time, effort, persistence, and some creativity\" (Anderson et al., 2006, pp. 94 and 96). There are clear parallels in the B2C marketplace. Investigation of consumer networks by CEM has the aim of identifying what matters most, and is of value, to consumers in their own experience domains. Research on processes of organizational value-proposition-creation, that incorporates the consumer value research findings that become available through CEM, will have appeal for organizations searching for superior offerings.An example is now given. One key question arising from a study of value enhancers and inhibitors in the gap year travel experience domain was:How can the concerns about the break in education through gap year travel be assuaged?Maybe this is a question that should be addressed seriously by UK universities. While some universities offer advice to students proposing to take a gap year prior to starting their university course, and some programmes (for example, foreign language degrees) regard \"a year abroad\" as an essential part of the programme, normally the incorporation of gap year activities means a disruption to the established university systems. There is an opportunity for a university to actively embrace gap year travelers, encourage them to apply, and build in course activities that draw on the experiences and capabilities that the consumers have attained. Such a strategic move would involve serious revision, through internal marketing and communication, of attitudes and actions throughout the whole university, in order that it would not be seen simply as a cynical recruitment activity.But it need not stop there. Strategic alliances could be developed with, say, employers and travel companies, and internal marketing could embrace the current student body. The university could engage itself in the entire gap year experience as evidence of its commitment to the student. It could become involved with the \"job before travel\" element - something that most gap year students must undertake - through the university careers service. Perhaps there are alternatives to work in bars and fast-food outlets, even ones that are beneficial to the proposed course that has been selected? Most universities have student travel service organizations on their premises that can aid the year out, and have both undergraduate and postgraduate students from many of the destinations chosen by gap year travelers. They could put the gap year student applicants in touch with appropriate contacts.Some of these ideas may appear fanciful, but they should illustrate that imagination and creativity can (should?) be employed to address a fundamental question, relating to an experience domain, that encourages a strategic response. In this case, the issue is how to help incorporate the gap year into the learning cycle and career path, rather than it being perceived simply as a \"break\" in education, in order to diffuse parental anxieties and contribute to the life-planning of the gap year traveler.We believe that, by offering a detailed appreciation of the \"consumers\" vision' of value in interactions, organizations will be better placed to develop competencies and differential positioning centered on these values. In addition, the consumer perspective provided by CEM draws attention to, and highlights the role and value of consumer-to-consumer interactions, traditionally neglected in marketing research. Finally, we believe CEM can strengthen the \"resource-integration\" function of the firm. The detailed customer vision of value enables organizations (and consumers) to identify connections between experience enablers and develop customer focused co-operative marketing strategies.\nConclusion: A complementary approach to that which views relationships from the perspective of the focal firm is offered here. The paper addresses a key element in a service-dominant view of marketing, in that it provides a means for identifying \"relationships that involve the customers in developing customized, competitively compelling value propositions to meet specific needs\" (Vargo and Lusch, 2004, p. 5). Through the provision of a framework for exploring interactions from a consumer experience perspective, and a process, CEM, that facilitates an analysis of interactions as seen from the consumer, an opportunity is offered for gaining an increased depth of understanding of relationships from a consumer experience perspective. While not unique, we believe that the approach adopted in this paper is truly aligned to the customer-centric marketing philosophy that underpins the service-dominant logic. By developing a new procedure, the paper is contributing to advances in marketing as an applied discipline (see Rust, 2006).Limitations and future research\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to offer a consumer-centric perspective on experiences and interactions that is consistent with the foundational premises of the service-dominant logic of marketing, and which incorporates an increased understanding of the value derived from consumer-to-consumer (C2C) interactions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper offers a reoriented framework and process consumer experience modeling (CEM) for analyzing consumer interactions in experience domains. CEM uses qualitative analysis methods and software, underpinned by constructs relating to first-, second- and third-order interactions undertaken by consumers. It is illustrated with reference to the \"gap year travel\" experience domain.\nFindings: - The approach offers a means for identifying value enhancers and inhibitors for consumers. It provides, for organizations, a representation of consumer perspectives on interactions, giving due regard to C2C interactions. The example of the gap year travel experience demonstrates how this information can be used to inform the nature and emphasis of future marketing initiatives of organizations that are operating within the experience domain.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The framework and some of its key concepts require verification in other experience domains to test their robustness. The increased availability of consumer \"voice\" data (via blogs, etc.) offers great opportunities for the development of consumer-centric approaches to experience analysis.\nOriginality/value: - This work represents one of the first reported attempts to adopt an empirical approach to issues that have been raised by the foundational premises of the service-dominant logic of marketing, and consider, and provide a structure to interactions and experiences from a consumer perspective.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Emergency department utilization among individuals with idiopathic intracranial hypertension
|
[
"Utilization",
"Emergency department",
"Idiopathic intracranial hypertension"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Estimates indicate that a substantial amount of ED visits are likely non-urgent. A review by Durand et al. (2011) indicates that 34 percent (IQR 27 percent, 52 percent) is the median percentage of ED visits identified as non-urgent in a retrospective analysis using explicit criteria (e.g. vital signs and diagnostic tests from the ED). The cost of ED visits has been estimated to be as much as 2.7-5.2 times higher for comparable visits in alternative settings (Thygeson et al., 2008; Mehrotra et al., 2009), hence understanding what motivates ED use beyond medical need is imperative. The purpose of this study is to understand, beyond clinical signs and symptoms, the driving forces involved in ED visitation among a patient population previously diagnosed with a specific disorder, idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH). It is not the intent of this study to determine appropriate or inappropriate ED visitation by IIH patients. In comparing IIH patients who visited EDs to those who did not, and evaluating frequency of use among those who did, we identify whether specific individuals, as measured by physical findings and symptoms, basic socioeconomic demographics and quality of life, were more or less likely to use ED services.\nMaterials and methods: Study design and data source\nResults: Study population characteristics\nDiscussion: Utilization of US EDs is of significant interest to ED medical workers, hospital administrators, policy makers, politicians and patients. This study includes information from 332 individuals with IIH enrolled in the IHR, and aims to understand the influence that untreated/undertreated symptoms and socioeconomic factors have on the use of ED facilities. There are several important findings.\nConclusions: This study highlights several key factors related to ED utilization among patients with IIH. While this study profiles ED use by IIH patients, it does not address the clinical, humanistic or economic outcomes of emergency services provided to these patients. Future research, utilizing more sophisticated (e.g. regression based) statistical methods is necessary to identify whether visiting the ED leads, or does not lead, to immediate symptom relief and to elucidate which IH symptoms, or combination of symptoms, are more likely to lead to ED use.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) can be a debilitating disorder that is difficult to identify and treat. Failure to adequately manage IIH symptoms may force patients to present at emergency departments (EDs) seeking symptom relief. The purpose of this paper is to empirically characterize ED use by previously diagnosed IIH patients.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Patients diagnosed with IIH, and who registered with the Intracranial Hypertension Registry by 2014, were solicited for study inclusion. A survey was designed to elicit ED use during the period 2010-2012. Information on demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, IIH signs and symptoms, time since diagnosis, perspectives of ED use and quality of life was collected. Quality of life was assessed using an adaptation of the Migraine-Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and nonparametric hypothesis tests.\nFindings: In total, 39 percent of IIH patients used emergency services over the study period; those that did used the services intensely. These patients were more likely to be non-white, live in households making less than $25,000 annually, have public insurance and have received a diversional shunt procedure. Patients who used the ED were less likely to live in households making $100,000, or more, annually and have private insurance. Participants who used the ED had significantly lower quality-of-life scores, were younger and had been diagnosed with IIH for less time.\nOriginality/value: ED staff and outside physicians can utilize the information contained in this study to more effectively recognize the unique circumstances of IIH patients who present at EDs.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Measuring the reliability of knowledge management: Instrument development and validation
