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Review of global mental health research in the construction industry: A science mapping approach
|
[
"Organization",
"Mental health",
"Management",
"Construction safety",
"Scientometric review",
"Construction personnel"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The workplace is becoming more stressful as a result of intensified work assignments (European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, 2007). The construction industry is characterized by high rates of work-related accidents (Arndt et al., 2005), and deliverables in little time (Campbell, 2006). It also has characteristics of \"hire and fire\" and \"part-time jobs,\" making unemployment predominant, all which constitute to be stressors of mental health (MH) (Beswick et al., 2007). MH refers to the condition of mind, state of well-being, composure in behavior, and actions to persons and the environment in a positive manner (WHO, 2004).\nMethodology: This study employed a science mapping unit of analysis, particularly co-author, co-word, co-citation analysis, bibliographic coupling and clustering to achieve its objectives. This was conducted using science mapping software, CiteSpace 5.4.R1 (5) (64 bit). Science mapping builds maps that outline the theoretical, intellectual structure, social structure, and the interrelationship between disciplines and research fields (Cobo et al., 2011). It uniquely presents a body of knowledge in a tangible form, through scientometric or bibliometric techniques (Chen et al., 2015). CiteSpace is one of the most widely used science mapping software (Li, Ma and Qu, 2017). Science mapping using CiteSpace adopts several structural and temporal metrics (e.g. citation burst detection) in addition to the unit of analysis used to extract networks (Chen et al., 2010).\nMethod of data retrieval: The bibliographic data were retrieved from the ISI Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus because both databases contain the most influential peer-reviewed journals in any research field (Aghaei et al., 2013). The relevant search string was arrived at after pre-analysis and comparison of search results. The following retrieval codes were employed using different combinations (see Table I): \"mental health\" \"psychological health\" \"depression\" \"anxiety\" \"psychological stress\" \"post-traumatic stress disorders\" \"construction industry.\" The retrieved documents were limited to journal articles, in the field of Construction, Engineering, Environmental science, and Psychology and written in the English language. As regards year of publication, the timespan for documents was set from year 1970 to 2018.\nResults and discussion: Data retrieved were from the year 1974 to 2018. According to the search results, main empirical studies examining MH in the construction industry began in 1990 with one publication by van Vliet et al. (1990). Other pioneer studies which employed strong methodologies to examine MH in the construction industry include Triebig et al. (1992), Holmstrom et al. (1993) and Sutherland and Davidson (1993). van Vliet et al. (1990) and Triebig et al. (1992) examined symptoms of severe mental disorders (schizophrenia, psychosis, manic occurrences, and phobia) among construction tradesmen/artisans. The studies employed the International Classification of Disease (ICD) and Personal State Examination questionnaire, respectively. Sutherland and Davidson (1993) following a pilot study, examined common and severe mental disorders in construction professionals using the Crown-Crisp Experiential Index.\nDirections for future research: Attention to the theme identified by the cluster analysis will inform on research efforts to achieve sustainable MH interventions in the construction workplace. Recent themes related to psychological health and safety among tradesmen, determinants of physical and MH among construction personnel, mitigating mental and emotional stress, and work ability. The study revealed that future studies should focus on measures that pertain to improved working conditions, physiological responses to workplace stressors, physical and MH awareness, and organizational justice. Based on the findings of the study, the following directions for future research are proposed.\nLimitations: A limitation of this study is the number of published articles used for the study. This number can be traced to the field of research being young. However, the scientometric analysis highlighted research efforts in this body of knowledge. Additionally, when merging the cells of authors with varying initials, only eligible nodes could be merged to form a primary and secondary node. Irrespective of this limitation, the quality of the analysis was maintained.\nConclusion: MH research in the construction industry is gaining attention, although this study reveals it is still at an embryonic stage. This study provides a scientometric review by science mapping the body of knowledge of MH in the construction industry. A total of 145 bibliographic records were retrieved from the core collection database of WoS and Scopus. Using CiteSpace, the science mapping techniques were employed to assess the state and direction of MH research in the construction industry.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: The demanding nature of the construction industry poses strain that affects the health of construction personnel. Research shows that mental ill health in this industry is increasing. However, a review mapping the field to determine the extant of research is lacking. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to conduct a scientometric review of mental health (MH) research in the construction industry.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A total of 145 bibliographic records retrieved from Web of Science and Scopus database were analyzed using CiteSpace, to visualize MH research outputs in the industry.\nFindings: Top co-cited authors are Helen Lingard, Mei-yung Leung, Paul Bowen, Julitta S. Boschman, Peter E.D. Love, Martin Loosemore and Linda Goldenhar. Previous studies focused on healthy eating, work efficiency, occupational stress and workplace injury. Emerging research areas are centered around physiological health monitoring, work ability, and smart interventions to prevent and manage poor MH.\nResearch limitations/implications: Result is influenced by the citations in retrieved articles.\nPractical implications: The study found that researchers in the construction industry have intensified efforts to leverage information technology in improving the health, well-being, and safety of construction personnel. Future research should focus on developing workplace interventions that incorporate organizational justice and flexible work systems. There is also a need to develop psychological self-reporting scales specific to the industry.\nOriginality/value: This study enhances the understanding of researchers on existing collaboration networks and future research directions. It provides information on foundational documents and authors whose works should be consulted when researching into this field.\n",
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The career decision-making competence: a new construct for the career realm
|
[
"Employability",
"HRM",
"Decision-making",
"Career decision-making competence",
"Debiasing training",
"Heuristics and biases"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Within the current work environment, the complexity of professional jobs has considerably increased (Demerouti, 2015), contemporary careers are viewed as boundaryless (Arthur et al., 2005) and organizations must be considered as dynamic stakeholders needing to face constant change and emergent related career issues. Scholars investigating such evolving career patterns have developed different career-related conceptualizations (Eby et al., 2003), such as that of the protean career (Hall, 1976), the career shaped outside of traditional employer contexts (Arthur et al., 2005) and the concept of employability (Fugate et al., 2004), among others. These new conceptualizations represent what we refer to as a career realm of psychological constructs related to the nature of contemporary careers. Such research offers rich perspectives on the study of current careers and aims to highlight not only individuals as the key players of their own work stories but also the role of individual attitudes and competencies in fostering professional development and success.\nAcknowledging human limitations: evidence from cognitive and behavioral decision research: Decision-making processes often come from deeply held preferences or expectations regarding outcomes and consequences bounded by important individual and organizational constraints. Such preferences drive decision-making processes that may be deeply flawed and lack the logical and thorough evaluation of a rational decision-making approach.\nToward a definition of decision-making as an individual competence: The literature on H&B has thoroughly documented departures from logical, rational processes in judgment and decision-making. Given the significance and pervasiveness of these departures in the laboratory, scholars have begun to examine how individuals might make decisions competently in real-life contexts and settings.\nIntroducing decision-making processes in the career realm: The aforementioned research highlights a wide range of potential outcomes related to different levels of DMC, with regard to both personal and social issues. Nevertheless, research investigating the extent to which DMC may be associated with work and career-related outcomes is somewhat scarce, leaving the investigation of relationships - such as those between DMC and career construction, career development, employability and job performance - an under-investigated research field.\nDebiasing interventions: improving decisions inside, across and outside organizations: In light of evidence from research on decision-making errors, there have been a number of attempts to induce individuals to make good decisions and to improve their DMC by increasing their consciousness regarding the most common cognitive errors. Such improvement interventions have been developed within the framework of the prescriptive approach (Baron and Brown, 1991), which assumes that cognitive strategies can be the object of specific interventions designed to improve decisions and judgment processes.\nCareer decision-making competence for work-related outcomes: The interventions outlined above show the many ways in which DMC can be improved, increasing different kinds of job performance within an organization (Barrick et al., 2002; Beal and Eubanks, 2002). As such improvements are targeted not only to individuals' organizational performance but also to building their own career pathways, one might expect that higher DMC may well influence individual behaviors and outcomes in the career realm. That is, given evidence from research showing DMC as a key construct with regards to real-world decisions (Bruine de Bruin et al., 2007b), it is reasonable to expect that C-DMC might be associated with individual career outcomes. Below, we outline the major linkages between C-DMC improvements, employability and individual career development.\nLinks to understanding decision-making competence in the career realm and adaptive methods of decision-making: It is easy to see that the opportunities for deviating from a normative, rational model in occupational choice have much in common with what is seen in the literature on H&B. For example, individuals might take or decline a position not only on the basis of their work experience but also from guidance that comes from relatives or who knows the position or the company well (a phenomenon known as availability heuristic). Further, decisions are generally practical, instead of systematic, and they are necessarily based on incomplete information, often context-related and not separated from the family background (familiarity bias). Decisions about occupational directions are frequently opportunistic, based on fortune and experiences and made when the individual feels in a position to react to opportunities as they are perceived and encountered. Decisions are rarely dispassionate, being also affected by feelings and emotions (overconfidence, loss aversion, optimistic bias, etc.). Finally, decisions often involve accepting one option rather than choosing between several (Hodkinson and Sparkes, 1997; Taylor and Popma, 1990).\nDiscussion: Taking together the literature works on decision-making reviewed above, we suggest a model linking debiasing interventions to the improvement of two decision-making competencies: DMC and C-DMC. These linkages are illustrated in Figure 1.\nCareer decision-making competence: new directions for research and practice: While the initial work on H&B in judgment and decision-making was restricted to laboratory settings, it is clear that models of decision-making that avoid those cognitive errors (Ceschi et al., 2014a, 2014b), have considerable relevance to workplace behavior and individual performance in the career domain. In organizations, it has been documented that decision-making is constrained by reliance on such cognitive shortcuts - and it has also been shown that individuals can be trained to avoid those biases with some fairly simple, focused techniques. Similarly, for individuals, matters of employability and career development seem subject to similar H&B and may be enhanced by increasing the individual's DMC. Indeed, the clear similarities across the diverse literature works reviewed above suggest that - as a rule - a methodical, logical, error- and bias-free, rational model of decision-making can be expected to produce better decisional outcomes. Taking C-DMC to reflect a rational model, there are a number of avenue for practice and for future research:\n",
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"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to link findings from laboratory-based decision-making research and decision-making competence (DMC) aspects that may be central for career-related decision-making processes. Past research has identified individual differences in rational responses in decision situations, which the authors refer to as DMC. Although there is a robust literature on departures from rational responses focused on heuristics and biases (H&B) in decision-making, such evidence is largely confined to group-level differences observed in psychology laboratories and has not been extended to the realm of career development and workforce behavior.\nDesign/methodology/approach: By first introducing the concept of DMC and contextualizing it within organizations and the work environment, the paper outlines a review on recent development concerning debiasing interventions in organizations and provides insights on how these may be effective with regard to organizational performance and individual career development.\nFindings: The contribution presents a perspective to improve knowledge about career decision-making competence (C-DMC) by presenting an approach linking decision-making research to interventions aiming at managing H&B and systematic misperceptions in career processes.\nOriginality/value: This contribution is one of the few linking decision-making research to the applied context of organizations and of career competences. Moreover, while some research has treated decision-making skills as traits, this contribution provides support to consider them developable as competencies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Performance evaluation of tourism supply chain management: the case of Thailand
|
[
"Analytical hierarchy process",
"Supply chain performance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In recent decades, the service sector has become a significant part of the world economy and has been the driving force of economic growth for many countries (Cho et al., 2012) including Thailand. Currently, Thailand's economy faces many difficulties in several sectors, such as the construction, industrial and agricultural sectors, from both internal and external forces. However, one sector that has gradually and continually grown during economic recessions is the service sector, particularly in the tourism industry. Although tourism presently accounts for only 17 percent of the Thai GDP, it is predicted to provide great opportunities for Thailand's future economy (Suriyathanin, 2015). Therefore, tourism is estimated to become one of the major industries for the Thai economy and a driver for social development.\n2. Literature review: This section summarizes the literature relevant to an evaluation of the Thai tourism industry SCM performance. This includes two issues related to the main core of the study. First, the study reviews the research regarding tourism industry SCM that considers nature and characteristics of tourism and its supply chain. However, it is limited based on the view of research in relation to the tourism industry supply chain. Second, the study defines the terms of performance measurement and the application of this approach.\n3. Research conceptual framework: The foundation of performance measurement for tourism SCM is constructed based on the methods of content analysis, MCDM weight and ranking and partly on expert advice regarding tourism. The boundaries of the service supply chain processes are divided into eight dimensions. They are described as follows. OPM, the administration of business processes related to orders for goods or services. An order management system automates and streamlines order processing for businesses. SRM, essentially the process for an organization that determines the supply categories that are important and creates the strategies that manage these items in an intelligent fashion. SPM, the strategies that focus on capturing incident-related information for tracking and monitoring on a case-by-case basis. However, this data also contain a wealth of knowledge and insight about the overall performance and service delivery of the entire organization and this is where SPM becomes involved. CARM, the ability to allocate the right person with the right credentials to the proper assignment. CRM, a term that refers to practices, strategies and technologies that companies use to manage and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle with the goal of improving customer service relationships and assisting in customer retention and driving sales growth. DM, a unified method of controlling and tracking business unit requirements and internal purchasing operations. ITM, the process where all resources related to information technology are managed according to an organization's priorities and needs. SCFM, emphasizing the actual transactions between the upstream and downstream players in the supply chain instead of only looking at the financial status of individual players. By analyzing the eight dimensions according to the opinions in the sample responses, Tier 1 Suppliers accommodation, transportation and excursion, the research will show a suitable performance measurement for the supply chain and the significance of performances. The research conceptual framework is shown in Figure 2.\n4. Methodology: This research is divided into the Three steps below.\n5. Results: In this study, 195 sample responses from experts of each component of the supply chain were collected by pairwise relative weight. Supply chain performance criteria for each tourism component was investigated to identify the weight of each criterion in Table III. It was found that accommodation maximized the weight in OPM, SRM and SPM. Transportation maximized the weight in OPM and was ranked 1, whereas SPM and DM were ranked 2 and 3, respectively. Excursion primarily weighted OPM, SPM and SRM. Tour operation, which was the last component, showed weight ranks from SPM, ORM and SRM. OPM, SRM and SPM were ranked in the top 3, whereas transportation ranked SRM as 4. The weight differences of the criterion in each component resulted in a different focus on operating in each component as shown in Table IV. The findings from this ranking result show distinguishable differences as follows: whereas accommodation, excursion and transportation ranked OPM as 1, SPM was ranked 1 by the tour operator. The most important function of the tour operator is to tailor each package tour from the combination of business components of TSC to meet the utmost needs of the customers. Consequently, tour operators should attempt to continually find the best practice of SPM and simultaneously compile this into the main strategy of operation. SPM was ranked 2 by transportation and excursion, whereas accommodation used this rank for SRM and tour operator used this rank for OPM. It is very interesting that the importance of accommodation agreed strongly with other organizations as a way to better smooth operation and survival, for example, tour operators and suppliers, food and drink manufacturers, furniture manufacturers and energy suppliers. Transportation ranked DM as 3, whereas the rest rank it as 6 and 7. Since transportation is the main channel to convey passengers to the actual destination, transportation has to prepare both the vehicle and the individual for the needs of tour operators and tourists in each season. Thus, consistent maintenance is needed for all vehicles to be ready and adequate at all times.\n6. Conclusion: This research was aimed at defining the weight of the performance indicators between the tour operator and the first tier in the tourism supply chain. In this study, 195 sample responses of experts of each component in the supply chain, such as accommodation, excursion, transportation and tour operator, answered the questionnaire to identify the relative pairwise weight. The AHP was also used as a method to prioritize the criteria and metrics in each criterion to investigate which ones are essential for the measurement of tourism SCM performance from the perspective of tourism-business operators.\n7. Suggestions and recommendations: The results of this study came from the tourism service components of the TSC. Future research should study the impacts of the performance indicators of the tourism supply chain from the customer perspective. Therefore, there is a need determine suitable performance measurement metrics for the tourism supply chain.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate and develop a framework of the performance evaluation of tourism supply chain management (SCM) for the case of Thailand.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The performance measurement of tourism SCM was based upon the eight dimensions of service performance, namely order process management (OPM), supplier relationship management (SRM), service performance management (SPM), capacity and resources management, customer relationship management, demand management (DM), information and technology management, tour finance supply chain. Data were collected from 195 samples of experts of each component of the supply chain to identify the weight pairwise and criteria on each tourism component. The study also adopted analytical hierarchy process (AHP) technique to rank the dimensions of service performance for searching the suitable performance measurement.\nFindings: The results showed that there are both similarities and differences in each tier. Among the eight dimensions subject to this measurement, OPM, SPM and SRM are ranked as 1, 2 and 3, respectively, in tourism supply chain.\nResearch limitations/implications: One limitation should be considered. As the results of this performance measurement are drawn from sole perspectives of the tourism-business operators, these are probably different from those of the tourists.\nOriginality/value: The contribution of this study is another effective performance measurement which is expected to benefit the evaluation of tourism supply chain for Thai tourism industry.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Perceived fit and deal framing: the moderating effect of perceived fit on sales promotions in line and brand extensions
|
[
"Sales promotion",
"Prospect theory",
"Line/brand extension",
"Perceived fit",
"Performance risk"
] |
[
{
"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: While the variety of sales promotions is truly staggering, most of them can be categorized as monetary or nonmonetary (Lowe, 2010). A monetary promotion usually provides consumers with a price discount, for example, 50 per cent off, and a nonmonetary promotion typically provides consumers with an extra free product, for example, buy one get one free (hereinafter, referred to as \"BOGOF\") (\nLiterature review: Interest in how individuals evaluate a new object is prevalent in the literature (Fiske and Pavelchak, 1986), and a leading view is that individuals, through personal experiences, develop a set of expectations or a schema about the attributes of typical members of a category and an affective reaction to the category (Lee, 1994). When evaluating a new object, they will attempt to classify the object into a category for efficient processing of the new encounter, and this mechanism is known as category-based processing (Klink and Smith, 2001). The category-based processing will be successful if salient cues of the new object are perceived to fit the category schema, and, consequently, the affective reaction associated with the category will be transferred to the new object (Dens and De Pelsmacker, 2010).\nMethod: Stimuli development\nAnalyses: H1 stated that parent brand attitude would be more closely related to line-extension attitude than to brand-extension attitude. Pearson's correlation coefficients were used to test the hypothesis. Although both correlations were significant (r\nDiscussion and implications: The purpose of this study is to examine how perceived fit of a line/brand extension moderates the evaluation of economically identical promotions. The results indicate that:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how perceived fit between a line/brand extension and its parent brand moderates the evaluation of two economically identical promotions, i.e. buy one get one free (BOGOF) and 50 per cent off. A travel-sized painkiller is the product in this study.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A 2 (perceived fit: high or low) x 2 (promotion type: BOGOF or 50 per cent off) between-subjects design is used in this study. Participants, who are college students, are randomly assigned to the four experimental conditions.\nFindings: The results indicate that parent brand attitude is more closely associated with line-extension attitude than with brand-extension attitude, line extension leads to lower perceived performance risk and higher stockpiling tendency than brand extension and BOGOF is preferred over 50 per cent off for line extension but 50 per cent off is preferred over BOGOF for brand extension.\nResearch limitations/implications: For a low-price, non-conspicuous and stock-up product category such as painkillers, marketers should consider using BOGOF to promote a line extension and 50 per cent off to promote a brand extension. It is important to explore in future research as to how the findings can be applied to other product categories, other promotion types, other packages and non-student consumers.\nOriginality/value: This study is the first that examines how perceived fit of a line/brand extension moderates the evaluation of economically identical promotions. It integrates the literature of line/brand extension, perceived performance risk and prospect theory to advance the research on sales promotions for new products.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Market-led systems development: when customers become users
|
[
"Communication technologies",
"Project management",
"Customer orientation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The importance of information systems and technology (IS&T) in organisations cannot be over-emphasised. For example, it enables business transformation; supports re-design initiatives and also enables organisations to deliver flexible services in step with constantly changing customer demands. By enabling the re-allocation of resources that supports these initiatives, IS&T can also encourage organisations to participate in new market programmes. This is achieved by better cost control, operational efficiency and market targeting which enables the increase in its knowledge base. However, it is crucial that organisations understand the importance of the implementation journey that impacts on the eventual success, or otherwise, of an IS&T project (Brooke and Maguire, 1998; Maguire, 2000). The introduction of IS&T should be \"market-led\" when the new system interfaces directly with a firm's customers (Maguire, 2000). Unfortunately, although there is general acceptance of the importance of good user support and involvement in IS&T project success (Cook and Davis, 2003), and also a range of research available on users' experience during large-scale IT/IS implementation (Gales and Mansour-Cole, 1995; Geddes, 1990) to a large extent, the significance of IS&T introductions still remains a grey area. This is especially true in relation to a strategic emphasis and implementation approach. For example, introduction problems have been reported on the largest IS&T project in the world which has been commissioned by the UK's National Health Service Connecting for Health. Systems development in the health services are especially problematical owing to the complex nature of the organisation and the significant number of key stakeholders (Southon et al., 1999; Maguire, 2007). Generally speaking it has been easier to isolate system failure in the public sector, as opposed to the private sector, because of accountability and reporting requirements (Collins and Bicknell, 2000). Academics have been monitoring system failures for many years. They have also been forthcoming in trying to identify why IS&T can lead to dysfunctionality within organisations (Sauer, 1993).In order to continue to study the issues surrounding IS&T introduction, we see as necessary the development of a research theme which focuses on the experience of users during the service introduction stage of IS&T projects. It is also important to support this study with empirical data which will validate the theme by exploring new approaches. These approaches include establishing relationships between introduction and success criteria. This is especially true as we generally share the view that limitations in the current scope of conventional project management exist. In effect, the decision to progress with the study is based on a realisation that so far, traditional approaches that examine IS&T failures have produced large quantities of literature, that arguably fails to actually reduce the number of IS&T projects which are failing at introduction phase. It is accepted that it is sometimes difficult to attribute success and failure within IS&T projects.Large organisations should be interested in improving their knowledge and understanding of the complex issues surrounding the management of customer satisfaction. Measuring customer satisfaction identifies ways of improving product/service quality, which in turn leads to increased competitive advantage. Increasing customer satisfaction has become the main focus of many firms to boost repeat business and benefit from positive word-of-mouth, thus increasing long-term profitability. Customer satisfaction research is by far the most popular means of gathering customer feedback. Since, customer tastes and requirements are always changing, a major part of the quality effort must be devoted to market research. This must be an important part of any system development. Organisations must continually gauge customer experiences to ensure that satisfaction is provided.\nWhy successful IS&T implementation and introduction matters: IS&T as a resource supports the activities organisations carry out as part of their business-as-usual operational activities. It also supports activities that drive business and organisational change. It is however important to note that such initiatives are unable to provide any operational or business value without some form of associated transformation within the organisation itself (Maguire, 2002). This transformation will include changes in the nature of work the organisation conducts, changes in the behaviour of people in the organisation and also changes in supporting operational processes.IS&T provides for increased competitiveness and flexibility in organisations, although at different degrees of impact. When properly implemented, it will allow the redesign of business processes that enables organisations to introduce operational efficiencies (Santhanan and Hartono, 2003; Bhatt and Grover, 2005). It is however necessary to point out that two points need to be highlighted. In the first place, although there now seems to be no more doubt about the positive contributions of IT related investments, there are substantial variations in the estimates of the corresponding effects within various organisation. Even though IS&T initiatives offer an opportunity for competitive advantage, they can also increase strategic vulnerability (Applegate et al., 1996), meaning that failure at the introduction stage of the systems can be catastrophic as the case of FoxMeyer Drug Corporation highlights (CIO Magazine, 2000; Drug Store News, 1998). At the very least organisations should make every effort to align their information technology and business strategies (Ojiako et al., 2004). There are inherent risks in all IS&T projects and they need to be managed (Maguire, 2002). An integrated framework for managing risks in IS&T developments is required. This should be formulated from the perspective of the IS&T developer.\nIS&T introduction management: IS&T introduction involves ensuring that new and changed systems are successfully integrated into an existing technical space or environment. The objective is to operate the systems and services consistently and cost effectively in order to ensure the delivery of high-quality services to the customer. IS&T introduction is different from implementation in that it is fundamentally about ensuring that the customers' experience in using the changed, improved, amended or new systems is not compromised (Ojiako and Greenwood, 2007). This makes IS&T introduction more challenging to manage because of the subjective nature of customer satisfaction which is largely dependent on individual customer's perception. In effect, the major difference between introduction and implementation is that unlike implementation which focuses on physical installation and execution of plans into test phase or live technical space, introduction is more focused on the supporting customer experience journey (CEJ).Owing to the complexity of the interactions between the existing systems and new systems being introduced, IS&T introduction techniques and processes to be successful will usually depend on various parameters. These include change management, organisational culture, end-user participation and expectation, political prioritisation and the state of advancement of the technology being employed (Brooke and Maguire, 1998; Maguire, 2000, 2002; Ojiako and Greenwood, 2007). Similarly, further attention should be given to the managerial, educational, and communications issues that should accompany IS&T investments. There is an expectation that staff involved with IS&T projects will have a minimum level of information technology competence. Recent research has shown that relative advantage, competitive pressure, and technical resource competence have positive effects on technology adoption. Not surprisingly, these factors are in effect similar to those that need to be considered when managing the implementation of any project. The major difference lies in the fact that IS&T introduction is regarded as a much narrower process covering activities from the point that the service introduction model is defined to the point when it is phased out and discontinued. However, it is generally accepted that there is much more to implementation than just technical skills (Brooke and Maguire, 1998). It is interesting that so many organisations allow so-called \"experts\" to change their organisations when their area of expertise may be limited.\nThe case study: The perceptions of project failure at introduction stage to be discussed are set in a major service organisation based in the UK. For the purpose of the investigation, we will refer to the organisation as organisation \"A\".Organisation \"A\" is a major UK organisation with a tradition of nearly four centuries of service. It has approximately 200,000 employees, and operates from about 14,000 outlets. With a customer base of about 28 million using its services every week, it is one of the largest service provision companies in the world.Although the organisation has recently generated profits of over PS500 million, it recognises that it faces tough challenges. These challenges include managing its diverse workforce and introducing technology and systems that can support business operations effectively. This may be reflected in a recent spate of industrial action.Recently, the organisation experienced an unprecedented 30 per cent increase in revenue in its household delivery system (HDS) sector. It was anticipated that there would be a 70 per cent growth in business over five years. There was, therefore, the requirement for a system that would be able to meet an increasing customer base by providing a flexible system for users and customers.To meet this anticipated demand, the organisation commissioned a new systems integration project. It was expected that target completion would be in two years. A post implementation review (PIR) was planned and project objectives were set out as follows:* To integrate various management systems into one HDS. It was hoped that achieving this objective would ease the pressure on service bookings.* To ensure the operational integrity of the major technology that supported the newly integrated HDS system.* To replace the hardware infrastructure of the systems supporting HDS due to the increase in reported hardware problems.* The integration was seen as the best means possible to ensure a shorter turn-around time for household deliveries. This was because original estimates pointed out that the existing HDS system took an average of over a day to confirm a customer booking. It was anticipated that with the newly integrated systems, this activity will take less than an hour to complete.* To meet the identified objectives of the project, two separate systems were envisaged. The first system was a booking system which was developed by organisation A's internal IS&T department. The second system was an operational management system which was developed by a third-party supplier.\nThe research framework: An independent review had been requested by the project board in addition to one audit and two reviews conducted by an external consulting firm.The review was required to address three particular points. The first related to whether the development and introduction approach adopted by the project was seen to be suitable. The second related to future development and introduction not hindered or restricted by the present exercise. The final point considered whether guarantees could be offered that the project will have the capacity to support an estimated user population of 60 within the agreed timescale.An evaluation methodology was used to conduct three major activities. These included a review of the design of the system, a review of the viability of system maintenance and a review of the alignment with business needs. It was important that a broader perspective was taken during the research process. It would have been inappropriate to have taken a narrow, technical focus for use in the interview instrument (Walsham, 1993).For the purpose of this study, semi-structured interviews were used. This data gathering technique was adopted after consideration of the three basic types of interviewing, their constraints and a review of data collection and analysis. In particular, it was seen as a means of carrying out a non-experimental descriptive research which will demonstrate reality. The approach was also regarded as necessary as it ensured the research captured variations if they emerged and we believed it was relevant for researching a contemporary phenomenon in a real-world context (Yin, 2003).The interviews were carried out over a six week period. A total of 22 staff were interviewed, while two other staff took part in telephone interviews. The staff interviewed were involved in the project management, development and use of the system. Wherever possible the interviews were attended by internal audit from organisation \"A\". It must also be stated that the interviews took place during a time of major change in the organisation, and as a result, decisions were made during the time of the review that may have had a significant effect on people's perceptions of the systems integration project.The next section identifies fifteen key factors that influenced the eventual breakdown of the systems introduction project. These factors were derived directly from the interviews undertaken in organisation A. This section also provides a summary of the key findings from the case study. From these findings, key observations are also highlighted.Constantly changing project team\nConclusions: This paper represents the output of a review on the problematical implementation of a new system into a major service-oriented organisation. The parameters discussed are not an exhaustive list, but one that we see as important in the context of the failure of the introduction project. The failure was driven by a number of factors, including poor project management and a poor understanding of how systems work. From the earlier mentioned PIR, it emerged that the project failed due to the following reasons (Table IV) which we have linked to the initial project objectives.One of the key parameters identified in this paper is the need to bring the customer's experience to the forefront of management attention. This change means that in the future, a clear framework to support the CEJ needs to be well thought out before a major systems introduction project commences.Overall, the introduction of the new system into organisation A was within weeks failing to meet project aims. It was generally expressed in the sales centres that the decision to revert back to HDS should have been taken much earlier. This system was \"rolled-out\" nationwide, and it, therefore, had the ability to transform the organisation. Previously, new system developments had the ability to change business processes, transform the nature of work, affect the morale of employees, and the interactions of staff within firms. Increasingly, the tighter coupling between organisations and customers with regard to IS&T has resulted in the potential for swift increases in market share. However, the stakes are also higher if things go wrong as there will be negative reactions towards any firms that fail to provide a continuous level of customer service. It was imperative that organisation A had a customer experience strategy in place. The organisation was able to learn expensive lessons from the implementation, especially following the loss of some of their customers to competitors.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - There has been a great deal of interest in ensuring that organisational strategy is successfully implemented in order to meet business objectives. More recently, reports of the failure of information systems and technology (IS&T) projects have become more regular and the reported failures more spectacular. This has added to a growing perception that IS&T implementation approaches currently utilised are struggling to add value to customers and users, leading to calls for a re-think of how IS&T is introduced into organisations. This paper seeks to develop a customer experience strategy which will give a key group of stakeholders, customers, a major input in the IS&T development process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The approach taken to examine IS&T implementation at this stage of the development of this theme is empirical. The failed introduction of a new IS&T system in a major service organisation in the UK is used as a case study. Data were gathered from 22 face-to-face interviews with key stakeholders in the IS&T project.\nFindings: - The paper finds that the failure was driven by a number of factors, including poor project management and a lack of understanding of how systems can negatively affect organisations and customer relationships. The paper re-emphasises the need to ensure that customer and user perceptions are taken into consideration during any major systems introduction project. An interesting aspect of these systems is that a version is being used today by the organisation.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The customer experience journey (CEJ) framework will be improved by being validated within another organisation.\nPractical implications: - The paper recognises that, in the future, a clear framework to support the CEJ needs to be well thought out before a major systems introduction project commences. This is increasingly important as many roll-outs are trans-national and involve customers and supply chains.\nOriginality/value: - The paper contributes to work practice relating to customer-driven IS&T service introduction.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Examining perception of competency through practicum competencies outline
|
[
"Competences",
"Self-assessment",
"Competence-based training",
"Implicit/explicit competences",
"Practicum"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: From a socioconstructivist view, competence has inter-subjective, cultural and contextual features and results from dynamic interactions between people participating in communities of practice (Wenger, 1998). Specifically, some socioconstructivist studies (Angioni, 2004; Warnier, 1999) confirm that tacit or implicit competence is a non-codified competence that cannot be supplied through a linguistic medium, but it is rather co-developed by people sharing the same working or formative experience. Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) extended the study of Polanyi (1966) - who suggested that people know more than they are able to declare - and affirmed that competence development is determined through dynamic modes of social interaction, externalizing implicit competences and converting them into explicit competences. Thus, the features of cultural, formative and working environments, where competence is co-developed, influence the process of externalizing and explicitly recognizing these competencies.\nMethods: We considered 231 Italian students (M = 35; F = 198) enrolled in the Master's degree program in Dynamic, Clinical and Community Psychology at the University of Naples Federico II. Their average age was 25.05 (SD = 5.54). The students performed the practicum at different facilities: health-care centers for childhood and adolescence (27.5 per cent), facilities for the treatment and rehabilitation of mental patients (17.9 per cent), facilities for the treatment and rehabilitation of other patients (16.5 per cent), therapeutic service facilities for drug addicts (7.8 per cent), psychological therapy settings within hospitals (16.5 per cent) and sundry associations and agencies providing psychological services (26.1 per cent).\nResults: Expected competencies\nDiscussion: Concerning the analysis of the expected competences, the results reveal that the Psychological Assessment domain was frequently observed. This may be attributed primarily to its broadness (Krishnamurthy et al., 2004); it reflects potential psychological dynamics enacted during the current relation with the practicum context, which suggests, for instance, a sort of compulsive drive to be able to do. This dynamic often characterizes the approach of a young psychologist in the first practicum setting. Students consider the practicum as a concrete reality facilitating performance and the development of their understanding of being a psychologist.\nImplications: This study has practical implications for the training and assessment of competence. First, it delineates some guidelines in developing interventions in professional psychology. For example, degree programs should foster the development of different competencies concerning domains that are often poorly encouraged and evaluated (Ruane, 2012). Indeed, the conscientious development of the psychological profession, according to the Competencies Conference, involves merging different domains that should be encouraged in academic contexts and practicum settings (Wendlandt and Rochlen, 2008). Moreover, degree programs should specifically focus on the training and development of different levels of expertise of competence to enable students to gradually reach rates that are more advanced during their professional activity. We know from the literature that in recent years, the nature of expertise and its development have received considerable attention in educational research. We believe that using a set of stepwise descriptors, such as the novice, intermediate and advanced levels, could be a useful tool for academic programs to strengthen assessment and training procedures addressed to students. Furthermore, we assume that academic programs present students with a more versatile and multifaceted psychologist role involving higher frequency cut-crossing competencies that do not depend on the specific theoretical model of the degree program. Additional studies might help to reduce the distance between a profession that expands and branches over time and shows different aspects in supervised practical settings and the representation of the psychologist profession associated with traditional viewpoints. Thus, academic and supervised practical training entities must essentially cooperate to promote procedures and tools for forming and assessing the competencies obtained by the students (Eby et al., 2011). Moreover, they must provide a coherent perception of students' professional development using different and multifaceted activities, identify the functions and aims currently required of psychologists, reduce the distance between academic and supervised practical sites and utilize competence as an associative link (Kaslow et al., 2004).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to examine the self-perceived competencies of 231 Italian students enrolled in a psychological degree program and involved in a practicum. It analyzes the subjective perception of the competences that students expect to develop, acknowledge as developed and that might be inferred from tasks performed during the practicum; the level of expertise (novice, intermediate or advanced) of these competences; and the relation between the practicum facility and the competences.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study administered an ad hoc survey comprising open-ended questions and used the Practicum Competencies Outline (Hatcher and Lassiter, 2007) as a framework for the content analysis.\nFindings: The results revealed poor perception of some competency domains, such as Diversity: Individual and Cultural Differences; Development of Leadership; Application of Research and Ethics; and a frequent acknowledgment of Psychological Assessment and Professional Development. Before the practicum, the students expected to develop competence mainly at a novice level of expertise; after the practicum, the intermediate level of competences acknowledged as developed and inferred from performed tasks increased.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings have implications for research on competence-based training, such as the necessity of self-assessment training evaluation.\nPractical implications: Undergraduate psychology students must reflect on the value of psychological competences during their formative training to re-orient their learning process and build a competent professional role. Moreover, psychological facilities and university must share common objectives in training undergraduate students.\nOriginality/value: This study is the first attempt to analyze Italian college students' subjective perceptions of psychological competencies expected or developed during practicum .\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The challenges of lean manufacturing implementation in SMEs
|
[
"Manufacturing strategy",
"SME",
"Small-to-medium-sized enterprises",
"Lean production",
"Lean implementation",