|
[
"Knowledge management",
"Organizational capability",
"Structural equation modelling",
"Technology infrastructure",
"High reliability theory",
"Organizational mindfulness",
"Measurement",
"Testing and instruments"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Over the past several years, one of the most remarkable developments in business has been the quick propagation of knowledge and its management (Gupta et al., 2004). Knowledge refers to a fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual information, and expert insight that offers a framework for interpreting, assimilating, and integrating new experiences and information (Davenport and Prusak, 1998). According to Holsapple and Singh (2003), knowledge management (KM) refers to an organization's systematic and deliberate efforts to grow, cultivate, and utilize available knowledge in ways that create value for the organization, in the sense of positive results in achieving its goals or fulfilling its purpose, representing any process that involves activities of producing knowledge through derivation or discovery, acquiring valuable knowledge from outside sources, choosing needed knowledge from internal sources, changing the state of knowledge resources, and embedding knowledge into organizational outputs.\n2 Organizational reliability and mindfulness: How organizations achieve reliable outcomes - that is, how they avoid unwanted and unanticipated variance in performance on an ongoing basis - is a question that has been answered differently in various studies (Blatt et al., 2006). Thus, the concept of reliability has come under worldwide focus by organizational and governmental agencies over the past several years. Based on Hollnagel (1993), this kind of reliability depends on the lack of unwanted, unanticipated, and unexplained variance in organizational performance. A main determinant of organizational reliability is how much an organization devalues the misspecification, misestimation, and misunderstanding of affecting phenomena (Schulman, 1996). Therefore, reliability can best be reached by the management of fluctuations in key organizational relationships and best practices but not through organizational invariance (Schulman, 1993).\n3 Organizational capabilities and knowledge management reliability: As a clear theoretical logic, successful KM contributes to the expertise that enables higher performance, stimulates innovation, and improves customer value (Beckman, 1997). However, a review of literature reveals that a KM initiative may fail or be ineffective due to several reasons, such as being too oriented on information technology, ignoring the strategic alignment with the firm's objectives (Zack, 1999), not recognizing a specific population with specific knowledge requirements (Dixon, 2000), and having a lack of CEO commitment and/or an appropriate technical and organizational infrastructure (Davenport et al., 1998). Among other studies, Akhavan et al. (2005) explored the main failure factors of KM, including a lack of familiarity among top management with dimensions of KM and its requirements, inappropriate KM team leaders and members, shortcomings in project and budget management, and change resistance. Storey and Barnett (2000) addressed insufficient business objectives, incomplete program architectures, insufficient focus on one or two strategic business priorities, and top management sponsorships without active and continuous involvement as causes of KM initiative failures. Lam and Chua (2005a, b) identified four major types of risk related to KM failure: technology risk, culture risk, content risk, and project management risk. Wong (2005) recognized KM success factors as management leadership and supportive culture, technology, strategy, measurement, roles and responsibilities, processes, and rewards.\n4 Research methodology: 4.1 Sampling\n5 Results: 5.1 Instrument identification\n6 Discussion and conclusions: The scale development process for KM reliability resulted in four distinct dimensions that demonstrated reliability and validity. These four factors of preoccupation with failures in KM, sensitivity to KM operations, commitment to KM resilience, and deference to expertise are the same factors that have been primarily used in existing HRT and mindfulness literature. The items proposed to measure reluctance to simplify interpretations in KM did not confirm any reliable factor. However, this behavior confirms that organizations have trouble evaluating themselves on KM communications to employees (Oltra, 2005). Hence, this area needs further research and double examination with other measurement items.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: As a way of assessing the ability of organizations to discover and manage unexpected failures in organizational capabilities of knowledge management (KM), this study aims to develop a measurement instrument that involves the five reliability dimensions of preoccupation with failure, reluctance to simplify interpretations, sensitivity to operations, commitment to resilience, and deference to expertise.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To generate measurement items, previous research related to organizational reliability, high reliability theory, mindfulness, and required organizational capabilities of KM was reviewed. The measurement instrument was then verified in terms of reliability and validity, empirically using data from 240 companies in North America. Internal consistency of measurements, measurement item reliability, and construct reliability were examined to ensure the reliability of the instrument. Based on confirmatory factor analysis using structural equation modelling, construct validity was also tested.\nFindings: The reliability evaluation instrument for KM suggested in this study was constructed with four dimensions, preoccupation with failure in KM, sensitivity to KM operations, commitment to resilience in KM, and deference to expertise. The related measurement items were also identified.\nPractical implications: This instrument is useful for researchers and executives looking for appropriate outcomes through the implementation of KM initiatives. Furthermore, the study provides a starting point for further research on KM reliability.\nOriginality/value: To date, while many of the KM success or failure studies have relied on developing success factors or organizational capability requirements, few studies have been conducted to identify evaluation measures that can assess the cognitive infrastructure that enables simultaneous adaptive learning and provides organizational reliability infrastructure through the management of unwanted, unanticipated, and unexplainable failures in KM-required capabilities.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Top-to-bottom training fuels growth at Commercial Utility Brokers: More qualified employees transform micro-business into a major player
|
[
"Employee development",
"Growth",
"Awards"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: A company that invested PS5,000 in employee training increased its turnover by almost PS400,000, changing in the process from a micro-business into a major player.\nTraining for all grades of staff: \"The junior staff members started fresh from school or college and did not understand how to behave in the workplace or how to service our customers. We expected to see them gain confidence and eventually need minimal supervision. We decided to enrol them on an apprenticeship program applicable to their role.\"More experienced members of staff often had no formal training beyond GCSEs. To ensure standards of literacy, numeracy and excellent customer service, they were enrolled on an NVQ course applicable to their role.Staff promoted into managerial positions had no formal managerial qualifications and little experience in managing staff. To give them extra confidence and to ensure they were able to manage staff effectively, they were enrolled on a team-building NVQ.\"We would measure all their success by them passing their NVQ,\" said Jaqui Fairfax. Their progress was monitored by meeting course tutors and through access to the website of eNVQ - a management system that drives the assessment, verification and management functions, enabling all parties involved in competence-based qualifications to undertake their roles while at the same time tracking and monitoring progress.Finally, the directors needed to learn to develop the business. Their progress would be judged by the production of a rigorous five-year plan.\nFour different programs: \"We decided to look at four different programs to fulfil the training needs of the differing staff,\" Jaqui Fairfax explained.Apprenticeships were chosen for eight junior staff, in a field relevant to their job role - information technology, customer service, business administration or accountancy. NVQs in business administration and customer service were selected for four more experienced members of staff. The three new managers took an NVQ in team-building while the three directors followed a course on strategic management.\"In addition, we asked staff to find any courses from the Business Link website and other providers they thought would complement their learning,\" said Jaqui Fairfax. \"As the company was also going through a massive period of change, we asked Angela Dunbar Training to come in and deliver a two-day tailor-made course for us. The increase in staff also meant that we needed members of staff to undertake formal health and safety and first-aid courses. Members of staff are now also studying for degrees through the Open University.\"The training schemes encouraged the trainees to look at the business with a fresh pair of eyes. \"They have generated many ideas that have improved the workplace and working practices,\" Jaqui Fairfax enthused.