"Lean process"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The initial stimulus for undertaking this study of lean manufacturing implementation in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) was dictated by the author's experience gathered during project work, and by a personal interest in development opportunities for SMEs. Such organizations frequently face the challenge of insufficient knowledge about production methods, adherence to methods that have been in use for years - especially in the case of family owned companies where the owner holds all the managerial responsibilities. The fairly modest existing research into SMEs implementing lean, as highlighted by Zhou (2012), further supports the need for the research presented in this paper.\n2. Literature review: The concept of lean in its origins refers to companies' overall management philosophy and strategy in a long-term perspective (Liker, 1994). Nevertheless, the idea of lean can be summarized in a simple and short definition - \"doing more with less.\" Even though the definition is an obvious oversimplification, it conveys the crucial aim of the overall idea of lean - more effective utilization of available resources. The main goal of lean manufacturing is to enable organizations to provide their customers with the product or service they need exactly when they need it. Simultaneously, any potential sources of waste are identified and eliminated in order to achieve and maintain high quality and low manufacturing costs (Shah and Ward, 2003). Nevertheless, the concept of lean goes beyond the application of certain tools that are believed to make companies successful. Scientific literature provides evidence of various factors that might hinder the successful implementation of lean. Bhasin (2012) provides an overview over the barriers to lean both in small and medium, and large companies. Hancock and Zayko (1998) also refer to the problems that manufacturing companies are likely to encounter while adopting lean. Abernathy et al. (2000), claim that the success of Japanese automotive companies such as Toyota can be attributed to their persistence in \"painstaking strategic management of people, materials and equipment.\" This statement is also affirmed by Liker (2004). The author claims that perseverance, planning for the long term as well as the willingness to sacrifice short-term benefits in the name of more important merits planned in a long term.\n3. The overview of the SMEs: SMEs are nowadays most common in organizations in European economy. According to the legislation European Commission (2003) micro, SMEs have immense impact on European since they represent 99 percent of all enterprises in the EU while providing jobs for around 90 million people. According to the European Commission legislation (2003) in order to be qualified as small or medium enterprise a company needs to comply with the regulations regarding the headcount or turnover. A company does not have to meet either headcount and turnover criteria simultaneously to be classified as small or medium. Table I presents the SMEs classification criteria according to the European Commission (2003). Companies with headcount less than ten are classified as micro enterprises.\n4. Methodology: In accordance with the specifics of the aforementioned research question a qualitative approach was chosen and detailed case studies serve as a basis for the analysis. According to Eisenhardt (1989) the case study approach can be utilized for providing description, theory testing and theory building. This study aims at theory testing and addressing the broader context of lean in particular. The conclusions of the study have the potential of being replicated since the studied organizations display many similarities in terms of both internal and external challenges and overall characteristics (further discussed in the paper). The presented case study approach involves two organizations and focusses on qualitative data collection.\n5. Case companies: Two case studies, representing furniture and boating industry in Finland were selected. Even though the companies represent different industries, many similarities were discovered. Both companies are striving to improve their manufacturing processes and aim at higher effectiveness without compromising product quality. Since companies are unable to build their competitive advantage upon lowering wages or moving their production to low-labor cost countries, different alternatives need to be considered. The studied companies are non-lean implementers nevertheless, they are actively seeking for simple yet effective solutions that would not require extensive financial investment on the outset. The studied companies are considering the adoption of lean manufacturing as well as the improvement of manufacturing methods aimed at cost reduction.\n6. The challenges of lean adoption in case companies: This section focusses on outlining the discrepancies in the characteristics of SMEs (based on two case studies) and a lean benchmark - Toyota. Table IV presents the comparison of the most important characteristics that sets the conditions for lean manufacturing implementation. The chosen characteristics are based on TPS management principles as proposed by Liker (2004). The most relevant elements were chosen for comparison in order to emphasize the differences those features that might potentially hinder the lean implementation. The elements chosen for comparison form a framework for addressing the lean implementation challenges in SMEs. The selected criteria are expected to provide an exhaustive overview over the crucial aspects of the process of lean adoption.\n7. Conclusions and limitations: The paper discussed the conditions for lean manufacturing implementation in the specific context of SMEs. The main focus was given to the factors that strongly influence the process of lean implementation. Theoretical background for the study was based on outlining potential benefits as well as obstacles to the adoption of lean. Approaching the subjects from different viewpoints provided a broader perspective and deepened the understanding of the concept. The empirical part centered on the potentially challenging areas as well as outlining the main gaps that exist between the benchmark of the study - Toyota and the case companies. The implementation of lean manufacturing in specific conditions of SMEs was approached from the perspective of a number of implementation prerequisites. This paper does not claim that copying the ideas developed by Toyota will be beneficial for every organization. The discrepancies between lean giant and the studied companies were analyzed in order to identify the implementation challenges. During the data collection and analysis process the overall condition of case companies were examined in order to assess their readiness for the adoption of lean.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the lean manufacturing implementation challenges in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The study is based on experiences of the Finnish furniture and boating sectors. The paper outlines the overall characteristics of the studied organizations and contrasts them with one of the most famous example of lean implementation - the Toyota Company. By comparing the different manufacturing environments as well as organizational characteristics, the potential challenges of lean adoption are outlined.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The findings presented in this paper were achieved through the case study method. The research utilizes the deductive approach.\nFindings: The results present an assessment of the companies' current situations. The results uncover their readiness for lean implementation and identify the challenges that might hinder lean implementation. Early identification of weaknesses will make companies more aware of their own capabilities. Moreover, it has potential for making them better prepared for lean implementation and more consistent in their process.\nPractical implications: The importance of addressing certain aspect of lean implementation in the specific context of SMEs characteristics might contribute to the successful implementation of lean.\nOriginality/value: The author presents an original look at supporting companies in the process of adopting lean manufacturing.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Evolution of German corporate governance (1995-2014): an empirical analysis
|
[
"Governance",
"Corporate governance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction to the corporate governance debate in Germany: The international corporate governance debate reached Germany rather comparatively late, in the second half of the 1990s (du Plessis and Saenger, 2012, p. 16). This was partly a reaction to a period of economic difficulty that Germany experienced in the years after the reunification in 1990. Till then the model of the so-called 'Rhenish capitalism' of West Germany was characterised by features such as a strong welfare state, bank loans being the primary source of finance, cross-ownership concentrated in few shareholders, little institutional investor pressure and, most significantly, compulsory board membership of employee representatives[1]. This system came under pressure in an era of increasing globalisation. International competition, liberalised capital markets and the weaker performance of the German economy in the 1990s questioned the viability of the German economic model (Volk, 2001, p. 412). The discussions about necessary reforms of German company law eventually led to the introduction of corporate governance in Germany. As this article will show, Germany has witnessed several changes to its company law and corporate governance system since the late 1990s. These reforms raise the question to what extent the German system of company law and corporate governance has converged or is gradually converging with the Anglo-American system of shareholder value (Gamble and Kelly, 2001, p. 110).\nEmpirical methodology: This paper will thematically follow the shareholder primacy corporate governance principle as outlined by Henry Hansmann and Reiner Kraakman:\nDistinguishing features of German corporate governance: German companies can be differentiated into public limited companies (Aktiengesellschaft), abbreviated as \"AG\" and private limited companies (Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung), abbreviated as \"GmbH\". These two types of companies are regulated by separate Acts of Parliament: The Aktiengesetz (\"AktG\") deals with public limited companies and the Gesetz betreffend die Gesellschaften mit beschrankter Haftung (\"GmbHG\") deals with private limited companies. Although the word Aktiengesellschaft is often translated into English as 'joint stock corporation'[2], the more widely used reference to it in English is 'public limited company'[3]. For ease of understanding, this article will also refer to public limited companies. The position of German AGs has, in recent years, been challenged by the European company (SE). However, the AG has so far defended its leading position among German companies (Deipenbrock, 2010).\nHistoric development: from company law to corporate governance?: The 1965 Act on public limited companies was the most significant reform of the German law on public limited companies after Second World War. It replaced the 1937 Act[15]. Although the 1937 Act was not regarded to be a typical Nazi regime Act, soon after World War II there has been a call for the amendment and modernisation of the 1937 Act. The declared objectives of this reform were achieving more transparency, strengthening shareholder rights, and an improving the protection of minority shareholders (Habersack, 2016). The 1965 Act has remarkably shaped the present German law on public limited companies. However, not only the lawmakers but also the jurisprudence played a key role in shaping the present German law on public limited companies in the aftermath of the enactment of the 1965 Act. Cases such as Kali & Salz[16], Holzmann[17], and Holzmuller[18] which were mainly concerned with the protection of shareholder rights were of outstanding importance for subsequent reforms. Reforms of the law on public limited companies in the decades after the 1965 Act primarily concerned issues such as, inter alia, capital markets law, technical developments, implementations of EU Directives or, indeed, corporate governance (Ulmer, 2002a). Some of the reforms were amendments to the AktG whilst others were reforms outside this Act. A particularly important reform was the Co-determination Act of 1976 which introduced the equal representation of employees in supervisory boards of large corporations. Several legislative amendments were made in the year 1998 (six in total). In that year, no-par-value shares were introduced, shareholder rights were strengthened, and the commercial law was reformed, too. The 1998 reforms are, to some extent, considered to be a consequence of corporate failures in the 1990s which led to calls for an improved corporate governance, e.g. more efficient supervisory boards (Volk, 2001, p. 142; Ulmer, 2002a). Equally, the need for more capital led to companies to sell their shares at foreign stock markets. This, in turn, necessitated an adaption to foreign principles of corporate governance (Habersack, 2016, para 38).\nThe German corporate governance code: One particular legal transplant was the introduction of a corporate governance code into the German legal system[24]. As mentioned, the idea of a corporate governance code was taken up comparatively late in Germany[25]. The idea of introducing a corporate governance code roots back to the introduction of the KonTraG[26] in 1996 and was taken forward by two private initiatives in the year 2000 (Cromme, 2005). The first initiative were corporate governance principles for listed companies ('Code of best Practice'), developed by the Policy Commission Corporate Governance. These principles were known as the Frankfurter principles (Lutter, 2009). The second initiative was a draft code, developed by the Berliner Initiative German Code of Corporate Governance (Pfitzer et al., 2003, p. 15). The two proposals are based on an international model, yet are different in their design, content and the level of detail. However, it was seen critically that two codes could exist in parallel.\nAnalysis of change point in corporate governance development in Germany: This chart shows that the German system of corporate governance experienced a period of convergence with the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance between 1998 and the beginning of the global financial and economic crisis in 2008 (Figure 1). In particular, the 1998 reforms of German company law and several amendments in the first half of the 2000s, including the introduction of the German Corporate Governance Code, show the convergence with shareholder value corporate governance. However, it is noticeable that there has been a stabilisation of the German system since 2009, i.e. since the beginning of the crisis.\nAnalysis in financial market development in Germany: The development of the financial market development points at a further ground for stabilisation of German corporate governance as it is slower and steadier than in the UK or the USA (Figure 2). An important feature of the German financial market is the limited shareholding by the general public. Investment into shares has traditionally been low in Germany as saving accounts used to be very popular. Equity cross-holdings and firm interlocks, therefore a less dispersed ownership structure, in contrast, are a very common feature in the German corporate landscape (Basha, 2004, p. 10; Bottenberg et al., 2017).\nConclusion: In conclusion, we find that whilst the German system of corporate governance has experienced a strong period of convergence with Anglo-American shareholder value between the mid-1990s and the global economic and financial crisis, that this has slowed down significantly since then. We argue that this development needs to be understood in the context of the economic and political development of Germany. Whereas there was a weak economic performance of the German economy during the 1990s and right into the mid-2000s, things have changed in recent years, especially after the crisis. Whilst the UK and the USA experienced a difficult economic period, Germany's export-oriented economy regained strength and, consequently, the unemployment rates went down significantly. In light of this development, the German corporate governance model did not seem as 'outdated' and 'old-fashioned' as it might have appeared during the 1990s and early 2000s. Consequently, there was a re-appreciation of the advantages of this model and its inclusion of labour at board level. The interest in the pluralist model was renewed. Politically, this situation coincided with periods of grand coalitions between the major centre-right party CDU and the major centre-left party SPD which further added to the consensus-based approach between labour and employers.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to address the evolution of corporate governance in Germany with a particular regard to whether there can be observed a gradual convergence to a shareholder primacy corporate governance system.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To investigate a potential shift of the German corporate governance system to an Anglo-American tiled corporate governance system, the authors have empirically assessed on a polynomial base 52 separate company and corporate governance variables for 20 years (1995-2014).\nFindings: This research suggests that a gradual convergence has taken place prior to the global financial crisis. However, the results suggest that the convergence process experienced a slowdown in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, which may be linked to the stability of the German corporate governance system during the global financial crisis and the political environment during this time.\nOriginality/value: This paper contributes to the research by not only analysing the development of the German corporate governance system but also identifying new reasons for this development and explaining why a new convergence process may be observed in the future again.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Retrieval performance of Google, Yahoo and Bing for navigational queries in the field of "life science and biomedicine"
|
[
"Search engines",
"Precision",
"Recall",
"Relative recall",
"Retrieval effectiveness",
"Retrieval efficiency",
"Navigational Queries",
"Google",
"Yahoo",
"Bing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The Web is enormously dynamic because every day a large number of web pages are published and some irrelevant or old pages are eradicated from it, while sometimes the content of most of the web pages is modified. Hence, search engines in this context are able to handle these dynamic changes (Bar-Ilan, 2002) because they are considered as the most significant tools available for resource discovery on the Web and are growing in popularity since long to fulfil the information needs of people (Hassan and Zhang, 2001; Zhu, et al., 2011). The description of each search engine influences their performance which reveals that their widespread use creates the need for their evaluation so that they can improve their performance by implicating numerous latest features (Garoufallou, 2012). As the amount of information is growing rapidly, search engines are not able to provide the relevant results to their users and the research conducted on search engines reveals that even a search engine with a dominant competence cannot search and retrieve systematically all the resources available on the Web (Moghaddam and Parirokh, 2006). It is seen that almost all search engines have reached the same stage of quality and the queries given by the users have also become difficult to identify which makes it necessary to evaluate these search engines in order to fulfil the requirements of the user queries (Dudek, et al., 2007). Moreover, queries are considered as the primary means through which users articulate their requirements because they usually express their information needs in the form of a query where they either look for some textual data or some visual data (Pu, 2005). Park and Lee (2013) are of the opinion that a string of terms which are presented and thus submitted by a user while performing his/her search over search engine can be considered as a query. Therefore, frequent web search query reformulation can help users to interpret such queries correctly and thus are considered as a fundamental part of information retrieval process (Barr, et al., 2008). Queries are classified in to navigational, informational or transactional (Ali and Gul, 2016; Broder, 2002; Jansen et al., 2008; Kang and Kim, 2003). With informational queries having a characteristic of targeting a certain topic or a static web page (Broder, 2002; Lewandowski, 2006; Lewandowski, 2011 p. 356), \"the results of transactional queries are websites in which a further interaction is necessary. A transaction can be the download of a program or file, the purchase of a product or a further search in a database\" (Lewandowski, 2011 p. 356). On the other hand, Lewandowski (2011) puts forward a clear statement that the concept of navigational query is established on identified key-terms or keywords which are available on web databases. According to Slawski (2012) navigational query is the one that appears to be looking for a specific page in response to that query, and a navigational resource is the specific page being looked for. However, for navigational queries Hawking and Craswell (2005, p. 219) clearly puts it in a simpler way, \"the judging criterion is, is this the page I wanted? - that is, the homepage of the entity I was thinking of or the page I named?\" Searching is one of the important mechanisms through which users can get online information in a simple and easy way. However, search engine like Google provides relevant information to its users because of its easy search interface as compared to any other search engine (Kaur, et al., 2011). Search engines retrieve a number of results, and the language of a document in which it is accessible is very much important because it decides whether it could be understood by a user or not. Therefore, when ranking results, search engines consider language as an important factor (Lewandowski, 2006; Efthimiadis et al., 2008), and the results available in English language are displayed first for the user whose desire is to retrieve the documents available in English language only. Hence, the results that are available in a language different from the language of search engine interface obtain a lower ranking which reveals that if a result set for some particular query is same in English as well as in German version of Google search engine, its ranking will be different (Lewandowski, 2008a). \"The use of search engines is the most widely used means of information foraging on the World Wide Web\" (Garoufallou, 2012 p. 182) and it becomes essential to research these miraculous retrieval tools over the Web to consider their relevance in terms of retrieving the desired and useful information.Problem\nMethodology: Selection of search engines and navigational queries\nConclusion: The retrieval performance of three major search engines namely Google, Yahoo and Bing was evaluated on navigational queries with the help of two widely used evaluative measures, i.e. precision and relative recall based upon 14 queries on a five-point Likert scale. The first twenty results of search engines when compared with each other depict that the difference among the search engines is not significant which in turn reveals that all the search engines are equally efficient. The present study estimates the precision and relative recall of Google, Yahoo and Bing and the results show the difference between search engines investigated is quite low. The study suggests that all three search engines perform better in terms of mean precision for queries with more words because they contribute in achieving better precision and relative recall as it becomes easy for a search engine to understand the intention of a user behind a well-defined and structured query and retrieves more specific results. More words in a query give a better definition and meaning to the query and qualifies it in a better way. Google accomplishes highest precision for navigational queries and also the highest mean relative recall for navigational queries in comparison to Yahoo and Bing.Information is an essential component for decision making and a precise form of information can help in timely decision making. The gruelling task of searching for proper and relevant information can be sought out only if the information retrieval systems have understanding and capability to understand the user needs and intentions. Since web searching is an important activity for users over Internet (Eimeren and Frees, 2011; Purcell, 2011) and different types of queries are entered by the users, the current study will be of great help to understand the structured execution of navigational queries across search engines for retrieving relevant information across a professional search environment, i.e life science and biomedicine.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to assess the retrieval performance of three search engines, i.e. Google, Yahoo and Bing for navigational queries using two important retrieval measures, i.e. precision and relative recall in the field of life science and biomedicine.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Top three search engines namely Google, Yahoo and Bing were selected on the basis of their ranking as per Alexa, an analytical tool that provides ranking of global websites. Furthermore, the scope of study was confined to those search engines having interface in English. Clarivate Analytics' Web of Science was used for the extraction of navigational queries in the field of life science and biomedicine. Navigational queries (classified as one-word, two-word and three-word queries) were extracted from the keywords of the papers representing the top 100 contributing authors in the select field. Keywords were also checked for the duplication. Two important evaluation parameters, i.e. precision and relative recall were used to calculate the performance of search engines on the navigational queries.\nFindings: The mean precision for Google scores high (2.30) followed by Yahoo (2.29) and Bing (1.68), while mean relative recall also scores high for Google (0.36) followed by Yahoo (0.33) and Bing (0.31) respectively.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study is of great help to the researchers and academia in determining the retrieval efficiency of Google, Yahoo and Bing in terms of navigational query execution in the field of life science and biomedicine. The study can help users to focus on various search processes and the query structuring and its execution across the select search engines for achieving desired result list in a professional search environment. The study can also act as a ready reference source for exploring navigational queries and how these queries can be managed in the context of information retrieval process. It will also help to showcase the retrieval efficiency of various search engines on the basis of subject diversity (life science and biomedicine) highlighting the same in terms of query intention.\nOriginality/value: Though many studies have been conducted highlighting the retrieval efficiency of search engines the current work is the first of its kind to study the retrieval effectiveness of Google, Yahoo and Bing on navigational queries in the field of life science and biomedicine. The study will help in understanding various methods and approaches to be adopted by the users for the navigational query execution across a professional search environment, i.e. \"life science and biomedicine\"\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
t-statistics for weighted means in credit risk modeling
|
[
"Credit",
"Mathematical modelling",
"Risk management",
"Samples"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A common statistical question arises when two random samples, X1,X2, ... ,Xn and Y1,Y2, ... ,Ym are drawn from two different normal populations, possibly with different variances, and we wish to know whether or not the means of the two populations are equal. This is a classical problem known as the Behrens-Fisher problem, reviewed below.In this article, we address the following more general situation: it may happen that the sample Xi's, while independent and having the same mean, are not identically distributed because they have different variances Equation 1 where N(a, b) denotes the normal distribution with mean a and variance b. This may also be true of the Yj's (assumed independent of the Xi's) Equation 2 We do not expect to decide whether mX=mY at this level of generality because the number of unknown parameters exceeds the size of the data. However, in some cases the context may indicate the individual variances, up to an overall scale factor, as in the following situation that inspired this study.\nA credit risk model: One way to model credit risk for bond portfolios is to use a multiple factor risk model as described in Chapter 3 of Grinold and Kahn (2000), in which the correlations among individual bond returns are assumed to be explained by a relatively small set of common factors.A standard choice for the factors is simply the set of the various combinations of sector and rating, e.g. AA Financial. We would proceed as follows.At the end of each month, the AA Financial bonds are priced and an option adjusted spread (OAS) is computed for each bond. The OAS measures the additional yield the bond is paying to compensate investors for the risk of default.The sample measurement for each bond is the change in the value of this OAS from that of the previous month; this change is called the spread return of the bond.Suppose there are n AA Financial bonds, and let Xi denote the spread return, in a given month, of the ith bond. Our modeling assumption is that spread returns of different AA Financial bonds are correlated only through linear exposure to the AA Financial factor return, which is to be computed as an average OAS across all the AA Financial bonds.Since the actual spread returns vary from bond to bond, we suppose that the returns are sampled from normal distributions with mean m, and we then wish to estimate m from the sample data.For various reasons, we expect some bonds to be more reliable than others in predicting the common average spread return. For example, a heavily traded benchmark bond A will have a price quote that a more reliable representative of real market sentiment than will a seldom traded low-cap bond B catering only to a small part of the market. If B is not trading or trading very little, its quoted price may be fictitious or vulnerable to idiosyncratic fluctuations, so the spread of bond B will be less representative than that of A as a proxy for the whole sector and rating.We therefore assume in this paper that we will want to give some bonds greater weight than others in computing the average spread return. This is equivalent to the hypothesis that the distributional variance of the bond's spread return depends on the bond.Suppose the mean OAS is to be computed according to the weighted average Equation 3 where the oi are known positive numbers with [?]oi=1. We assume the Xi are independent normal with a common mean. As described in Lemma 1, this is the best estimator of the mean if and only if the variance of the ith spread return is proportional to 1/oi Equation 4 where a is any positive constant. In this situation, the specified weights will come from our financial views about which bonds should play the most important roles in determining the estimated sector-rating mean spread return. The constant a is probably unknown.Now suppose we have a second collection of AA Financial bonds, but issued in a different country and denominated in a different currency. An important question is whether the mean spread return of the first group is equal to that of the second (Breger et al., 2003). A positive answer would indicate the existence of global credit risk factors while a negative answer would indicate that different markets are driven by different credit risk factors. Because the bonds are drawn from distributions with different variances, the standard t-test methods do not apply. The purpose of this paper is to generalize the two-sample t-test method to this situation.In the remainder of this section, we summarize the main results. In the next section, we recall for comparison the classical situation, and in the subsequent section, we describe the weighted t-statistics. At the end of this section, we illustrate their use with some credit-spread data. The second example shows that using a t-test that ignores the variable weights can lead to an erroneous failure to reject the null hypothesis.Main results\nLemma 1: The weighted means Equation 7 are the best (UMVUE) estimators of mX and mY, respectively, if and only if there exist positive constants aX and aY such that for i=1, ... ,n and j=1, ... ,m, Equation 8 Hence, specifying the weights that define the weighted means is equivalent to stipulating the relative variances si/s1 and s'j/s'1. If we are given the weights oi, then the variances are determined from equation (2) up to an overall scaling constant. Conversely if the variances are given, the weights are determined from equation (2) and the constraint that the weights sum to one Equation 9 We note that these weights are equivalent to the \"credibility weights\" familiar to actuaries (see Powers, 2005 for references).In this paper, we take the view that the weights are going to be specified exogenously, and so the question of estimating the variances boils down to estimating the constants aX and aY.Depending on how much is known about the scaling constants aX and aY, there are three different test statistics to use.Case I (The normal test)The values aX and aY are known; i.e. all the variances are known. We may use the test statistic Equation 10 which is standard normal by Lemma 2 below.Case II (Pooled two-sample test - The weighted t-statistic)The ratio aX/aY is known. Then we may use the test statistic Equation 11 where Equation 12 Case III (Unpooled two-sample test)This is the most likely case to be faced by the practitioner: the ratio aX/aY is unknown. Then we may use the test statistic Equation 13 where Equation 14 In practice, sometimes a normal test is used even when the variances are completely unknown. For moderately large sample sizes, the t-distribution is close to normal, so this practice will only cause trouble in the (not uncommon) case of small samples.In Case III, as in the classical case, the statistic (5) does not follow any t-distribution exactly, but may be approximated by one, as discussed below, via a generalization of the Welch-Satterthwaite approximation.\nTheorem 1: Let T(d) denote the Student's t random variable with d degrees of freedom:a. Tp~T(n+m-2).b. Tu may be approximated by a t-distributed T(d) with Equation 15 As an alternative, a simpler and more conservative choice is d=min(n-1,m-1).c. Tu, along with T(d), tends in law to standard normal as n,m-[?].Theorem 1 means that in either case, a t-distribution may be used to reject the null hypothesis, just as in the unweighted case. See the appendix for all proofs.\nReview: the classical case: In this section, for the convenience of the reader, we review some well-known methods for two-sample tests for equality of means.Uniformly minimum variance unbiased estimators\nThe weighted t-tests: Set-up\nLemma 2: With notation and assumptions as above:1. X~N(mX,aX) and Y~N(mY,aY).2. X-,Y-,SX, and SY are mutually independent.3. SX/aX~kh2(n-1) and SY/aY~kh2(m-1), where kh2(k) denotes the chi-squared distribution with k degrees of freedom.4. Equation 25 are the UMVUEs of the a's.When aX and aY are known\nTheorem 2: F=a^X/ra^Y follows the F-distribution F(n-1,m-1) under H0.If the F-test is not significant, we may safely assume the ratio is r, and use the statistic Tp in equation (10). Otherwise we should use the following test.When the a ratio is unknown\nSample results: Cross-sectional data\nConclusions: We have provided test statistics for testing the equality of means when the intra-sample variances are not necessarily all equal, which corresponds to the case of unequally weighted means. It can happen, as illustrated above, that incorrectly using the classical equal-weighted test statistic leads to the wrong statistical conclusion. Hence investigators should take care to use the weighted statistics Tp or Tu described here.Typically practitioners will use the unpooled statistic Tu, which in practice means using a t-approximation with appropriately chosen number of degrees of freedom as described in Theorem 1.Our sample results suggest it may not matter too much whether Tp or Tu is being used. This is because of the general fact that when the number of degrees of freedom is not too small (greater than ten or so, say), the distributions of Tu and the t-distributions are all very close to standard normal.To illustrate the quality of the approximation, we use the data from September 2000 in the cross-sectional sample described above to compare the density functions of Tu and T(d) in Figure 3. Here the distribution of Tu computed from equation (11) by simulation, and the distribution of T(d) is plotted for d=43, the Satterthwaite approximate number of degrees of freedom. Notice that the two density functions are almost identical to the naked eye (and very close to standard normal). The sample size for the simulation was 106 samples.We can also compare the 95th percentile values of the two distributions, which we computed as 1.678 for Tu and 1.681 for T(43). These are more than sufficiently close for purposes of statistical inference.In practice, for at least moderate sample sizes, practitioners may find it convenient to simply use Tu as if it followed a t-distribution with d.f. equal to min(m-1,n-1). This is no more difficult computationally than using the classical statistic (8).We remark that Satterthwaite's approximate t-distribution method for the unpooled case is not the only way to handle the situation. There is a large literature on the Behrens-Fisher problem (see, for example Scheffe, 1970; Wang, 1971; Yuen, 1974).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to describe a generalization of the familiar two-sample t-test for equality of means to the case where the sample values are to be given unequal weights. This is a natural situation in financial risk modeling when some samples are considered more reliable than others in predicting a common mean. We also describe an example with real credit data showing that ignoring this modification of the two-sample test can lead to the wrong statistical conclusion.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - We follow the analysis of the classical two-sample tests in the more general situation of weighted means. We also test our methods against some market data to assess the importance of the findings.\nFindings: - We formulate some explicit test statistics that should be used when the sample values are to be assigned differing known weights. Different cases are presented depending on how much is known about the variances. In the most typical case (the unpooled two-sample test), we approximate the test statistic with a t-distribution. Proofs are given where possible.\nResearch limitations/implications: - In the unpooled case, we still only have an approximate t-distribution. This is related to the classical Behrens-Fisher problem, which is still not fully solved. We also focus on the case where the sample values are normally distributed. It would be valuable to see how far the discussion can be extended to non-normal distributions.\nPractical implications: - Researchers should use the two-sample test statistics given in this paper instead of the standard ones when testing for equality of weighted means.\nOriginality/value: - Weighted means occur frequently in situations when the credibility or reliability of data vary. However, standard tests for equality of means do not take weights into account. These results will be of value to any researchers studying statistical means of data of varying reliability, such as corporate bond spreads.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A maturity model for the servitization of product-centric companies
|
[
"Servitization",
"Case studies",
"Service operations",
"SMEs",
"Maturity model"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: To increase revenues and build sustainable competitive advantage, product-centric companies are increasingly undergoing servitization (Neely, 2008; Baines et al., 2009). To be successful in this transformation, they should redesign their business model (BM) (Forkmann et al., 2017; Kowalkowski et al., 2017; Raddats et al., 2019). However, product-centric companies undertaking servitization face several challenges (Alghisi and Saccani, 2015; Zhang and Banerji, 2017), and this transition remains a complex matter (Reim et al., 2015; Martinez et al., 2017), especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (Kowalkowski et al., 2013). In fact, servitization research has devoted limited attention to comprehensively analyzing the elements that support this BM reconfiguration (Adrodegari and Saccani, 2017; Forkmann et al., 2017). Moreover, empirical evidence mainly concerns large multinational companies, while SMEs attempts to servitize are not much investigated (Adrodegari et al., 2018; de Jesus Pacheco et al., 2019). Despite the considerable amount of literature on servitization, moreover, a lack of studies has been pointed out about describing and prescribing how to servitize a product-centric firm (Baines et al., 2017). This paper adopts the maturity model (MM) approach as a mean to fill this gap. More specifically, it develops a servitization MM (SeMM) that characterizes servitization maturity levels, assessing and positioning companies undergoing the transformation. The SeMM is built on established BM and maturity dimensions, operationalized through specific items (critical requirements). Moreover, based on two case studies, the paper shows how the SeMM can be used in practice to support assessment and change actions in SMEs.The paper is structured as follows. The next section provides a literature background, Section 3 describes the research methodology, Section 4 describes the SeMM and Section 5, the empirical application. Finally, Section 6 draws some concluding remarks.\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 The servitization of product-centric companies\n3. Research process and method: To fill the gaps emerged from the previous analysis, we adopt a three-step research process. First, we carried out a literature review of MMs relevant for this research. We searched the Scopus database for papers published in scientific journals (conferences were excluded), using keywords such as \"maturity model,\" \" capability model,\" \"process improvement model,\" \"assessment model,\" \"maturity grid\" in combination with \"servitization,\" \"solutions\" and \"PSS.\" Among the 69 papers identified, 18 were selected and analyzed after reading the title and the abstract. Only seven of them propose a structured MM related to services in product-centric companies: they have been discussed in section 2.3. We then developed the SeMM, described in section 4. It is built on BM and maturity dimensions found in the literature and operationalized through specific \"critical requirements\" (Alvarez et al., 2015) that characterize servitized BMs. Besides the MMs analyzed in section 2.3 and the literature on MMs mentioned in section 2.2, to develop the 85 critical requirements in our model, we considered the relevant literature on servitization. In particular, we resorted to the reference framework proposed by (Adrodegari et al., 2017) that identified key aspects for the different BM components. To point out the requirements, we analyzed (and enriched) the set of literature analyzed in that paper. In the third step of the research, the model was applied to two companies undertaking the servitization journey, as described in section 5, to ascertain the exhaustiveness and practical applicability of the SeMM.To enhance the reliability of the data collection and elaboration (Voss et al., 2002), we designed a research protocol where the SeMM requirements represent the list of aspects to be investigated. The application started with a full-day meeting with the top managers belonging to different business functions such as after-sales service, sales and marketing, research and development (R&D) and information systems. During the workshop, after identifying the business line object of the study and investigating the company BM and servitization journey, we investigated each critical requirement following the research protocol. A second half-day workshop was then carried out in each firm to discuss the results of the SeMM application, point out the relevant gaps and identify the most appropriate improvement actions.\n4. The servitization maturity model (SeMM): 4.1 Overview\n5. Empirical application: The SeMM has been applied to two companies undertaking a servitization journey, HSM and FORK. HSM is a medium Italian company that manufactures high-speed milling systems, characterized by a high customization and flexibility. Machine sales represent the greatest part of the turnover (more than 75 percent), while after-sales services were traditionally considered a \"necessary evil,\" and only recently, the company has started focusing on the development of the service business. The service portfolio is still mainly made of base services, such as technical assistance, training and spare parts provision. FORK is a medium Spanish firm operating in the forklift truck sector. Its business evolved in the past ten years from a reseller to being mainly a forklift rental company. Today, FORK has a fleet of over 2,000 forklift trucks on long-term rental and a related business of financial and after-sales services. 5.1 Servitization maturity assessment\n6. Conclusion: 6.1 Theoretical contribution\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of the servitization phenomenon of product-centric companies, by identifying the resources, capabilities and organizational aspects needed to successfully deploy a servitized business model (BM).\nDesign/methodology/approach: By adopting a literature-based approach, this paper develops a servitization maturity model (SeMM) aimed at assessing and positioning companies in the servitization journey. The paper also illustrates the model application to two small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), a machinery and a forklift truck company.\nFindings: The SeMM identifies a set of 85 critical requirements that are used to evaluate the servitization level of product-centric companies, through a specific five-stage measurement scale. The requirements are categorized into: five maturity dimensions (organizational approach, process management, performance management, tools, capabilities) and nine BM Canvas components. The empirical application exemplifies how the SeMM can support managers in identifying and bridging the gaps in their servitization journey.\nOriginality/value: The SeMM adopts an original bi-dimensional approach and provides an operationalization of the servitization process through the identification of specific critical requirements framed on established BM and maturity dimensions taken from the literature. Moreover, the model responds to a call for research to develop practitioner-oriented tools and guidelines to support the servitization process, in particular for SMEs, and to the need to go beyond to measures of servitization based on indicators about number of services offered or their turnover.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Customer reactions to service failure and recovery in the banking industry: the influence of switching costs
|
[
"Satisfaction",
"Loyalty",
"Bank services",
"Service failure",
"Switching costs"
] |
[
{
"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.\n1. Introduction: Customer loyalty is an important marketing variable for most of the companies, especially those working in more competitive markets. In this context, researchers and practitioners are interested in understanding the most important determinants of customer loyalty. Research shows that satisfaction is one of the most relevant antecedents of loyalty (Szymanski and Henard, 2001). Furthermore, other constructs like trust, commitment, and switching costs (SC hereafter) also influence the satisfaction-loyalty relationship (Garbarino and Johnson, 1999; Jones et al., 2000).\n2. Conceptual model and hypotheses: In this section, the article presents the theoretical background of the proposed model and the expected direction of the relationships between the constructs. Figure 1 illustrates the constructs and relationships investigated in the research model. Once customers go through a failure followed by a recovery, they will form a satisfaction with that experience, represented by the satisfaction with service recovery (SSR). Their cumulative satisfaction represents the overall evaluation of multiple experiences with the same service provider. The level of satisfaction will have an effect on the behavioral responses of the customers, represented in the model by the customer loyalty and the customer's propensity to recommend the service provider to other customers (PWOM). Moreover, loyalty and PWOM should be influenced by the perceived difficulty to switch to another service provider, represented by SC.\n3. Method: This research is based on a survey conducted by a Brazilian retail bank, involving customers randomly selected from all over the country. In Brazil, retail banking customer satisfaction ranks bottom of five major banking countries, with Canada with the highest score, followed by the US, China and the UK (Blakey, 2011). Hence, it is important to investigate how switching costs interact with satisfaction to influence customers' loyalty in the banking industry in Brazil.\n4. Results: 4.1 Descriptive analysis\n5. Discussion and conclusion: Research has supported customer satisfaction as an important antecedent of customer loyalty (Szymanski and Henard, 2001). However, a satisfied customer does not necessarily become loyal and customers can keep a relationship with a company in spite of being dissatisfied (Homburg and Giering, 2001; Mittal and Kamakura, 2001). Among the factors that might interfere in the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty, switching costs (SC) has received increasing attention because of its relevance in the context of relationship marketing.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to test the effects of satisfaction, satisfaction with service recovery (SSR) and switching costs (SC) on loyalty and positive word-of-mouth (PWOM) of bank customers in a service recovery context, taking into account the interaction among latent variables and the effects of contextual factors.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A theoretical model is proposed based on previous studies and tested using structural equation modeling technique and bootstrapping estimates. A survey was conducted with 1,878 bank customers of a large Brazilian bank.\nFindings: Results supported the positive effects of satisfaction and SC on loyalty, while PWOM was influenced mainly by SAT. In addition, SC significantly interacted with satisfaction, reducing the effects of satisfaction on loyalty. Finally, relationship time, gender and age were the most relevant contextual factors.\nPractical implications: This study highlights the importance of switching costs in the banking industry. Although satisfaction is a relevant predictor of loyalty, this influence is contingent on the customer's SC. Hence, investment on marketing strategies and campaigns should be oriented to better convert switching perceptions into effective loyalty.\nOriginality/value: Despite recent investigations on the roles of SC in customer loyalty, results have indicated mixed findings and most of the studies do not consider interactions between latent constructs. This study addresses this issue using the orthogonalization procedure.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Two routes of service modularization: advancing standardization and customization
|
[
"Service innovation",
"Qualitative research",
"New service development",
"Business-to-business services",
"Service infusion",
"Modularization",
"Standardization",
"Customization",
"Case study method",
"Service modules"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Amid the increasing importance of services, both traditional service and manufacturing firms seek strategies to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their service businesses (Bitner and Brown, 2008). One such strategy is service modularity, that is, dividing services into distinct standardized components that can be combined to form novel services to meet customer needs (de Blok et al., 2010). Similar to product modularity, service modularity is suggested to yield economies of scale (Voss and Hsuan, 2009), increase productivity (Pekkarinen and Ulkuniemi, 2008) and improve innovativeness (Aas and Pedersen, 2013). Service modularity can yield additional benefits for manufacturing firms providing integrated solutions based on service modules such as a performance module, a maintenance module, a monitoring module and an education module. First, service modularization improves the efficiency of integrated solution provision by allowing a variety of customized offerings to be composed from standardized service and product components (Windahl and Lakemond, 2010). Second, it mitigates the adverse effects of increasingly complex integrated solutions (Jacobs et al., 2007) and smart services (Wuenderlich et al., 2015).\n2. Conceptual background: Service modularity is defined as the degree to which services can be combined for customers from a group of distinct service modules (Pekkarinen and Ulkuniemi, 2008). For an airline providing flight services, examples of service modules could be catering services, tax-free sales, flight security services and entertainment. The concept is largely similar to product modularity, defined as the characteristic of a system that describes the possibilities to separate and re-combine a system's components, the concept denotes the tightness of coupling between components and the degree to which the product architecture enables separation and recombination of components (Schilling, 2000; Voss and Hsuan, 2009). In comparison to research on modularity of products (Schilling, 2000), research on service modularity is scarce (de Blok et al., 2010; Carlborg and Kindstrom, 2014; Pekkarinen and Ulkuniemi, 2008). As shown in Table I, the extant literature on the topic has addressed three themes:\n3. Method: 3.1 Research strategy\n4. Findings: Based on the empirical investigation of the development of the six service modules, five processes for service modularization can be identified: practice-based innovation, strategic-based innovation, replication, NSD process and tangibilization. The first two are alternative processes in the initiation phase, resulting in the initial module characteristics. These are refined in the development phase either through replication or in the NSD process. Finally, the module characteristics are formalized through tangibilization. Each of the five service modularization processes is elaborated in the subsequent section/paragraph, specifically focusing on how they alter the two module characteristics: standardization and interconnectedness. Table IV summarizes the processes and their influence on module characteristics.\n5. Discussion and implications: In the discussion, we address RQ1 concerning service modularization processes in Section 5.1 and RQ2 concerning how these processes change the service module characteristics in Section 5.2. This is followed by the theoretical and managerial implications of our research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to investigate service modularization in a manufacturing firm, identifies service modularization processes and examines how these processes change the service module characteristics.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study is based on a longitudinal case study (2008-2017) of a manufacturing firm. The development of six service modules was analyzed using data from interviews with key informants, informal meetings and internal documentation.\nFindings: This study suggests five service modularization processes, and that service module characteristics, such as standardization and interconnectedness, change in different ways depending on the service modularization processes used. It further identifies two service modularization routes that each combine the service modularization processes in unique ways with replication as a key process to improve both standardization and customization.\nPractical implications: This study elaborates a framework for service modularization, which can serve as a guideline for developing service modules. It also highlights the differences between product and service modularization, suggesting that the role of service module characteristics such as standardization and customization is specific for services.\nOriginality/value: This longitudinal case study (2008-2017) provides empirical evidence on service modularization and extends existing knowledge on service modularization processes and how they influence service module characteristics.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The productive service employee: personality, stress, satisfaction and performance