\nSome concrete examples: Vicky Peat started as an administrative assistant enrolled on an NVQ level 2 in business administration. She became extremely organized and developed internal customer procedures and the company's manual. Now every member of staff has clear instructions and guidelines. Last year she was promoted to administration manager, and since taking an NVQ level 3 in team-building her management skills have gone from strength to strength.Melinda Leishman joined CUB as a telesales executive. Although goal driven, she did not always have the confidence to take the initiative. She enrolled on an NVQ level 3 in customer service and grew in confidence. She influenced the company's growth by introducing a marketing plan. She has since taken a level 3 introductory certificate in marketing and been promoted to telesales and marketing manager. She has redesigned the company's web site, which has seen an increase from 300 to 800 visitors a month.\"Every employee has an important role in the success of the business and we believe that regular appraisals and recognition of the individual's achievements and progress are the key to success,\" said Jaqui Fairfax.Once an employee completes a course, he or she is encouraged to move on to the next level. When an employee undertakes a one-off course, he or she outlines to the rest of the staff what he or she learned in the training.CUB, now an Investor in People, has recently taken its training to another level. It is providing guidance and support to Neale-Wade Community College for its IT diploma course. One afternoon a week, CUB staff go into the school to work on different projects.\"We encourage the pupils' personal growth and are using some ideas generated in class to promote CUB at an exhibition later this year,\" said Jaqui Fairfax. \"We will have Neale-Wade students on work experience and will encourage any student wanting a career with us in the future.\nTraining and nurturing embedded in the culture: \"The process of training and nurturing is embedded in our culture. We have seen the company grow and we have an extremely happy workplace comprising individuals who know that they are valued, enjoy the learning process and that they have a future within the company. A confident, competent workforce has significantly improved working practices and generated fresh business thinking. Each employee now has a clear development path, moving up through each training level.\"The training program has brought the company much welcome publicity. CUB won the Training and Development award at the local Fenland Business Awards, has reached the regional finals of the Apprenticeship Awards two years running and was a UK winner in the latest National Training Awards.Jaqui Fairfax concluded: \"When we set up this training scheme we had no idea of the fundamental changes that would take place in our organization. We are now growing so rapidly that we are looking for new premises. The fact that everyone is on some sort of training course makes CUB an exciting place to work - there is a buzz about the office that we never had before. We are committed to ensuring that 30 percent of our workforce always consists of apprentices and we will continue to expand and improve our training scheme into the future.\"\nNote: David Pollitt, Human Resource Management International Digest editor, wrote this article.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The article aims to describe how award-winning training for all levels of staff fuelled significant growth at Commercial Utility Brokers (UK) Ltd, which offers a brokerage and management service for businesses looking for low-cost energy, telecommunications and other utilities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The article explains the reasons for the training, the form it has taken and the results it has achieved.\nFindings: - After CUB invested PS5,000 in employee training it increased its turnover by almost PS400,000, changing in the process from a micro-business into a major player.\nPractical implications: - Other rewards the training has reaped, including a more confident, competent workforce that has significantly improved working practices and generated fresh business thinking, are revealed. Also, a track to growth that other small companies could emulate is outlined.\nOriginality/value: - The article quantifies the significant returns that investment in training can bring.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Antecedents of cross-functional integration level and their organizational impact
|
[
"Cross-functional integration",
"Conflicts",
"Integration level",
"Model"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Integration is a phenomenon studied in different industrial contexts and within different hierarchical levels within organizations (Frankel and Mollenkopf, 2015). The prior research states that the integration is both internal and external (Droge et al., 2004; Pagell, 2004; Koufteros et al., 2005). On the one hand, internal integration refers to cross-functional integration and is concerned with collaboration and interaction between functions within an organization (Kahn, 1996; Pagell, 2004; Oliveira et al., 2016). On the other hand, external integration refers to integration, that is, collaboration and interaction, between organizations in a supply chain (Koufteros et al., 2005; Juttner et al., 2007; Swink et al., 2007a; Vedel, 2016). According to Fawcett and Magnan (2002), it is easier to establish eternal integration than break down the silos that exist among organization's functions. Therefore, this research centers on the study of internal integration, that is, cross-functional integration.\n2. Theoretical review: Cross-functional integration enhances the competitiveness of an organization (Lawrence and Lorsch, 1967). Without integration, different functions tend to pursue their own interests and, hence, disregard the interests of the whole organization (Christopher, 1973). The five elements that define the process of cross-functional integration (Pimenta et al., 2016) are presented in the following sections. These elements are:\n3. Research method: This study mixes qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze constructs that could not be found or correlated with the use of a single approach (Hussein, 2009). The literature highlights two reasons to adopt mixed methods: to increase the robustness and validate the data found (Jick, 1979) and also to deepen and broaden the understanding of the studied constructs (Yauch and Steudel, 2003; Olsen, 2004). This research focuses on the latter reason, as the qualitative paradigm can generate a rich amount of data that can be used to develop hypotheses for quantitative research (Hussein, 2009).\n4. Results: This section presents the findings of the field research. The following sections offer an explanation of the CFA, the SEM in PLS (SEMPLS), a discussion of the results in comparison with the studied literature and some practical examples of application of the model.\n5. Conclusions: The purpose of this paper is to develop a model to predict the antecedents of the cross-functional integration level among marketing, logistics and production, considering the influence of formal and informal factors that generate integration and the existence of conflicts. Thus, a model with 34 observable variables and four constructs was developed (Appendix). This indicated that the formal and informal integration factors, as well as conflicts influence the integration level. In contrast, it was found that low awareness about integration has low statistical significance over the integration level.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a model to predict the antecedents of the integration level among marketing, logistics and production, considering the influence of formal and informal factors that generate integration and the existence of conflicts.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A survey of 179 participants from all regions of Brazil was conducted. A parsimonious model including four dimensions and 34 variables was developed through confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling.\nFindings: The field data corroborate studies dealing with the impact of various formal and informal integration factors on the cross-functional integration level as a construct. Furthermore, this paper concludes that the level of cross-functional can be defined as: the intensity of the relationship among internal functions which can be measured by the mutual existence of formal and informal factors and the absence of manifest conflicts.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings of this paper cannot be generalized because of the convenience sampling. Future research could apply a probabilistic sampling and try to explore other geographical settings in both national and international contexts.\nPractical implications: The proposed model can generate important information for managers by pointing out variables that can predict the integration level and their impacts on the organizational performance. The paper concludes with examples about how the model could be useful in several practical situations.\nOriginality/value: This paper proposes a model with reasonable accuracy to predict the integration level and overcomes prior research limitations with respect to models to predict the antecedents of the integration level, particularly the role of conflicts in the integration processes.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Estimates of success rates of remote arbitrary code execution attacks
|
[
"Computer software",
"Data security",
"Data management",
"Information management",
"Computer security",
"Remote code exploits",
"Buffer overflows",
"Software vulnerabilities",
"Expert judgment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The presence of software vulnerabilities in information systems is an important source of risk. Software vulnerabilities can be exploited by adversaries to gain access to sensitive information, to abuse functionality or to consume other system resources. In some cases, it is possible to remove a vulnerability by applying a software patch. In other cases, this type of removal is not possible, either because the vendor has not issued such a patch or because the vendor and the public are unaware of the vulnerability's existence. Also, in many cases, the cost or risk associated with applying a patch (e.g. the service being unavailable during the patching process) hinders the management from applying the patch in a timely fashion.Software vulnerabilities that can be used to obtain remote control over a machine belong to the most severe examples. Such vulnerabilities are typically exploited by injecting malicious instructions into the memory space of the software that is running on the targeted machine and passes control of the system to the attacker. They are collectively called \"arbitrary code vulnerabilities\" and include buffer overflow vulnerabilities, dangling pointer references, insecure use of format strings, and integer errors (Younan, 2008).The risk that an organization faces when such vulnerabilities are present in one of their systems is contingent on the probability that the vulnerabilities can be successfully exploited in practice. Some vulnerabilities are by nature more difficult to exploit than others, and it is possible to apply a number of security measures that makes exploitation more difficult (Younan, 2008).Because the risk that an organization faces is highly dependent on the likelihood of successful exploitation, data regarding this aspect are very valuable when performing risk analysis, e.g. of a specific vulnerability or when using attack graph approaches such as Patsos et al. (2010), Sommestad et al. (2010), Sawilla and Ou (2008) and Homer et al. (2010). However, data on the likelihood of successful exploitation are difficult to obtain because there are many relevant factors for the success of the exploitation. To generalize from observations would require tests on representative samples of vulnerabilities in different environments, with various security measures in place, and involving attackers who are representative of some category of adversary. Thus, it is immensely expensive to gain sound results through experiments, and as a consequence, they are rarely performed. The few experiments that have been performed on the subject have successfully demonstrated technical limitations of measures used in isolation, but they have not reported the difficulty of exceeding these limitations in practice. For example, Shacham et al. (2004) tested the effectiveness of address space layout randomization (ASLR) under certain conditions but do not show how often these conditions apply in practice. Wilander and Kamkar (2003) performed tests of a few protective measures against buffer overflows of different forms. However, without data on the attack forms used in practice, it is difficult to derive useful success rates from this data. Many of the tests that have been performed are of low relevance to practitioners (e.g. network administrators) because they evaluate defense mechanisms that are very difficult to implement, for example, because they are not supported by common operating systems.Expert judgment is often used when quantitative data are difficult to obtain from experimental studies or by other means. Expert judgment, for example, has been used to assess the importance of attributes that are related to critical infrastructure risks (Cooke and Goossens, 2004) and to quantify parameters in security risk models (Ryan et al., 2012). This paper describes a study in which expert judgment was used to quantify the success rate of remote arbitrary code execution attacks in 24 different attack scenarios.An important issue when eliciting expert judgment is that of bias. In other words, experts are prone to various types of bias, e.g. relating to their background. This study synthesizes the judgment of 21 domain experts using an established performance-based method known as Cooke's (1991) classical method. This method assigns weights to domain experts' judgments based on their ability to estimate the true value for a number of seed questions, that is, questions related to the subject matter and for which the true answer is known. These seed questions are used to identify experts who are suitable to answer the questions of interest, i.e. experts who have both the relevant background knowledge and the ability to express their knowledge quantitatively. Seed questions in this study were designed to find experts that are suitable for estimating the success rate of remote arbitrary code exploits. The experts' performance on these seed questions are used to weight their assessments of the 24 attack scenarios.The 21 domain experts assessed 16 scenarios related to server-side attacks and eight scenarios related to client-side attacks. These scenarios are used to analyze the effectiveness of the various defense mechanisms that have value for network administrators or decision makers in security issues. The uncertainty of these estimates is also described. Both the research method used and the variables included in the scenarios have been previously tested in a pilot study (Holm et al., 2011).\n2 Attack scenarios: This study quantifies the probability that remote arbitrary code execution attacks will succeed given that they are executed. Many variables influence whether such an attack succeeds or not. The presence of a software vulnerability that enables the execution of arbitrary code is a necessary condition (e.g. a buffer overflow vulnerability (Cowan et al., 2003)). Some vulnerabilities are only exploitable under certain conditions. Two variables that are often used to describe when a software vulnerability can be exploited are:1. whether the vulnerability can be exploited remotely or locally; and2. whether the attacker would need to bypass some authentication mechanism before the vulnerability can be exploited (Mell et al., 2007).Furthermore, countermeasures against code execution attacks can be deployed both on a network and a machine level. Deep-packet-inspection firewalls and filtering proxies are two network-based measures that can prevent the executable code from reaching its target (Scarfone and Mell, 2007). Measures that are deployed on a machine level include (Younan, 2008) non-executable memory protection (NX), which makes certain parts of memory impossible to use in executing code, guard page-based countermeasures that terminate programs that access certain parts of memory, execution monitors that execute programs in a \"sandbox\" or that search for anomalies in execution, ASLR, which obfuscate the memory for the attacker, and instruction set randomizations that encrypt the program instructions so that attackers cannot insert their own instructions without the decryption key.All of these protective measures have multiple implementations and variants that are available, for example, for different operating system platforms. However, for a variety of reasons, they are not all used in practice. Because the aim of this research is to construct a model that is useful for enterprise decision makers, such as network administrators, the focus is placed on variables that are common in practice. The list of chosen variables was assessed by using the following:* literature studies;* a pilot study (Holm et al., 2011); and* three interviews with respondents who had significant practical experience from arbitrary code attacks.The chosen variables include the protection mechanisms NX and ASLR, which are straightforward to turn on or off in commonly used operating systems. Deep-packet-inspection firewalls (DPI) and filtering proxies (Proxy) are also included as variables. The latter two are also common in today's enterprise environments. Additionally, in server-side attacks, it is significant if the attacker can authenticate himself as a legitimate user (Scarfone and Mell, 2007). Because the existence of authentication mechanisms is something that can be influenced in practice, it is included as the variable AccessControl in the attack scenarios. Connectivity and CraftResponse can be seen as necessary (but not sufficient) conditions for a remote attack. If Connectivity is true, then the attacker can connect to the service that is to be attacked; if CraftResponse is true, then the attacker can create data that are fed to the client. In practice, the presence of a high-severity vulnerability (Vulnerable) is also a necessary condition for remote code execution.Naturally, the attacker's competence and resources are also of importance to the probability of successful remote code execution. Such attacker properties are kept constant for all of the studied attack scenarios (Table I). In other words, the attacker is a professional penetration tester who has access to open and commercially available tools and has one week of time to prepare for the attack (e.g. to probe the host and tune the exploit). Table I and Figure 1 summarize all of the variables as well as the states of these variables, which were used to create the scenarios. The overall hypotheses are that that those variables varied over the scenarios significantly influence the probability of success in remote arbitrary code execution attacks, and that this model is well-suited for predictions of success in remote arbitrary code execution attacks.\n3 Synthesizing expert judgments: There is a substantial amount of research on how to combine, or synthesize, the judgment of multiple experts to increase the calibration of the estimates used. These techniques include the following: consensus methods (Fink et al., 1984; Ashton, 1985), the Cochran-Weiss-Shanteau index (Weiss and Shanteau, 2003), self-proclaimed expertise (Abdolmohammadi and Shanteau, 1992), experience (Shanteau et al., 2002), certifications (Shanteau et al., 2002), peer recommendations (Shanteau et al., 2002), and Cooke's classical method (Cooke, 1991). There is little research that compares the accuracy that these methods yield. However, research has shown that groups of individuals assess an uncertain quantity better than the average expert, while the best individuals in the group are often better calibrated than the group as a whole (Clemen and Winkler, 1999). The scheme used to combine judgments in this research is the one used in the classical model of Cooke (1991). Cooke's model is a generic method for combining expert judgments that has been applied to a number of different domains. Experience from applications of Cooke's classical method has shown that it outperforms both the best expert and the \"equal weight\" combination of estimates. In an evaluation involving 45 studies, it performed significantly better than both alternatives in 27 studies and equally well as the best expert in 15 of the studies (Cooke, 2008).In Cooke's classical method, calibration and information scores are calculated for the experts based on their answers to a set of seed questions, i.e. questions for which the true answer is known at the time of analysis. These two scores are used to define a decision maker that assigns weights to the experts based on their performance. These weights are used to create a single estimate on the variables of interest - in this case, the 24 attack scenarios. Cooke's classical