|
[
"Employee satisfaction",
"Service delivery",
"Frontline service employees",
"Service productivity"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Service employee productivity continues to be a major area of interest for both service researchers and managers (Ye and King, 2016; Bigelow, 2016; Harris et al., 2014; Marinova et al., 2008). Recent work in organizational frontline employee performance highlights the role that service employees play in service productivity, with a specific focus on individual-level work resources. Identifying the psychological factors that influence the productive service employee remains important for service managers today. Given that employee-level constructs are represented by individual-level difference variables in the literature, numerous constructs have been examined such as customer orientation (Brown et al., 2002), job resourcefulness (Harris et al., 2013; Licata et al., 2003) and locomotion orientation (Jasmand et al., 2012), to name a few. The focus on individual-level difference variables reflects a continued interest in how service researchers and managers can identify employee attributes and competencies that add value to the service offering (Ostrom et al., 2015).\nConceptual model and hypothesis development: Five-factor model\nMethodology: Procedure and settings\nResults: In total, 12 hypothesized relationships were supported in at least one sample. The results are discussed in this section with corresponding statistics presented in Table I.\nPost hoc tests: To test for differences across subsamples, a series of chi-square difference tests was performed for the significant paths across the samples wherein the paths were first set to invariance across the groups and this result was compared to a model with freely estimated paths between the groups. There were no significant differences found across the groups at Dkh21 = 3.84 (conscientiousness - productivity propensity, Dkh21 = 0.69; productivity propensity - role ambiguity Dkh21 = 2.73; role ambiguity - job satisfaction Dkh21 = 0.23; agreeableness - self-rated performance Dkh21 = 0.39; conscientiousness - self-rated performance Dkh21 = 0.01).\nVariance explained: The variance accounted for in the endogenous variables was relatively high: productivity propensity = 31 per cent, role ambiguity = 14 per cent, role conflict = 20 per cent, self-rated performance = 41 per cent and job satisfaction = 35 per cent for banking, and productivity propensity = 11 per cent, role ambiguity = 10 per cent, role conflict = 3 per cent, self-rated performance = 20 per cent and job satisfaction = 24 per cent for the hospital setting. It is notable that a significant amount of variance was accounted for in each sample, thereby, bolstering the claim that the inclusion of productivity propensity adds to the explanatory power of the model. To examine this issue, a series of hierarchical regressions was performed using the five-factor model traits as predictors of the three central outcomes in the model (i.e. self-rated service performance, stress and job satisfaction) and adding productivity propensity as an intervening mediating variable. This technique has been used previously when examining hierarchical approaches (Licata et al., 2003; Brown et al., 2002).\nCommon method analysis: To address the issue of potential common method variance (CMV) bias, two tests were conducted on each sample. First, Harman's one-factor test was performed for all items within each sample. This widely-used method, while not controlling for CMV, provides an indication of the extent to which a single factor accounts for the covariance among a study's measures (Podsakoff et al., 2003). For the hospital data, the first factor accounted for only 21 per cent of the variance in the unrotated factor matrix, while the first factor accounted for 26 per cent for the bank data. These percentages are well below the 50 per cent threshold commonly used with this approach.\nDiscussion: The current work offers insights into the antecedents and effects of productivity propensity and how the construct influences the productive service employee. In particular, this study has shed light into the influence of conscientiousness on productivity propensity, and the influence of productivity propensity on role ambiguity, job satisfaction and self-rated performance. It has also called into question, once again, the efficacy of lower-level personality traits in explaining important service worker outcomes.\nLimitations and opportunities for future research: While the current work provides insight into the role of productivity propensity in service marketing, there are a number of limitations that deserve attention. First, the study relied solely on single-report measures with cross-sectional methodologies. Although common methods bias concerns appear to be minimal, future studies should attempt to follow longitudinal processes with data from multiple sources (e.g. customer-perceived service quality). Each subsample was relatively small and there were a number of non-significant paths in the model. Future studies should attempt to obtain larger sample sizes thereby allowing researchers to reach stronger conclusions regarding the effects of personality traits. Future studies could also use more exhaustive inventories such as Mowen's 3M Model (Mowen, 2000). The current study also used abbreviated measures of several constructs, and future studies that use full measures of the constructs may provide additional insights.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to more closely examine the trait antecedents and outcomes of frontline employee productivity propensity. The study is the first to use a job demands-resources perspective on productivity propensity and it reveals that the inclusion of the construct into service worker personality studies significantly improves the explanatory ability of hypothesized models.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study follows a job demands-resources perspective and uses an empirical study that included two subsamples: banking and health care. Path analyses were performed using two-group modeling to test the hypotheses. Mediation and hierarchical regressions were also used.\nFindings: The findings indicate that the conscientiousness trait has a consistent effect on productivity propensity. More importantly, the findings reveal that productivity propensity influences role ambiguity, job satisfaction and self-rated service performance and that the addition of the construct into personality studies significantly improves the explanatory ability of personality models.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study presents further evidence that productivity propensity is an important construct in services research. Beyond previously established influences on bottom-line service productivity and manager-rated work performance, the current work indicates that it also influences FLE stress, engagement and work outcomes.\nPractical implications: Managers work under pressures to ensure service productivity and are well aware of the importance of selecting job applicants who will fit the service role. This study provides additional evidence that the productivity propensity work resource should be considered when selecting employees. The work also suggests that customer workload and the standardization of the service environment impacts the influence of productivity propensity on service outcomes.\nSocial implications: Given the importance of transformative service experiences that uplift the experiences of consumers and employees, the productivity propensity of frontline service employees not only impacts the ability of the employee to satisfy customer needs, but also leads the employee to experience increased job satisfaction.\nOriginality/value: This work is the first work to consider the effects of productivity propensity from a job demands-resources perspective and, as such, the first to examine the influence of the construct on job satisfaction and service delivery.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Making sense of the Latin American "other": executive women in Argentina
|
[
"Gender",
"Latin America",
"Identity",
"Argentina",
"Critical sensemaking",
"Multi-national organizations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: As many writers have observed (Barragan et al., 2012; Calas and Smircich, 2005; Canizares and Garcia, 2010; Rodriquez, 2010), globalization does not erase the relationship between dominant majority groups (European/American men-women) and \"other\" social identity groups (e.g. Latinas, African Americans.). In fact, life in organizations is arguably more complex in globalized settings (Prasad and Prasad, 2002). As we will show, this becomes evident in the branches of many of the multi-national corporations (e.g. IBM, HP, Coca Cola, etc.) that are situated in countries throughout South America. While there is a large literature on women in management, it tends to focus on corporate programmes implemented by multi-nationals, where different ethnic groups, genders and ages are fostered as a matter of business efficiency (BID, 2009; Rodriguez Gusta, 2009). The critical management literature on gender and Latin America, however, is sparse (Calas, 1992, p. 202) with some recent exceptions (see Barragan et al., 2012; Rodriguez, 2010; Stobbe, 2005). We aim to contribute to the critical management literature through a fusion of Latin and North American lenses (one author is from Argentina and one from Canada), to question the extant women in management literature, which is rooted in an epistemology that serves to construct the notion of a broad, universal set of expectations of the role of men, women and managers, in which other ethnic groups, in this case men and women from so-called Latin American countries, are taken for granted[1]. Using a critical sensemaking lens, we explore the narratives of female executives in Argentina to help us understand how these women make sense of their careers within a Latin American context and the implications and outcomes of this understanding.\nUnveiling \"Latin\" America: In exploring the various meanings of the term we agree with Mignolo (2005) that the notion of \"Latin America\" is an artificial one because of the assumption that \"Latin America\" is a homogeneous and non-problematic entity. In this case, the way the term \"Latin\" has been constructed and made sense of has had serious consequences for how the narratives of the women in this study are understood, and even whether or not their voices are being heard. Over time, the \"Latin\" concept has been used in various ways, often as a term of \"othering\". For example, since the second half of the nineteenth century the concept of Latinidad - Latinitee - was used first in France during the colonization of South American countries and subsequently the Creole and Mestizos/a elites from South America and the Spanish Caribbean islands adopted \"Latinidad\" to create their postcolonial identity after independence from Spain (Eakin, 2007; Mignolo, 2005). Later on, the term Latinidad was used by newly arriving European immigrants. Most recently, in the 1970s, a distinction appeared between Latinos from the USA and \"Latin\" Americans from South and Central America countries. This is further compounded, by the fact that Latin Americans are often viewed as second-class Europeans, while Latinos, in the USA, are regularly seen as second-class Americans. As we will see, a distinction like this has direct implications in our analysis, since some of the executives we study fall into the category of \"second-class Europeans\", while most of their bosses (in the foreign headquarters) are Americans.\nThe Argentinian context: While our study is based on narratives of women working only in Argentina, we recognize that Argentina possesses unique features due to its varied cultural and social background in comparison to other Latin American countries (Eakin, 2007), it is our contention that the experiences and reactions of these women will be similar to the experiences of women executives working in multi-nationals, in other Latin American countries and, therefore, can be applicable in the broader geographic context.\nUsing narratives: In terms of the data used in this study, we acknowledge that this is an exploratory study that allows us to access women's stories from a pre-existing source; one that that provides us with rich sources for narrative analysis, using critical sensemaking. We also follow a long established tradition of reinterpreting data collected for a somewhat different purpose (Heaton, 2008). Acker and Van Houten (1974), for example, reinterpreted the findings from the Hawthorne Studies and Crozier's work on bureaucarcy; Martin (1990) deconstructed a textual account of a male executive and reconstructed his story from a feminist perspective; Calas and Smircich (1991) employed poststructuralist approaches to re-read four classics text of organizational literature; Weick (1990) analysed the sensemaking processes involved in the Tenerife Air Disaster using documented accounts of the accident and developed an account of the Mann Gulch disaster several decades after the event using a storied account (Weick, 2001); Perrow (1999) developed accounts of the processes leading to major accidents through analysis of transcripts of Bhopal, Chernobyl and the Challenger disaster; in a similar vein Starbuck and Farjoun (2005) analysed the Columbia disaster.\nContextualizing the narratives: A pivotal part of our analysis is to contextualize the narratives of these women within multi-national Argentinian organizations. This is to take into account the intersection between the \"foreign\" multi-national and its operation in Argentina to examine how sensemaking occurs in context (Helms Mills et al., 2010), how intersectionality (e.g. being an Argentinian woman) influences how the women executives make sense of their roles, and how they tell their stories (Brown, 2004). To do this, interrelated factors, such as national culture, identity, family and class will be highlighted in the narratives to make sense of how they are created, what they mean in different contexts and what impact this has on the gendering of organizations in Argentina, in particular, and Latin America, in general.\nPostcolonialism, gender, intersectionality and othering: Postcolonialism, rooted in the work of Edward Said (1978), is concerned with the enduring influence of western imperialism, not only on former colonies but also on relationships between people within the former imperial powers. Postcolonialism takes into account the construction of \"the other\" as a discourse within, and by, organizations (Prasad and Prasad, 2002) and emphasizes the influence of western imperialism in global institutions (Prasad, 2005). In this study, we draw upon the postcolonial perspective of Mignolo (2005) for his specific focus on \"the idea of Latin America\". In effect, postcolonialism will help us to understand where the spaces are in which the idea of Latin America is produced (Hartt et al., 2012).\nSensemaking, critical sensemaking and intersensuality: To try to unravel some of the issues we have raised, we turn first to Weick's (1995) notion of sensemaking, which was initially developed to provide a way of understanding the process of organizing and how different meaning can be given to the same event. We contend that this is particularly relevant in this study because we are trying to understand how women executives, working for multi-national corporations, with their own sets of cultural values and norms, make sense of their roles within the Latin American context and how they chose to tell their stories - what is important to them?\nConclusion: The narratives of/attributed to these women are interesting, not only for what they show, but also for what is hidden behind the discourse. The primary journalistic intention was to develop culturally significant biographies of powerful women executives from Argentina. These biographies were presented in a particular cultural form - a book and its emplotment - that was designed to celebrate women's achievements. As laudable as this is, we would argue that it also serves to reinforce the notion of women's inequities by presenting them as the \"other\" - against the cultural norm. In its discursive account (Foucault, 1972), it leaves out of account other images of women and men, including the idea of Latin American women, non-managerial women, non-white or single women, lesbian women, etc. This is not surprising when we analyse how the focus on business tends to perpetuate the identity of a white/western/corporate/man. What we see through the eyes of the women's profiles is, ironically, the shadows and the mirrors of the white European male face of organizational power. Furthermore, many of the women executives profiled share Paula S.'s words that \"a corporation is not a democracy and it shouldn't be one \" (quoted in Di Marco, 2009, pp. 43-44). The importance of pluralism is blurred in these women narratives, while assumptions about the meaning of Latino and Women are deeply embedded in daily life.\nImplications: One of our objectives of this study has been to offer new insights to an under-researched area (namely women in \"Latin America\") and to understand how female executives construct their identities within the Latin American context and working within multi-national corporations.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the critical management literature through a fusion of Latin and North American lenses (one author is from Argentina and one from Canada), to question the extant women in management literature, which is rooted in an epistemology that serves to construct the notion of a broad, universal set of expectations of the role of men, women and managers, in which other ethnic groups, in this case men and women from so-called Latin American countries, are taken for granted.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a critical sensemaking lens, the paper explores the narratives of female executives in Argentina to help us understand how these women make sense of their careers within a Latin American context and the implications and outcomes of this understanding. The paper's approach involves three interrelated elements - feminist poststructuralism, postcolonialism and critical sensemaking.\nFindings: The narratives from the Argentinian executives reveals the tension between different cultures and idiosyncrasies among countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Mexico; and that the way to navigate those differences entails understanding and learning about the other. These executive women from Argentina - las jefas - are heard mainly because they represent the managerial identity that multi-national corporations foster in any overseas branch.\nResearch limitations/implications: In terms of the data used in this study, the paper acknowledges that this is an exploratory study that allows us to access women's stories from a pre-existing source. The paper recognizes that the authors are limited by the texts that are secondary sources, and if the authors had been able to conduct the interviews themselves they might have asked different questions.\nPractical implications: The findings of this research can help organizations to develop and implement a pluriversal and inclusive equity training programme through and awareness of the sensemaking of those involved.\nOriginality/value: The use of a critical framework on postcolonialism, feminism and postructuralism together with critical sensemaking to understand female executives from the South of America.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The outlook is bright for apprentices at Days: On-the-job training benefits young people and company as a whole
|
[
"Training",
"Retention",
"Young people",
"Customer service",
"Apprenticeships",
"Qualifications"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: A company with an 18-year history of hiring apprentices for administrative and accounting roles believes that the scheme helps to provide it with highly motivated, experienced and knowledgeable workers capable of offering a bespoke service to each client.\nVery informative training: Former apprentice Lauren Begley is now responsible for the ordering and delivery of some 3,000 vehicles a year. \"I found my business and administration National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) very informative as I learned a lot about working in a business environment. I felt this helped me with my development at Days Contract Hire,\" he said.\nKier constructs case for apprentices: Meanwhile, construction, services and property group Kier has taken on ten apprentices, continuing the company's commitment to training young people and supporting them into meaningful employment.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to examine the advantages that two firms - Days Contract Hire and Keir Construction - gain from regularly taking on apprentices.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Describes how the apprenticeship programs work at the two companies and the support that apprentices are given.\nFindings: Suggests that companies benefit in terms of better trained employees who are more loyal to the business and better able to service the needs of the customer.\nPractical implications: Reveals how the apprentices themselves benefit from having a trade and the likelihood of a full-time job.\nSocial implications: Highlights some of the reasons that the British government is once again turning to apprenticeships as a good way of preparing young people for the world of work.\nOriginality/value: Provides the inside story of the experiences of apprentices at two successful companies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Plant function deployment via RCM and QFD
|
[
"Maintenance reliability",
"Quality function deployment",
"Preventive maintenance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In this paper the concepts and techniques of quality function deployment (QFD), which is a well-known tool of total quality management (TQM), are added to the methodology of reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) to improve RCM effectiveness in designing preventive maintenance program of the plants.RCM was first introduced by the aircraft industry of the USA in 1978, Nowlan and Heap (1978). At the present time several books about RCM are available, for example Moubray (1997) and Smith and Hinchcliffe (2004). In addition, the Society of Automotive Engineers has a publication for a definitive set of RCM criteria, SAE JA1011 (SAE, 1999). RCM is a systematic and disciplined approach for designing the preventive maintenance for the plants. The objective in RCM is to preserve the functions of the plant with least resources used, or it tries to optimize the preventive maintenance activities with constraint of preserving the function of the plant.QFD is also a systematic and disciplined procedure for designing products and services of organizations. Dr Mizuno of the Tokyo Institute of Technology is credited with initiating the quality function deployment and its first application was at Mitsubishi Heavy Industry Ltd Japan, in 1972. At the present time there are several books available about QFD, for example, Besterfield et al. (2003) and Bossert (1991). The objective in QFD is to satisfy the requirements of the customers of the product or service under design with best uses of the organization's resources, or to maximize customers' satisfaction with limited resources.Comparison of the objective of the quality function deployment with the objective of reliability centered maintenance shows that we can combine these two techniques to gain the benefits of both in designing the preventive maintenance programs of the plants. This is the purpose of this research. More specifically: The aim of this research is to present a systematic and disciplined procedure which includes both RCM methodology and QFD methodology for designing the preventive maintenance program of the plants. The resulting procedure is called Plant Function Deployment (PDF).The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: In section 2 a brief description of RCM is presented which covers its principles and steps. In section 3, which is the main section of this report, PFD is described in details. Finally section 4 covers discussions and conclusions.\n2. A brief description of RCM: In this section we present a brief description of the RCM methodology with the emphasis on the importance of failure modes prioritizing method for RCM. The methodology presented in Smith and Hinchcliffe (2004) is used for this section.RCM preventive maintenance is a performance of inspections and servicing tasks that have been preplanned for accomplishment at specific points in time to retain the functional capabilities of operating equipments, systems, and plant with least resources.There are four basic task categories in any preventive maintenance program, including RCM, as follows:1. Prevent or mitigate failure occurrence (time-directed (TD)). When we use TD tasks, at specified hard time intervals overhauls are done regardless of any other consideration.2. Detect onset of failure (condition-directed (CD)). Measuring some parameter over time where it has been established that the parameter correlates with incipient failure conditions is CD task. The task action is not intrusive with respect to the equipment.3. Discover a hidden failure (failure-finding (FF)). A prescheduled option to check if all is in proper working order is a failure finding (FF) task.4. Do nothing, because of valid limitation (run to failure (RTF)). RTF is a deliberate decision to allow an equipment to operate until it fails- and no preventive maintenance of any kind is ever performed.A preventive maintenance program is specifying the use of one or more of these four tasks over time for each equipment(subsystem or system of the plant under consideration. In subsections 2.1 a brief description of RCM methodology for specifying these tasks is presented.2.1 Steps in RCM methodology\n3. PFD via RCM and QFD: In this section we present a technique, which we name Plant Function Deployment (PFD). The name and concept for PFD are borrowed from QFD, which is a well-known tool of TQM, and hence we explain briefly the QFD first.There are many books and articles about QFD, for example, Besterfield et al. (2003) and Bossert (1991). Here we use Besterfield et al. (2003) to explain QFD. QFD is a planning tool used to fulfill customer expectation. It is a disciplined approach to product and process design. QFD focuses on customer expectations, often referred to as the voice of the customer. It is employed to translate customer expectations, in terms of specific requirements, into directions and actions, in terms of engineering or technical characteristics. The primary tool used in QFD is the House of Quality. The House of Quality translates the voice of the customer into design requirements. The structure of QFD can be thought of as a framework of a house, as shown in Figure 1. The parts of the House of Quality are described as follows:* The left and right exterior walls of the house relates to the customer requirements. On the left side is a listing of the voice of the customer, or what the customer expects in the product. On the right side are the prioritized customer requirements, or the relative importance of the items of requirements listed on the left side.* The ceiling of the house contains the technical descriptors, consisting of the product engineering characteristics, design constrains, and parameters.* The interior of the house is the relationships between customer requirements and technical descriptors.* The roof is the interrelationships between technical descriptors. Trade-off between similar and/or conflicting technical descriptors is identified here.* The foundation of the House of Quality is the prioritized technical descriptors, or the relative importance of the items of technical descriptors. Items such as the technical benchmarking, degree of technical difficulty are listed here too.Once the House of Quality is filled up by the team of product designers they have a very good pictorial representation of the design project. It shows customer requirement with priorities, technical elements affecting the customer requirement, relationships between technical elements and customer requirements, and the relative importance of technical elements. This compact valuable information can be used effectively in the process of product or process design. In subsection 3.1 we use the concepts of the House of Quality to present the PFD.3.1 Description of PFD\n4. Discussions and conclusions: RCM is a methodology for designing the preventive maintenance program of the plants, with the objective of preserving the plan functions with least resources. In this research, a method was presented to improve the capability of RCM by adding the capabilities of QFD methodology to RCM. The resulting procedure was named PFD, via RCM.PFD is a systematic and disciplined approach for designing preventive maintenance program of the plants. In PFD the RCM steps are used up, to the point where all the failure modes are defined by the RCM team of engineers. At this point, contrary to RCM which uses the overall subjective opinion of the team to define the effects and importance of the failure modes on the functions of the plant, PFD organizes all the important data and information, gathered up to this point, in a matrix chart named The House of Quality. This chart gives a compact and detailed picture of all the relationships between the failure modes and functions of the plant, with logical numerical measures, for evaluating the degree of importance of failure modes for receiving team attentions and preventive maintenance tasks. In PFD the team of RCM uses the information contained in the House of Quality to select the tasks and their frequencies for the PM program of the plant. This causes the team of RCM to make more correct task selection decision and allocate the organization's resources where it has more return on investment, and hence the resulting preventive maintenance program is expected to be much closer to the optimal program.The use of second House of Quality, which shows the effects and importance of PM task on plant functions through failure modes, is recommended in PFD, if the RCM team finds it beneficial, as explained in subsection 3.2.The disadvantage of PFD is that it requires extra work for preparing the House of Quality. However, it should be noted that almost all the data needed for the House of Quality are needed for RCM, explicitly or implicitly. The extra work is mainly for organizing the data in the form of House of Quality, and some simple calculations. If computer software is prepared and used this extra work over RCM is not much. There are also some side benefits in using PFD. They are:* An orderly way of obtaining information and presenting it.* Fewer changes in PM program in the future.* Everything is preserved in writing.* Reduced chance of oversights during the design process.* An environment of teamwork.The opportunities to extend this work are: Preparing computer software for PFD. Evaluating the effectiveness of PFD in actual preventive maintenance projects. Using PFD framework to construct mathematical programming models for preventive maintenance projects.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to address the capability of reliability-centered maintenance (RCM), which is a preventive maintenance design tool.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A model named Plant Function Deployment (PFD) is developed, in which the methodology of quality function deployment (QFD) is added to RCM to improve RCM capability in preserving the functions of the plants.\nFindings: - The objective of preserving the plant functions with least resources, in RCM, is attained more efficiently if the methodology of QFD is added to RCM.\nPractical implications: - PFD is a model for designing a preventive maintenance program which uses RCM and QFD methodologies. PFD organizes all the important data and information, gathered by RCM, in a matrix chart named The House of Quality. This chart gives a compact and detailed picture of all the relationships between the failure modes and functions of the plant, with logical numerical measures, for evaluating the degree of importance of the failure modes for receiving preventive maintenance tasks. In PFD the maintenance engineers use the information contained in the House of Quality to select preventive maintenance tasks and their frequencies. This causes the designed preventive maintenance program to approach more closely the optimal program with the objective of preserving the plant functions with least resources.\nOriginality/value: - In comparison with RCM, PFD provides additional valuable information about failure modes, in a compact form, which can be used by the maintenance design engineers when they are trying to select the best preventive maintenance tasks for the plants.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Non-financial performance measures and the BSC of multinational companies with multi-cultural environment: An empirical investigation
|
[
"Balanced scorecard",
"Financial measures",
"Non-financial measures",
"Performance measurement system",
"Social variables"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In general, the Middle East is a region in which the political have dominated the economic variables and where the interests of the state have often eclipsed those of the society. It is a region in which the states and governments, preoccupied with war and peace, with survival, with basic democratic currents and constant challenges to their power and authority, have often included accounting and economic issues at the bottom of their lists of priorities. Since early 2011, several countries in the Middle East have been going through several revolutionary movements starting with Morocco then Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and many other Middle East countries causing, to some extent, instability in the political, economic, and social aspects in the region. In the meantime, multinational companies (MNCs), which have foreign activities in the Middle East, have their own concern about the success and challenges of conducting their international businesses in the region.\n2. Literature review: Like other human social activities and disciplines, accounting is a product of its social, economic, political, and legal environment. Accounting plays a significant role in measuring and communicating the results of economic, social, and managerial performance of a business firm. Every day, it provides corporate executive and financial officers, managers, employees, shareholders, governments, the public, and the professional organizations the needed information for the reevaluation of financial, economic, social, and political objectives and activities of their companies.\n3. Characteristics of the Saudi economy as emerging economy: Despite the significant political movements across the Middle East countries and the continued weakness in other major economies, Saudi Arabia's economy is believed to be continued to expand at a healthy pace. In 2011, the Saudi government committed $130 billion in financial incentives in February and March to address economic sources of social discontent, such as housing scarcity and a low public-sector minimum wage. Oil revenues through Saudi Aramco company account for 85-90 percent of the Saudi budget, and the costs of these measures pushed the government's break-even price for oil for 2011 to around $84 (US Department of State, 2012).\n4. The extent of PMS adaption and the hypotheses: The use of the performance measurement models, with the integration of the BSC, in manufacturing companies of the developed countries has been increased significantly in the past three decades. Kaplan and Norton (1992, 1993, 1996c) and Dixon et al. (1990) suggested the integration of the use of BSC into PMSs. It is expected that all these systems would put more emphasis on non-financial performance measures and would help business entities to give more weight to customers' satisfaction, innovation, higher employees' productivity, and many other non-financial measures in their PMS. In general this change would help business entities in the KSA to improve ultimately their financial performance.\n5. The research methodology and data: This research paper used a questionnaire to examine the performance measures that MMNCs of foreign subsidiaries in Saudi Arabia: first, use in the PMS; second, classify these measures into categories; third, assess the extent to which MMNCs use performance measurement innovations such as the BSC and integrated PMS; and fourth, examine the association between the measures and the environmental uncertainty including the cultural factors.\n6. Research results and discussion: As mentioned earlier, the objective of this study is to provide empirical evidence on the use of financial and non-financial performance measurement practices and the application of the BSC in randomly selected manufacturing subsidiaries in the KSA. To serve this purpose the authors submitted a courtesy letter along with the questionnaire to financial managers and the CFO of the selected medium and large-sized manufacturing Saudi companies to explain the purpose of the study and to ensure the confidentiality of the participants' response. A list of Saudi manufacturing companies was obtained and details of the manufacturing companies participating in this study were derived from the Directory of National Industries (Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 2009).\n7. Concluding remarks and recommendations: This research paper investigates the use of financial and non-financial performance measurement practices and the application of the BSC in randomly selected manufacturing subsidiaries in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as one of the main countries among the Gulf countries in the Middle East. This study provides new evidence on the extent to which the companies use an integrated PMSs and the use of the BSC concept in an emerging market associated with different cultural values than other industrial countries. The results may show that financial measures are more widely used by most of the companies included in the sample, which confirms many previous research studies (e.g. Kootanaee et al., 2013; Modell, 2012; Anand et al., 2005; Chenhall and Langfield-Smith, 1998; Lingle and Schiemann, 1996). The reason behind the wide use of the financial measures of performance due to the fact they are common, well known, and the most familiar performance measures in the business practice of the Saudi companies and they are more standardized measures which can be easily understood, implemented, and quantified.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of financial and non-financial performance measurement practices, including the use of the balanced scorecard (BSC) and the impact of the cultural values on the use of performance measurement systems (PMSs), in multinational companies (MNCs) operating in the Middle East with a special attention to the Saudi Arabian subsidiaries.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected using a survey mailed to 180 randomly selected Saudi manufacturing subsidiaries in different industrial cities to collect data on their PMSs including the use of the BSC.\nFindings: Financial measures are more widely used by most of the companies included in the sample due to the fact they are common, well known, and the most familiar performance measures in the business practice and they are more standardized measures which can be easily understood, implemented, and quantified. Moreover, the use of the non-financial measures was at a very low rate compared with the use of financial measures. The reasons were the difficulty in finding objective measures of the effect of social factors and the avoidance of any disclosure of social problems that are existed in the society.\nResearch limitations/implications: Several variables were not included in this study such as corporate culture, use of information technology, the use of mass number of expatriates in the KSA with completely different cultural values, and several other environmental factors, which might have a significant impact on the choice of multiple performance measures.\nPractical implications: From a practical standpoint, this study demonstrates that increasing levels of external environmental factors and exposure to American best practices could act as forces to adapt more updated and sophisticated PMSs in the Middle East. Moreover, it will contribute to the knowledge of PMSs in the emerging countries, particularly in Middle East countries.\nSocial implications: Social variables have significant impact on the productivity of employees and they should be incorporated into the performance indictors in objective and practical models.\nOriginality/value: This study illustrates how MNCs in the Middle East are adapting and applying the PMS and the effect of culture on the use of non-financial measures.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Corporate message strategies for global CSR campaigns: The mediating role of perceived altruism
|
[
"Multinational companies",
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Altruism",
"Consumer criticism",
"Global campaign",
"Message sidedness"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Operating in a complex and dynamic environment, companies actively take corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives (Eteokleous et al., 2016). CSR, which refers to a company's voluntary commitment to contribute to the betterment of society, has progressively become a more prevalent business agenda. Multinational corporations (MNCs) have played an important role in setting CSR agendas in developing economies as business entities take responsibility for their global impact (Frederick, 2008; Lee, 2008). Recent research indicates that Fortune Global 500 companies in the USA and UK spend $15.2 billion a year on CSR activities (Smith, 2014).\nLiterature review: MNCs' CSR and consumer attribution of CSR motives\nMethod: To examine the proposed hypotheses, this study employed a 2 (CCS: CAb vs CSR)x2 (response sidedness: one-sided vs two-sided) between subject design. As dependent variables, perceived altruism, attitude toward the company, and WOM intention were included. Additionally, the mediating role of perceived altruism was tested.\nResults: Manipulation checks\nDiscussion: Using a recent CSR campaign of a well-known company, the study investigated how an MNC effectively communicate its CSR campaign. The study empirically tested the effects of response sidedness on consumers' negative comments about its CSR campaign on the internet while leveraging the company's pre-existing attributes, either CSR history or corporate ability such as superiority of product quality and market leadership. One of the goals of this study was to understand the company's response strategies when communicating its CSR campaign and to explore the boundary conditions of CSR history.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine multinational corporations' (MNCs) response strategy in social media to effectively communicate their international CSR practices.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An experiment was conducted by adopting a case of an MNC's globalized CSR campaign in United Arab Emirates. The interaction effects of corporate communication strategy and company's response sidedness were examined as well as a mediating role of the perceived altruism.\nFindings: The current study suggests how two-sided response strategy can be applied and benefits MNCs' international CSR campaigns. The findings demonstrate that a company's two-sided response helps to increase people's attitude toward the company and word-of-mouth intention through enhanced perceived altruism when the company has no prior CSR experience in a host country.\nPractical implications: The current study provides insights on how to respond to negative publicity in social media. MNCs are suggested to use different response strategies based on their prior CSR experience in a host country.\nOriginality/value: The success of CSR depends on how consumers take the message and perceive a company's motive of CSR. The current study examines how to best respond to the consumers' criticism by utilizing message sidedness strategies depending on the company's presence of CSR.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Using news to predict Chinese medicinal material price index movements
|
[
"Text mining",
"Chinese medicinal material price index",
"Movement prediction"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In recent years, the prices of Chinese medicinal materials have fluctuated violently and frequently, which has had a negative impact on farmers and investors. The ability to forecast future price changes can support farmers and investors in making better decisions about growing and trading Chinese medicinal material, which leads to financial returns on investments and the avoidance of severe losses. Therefore, it is of great interest to predict Chinese medicinal material price movements.\n2. Literature review: We summarise the key works are relevant for two aspects: Chinese medicinal materials prediction and text mining for market prediction. Table I provides details in those papers for a thorough review and taxonomy.\n3. Methodology: The general flow of market prediction based on text mining is illustrated in Figure 1.\n4. The proposed method: Figure 2 provides a framework of using news to predict Chinese medicinal materials price index movements. All highlighted portions are our innovations, shown in italic in Figure 2, and they are coloured differently against the general flow.\n5. Experiment and results: In this section, we discuss the results produced. Three major methods, namely, domain dictionary construction, market convergence time calculation and dimensionality reduction integrating semantic analysis of text processing phase are also evaluated individually.\n6. Implication: Recently, Chinese medicinal materials prices have fluctuated violently and frequently under the influences of various factors such as blind production, climate anomalies and hot money speculation. The sharp fluctuation has negatively affected for farmers and investors. Establishing a market price predictive model for Chinese medicinal materials will guide them to make plans for planting or investing appropriately. The government can also refer the predictive results before releasing some related policy. The accurate prediction of Chinese medicinal materials prices movements will promote sound development of Chinese medicinal materials industry.\n7. Conclusions: As economic development and living standards continue to improve, the development prospects of the Chinese medicinal materials market should not be overlooked. For Chinese medicinal materials farmers and operators, the pursuit of profit is a perennial topic; thus, the price trend of Chinese medicinal materials and price forecasting has led to step-by-step decision-making tools to achieve the purpose of avoiding risks. However, no scientific technique previously existed to predict the price of Chinese medicinal materials to provide guidance, which is the intention of the present research programme. We aim to promote the healthy and sustainable development of the Chinese medicinal materials market because of the more accurate and practical forecasting model of Chinese medicinal materials price forecasting methods based on data mining technology. We present a research framework of the approach for reference and apply our approach in practice for using news to forecast the price index movements of the top 10 Chinese medicinal materials subject to the greatest media attention. We explore the effectiveness of the three major methods proposed for the approach, namely, domain dictionary construction, market convergence time calculations and an integrated semantic analysis with dimensionality reduction, to improve the accuracy of individual prediction.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose an approach for predicting the movements of Chinese medicinal material price indexes using news based on text mining.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A research framework and three major methods, namely, domain dictionary construction, market convergence time calculation and dimensionality reduction integrating semantic analysis, are proposed for the approach. The proposed approach is applied in practice for predicting the price index movements of the top ten Chinese medicinal materials that receive the greatest media attention.\nFindings: A set of experiments performed herein show that a predictive relationship exists between the news and the commodity market and that each of the three major methods improves the forecasting performance.\nResearch limitations/implications: Because the field of Chinese medicinal materials lacks a corpus that can be used for sentiment analysis, the accuracy of a trained automatic sentiment classifier is lower than obtained by a manual method, which can cause the calculated convergence result to be inaccurate, thus affecting the final prediction model. The manual method of having people label news decreases the proposed method's aspects of being intelligent and automatic.\nPractical implications: Using the method proposed herein to predict the trends in Chinese medicinal materials prices helps farmers arrange a reasonable planting plan to pursue their best interests.\nSocial implications: The method proposed herein to predict the trends in the prices of Chinese medicinal materials is conducive to the government arranging planned drug availabilities in order to avoid disasters in which herbs are looted.\nOriginality/value: The produced prediction result is meaningful in supporting farmers and investors to make better decisions in growing and trading Chinese medicinal material, which leads to financial returns on investments and the avoidance of severe losses.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Situations-vacant fall where employees are engaged: Involvement boosts various aspects of organizational performance
|
[
"Performance",
"Employee engagement",
"Retention",
"Costs"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: There is much evidence to suggest that many, perhaps most, employees are not very happy at work and the situation is not improving.\nThe impact on performance: Before the past few years, there was little credible evidence supporting how engagement can link employee characteristics and organizational factors to job performance. We know that employees have to find personal meaning in their work to be engaged. We also know that the organization needs to invite engagement and has to create a work environment that encourages and rewards engaged, high-performing employees.\nEngagement and performance: A number of studies around the turn of the century demonstrated positive correlations among measures of employee engagement with outcomes such as quality customer service; individual, unit and team performance and cost containment. These correlations spurred considerable interest in employee engagement, although clear indications of cause and effect were absent from much of the research.\nEncouraging employee engagement at work: Few research findings demonstrate clear links between initiatives that managers and organizations have put into place and resulting improvements in employee engagement and performance. Because every organization presents different characteristics and conditions, it is difficult to assert that initiatives that make a difference in one organization can be readily adopted in another. Below, we summarize some approaches that have been tried which resulted in improvements, and some suggested actions or drivers that are grounded in theory and research which should positively influence employee engagement.\nBest practices: Finally, we offer a summary of various drivers of employee engagement that reflect broad representation in recent research:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to summarize recent commentary and research about employee engagement. It offers information on practices and suggestions aimed at helping human resource specialists and general managers to stimulate opportunities for employees to become more engaged in their work.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Discusses employee engagement based on an extensive literature review of recent research and commentary regarding the concept.\nFindings: Advances the view that, depending upon one's organizational culture, work tasks and employee characteristics, there are many practical opportunities for managers to help employees to become more engaged in their work and organization.\nPractical implications: Explains how employee involvement can help to improve product quality, cut costs, bolster employee retention and boost organizational performance.\nSocial implications: Argues that employees have to find personal meaning in their work to be engaged.\nOriginality/value: Serves as a refresher for those interested in the concept of employee engagement. Offers practical suggestions for human resource specialists.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Factors affecting consumer acquisition of secondhand clothing in the USA
|
[
"Sustainability",
"Clothing acquisition",
"Clothing consumption",
"Secondhand clothes"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: With the growing attention to sustainable clothing consumption (Clark, 2008; Fisher et al., 2008; Nordic Fashion Association, 2012), the acquisition of clothing other than new ready to wear (RTW) becomes increasingly important to understand. Much of the prior research on US clothing demand focused on the acquisition of new RTW (Dardis et al., 1981; Nelson, 1989; Norum, 1989; Wagner and Hanna, 1983; Zhang and Norton, 1995). Although understanding consumer demand for new clothing is vital to firms in the fashion industry, educators, and government entities, the exclusion of used clothing limits our knowledge of the acquisition process. Winakor (1969) pointed out, over 40 years ago, that clothing acquisition activities include buying secondhand clothes, receiving hand-me-down clothes, exchanging clothes, and repairing or making over clothes (i.e. repurposing). Use of these alternatives means for acquiring clothes could help achieve sustainable clothing consumption (Fisher et al., 2008; Nordic Fashion Association, 2012). The limited research on clothing acquired by these alternative means may stem from factors such as associations of secondhand clothing with poverty, development over time of a fast-fashion oriented society, biases of researchers, and lack of data. Consumer Expenditure Survey data collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics have been used in many previous studies of consumer demand for clothing, but these data do not include secondhand clothing purchases or used clothing transfers between family members or friends. Given the expanding interest in sustainable clothing consumption, and the contribution that consumers could make to such consumption by using those alternative means to acquire clothing, the time is ripe to explore secondhand clothing acquisition in the USA. In the present study, secondhand, used, and recycled clothing are terms that will refer to clothing used previously by consumers (Winakor, 1969).\nReview of literature: Consumer demand of new RTW\nTheoretical framework: Consumer demand theory\nMethodology: Sample and data collection\nResults: Five equations were estimated by logistic regression using data from the respondents who provided complete information on each variable in the analysis (n=471). Tables II and III show the logistic regression results. The significant variables across the equations were income, age, the number of toddlers and children ages 6-17, race, and sewing and repair skills.\nConclusions and implications: This empirical study, among a sample of US female consumers, explored the acquisition of used clothing through secondhand stores, garage sales, clothing exchanges, hand-me-downs, and repurposing. From a theoretical perspective, the most important results are for income. Most past research on income effects on clothing demand has focused on new clothing demand and has shown the clothing to be a normal good. However, Winakor (1969) noted that secondhand clothing is often associated with limited economic means and even product inferiority. Winakor et al. (1971) reported that purchases of used clothing is an inferior good, but the present study is the first on US consumers to empirically examine the relationship between income and secondhand clothing acquisition. The results showed income is negatively related to purchasing used clothing suggesting that used clothing is an inferior good. Sustaining the life of clothing through secondhand purchases may require further efforts to overcome the stigma of inferiority. Thus, efforts to present used clothing in an appealing manner by secondhand goods retailers, or as a sustainable clothing option by marketers or consumer educators, may need to be increased. Entities such as LOHAS (2013) and nonprofit secondhand retailers (e.g. Goodwill, Salvation Army) may find it beneficial to promote the recycling of used clothing in ways that engage consumers at various income levels.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore factors affecting secondhand clothing acquisition among a sample of US female consumers based on an economic perspective.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research is descriptive in nature, utilizing a survey of 500 US female consumers to explore relationships between five modes of secondhand clothing acquisition and selected consumer characteristics. Logistic regression was used to analyze the data.\nFindings: The significant variables were income, age, number of toddlers and children ages 6-17 present in households, and sewing and repair skills. Income was found to be negatively related to purchasing secondhand clothing, suggesting that consumers view used clothing as an inferior good. Consumers in Gen Y were more likely to be involved in various means of secondhand clothing acquisition, holding income constant, than Baby Boomers.\nPractical implications: Overcoming the stigma of inferiority associated with secondhand clothing, encouraging repair skills, and the repair of clothing, reaching out to consumers to build on their interest in DIY projects, and utilizing new technology (e.g. apps for sharing clothes) are practical implications.\nOriginality/value: The paper examined multiple modes of clothing acquisition rather than a single mode, and contributes insight regarding the economic concept of secondhand clothing as an inferior good.\n",
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Relationship between retailers' return policies and consumer ratings
|
[
"Retail",
"Service strategy",
"Word-of-mouth",
"Return policy",
"Consumer ratings",
"Price discount",
"Brand image"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Return policies are commonplace in today's retail environment and are viewed as a risk- allaying factor by customers (Petersen and Kumar, 2009). Return policies are considered important while making purchases, and there is an average return rate of 8 per cent for in-store shoppers and 30 per cent for online shoppers (Olick, 2019). Around 86 per cent of consumers rate return policy as a determining factor in their buying decision at online stores (Olick, 2019). Indeed, customers tend to return merchandise that often does not possess any defect (functional or otherwise) (Lawton, 2008). While return policies are essential from the customer point of view, they also have an impact on a company's logistics and financial well-being (Anderson et al., 2009).\nConceptual framework: In explaining the effect of return policy on consumer's evaluations or decision-making, the bulk of the literature considers return policy as a cue from the retailer and posits that such cues can reduce consumer uncertainty associated with purchases (Mukhopadhyay et al., 2008; Wood, 2001). Customers make use of various cues or signals to assess products before making their purchase decisions (Dawar and Parker, 1994; Mukherjee et al., 2018, Ni and Sun, 2018). Signaling theory suggests that to solve the problem of adverse selection, an agent can send various signals to the principal (Akerlof, 1970; Emons, 1989; Padmanabhan and Rao, 1993; Spence, 1974, 1977). Further, these signals or cues are categorized into high-scope and low-scope cues (Alford and Biswas, 2002; Purohit and Srivastava, 2001). High-scope cues are built over time and are long-lasting (Purohit and Srivastava, 2001). Consequently, the customer valence associated with the high-scope cue cannot be changed easily, and these cues are considered to be credible and often act as individual heuristics for customers to make decisions (Gidron et al., 1993). High-scope cues also tend to be stable and less ambiguous compared to low-scope cues (Akdeniz et al., 2013; Hoch and Deighton, 1989). For example, brand image is a high-scope cue that is built over time and requires significant investments to create the customer valence. A firm's everyday low pricing and excellent customer service are examples of high-scope cues. Specific to this study, we consider customer ratings and brand reputations to be high-scope cues. We argue that both these factors are indicators of a long-lasting set of activities by the firm and cannot be wholly controlled by the organization. Akdeniz et al. (2013) argue that most high-scope cues are ones that have some level of separation from the manufacturer, which is true for both brand reputation and customer ratings. In addition, both these cues reflect the indicators that have evolved over time and have limited scope of being modified by the firm alone and, therefore, are credible. Extant research has shown that customers use brand reputation (Darke et al., 1998; Gammoh et al., 2006; Washburn et al., 2004) and customer ratings (Akdeniz et al., 2013; Benedicktus et al., 2010; Sheng, 2019) as a means to address uncertainty relating to their purchase decisions.\nStudy 1: consumer ratings and return policy: Design, procedure and sample\nResults: Manipulation checks\nDiscussion: The study results support H1; a lenient return policy can counter low consumer ratings and positively influence consumers' purchase decisions. From a retailer's perspective, these results show that when faced with low consumer ratings, a lenient return policy tends to positively influence consumers. There could be several rationales for this pattern of findings. Study 2 focuses on explaining the underlying process mechanisms of the aforementioned findings. Quality perceptions in the form of quality certainty are hypothesized to play a mediating role in this phenomenon. In addition, the theoretical assumptions about cue scopes and their interactive effects on a consumers' cue diagnosticity are empirically tested.\nStudy 2: moderating effect of price discounts: Study 1 investigated the primary effects of return policy in the presence of consumer ratings. Results indicated that low consumer ratings can be countered by having a lenient return policy. Study 2 serves three purposes as follows:\nResults: Manipulation checks and assumptions check\nDiscussion: The findings of Study 2 demonstrate that quality certainty acts as a psychological process, which positively influences purchase intention. The moderating effect of price discount highlights that for a product having low consumer ratings, a lenient compared to a stringent return policy might increase purchase intention for low discounts. In contrast, for a high discount condition, a stringent compared to lenient return policy increases purchase intentions. These results offer managerially applicable strategies for the implementation of return policy for products in line with price discounts and consumer ratings. The next and final study explores another theoretically and managerially relevant boundary condition of brand image with respect to the return policy and consumer ratings. Furthermore, the previous studies have considered consumers' purchase intentions. Study 3 also tests the postulations in a discreet choice-based experiment.\nStudy 3: boundary condition of brand image: Design, procedure and sample\nResults: Manipulation checks and assumptions check\nDiscussion: The findings of Study 3 indicate that for a low image brand having low consumer ratings, it is better to provide a lenient return policy as it positively influences consumers' purchase preference. Replicating previous studies, Study 3 also highlights the psychological process of quality certainty onto purchase choice. These results provide additional evidence about the interactive nature of cue scopes and their impact on consumers' purchase decisions. The findings provide viable tools that managers can use to design their return policies.\nGeneral discussion: Return policies are a major retailing decision and can influence both the operational side and the customer side of the business. Retailers tend to be uncertain when it comes to designing the return policies because a lenient policy impairs a company's profitability, and a stringent policy negatively affects the customer shopping intentions (Anderson et al., 2009; Hjort and Lantz, 2016). Consistent with past literature on cue scope and signaling theory (Akerlof, 1970; Purohit and Srivastava, 2001; Roggeveen et al., 2014), the findings of this investigation indicate that high-scope cues such as consumer ratings and brand image can attenuate the effects of stringent return policies on consumers' purchase evaluations.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Return policies are major risk-allaying cues for customers, yet they are a critical cost/lost-sales for retailers. Despite their importance in the retailing industry, few studies have examined the interplay of return policies with other cues that customers use to make a purchase decision. Toward this end, this study aims to investigate the interaction effects certain salient high-scope and low-scope cues, such as consumer ratings and brand image, and retailers' return policies have on consumer purchase decisions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Building on literature from signaling theory and cue scope literature (high-scope and low-scope cues), the authors develop a research model that hypothesizes the interrelationships between return policies, price discounts, customer product ratings and brand image. Three experimental studies investigate the potential interplay between return policies (lenient vs stringent), price discounts (low vs high), customer product ratings (low vs high) and brand image (high vs low) on quality certainty perceptions and purchase intentions. The mediating effect of quality certainty perceptions on the interplay of various factors (return policy, price promotions, consumer ratings and brand image) and customer purchase intentions is also investigated.\nFindings: Results indicate that a lenient return policy will have a positive effect when consumers encounter high scope cues that signal undesirable aspects of the product (i.e. low consumer ratings, low brand image). In contrast, when high scope cues signal desirable aspects of the product (i.e. high consumer ratings, high brand image), it attenuates the effects of return policy. The findings suggest that quality certainty acts as a psychological process.\nResearch limitations/implications: Service researchers should seek to examine the role of return policies in a more comprehensive manner.\nPractical implications: Return policies are important cues for consumers while making purchase decision. Thus, retailers need to realize that these policies may need to be more dynamic or tiered, rather than one-size-fits-all.\nOriginality/value: This study provides a more comprehensive view of how consumers consider multiple cues simultaneously in decision-making. Literature has mainly examined the interactions between different high-scope and low-scope cues, but there has been limited research directed toward the interplay between multiple high-scope cues.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Effects of store attributes on retail patronage behaviors: Evidence from activewear specialty stores
|
[
"Satisfaction",
"Consumers",
"Store attributes",
"Activewear",
"Repatronage behavior",
"WOM"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The specialty retail segment, accounting for 35.1 percent of the overall US retail market, is a lucrative sector (MarketLine, 2011). Many of today's specialty retailers have become successful by personalizing service and selecting merchandise targeted toward a particular market segment (Gagliano and Hathcote, 1994). Among the various product types offered by specialty retailers, apparel (e.g. clothes, footwear, and accessories) is the second leading specialty retailing category (Euromonitor International, 2014; NPD Group, 2007) and the competition among these retailers continues to grow. Considering the profitability generated by the specialty apparel retail market, an understanding of factors that influence consumer retail patronage behaviors in specialty apparel retail stores is important because such information can be employed to develop effective retail strategies.\nLiterature review and development of hypotheses: Activewear market\nThe conceptual framework: Based on the S-O-R model and literature review, Figure 1 presents a schematic depiction of the conceptual model for this study. This model is built on the principles of store attributes related to products, stores, and services; consumer satisfaction; and consumer repatronage behavioral intentions. The underlying assumption is that selected store attributes affect consumers' satisfaction, which subsequently influences their intentions to communicate positive WOM and re-patronize the store.\nMethod: Participants and data collection\nResults: Sample characteristics\nDiscussion and conclusions: The current study was among the first to examine the relationships between store attributes, consumer satisfaction, and consumer patronage behaviors simultaneously in the context of an activewear specialty store. This study successfully applied the S-O-R model to understand the relationships among store attributes, consumer satisfaction, and consumer patronage behavior in the activewear specialty store. Utilizing data from actual consumers who patronized an activewear specialty store, the current study found that store personnel interaction and store atmosphere were the greatest determinants of consumer satisfaction. Our results confirm the studies conducted by Schneider (1990) and Schiffman and Kanuk (2000) who reported a significant connection between personnel interaction and consumer satisfaction. This suggests that activewear specialty stores needs to provide quality service to their customers to help influence satisfaction. Compared to other regular fashion apparel retailers, consumers in activewear specialty stores may require more attention and help from salespeople (Musgrove, 2011). Consumers in fashion retail stores often feel uncomfortable when salespeople approach to them with excessive friendliness. However, consumers in activewear stores may need more help and information to select the right activewear products for both functional and fashion needs. Thus, consumers who shop in the activewear specialty stores will likely be more with their store visits when they meet salespeople who interact with them more closely.\nImplications: Our results provide several managerial implications. First, in order to satisfy consumers, activewear specialty retailers need to ensure that they provide an attractive and pleasant shopping atmosphere. This is critical to the company's financial success because these satisfied consumers are likely to spread positive WOM about the retailer and display their intention to revisit the store in the future. Future management focus on store layout, shopping flow, store atmospherics, and image can improve the shopping experience. Prior research conducted on store-level data has shown the importance of both the physical and social features of a retail environment (Babin and Darden, 1996). Donovan et al. (1994) demonstrated that pleasure induced by store surroundings can lead consumers to stay longer and spend more on products than originally intended.\nLimitations and future research directions: There were limitations of this study. First, because the data was only collected in one local activewear specialty store, future studies may include more stores from various areas, such as local fitness centers or running/road race events. Second, this study surveyed participants who shopped in the activewear specialty store in general. Thus, further study of consumer behavior is needed in terms of exercise participation levels. Third, the sample size is one of limitations and a future study with larger sample size may provide more rigorous results. Also, the expertise of the employees can help differentiate the store from its competition. Further research can be done to review service expectations and to develop methods to ensure that store personnel are meeting consumer expectations. Lastly, we suggest that further research should examine the relationships between other retail attributes (e.g. location, music, employee dress) on satisfaction and subsequent WOM, patronage behaviors, and customer loyalty.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify selected store attributes of activewear specialty retailers that impact consumers' satisfaction, which in turn influence word-of-mouth (WOM) and retail patronage behavior.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using an on-site store intercept, 150 responses were collected to answer hypothesized relationships. An exploratory factor analysis was first performed followed by a confirmatory factor analysis and a structural equation analysis.\nFindings: Results revealed that sales employees and store atmosphere attributes of activewear specialty stores had a positive influence on consumer satisfaction, which in turn had a direct impact on WOM and repatronage intentions for activewear specialty stores. Therefore, in order to satisfy consumers, activewear specialty retailers need to ensure that they provide an attractive and pleasant shopping atmosphere. Furthermore, satisfied consumers are likely to spread positive WOM about the retailer and display their intention to revisit the store in the future. The authors conclude by discussing the results and suggest implications and future research directions.\nOriginality/value: The findings of this research shed light on the managerial implications for activewear specialty retailers with regards to marketing strategies and consumers' attitudes.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Determinants of switching intention to cloud computing in large enterprises
|
[
"Cloud computing",
"Switching intention",
"Large enterprises",
"Two-factor theory",
"Enterprise information systems",
"Technology–organization–environment framework"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In global business environments, cloud computing has recently become a popular form of information technology (IT). Enterprises are increasingly using cloud technologies to improve their business operations and competitive advantages (Low et al., 2011). The International Data Corporation (IDC) reported that total cloud IT infrastructure spending grew from $26.4bn in 2014 to $32bn in 2015 (Mass, 2015). According to a report by Global Industry Analysts, the cloud services market will reach $127bn by 2017. IDC also forested that the cloud software market will rapidly grow from $39.3bn in 2013 to $100bn in 2018 (Mahowald and McGrath, 2014).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Cloud computing\n3. Research model and hypotheses: Switching benefits refer to the perceived utility that an enterprise would enjoy by switching from traditional EISs to cloud EISs. The expected benefits of cloud computing include mobility and productivity (Kenyon, 2012; Lin and Chen, 2012). Staff can access resources and services from many mobile devices anytime anywhere. In addition, data sharing and transparency can improve staff productivity (Kenyon, 2012). Further, using cloud EISs can improve enterprises' competitive advantage and product/service quality (Kim and Kankanhall, 2009; Kuan and Chau, 2001). The benefits drive enterprises to adopt cloud computing (Chang and Hsu, 2019; Fan et al., 2015; Gangwar et al., 2015; Lian et al., 2014; Low et al., 2011). Thus, we hypothesize:\n4. Research methodology: 4.1 Instrument development\n5. Data analysis: This study uses partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modeling approach to analyze data. PLS approach does not assume a multivariate normal distribution and interval scales (Chin, 1998). In addition, PLS has less demand on sample size (Gefen and Straub, 2005). The minimum sample size required by PLS is ten times the largest number of paths leading to an endogenous reflective construct. For our research model, the maximum number of paths entering an endogenous reflective construct is 12. Therefore, a sample size of 227 is sufficient to analyze the research model using PLS approach. SmartPLS 3.0 tool is used to test the measurement and structural models.\n6. Discussion: Drawing upon two-factor theory and TOE framework, this study investigates the factors affecting switching intention to private cloud EISs in large enterprises. According to our results, the technological context (compatibility), organizational context (financial support) and environmental context (vendor support and industry pressure) significantly influence switching benefits while data security and costs significantly influence switching costs. Switching benefits and switching costs significantly influence switching intention.\n7. Implications for theory and practice: 7.1 Implications for theory\n8. Conclusions: Switching to cloud computing is a booming phenomenon in corporate IT deployments. A few research has been dedicated to investigating the factors influencing switching intention to public clouds (Chang and Hsu, 2019; Hachicha and Mezghani, 2018; Park and Ryoo, 2013). To the best of our knowledge, no prior studies have addressed the switching issue toward private clouds. This study is the first to investigate factors that affect enterprises' switching intention from traditional EISs to private cloud EISs. In this study, we develop a theoretical model by integrating two-factor theory and TOE framework. Two-factor theory is used to characterize the switching benefits and costs that affect switching intention as enablers and inhibitors. The factors that affect switching benefits are organized based on TOE framework, and the factors that affect switching costs are the uncertainties inherited from cloud technology and the benefits of the deployed traditional EISs.\n9. Limitations and future research: The application of the findings of this study should be treated with caution in the following limitations. First, our study was cross-sectional and only collected empirical data from China. Cultural differences may lead to different results. Also, a longitudinal study is suggested to investigate the casual relationships between the independent and dependent variables.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate switching intention from traditional enterprise information systems (EISs) to private cloud EIS in large enterprises. The authors propose that the factors motivate and inhibit enterprises' switching intention to private EIS by integrating technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework and two-factor theory.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A research model draws from TOE framework and two-factor theory. Data were collected from 227 top managers and owners of the enterprises in China and used to analyze 11 hypotheses.\nFindings: The results show that the technological context (compatibility), organizational context (financial support) and environmental context (vendor support and industry pressure) significantly influence switching benefits while data security and costs significantly influence switching costs. Switching benefits and switching costs significantly influence switching intention.\nOriginality/value: Past studies have focused mainly on the adoption of cloud computing. However, few studies have addressed the switching issues, especially in large enterprises. The findings are useful to understand switching issues from traditional EIS to private cloud EIS for both researchers and practitioners.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The case method - does learning theory matter?
|
[
"Case studies",
"Learning methods",
"Business schools"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nWhy case studies?: Case studies were originally used as a pragmatic attempt to engage the attention of managers through the use of written material on problems or incidents in organizations, written up by academics and then analyzed by course participants. They were implicitly, if not explicitly, anti theory in that they did not offer a complete structured statement of \"what ought to be done.\" They were not based on a theory of learning, except in so far as statements that managers preferred an active to a passive form of learning implied a theory. In a study of how people learn from case studies, Burgoyne and Mumford (2001), we found plenty of material on claims about why the case method was effective, but no significant reference to any learning theory which would help to explain why people learn from cases - and when and why they might not. Indeed, the major work on the classic Harvard use of the method by Barnes et al. (1994) says \"We do not have a good way of understanding or evaluating how people learn.\"\nPragmatism and the case method: One of the problems in the history of management development has been the succession of management development methods which arrive from the fervent belief of innovators that they have \"the\" answer to the problem of teaching managers on courses. Thus the waves of excitement as case study method was followed by role plays, business games, outdoor training, action learning - and now e-learning. With the exception of action learning, none of them have been derived from or subjected to analysis through any theory of learning. If one or more theories of learning had in fact been used at least to assess these different methods, the claims would have been more muted, fewer managers would have had disappointing experiences as particular methods failed to provide the \"silver bullet\" answer. How responsible is it to provide a method on the basis that you believe in it, and can quote evidence on how it has worked in the past, without really knowing how it works and why it works? Would architects or engineers carry out their design methods without a fundamental understanding of the theories that show how and why structures will stand up? The view that we can continue to offer case studies because they have \"worked\" for 80 years, is intellectually lazy. It is not even defensible in purely pragmatic terms, because simply stating that \"it\" works gives no real basis for comparison with alternative methods.\nApplying theory to the case method: My own detailed review of how to choose between different methods (Mumford, 1997) included learning theories as one of the ways in which choice could be analyzed. More recently in reviewing the history of innovations in management development i have become even more convinced that learning theory is not just an interesting intellectual explanation of the virtues of the case method, but an essential feature of good decision making about it. I have chosen four theorists to help explain the features of the case method, and also to show how this method could be used more effectively. They are chosen because they are the four most extensively quoted in management development literature - Malcolm Knowles, David Kolb, Chris Argyris, and Reg Revans.Knowles' (1985) Theory of Adult Learning was the first to identify the crucial significance of adults learning from their own experience. The question arising for case study tutors is how far they make use of this insight in how they run their case study sessions. Chris Argyris (1982) contributed three theories. The difference between espoused theories and theories in use is particularly important in terms of developing the use of the case method beyond its obvious focus on the content of a case, to an additional focus on the meaning of the case. Similarly his theories of defensive routines, and single and double loop learning could be used to improve insights into, and learning from the experience of a case study session. Argyris moved into the Harvard Business School a few years ago and has attempted to show faculty how his theories could improve the effectiveness of the case method. (With sublime appropriateness, he showed earlier how different the actual operation of case study tutors was from their espoused theories about what they should be doing!) (Argyris, 1980). David Kolb (1984) is the third theorist to focus on experience, with his experiential learning cycle. This shows both what is going on in the operation of the traditional case study session, and also what is often not going on. His identification of the preferences individuals have about how they learn could be used by tutors to consider more carefully the reaction of individuals to the case method.Reg Revans' (1982) theories about action learning offer a critique and provides an alternative method to case studies. It is significant however in this context precisely because it focuses on what is normally missing from the case method - by insisting like Argyris that participants look at problems and situations in which they are directly involved, rather than study the material about involvement about other people in other situations.\nImproving the case method: There is nothing so practical as a good theory (Kurt Lewin).If tutors were to use the insights of these theorists they could improve learning from cases. (Very few tutors we interviewed worked to an explicit learning theory.) One of the virtues of this kind of application would not only be a better process, but that the learners themselves would better understand not just what they are learning, but how they are learning it and how they might improve their learning. This is a challenge to the views of at least some tutors on what their sessions are about. The view that they are about learning as a process, as well as being a way of learning content was one that had not struck quite a few of the people I interviewed. Some indeed denied that it was a desirable activity within their session - \"That is something that the organizational behavior people look after.\" Others did see the relevance of building into any case study session a period of time in which participants reviewed how they had learned what they had learned.An understanding of the theories of any of the four mentioned here would enable tutors better to understand that a case study session is itself an experience which should be studied and worked on, and then used through the learning achieved by such reflection to improve the capacity of participants to learn from each other. We might then more frequently have at least a more effective learning group, and might be able to move towards a learning community - or even a learning organization.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The article reflects the concerns of the author that little use has been made of learning theories to assess the potential or the actual achievement of the case method in management development.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The ideas of learning theorists - Knowles, Kolb, Argyris and Revans -are reviewed, and their relevance to the learning from the case method is assessed.\nFindings: - The article says that simply to claim that case studies \"work\" is intellectually lazy, and provides no basis for comparison with other methods.\nPractical implications: - It is proposed that if tutors used insights from these theorists they would both improve their contribution to how people learn, but also improve the understanding of learners about their learning. This could for example be achieved by using time on the case session itself to improve the capacity of participants to learn with and from each other.\nOriginality/value: - Shows the limits of the case method.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The effect of demographic and personality characteristics on fashion shopping proneness: A study of the Indian market
|
[
"India",
"Personality",
"Consumer demographics",
"Fashion shopping",
"Fashion shopping proneness"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Fashion generally implies popular trend or current style. The term fashion goods encompass a wide range of products such as clothing, food, perfume, music, automobiles, and beauty products. Fashion has become an integral part of global business. The global fashion industry was valued at USD1.7 trillion and employed 75 million people in 2012 (\nLiterature review and hypotheses: Theoretical background\nMethodology: We test hypotheses H1-H3 based on a survey of 561 consumers in the Indian marketplace. Fashion researchers have applied various methodologies to answer research questions pertaining to fashion consumption. These range from interpretive techniques such as depth interviews (e.g. Birtwistle and Moore, 2001; Kravets and Sandikci, 2014) and focus group discussions (e.g. Dawson and Kim, 2010). A majority of the studies have applied quantitative techniques such as simple descriptive statistics (Otieno et al., 2005); cluster analysis (e.g. Sarabia-Sanchez et al., 2012; Casidy, 2012); ANOVA and/or MANOVA (Casidy, 2012; Workman and Cho, 2012); conjoint analysis (e.g. Birtwistle et al., 1998); factor analysis and structural equation modelling (e.g. Kim et al., 2002; Michon et al., 2007; Khare and Rakesh, 2010; Joung, 2014). Some have even used mixed methods (e.g. Hogg et al., 1998; Morgan and Birtwistle, 2009). Since our objective was to study a set of hypothesized relationships, and we had established scales for the latent constructs being studied, we adopt the survey method and factor analysis to collect data and obtain construct measures and combine it with regression and structural equation modelling for testing hypotheses. We first describe the survey design and then the sampling and data collection procedure.\nData analysis and results: First, we performed an exploratory factor analysis to test the unidimensionality of the five FSP items that yielded a single factor solution (Table I). as predicted in previous research (Beatty and Ferrell, 1998). To obtain a measure of the FSP construct, we averaged the scores on the five corresponding FSP indicators.\nDiscussion of results: We first discuss the effect of demographics on FSP and then the effect of personality factors on FSP, finally the relationship between FSP and fashion shopping behaviour.\nTheoretical implications: The most significant contribution of the present study is the establishment of the linkage between consumer personality and fashion shopping behaviour. The findings that all personality dimensions have a significant effect on FSP supports the role of personality in consumer buying behaviour (Kermani, 2011; Guido et al., 2011). In addition, our findings augment the work of Casidy (2012) who found different personality clusters to have different fashion orientation. The differential effect of the personality dimensions hint at the possibility of this orientation to affect FSP. This also necessitates the role of a deeper understanding of consumer personality types in a market for fashion goods, since the same would influence the buying behaviour. This need is previously highlighted in literature as well (Hines and Bruce, 2007; Khare and Rakesh, 2010).\nManagerial implications: In the present study, we investigated the demographic and personality antecedents of FSP in the Indian marketplace. In particular, we considered the influence of three common demographic variables (age, gender, and income) and five personality factors (agreeable, extroverted, industrious, open minded, and stable) on FSP. Our results validate earlier findings while also providing additional insights. The major managerial implications derived from our study are summarized below.\nConclusion: In this research, we study the effect of select demographic and personality characteristics on consumers' propensity to shop for fashion goods (FSP) in the context of Indian market. We believe this is the first study to jointly consider demographic and personality variables and their relationships with attitude towards fashion shopping. We adopt advanced Bayesian structural equation modelling technique to estimate the path coefficients and assess the strength of the relationships among these variables. Thus we make dual contribution of both adding to our general understanding of the consumer as it pertains to fashion shopping as well as gain insights into the large and growing Indian fashion goods market. Our results offer several insights and implications for managerial practice and theoretical advancement.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The global fashion industry is growing at a rapid pace and developing nations such as India are emerging as major contributors to the same. In such case, most academics and marketers are interested in the variables that influence fashion shopping. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of consumer demographic and personality characteristics on fashion shopping proneness (FSP) in India.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected from 561 respondents using mall intercept survey method. Hypothesized relationships were assessed using multiple regression and structural equation modelling.\nFindings: Traditional view that younger and female consumers are more fashion prone than older and male consumers is validated. However, demographics accounted for only 9 per cent of the variance in FSP while personality characteristics accounted for 46 per cent. Being agreeable, extroverted, open minded, and stable are all positively associated with fashion shopping.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study finds both personality dimensions and consumer demographics to influence FSP. As a limitation, the authors do not probe deep into the why and how of the mentioned relationships between personality and fashion buying.\nPractical implications: With respect to demographics, managers could target young females as the primary segment for fashion clothing but cannot ignore young males and older females. With respect to personality, managers can appeal to agreeable, extroverted, open-minded personalities by linking novelty, fun, relaxation, and recreation with fashion buying.\nOriginality/value: This is one of the first attempts that simultaneously investigates the effects of demographic and personality characteristics on fashion shopping behaviour in India.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
5S - a quality improvement tool for sustainable performance: literature review and directions
|
[
"Total quality management",
"Kaizen",
"Lean manufacturing",
"5S",
"Production improvement",
"Quality environment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The global marketplace has become highly competitive in the last few decades, thereby compelling the organizations for imbibing the challenge of continuous improvement for sustained customer satisfaction and organizational competitiveness (Singh et al., 2014). The ever increasing competition in the marketplace has been putting enormous pressures on organizations to continuously improve the quality of products and services for sustained organizational growth in order to enhance their position and reputation. This calls for attaining improved organizational performance by focusing on consistent quality improvements (QIs), cost optimization, enhancement in productivity, flexibility, safety and ensuring timely deliveries. Thus, the turbulent market-driven economy warrants the organizations to adopt the practices, programs or methods that facilitate continuous improvement in the organization (Patra et al., 2005).\n2. Lean manufacturing: In 1990s, Toyota Motor Company developed a concept of lean manufacturing after the Second World War, but its roots emerged from the early days of Ford Motor Company (Henry Ford). Lean is an approach for systematic identification and elimination of waste associated with manufacturing systems and services through continuous improvement by flowing the product or service at the pull of customer in pursuit of organizational sustainability (Nash et al., 2006; Radnor, 2011). Lean comprises of management philosophy with a set of tools aimed at eliminating waste, optimizing workflow, reducing cost and improving quality (Koning et al., 2006; Thawesaengskulthai, 2010). Lean manufacturing is made up of several components like 5S, kaizen, kanban, pull production, quick changeovers and VSM (Worley and Doolen, 2006; Mosadeghrad, 2013). Lean initiatives focus on workplace of organization or management.\n3. Principles of lean: Lean manufacturing is a philosophy of successfully tackling and eliminating waste in the manufacturing system. In modern manufacturing design, the deployment of lean manufacturing principles has been envisioned as life sustaining requirement in meeting global competition (Brayer and Walsh, 2002; Matt, 2008). Lean thinking concept encompasses the following five principles (Womack and Jones, 1996):\n4. Introduction to 5S: Japan despite being a small country with 0.3 percent landmass and 2.3 percent of population, has still emerged as the leader of manufacturing industries in the world due to its management tools and techniques (Hitomi, 2004). The Japanese manufacturing industries such as Honda, Toyota and Mitsubishi come in the list of top positions worldwide. It is a notable thing that Japanese not only achieve high level of productivity and profitability at home, but also gain success in the company's operating overseas (Hitomi, 2004). Japan possesses limited amount of natural resources such as oil and coal. In spite of this, the most plentiful resource responsible for its competitive edge, is its people.\n5. Elements of 5S: 5S or kaizen is a method used to diminish the slack hidden in the plants (Monden, 1998). 5S technique consists of five fundamental elements or arms which act as a foundation of a good production system. 5S concept is intended to organize, clean, standardized and maintain the discipline at workplace in pursuit of sustainable improvements in the productivity, efficiency cost optimization and reduction of waste in an organization (Osada, 1989; Marasinghe, 2012). Figure 2 represent the various elements of 5S represented as arms of 5S.\n6. 5S - an integral part of lean manufacturing: 5S technique is an essential pre-requisite for implementing lean in any organization (Lake, 2008). Jamian, Rahman, Deros, and Ismail (2012) has reported that 5S has emerged as the foundation for several management practices including lean manufacturing, TQM, TPM, just-in-time (JIT), quality management system, environmental management system, occupational health and safety management system and integrated management system (Bamber et al., 2000; Becker, 2001; Eocha, 2000; Pheng, 2001; Ahmed and Mohiuddin, 2005; Ahuja and Khamba, 2008a; Fliedner, 2008; Khanna, 2009; Teeravaraprug et al., 2011). In fact, implementation of 5S technique facilitates implementation of many tools of lean manufacturing (Cooper et al., 2007; Mehok, 2012).\n7. Relationship of 5S with other quality management initiatives: 7.1 Relation of 5S with ISO9001:2000\n8. Literature survey: From the toolbox of lean manufacturing, 5S is one of the precious tool which is mostly utilized by the various organizations. It is base concept of lean because it brings stability and keeps up improvement in a continuous way and become the first preference for many companies to start lean transformation with it. 5S practice focuses on the improvement of housekeeping which build a good environment as it can easily trace and eliminate the hazardous waste in the workplace (Nilipour and Jamshidian, 2005). Initially, 5S was introduced with first 3S (seiri, seiton and seiso) as a Japanese management system which received a lot of significance having an English translation of \"housekeeping\" (Suehiro, 1981). But in early 1980s Osada laid the foundation of 5S technique from starting to current model of 5S (Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu and Shitsuke). It is the method which increases the level of safety, health, productivity and acted as visual control method in 1990s (Shimbun, 1995).\n9. Barriers in 5S implementation: Meng Bo (2008) and Becker (2001) have highlighted that lack of leadership, non-involvement of employees and worse communication lines are the common barriers hindering the successful implementation of 5S programs. Grier (2008) has argued that resistance to change is a significant challenge in implementing and sustaining a 5S system. Many other researchers like Eocha (2000), Warwood and Knowles (2004), Ablanedo-Rosas et al. (2010) and Suarez-Barraza and Ramis-Pujol (2012) have identified the following barriers adversely affecting the organizational achievements through 5S programs during their research:\n10. Success factors in 5S implementation: Ikuma and Nahmens (2014) have observed that 5S initiatives should be integrated with organizational objectives across the entire organization for becoming a successful initiative. The other success factors for fruitful deployment of 5S initiatives in organizations include the following:\n11. Conclusions: The literature review reveals that 5S implementation leads to realization of remarkable results for the organizations. 5S approach can easily be applied in various organizations due to its simplicity and easy recognition. 5S a universal tool which provides huge benefits with no losses by holding improvement initiatives. This practice can be implemented mostly in every sector or organization like banking, industries, construction, mining and defense. It is an essential tool to compete the organization at global level. The successful implementations of 5S technique in any organization need participation of top to bottom management and training. It is important to have participation of every employee of the organization for its successful implementation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present the comprehensive literature review on 5S and suggest possible gaps from the point of view of researchers and practitioners. The manuscript presents the overview of 5S implementation and highlights the achievements realized from deployment of 5S initiatives for sustainable performance of organizations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper critically examines the literature on 5S, analyzes and reviews it systematically. The study highlights the critical barriers and success factors for sustainable 5S implementation in the organizations in the competitive world.\nFindings: 5S is an outstanding Japanese philosophy for the development of any type organization all over the world. This study bring out the concept of 5S, requirements for its holistic implementation, relationship with other lean tools, benefits, success factors and obstacles in 5S implementation. The significant contributions through 5S initiatives in the organization like production, quality, safety and effective utilization of workspace for the sustained organizational improvement have also been highlighted in the study.\nPractical implications: The literature on assortment of 5S technique has been so far very limited. The present paper reviews large number of research publications related to 5S to highlight the significance of 5S philosophy in the sustainable organizational improvement across the world. It foregrounds the approach advised by the various researchers, practitioners and appraises censoriously the reason behind the demand of 5S program in the organization. The needful steps and obstacles are also foreground for the effective implementation of 5S in the organization.\nOriginality/value: The paper presents a comprehensive review of literature publications in the area of 5S and their assortment to develop an understanding of the significance and implementation of 5S in the organizations. The paper will be helpful or useful to researchers, safety executives, development professionals and managers in the organizations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Combining faith and CSR: a paradigm of corporate sustainability
|
[
"Christianity",
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Competitive advantage"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: A firm is an open system, whereby its internal and external variables are constantly interacting with each other in a dynamic way. The interactions are shaping its organizational behaviors, outcomes and core approaches to the corporate social responsibility (CSR). The recent corporate governance failures at Pramalat, Enron, WorldCom and other entities indicate that the executives must now pay even more attention to assessing the likelihood of organizational sustainability from a strategic action. Compliance with the conventional accounting rules is simply insufficient. Firms need to do more to recover the confidence of different stakeholder groups. Not surprisingly, the strategic issues of CSR have received considerable academic and managerial attention in different contexts such as firm performance (McWilliams and Siegel, 2000; Zairi and Peters, 2002), law (Vallee, 2005) and business ethics (Robertson and Crittenden, 2004). Regulators have also taken some regulative interventions, for examples, the introduction of Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the commission of UK Higgs Report, for corporate reforms in order to regain the eroded trusts in the institutions of modern capitalism. Despite of these encouraging developments, the dominant consensus on what constitutes a firm's CSR in the diverse corporate world is far from conclusive. There are still difficult moral issues separating people with different religious adherences in the world geopolitical landscape of the twenty-first century. And, the acts of strategizing with values that underlie the CSR principles are different from having knowledge of them. This calls for a novel perspective that grounds the existing CSR literature on faith systems to uncover some hidden views, which might be seminal, in explaining corporate sustainability as there is sparse literature written on the area.This paper seeks to explore the Christian perspectives and then integrate them with the roles of CSR in explaining corporate sustainability. It has the following organization. Firstly, we carry out some related literature search on the CSR conceptions, corporate sustainability and Christian spirituality at workplace to develop the theoretical base of this paper. We also ask five corresponding CSR research questions. Then, we develop five interlocking principles of the Christian social responsibility that have potential influences on the CSR of modern business enterprises. The principles are the platforms that we use in the subsequent conceptualization of a faith-based CSR. These two later sections attempt to address collectively the five research questions asked. We discuss the utility and value-creating capability of the proposed faith-based CSR in handling some major CSR issues along with other implications of our works at the end. As the world of Christian and business are tightly knit, this paper may have developed unique perspectives from a believing system that can contribute to the areas of CSR.\n2 Theoretical framework: 2.1 CSR conceptions\n3 The faith-based views: 3.1 Honoring God\n4 The faith-based driven CSR: 4.1 Value-driven CSR\n5 Discussions and implications: We could reasonably concur that it will be challenging if our present generation refuses to consider the CSR in their resource allocations and strategizing initiatives. A consequence of this is that there would be hardly decent CSR practices left for future generation. The future generation, thus, may not be able to survive in a sea of changing values if there is no general consensus about what are the common standards of CSR. Morality is not merely a state of mind. Mere listening and understanding would not make values become part of managers' normal life unless they practice the values. This is a dilemma yet is a real fact. While there is a considerable merit with the tolerance approach in our quest to understand the CSR deeper, there is a danger with a mind that is so open until it cannot differentiate truth and error. We offer the following insights how the faith-based CSR can be approached in real world to handle some major CSR challenges.5.1 Corporate philanthropy\n6 Conclusions: Wisdom, guidance and godly character are essential traits to live up the faith-based CSR. The most important man-made moral laws even at times can and cannot do certain things. While they can show us what is right, they might not be capable of making people good. Stated differently, there is a difference between knowing and keeping the law. Managers often encounter conflicting stands on the CSR when the organizational internal systems and knowledge management are ambiguous. They may make wrong crucial CSR decisions or fail to act when necessary as they try to enforce idealized interpretations of what a firm's CSR should be. Their decisions have spin-off effects on the other organizational decisions either at individual, group or organization level. People cling to their principles for many different reasons. Our proposed faith-based CSR is inherently beneficial to business organizations though living up fully the principles that underlie the conception is a continuous process as it is not always feasible to label what is a perfect firm and CSR practice in this practical world. Regardless its relationship with the economic performance, the CSR is inherently seemed as having much more to do with both formation and sustainability of the firms. It has also been believed that the Christians' worldviews have led them to make responsible decisions that have shaped the fabric of economies, cultures, political landscapes and beliefs (Williams and Houck, 1978; Belanger and Mast, 1999). Nevertheless, we do think that discussing faiths is value based and sensitive. It often results in raging disagreements though the Christians make up a significant portion of the population of the world and developed nations. We are of the opinions that future research could probably be broadened to include other major faiths in a compare and contrast mode to examine how their worldviews lead their followers to make critical CSR decisions.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Engaging corporate social responsibility (CSR) is essential to attain corporate sustainability. This paper aims to take the CSR from the viewpoints of a believing system, Christianity in an attempt to bridge a gap in the existing literature.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Through related literature reviews, research questions asked and grounding in the Christians' sacred text, the author seek to explore the Christians' social responsibilities and their relatedness to the CSR.\nFindings: - This paper highlights the interlocking principles - honoring God, one's neighbor, God's creation, great commissions and eternality concept - that shape the Christians' fundamental approaches toward their social responsibilities. These collective faith driven principles would redefine the existing CSR conceptions in a refined form that the author call a faith-based CSR.\nPractical implications: - The paper discusses the applications of the faith-based CSR in the areas of corporate philanthropy, environmental preservation and social reporting. The faith-based CSR is inherently beneficial to the firms and their stakeholders. It refines the organizational paradigms on the business competition, and uncovers a corporate sustainability paradigm otherwise hidden to managers and scholars.\nOriginality/value: - The Christians have significant presence in both developed and emerging nations. Their worldviews on the social responsibility, consequently, would have influenced the CSR practices of firms. Given the scant attentions paid to explore the intersection between a believing system and the business ethics, this paper can make a unique contribution to the area of CSR literature.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