method is briefly explained in Sections 3.1-3.3. The reader is referred to Cooke (1991) for a detailed explanation of the method.3.1 Calibration score\n4 Method: 4.1 Seed questions\n5 Results: 5.1 Respondents' performance\n6 Discussion: 6.1 The expert judgment analysis\n7 Conclusions: The synthesized judgment of domain experts is that the most effective measure against server-side arbitrary code execution attacks is to implement access controls that limit the functionality that attackers can use. However, deep-packet-inspection firewalls and measures available in operating systems (ASLR and NX) also lower the probability of successful compromise. For client-side attacks, where an application client is exposed to malicious data, the most effective countermeasure is the use of a filtering proxy. Operating system measures do not have as strong effects on attacks against clients. Decision-makers in enterprises should consider these effects when they contemplate measures against code injection attacks.However, while these synthesized judgments provide valuable input to decision-makers and researchers, they come with a substantial amount of uncertainty. Further research could add more detailed variables to the attack scenarios to remove aleatory uncertainty. Also, this would enable more detailed data collection from experiments or observations to remove epistemic uncertainty. The results from this study can provide valuable information to future studies in this direction, e.g. the approximate importance of the studied variables and that they are perceived to be fairly independent.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to identify the importance of the factors that influence the success rate of remote arbitrary code execution attacks. In other words, attacks which use software vulnerabilities to execute the attacker's own code on targeted machines. Both attacks against servers and attacks against clients are studied.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The success rates of attacks are assessed for 24 scenarios: 16 scenarios for server-side attacks and eight for client-side attacks. The assessment is made through domain experts and is synthesized using Cooke's classical method, an established method for weighting experts' judgments. The variables included in the study were selected based on the literature, a pilot study, and interviews with domain experts.\nFindings: - Depending on the scenario in question, the expected success rate varies between 15 and 67 percent for server-side attacks and between 43 and 67 percent for client-side attacks. Based on these scenarios, the influence of different protective measures is identified.\nPractical implications: - The results of this study offer guidance to decision makers on how to best secure their assets against remote code execution attacks. These results also indicate the overall risk posed by this type of attack.\nOriginality/value: - Attacks that use software vulnerabilities to execute code on targeted machines are common and pose a serious risk to most enterprises. However, there are no quantitative data on how difficult such attacks are to execute or on how effective security measures are against them. The paper provides such data using a structured technique to combine expert judgments.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Importance and performance of managerial training in Indian companies - an empirical study
|
[
"Performance",
"Training",
"India",
"Management development",
"Training effectiveness"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Importance of training and development function in channelling collective human energy of the workforce toward achieving organizational objectives has been accepted by present day business leaders all over the world. The realization that management competence can be developed has created and sustained the demand for excellence in management training. Succinctly, training has developed into a universally recognized continuous process of direction, correction and improvement at every level of performance (Sarkar, 1978), and it is now an integral part of work and development of every organization, large and small. Certainly, training builds up the human resources that are organization's crucial assets whose skills and motivation is the mainstay of its success (Kenny et al., 1990).\n2. Methodology: 2.1 Research objectives\n3. Development of research tool: Based on research findings by Pinto and Walker (1978) and 23 item questionnaire developed by Rao (2000) and other literature a 26 item questionnaire which included all aspects related with performance and importance of training function was developed. The questionnaire had high face validity. The content validity (which concerns the relevance of the questions asked to the quality being measured) of the questionnaire was ensured through the use of judges at different stages during its development. A list of 26 item statements describing different dimensions of training function was prepared. This was sent to 20 experts in the field of training including five senior academicians and ten managerial trainers and five senior training managers in big organizations. Five items were deleted and six were nominally changed on the basis of expert opinion. Finally, a 21 item questionnaire which was approved by all 20 experts was prepared. The questionnaire was then pre-tested on a sample of 30 respondents. These respondents did not form a part of the sample of the main study. The aim of pre-testing was to ascertain the time required to complete the questionnaire, to check the adequacy of response categories formulated and to check the overall appropriateness of the questions. On the basis of results of factor analysis, 13 questions were retained for final analysis. Thereafter, the same sample was approached after three months to establish the consistency of the questionnaire. The questionnaire was found to be reliable with reliability coefficient of 0.7873.\n4. Explanations of research variables: 4.1 Importance of training function (IMP_TRG)\n5. Findings and discussion: Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) shows significant differences in terms on perceived importance and performance of managerial training parameters between multinational companies and Indian origin companies and between service and Indian origin companies.\n6. Conclusion: From the findings it emerges that multinational companies in India are able to transfer some of their home country practices in Indian subsidiaries. More importance is presumed in MNC for managerial training compared to Indian origin organization. Performance of training function is perceived favorably in MNCs compared Indian origin organizations. Indian origin organizations have to concentrate on connecting with various stakeholders to improve image of training function. In era of globalization, they cannot be unmindful of this important source of competitive advantage. Further, it is clear that training departments in Indian origin organizations are more isolated outlets with little involvement from other functional managers and stakeholders. This clearly adds to the poor image of the department.\n7. Future areas of research: The research can be extended to small- and medium-sized organizations and comparative analysis of micro aspects of training like training need identification, training methods and training evaluation can be undertaken. Another area for future research can be relationship of training with other human resource goals like talent retention, motivation and performance management in a comparative context.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to compare the importance and performance of managerial training in India among different industrial sectors in the light of asynchronous industrial growth in last two decades which has unevenly touched various business organizations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: For the purpose of analysis organizations are divided at two levels. At the first level, they are divided between multinational and Indian origin category and at the second level between service and manufacturing category. A 2x2 full factorial design with unequal numbers is used to analyze main as well as interaction impacts. A sample size of 542 is taken which comprises training professionals, top/general managers and trainee employees.\nFindings: Study concludes that Indian origin organizations fall short in terms of importance given and performance of training function compared to multinational companies. Further, it is found that service companies have an edge over manufacturing companies in terms of importance and performance of training.\nResearch limitations/implications: Study is mainly focussed on large organizations in India and may not be representative of small organizations. The major implication is that Indian origin organizations as well as manufacturing organizations have to devote more time and financial resources to training to compete in the era of globalization.\nPractical implications: It is implied from the findings that a concerted effort by training professionals in Indian and manufacturing companies is required to improve the content as well as image of the training function to get the due attention and resources within the organization.\nOriginality/value: The paper presents an original perspective on situation of training function in Indian organizations and will be of importance to training professionals and other stakeholders.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
An evaluation of an integrated perspective of perceived service quality for retail banking services in India
|
[
"Service quality",
"Banks",
"Multi-variate analysis",
"Service marketing",
"Financial services",