A cultural paradox in authority-based advertising
|
[
"Advertising",
"Cross‐cultural studies",
"Young adults",
"South Korea",
"Thailand",
"United States of America"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Recent studies have examined the role of culture in shaping responses to persuasive techniques used in global advertising (Aaker and Lee, 2001; Albers-Miller and Gelb, 1996; Fam and Grohs, 2007; Han and Shavitt, 1994; Okazaki and Mueller, 2007). For example, members of collectivistic cultures are more likely to be persuaded by group benefits than individual benefits (Han and Shavitt, 1994) and by prevention goal-laden messages than promotion goal-laden messages (Aaker and Lee, 2001). In a content analysis of prints ads across 11 countries, Albers-Miller and Gelb (1996) found that the type of advertising appeals used in a given country is matched to Hofstede's (1980) dimensions of the culture. In particular, the use of status appeals (e.g. social status, power, and dominance to seek compliance) was found to be positively correlated with Hofstede's power distance scores. The general conclusion from these studies is that the more culturally congruent ad appeals are, the more persuasive they will be. As such, prevailing wisdom in cross-cultural persuasion research holds that the congruity between a culture's values and persuasion technique used should determine the effectiveness of an influence attempt (\"value congruity hypothesis\").\nBackground and conceptual development: Authority and power distance\nStudy 1: Overview\nStudy 2: To test the generality of the paradoxical reverse authority effects found in Study 1, we gathered additional data from Thailand. Thailand and Korea are culturally similar in many respects. Both can be classified broadly as an Asian culture; both have similar positions on four of five cultural dimensions (Hofstede, 1980), including high collectivism and high power distance. Interestingly, the two countries not only share similar traditional cultural values, but also have experienced similar social events in recent history.Hierarchical rigidity is a salient cultural characteristic of Thai culture (Cooper, 1991) with deep historical roots. In Thailand, people pay high respect to the king and royal family. The Thai monarchy was heavily influenced by the Khmer culture, which was based on the concept of a sacred god-king. Profound hierarchical social arrangements have heavily influenced Thai culture (Cooper, 1991). This cultural value has an impact on marketing and advertising. For instance, status appeals have been widely used in Thai advertisements (Chirapravati, 1996). As a consequence, a positive impact of authority appeals could be expected among Thai consumers in general. However, for the younger generation of Thai consumers, this might not hold.Recent major events in Thailand cast doubts on the traditional values of power distance and collectivism. For example, as in Korea, the Asian economic crisis of 1997 caused a tremendous number of layoffs in Thailand (Likitkijsomboon, 2000). Although the concept of life-employment may not have been as well-established in Thailand as in Japan, workers seem to cling to the notion that as long as one works hard for an organization, one can reasonably expect the organization to reciprocate. This assumption has led to the erosion of trust in those who hold positions of power and authority. In addition, local governments are notorious for corruption (Rohr, 2004). Trust in government authorities is thus likely to decrease. As a consequence, we can expect social change in the acceptance of power distance. Moreover, this shift may result in a reverse authority effect among young consumers. Thus, we propose that:H2. There is a reverse authority effect among young Thai consumers such that the higher the level of authority in an ad, the less favorable consumer attitudes (ad and brand) will be, and the lower the purchase intentions will be.Method\nConclusion: General discussion\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine an important exception to the \"value congruity hypothesis,\" which holds that advertising should be more effective when it is congruent with cultural values. It documents a paradoxical \"reverse authority effect\" among young adult consumers in traditionally high power distance (PD) countries.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Two experiments were conducted using data from traditionally high (South Korea in Study 1, Thailand in Study 2) and low (USA in Study 1) PD countries. Data are analyzed by variance analyses (multivariate analysis of covariance, analyses of variance) and regression.\nFindings: - Results show a reverse authority effect in Korea and attenuation of this effect in the USA (Study 1). Results also show a reverse authority effect in Thailand (Study 2), suggesting the generality of the effect across young consumers in traditionally high PD countries. It appears that a shift away from traditional cultural values has occurred in the course of modernization, as Western ideology gains popularity among young adult consumers in Eastern countries.\nPractical implications: - Findings suggest that traditional national culture alone is not a good predictor of responses to authority-based ads. Rather, the extent to which a segment embraces or rejects traditional cultural values is more relevant.\nOriginality/value: - This paper documents a notable exception to the value congruity hypothesis, i.e. a negative effect of authority-based ads among young consumers in high PD cultures. It extends prior research and has implications for both theory and practice in global advertising.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
From breaking-ice to breaking-out: integration as an opportunity creation process
|
[
"Immigrants",
"Entrepreneurial opportunity",
"Integration process",
"Opportunity creation process",
"Acculturation theory",
"Sweden",
"Breaking-in",
"Breaking-out",
"Breaking-ice"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The economic and social integration of immigrants in the new host country is important because of the increased global migration, the challenges of maintaining social cohesion between immigrants' home and host countries (Van Oudenhoven and Ward, 2013) and the rise of increasing gaps in opinions about people with different backgrounds (e.g. Statham, 2016a). Thus, immigrants experience disadvantages in the new host country because of inequalities and social segregation which results in their discrimination in the labor market and isolation from the local community (e.g. Slavnic, 2012; Griffin-El and Olabisi, 2018).\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 Immigrants' integration\n3. Research methodology: In order to understand immigrants' integration, we chose an inductive case study of four immigrant entrepreneurs based in Sweden and carried out 60 interviews (Miles and Huberman, 1984). The inductive case study method is useful for this purpose since it considers the influencing actors and their context according to the phenomenon being investigated (Gioia et al., 2013). Following Pratt (2009) and Miles and Huberman (1984), an inductive case study method helps in identifying key themes by employing a content analysis strategy for theory-building purposes. The case study also followed a process-oriented approach (Coviello and Jones, 2004; Langley, 1999) to reconstruct the integration and opportunity creation processes. The unit of analysis was the opportunity creation process which evolves through interactions between immigrant entrepreneurs and different actors in the host country in line with Dimov (2007, 2011).\n4. Results: The model that emerged is shown in Figure 2. We found evidence that immigrant entrepreneurs accomplish economic and social integration in the local community when they engage in three phases - breaking-ice, breaking-in and breaking-out. These phases contain entrepreneurial actions that are nurtured by the immigrant entrepreneurs in the four cases. Table II presents the case evidence for each element in the data structure.\n5. Overview of the model: Research on integration studies often discuss the economic and social dimension of immigrants integration to their societies separately, this study proposes an inductive model of economic and social integration as an opportunity creation process with three ongoing and iterative phases (see Figure 2): the breaking-ice phase, where immigrants trigger an entrepreneurial idea to overcome migrant disadvantages, the breaking-in phase, where immigrants articulate an entrepreneurial idea by bonding with the ethnic community, and the breaking-out phase, where immigrants reorient the entrepreneurial idea by desegregating locally. These phases show that the resulting economic and social integration to the local community occurs as a result of an acculturation agency. By incorporating social situational antecedents of immigrant entrepreneurs, the model offers an account of individual agency toward integration. The model captures \"how\" individual agency generates energy and support to move from a segregated position toward an integrated position in the local society. As follows, we elaborate on these phases by relating them to literature on acculturation, breaking and opportunity creation.\n6. Conclusions: The aim of this paper is to contribute to the ongoing debate about immigrants' economic and social integration into their local society through immigrant entrepreneurship. This paper showed that the integration or acculturation process of immigrant entrepreneurs took place as they triggered, articulated and reoriented their entrepreneurial ideas in the breaking-ice, breaking-in and breaking-out phases. The suggested model and its phases contribute to the emerging work on acculturation and breaking strategies in the context of opportunity creation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to conduct an inductive case study to understand how the opportunity creation process leads to integration.\nDesign/methodology/approach: It examines four cases of immigrant entrepreneurs of Cameroonian, Lebanese, Mexican and Assyrian origins who founded their businesses in Sweden. The study relies on process-oriented theory building and develops an inductive model of integration as an opportunity creation process.\nFindings: The suggested model shows immigrants' acculturation into the host society via three successive phases: breaking-ice, breaking-in and breaking-out. In the breaking-ice phase, immigrants trigger entrepreneurial ideas to overcome the disadvantages that they face as immigrants in the host country. In the breaking-in phase, immigrants articulate their entrepreneurial ideas by bonding with the ethnic community. In the breaking-out phase, the immigrants reorient their entrepreneurial ideas by desegregating them locally. The paper concludes by elaborating theoretical and practical implications of the research.\nOriginality/value: Immigrants act when they are socially excluded and discriminated in the labor market by developing business ideas and becoming entrepreneurs. By practicing the new language and accommodating native customers' preferences, immigrants reorient their entrepreneurial ideas. The immigrants tailor their ideas to suit their new customers by strengthening their sense of belonging to the local community.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A view from the field: the process of improving equitable systems leadership
|
[
"Improvement",
"Educational administration",
"Equitable leadership",
"Principal supervision",
"School districts"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Many district offices in the USA are shifting their role from monitoring compliance to supporting instructional improvement (Honig et al., 2010; Rigby and Hall, 2015). This change is particularly evident in the role of the principal supervisor (PS) whose role historically was to evaluate principals, and is changing to support principals' instructional leadership through visiting schools, coaching, and providing other professional development (Corcoran et al., 2013; Rigby and Hall, 2015). However, these are emerging practices, and we know little about what PSs actually do within these broad categories of work, or which of their actions are more likely to lead toward principal improvement as instructional leaders (Honig, 2012).\nRelevant literature: This project sits at the intersection of two main bodies of literature: research on principal supervision and on leadership practices focused on racial equity. We highlight systems-level research in both of these fields. We argue that while there is research focused on how PSs support principals as instructional leaders and what equity-focused leadership looks like at the school level, research has not yet examined how principal supervision and other systems leadership can support principals districtwide in equitable leadership practice.\nStudy background: This project emerged out of a course in a three-year EdD program at the University of Washington, Leadership for Learning. In the final year of the program, candidates chose to participate in a year-long topical seminar, in this case one focused on district-level principal support and development. The six candidates in the seminar developed research projects aimed at investigating problems of practice, or persistent problems within everyday educational practice (Coburn and Penuel, 2016), in three of their districts around principal support and development. The course was anchored in supporting culturally responsive school leadership (Khalifa et al., 2016), and each problem of practice was viewed through that lens.\nConceptual frame: To conceptualize equitable leadership at the systems level, we build on Ishimaru and Galloway's (2014) framework for equitable leadership practice at schools. As the authors describe in their related 2017 piece, the field of educational leadership lacks tools to measure practice, especially leadership for equity (p. 3). Their framework, which includes ten aspirational practices as well as descriptions of how each of those practices are taken up with more or less equity across three aspects of practice (or \"drivers,\" more below), is especially useful for practitioners. The framework describes leading for equity as existing on a continuum rather than as a static assessment; it values small steps while also providing clear goals to work toward ideal equitable practices.\nData sources and methods: The data for this analysis were gathered in the 2017-2018 school year in the context of the course's EdD candidates' projects. There were three project teams, and each team had a candidate who was employed by the district of study. To collect these data, our seminar visited the three focal districts: Districts A, B and C. The candidate who worked at the district organized our visit: they set up interviews and focus groups with principals and district leaders and provided context for the visit.\nFindings: For each district, we first provide a brief background and describe the focus problem of practice. Then, a table summarizes each district's level of engagement with the drivers along Practices 2 and 4, followed by a narrative utilizing illustrative quotations and examples that are representative of the overall findings.\nDiscussion: In this cross-case analysis of three school districts' principal supervision leadership, we found that the districts engaged in systems-level equitable leadership practices to varying degrees across the two practices and drivers. While the data from each district showed some equitable practices, all three were in different beginning stages of this work. As in previous studies on equitable leadership practices, our findings suggest that framing the work as about equity (Driver 1) was essential for the other dimensions of leadership actions to take hold (Khalifa et al., 2016; Rigby and Tredway, 2015). In this section we compare and discuss the districts' engagement with framing, and explicate the contributions of this study to the current literature and theory of systems leadership for equity.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Research on principal supervisors (PSs) is an emerging field, and principal supervision for racial equity has not yet been studied or theorized. Conducted in partnership with practicing district leaders, the purpose of this paper is to examine current PS leadership in three districts at various points of engagement in equitable leadership practices and set forth a framework for conceptualizing systems equitable leadership practice.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This collaborative study emerged from an EdD course project in which groups of practitioner-scholars identified and collected qualitative interview, survey and artifact data about problems of practice in their districts. University researchers supported data collection and conducted analyses across settings, building on Ishimaru and Galloway's (2014) equitable leadership practices framework.\nFindings: Equitable PS leadership practices were variable. No district engaged with \"proficiency\" across all drivers of equitable leadership practice, but the district that engaged in equitable PS practices most deeply framed the work of schooling as a race-explicit endeavor, suggesting that framing is a fundamental driver.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper builds on PS and equity-focused leadership research by adding a systems-level equity focus.\nPractical implications: Findings suggest that districts should focus on equity framing as the foundation for principal support and development.\nOriginality/value: This researcher/practitioner-scholar collaboration shows how practitioner-scholars provide focus and expertise to the field unavailable to traditional researchers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Employee engagement antecedents and consequences in Vietnamese businesses
|
[
"Engagement",
"Employee engagement",
"HRD",
"Vietnamese businesses",
"Integrative literature review"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Business organizations are on a constant path to achieve excellence via improved effectiveness and performance (Thor and Johnson, 2011). In essence, human resources play a critical role in determining the success or failure of an organization be it profit or non-profit, service or manufacturing or big or small. Human resources are, therefore, considered indispensable capital for businesses. Increasing such human capital has become the norm for all organizations, especially in the private sector (World Economic Forum, 2015).\nPurpose: The primary purpose of this review is to synthesize the EE antecedents and consequences in global research and to explore those in the Vietnamese business context. The three research objectives are as follows:\nMethods: To accomplish the abovementioned objectives, a blended review of the literature was adopted. First, the antecedents and consequences of EE in global research were identified by applying the integrative review method (Torraco, 2005; Yorks, 2008). Based on the Vietnamese business context, specific variables from the identified antecedents and consequences were selected by applying a narrative review method (Onwuegbuzie and Frels, 2016).\nFindings from literature review: A 3 x 3 finding framework was presented: EE antecedents (three clusters) and EE consequences (three clusters).\nEmployee engagement antecedents: Internal environment\nConsequences of employee engagement: Intra-role behaviors\nSituating employee engagement in Vietnamese businesses: The review on EE as mediation in the Vietnamese business setting was conducted with a view to situating the general findings in the local context. Therefore, relevant constructs were selected, i.e. two antecedents (organizational learning and perceived organizational support) and three consequences (organizational citizenship behavior, turnover intention, and discretionary effort). As a result, 14 publications were qualified for analysis covering the following themes.\nDiscussion: General findings\nImplications: Research implications\nConclusion: Three conclusions were drawn from the findings. First, the integrative review demonstrated three EE antecedent clusters (internal environment, job-related and employee-related factors) and three consequence clusters (intra-role behaviors, extra-role behaviors and personal development and growth). Second, the narrative review about EE in Vietnam revealed the drivers, the consequences of EE and similar concepts being studied in Vietnam. Third, EE was proposed after the review to mediate between OL and support and employee outcomes in Vietnamese businesses. Although EE has been rigorously researched in global scholarship, there is room for exploring it in other contexts including Vietnam. It is hoped that this study will add to discussion amongst academics and practitioners in Vietnam and contribute to informing the direction of future research and practice aimed at building and sustaining EE.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the antecedents and consequences of employee engagement (EE) in global research and Vietnamese business context.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This review was conducted in the following order: an integrative review for garnering drivers and outcomes of EE in global research, followed by a narrative review for selecting variables relevant to Vietnamese businesses.\nFindings: In EE global research, a 3 x 3 findings framework was devised. Three antecedent clusters included the internal environment, job-related and employee-related factors. EE resulted in three outcome clusters: intra-role behaviors, extra-role behaviors and personal development and growth. In Vietnamese businesses, few studies existed on organizational learning and organizational support as EE antecedents, whereas turnover intention was examined the most as an EE outcome.\nResearch limitations/implications: The search was limited to EE-related peer-reviewed articles in Business Source Complete and Google Scholar. Literature on Vietnam EE was restricted to ProQuest Dissertations and Theses and Google Scholar because of a lack of literature availability on this topic in Business Source Complete.\nPractical implications: Knowing that leadership, HR practices and working environment are important antecedents of EE in Vietnam (Table II) would prompt enterprise leaders and managers to improve the company's conditions for engaging its employees. This is an important finding because Vietnamese businesses are suffering increasing turnover. Creating favorable organizational support evidenced via career growth opportunities, pay and benefits, company culture, job fit and effective management will stimulate employees to stay and engage.\nOriginality/value: This study emphasizes the organizational and employee factors in EE research and calls for combined research application to inform EE in Vietnamese businesses, thus providing ground for human resource development researchers and practitioners in their respective work.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Modelling company generic production capabilities in process industries: A configuration approach
|
[
"Manufacturing strategy",
"Grounded theory",
"Configuration modelling",
"Process industries"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Background and introduction: The process industries span multiple industrial sectors and constitutes a substantial part of the entire manufacturing industries. One difference between companies in the process industries and those in other manufacturing industries is that the products supplied to them and delivered from them are materials or ingredients rather than components or assembled products (Flapper et al., 2002; Frishammar et al., 2012; Lager et al., 2013). As defined in this study, the process industries includes petrochemicals and chemicals, food and beverages, mining and metals, mineral and materials, pharmaceuticals, pulp and paper, and steel and utilities. A further introduction and definition of this cluster of industries is presented in Section 2.\n2. A frame of reference: 2.1 The \"family\" of process industries\n3. Research design and methodological considerations: Weick (1989) gave an interesting perspective on the theorising process and remarked that theorists often write trivial theories because their process of theory construction is hemmed in by methodological strictures that favour validation rather than usefulness, which is a posture also supported by Schmenner et al. (2009). When a theory is nascent or intermediate, the research approach recommended by Edmondson and McManus (2007) guided this study and the setup of the research team:Before collecting extensive quantitative data, the researcher wants to be confident that the key hypotheses are sensible and likely to be supported. This requires extensive conceptual work to develop the ideas carefully, obtaining considerable feedback from others, and refining the predictions before data collection.\n4. The development of the variables and two illustrative mini-cases: 4.1 Incoming material and key raw material-related production variables (A)\n5. Discussion and research outlook: In the review of the number of variables in the model, it was not only considered if additional new variables should be added but also if some of the existing variables ought to be deleted. The issue is related to the question of \"comprehensiveness\" in theoretical models (have we included all possible variables) and the question of \"parsimony\" (have we included too many)? The comments from the respondents in the mini-cases encouraged us not to remove any variables at this stage. This could be further supported by Whetten (1989), who recognises that, over time, the ideas will be refined, and it is then easier to delete invalid or unnecessary elements than it is to justify additions. Referring to Table AI, and the large number of references not originating from operations management journals but other sources, it is concluded that search by keywords and \"snowballing\" should not be replaced by search by journals, but that they are necessary complementary activities. It must be observed that the estimated origin of each variable sometimes is difficult to trace. However, the large number of variables estimated to originate from the sources \"authors\" and \"respondents\" is interesting to observe and makes further empirical research with industry professionals from the process industries an attractive endeavour to pursue.\n6. Managerial implications: The proposed configuration model is intended to be used for further company discussions of individual variables, how individual variables or group of variables interact and for the creation of a company platform to be used in the further development of manufacturing strategies. So far, the conceptual model has only been tested in two exploratory mini-cases and, as such, only as a positioning of the material transformation system on individual variables. However, it is argued that the model can already be deployed, and, as previously described, in profiling the production system in a company context, which can stimulate discussions and hopefully contribute to a better precision in actions. Most importantly, it must be noted that, when such an analysis is conducted, the proposed set of variables can be reviewed from two different perspectives. First, they can be reviewed from a company's process-manufacturing perspective in the initial development of a manufacturing strategy. Second, they can be reviewed from a product-marketing perspective. An iterative combined outcome of both perspectives may aid in the development of a more balanced manufacturing and business strategy.\n7. Conclusions: In an exploratory study in the family of the process industries, focussing on company material transformation systems and generic production capabilities, a configuration model was developed. The configuration model included 31 variables related to incoming materials, the transformation process, and outgoing products. This account provided a preliminary definition for each variable and suggestions for related tentative measures and scales. Returning to the research question for this study, the configuration model put forward an effort to build a new theory rather than to test an existing one. Rather than a conclusion from empirical research, the conceptual model should be regarded as this study's theoretical contribution to be validated in further research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: In the process industries, it is essential to have a well-articulated manufacturing strategy within companies. However, to facilitate manufacturing strategy development, it is important to start with a good characterisation of the material transformation system and company production capabilities. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A grounded theory approach, with inspiration from configuration modelling, attempted to characterize the material transformation system as a set of variables. The variable development was based on a literature review and the knowledge base of five industry experts. Two exploratory mini-case studies were carried out, primarily to illustrate the use of the model, but additionally to test its industrial usability.\nFindings: A set of 31 variables was developed, and related measures and scales were tentatively defined. Two mini-cases supported the usability of the model. The model, focussing on company generic process capabilities, is a conceptual taxonomy and the study's theoretical contribution.\nResearch limitations/implications: The lucidity of the definitions and scales for the variables are open to further refinement, and the limited discussions of variable relationships in this study are addressed in an agenda for further research.\nPractical implications: The model can be deployed as a facilitative instrument in the analysis of company material transformation systems and may serve as a platform in further discussions on companies' strategy development.\nOriginality/value: The model is a new instrument for analysing company generic process capabilities and an effort to build new theory rather than to test an existing one.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Integrating sustainability in higher planning education through international cooperation: Assessment of a pedagogical model and learning outcomes from the students' perspective
|
[
"Learning outcomes",
"Education for sustainable development",
"Higher planning education",
"Pedagogical model",
"Students’ perspective"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Recognition that the world is becoming increasingly urban and that cities are facing a complex web of different development challenges stemming from climate change, migration, technological development and environmental degradation, highlights the challenges set before the sustainability of urban development (UN, 2012). As the proponents of urban development deal with these requirements, higher educational institutions (HEI) around the world are preparing the next generations of students to respond to these great economical, societal and environmental challenges with more sustainable solutions. International agendas, such as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UN, 2015), the New Urban Agenda (NUA) (UN HABITAT, 2016) or the Urban Agenda for the European Union (EU, 2016) have emphasized the need for sustainable urban development. While the overall objective is to foster great societal transformation and enhance transformative knowledge within society, HEIs play a crucial role in promoting education for sustainable development (ESD) (Bina et al., 2016; UNESCO, 2005). Higher education programs in urban studies, planning and management can become promoters and educators of students as \"change agents\" to act and influence practice toward more sustainable urban development by facilitating transformative learning (TL) processes. Despite the Decade of ESD propagated by UNESCO, and increasing awareness of the relevance of sustainability, the great transformation still has a long way to go (WBGU, 2011, 2014). In particular, urban planning curricula across the globe have been reluctant to integrate sustainability and interdisciplinarity (UNESCO, 2014a, 2014b).\n2. Integrating sustainability in higher planning education: Sustainable development is defined as a dynamic concept with the objective of improving the quality of life by addressing core values and mechanisms related to economic (e.g. poverty alleviation), social (e.g. reduce inequalities) and environmental (e.g. fight global warming) aspects (UN-DESD, 2004-2014). The aim of ESD is to enable students to understand these problems and contribute to solution efforts (Barth et al., 2016; Wiek et al., 2011). ESD incorporates key issues of sustainability in teaching and learning and includes innovative participatory learning processes and learning methods that empower and motivate students to undertake sustainable development activities (UNESCO, 2011, p. 8). It promotes a holistic and transformative approach, away from teaching toward learning. The learning objectives of ESD include cognitive, socio-emotional and behavioral aspects, with the aim to create and change values, attitudes and awareness, and to develop the ability to solve concrete sustainability problems within the complexity, uncertainty and divergence of norms and values (Mogensen and Schnack, 2010; Rieckmann, 2011; Schneidewind et al., 2016) through transformative knowledge. This calls for the integration of specific learning content such as climate change, disaster risk management (DRM), consumption and production, poverty reduction, as well as learner-centered and action-oriented pedagogy and collaborative LE. Such approaches aim to foster core competences such as systemic thinking, anticipatory, normative, strategic, and interpersonal competences, which are needed to guide and advance the great societal transformation toward sustainability (UNESCO, 2017; Barth et al., 2016; Wiek et al., 2011). Only a few assessments have been conducted, however, targeting possible changes in students' perception, attitudes and behavior (Barth and Timm, 2011), in spite of the importance for HEI to assess LO. HEI have the capacity to test and introduce novelties, to adapt and advance, and when it is relevant to monitor, evaluate and \"justify\" the introduction of holistic and transformational education that addresses learning content and outcomes, pedagogy and the learning environment (UNESCO, 2017, p. 7). Here the PM, learning environment and LO will be assessed from the students' perspective.\n3. Approach and methodology: Assessing ESD in HPE requires attention to multiple levels (UNESCO, 2017, p. 56). In this paper, the PM (i.e. teaching and learning approach), learning environment and the LO of two international joint studios were assessed from the students' perspective. To provide evidence of the impact of the TL experience on individual LO as well as on the PM, surveys were conducted with students who participated in workshops, which were part of the joint studios that were conducted as international cooperation in 2015 and 2017 in Belgrade, Serbia. Two types of questionnaires were developed:\n4. Two case studies: For the assessment, two case studies (three programs) were selected in Germany and Serbia: the Urban Management Program (Technical University of Berlin), the Integrated Urbanism and Sustainable Design Program (University of Stuttgart) and the Integrated Urbanism Program (University of Belgrade). Over the past four years, the three programs have developed a learner-centered, action-oriented and collaborative learning approach by exposing students to concrete experiences in real-world projects running for a semester - international joint studios (Fokdal and Zehner, 2016; Maruna et al., 2018). The TL experience within those joint studios was facilitated predominantly through international workshops in collaboration with local actors and experts. The two international workshops held in 2015 and 2017 were designed to explore the capacity and reach of an innovative teaching and learning approach toward integrating ESD into HPE, promoting TL and shaping future generations of urban planners. While the first international workshop was funded by German development cooperation (Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit - GIZ), the second was conducted with funds from the European Union under the ERASMUS program.\n5. Assessment of the pedagogical model and learning outcomes from the students' perspective: Due to the municipalities selected in each of the workshops, students were exposed to the specific features and complexity of the local context and this provided an interesting learning environment that directly related the learning content of DRM and the SDGs to the respective local contexts. In addition to economic transition and democratic changes, Serbian municipalities are faced with various issues such as demographic ageing, poverty, urban sprawl, informal development and the usurpation of public land, environmental pollution, risk of flooding, influx of migrants on top of the unresolved issue of refugees and internally displaced persons from the 1990s, transformations in urban governance, and more.\n6. Conclusion: Despite the fact that TL experiences have been on the HPE agenda for decades in some countries, it is a novelty in others. The PM presented here, developed between three different urban master's programs in Germany and Belgrade, is a way to bridge that gap through international cooperation. It aims at jointly developing an international exchange that pushes institutional barriers (in both contexts) and facilitates TL experiences that enhance students' transformative knowledge, skills and values toward a more sustainable urban development.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to supplement existing research on a joint approach to integrate sustainability into higher planning education (HPE) by facilitating an international transformative learning process. It looks at three different urban master's programs in Serbia (Belgrade) and Germany (Berlin and Stuttgart).\nDesign/methodology/approach: In this paper, students' assessments of the pedagogical model, individual learning outcomes and the long-term value of the pedagogical model in respect of key competences for sustainability are presented and discussed. Basic assumptions of the study include that assessment from the students' perspective can provide feedback on the transformational learning experience with the aim of improving the experience and thus learning outcomes; help identify limitations and target specific areas for improvement in the pedagogical model; and improve the evaluation of effectiveness in developing knowledge and skills for sustainability in HPE.\nFindings: The paper provides evidence that a learner-centered and action-oriented approach, as well as a global dialogue among peers from different backgrounds and nationalities, is an effective way to educate future generations of urban planners to become \"change agents\" for societal transformation toward a more sustainable future within their respective contexts.\nOriginality/value: The paper is a supplement to the existing research on educational initiatives that attempts to integrate sustainability into the curricula, especially of urban-related programs; showcases outcomes of the pedagogical model(s) for sustainable development applied, especially when addressing the competences of students working in developing, transitional and developed countries or different geographic contexts; and shows long-term learning outcomes after the students move into work practice.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Do land transfers to international investors contribute to employment generation and local food security? : Evidence from Oromia Region, Ethiopia
|
[
"Africa",
"Ethiopia",
"Food security",
"Technology transfer",
"Propensity scores matching"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Countries in the global south have recently leased out 227 million hectares of land to international investors (Oxfam, 2011). African countries have leased out an area as large as 4.8 per cent of the continent's total agricultural area (approximately equivalent to the area of Kenya) to international investors. Ethiopia has transferred 2.4 million hectares of land to international investors, and is only behind Sudan in terms of the amount of land leased to international investors in Africa (Anseeuw et al., 2012).\n2. Investment in land: does it bring \"win-win\" outcomes?: The major motive of international investors in agriculture is to maximize their profit, while the interest of host country governments is to fulfil the food security demands of their people. Striking an optimum balance between these competing societal needs in both investor and host countries is, therefore, the essence of win-win outcome for both parties. This should be a special consideration in low-income countries of the developing world where the overwhelming majority of the people depend on land to survive. More importantly, land is a very essential resource that needs to be effectively used to improve the socio-economic status of farmers. And when land is to be leased out to international investors, the benefit of the local people should not be compromised.\n3. Technology transfer from large-scale farms: Deininger and Byerlee (2012) write that Asian countries have become successful in their economic development due to their focus on smallholder agriculture through the Green Revolution, indicating that increasing gains in productivity of smallholders will favour economic growth, employment creation, and poverty reduction. The success of Asian countries highlights the extent to which smallholder agriculture is instrumental in economic growth and poverty reduction. Currently, however, countries in SSA appear to favour investments in large-scale agriculture. This has emanated from the fact that smallholder-based efforts to improve productivity have achieved very little so far in SSA. More importantly, \"the apparent success of Brazil in establishing a vibrant agricultural sector based on much larger farms has led some countries to view the development of large-scale mechanized farming as the path to agricultural modernization\" (Deininger and Byerlee, 2012, p. 2).\n4. Study area, data and methodology: 4.1. Study area\n5. Results and discussion: 5.1. Descriptive statistics\n6. Conclusions: In developing countries such as Ethiopia, investment in agriculture is urgently needed to reduce poverty and improve food security. However, whether large-scale foreign private investments in land would benefit host countries has been a concern for researchers and policymakers. Findings in the study area reveal that the employment benefits accrued by local communities are rather temporal and marginal. There is also competition over land and water, which has pushed farmers into peripheries, leaving some to reduce their livestock and look for rather inefficient share-cropping arrangements with neighbouring smallholder farmers. The fact that the investor in the study area has claimed all areas of the plains and has denied access to water points and grazing lands by the community members has exacerbated the food insecurity situation of the people.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Like many countries in the developing world, Ethiopia has leased out a huge amount of land to foreign investors. However, empirical evidence on the contribution of international investments to employment generation and food security is limited. The purpose of this paper is to examine the contribution of large-scale farms to local-level food security in Bako Tibe District, Oromia Region.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Primary data were collected from 200 randomly selected households from two purposefully selected villages in the district. Secondary data were collected from government offices and the literature. Propensity score matching was used to match households based on observable characteristics. Using the World Food Programme (WFP) approach, the food consumption score (FCS) of households was calculated. Finally, the Average Treatment effect for the Treated was determined.\nFindings: Findings indicate that foreign land deals increase the odds of households falling into food insecurity and that the employment opportunities are both temporal and marginal. Furthermore, these land deals result in a decline of households' FCS and thus have a negative effect on households' food security.\nResearch limitations/implications: The result is based on a case study which is not generalizable to the whole of Ethiopia.\nPractical implications: The result implies that future endeavours should resort to substantial changes in the principles of investment as well as the design and enforcement of contracts on land transfers so that international investors can commit to objectives beyond private profit.\nOriginality/value: It examines the effect of large-scale land transfers commonly termed as land grabbing on local food security. The paper makes an important contribution to the current policy debates regarding land grabbing in Ethiopia as research about the contribution of land deals to the food security is limited.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Parallel methods for the generation of partitioned inverted files
|
[
"Information retrieval",
"Databases",