"Customer behaviour"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Providing high service quality is considered as critical for enhancing long-term relationships with customers, especially in the competitive business environment of modern banking (Camarero, 2007; Hawke and Heffernan, 2006). For retail banking, customer longevity can only be achieved through delivery of high quality services (Lassar et al., 2000). It is therefore imperative for banks to identify and manage the service quality dimensions which would lead to competitive advantage with their customers. The global economic slowdown which started in 2008 has impacted financial sector in India which suggests that the sluggish growth in the financial sector has led both investor and consumer confidence on the downhill. Indian banks are thus facing significant challenges of retaining existing customers and maintaining their trustworthiness and customer confidence in order to differentiate themselves from competitors. There is a need for banks to move from mere customer attraction to customer retention which requires a focus on customer loyalty, particularly, on how it is influenced by word of mouth, perceived service quality and trust in order to retain their existing customers and/or attract new ones. A better conceptualization of the structure of service quality especially its dimensionality and hierarchy would contribute to better understanding of how to create and maintain customer loyalty.\nIndian retail banking: Prior to 1992, the banking industry was government controlled with the compulsory merger of weak banks with the strong ones in 1960, nationalization of 14 banks having deposits of Rs 50 crores (USD1=Rs 64; 1 Crore=107) and above in July 1969 and government acquisition of six more banks with deposits of more than Rs 200 crores in 1980. Banks were nationalized so that they could play the role of catalytic agents for economic growth. The banking sector was liberalized due to the Narasimhan committee report of 1992 which suggested wide ranging reforms for the banking sector with introduction internationally accepted banking practices which led to the amendment of the Banking Regulation Act in 1993 and entry of new private sector banks.\nService quality: There are two dominant perspectives for conceptualization of service quality in literature, i.e. the American and the Nordic or European perspective. Within the American perspective, service quality is conceptualized within the disconfirmation paradigm and measured as the gap or comparison of expected and perceived performance of service (Parasuraman et al., 1988). The American perspective is the most widely accepted and service quality is measured with help of \"SERVQUAL\" scale on the five dimensions of tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, empathy and assurance. SERVQUAL has since been criticized on its' lack of applicability and generalizability across different service industries (Carman, 1990) and its psychometric properties such as the use of gap scores, measurement of expectations, use of positively and negative worded items and inadequate reliability and validity (Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Carman, 1990).\nConceptual approach: This study adopts and extends the conceptual approach proposed by Brady and Cronin (2001) by empirically testing a first-order model and comparing it with a second-order model of perceived service quality in retail banking services. The attributes of service quality were generated from a study by Sureshchandar et al. (2001). The primary dimensions were extracted through exploratory factor analysis using SPSS ver. 15.0. A first-order and a second-order model of service quality were then specified and tested using confirmatory factor analysis with AMOS ver 4.0. The hypothesized second-order model was similar in structure to Rust and Oliver (1994) three component model of service quality and Brady and Cronin's (2001) conceptualization of service quality (Figure 1). This study thus adopts the approach of Brady and Cronin (2001); Dabholkar et al. (1996); and Kang and James (2004) wherein service quality of retail banking services is construed as a multi-dimensional and multi-level construct.\nMethodology: Data collection\nMeasurement instrument: The survey instrument consisted of 31 items based on literature review and expert survey. As no standardized scale is available for measurement of perceived service quality of retail banking services, the 41 item and five-dimensional scale proposed by Sureshchandar et al. (2001) in their study of retail banking services in India was adopted for this study. The initial list of 41 items were refined to 31 items (Table III) with the help of expert reviews by academicians, branch managers and branch operations managers of select public and private sector banks. The list of 31 items employed for the study was pilot tested and modified for wording and meaning of the statements.\nData analysis: Data analysis was undertaken in two steps. In the first stage, the dimensions/factors were extracted using exploratory factor analysis by principal component method of analysis with varimax rotation (Table IV). An orthogonal rotation was chosen for the sake of simplicity. Attributes and factors were excised from the data set to achieve uni-dimensionality. Factors/dimensions with eigenvalues >1 were extracted for further analysis. Reliability tests were then performed on each extracted factor of the multi-dimensional scale (Table V).\nAnalysis: In order to test the proposed five-factor model (see Figures 2 and 3); the two alternative models: a one-factor of first-order model with all the items loading on a single second-order factor of service quality; and a two-factor model with core service, tangibles, service delivery, reliability and competence as five primary dimensions of the second-order construct of service quality. The analyses was conducted using the program Amos ver 4.0. The ML method of estimation was used. The goodness-of-fit of the models was evaluated using absolute and relative indices. The absolute goodness-of-fit indices computed were: the kh2 goodness-of-fit statistic, the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) and the goodness-of fit index (GFI). The relative goodness-of-fit indices we calculated were: the non-normed fit index (NNFI), the root mean square residual (RMR) and the comparative fit index (CFI).\nDiscussion: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the structure and dimensions of service quality by empirical validation of a second-order model of service quality for retail banking services by comparing it with a first-order model under the competing models paradigm (Byrne, 2001). The initially hypothesized models were found to be of acceptable fit after suitable modifications. The results of CFA of both the finally accepted models are shown in Table VI. The results show that both the first-order and second-order models' of retail banking service quality are of acceptable fit based on fit indices (GFI>0.9, CFI>0.95, RMR <0.05, RMSEA<0.05 and p test for close fit >0.5 indicating excellent fit).\nConclusions and implications: The results provide support for the multi-level (Brady and Cronin, 2001) conceptualization of service quality in retail banking services in India. Customers \"perceptions of service quality occur at multiple levels and customers' distinguish between the quality of the interaction with the service provider, the quality of the core service, and the overall quality of the organization.\" This study thus provides empirical validation for a multi-dimensional and multi-level construct of perceived service quality in retail banking. Service quality is best understood as a five-dimensional second-order model consisting of primary dimensions of service delivery, competence, reliability (representative of the interaction quality, Rust and Oliver, 1994), tangibles (representative of the physical environment, Rust and Oliver, 1994) and core service (representative of the service outcomes, Rust and Oliver, 1994).\nStudy limitations and further research directions: Since the study has been conducted with a sample of customer's retail banking services with evidence from Indian context, generalization of the findings should be made with caution. Second, this study did not test for common method bias. Third, the model is based on the 41 attributes of study by Sureshchandar et al. (2001) and an expanded list of attributes could lead to development of a better model. Future studies in varied service and cross-cultural context could lead to better understanding of the structure of the service quality construct. Finally, in this study service quality is conceptualized as a reflective construct. Brady and Cronin (2001), suggested adoption of a reflective measurement model based on confirmatory factor analysis using SEM if researchers intend to examine the influence of the service quality construct on its relevant dimensions. Further studies can test alternative specifications of the model (e.g. reflective vs formative).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to extract and validate the dimensions of service quality in retail banking services in India by adopting an integrated and hierarchical perspective of service quality determinants.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper empirically validates a parsimonious (multi-dimensional and multi-level) model of service quality in retail banking services in India. The analysis was conducted using structural equation modeling. A hypothesized second-order model was tested and compared with a first-order model of service quality. The dimensions were extracted through exploratory factor analysis and validated through confirmatory factor analysis.\nFindings: The second-order service quality model was accepted based on parsimony as it consisted of five primary dimensions: Service delivery (describing the efficiency with which the service is provided), tangibles (the quality of physical service environment), reliability (the promise of right service being provided), core service (the attributes and features of the service product) and competence (the capability of employees and systems for providing the service). The second-order model enhances the understanding of the structure of service quality for retail banking services in India. The most important dimension was tangibles, especially the physical environment which facilitates efficient delivery of service.\nResearch limitations/implications: The research provides support for a multi-dimensional second-order model of service quality in retail banking service in India. The results show that customers form perceptions of overall service quality which are reflected by five primary dimensions. The primary dimension of tangibles is the most influential.\nPractical implications: Organizations need to measure and manage overall service quality perceptions to build trust and reinforce loyalty intentions among their customers. Banks need to adopt a multi-level approach to managing service quality perceptions, i.e. both at the dimensional level and organizational level.\nSocial implications: This study would contribute to the enhancement of service quality outcomes in retail banking services in India which has a crucial role in the economic development.\nOriginality/value: The study proposes and validates a parsimonious and hierarchical model of service quality in the context of retail banking in Indian cultural context. Thus this research provides support to existing knowledge of service quality measurement and management and extends the understanding of its structure by validating the multi-level model in an emerging market context.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Natural language processing and machine learning as practical toolsets for archival processing
|
[
"Appraisal",
"Machine learning",
"Computational archival science",
"Natural language processing (NLP)",
"Personally identifiable information (PII)",
"Sensitivity review"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: There has recently been a lot of attention within the archival community on archives as data, implemented through natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning techniques. This has particularly been the case for access to digitized collections, such as support for digital humanities, but there is also an increasing interest in applications for appraisal and related functions. An important context for this activity is the challenge of dealing with huge volumes of digital records and making them publicly accessible.\nOverview of natural language processing and machine learning: As an introduction to the literature review and discussion of software tools, we will first provide a brief overview of concepts relating to NLP and machine learning, highlighting methods and terms referenced throughout the paper.\nLiterature review: This review focuses on NLP and machine learning in the context of archival institutions and practice, rather than the management of current records.\nSoftware tools: Several software tools have been developed for NLP and machine learning. This overview focuses on free tools that have been developed or customized for use specifically by archives.\nDesign principles and workflow considerations: Functional requirements and design principles surfaced through the literature and software review include:\nConclusion: As outlined in our review, there have been an increasing number of projects focused on developing tools and methodologies for machine learning and NLP applied to archival processes. Creating tools for wide use now seems more viable, especially with the success of ePADD. Common elements in projects to date and other studies have given rise to basic set of functional requirements that could help inform further progress.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to provide an overview of recent efforts relating to natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning applied to archival processing, particularly appraisal and sensitivity reviews, and propose functional requirements and workflow considerations for transitioning from experimental to operational use of these tools.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper has four main sections. 1) A short overview of the NLP and machine learning concepts referenced in the paper. 2) A review of the literature reporting on NLP and machine learning applied to archival processes. 3) An overview and commentary on key existing and developing tools that use NLP or machine learning techniques for archives. 4) This review and analysis will inform a discussion of functional requirements and workflow considerations for NLP and machine learning tools for archival processing.\nFindings: Applications for processing e-mail have received the most attention so far, although most initiatives have been experimental or project based. It now seems feasible to branch out to develop more generalized tools for born-digital, unstructured records. Effective NLP and machine learning tools for archival processing should be usable, interoperable, flexible, iterative and configurable.\nOriginality/value: Most implementations of NLP for archives have been experimental or project based. The main exception that has moved into production is ePADD, which includes robust NLP features through its named entity recognition module. This paper takes a broader view, assessing the prospects and possible directions for integrating NLP tools and techniques into archival workflows.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Strategic marketing in times of recession versus growth: New Zealand manufacturers
|
[
"Manufacturing firms",
"Strategic marketing",
"Recession",
"Competitive success"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A recession occurs when slowdowns in economic activity significantly weaken an economy for a period of more than just a few months; with reductions normally noticeable in real gross domestic product, industrial production, employment, real income, and wholesale-retail sales (NZIER, 2008). As such, recessions can severely affect the performance and survival of many companies. Indeed, the recent economic crisis of 2008-2010 adversely shaped global business landscapes more comprehensively than any downturn since the Great Depression (Rollins et al., 2014), leaving in its wake a post-financial crisis \"hangover\" (Lyons, 2015) characterised by unpredictable trading conditions that are ongoing, both worldwide and within the Asia-Pacific region. It is understandable, therefore, that a plethora of prescriptive and empirical articles have sought to shed light on how firms might best manage their businesses during recessionary conditions, not only to \"weather the storm\" but also to prepare for the upturn that normally follows (Bumgardener et al., 2011; Ghemawat, 2010; Gulati et al., 2010; Hamel, 2009; McGrath and MacMillan, 2009; Rosier, 2011; Simkin and Dibb, 2012; Sull, 2009). Within this body of work, a number of articles have endeavoured to understand in what ways a company's activities specific to marketing are impacted by such economic downturns (Bridges and Freytag, 2009; Kotler and Caslione, 2009; O'Malley et al., 2011; Quelch and Jocz, 2009; Srinivasan et al., 2005). Here, as noted by Srinivasan et al. (2005), generally it seems most companies tend to respond in one of two ways: they either invest in marketing, or cut marketing expenses heavily (see O'Malley et al., 2011 for a comprehensive analysis of previous research that addresses firms' approaches to marketing during a downturn).\nLiterature review and hypotheses development: Research hypotheses relating to the expected differences between the strategic marketing practices of higher and lower performing companies were formulated on the basis of a review of both the normative and empirical literature as from the late 1980s to the present time. The emphasis of this review, presented below, was to identify those \"evergreen\" practices that have been most commonly prescribed or reported, and to operationalise them into a number of testable hypotheses (see the list below) forming the basis of this study. The review is presented in five subsets relating to each of the key stages in the strategic marketing process under scrutiny, as follows:\nResearch methodology: The findings reported in this paper are based on two point-in-time mail questionnaire surveys that span the ten-year period from 1997 to 2007. When the first survey was conducted in mid-1997, New Zealand firms had just endured the so-called \"Asian flu\" and a decade of low or no growth. However, by the time the repeat survey was administered in mid-2007 they had experienced a decade of the most sustained economic growth since the 1960s (NZIER, 2004, 2008) thereby offering a sharp contrast in the prevailing economic circumstances within which strategic marketing decision making was taking place for firms within each of the two samples.\nSample characteristics: An analysis of the internal composition of both the 1997 and the 2007 study subsamples shows that New Zealand manufacturing firms were bigger in 2007 than in 1997: median turnover was $11 million in 2007 compared with $7 million in 1997 (although after inflation is taken into account this increase is relatively small) and firms employing 50 or more staff increased by 10 per cent, although only an average of some 4 per cent in both the subsamples were reported to work in a dedicated marketing role. Ownership characteristics remained constant at about four-fifths New Zealand owned (79 and 81 per cent, respectively). Similarly, the vast majority of firms at both time-points described themselves as either fully independent or, if part of a larger group of companies, at least autonomous (91 and 92 per cent, respectively). Levels of product diversification also remained virtually the same, with almost three-quarters of respondents in both subsamples (70 and 71 per cent, respectively) reporting that their firms were effectively \"single business\" dominated. While all respondents in both subsamples reported that their firm's main activity was \"manufacturing\" (the key criterion for inclusion in our subsample of manufacturers), almost half of each subsample (45 and 44 per cent, respectively) indicated their main market to be \"industrial\" goods with the balance indicating that it was \"consumer\" goods (37 and 38 per cent, respectively) or \"other\" (18 per cent in both cases). However, descriptions of the firms' main market had changed somewhat by 2007, with a larger proportion (11 per cent) claiming they operated in a market that was \"established and growing\" and a slightly smaller proportion (7 per cent) claiming that their main market was \"mature and stable\".\nFindings and discussion: Findings relating to undertaking a strategic situation analysis (H1-H4; Tables I-II)\nConclusion: Whilst this study is based on a tried and tested questionnaire using analytical techniques and measures of firm performance previously employed (see, e.g. Brooksbank et al., 1992) findings should nonetheless be viewed in light of a number of potential methodological limitations. First, although it would have been preferable to administer the repeat survey in 2007 to the exact same companies that had responded to the earlier survey, privacy protocols prevented the capture of respondent details in 1997 leaving little alternative but to employ the next best approach; that of generating a mailing list sourced through the same mailing house and in exactly the same way as ten years' previously. Moreover, and notwithstanding this limitation, due to relatively small response rates at both time-points (22 and 15 per cent, respectively) the extent to which the study samples are representative of the population of firms under scrutiny remains unknown. Second, since an identical questionnaire was administered at time-points ten years apart, differences in the respondents' interpretation of certain questions and some of the marketing vocabulary and terminology used cannot be ruled out. Similarly, it should be noted that implicit to this study is an assumption that all reported strategic marketing decision making was consciously undertaken with the intention of maximising firm performance relative to the prevailing business environment. Third, notwithstanding the frequent and consistent use of the research questions and their operationalisation over a number of previous studies, factoral analyses were not undertaken as a means of further establishing measurement validity.