"Parallel programming"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The generation of inverted indexes for text databases is a computationally intensive process that requires the exclusive use of processing resources for long periods. The following considers techniques that could be used in order to speed up the generation of the initial inverted file. The research described in this paper is part of an overall effort to understand and quantify the effects that differing partitioning methods for inverted files in parallel information retrieval (IR) systems have on the performance of indexing, search, passage retrieval and index update (MacFarlane, 2000). Two types of partitioning methods are investigated: term identifier (TermId) partitioning and document identifier (DocId) partitioning a partition is defined as the logical distribution of the inverted file. TermId partitioning is a type of partitioning which distributes each word to a single partition, while DocId partitioning distributes each document to a single partition. These partitions are fragmented across physical disks. A fuller discussion of these partitioning methods can be found in Jeong and Omiecinski (1995) and MacFarlane et al. (1997) and an example can be found in Appendix 1. Two types of index build methods are used: local and distributed. With local build, documents are kept on a local disk and analysis is done on that local disk only (Hawking, 1997): this method is applicable to DocId partitioning only. The distributed build method works by distributing the documents to nodes from a single disk. Section 2 describes a re-configurable process topology used to create different types of partitioned inverted files. Sections 3 and 4 describe the individual components of this process topology, while the indexing methodology used for the experiments is outlined in Section 5. The hardware used for the experiments is described in Section 6 while the data used in the experiments is described in Section 7. In Sections 8 and 9 we describe some results on build methods using DocId partitioning and TermId partitioning, respectively, concluding in Section 10 by comparing and contrasting the results. We provide a glossary of terms at the end.\n2 Indexing topologies: Our requirement for indexing topologies is to be able to support both partitioning methods under consideration as well as the two build strategies. The components of the topology must be reconfigurable in order to create different build types and numbers of inverted file partitions using different process combinations. Figure 1 shows examples of both types of builds using the DocId partitioning method, together with process to processor mapping examples.The local build method for parallel indexing is a very simple topology requiring little communication (Figure 1(a)). Each indexer node runs independently with no need for communication between them (the function of the indexer is described below). This form of build is applicable to DocId only. The distributed build method uses the process farm paradigm (Bowler et al., 1989) and an example of the one proposed for indexing is shown in Figure 1(b). The structure in the example consists of a farmer and n worker processes whose function is described below. Figure 1 shows the contrast in the build methods particularly with regard to the distribution of text to be indexed. The difference between the two methods is that text is kept locally when the local build method is used, and kept centrally on a single disk when distributed build is used (see Appendix 2 for an example of how this works). We use local build where a given collection could not be physically placed on a single disk (e.g. VLC2/WT100 g).Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages, and we leave the detailed discussion of such until later. The issue of communication is important here. It can be seen from both the diagrams and the descriptions above that some topologies will require a great deal more network resource than others. For example, distributed build methods will require more communication than local build indexing in order to distribute text. Figure 2 shows an index topology example for TermId partitioning.\n3 Distributed build topology components: In this section we describe the functions of the farmer, worker and global merge parallel processes. Note that there is only one farmer processor, and a number of worker processes (which become global merge processes in TermId). Our reason for using this method is that it allows us to automatically distribute text to nodes: it has the disadvantage in that the method is more communication intensive than the local build method (Section 4).3.1 Farmer process\n4 Local build topology components: 4.1 Timing process\n5 Indexing methodology: For each index build we used a stop word list of 450 words supplied by Fox (1990) to filter out unwanted terms. All HTML/SGML tags are stripped from the text and ignored if not used for specific reasons such as identifying paragraphs < p> and the end of document </DOC>. Each identified word was put through a Lovins stemmer, supplied by the University of Melbourne, and indexed in stem form. Numbers were not indexed. A large amount of in-core memory is pre-allocated in blocks by each indexing process, and documents are analysed until one of several criteria is reached: exhaustion of keyword block, posting block or position block space. When one of the criteria is satisfied, the current analysis is saved on disk as an intermediate index, so that the in-core memory can be used for the next set of documents. When all documents have been analysed, the intermediate indexes are merged together to create the final index and deleted.\n6 Hardware used: PLIERS (ParaLLel Information rEtrieval Research System) is designed to run on several parallel architectures and is currently implemented on those which use Sun Sparc, DEC Alpha and Pentium PII processors. All results presented in this paper were obtained on an eight node Alpha farm and eight nodes of a 12 node AP3000 at the Australian National University (ANU), Canberra. Each node has its own local disk: that is a shared nothing architecture (DeWitt and Gray, 1992) is used by PLIERS. For the Alpha farm, each node is a series 600 266 megahertz Digital Alpha workstation with 128 megabytes of memory running the Digital UNIX 4.0 bytes operating system. Two types of network interconnects were used: a 155 megabytes per second ATM LAN with a Digital GIGASwitch and a 10 megabytes per second Ethernet LAN: most of the indexing was done on ATM. The Fujistsu AP3000 is a distributed memory parallel computer using Ultra 1 processors running Solaris 2.5.1. Each node of the AP3000 has a speed of 167 megahertz. The machine we used has 12 nodes, but only eight are available on a partition. The torus network has a top bandwidth of 200 megabytes per second.\n7 Data description: We use a number of collections in our experiments: BASE1 and 10 plus BASE2, BASE4, BASE6 and 8 that are subsets of BASE10. BASE1 and 10 are officially defined samples of the 100 gigabytes VLC2 collection (Hawking et al., 1999) and are 1 and 10 gigabytes in size, respectively. The subsets of the official BASE10 collection were created by varying the number of BASE10 compressed text files put through the indexing mechanism (130 files per node for BASE2, 260 for BASE4, 390 for BASE6, 520 for BASE8). Each of the BASE x collections is approximately x gigabytes in size.The strategy used to distribute the BASE1 and 10 collections for local build was to evenly spread the directories (in which the data are distributed by the ANU) among the nodes as far as possible. An alternative if more time consuming strategy is to do it by file size. The requirement of a distribution strategy is to get the best possible load balance for indexing as well as term weighting and passage retrieval search. The distribution process was done before the indexing program was started, and is not included in the timings.Two types of inverted files were used for experiments: one type that recorded position information (necessary for passage retrieval and adjacency operations) and one that recorded postings only in the inverted list. The conventional form of inverted file was used with a clear keyword and postings file split. A document map was also used to store data such as document length: this file is fragmented with local build and replicated with distributed build. Map data on distributed build with DocId could be fragmented, but we chose to replicate rather than maintain extra source code in order to save time.\n8 Index generation time costs: In this section we declare the timing results on indexing using the configurations described above. The results are compared and contrasted where necessary as well as comparing them with available results for other systems on the BASE1 and 10 collections used in the VLC2 sub-track at TREC-7 (Hawking et al., 1999). We use the local build method on all defined collections, but only BASE1 is indexed using the distributed build method. The measures discussed are: indexing elapsed time in hours, throughput, scalability, scaleup, speedup and efficiency LI and merging costs. Metrics used are defined in the glossary. Results on the Alpha farm and the AP3000 are discussed.8.1 Indexing elapsed time\n9 Index file space costs: In this section we declare the space overheads using the configurations described above. The results are compared and contrasted where necessary as well as comparing them with overheads on the BASE1 and 10 collections used in the VLC2 sub-track at TREC-7 (Hawking et al., 1999). The space overheads discussed are: overall inverted file space costs, keyword file space costs and file space imbalance.9.1 Inverted file space costs\n10. Conclusion: The results produced in this paper show that of the partitioning methods, DocId partitioning using any build has by far the most promise and would in most circumstances be the method chosen for indexing. This would be the case particularly if the collection under consideration needed frequent re-builds. We have used the DocId method to good effect in the web track for TREC-8 on the full 100 gigabytes VLC2 collection (MacFarlane et al., 2000). Where disk space was limited, the local build method could be used to good effect: we used this build method on the BASE10 as we did not have sufficient space to do distributed builds on that collection. We have demonstrated that indexing is state of the art in both compute and space terms by comparing our space and time results with those given at VLC2 (Hawking et al., 1999) and the TREC-8 web track (Hawking et al., 2000). Although we did not produce the best results for all measures, no group at VLC2 did either. Our indexing time for the full 100 gigabytes collection was the best in the web track (MacFarlane et al., 2000).A clear distinction must be made between DocId and TermId partitioning methods. Distributed build DocId out-performs TermId in all areas of time cost metrics and would therefore always be preferred if indexing was of primary concern. We state this irrespective of the type of inversion or algorithms/methods used if cluster computing is utilised. We would recommend that TermId only be used if two main criteria are met. One is that a high performance network is available to reduce time spent on transferring data during the global merge process. The other is that some other benefit must accrue from the use of TermId partitioning which in essence would be some advantage in search performance or index maintenance criterion over the DocId method.CF allocation method of term allocation in TermId to partition using a collection frequency criterionDistributed build method of building indexes where text is distributed from a single nodeDocId partitioning method which assigns all document data for a given document to one index partitionEfficiency measure of the effective use of processors. Definition:speedup on n processors/n processorsElapsed time time to build an indexFarmer process which distributes text to nodesGlobal merge process which exchanges data between nodes in order to create a distributed TermId inverted fileIndexer process process in local build which analyses text and builds inverted file to the local diskLI a measure of the amount of load imbalance on n processors:max time on n processors/average time on n processorsLocal build method of indexing where all processing is kept local to the nodeMerge costs percentage of time spent merging over all the processors. Definition:average merging time on all P Processors/average elapsed time on all P Processors*100Mhz megahertz: processor clock speedPartition fragment of inverted file on a nodes diskPosition data extra cost ratio=elapsed time for a given task on an index with positon data/elapsed time for a same task on an index with postings onlyScalability a measure of how well the algorithm scales on the same equipment. Definition:time on small collection/time on large collection*size of large collection/size on small collectionScaleup we define scaleup as the comparison metric [11]:elapsed time on P processors indexing small problem DB/elapsed timetime on P processors indexing big problem DB'where P' > P and DB' > DBSpeedup measure of speed advantage of parallelism. Definition:time on 1 processors/time on n processorsTermId partitioning method which assigns all term data for a given term to one partitionTF allocation method of term allocation in TermId to partition using a term frequency criterionTiming process process which times local build indexing elapsed timeThroughput gigabytes of text processed per hourTREC Annual Text Retrieval Conference run by the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the United StatesVLC very large collection: collection of 100 gigabytes web data used in the TREC-7 VLC2 sub-trackWC allocation method of term allocation in TermId to partition using a word count criterionWeb track sub-track of TREC-8Worker process which creates index data from raw textZipf distribution distribution which suggests that a few words will occur in many documents, while many words will occur in few documents\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The generation of inverted indexes is one of the most computationally intensive activities for information retrieval systems: indexing large multi-gigabyte text databases can take many hours or even days to complete. We examine the generation of partitioned inverted files in order to speed up the process of indexing. Two types of index partitions are investigated: TermId and DocId.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - We use standard measures used in parallel computing such as speedup and efficiency to examine the computing results and also the space costs of our trial indexing experiments.\nFindings: - The results from runs on both partitioning methods are compared and contrasted, concluding that DocId is the more efficient method.\nPractical implications: - The practical implications are that the DocId partitioning method would in most circumstances be used for distributing inverted file data in a parallel computer, particularly if indexing speed is the primary consideration.\nOriginality/value: - The paper is of value to database administrators who manage large-scale text collections, and who need to use parallel computing to implement their text retrieval services.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
From digital currencies to digital finance: the case for a smart financial contract standard
|
[
"Standardization",
"Fintech",
"Block-Chain",
"Complete contracts",
"Smart contract",
"Smart financial contracts"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nUniqueness of financial contracts: The role of contracts in economics has recently received some high-profile attention. The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics was awarded to two distinguished economists for parsing the challenges of contracts in a market economy[1]. In addition, the rapidly growing interest in finance and information technology - under such rubrics \"Fintech\" and \"Block-Chain\" - has focused great attention on financial contracts in general, and \"smart contracts\"[2] in particular. This attention is not merely an academic interest; it is a practical interest of the finance industry as it tries to develop better ways to organize and manage the business of finance.\nA closer look at the financial contract: \"Judex non calculat\" is an old roman saying, which can be roughly translated as \"Lawyers do not calculate\"[3].\nHow financial institutions work in practice: A financial contract is an agreement to exchange of cash flows that can be expressed mathematically. However, legal contracts have always been expressed in natural language. The reliance on natural langue has obscured the fundamental mathematical nature of the relationship, which has had major consequences for the financial sector.\nSolving the problem: Cash flow generating standard\nImplementation of a system: What about the implementation costs? If this is such a powerful solution, why has it not been implemented a long time ago? Could there be some barriers to implementation?\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to demonstrate the importance of a cash flow generating standard for individual financial contract level data and the ability to create such a standard.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors analyze the importance for such a standard of software that turns natural language contracts into cash flow generating algorithms; a data dictionary that standardizes contract terms; and access to variables that represent the state of the world (e.g. market risk, counterparty risk, etc.) that affect contractual obligations.\nFindings: The ability to realize benefits from the use of such a contract level algorithmic standard depends on the following: making the standard's software open source; fully testing the software to have complete confidence in its accuracy; and enabling the software to use of a wide range of models of various sources of risk (market, credit and behavior risk) to support forward-looking analysis. Such a standard would solve the disconnect that exists in financial firms between the representation of financial contracts for transaction processing and analysis. The ACTUS Financial Research Foundation is building, testing and making available such a standard that represents almost all financial contracts extant in markets.\nPractical implications: The adoption of such a standard would reduce the costs of operations of financial firms, provide the computational infrastructure for more effective regulatory oversight, reduce regulatory reporting costs and improve financial market transparency. It would also enable the assessment of systemic risk by directly quantifying the interconnectedness of firms.\nOriginality/value: This is a new approach to financial analytics that clearly separates the deterministic components of finance, which can be standardized from the stochastic elements that cannot be standardized.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Eco-innovation in hospitality research (1998-2018): a systematic review
|
[
"Hospitality industry",
"Eco-friendly practices",
"Systematic review"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Background\nAnalytical approach: This systematic literature review began by outlining the aims and objectives of the study based on which a review protocol containing information on search terms and screening criteria was developed to guide the literature search. The preparation of a protocol is an essential component of the systematic review process as it promotes accountability, research integrity and transparency (Pickering and Byrne, 2014). Consequently, this comprehensive search returned approximately 509 academic articles encompassing diverse research settings, varied research designs and data collection techniques. As this paper focuses on mapping the landscape of research concerning eco-innovation, the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) flow diagram was used to guide the data selection (Pickering et al., 2015). The PRISMA reporting guidance includes a 27-item checklist and a 4-phase flow diagram. The main purpose of utilizing the PRISMA checklist (Figure 1) was to identify the quality of the papers and to record the number of studies included and excluded at each stage i.e. identification, screening, eligibility and included (Moher et al., 2009).\nResults: The descriptive analysis reveals that the number of research articles published on eco-innovation is large (403 articles, Table II) with most articles (235) accounted for by three journals i.e. International Journal of Hospitality Management, Journal of Sustainable Tourism and International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.\nDiscussion and conclusion: Contributions\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: Theoretical and empirical developments in academic literature have not been able to keep pace with the growing industry focus on eco-innovation and green hospitality practices. This paper aims to address this gap and provide an up-to-date review of research on eco-innovative practices in 13 leading hospitality journals over the past two decades, 1998-2018.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A systematic review that incorporates the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses flow diagram is used to guide the data selection for this paper. The paper analyzes 403 studies published in 13 established hospitality journals to identify homogeneous research themes.\nFindings: A unified conceptual framework is proposed by identifying seven research domains under eco-innovative practices. Even though research attention on green practices has increased in recent years, the development of conceptual frameworks, appropriate measurement scales and theoretical support for eco-innovative practices is warranted.\nResearch limitations/implications: Although the paper attempts to include as many environmentally related studies as possible, by being restricted to papers published only in 13 leading hospitality journals, it may not have drawn on all relevant eco-innovation studies in hospitality research.\nOriginality/value: To the knowledge of the authors, this is the first systematic analysis of hospitality research on eco-innovative practices that reviews such a large number (403) of studies spanning the past two decades (1998-2018). The most recent review by Kim et al. (2017) covered 146 green research studies published between 2000 and 2014; whereas, out of 403 studies reviewed in this study, 231 (57per cent) have been published between 2014 and 2018. This trend is indicative of the fast-evolving nature of sustainability research and the need for an up-to-date systematic review of recent literature in the field.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Integration of economic production quantity in optimization design of control chart based on loss function and random process shift
|
[
"Production planning and control",
"Production processes",
"Control charts",
"Process control",
"Predictive process"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Production process starts to produce in in-control state. After a period of time, the process will shift from in-control state to out-of-control state due to aging or faults. According to Taguchi's loss function, in addition to the quality loss from defective items fabricated in out-of-control state, the quality loss from \"good\" ones produced in in-control state should be also taken into account. Control chart is often adopted to monitor the process and collect readings of quality characteristics of the products during production. The quality loss is set to be related to the limits of the control chart and the other process costs (such as inventory cost or detection cost) are also dominant factors considered in calculation of economic production quantity (EPQ).In this paper, a model of joint determining conceptions of economic design for control chart, quality loss and EPQ is built. And there are mainly six sections serving to illustrate the purpose of this study. In Section 1, a brief introduction of the problem which the model focuses on is described. Literatures on several relevant conceptions and important developments such as imperfect production process, quality loss function, control chart design, production shifts in process, and integration design of EPQ are summarized, respectively, in Section 2. Section 3 presents the general description of the problem that this paper studies. Section 4 introduces the procedures of optimization design, in which the description of model is initiated with some necessary assumptions and eventual developed optimization model is established. Numerical case studies are presented to demonstrate applications of this model in the following Section 5. And in the final section, conclusions and more perspectives are given on the basis of analysis of those case studies.\n2 Literature interview: Traditional EPQ model addressed a perfect production process. In fact, a production process starts to produce in in-control state, and after a period of time, the process will eventually shift from in-control state to out-of-control state due to corrosion, fatigue or cumulative wear. It is suggested that both two state of the process fabricate non-conforming items, which must be of course rejected and avoided due to some economic and safety reasons. In the past several decades, numerous research (Rosenblatt and Lee, 1986; Hou, 2007) have been devoted to exploring such production process (or imperfect production process) with various relaxed assumptions ensuring the models conform more closely to real-world situations.Traditional notion of quality assumes that a product is either good or bad and is uniformly good within specifications indicating that the failure quality cost merely takes the cost of defective production into consideration. However, it is hardly the case in real situations. Taguchi et al. (1986) redefined the quality loss as a quadratic loss function to estimate the quality loss of a product in case that its quality characteristic deviated from its target value. Owing to well fitness and real reflection to practical production situations, the loss function is used broadly in industry to measure the cost caused by poor quality (Ben-Daya and Duffuaa, 2003; Rahim and Tuffaha, 2004). This type of measuring taking quality notion combining with the application of SPC was the subject of study of many authors as Chou and Wang (2007). And there are more economical quality control procedures for attributes seen by Trindade et al. (2007).SPC techniques, in particular the control chart, have been widely used in the manufacturing industry. Among various control charts, Shewhart x- control chart is often used to monitor large process mean shifts. Generally, advanced control charts are usually developed into two main directions: statistical designs (Woodall, 1985; Wu et al., 2002) and economic designs (Duncan, 1956; Chen et al., 2000; Linda, 2009). The economic design which is the focus of this paper aims at minimizing the total cost associated with the implement of SPC in a process. The first model in the area of economic design of x- control chart was pioneered by Duncan (1956). The objective of the model proposed by Duncan was to determine the optimal values of the parameters n, h, and k that minimized the total expected cost per hour. Duncan's model stimulated most of the work in this area and has been extended by several authors. Recently, economically designed adaptive X control charts have been proposed by many authors based on Duncan's model. Park and Reynolds (1994) wrote about economical design with variable sample size. And totally, variable parameter was proposed by Costa and Rahim (2001) (Chen and Chang, 2008, for fuzzy mean shifts). Other economic designs found in the literature: an economic comparison of CUSUM and Shewhart charts was made in Nenes and Tagaras (2007). Economic design of X charts for non-normal data were developed by Chen (2004). Economic design for other control charts as EWMA, see Park et al. (2004) and Serel and Moskowitz (2008). Cumulative count of conforming chart, see Zhang et al. (2008), for example.In both statistical and economic designs, process shift should be taken into consideration during the optimization design (Saniga, 1989). Ben-Daya and Duffuaa (2003) also embedded this idea of process shift into their research based on the Duncan's model with assumption that a single assignable cause of magnitude dm, which results in an average shift in the process mean from m to m+-dms, while the standard deviation s remains constant. These dm values are usually determined subjectively (Page, 1954; Saniga, 1989; Ben-Daya and Duffuaa, 2003). As a result, the design procedures may be inadequate to reflect the real working conditions. In other words, the resultant control chart may have optimal performance on the particular values of dm, but may work unsatisfactorily with other values of dm. Therefore,dm should be a random variable with different probability distributions for different processes. If the data of dm can be collected during the operation by a control chart, the optimization design can be carried out based on these data (or on the corresponding probability distribution). Consequently, the performance of the control chart will be improved over the whole range of dm. With this idea, Wu et al. (2004) developed an algothrim to optimize design of control charts based on the probability distribution of the random process shifts.Recently some researches make contributions to exploring the integration of control chart and quality loss function into the economic design. Wu et al. (2005) also developed an X-bar chart based on a single-statistics-adjusted loss function (AL). Because this chart can adjust its sensitivity to mean and variance shifts based on the design parameters, it outperforms other X-bar charts in view of detection effectiveness. Wu and Tian (2005) further developed a CUSUM chart based on the statistic AL. It enhances the detection power for small or moderate process shifts. In addition, Rahim and Ben-Daya (1998) presented a generalized model for a continuous production process for simultaneous determination of production quantity, inspection schedule and control chart design, with a non-zero inspection time for false alarms. Ben-Daya and Duffuaa (2003) incorporated Taguchi's loss function in the economic design of the control chart. This was done by redefining the in-control and out-of-control costs using Taguchi's loss function. This model brought Taguchi's off-line concepts to the classical SPC approach and continued to take the advantages of the economic design model by taking the cost consequences of the design into considerations. Rahim and Tuffaha (2004) revised the model addressed by Chen and Chung (1996) and incorporated the quality loss cost by introducing Taguchi's loss function for determining simultaneously the optimal process mean and production run. However, in studies on these integrated models for determining optimal EPQ and x- chart control optimization design, the magnitude dm is usually fixed. For example, the process shift dm value is both treated as a constant in the model proposed by Saniga (1989), Ben-Daya and Duffuaa (2003) and Rahim and Tuffaha (2004).According to the previous research conducted by the literatures mentioned above, Few papers put studies on EPQ model, quality loss function and control chart design simultaneously, especially almost no research investigates this kind of integrated model set in a production process with random shifts. Thus, in this paper, a new model is introduced based on the models of Rahim and Tuffaha (2004) and Ben-Daya and Duffuaa (2003). Comparing with those two models, further development and modification is made in this model. In particular, the process mean shift is treated as a random variable which is assumed to follow Rayleigh distribution (Wu et al., 2004). The symmetric control limit is used to get the optimized EPQ, sample size, sample interval and control limit, combined with the applications of quality loss function aiming to obtain the optimal cost per each production run case. Meanwhile, the sensitive analysis is given through several cases.\n3 Problem description: Notations\n4 Optimization model: 4.1 Assumptions\n5 A case study: 5.1 Optimal solutions\n6 Conclusion: A modified model on joint determining economic design of control chart, quality and EPQ is proposed on the basis of previous research. This proposed model continues to take advantages of the economic design models by taking cost consequences of design into considerations. This is done by redefining the in-control and out-of-control costs using Taguchi's loss function and the concepts of imperfect production process, as well as the help of control chart tool. Imperfect process is defined as a three-state process, and the quality cost corresponding to each state contributes to the eventual expected loss formulation. Control chart is used to monitor the shift from the target value within whole process, with its control limits related to the quality cost. During the process, data are collected through a three-phase SPC scenario for shift probability distribution estimation, since the process shift is considered as a random variable rather than a constant in previous research for wider adaption to real situations. The eventual results guarantee the implication of the proposed model, and the solutions of sensitivity analysis also run in expectation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to develop an extensive economic production quantity (EPQ) model on the basis of previous research. Considering an imperfect three-state production process, this paper makes contributions to an integrated model combining conceptions of quality loss and design of control chart based on EPQ model. The objective is to minimize the total production cost with the determination of EPQ and design parameters of control chart subjected to quality loss and other process costs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In this paper, imperfect process is defined as a three-state process, and the quality cost corresponding to each state contributes to the eventual total expected cost formulation. Control chart is used to monitor the shift from the target value within whole process and its control limits are set to be related to the quality cost.\nFindings: - The proposed integrated model conforms more closely to the real situation of production process considering the process shift as a random variable.\nPractical implications: - Numerical computation and sensitivity analysis through a case study are presented to demonstrate the applications of the model.\nOriginality/value: - Few research efforts investigate an integrated model considering EPQ, control chart and quality loss simultaneously. In particular, compared with the former researches, the process shift, due to which the quality cost incurs, is considered as a random variable in this paper.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
General performance factors and group differences in assessment center ratings
|
[
"Selection",
"Development",
"Emerging markets",
"Cognitive load",
"Assessment centers",
"Ethnic group differences",
"General performance factors"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Organizational psychology researchers have, for decades, attempted to confirm if dimensions or exercises are the main components being measured in the assessment center (AC) (Lance, 2008). AC scholars have subsequently arrived at a blended solution to address this issue, with research demonstrating that dimensions and exercises are two central components of the AC method (Hoffman et al., 2011; Melchers et al., 2012). Furthermore, contemporary research has identified a third component measured in the AC, namely, a general performance factor (GPF) (Lance et al., 2004).\nPsychometric testing and group differences: The use of psychometric assessments for the purpose of selection and development has a rich history in South Africa, yet continues to receive mixed and even negative reactions from test users (Theron, 2007). Prior to 1994 psychometric assessment research and application predominantly focused on the White population, leading to a perception that psychometric assessments are reflective of White culture and values, and biased toward other groups (Foxcroft and Roodt, 2005; Meiring, 2007).\nACs and group differences: The AC is a method that uses behavioral simulation exercises, such as role play (RP), group, and in-basket (IB) exercises, to replicate on-the-job performance of participants for selection or development purposes (Thornton et al., 2015). The method is multi-layered and consists of at least two simulation exercises that are mapped to job-relevant dimensions (Meiring and Buckett, 2016).\nGPF in ACs: AC researchers have dedicated decades to examining the internal structure of ACs. Specifically, the literature has attempted to find support for either dimensions (Bowler and Woehr, 2006) or exercises (Jackson et al., 2010) as the focal constructs measuring performance in ACs. The culmination of this research focus has resulted in the view that both dimensions and exercises contribute toward the underlying structure of ACs (Hoffman et al., 2011; Putka and Hoffman, 2013). Therefore, AC performance is best interpreted as an interaction between candidates, dimensions, exercises, and the situation being assessed (Hoffman, 2012). This interpretation makes sense because ACs are designed to sample elements of the job and job performance is likely to vary depending on the person, the situation and moderating contextual variables, such as knowledge, skills, and cognitive ability.\nMethod: Three independent samples were used in the current study. One sample was from a private organization and two samples were from a government organization. Participants were job incumbents who were assessed for development purposes. Simulation exercises were designed for the two organizations using dimensions specified by the organization with particular development objectives in mind. There were five common features across the ACs. First, the exercises were pretested prior to implementation. Second, only expert assessors were used. Assessors were diverse in terms of ethnicity. Third, each participant was rated by a single assessor. It was therefore not possible to measure interrater reliability as only one assessor rated a participant at a given time. Scoring was done using the within-exercise approach whereby an assessor rated all the dimensions of a specific exercise for one participant at the end of the exercise. Fourth, frame-of-reference training was provided to the assessors prior to the roll-out of the first AC and consisted of a practical component and background on the organization. Finally, the rating scale was a four-point scale where 1: major development, 2: minor development, 3: competence, and 4: a strength.\nStatistical analysis: Two statistical procedures were applied to each data set. First, to determine the extent of GPF in AC exercises and dimensions the SLS syntax was applied to the data (Wolff and Preising, 2005). The purpose of this analysis was to obtain a better understanding of the factor structure of AC ratings by identifying the relationship between items and higher-order factors. With this procedure, first-order factor analysis (FA) was conducted after which the SLS syntax is applied to determine a higher-order factor structure. First-order and second-order loadings are orthogonolized in order to see the pattern of salient factor loadings more clearly between manifest items and the hierarchical latent factors. There are two primary advantages of the SLS over the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) approach, which is typically applied to AC ratings to determine factorial relationships. First, the analysis shows the relative contribution of each behavioral indicator in relation to the first- and second-order factors. Second, the analysis is not plagued by issues of non-convergence endemic to hierarchical CFA analyses (Wolff and Preising, 2005).\nResults: The results will be reported on two levels. First, the presence of a GPF in relation to the general factors that can be extracted by the SLS across exercises and dimensions for the three samples and second, results pertaining to the presence and size of group differences across exercises and dimensions will be presented. Although past research has modeled general performance as first-order factors in CFA matrices (e.g. Hoffman et al., 2011), we chose to specify general performance as a second-order factor composed of first-order latent dimension variables. This approach is desirable in the present context for three reasons. First, AC structure by design is hierarchical and the SLS can identify the structural relations between different factors. Second, the SLS allows for direct comparison between second-order factors and first-order factors. This enables richer factor interpretation. Third, the SLS can be used to identify the independent total impact of factors, in other words, the proportion of variance attributed to each factor (Wolff and Preising, 2005).\nDiscussion: The current study aimed to determine the extent of a GPF in AC ratings and to establish if ethnic group differences in ACs were more pronounced on exercises and dimensions that are more analytical by design. The existing literature highlights this feature as a factor resulting in AC performance disparity (Dean et al., 2008; Goldstein et al., 1998, 2001). The study therefore contributes to the literature on a GPF in ACs across exercises and dimensions. A major contribution of the present study is that it is the first, to our knowledge, to examine the extent of a GPF across AC exercises and dimensions in relation to group membership in an emerging market economy. Furthermore, the study examines multiple samples across private and public organizations in South Africa.\nImplications for organizations and employers: This study provides information on the magnitude of a GPF in AC exercises and dimensions, in relation to group membership in an emerging market economy. Our research indicated that the extent of a GPF found in AC ratings was associated with larger group differences. We found evidence to support large group differences across AC exercises and dimensions that were more cognitively loaded. Together, these factors call into question the practicality of using ACs as an alternative to reduce measuring group differences in assessments (Dean et al., 2008; Goldstein et al., 1998, 2001). Of note is that our study found group differences in AC performance to be larger than those reported in the extant literature (Bobko and Roth, 2013; Hoffman et al., 2015).\nLimitations and directions for future research: Our study had several limitations that could be addressed in future research. First, even though the ACs were designed according to standard practices and guidelines, not all dimensions were measured across all the exercises. As a result of the SLS procedure only dimensions that were measured multiple times across the exercises were included in the analysis. Future research should aim to include more dimensions and investigate their relation to group differences. Second, only three AC exercises were investigated in this study. The inclusion of additional AC exercises would have strengthened the findings. Future research is required on additional exercises and to replicate the findings of the exercises in our study. Research on both AC exercises and dimensions in other emerging markets is important to determine the generalizability of our findings in similar contexts to South Africa. Third, this study did not consider the impact of assessors on participant performance in the AC. Additional research is needed to investigate this variable in relation to a GPF and group differences. Fourth, we only investigated group differences for Blacks and Whites. This was, in part, due to the comparable sample size of these two subgroups, as well as the vast array of extant literature on the subject. Further research that focuses on other minority groups in South Africa is therefore warranted. Fifth, the study did not include any psychometric tests or criterion-related variables. This type of data would have been useful to rule out cognitive ability as a probable source of group differences in the findings. Sixth, this study made use of a statistical technique not often used in AC research and future research is needed to replicate the findings applying the SLS.\nConclusion: The perception that assessments are unfair and discriminatory in their application toward different ethnic groups has been a prevalent concern for practitioners and organizations; especially in emerging market economies, such as South Africa. In light of this it is important to contextualize group differences in multicultural contexts and consider the impact of these differences when using alternative predictors, such as the AC.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to establish the extent of general performance factors (GPF) in assessment center (AC) exercises and dimensions. The study further aims to determine if larger GPF contributes to larger ethnic group differences across exercises and dimensions that are more cognitively loaded in an emerging market context.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors analyzed data across three independent AC samples (Sample 1: N=172; Sample 2: N=281; Sample 3: N=428). The Schmid-Leiman solution was used to determine the extent of GPF in AC exercises and dimensions. An independent samples t-test and Cohen's d was used to determine the size of ethnic group differences across exercises and dimensions.\nFindings: The results indicate that GPF is consistently large for the in-basket exercise. Furthermore, dimensions that are more cognitively loaded, such as problem solving, strategic thinking, and business acumen, seem to produce the largest ethnic group differences. Overall, the research indicates that larger GPF is associated with larger ethnic group differences in relation to specific AC dimensions and exercises.\nOriginality/value: The authors add to the literature by investigating the prevalence of a GPF in AC ratings across AC exercises and dimensions. A novel contribution of the research attempts to link the prevalence of a GPF in AC ratings to group membership in South Africa. The study offers an alternative statistical analysis procedure to examine GPF in AC ratings.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Knowledge management and organizational performance: an exploratory analysis
|
[
"Knowledge management",
"Organizational performance",
"Surveys"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Over the past 15 years, knowledge management (KM) has progressed from an emergent concept to an increasingly common function in business organizations. As evidence of its maturity as an area of academic study, an increasing number of journals devoted to KM and intellectual capital management have been created[1]. As might be expected for a still emerging discipline, little quantitative empirical research has been published (Foss and Mahnke, 2003). The bulk of the published work in the KM area comprises conceptual frameworks and theoretical models. Extant empirical research relies primarily on a small number of descriptive exploratory qualitative case studies (e.g. Davenport and Prusak, 1998; Kalling, 2003; Massey et al., 2002; Nonaka, 1994). Although this body of work contains valuable and insightful concepts and frameworks that have helped to define and shape the KM discipline, it is time to begin testing and advancing this work using more precise methods.Perhaps the most significant gap in the literature is the lack of large-scale empirical evidence that KM makes a difference to organizational performance. While survey research is beginning to appear in KM journals (e.g. Kalling, 2003; McCann and Buckner, 2004; Tanriverdi, 2005), the bulk is descriptive (Chauvel and Dupres, 2002). Of the few survey studies that examine relationships between KM and other factors (e.g. Moffett et al., 2003) only a few articles (discussed below) empirically investigate the relationship between KM and organizational performance.The objective for the research reported here was to conduct an exploratory quantitative study to create a broader set of evidence regarding the relationship between KM and organizational performance. While performance itself is a useful metric, the ultimate measure of value is the ability to support an organization's competitive strategy. This especially applies to KM, as knowledge has been considered an organization's most strategic resource (Zack, 1999). A survey was administered asking respondents to describe their organization's involvement in KM practices, the strategic focus of their KM initiatives, several intermediate performance measures aligned with strategic value disciplines (Treacy and Wiersema, 1995), financial performance measures, and several contextual factors addressing characteristics about its competitive environment. Rather than merely describe the state of practice in the respondents' organizations, the study investigated the relationships among KM practices, intermediate and financial outcomes, and the organization's competitive environment.The results indicate that KM practices are positively associated with organizational performance as generally suggested by the KM literature, both qualitative (Davenport and Prusak, 1998; Massey et al., 2002; Nonaka, 1994) and quantitative (Choi and Lee, 2003; Darroch and McNaughton, 2003; Lee and Choi, 2003; Schulz and Jobe, 2001; Simonin, 1997; Tanriverdi, 2005). More specifically it was found that KM practices are directly related to various intermediate measures of strategic organizational performance (namely, customer intimacy, product leadership, and operational excellence), and that those intermediate measures are, in turn, associated with financial performance. Based on this evidence, it was concluded that as long as KM practices enhance intermediate organizational performance, positive financial performance will result (Lee and Choi, 2003). The relationship between intermediate organizational performance and financial performance, while interesting, is an issue that extends significantly beyond the boundaries of KM. Thus the remainder of the discussion focuses on the relationship between KM practices and intermediate organizational performance.\n2. Research model: The assumption underlying the practice of KM is that by locating and sharing useful knowledge, organizational performance will improve (Davenport and Prusak, 1998). In reality, one might expect KM to influence many different aspects of organizational performance. For example, KM has been linked positively to financial performance measures (Tanriverdi, 2005) and non-financial performance measures such as quality (Mukherjee et al., 1998), innovation (Francisco and Guadamillas, 2002), and productivity (Lapre and Wassenhove, 2001).Tanriverdi (2005) found a moderately weak (r=0.15 to 0.17) relationship between a firm's financial performance (ROA and Tobin's Q) and its ability to create, share, integrate, and use knowledge. Most of the recent surveys examining the performance impacts of KM have aggregated several different measures of impact or performance. Gold et al. (2001) examined the contribution of \"knowledge infrastructure\" (information technology, organization culture, and organization structure) and knowledge processing capability (i.e. the ability to acquire, convert, apply and protect knowledge) on several dimensions of organizational effectiveness. They found a strong and significant relationship between both knowledge infrastructure and knowledge processing with organizational effectiveness, measured using a broad set of non-financial outcomes (e.g. innovation, coordination, responsiveness, ability to identify market opportunities, speed to market, and process efficiency). They did not examine the relationship to financial performance. Mohrman et al. (2003) extended the notion of organizational effectiveness to include financial measures. They surveyed ten companies and established a weak positive relationship between the extent to which the organizations created and exploited knowledge and overall organizational performance, including financial metrics. However, by aggregating a broad set of financial and non-financial metrics, the strength of the relationship may have been reduced. Most of the remaining surveys identified by the authors used a similar approach of aggregating financial and non-financial metrics to measure performance (e.g. Choi and Lee, 2003; Darroch and McNaughton, 2003; Lee and Choi, 2003; Marques and Simon, 2006; Sher and Lee, 2004) (refer to Table I for a summary of articles that examine the relationship between KM and organizational performance).With regard to the impact of KM, financial and non-financial outcomes are distinct constructs (Simonin, 1997). Changes to organization practices in general, and KM in particular, do not necessarily result in changes to financial performance (Kalling, 2003). KM, rather, affects a set of intermediate capabilities that, in turn, should affect financial performance (Lee and Choi, 2003) This may account for the weak relationships found in the research described above that use only financial performance measures or aggregate financial and non-financial performance measures. In contrast, the research model framing this study (Figure 1) proposes that KM practices will be positively associated with a set of intermediate performance outcomes termed \"organizational performance\", and organizational performance will be positively associated with financial performance. The primary research question is:RQ. Is the extent to which an organization engages in particular KM practices positively related to organizational performance, and is organizational performance, in turn, positively related to financial performance?Should these relationships prove to hold, this study would identify those specific KM practices having the greatest relationship with organizational performance. The authors were also were interested in determining if there was a direct relationship between KM practices and financial performance, contrary to our expectations.In identifying KM practices as antecedents to organizational performance, the authors attempted to include factors that are similar to those identified by Gold et al. (2001), Mohrman et al. (2003) and others (e.g. knowledge processing behaviors, management practices, and organization culture), yet maintain clarity regarding the research question. The objective was to address the KM-performance link directly. The research was less interested in the detailed technological, socio-cultural, or structural mechanisms by which KM is supported or enhanced, and focused instead on the perceived quality and extent of KM practices and how they related to outcomes. In doing so, it was hoped to more clearly show the existence (or lack thereof) of a relationship between KM practices and performance outcomes.The following sections describe the constructs of the research model and the survey items used to operationalize them.2.1 KM practices\n3. Research method: A survey was developed to test the research model. All measures including performance measures were based on respondents' perception. Although this is a limitation of this research, such measures are often used and are acceptable in research (see (Chan et al., 1997; Gold et al., 2001; Tallon et al., 2000)). The survey was piloted with two groups of knowledge managers - one based in Canada and one based in the USA. These managers assessed the survey in terms of its content, terminology, length and clarity. We then validated the survey with a group of executives attending an executive development program at a leading North American Business School. The final survey was launched on the Business School's web site. An e-newsletter was then sent to 1,500 executives who had recently attended one of the School's executive programs. They were notified of our research project and invited to complete the survey. We received 105 responses. Of these, 17 non-profit firms were removed, as the financial performance indicators did not apply. The final sample size was 88. The response rate (about 7 percent) was lower than hoped for and likely due to a number of factors including incorrect email addresses, deletion of unsolicited email, and/or lack of interest in the topic of KM given that the e-newsletter was untargeted. Nevertheless, the authors believe that sample is valid. It consists of firms from Canada, USA and Australia representing ten different industry sectors. Revenues ranged from $2M to $10B and the age of the firms ranged from two-187 years with employees ranging from 30 to over 300,000. Respondents were mid-level managers and senior executives.3.1 Data analysis\n4. Discussion of results: 4.1 KM practices\n5. Summary: The purpose in conducting this research was to study the perceived quality and extent of KM practices in order to more clearly examine the relationship between KM practices and performance outcomes. The authors expected to find a direct relationship between KM practices and organizational performance, and for organizational performance to mediate the relationship between KM practices and financial performance. Each of these expectations was supported. Not only did KM practices have a direct relationship with intermediate measures of organizational performance but organizational performance also exhibited a significant and direct relationship to financial performance. There was no significant relationship found between KM practices and financial performance. These findings held for overall performance and for each of the three components of performance based on the three value disciplines (namely, customer intimacy, product leadership, and operations excellence) (Treacy and Wiersema, 1995).These findings are important for both practitioners and academics. Practitioners can use our results to identify and implement KM practices with a reasonable expectation based on empirical evidence that these initiatives will be in alignment with their organizational strategy. This study also encourages practitioners to focus their KM initiatives on specific intermediate performance outcomes. Practitioners should also be cognizant of the range and variety of KM practices and the extent to which so many of these are significantly related to performance. Adopting an overly focused or limited set of KM practices might not result in the desired outcome. Finally, the existence of a significant gap between what we believe is important and what has been demonstrated to be important calls for attention.Academics should be equally encouraged by these results for no greater reason than the demonstrated impact of KM practices on organizational performance. The study did have some limitations. While our research model was developed from literature investigating both Western and Asian firms, our findings were based solely on organizations from North America and Australian. Culture, financial reporting, and KM processes in general may vary beyond this limited geographic sample, and future work should investigate the influence of geography and culture on our findings. This aside, our study was exploratory and, as such, there remains much work to be done. Given that the majority of our constructs were formative, efforts to improve the measurement of KM practices (and possibly the identification of additional practices) will prove vital for the validation and extension of our findings. Research designs which target respondents and industry sectors may yield greater insight and understanding as well. Finally, we need to understand how organizations are to develop a \"KM mindset\" to enable KM practices to get traction within organizations. Without this mindset, many KM initiatives may fail.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to report the results of an exploratory investigation of the organizational impact of knowledge management (KM).\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A search of the literature revealed 12 KM practices whose performance impact was assessed via a survey of business organizations.\nFindings: - KM practices were found to be directly related to organizational performance which, in turn, was directly related to financial performance. There was no direct relationship found between KM practices and financial performance. A different set of KM practices was associated with each value discipline (i.e. customer intimacy, product development and operational excellence). A gap exists between the KM practices that firms believe to be important and those that were directly related to organizational performance.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The majority of the research constructs were formative, thus improving the measurement of KM practices will prove vital for validating and extending these findings. The findings were based solely on organizations from North America and Australia and may not reflect KM practices in other geographic, economic or cultural settings.\nPractical implications: - This study encourages practitioners to focus their KM initiatives on specific intermediate performance outcomes.\nOriginality/value: - The paper examines the relationship between KM practices and performance outcomes. It was expected that a direct relationship between KM practices and organizational performance would be observed. It was also expected that organizational performance would mediate the relationship between KM practices and financial performance. These expectations were supported. KM practices showed a direct relationship with intermediate measures of organizational performance, and organizational performance showed a significant and direct relationship to financial performance. There was no significant relationship found between KM practices and financial performance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Employee disengagement: is there evidence of a growing problem?