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: On the basis of lessons gleaned from previous research into successful strategic marketing practices in times of both recession and growth, and in the face of an ongoing post-global financial crisis \"hangover\" characterised by unpredictable trading conditions both worldwide and in the Asia-Pacific region, the purpose of this paper is to provide insights and advice for marketing strategists within New Zealand's manufacturing sector.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The inquiry is based on two point-in-time mail surveys, one during recessionary conditions and the other during favourable economic conditions, with similar samples of 427 and 272 New Zealand manufacturers, respectively. Data analyses were conducted using SPSS and sought to compare and contrast successful strategic marketing decision making between the two time-points.\nFindings: The results confirm that, irrespective of prevailing economic circumstances, basic strategic marketing plays a pivotal role in facilitating the competitive success of New Zealand manufacturers. However, with the notable exception of three \"evergreen\" practices - targeting selected market segments, competing on the basis of value-to-the-customer, and finding new ways to do business - the results also suggest that different economic conditions otherwise necessitate quite different priorities for success at each stage of the strategic marketing decision-making process.\nResearch limitations/implications: Due to relatively low-response rates, the extent to which the study samples are representative of the population under scrutiny remains unknown. Also, since an identical questionnaire was administered at two time-points ten years apart, differences in the respondents' interpretation of certain questions and some of the marketing vocabulary and terminology used cannot be ruled out.\nPractical implications: The research highlights the important contribution that strategic marketing makes to the achievement of competitive success in New Zealand's manufacturing sector. It also identifies some of the underlying \"key drivers\" that best predict successful strategic marketing decision making in times of recession compared with growth, thereby indicating a number of key lessons for marketing strategists.\nOriginality/value: This study addresses a number of gaps in the empirical marketing literature. Although many previous studies have shown various strategic marketing activities to be critical to competitive success, few have examined it as a multi-step decision-making process and none have done so in the context of New Zealand manufacturing. Nor have previous studies sought to compare and contrast effective strategic marketing decision-making set against the background of contrasting economic circumstances.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
High-involvement human resource practices, employee learning and employability
|
[
"Employability",
"Employee learning",
"High-involvement human resource practices"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In today's competitive and dynamic workplace, changes in the labor market with regard to increasing flexibility and adaptability reflect the need for greater attention on employability in academic and practical research (De Cuyper et al., 2014; Akkermans and Tims, 2017). Individuals with a high level of employability may perceive greater chances of being able to achieve a new and equal job within or outside the organization (De Cuyper et al., 2011; Vanhercke et al., 2014). This definition is regarded to be compatible with definitions, including \"the continuous fulfilling, acquiring or creating of work through the optimal use of competences\" (Van der Heijde and Van der Heijden, 2006). Considering these competencies, employees will feel more confidence to adapt to various changes, from relatively modest (e.g. changes in the content of work) to more profound (e.g. organizational restructuring) (Forrier et al., 2015). Employability is regarded as a joint responsibility of employees and employers (Wittekind et al., 2010; Kim et al., 2015). In this study, an employability enhancement model has been proposed from both workers' own perceptions and their supervisors' perceptions of employability.\nTheoretical background: HIHR practices can have positive effects on organizational and individual outcomes by offering employees more control in their jobs and more chances to engage in organizational business as a whole (Lawler et al., 2001). According to the model of Appelbaum et al. (2000), five constructs of human resource practices - recognition, competence development, empowerment, information sharing and fair rewards - were identified as HIHR practices. These five practices are high value-added management measures of organizations because of their growing importance on human capital (Yang, 2012). By raising employee involvement in organizations, these practices are conducive to increasing employees' skills and competence to accomplish tasks; they also help employees take on more responsibility and provide more work-related autonomy (Pfeffer and Veiga, 1999; Shin et al., 2016).\nHypotheses: Pare and Tremblay (2007) concluded that comprehensive HIHR practices should focus on employees' incentives (i.e. recognition, rewards), necessary skills (i.e. competence development) and opportunities to participate (i.e. empowerment, information sharing). These strategies deliver the signal of organizational focus on employee value and help to fulfill employees' needs for respect, autonomy and self-actualization (Camps and Rodriguez, 2011). According to social exchange theory, if employers provide employees with concern for their needs and consideration for their development, it may result in positive exchange relationships (Eisenberger and Stinglhamber, 1986). In such social exchange relationships, employees are more likely to reciprocate with positive attitudes and behaviors (Alfes et al., 2013). In this study, distinct HIHR practices - including recognition, competence development, empowerment, information sharing and fair rewards - are hypothesized to have an impact on employee learning.\nMethodology: Organizational context\nMeasures: In this study, all the items of the variables were assessed on a seven-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).\nData analysis and descriptive statistics: Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis was conducted to test the hypotheses. The AMOS software package was used to assess the fit between the proposed model and the data by calculating a traditional chi-square (kh2) value, a comparative fit index (CFI), a normed fit index (NFI), an incremental fit index (IFI) and the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) (Hu and Bentler, 1999).\nResults: We hypothesized that employee learning would mediate the relationships between HIHR practices and employability - yet previous theory and research do not provide a compelling rationale for whether employee learning will fully or partially mediate the relationships. Thus, we followed James et al. (2006) and Ambrose and Schminke (2009) who maintained that full mediation can represent a better choice as a baseline model. Thus, we compared the fit of the full mediation model with that of two alternative models. The full mediation model included seven paths - five from HIHR practices to employee learning; one from employee learning to self-rating employability; and one from employee learning to supervisor-rating employability.\nDiscussion: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among employees' perceptions of HIHR practices, employee learning and perceived employability. The results mostly supported the proposed hypotheses. It was found that the practices of recognition, empowerment, competence development and information sharing had significant and positive effects on employee learning, which facilitated the level of employability perceived by both employees and their direct supervisors. Moreover, employees' perceptions of fair rewards practices were negatively linked to employee learning.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: Although environmental factors at the organizational level are of importance for individual employability, very few studies have investigated how the practices an organization implements can facilitate employability. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how high-involvement human resources (HIHR) practices (i.e. recognition, competence development, empowerment, information sharing and fair rewards) influence employee learning, which contributes to employability.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The data were collected from 288 pairs of employees and their direct supervisors in Chinese companies. In this study, we measure perceived employability from both employees and their direct supervisors. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis is conducted to test the hypotheses.\nFindings: The results indicate that employees' perceptions of the HIHR practices of recognition, competence development, empowerment and information sharing are positively related to employee learning, and then facilitate self- and supervisor-ratings of employees' employability. Practices of fair rewards have a negative effect on employee learning and employability.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to employability and human resource management literature in several ways. First, the study raises the association between different HIHR practices and perceived employability through employee learning. Second, the study considers both self-rating and supervisor-rating of employability to improve the effectiveness of the results.\n",
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