|
[
"Employee behaviour",
"Trust",
"Motivation (psychology)"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Lengthy episodes of distraction, rapid task saturation, a slow tempo of activity, poor decision making, too many days away from work, and lack of interest in work are symptoms displayed by individuals who do not engage in the organizational context. They have become disengaged - if they were ever engaged at all. In these examples, the employee's productive output is minimal.\nSurvey revealed less than half are taking action: Where levels had fallen, the survey revealed that only 48 percent of firms were doing something about it. In direct contrast to these findings, Tasker states that 69 percent of Board Directors believed that engagement levels in their organizations had increased in the last twelve months. Their views appear in stark contrast with those of their HR managers, of whom only 38 percent seemed to agree. Someone is not communicating the bad news to the Board.Parr, (1996) cites research that suggests that poor employee work ethics will be the greatest near-term obstacle to the success of US manufacturers, with declining trends in performance on the increase, and management doing little to reduce the slide into stagnation. Clearly this is not just a problem isolated to the USA.Beech and Anderson (2003) explain that engagement levels may be low due to poor levels of trust between employees and employers, with only 39 percent of employees trusting what their business leaders were telling them. Luthans and Peterson (2002) claim that a correlation exists between levels of employee engagement and their manager's degree of self-efficacy, perhaps suggesting that a growing crisis exists between management and their subordinates.We do not have to reach all that far back into history to see that the problems of disengagement, individuals working to self-assigned output norms, ineffective supervisory styles, and formation of group productivity norms far below those set by the organization were rampant in the days of Taylor, and later Mayo. Taylor's early 1900s notion of soldiering, where low productivity norms were set by workers, was one that he found simple to explain and impossible to defeat without the introduction of precise output measurements (Wren, 2005).\nProductivity declines without intervention: Hail the birth of scientific management, the earliest of the modern era's attempts to win the war against employee disengagement. Some two decades later, in his analysis of the Hawthorne data, Mayo identified that worker productivity continued to decline in the work setting unless internal and external interventions were brought to bear on the workforce. In this scenario external experiments conducted on worker activity, encouraging improved supervisory styles, and worker involvement in decision processes, brought an exponential rise in productivity (Wren, 2005).Not all interventions leading to a rise in productivity have been pleasant. Slade (1994) noted that with large-scale worker terminations and workforce redundancies, productivity improvements were short-term and initially both significant and exponential, alluding to the symptoms of what is now known in common human resource management parlance as the \"Survivor syndrome\".\nTreating employee disengagement: The conflicting figures and perceptions reported on the issue of worker disengagement suggest that the subject area has not been systematically researched. It also indicates that the means for measuring engagement and disengagement needs urgent refinement in order to produce standardized methods and accurate scales of measurement.Although the exact statistics on worker disengagement appear difficult to confirm from the conflicting and sometimes anecdotal evidence, what is apparent is that large numbers of employees are not engaged or are completely disengaged. It is also apparent that there is an increasing trend of disengagement developing in our workforce. Regardless of the exact numbers, the problem has reached the level that managers are taking note and stating their concerns. However, according to Tasker (2004) 52 percent of firms admit that they are doing little to combat this phenomenon. These discouraging performance patterns appear to be on the rise. Managers, although aware of the problem, seem unwilling or unable to do anything about it. Why is such an important issue being ignored?Research by May et al. (2004), following in the footsteps of Kahn (1990), has demonstrated that the three psychological conditions of meaningfulness, safety, and availability exhibited positive relations with engagement. Meaningfulness displayed the strongest relation.May et al. (2004) define psychological meaningfulness as \"the value of a work goal or purpose, judged in relation to an individual's own ideals or standards\". The authors use Khan's (1990) definition for psychological safety as \"feeling able to show and employ one's self without fear of negative consequences to self-image, status, or career\". Finally, the authors refer to Khan's (1990) definition of psychological availability, an individual's belief that he/she has the physical, emotional or cognitive resources to engage the self at work. While this theoretical framework builds on existing knowledge and is useful for highlighting the areas of most concern to employees, May et al.'s (2004) research appears to stop short of providing an explanation for the increasing number of reports of disengagement in the workplace.\nPsychological condition of meaningfulness: A useful first step for investigating the problem of disengagement may be to delve further into the psychological condition of meaningfulness, since, according to May et al. (2004), this condition displays strong relations with engagement. Although May et al. did not relate the concept of organizational identification with the condition of meaningfulness, it can be argued that the former may be a strong determinant of the latter. Pratt (1998) and Van Dick et al. (2004, p. 173) argue that identification with groups and organizations can:... satisfy an individual's holistic need, since organizations provide meaning, and help the individual to find a sense in his or her life ... identification can be seen as concerning the employee as a person as a whole and affecting his or her cognitions, emotions, and behaviours.A common and recurring theme between engagement, meaningfulness, and identification can be found in the elements of employee cognitions, emotions, and behaviors. Figure 1 describes the impact of the psychological conditions of identification and meaningfulness. It should be pointed out that identification and meaningfulness are not the sole determinants of employee disengagement. Figure 1 flows down from the conditions of identification and meaningfulness. Negative or low levels in these conditions will be causal factors resulting in disengagement, factors that many managers and researchers appear to be neglecting.Instead, their intervention strategies appear to be designed to address the symptoms shown at the bottom of the diagram. This can be demonstrated with a relatively quick and crude analysis of the ABI/INFORM ProQuest database.On April 28, 2005, a search for research related to disengagement determinants such as the psychological conditions of identification and/or meaningfulness brought up three and 55 publications respectively. Compare this with the number of publications on disengagement-related symptoms. Research in areas such as absenteeism brought up 405 publications, quality - related to the reduction of mistakes (50,706 publications), cynicism (155 publications), job satisfaction - and related issues of dissatisfaction (3,179 publications), and finally performance measurement (1,494 publications). Performance measurement attracts a great deal of attention from researchers as well as managers, which seems ironic.\nFocus remains on symptoms, not root causes: It appears that more effort is being expended in the pursuit of measurement and analysis of symptomatic factors rolling out of a state of disengagement than is expended in the pursuit of employee disengagement's causal or determining factors. Little wonder that more than 50 percent of managers respond in the negative when questioned about their strategies for dealing with disengaged workers. Their focus is on symptoms and productivity measurement techniques, not on employee disengagement and its causes and cures. In some ways our knowledge of the workforce and employee behavior has not progressed all that far from the days of Taylor and Mayo.\nDisengagement ... and re-engagement at Xerox: The research on employee behavior tends to suggest that identification and meaningfulness both have an impact on the degree of engagement that a person is willing to provide. There has also been some mention of the impact of trust between an employee and his or her supervisor or manager. It may be argued that a disengaged employee is still able to contribute, particularly if employed to perform repetitive tasks requiring little cognitive involvement. However, if employees at the strategic level of the firm become disengaged, the impact can be debilitating.Consider the example of Xerox. Xerox seemed to be on the ropes in 2000, with US$17.1 billion in debt and US$154 million in cash and capable staff seemingly applying the motto \"a good employee always has somewhere else to go\", by going somewhere else. Remaining Xerox staff displayed all the symptoms of disengagement until the appointment of a new CEO. Fortune termed Anne Mulcahy, Xerox's new CEO as the \"accidental CEO\" (Morris, 2003). According to Morris, Mulcahy laboured stubbornly in the face of advice claiming bankruptcy as the only solution to Xerox's problems.In relative terms Mulcahy's reconstruction of Xerox has been rapid, yet she had little strategic input while the organization was struggling through its difficulties four years previously. Mulcahy had been a Xerox employee for 24 years before finding herself in the top position, yet she was unable to add significant value to the company until she was placed in the CEO's position, from where she was then able to turn the business around in a few short years. Morris (2003) quotes a Xerox employee talking about Mulcahy, \"Her willingness to work shoulder to shoulder with subordinates gives her unusual credibility and the ability to galvanize the team.\"\nIncreasing psychological conditions of identification: Mulcahy's leadership behavior stopped the phenomenon of employee disengagement in its tracks. She increased the psychological conditions of identification and meaning for Xerox's employees, firstly by demonstrating her own willingness and ability to pour herself into the organizational effort, and secondly, by equipping and empowering others to do the same. This was not merely paying lip service to management jargon. Mulcahy's leadership style created trust between top management and Xerox's employees. Once trust had been restored in the organization, the emotions of pride and determination motivated employees to engage with the firm.Taylor noted the same effective correlation between pride and performance in the early 1900s (Wren, 2005), yet it appears that managers must still \"rediscover\" this principle for themselves - and many have simply not learned it at all. Such trust was apparently absent between her predecessor Thoman and Xerox employees.When Richard Thoman was appointed as CEO of Xerox in 1999, Wall Street was excited about his massive reorganization of the company. But according to Kahn and Schlosser (2000) this view was not shared from inside the organization. The authors claim that Thoman was despised for his highhanded manner and his lack of leadership skills. Employees did not trust their newly appointed CEO and Xerox suffered as a consequence.Employees respond to an environment in which there is mutual trust. Perry and Mankin (2004) contend that managerial expertise should relate positively to trust; therefore a manager's credibility forms a crucial component of trustworthiness. They also identified the importance of employee perceptions and how this influences trust. They claim that employee perception of management turnover indicates leadership instability. This perception would introduce an element of insecurity for employees, which would in turn negatively affect identification and meaningfulness of work.\nConclusion: There is sufficient evidence to suggest that employee disengagement is on the rise, and it is also apparent that large numbers of managers are uncertain of causes or interventions needed to re-engage the employee with the firm.The cause of disengagement has not yet been adequately identified, although a number of potential catalysts have been discussed. Some of these catalysts are shown in the table in Figure 2. It may be possible that some forms of disengagement can be attributed to the external environment, perhaps the employee feels a sense of instability or insecurity emanating from government, unions, the neighbourhood, or shareholders. Psychological factors may include declining levels of trust between management and subordinates.It could be speculated that such declining trust may result from changes in the work environment such as contractual changes of employment or management turnover. Such changes may reduce worker identification with their employing organization. They may include increasing demands for cognitive rather than physical input as organizations move from doing to knowing. They may include a declining sense of work meaningfulness in an increasingly complex living environment. They could be the result of cynicism about equity in pay and performance, frustrated ambitions, disinterest in the job, or any number of other psychological issues. Further research into the causes of disengagement will provide a better basis for identifying a cure or range of interventions.It is possible that one individual in a position of power and influence with leadership qualities can excise a state of disengagement and stimulate and focus employee energy. Similarly, one individual with power and influence but who is lacking in leadership ability may be responsible for creating a climate of disengagement and thereby deplete the organization of its energy. In the latter case, employees may decide to remain with their organization but their hearts and minds have disengaged from the task. Again, further research should identify what these leadership or management deficits may be.\nPolicies and procedures cultivate disengagement: Organizational structures, traditions, rules, policies, conditions, and procedures may also cultivate disengagement. With increasing levels of education and global awareness, employees are perhaps venting their frustrations by withholding commitment and energy. A ponderous bureaucracy, lack of resourcing, low standards and acceptance of poor performance may all contribute to employee disengagement (Pech, 2001).Many of the above causes may suggest that the fault for disengagement always lies with the firm or its managers; this is not always the case. The employee may be responsible for the initial problem that has switched him of her off, but the organization is also responsible as it must then manage the situation. Whether this calls for counselling, training, retrenchment, demotion, or negotiation, managers must confront such problems before they become embedded within the firm's culture.\nCurrent conditions create climate for trust, innovation: Globalisation, speed, and ambiguity on the business landscape demand the highest levels of fitness to facilitate organizational survival. In such volatile environments, competitors with the right combinations of economic outputs, trust, innovation, and leadership have the greatest prospects for survival. No organization can afford to underutilize its employee energy. It is argued that employee engagement is a critical field for further research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The article discusses employee disengagement, a phenomenon where employees are at work but are minimizing their work contribution.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Examples of disengagement are discussed as well as possible causes. This is a call for further research in order to examine whether employee disengagement is rampant in our organizations, and on the increase while being largely ignored by managers, or whether it is a myth and should be of little concern to anyone.\nFindings: - The phenomenon of employee disengagement appears to be correlated with conditions where there is a lack of psychological identification and psychological meaningfulness. Disengagement also appears to be maximized under conditions of poor leadership and when levels of trust between managers and subordinates are low. Evidence suggests that there are large discrepancies in the methods and the scales used to measure employee engagement and disengagement.\nPractical implications: - There is much conflicting and anecdotal evidence that employee disengagement is increasing. Disengagement may result from numerous causes and conditions. Once the catalysts for disengagement are understood, managers can be better equipped to deal with falling employee commitment and energy levels, thus gaining greater traction on the global business landscape.\nOriginality/value: - This paper argues that the phenomenon of employee disengagement is increasing but that the methods for its identification are inadequate. Finally, the authors argue that the majority of managers seem unwilling or unable to halt the rising tide of employee disengagement.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Bosses who admit "we could do better": Leadership surveys offer cause for concern - but hint that the tide might have turned
|
[
"Competitive strategy",
"Development",
"Leadership",
"Research",
"Training"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nVolatile world: There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that the quality of business leaders has improved during the last decade.Worse, you could argue that the need for good leadership is greater than ever. According to a recent, worldwide IBM study of 1,500 chief executive officers (CEOs), the business world is more volatile than at any time in living memory. None of these leaders, certainly in Western countries, has ever experienced such uncertainty. The call for strong and dynamic leadership, then, is more urgent than ever but there is no indication that things have changed so far.However, the battle for talent is back on and there are indications that the tide could be turning. The Conference Board's 2010 study of CEO challenges suggests that bosses are now concerning themselves increasingly with such issues as business growth, talent and innovation. Both research and development (R&D), and leadership development spending also appear to be on the rise.UK-based global talent management company DDI, whose own recent research painted that negative picture of leadership quality, has found evidence that bosses often have a realistic and less-than-glowing opinion of themselves. DDI's Global Leadership Forecast suggests that only 38 percent of leaders, at all levels, rate their organization's leadership as \"excellent\" or \"very good\", although only three percent went so far as to give themselves a \"poor\" rating. Their HR peers come up with an even gloomier assessment.\nConstant values: HR leaders need to think about the leadership skills that will be required during the next few years. It is true that, as far as leaders are concerned, the five most crucial areas of expertise remain constant. They are: driving and managing change; identifying and developing future talent; fostering creativity and innovation; coaching and developing others; and executing organizational strategy.However, opinions sought regarding the past three years and the next three years do reveal some interesting trends. \"Driving and managing\" remains top of the tree, and the percentage of leaders who now report that skill-set as most critical for the future has grown from 38 percent to 48 percent. And the percentage of leaders focusing on ability to identify and develop future talent, and to foster creativity has soared. But only 50-60 percent of leaders said they were effective in any critical leadership skills.With as many as one in three newly hired leaders failing to live up to expectation, most organizations have been undermined at some point by a bad selection. Good validation systems relating to such issues as leaders' skills, knowledge and experiences, and personality characteristics can be the basis of a successful profile, which can be followed by use of assessments, psychometric tools, behavioral-based interviews and simulations. There is evidence that internal hiring can be more successful, so long as the correct validation tools are not overlooked.Comparison data show that the most effective organizations used more development methods. A 70/20/10 approach to leadership development - workplace experience and doing; coaching and feedback; and formal training respectively - is becoming increasingly common. The Global Leadership Forecast found that formal training is disproportionately important, which means it must make its presence felt with an impact that goes way beyond the classroom.Alarmingly, only 18 percent of HR professionals believe that their organization has adequate bench strength. It suggests that the majority of organizations are not addressing the crucial issue of the need to fill the gaps in their leadership pipeline. Lack of foresight is the simple and most common explanation.\nTalent-spotting: The argument used by some senior managers that they know who their successors are does not really wash. Companies should be spotting the real talents who are five to ten years away from senior roles to prepare them for bigger challenges. It is all about focusing on the people with most potential, executives who then need time and space to develop.A case study from one of the world's largest electronics companies provides one success story. The firm took a more strategic approach to global leadership development, as a result of which it achieved significantly greater competitive advantage in recruiting and hiring new leadership talent. Working in partnership with DDI, the company, which has more than 11,000 leaders in 35 countries, was able to see that leaders were strong on task orientation and getting results, but weaker in people management and coaching.A core curriculum was developed, providing a more structured and unified approach to training high-potential leaders. It helped them to develop the skills and competencies they needed and therefore appealed to new talent. This has effectively paved the way for creation of a stronger and more sustainable talent pipeline.Another case study involved one of the world's leading producers of construction materials with more than 80,000 employees at 70 production sites worldwide. In 2007-2008, it partnered with DDI to design a global leadership development program called Leadership for Accelerated Performance and Growth (LEAP). The aim was to provide leaders with the opportunity to develop skills that will have a direct impact on both job performance and that of the people who report directly to them. Five training modules were delivered across 21 regions with 775 leadership participants.\nGetting better: There were many positive changes recorded through feedback taken between three months and a year after the program started. Among the most significant, 67 percent more leaders reported practicing effective leadership behaviors. This view was supported by observers who reported a 44 percent increase in effective leadership skills.More than half of participants reported an increase in productivity which could be put down to their own improvements in behavior. Furthermore, most observers reported that these changes had the positive knock-on effect of increasing their own loyalty or willingness to remain at the company.Leadership skills improved in areas where performance was already considered strong, as well as in those which had been identified as growth opportunities. In this respect, senior management is setting the right example by working closely with others to identify the skills they need and where both weaknesses and strengths lie. It's the best way to ensure that, ultimately, business leadership does move up in the world rather than remaining on a plateau.\nComment: This review is based on \"Preparing our leaders of the future,\" by Steve Newhall. There would appear to be a refreshing level of honesty among business leaders about the way they rate their own performance. The research enables Newhall to raise some interesting points about changing perceptions of the critical skills needed for leadership.\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: - There would appear to be a refreshing level of honesty among business leaders about the way they rate their own performance. The research enables Newhall to raise some interesting points about changing perceptions of the critical skills needed for leadership.\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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] |
The mediating role of work atmosphere in the relationship between supervisor cooperation, career growth and job satisfaction
|
[
"Supervisors",
"Career development",
"Job satisfaction",
"Working conditions"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the modern era, business organizations are facing several challenges because of the dynamic nature of the work atmosphere (Raziq and Maulabakhsh, 2015). One of the many challenges for a business is to satisfy its employees to cope up with the ever-changing and evolving work atmosphere and to achieve success and remain in competition (Mun et al., 2017; Yildirim, Gulmez, and Yildirim, 2016; Devi and Rani, 2016; Raziq and Maulabakhsh, 2015). To increase efficiency, effectiveness, productivity and job commitment of employees, the business must satisfy the needs of its employees by providing good working conditions (Khoreva et al., 2017; Bexheti and Bexheti, 2016; Raziq and Maulabakhsh, 2015). A number of past studies observed that most businesses ignore the work atmosphere within their organization resulting in an adverse effect on the performance of their employees (Shu et al., 2018; Li et al., 2018; Monga et al., 2015; Spector, 1997). According to those studies, work atmosphere consists of safety to employees, job security, good relations with co-workers, recognition for good performance, motivation for performing well and participation in the decision-making process of the firm. They further expounded that once employees understand that the firm considers them important, they will have high level of commitment and a sense of ownership for their organization. Several past studies have examined the effects of different factors on work atmosphere and job satisfaction (Raziq and Maulabakhsh, 2015; Baeza et al., 2018; Zeffane and Melhem, 2017; Edgar and Geare, 2005), but none of these studies have investigated the direct impacts of supervisor's cooperation and career growth on work atmosphere and their indirect impacts on job satisfaction mediating through work atmosphere in the workplace.\nTheory and past research: The hygiene-motivation theory\nResearch model and hypotheses: The research model used in the study is shown in Figure 2. In the model, there are two constructs which influence job satisfaction directly and indirectly to see whether there is any mediating effect of work atmosphere, which is crucial to the talented employee retention in the continual changing business arena (Ritter et al., 2018). The five hypotheses embodied in the model are listed below. The directionality stated in each hypothesis is derived from the prior discussion about the constructs in the literature review (Figure 2).\nMethodology: Data collection took place in July and August 2017. A total of 325 employees of ACI Company located in the capital region of Dhaka municipality of Bangladesh were contacted to complete a questionnaire that contained measures of the constructs of concern. ACI established as the subsidiary of Imperial Chemical Industries in 1968. The company operates through a disciplined workforce and human resources management practices (ACI, 2017). As this organization is one of the oldest and largest conglomerates in Bangladesh, the present study selected it to study on its human resource management practices and accordingly collected data from the employees of this single company. The questionnaire was pilot tested with a small number of employees of the organization. Table I lists the profile of the respondents of the survey.\nResults and discussion: Several past studies investigated about employee or job satisfaction and its determinants, but none of these studies have examined comprehensively the associations between supervisor cooperation or career growth and job satisfaction mediating through work atmosphere. This study has demonstrated, at least for this sample, that the work atmosphere in the workplace is more important as a mediating variable than other concerns over the association between supervisor cooperation or career growth and job satisfaction in a manufacturing work environment. In the study, work atmosphere had a significant impact on employee job satisfaction (H1), while supervisor cooperation in the workplace did not (no support for H4). Supervisor cooperation and career growth, in turn, affected work atmosphere (H2 and H3).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating role of work atmosphere which have a positive influence on job satisfaction. Specifically, it focuses on how supervisor's cooperation and career growth affect job satisfaction mediating through work atmosphere in a private corporate entity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To attain this objective, a research framework with a mediating variable of work atmosphere was formulated. Using measurement scales created to assess different aspects of job satisfaction, career growth, supervisor's cooperation and work atmosphere, a survey instrument was developed to test the various relationships implied by the framework. Data (n = 325) were collected from the employees of a local chemical company in Bangladesh following convenience sampling procedure. The analysis has been done by bootstrapping procedure following structural equation modeling (SEM).\nFindings: The result shows that work atmosphere has a significant mediating role in linking supervisor cooperation and job satisfaction of the employees in the organization.\nResearch limitations/implications: As with any study, there are limitations to the study described here. One possible drawback is the use of a single company's employees as respondents. Second, the sample size is not very large, because respondents were observed to be negligent in filling the questionnaire provided to them. If the sample size could be increased a bit more, then the authors might have better outcomes as postulated in the paper. Nevertheless, the usual cautions about over-generalizing findings from this sample, to populations for which it is not strictly representative, apply. The sample was not randomly drawn to represent a population to which findings could be generalized. Instead, it was a convenience sample, and as such, the ability to generalize the findings very far beyond the sample is limited.\nPractical implications: From a practical perspective, as a cumulative body of work on job satisfaction with mediating variable of work atmosphere emerges, the authors will be better able to advise employers on the elements they need to address to increase their employee retention rate. In this study, the one area of findings that may help business and commercial organizations the most concerns work environment in the workplace. The authors found that supervisor cooperation and work atmosphere were associated with positive path value toward job satisfaction. Similarly, career growth and work atmosphere also exhibit positive path value towards job satisfaction. The implication is that employers can focus on supervisor cooperation in rightly and duly promoting the deserving employees, and in doing so, they can generate positive attitudes toward these activities.\nOriginality/value: This paper will add immense importance of work atmosphere to the organizational learning and behavior.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Causes and consequences of grudge-holding in service relationships
|
[
"Trust",
"Service failures"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers can be found at the end of this article.\nTheory and hypothesis development for grudge-holding: reasons, antecedents, and consequences: Why do people hold grudges?\nMethodology: The methodology for this study was an experiment using scenarios. A pre-test of the experiment was performed to establish measurement characteristics and to test manipulations.Experimental design\nResults: Exit barriers and service recovery\nDiscussion: Implications for theory\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to place grudge-holding as a theoretical construct, measure it, and empirically place it in a nomological net and, additionally to discuss the consequences of grudge-holding in this research.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A 2 x 2 scenario-based experiment was performed using 320 subjects, approximately 80 people per condition. The size of the exit barrier (high/low) and the effectiveness of the service recovery (good/poor) were varied between each scenario to determine changes in grudge-holding.\nFindings: - Some consequences of grudge-holding are retaliation desire and communication avoidance. Although trust was tested in this research, and is still an important relationship variable, the results show that loss of trust cannot explain these outcomes in the presence of grudge-holding.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The results are limited by the fact that they are based on scenarios rather than real events. As such, they should be interpreted with some caution, and confirmed by later studies using cross-sectional or natural experimental data.\nPractical implications: - A grudge-holding item should be included in routine customer satisfaction surveys, especially since grudge-holders are less likely to initiate communication. If grudge-holding is suspected, this paper suggests steps that managers can take to defuse grudges.\nOriginality/value: - The results of this research confirm that grudge-holding is an important construct of service relationships. Understanding grudge-holding is important because it predicts the desire for retaliation and the desire to avoid communication, both of which can increase expenses for the firm, and eventually lead to a mass exit of customers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Green supply chain management practices and performance
|
[
"Performance",
"Institutional theory",
"Green supply chain management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Environmental concerns and the inclusion of green practices within the supply chain is a subject that has become topical in academic literature. This interest is mirrored by the increasing interest in the environment and climate change and the efforts by governments and organizations around the world to minimize their impact on the environment. According to Sarkis (2012), the integration of environmental issues and supply chain management (SCM) has become a thriving subfield over the past two decades. Despite its increasing popularity in industrialized countries, there are still several areas of green supply chain management (GSCM) that require further research particularly as greening the supply chain has been identified as a key issue of sustainable SCM (Large and Thomsen, 2011; Kenneth et al., 2012). GSCM has also begun to gain popularity in emerging economy countries such as China and Malaysia. For example, Eltayeb et al. (2011) studied the outcomes of green supply chain initiatives among ISO 14001 certified firms in Malaysia, whereas Zailani et al. (2012), carried out a study on GSCM research in Malaysia to analyze the impact of internal and external forces on environmental performance. However, studies in the context of other emerging economy countries, including Thailand, are still relatively rare.Hence, this study examines the deployment of green supply chain practices and evaluates associated outcomes. The motivation for the research is threefold. First, although there are several studies that examine the relationships between GSCM practices and organizational performance (Eltayeb et al., 2011; Sang et al., 2012), there is a dearth of studies that have considered these relationships within the context of organizational or business strategy. Testa and Iraldo (2010) identified this gap and proposed the need to consider the impact of business strategy in the deployment of GSCM initiatives. Second, most studies (Zhu et al., 2005; De Giovanni and Esposito Vinzi, 2012; Green et al., 2012) have examined the outcomes of GSCM within the context of tangible measures such as environmental, operational, and economic performance. Consequently, research on intangible outcomes of GSCM practices is limited (Eltayeb et al., 2011). Third, as manufacturing moves to Asia, awareness of green operations or sustainability has become important but relevant studies in Asian countries are not many (Lin et al., 2011; Zhu and Sarkis, 2007; Arlbjorn and Luthje, 2012). In particular, within the context of South East Asia, if GSCM is to be widely implemented, links between practices and performance need to be identified and so there is need for more GSCM research in the sub-region (Rao, 2002; Rao and Holt, 2005).This study also examines the deployment of GSCM and regulatory practices and analyzes their impact on environmental, economic and intangible performance using business strategy as a control variable. The dimensions of business strategy considered are low-cost leadership, and quality and time-based strategy. The evaluation of intangible performance includes perception measures of both internal (employees) and external (customers and suppliers) stakeholders. This study, therefore, makes a significant contribution to on-going research that relate green practices/regulatory practices to performance outcomes by the inclusion of a different set of outcomes within the context of business strategy. Furthermore, data was collected from a developing country with an increasing global business presence but of which very little GSCM research has been carried out.\n2 Literature review: 2.1 Adoption of GSCM: institutional theory perspective\n3 Research framework and hypotheses: The research framework and associated hypotheses are shown in Figure 1.The authors believe that the implementation of GSCM practices and their potential impacts on the outcome variable may be influenced by organizational strategy. According to Min and Galle (2001), adopting GSCM practices will involve set-up costs that an organization without significant financial resources may be unable to afford. The implication is that organizations with a low-cost focused strategy may find it difficult to adopt GSCM practices and this may impact the outcomes achieved. In addition to a cost-based strategy, organization strategies also commonly focus on quality and time (Ward and Duray, 2000; Boyer and Lewis, 2002; Phusavat and Kanchana, 2007). This study suggests that these strategies may also impact on the adoption of GSCM practices and their outcomes since such practices cannot be removed from the overall strategic direction of the organization. The following set of hypotheses argue that a firm's business strategy is significantly associated with environmental, economic and intangible performance. For example, a low-cost strategy precludes a firm from investing heavily in environment improvement, so the relationship should be negatively related. It is therefore proposed that:H1. A low-cost business strategy is inversely associated with environmental performance.H2. A low-cost business strategy is inversely associated with economic performance.H3. A low-cost business strategy is inversely associated with intangible performance.H4. A quality and time-based business strategy is positively associated with environmental performance.H5. A quality and time-based business strategy is positively associated with economic performance.H6. A quality and time-based business strategy is positively associated with intangible performance.The use of performance outcomes to evaluate GSCM initiatives has been acknowledged in previous studies (Zhu et al., 2005; Azevedo et al., 2011; Green et al., 2012). According to Buyukozkan and Cifci (2012), it is important to use environmental and non-environmental-based measures to evaluate green supply chains. This is because in addition to enabling the greening of the supply chain, the initiative needs to be sensible when viewed from a business perspective. The potential impacts of different GSCM practices have also been discussed in literature. According to Kumar et al. (2012), GSCM practices provide the potential for cost savings, improved efficiency and attracting new suppliers and customers. They further explained that specific reasons for adopting GSCM practices included improved brand reputation, compensating for global warming and increasing energy and commodity prices as well as improved supply chain integration. On the basis of this and of the earlier discussion on performance measures in the literature section, the hypotheses in this study are based on three environmental and non-environmental outcomes.This study aims to examine whether different green supply chain practices can impact on all three dimensions of outcomes that have been identified. For example, according to Koh et al. (2012), eco-product design implies effective use of materials and waste reduction. Reduction of waste can lead to better costs for the organization and better use of materials can positively impact environmental performance while eco-designed products can lead to improved brand image. A similar argument applies to eco-packaging design which is typified by reusable and recyclable packaging, waste minimization by means of reduced packaging and reduction or elimination of hazardous material in packaging (Carter and Carter, 1998; Walker et al., 2008; Large and Thomsen, 2011; Buyukozkan and Cifci, 2012). Similarly, regulatory practices typically involve the reduction or elimination of hazardous materials in products and packaging and well as the adoption of recycling, reuse and environmentally-friendly disposal (Lu et al., 2007; Hitchcock, 2012) and these can all impact cost, company/brand image and the environment. The following set of hypotheses argue that GSCM practices significantly predict the level of environmental, economic and intangible performance of a firm. It is, therefore, proposed that:H7. Green purchasing has a positive impact on environmental performance.H8. Product-related eco-design has a positive impact on environmental performance.H9. Packaging-related eco-design has a positive impact on environmental performance.H10. Reverse logistics has a positive impact on environmental performance.H11. Legislation and regulation have a positive impact on environmental performance.H12. Green purchasing has a positive impact on economic performance.H13. Product-related eco-design has a positive impact on economic performance.H14. Packaging-related eco-design has a positive impact on economic performance.H15. Reverse logistics has a positive impact on economic performance.H16. Legislation and regulation have a positively impact on economic performance.H17. Green purchasing has a positive impact on intangible performance.H18. Product-related eco-design has a positive impact on intangible performance.H19. Packaging-related eco-design has a positive impact on intangible performance.H20. Reverse logistics has a positive impact on intangible performance.H21. Legislation and regulation have a positive impact on intangible performance.\n4 Research design, analyses and results: 4.1 Research instrument design\n5 Results: 5.1 Factor analysis and descriptive statistical analysis\n6 Discussion: The findings from this study clearly show the importance of legislation and regulation to GSCM implementation by Thai manufacturers. The fear of legislation associated with compliance with environmental standards and regulations is clearly the most important driver for these organizations. The authors believe that these are defensive and reactionary drivers of practice and performance. The fact that the legislative and regulatory drivers are the only practices associated with all three dimensions of performance further confirm their levels of importance and the perceptive priority in which they are held by Thai manufacturers. In contrast, the level of adoption of reverse logistics is relatively low and it is not significantly associated with any of the dimensions of performance. There may indeed be many varied reasons why the adoption of reverse logistics is low. For example, manufacturers may believe that the cost of putting in place a reverse logistics infrastructure is prohibitive compared to the gains that they foresee. It may also be possible that, depending on the product, reverse logistics is seen as impractical or it may well be that the culture of recycling is not deeply entrenched in Thai society. Thai manufacturers have either failed to recognize the role that recycling can play in improving their performance or have decided to ignore it in favor of other green supply chain practices. A study by Lau and Wang (2009), suggested that reverse logistics adoption in the Chinese electronics industry suffer from lack of enforceable laws, prohibitive high cost of investment and low public awareness of environmental protection. This study would suggest that these factors may also be applicable in Thailand. In particular, the high priority given to legislation and regulation in contrast to reverse logistics and product-related eco-design would suggest that there are no regulations to motivate adoption of the latter two. It would also suggest that a re-active approach to green supply chain practices is more dominant than a pro-active approach.Previous studies have found a link between green supply chain practices and financial performance and it has also been suggested that the processes that reduce waste and cut costs cannot only improve financial performance but can also improve environmental performance (Curkovic et al., 2000; Wu and Pagell, 2011). It has also been suggested that economic performance is the primary priority for manufacturers in developing countries (Zhu and Sarkis, 2007). However, the fact that Thai manufacturers only positively associate packaging-related eco-design and legislation and regulations with economic performance suggests a failure to understand the interlinked nature of green supply chain practices and how practices such as product-related eco-design (e.g. using recycled materials, ensuring products are recyclable) and reverse logistics cannot only impact environmental and intangible performance, but can also impact economic performance. This interlinked nature was also confirmed in the paper by Kumar et al. (2012). Furthermore, there is a disconnect between the high levels of attainment in intangible performance and the relatively high levels of adoption on green purchasing and it appears that Thai manufacturers have not recognized or fully exploited the positive impact that green purchasing practices can have on their products and their corporate image.The study also found significant positive relationships between a quality and time-based strategy and all three dimensions of performance but no significant relationships were found between a low-cost strategy and any of the dimensions of performance. The indication is that organizations that choose a low-cost strategy are unlikely to invest in the adoption of green supply chain practices as a route to improving performance. Clearly, putting in place the infrastructure to implement green practices would require resources that may not be available to a low-cost organization or that may be reflected in product pricing and thereby negating the low-cost strategy. On the other hand, organizations that have a quality and time-based strategy are much more likely to link green supply chain practices with their strategy. It can be argued, for example, that producing products or using packaging that is recycled/recyclable and that avoids hazardous material requires a certain level of inherent quality development and time-focused processes and infrastructure to facilitate the logistics of recycling.\n7 Conclusions and managerial implications: This study has examined pro-active and re-active practices in implementing green supply chain and its association with performance among Thai manufacturers. It has found that legislation and regulation is regarded as a priority and is a key driver of environmental, economic and intangible performance while reverse logistics has relatively low-adoption levels and was not significantly linked with any of the dimensions of performance. The study has also found that manufacturers that pursue a low-cost strategy are less likely to adopt the green practices that will lead to a positive association with the three dimensions of performance examined in this study. Conversely, organizations that adopt a quality and time-based strategy are more likely to invest in green supply chain practices that will lead to a significant positive association with the three dimensions of performance. The study has also argued that Thai manufacturers appear to have failed to understand the potential link between some green supply chain practices and some dimensions of performance. It can therefore be suggested that if this link is properly understood and prioritized, the manufacturers may place more emphasis on pro-active green supply chain practices (as opposed to re-active practices driven by legislation and regulation) and thereby improve their performance levels even more. There are clearly developmental issues still to be considered in the Thai manufacturing industry within the context of GSCM.This study has significant managerial implications for Thai manufacturing industry and potentially other developing countries. First, Thai manufacturers need to understand the potential positive impact that green supply chain practices can have on different dimensions of performance and consequently, be more pro-active in their adoption of such practices. Second, the country's authorities need to recognize the impact of legislation and regulation on the actions of manufacturers and consider how this can be utilized to further enhance green supply chain practices, e.g. recycling and reuse of products and packaging. Third, organizations need to be aware that pursuing a low-cost strategy may impact on their ability to invest in green supply chain practices and this not only precludes them from gaining the associated benefits but may leave them vulnerable and exposed to future legislation and regulations.Academically, there is a need to understand the missing links between some of the GSCM practices and some of the dimensions of performance considered in this study. There is also a need to examine infrastructure and strategies for reverse logistics in developing countries such as Thailand.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to examine the deployment of pro-active and re-active practices in the implementation of green supply chain management (GSCM) and analyze their impact on environmental, economic, and intangible performance by considering business strategy as organizational focus.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data were collected from a sample of 190 ISO 14001 certified manufacturing companies in Thailand and used to test the research hypotheses. Factor analysis was used to examine the construct validity while multivariate linear regression was used to test criteria validity.\nFindings: - The threat of legislation and regulation (re-active practices) was a consideration that resulted in companies enhancing their environmental, economic, and intangible performance. Reverse logistics practices (pro-active practices) had low levels of adoption and do not have a significant impact on GSCM performance.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This study did not consider some aspects of organizational culture interaction between key customers and suppliers in the supply chain.\nOriginality/value: - The results of this study suggest that organizations need to be aware that pursuing a low-cost strategy may impact negatively on their ability to invest in GSCM.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A study of boosted evolutionary classifiers for detecting spam
|
[
"Genetic algorithms",
"Genetic programming",
"Support vector machine",
"Bayesian classifier",
"Naive bayes",
"Classification accuracy",
"F-value",
"False positive rate",
"Greedy stepwise search",
"AdaBoost"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In today's electronic world, information sharing between the units of an organization is necessary to be competitive and sustainable in business. Email is an essential and useful tool for rapid and cheap communication. It is now a popular medium for connecting people with each other. On the other hand, spam (also known as unsolicited bulk email) is a challenge for the researcher because its size is increasing day by day. A study has estimated that 70 per cent of business emails are spam (Aviv). This rapid growth has caused serious issues, such as user mailboxes filling up unnecessarily, important emails being engulfed by unimportant ones, storage space and bandwidth is limited, and the process of sorting emails being excessively time-consuming (Trivedi and Dey, 2013a, 2013b, 2013c, 2013d).\n2. Related work: A number of studies have been carried out in the area of text classification, and various machine learning classifiers have shown their potential. This study focuses on email spam classification, an area where evolutionary algorithms are an appealing choice. This section summarizes the literature related to relevant classifiers that have been tested on various data sets.\n3. Machine learning classifiers: 3.1 Boosting with AdaBoost\n4. Structure of an email classifier: The information for an email file is divided into the header (general information, such as subject, sender, and recipient) and the body (the main content of the email) (Figure 1). This study focuses only on the email body.\n5. Results and discussion: To evaluate the performance of the classifiers, tests were run on the Enron (versions 5 and 6) and SpamAssassin data sets. Tables V and VI and Figures 2 and 3 present a comparative analysis of the GA and GP classifiers with and without boosting. Tables VII and VIII and Figures 4 and 5 present a comparative analysis of evolutionary classifiers with other popular classifiers (Bayesian, NB and SVM). The performance is shown in terms of accuracy, F-value and FP rate.\n6. Conclusion, research implications and limitations: Evolutionary algorithm-based classifiers are now very familiar in the literature because of their interesting rules. This study has shown the strength of wrapper feature search algorithms; the GreedyStepwise feature search method obtained as a smaller number of best informative features and the GA classifier demonstrated its potential for accurate classification. GA and GP classifiers were tested in this study, with and without boosting. Over numerous iterations, GP showed excellent classification strength with the help of the boosting strategy; GA initially gave satisfactory results compared to GP but, after numerous iterations, its performance deteriorated and did not approach the level of performance of GP. When comparison was made with various other classifiers, BGP again proved its potential with excellent performance, with the SVM and Bayesian classifiers the second and third best, respectively. BGP also showed its strength insensitivity of classification; in each iteration, its FP rate was always the lowest value.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Email is a rapid and cheapest medium of sharing information, whereas unsolicited email (spam) is constant trouble in the email communication. The rapid growth of the spam creates a necessity to build a reliable and robust spam classifier. This paper aims to presents a study of evolutionary classifiers (genetic algorithm [GA] and genetic programming [GP]) without/with the help of an ensemble of classifiers method. In this research, the classifiers ensemble has been developed with adaptive boosting technique.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Text mining methods are applied for classifying spam emails and legitimate emails. Two data sets (Enron and SpamAssassin) are taken to test the concerned classifiers. Initially, pre-processing is performed to extract the features/words from email files. Informative feature subset is selected from greedy stepwise feature subset search method. With the help of informative features, a comparative study is performed initially within the evolutionary classifiers and then with other popular machine learning classifiers (Bayesian, naive Bayes and support vector machine).\nFindings: This study reveals the fact that evolutionary algorithms are promising in classification and prediction applications where genetic programing with adaptive boosting is turned out not only an accurate classifier but also a sensitive classifier. Results show that initially GA performs better than GP but after an ensemble of classifiers (a large number of iterations), GP overshoots GA with significantly higher accuracy. Amongst all classifiers, boosted GP turns out to be not only good regarding classification accuracy but also low false positive (FP) rates, which is considered to be the important criteria in email spam classification. Also, greedy stepwise feature search is found to be an effective method for feature selection in this application domain.\nResearch limitations/implications: The research implication of this research consists of the reduction in cost incurred because of spam/unsolicited bulk email. Email is a fundamental necessity to share information within a number of units of the organizations to be competitive with the business rivals. In addition, it is continually a hurdle for internet service providers to provide the best emailing services to their customers. Although, the organizations and the internet service providers are continuously adopting novel spam filtering approaches to reduce the number of unwanted emails, the desired effect could not be significantly seen because of the cost of installation, customizable ability and the threat of misclassification of important emails. This research deals with all the issues and challenges faced by internet service providers and organizations.\nPractical implications: In this research, the proposed models have not only provided excellent performance accuracy, sensitivity with low FP rate, customizable capability but also worked on reducing the cost of spam. The same models may be used for other applications of text mining also such as sentiment analysis, blog mining, news mining or other text mining research.\nOriginality/value: A comparison between GP and GAs has been shown with/without ensemble in spam classification application domain.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Today's executives develop those of tomorrow at Eli Lilly: Storytelling fosters leadership talent
|
[
"Leadership",
"Leadership development",
"Training",
"Pharmaceuticals industry"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: General practitioners dread the appearance on the main television news bulletins of a story announcing a scientific breakthrough in the treatment of, for example, arthritis or cancer. They know that people wanting the new treatment will swamp their surgeries the following day - even though the news item has expressly stated that the research is at an early stage and no new treatment will reach the market for a number of years.\nLeaders supply the motive power to change: In the words of Sidney Taurel, chief executive of global pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, which employs 44,000 people worldwide and spends about $9 million a day on research and development: \"The connection between leadership and change is obvious. Leadership has no meaning in a steady-state environment. Only when we enter a new territory, when we don't know the way, do we need people to step forward and lead. So a leader, in essence, is someone who provides direction and supplies the motive power to change.\"Leadership development is an important aspect of the work of the Lilly Research Laboratories (LRL) Institute, which is guided in this task by a leadership-development council. Made up of about ten senior leaders plus the head of the LRL Institute, the council:* assesses needs and gaps in the leadership pipeline and decides where to invest;* uses feedback from existing programs to improve future offerings; and* conveys key messages to top talent regarding participation.Council members are often called on to take part in developing new programs and to act as faculty members for core programs. In addition, they:* encourage their colleagues to become involved;* hand pick participants for leadership-development programs; and* mentor high-potential and emerging leaders.\nThe inspirational leadership course: The role of senior leaders is particularly important in the company's inspirational leadership course. Developed for Lilly Research Laboratories by the leadership council and Barnes & Conti Associates, it targets managers at the director level, selected by their supervisors as having high potential for becoming top-level leaders in the organization. Executive directors and vice-presidents co-lead the course for 1.5 of its 2.5 days. This offers these senior leaders the opportunity to get to know the developing leaders in a fairly informal and intimate setting. Moreover, it gives the developing leaders opportunities to interact with current leaders who have been identified as \"inspirational\", and so provides positive models and support for the concepts and skills taught and practised in the program. Finally, senior leaders who commit 1.5 days of their valuable time to developing leadership skills in others send a powerful message and model to participants.The course teaches participants to inspire and motivate others, increase productivity and commitment, and establish a culture that fosters innovation. The focus of the course moves from:* the self - understanding one's own motivators and personal mission, values and vision, and learning to tell powerful leadership stories based on one's own experiences; to* others - developing the characteristics and skills associated with inspirational leadership; to* the organization - creating a vision of the future and choosing a leadership project to apply the skills.The senior leader commits to being there for the full first day, during which he or she provides a model for participants by demonstrating each of the exercises and holding open and informal conversations with participants.\nLeadership and storytelling: One theme the course is the value of stories in communicating important messages. A good story can make people listen, take part, laugh, learn and remember. Successful storytelling can not only engage but also inspire. The senior leaders who co-lead the course tell stories based on their own experiences and the lessons they have learned during their careers. Coming from a respected and admired leader, a story disclosing a difficulty or failure can help to build trust and encourage openness. Moreover, a story that describes a familiar situation can provide the credibility that is vital to connecting with the audience. Storytelling can also increase a senior leader's self-knowledge.\nEncouraging senior leadership involvement: HR specialists who hope to involve their organization's senior leaders in leadership development need to make a good business case for it. This will involve providing benchmarks that describe how other companies have used senior leaders in these roles with good results. It will also involve emphasising the value to both the individual leader and to the organization. This could include, for example, giving the senior executive the opportunity to:* stay connected with the business and the people and to influence both;* address cultural concerns, some of which may be the result of rumor and misinformation;* meet new talent and broaden his or her network;* work on listening skills and learn what high-performing future leaders are thinking about;* move some of these new ideas into action by sharing them with senior colleagues; and* model the values and leadership behaviors.Many executives will have reached a stage in their careers where it is important to leave a stamp on the organization, and the opportunity to influence tomorrow's leaders and to leave a legacy will therefore be highly motivating to them.\nComment: This review is based on \"Inspirational leadership: involving senior leaders in developing the next generation\", by Jack Harris, vice-president, medical, Lilly Research Laboratories, Indianapolis, USA, and B. Kim Barnes, president and chief executive, Barnes & Conti Associates, Berkley, California, USA (Harris and Barnes, 2006). The article advances the view that, in a perfect world, developing the leaders who will create a company's future should be high on the priority list of any organization's current leadership. In the real world, of course, few senior leaders are able or willing to commit the time and energy required by this very important - but usually not urgent - activity. The article describes, in a direct and readable way, how Eli Lilly's Lilly Research Laboratories has encouraged and supported the deep engagement of senior leaders in leadership development. The article focuses on one of the programs, \"Inspirational leadership\".\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Shares the successful experience of Lilly Research Laboratories (LRL) in engaging senior leaders in developing the next generation of leaders.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Describes LRL's major leadership development programmes, and in particular the course on inspirational leadership.\nFindings: - Reveals that the commitment of a significant amount of time to employee development by respected senior leaders is a powerful message and model to participants. The ability to interact in a deeply personal way with senior leaders is highly motivating. The involvement of senior leaders in the design and development of programmes gives them a strong interest in later participation. Being identified as an inspirational leader and having the opportunity to influence the next generation can be personally rewarding to senior leaders.\nPractical implications: - Highlights the importance of storytelling in the learning experience.\nOriginality/value: - The methods LRL has used to gain the commitment of senior leaders to developing future leaders may be valuable to other organizations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The market-to-book value gap and the accounting fallacy
|
[
"Intellectual capital",
"Behavioural finance",
"Market-to-book gap",
"Theory of the firm"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Market-to-book value (MBV) and intellectual capital (IC) are usually considered as two congenial twins, since the former is seen to be at the same time both a symptom of and the metrics for the latter.\n2. The MBV approach to IC: Studying MBV as the mirror of IC should be carefully analysed, in relation to both the basic assumptions it is based upon and for its implications, herewith including also some counter-intuitive considerations to which it can lead. The basic assumption is that market value, and not accounting value, is the reference point to be adopted.\n3. The theory-of-the-firm approach and the MBV: 3.1 Linking theories of the firm to IC\n4. MBV, the theory of the firm and some implications for empirical research: The three theories of the firm above depicted lead to very different insights into IC-related issues and, for the narrower scope of this paper, the meaning of MBV (from both market and book) and its use in empirical research.\n5. Conclusions: The paper has offered an analysis of the meaning of MBV and of the implications of its use in empirical research. While the topic per se is at the core of some traditional literature, the main contribution of the paper is to highlight that different meanings of MBV (with different implications for research) arise according to some assumptions about what a firm is. A theory of the firm is therefore a useful device for research and practice as it can lead to better understand IC-related issues.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to offer some advancing in the understanding of the market-to-book value (MBV) gap (or ratio) as the symptom and the metrics for intellectual capital (IC) value, and to discuss the major criticisms against it. The original contribution of the paper lies in developing the analysis of the meaning of the MBV from a theory-of-the-firm perspective. Such an approach is employed to shed light on the two sides of MBV: book and market values.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper reviews research on MBV and the theory of the firm, employing a deductive approach that explores criticisms and advantages of the use of the MBV gap as the symptom and the metrics of IC according to a specific theory of the firm.\nFindings: The paper finds that the presumption that an \"accounting fallacy\" exists, which refers to the gap between market and book values, must be revised depending on the chosen theory of the firm. In fact, depending on the theory of the firm to which IC scholars refer, book value could not necessarily equate to market value, even if the latter was unbiased. Again, market value could not be able to express the value of IC.\nResearch limitations/implications: Implications of the paper are mainly for improving consistency in research, but they also support practice for consciousness and awareness. Limitations are the following. First, the paper offers an analysis of just three selected theories of the firm. Second, the analysis is based on a deductive reasoning that can be criticised for results even if not for the aim. Third, one could feel that an IC-centred theory of the firm does not yet exist at all.\nPractical implications: Once reasons for abandoning the misbelief that accounting standards should be set in order to close the gap are highlighted, research on IC can move towards more appropriate goals. On the basis of the criticism presented in the paper, empirical research, which makes use of market and book data, could be carried out in a much more consistent way in relation to theoretical background. The paper highlights how the use of the MBV approach can lead to mistakes without a clear reference to the theory of the firm.\nOriginality/value: The paper focuses on the meaning of the MBV from a theory-of-the-firm perspective, assisting the researcher in avoiding potential mistakes and inconsistencies in their work, and also suggesting some consequences on the practice of IC.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Leading by example: Do the biggest and most generous donors influence others to give more health aid?
|
[
"Development",
"Health policy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The objective of this paper is to explore the interdependence between donor countries' foreign aid expenditure, with a focus on Development Assistance for Health (DAH) or simply health aid.\n2. Methodology and data: The analysis is based on the data for DAH from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). The data set covers 20 OECD donor countries[2] over the period of 1990-2009. The main motivation for analysing health aid is that it is more homogeneous than total aid, which consists of many components, each of which may be motivated by different factors. Furthermore, the IHME data are of a higher quality than aggregate aid data as it takes health aid data from OECD databases and supplements it with data from many other sources. Data on population and GDP is obtained from the OECD.Stat database. Aid and GDP are measured in 2009 US dollars.\n3. Results: Table I shows the results for aid commitments, where the USA, Norway, and Sweden are each considered as the potential leader country. The key variable of interest - leader's commitment - is found to have a positive sign in all estimations, suggesting that the three countries could have positive leverage effects on other donors' aid commitments. On the other hand, all estimations are statistically insignificant except for the one based on the static model for Sweden. However, the lagged dependent variable (i.e. follower's commitment) is significant at the 5 per cent level for all three countries, implying that the static model is incorrectly specified and thus suffers from omitted variable bias. Therefore, based on the results from the dynamic models, none of the countries have discernible positive leader effects on aid commitment. The linear time trend is dropped in the dynamic model because it is found to be highly insignificant; its removal has essentially no effect on the results of other variables; and the models where Sweden is the proposed leader do not pass the OIR tests when it is retained.\n4. Discussion: There is no evidence that the biggest donor - the US - or the most generous donors - Norway and Sweden - have positive leverage effects on other donor countries. In other words, size and generosity are not found to be potent to a donor country's ability to assert international influence as far as health aid is concerned. This means that there seems to be no demonstration effects from the biggest or most generous donors on other donors. From the global development perspective, this finding is hardly encouraging. If there is any consolation, then it will be the finding that other donor countries are not free-riding off these bigger and most generous donors either. Further examination of remaining 17 OECD countries as potential leader confirms that no single country stands out as a leader. In other words, as far as health aid is concerned, the empirical evidence obtained from our data suggests that OECD donor countries by and large operate independently.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the interdependence between donor countries' health aid expenditures. The specific form of interdependence considered is the leader effect, whereby an influential country has a positive leverage effect on other donor countries' aid expenditure. The opposite case of a free-rider effect, whereby a single donor country has a negative leverage effect on its peers, is also considered.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Focusing on the identification of the leader effect avoids the estimation bias present in the identification of the peer group effect, due to endogenous social effect. The empirical analysis focuses on Development Assistance for Health provided by 20 OECD countries over the period of 1990-2009. Aid commitment and aid disbursement are distinguished.\nFindings: When aid dynamics, country heterogeneity, and endogeneity are accounted for, there is no evidence that the biggest donor - the USA, or the most generous donors - Norway and Sweden, exhibit any leverage effects on other donor countries' aid expenditures.\nOriginality/value: This is the first paper to examine the leader and free-rider effects in health aid provision as previous studies focus on peer effects. Any evidence of leader or free-rider effects (or the lack of it) adds to the understanding of international political economy especially in the area of foreign aid provision.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Human capital development in the international organization: rhetoric and reality
|
[
"Human capital",
"International organizations",
"Senior managers",
"Rhetoric",
"Denmark",
"Norway",
"Sweden"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: What is human capital? In the work of management scholars, the term \"human capital\" has been referred to as a key element in improving an organization's assets and employees in order to increase productivity as well as sustain competitive advantage (Becker, 1964; Schultz, 1971). Multiple definitions of human capital have been given to explain its concept, yet nothing much new or different has been said about the concept beyond the extant definition: the repertoire of knowledge, competency, attitude and behavior embedded in an individual (Youndt et al., 2004; Rastogi, 2002). The theory of human capital originated in the field of macroeconomic development theory (Schultz, 1971; Becker, 1964) and has been increasingly applied in the areas of corporate value creation (Rastogi, 2002; Mayo, 2001), competitive advantage (Gratton, 2000; Pfeffer, 1994) and long-term organizational growth (Tomer, 2003; Chuang, 1999). It is principally assumed that the growing emphasis on human capital in organizations reflects the view that market values depend less upon tangible resources and more on intangible resources, particularly human resources (HR). As Rastogi (2000, p. 196) states: \"well-developed human resources serve to provide the foundation on which an edifice of human capital may be built\". It is therefore important for organizations to invest in a program of human capital development (i.e. continuously improving individuals' knowledge, skills, and abilities) for corporate success (Youndt et al., 2004). However, recent evidence reveals that many organizations have not paid sufficiently close attention to human capital development, leading to an under-utilization of talent in the workforce (Kingsmill, 2001).Treating human capital as a means of achieving positive business results is the traditionally dominant approach in the literature. However, little work has been done on what constitutes a framework of human capital development, particularly in view of investigating the gap between rhetoric (what is espoused) and reality (what is enacted) in an international organization. Also, there is scant evidence identifying key dimensions of human capital development that are involved in creating the conditions for such a gap.Much of the human capital literature is prescriptive in tone and managerial in intent, specifying ideal models and broad descriptions as to how to develop human capital in an organization operating in the international environment. An area which has been received particularly scant attention is whether, within companies that have claimed to foster human capital development, human capital has been actually embedded within the firm and to what extent employees have embraced it as a workable and useful organizing set of principles. This leads to a fundamental research question of this study: to what extent is there a gap between rhetoric and reality in the working of human capital concepts and practices in an international organization? Our objective is, therefore, to investigate empirically the relationship between the espoused theory and the theory-in-use (Argyris, 1988) of human capital development in a large international organization, by identifying critical domains of human capital in both organizational and individual contexts. This builds on previous research done by Nordhaug (1993), who called for an empirical investigation of the extent to which an organization embraces the concept of human capital development and, potentially, puts it into practice.In this article, we focus on a case study of a large food company operating in the Nordic region (henceforth known as \"KFI (EU-Nordic)\" - a pseudonym) and its attempts to develop human capital through a number of corporate initiatives. The paper begins with an exploration of the extant theories of human capital development, in order to critically review them, and of the calls for research on the rhetoric and actual practice of human capital development concepts. Then, we move onto the case, examining the link (or lack thereof) between the intentions of management and the practical implementation of human capital development. We conclude by drawing out the major themes from the research and build theory to help explain how human capital becomes embedded (or not) within an organization.\nTheoretical perspectives: Although human capital theory was essentially developed as a contribution to theories on economic growth, a number of organization theorists have used human capital principles to demonstrate how firms can create competitive advantage through developing individuals' human capital (Garavan et al., 2001; Nordhaug, 1993). The literature to date provides a wide range of human capital concepts and definitions (e.g. Gratton and Ghoshal, 2003; Rastogi, 2000), yet still lacks insight into how the concepts of human capital development are embraced and turned into practice. By drawing on theories of the rhetoric and reality (Legge, 1995) in association with human capital development and managerial cognition, a gap in the human capital research can be identified which sets the scene for the present study.Critical views on human capital development\nResearch methodology: Exploratory case study methodology is employed for this research. The rationale for this approach is that it allows the exploration of human capital development with regards to the difference between what policies state and how people act upon them in a single organization. In addition, it allows for the collection of diverse information so as to investigate a contemporary phenomenon within the organization.Case selection\nCase findings: From the focus group and interview data, a number of recurring themes emerged covering human capital development, the rhetoric surrounding its introduction and implementation, and the actual experience of employees. They are:* corporate strategic rhetoric;* corporate structural rhetoric; and* HR management rhetoricAll of these are underpinned by individual cognition.Corporate strategic rhetoric and reality\nDiscussion: The case study of KFI (EU-Nordic) draws out three major issues for discussion. First, employees' responses to the rhetoric of human capital development are not uniformly positive, thus raising the question, \"What is wrong with the rhetoric?\". The initial reaction of employees to the human capital development concepts is that of confusion - \"What does it all mean?\" - and to some extent a suspicion that the new forms of work would produce more work in KFI (EU-Nordic). The rhetoric that senior managers initiate is much concerned with the potential of human capital benefiting the firm and its contributions to HR practice, but not with individual employees as such. The vague nature of the perspectives of human capital development programs within KFI (EU-Nordic) means that there are multiple interpretations of what human capital means, with some elements accepted (where, in general, they do not diverge significantly from existing practices) and some contested. Without the clear technical benefits explained, and the stories of success highlighted, the idea that human capital is merely a fad or a fashion is expressed by some employees as Abrahamson (1996) indicated would be likely. This is also in line with the work of Zbaracki (1998), which suggests that it is important to distinguish between the technical and rhetorical elements of such programs. However, not all employees interviewed showed absolute skepticism toward the human capital development programs. Some positive views were also revealed. This shows variation among the employees, who are considered multiple audiences with diverse interpretations and different sensemaking schemes, leading to justification of potential actions to be undertaken (Weick, 2001). Such multiplicity underlines how complex it might be for the process of human capital development to become embedded.Second, much of the rhetoric of human capital development within KFI (EU-Nordic) is interpreted not just in terms of its symbolic nature but also in terms of what practical benefits or non-benefits such an introduction would bring to HR management practices. The KFI (EU-Nordic) senior managers' claims about the benefits to organizational performance and bottom line results fail to imbue employees with the belief that their HR capabilities would be enhanced in a real sense by the human capital development program. Moreover, the technical content of the human capital development program is often insufficiently specified. The lack of specific cost outcomes for the introduction of human capital, allied with the lack of HR performance targets and indicators, means that the human capital development program is perceived by many employees to have inflated claims for its efficiency and effectiveness. Evidence of success stories following its introduction is hard to find and is certainly not communicated well. This shows that it is difficult to sustain momentum for any change due to the introduction of human capital concepts because of the absence of clarity about the rhetoric of human capital.Third, the matrix design of the organizational structure in KFI (EU-Nordic) has proven to be both enabling and constraining in terms of developing human capital. On the one hand, the matrix structure helps create a way for KFI (EU-Nordic) to be flexible, thus enabling employees' human capital to be developed (e.g. by knowledge sharing and skill training). The KFI (EU-Nordic) employees interviewed reveal that extensive knowledge sharing in a diverse cross-functional environment enables them to be more creative and innovation-oriented, thus supporting the conclusions of Eppinger (2001). On the other hand, the matrix structure leads KFI (EU-Nordic) employees to confront some challenges from (anticipated) bureaucratic practices. It is evident in the data that the emergence of bureaucratic practices within the firm seems antithetical to the KFI (EU-Nordic) corporate value of \"speed\" - fast responsiveness. This partially results in employees' resentment toward the principle of the matrix form because bureaucracy in the matrix design becomes a key constraining factor to employees' human capital development. That is, while employees have the freedom to think and propose \"whatever they believe is the best for the firm\" to management teams, they are somehow restricted in terms of pushing forward their ideas to get concrete results. This may discourage them from developing their innovative thinking to a greater extent.\nConcluding remarks: A critical issue in human capital development research is that much of the human capital literature is prescriptive in tone and managerial in intent, giving broad descriptions of how to develop human capital in the international organization (Nordhaug, 1993). This research, however, goes beyond what the traditional literature has offered, by providing some empirical evidence on the nature of corporate rhetoric (what is stated) and practical reality (what actually happens) in developing human capital. In doing so, it is a response to calls for research by Nordhaug (1993). The findings of the study suggest that there are three crucial dimensions that can distort the rhetoric of human capital development - namely corporate strategic rhetoric, corporate structural rhetoric, and HR management rhetoric - through diverse interpretations by organizational members (or the reality experienced by managers and employees). Managers create rhetoric that needs to be absorbed by employees at different organizational levels, and, in some cases, a counter-rhetoric of human capital is formed. Employees interpret and refine human capital rhetoric in their own interests. Therefore, based on the rhetoric and reality principle proposed by Legge (1995), how human capital can be developed and embedded within the international organization needs close attention from management. Critical thoughts on creating a competitive advantage through human capital need to be re-examined, rather adopting the concept of human capital simply as a management fashion. The extant research on competency development and human capital measurement reflects only a part of the human capital development equation. It is crucial to take a more integrated approach to human capital development, which has not been widely seen in the literature. In a practical sense, this study suggests the need for senior managers to take pre-emptive actions to close a gap between the rhetoric of human capital development and what actually happens in practice. A lack of clarity regarding human capital concepts and their outcomes needs to be overcome through more effective communication strategies.In implementing the study findings, one must be aware of its limitations. The study is limited in scope because it is an exploratory single case study. This makes generalizability of the findings difficult. It would have been much more interesting to examine the proposed dimensions of human capital development in the long term or through a longitudinal study. Such an approach would increase the strength of future studies, as too would the use of contrasting observations from multiple cases.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to present empirical evidence of the nature of corporate rhetoric in developing human capital and how it becomes embedded within a large international organization operating in the Nordic region. The qualitative case study aims to examine the sensemaking of individual managers, and how human capital rhetoric is selected, acted upon, and retained by employees.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An exploratory case study approach is taken in order to provide an in-depth understanding of the rhetoric and reality of human capital development. Focus groups, archival data, and interviews with key informants (i.e. external consultants, senior executives, managers, and employees from various departments across the Nordic business units) are used to explore different perspectives on the phenomena of human capital development.\nFindings: - The findings highlight a number of key dimensions that can distort the rhetoric of human capital: corporate strategy, organizational structure, managerial style, and the cognitive frames of individuals.\nPractical implications: - The study suggests a need for senior managers to take pre-emptive actions to close the gap between the rhetoric of human capital development and what actually happens in practice. A lack of clarity concerning human capital concepts and their outcomes is to be overcome through more effective communication strategies.\nOriginality/value: - The research suggests that managers construct rhetoric that has to be absorbed by multiple audiences and that, in some cases, a counter-rhetoric of human capital is formed. Employees interpret human capital rhetoric, shape it and alter it in their own interests. Ambiguity and ignorance over human capital concepts is succeeded by pragmatic assessment and refinement on the part of employees, with the initial human capital development program iteratively amended as it passes through the organization.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The trading profiles of community retail enterprises
|
[
"Retailing",
"Small shops",
"Communities",
"Small enterprises",
"Co‐operation",
"United Kingdom"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: If modern societies are to try to switch towards supporting more sustainable lifestyles, whether in terms of individual product choices or in terms of overall levels of consumption of the Earth's resources, then distribution systems that support this change are going to become even more important. Along with a range of other well-documented economic, social and political trends, the trend towards large retail stores has led to the identification of so-called \"food deserts\" in both urban (Wrigley, 2002) and rural locations (Bitto et al., 2003). But, in addition, once a local population comes to rely on car travel for either shopping or work, it tends to increase their usage of and dependency on more distant locations and thus it also increases the likelihood that other services will be lost to local communities (Fulton and Hammond-Ketilson, 1992; Gray et al., 2001).It is for this reason that the public has become more interested in the plight of the small or independent shop in recent years (Clarke and Banga, 2010). What was once seen as primarily a problem for remote, rural communities is now seen to be affecting prosperous and otherwise successful villages close to urban areas and even local neighbourhoods within larger urban areas. The use of the presence of small shops as an indicator of the health of a community and the advantages of retaining such shops are now part of public policy in, amongst others, Scandinavia (Ekhaugen et al., 1980), the UK (Kirby, 1981; Calderwood and Davies, 2006; Paddison and Calderwood, 2007; Bennison et al., 2010), Ireland (Briscoe et al., 2000; Carrigan and Buckley, 2008), Japan (Kurimoto, 2005), Canada (Fulton and Hammond-Ketilson, 1992; Winnington-Ingram, 2003) and the USA (Cotterill, 1982).However, the pressures on private or investor-owned small shops are so great that even with public sector support many still struggle to survive. A number of commentators have argued that community-run or small co-operative shops might be one possible response to these problems because of their grounding in local communities (Fairbairn, 1989; Fulton and Hammond-Ketilson, 1992; Fairbairn, 2005; Birchall, 2011). As such, they could fit within the Big Society project (Norman, 2010) that has been adopted by the UK government since 2010 and which aims to enhance social capital by allowing communities to take more responsibility for local activities. The issues around food quality and safety, which have been championed by many of the food co-operatives in the USA, would also suggest that this form of retailing is well matched to promoting sustainability (Danforth, 1981; Singerman, 1982; Cox, 1994; Williams, 2007; Blay-Palmer and Donald, 2007).But if community-run shops are to be a possible solution to the problem of local food provision and overcoming social isolation, particularly in rural areas, then there is a need to understand better the dynamics behind the formation and survival of these shops. This paper is based on a survey of community-run shops undertaken in 2009. In looking at these community-run shops, there is a wide range of terms used in this area, including community retail enterprise, community-owned shops, village shops, community co-op and so on. For the remainder of this paper we will use the terms \"community retail enterprise\" (CRE) to refer to the legal entity that established or runs the shop and, where it is necessary to distinguish them separately, \"community shop\" for the shops.\n2. What is a 'community shop'?: There is no single definition of a community shop or community retail enterprise. DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 2006) looked solely at the community-owned village shop sector in England, which it characterised as being comprised mainly of convenience stores, although some also stocked local and specialty foods. DEFRA suggested that the conditions that are particularly suitable for CRE development are:* settlement size (normally between 200 and 900 people);* the absence of another shop within walking distance; and* specific demographic characteristics, particularly high levels of people who are well-educated, professional aged between 45-64, commuters and high-earners (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 2006, pp. 65-6).They suggested that there were around 3,000 rural communities in England that could support a CRE, and over 1,000 that were particularly conducive to such enterprises.However, there is no particular reason for CRE to be restricted to villages or rural areas. The Plunkett Foundation (see www.plunkett.co.uk) suggest that the main defining character is that there is community involvement in either the setting up or running of the shop, with a management committee responsible for ensuring that the shop is financially viable (Perry and Alcock, 2010). All CREs are businesses, and as such they must have a recognised legal structure in order to trade. The majority have become limited associations registered under the Industrial and Provident Societies Act; other options include companies limited by guarantee and community interest companies. There usually needs to be some form of annual reporting to the membership, either through a formal AGM, a social event with presentation or a printed report.There is a qualification that needs to be added to these statements. The scope of the DEFRA study may have meant that it could not include some forms of community shop. For example, multi-function or multi-service shops were popular in Scotland in the 1980s (Calderwood and Davies, 2006) and were promoted as a possible solution for rural England 20 years later (Moseley et al., 2004; Bovaird, 2007). Similarly, some of the larger community shops in the Northwest of England that are run as local co-operative societies were not included in the DEFRA study.The variety of different types and independent spirit of CRE trading throughout Great Britain does not facilitate the production of a definitive list of this type of business. This generally reflects the unregistered and varied nature of the sector with no controlling body and with enterprises responsible only to themselves and their supporters, both corporate and individual. The most comprehensive record of CRE has been developed by the Plunkett Foundation, and this provided the foundation of the database that has been used in this analysis. However, additional enterprises were added to the list where they could be identified, particularly in Scotland based on information from the Scottish-based Community Retailing Network, whilst some business closures were also noted. This work identified a total of 197 CREs in mid-2009 - 179 in England, 12 in Scotland and six in Wales.2.1 The scope of the study\n3. The study findings: 3.1 The pattern of CRE development\n4. Conclusion: The growing number of CREs shows the level of resources that local communities can mobilise when residents feel threatened or are convinced that their efforts can truly make a difference. The provision of pump-priming funds and timely information from bodies such as the Plunkett Foundation has resulted in local retail provision being saved in a relatively large number of locations in recent years.However, most CREs offer much more than just the retention of a shop, important as that can be for many local residents. Their presence may also help to retain people in rural areas or attract new residents as they can provide a \"heart\" for the community that helps to renew social networks. They can also be seen to support or stimulate local economic initiatives with some of the CREs regenerating local employment opportunities, both directly through full and part-time employment and also indirectly through support for other local businesses and producers. Local public bodies may use a community shop as a hub for the co-delivery of services in their local communities. In these ways they may also help to reduce the distances that people or products have to travel to fulfil their basic needs.Nevertheless, the stories from many of the CREs also show the limits of a project such as the Big Society. Once the initial enthusiasm and flush of success begins to fade it can be difficult for a CRE to retain members and to compete successfully against larger retailers, especially where those competitors run delivery services into rural areas. Without a wider support network they can struggle to source products efficiently and effectively leading to high prices or limited availability. Initially, these deficiencies are balanced out in consumers' minds by enthusiasm and the convenience of local provision. But, if those same consumers start to forget the origins of a CRE and start to treat it as \"just another shop\" then the CRE can enter into the same downward spiral that led to the need for it in the first place.Therefore, we need a greater recognition that it is not enough just to support a CRE to the point where the community shop opens for business. On the one hand, the activities of the Plunkett Foundation can nurture local social capital by supporting each CRE and by bringing them together to exchange best practice; on the other hand, the community shops also need to be viable trading entities. For some, the need is for better access to competitively priced sources of supply rather than being forced to keep prices down through an over-reliance on volunteers and the goodwill of local consumers. Alternatively, others may want to develop genuine collaborative relationships with local suppliers or producers in order to create a more distinctive position from which they can maintain their business.Critically, established CREs must recognise that the needs and expectations of local supporters, both volunteer workers and active trading supporters, may change with the trading environment or as the CRE matures. These changes have to be evaluated on a continuous basis and then considered by the CRE to ensure that, through the community shop, they continue to address what is important to their local community.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the key features of the community retail enterprises sector in the UK.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper reports on the results of a postal questionnaire survey of 197 community retail enterprises. The information gathered from this survey was supplemented by visits to 21 of the shops run by these enterprises and short interviews with some of the shop staff.\nFindings: - The community retail enterprise sector is growing very quickly, with a significant number of new shops opening every year in the UK. It is a very diverse sector that provides a wide range of goods and services, reflecting the desire to meet the needs of members and local residents. It is heavily dependent on the involvement of the local community, particularly as volunteers, but this can lead to other tensions around the role of the shop and the enterprise in general.\nOriginality/value: - This paper provides an overview of an area of retailing that is growing in size and will be of interest to those involved in policy-making in rural areas.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The cost of sustainability in higher education: staff and student views of a campus food culture
|
[
"Cost",
"Sustainability",
"Higher education",
"Food culture",
"Local food procurement"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The production and consumption of food has far reaching impacts that affect all facets of society, including the environmental, individual and public health (Reisch et al., 2013) and social justice (Raynolds, 2012). The way in which food is produced and distributed directly contributes to a range of environmental problems including climate change (Smith and Gregory, 2013), water pollution, water scarcity (UN-Water, 2007), loss of soil fertility and erosion (Pimentel and Burgess, 2013) and reduction in biodiversity (Brussaard et al., 2010). Food consumption is also intrinsically linked to health, and currently, 795 million people globally suffer from hunger or an under consumption of food (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, International Fund for Agricultural Development and World Food Programme, 2015). Concurrently, in most industrialised countries, 1 to 1.5 billion people are overweight and diet- and lifestyle-related diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases are on the rise, even appearing in young age groups (Commission of the European Communities, 2007), which significantly increases the burden on the health system (Colagiuri et al., 2010). In addition, social injustice in the global food system is a major issue with exploitation occurring throughout the agri-food system (Allen, 2008). In response to this issue, the fair trade movement arose to contribute to sustainable development by ensuring better trading conditions and working to secure the rights of marginalised producers and workers (World Fair Trade Organization, 2014).\nMethods: An online survey was developed to investigate the opportunities and barriers for developing a food culture that contributes to creating a healthy and sustainable university setting. The survey was designed specifically to explore staff members' and students' on campus eating habits and their opinions about the range and availability of food and not to test a theoretical construct. However, the survey drew on the work of Vermeir and Verbeke (2006), who discussed perceived personal importance and product availability as being two factors which can contribute to sustainable purchasing decisions. The questions were designed to examine food culture from the perspective of its nutritional, social, economic and environmental aspects, and asked respondents to reflect on both the importance they placed on these characteristics and their perceived availability on campus. The survey consisted of questions relating to:\nResults: Cleaning of data was performed before analysis - in this instance, the researchers decided that participant responses would be removed if it were clear that they had ticked the box to imply consent and exited the survey or if there were extensive data missing in the responses (Punch, 2003). This reduced the data set from 826 responses to 697, resulting in a response rate of 9.2 per cent. It is acknowledged that this is a low response rate; however, given the efforts taken to minimise non-response, infer that this may be a function of declining response rates in university surveys worldwide owing to \"survey fatigue\", resulting from an over-surveying of students (Nair et al., 2008). Given that this survey was limited to those in the Faculty of Health, there is a potential bias towards individuals with a predisposition towards an interest in healthy lifestyles. This should be considered when interpreting the results. Future studies should seek to find ways to obtain data from a broader sample of the university community.\nDiscussion: Whilst the majority of staff and students feel that having value for money food on campus is either important, very important or extremely important to them, in contrast almost half believe that value for money food is not adequately provided on campus. This finding highlights that the cost of food on campus is of great importance to staff and students, yet the options on campus are not currently aligned with staff and students expectations of what constitutes value for money food.\nConclusion: This research study was concerned with investigating how food culture contributes to a healthy and sustainable university setting. The results have shown that currently, the most pressing issue impacting on the food culture on the Deakin Burwood campus is the high cost of purchasing food on campus. It is an issue that is of major concern to staff and students alike, and it is resulting in a number of students choosing to go hungry rather than eating whilst at university. Another aim of this research was to uncover the barriers and enablers for fostering a healthy and sustainable setting at Deakin through its food culture. It is concerning that high proportions of staff and students do not buy healthy food on campus because it costs too much. Of particular concern is the very high number of international students who currently do not buy healthy food on campus because it is too expensive. The results show us that cost is the main barrier to Deakin fostering a healthy food culture on the Burwood campus. However, it should be noted as this finding is based on a small number of international students, future research aimed at investigating how international students view the cost of healthy food at university would be beneficial. The results have shown that whilst the majority of staff and students view the issues of food sustainability (seasonal produce, locally grown/produced food, fair trade foods and rubbish free foods) as important, such considerations are not viewed as important as the cost of food on campus. This shows that, as with healthy eating, cost is once again a barrier; in this case, it is a barrier to Deakin fostering a sustainable food culture on the Burwood campus. However, as the sample comprised staff and students from the Faculty of Health, it may be that respondents' interest in food is skewed towards its health attributes, with them having less interest in sustainability. Future research should attempt to reach a wider sample so that this potential bias can be ruled out.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to investigate the sustainability of the food culture at Deakin University and to determine what the barriers to increasing the sustainability of food on the Burwood campus may be.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An online survey of staff and students from the Faculty of Health at the Burwood campus of Deakin University (n = 697) was undertaken. The survey included questions relating to eating habits on campus, views on the current food culture, food security, food disposal, visions for the future and demographic information. In addition, a short paper-based survey was developed for the ten food outlets on campus.\nFindings: The results show that although sustainability considerations are important to staff and students, cost is the main issue and is a significant barrier to the development of a more sustainable food culture. It is also a significant barrier to staff and students making healthy choices when it comes to the purchase of food on campus. However, sustainable food initiatives such as community gardens could help alleviate this barrier and also contribute to improving student engagement.\nResearch limitations/implications: The online survey was limited to the Faculty of Health, and, therefore, a potential bias exists towards individuals who may have an interest in health. This should be considered when interpreting the results.\nOriginality/value: This research demonstrates that although cost may be a barrier to universities improving the sustainability of their food culture, there are other ways in which universities can create an environment that embraces sustainable food production to benefit both the environment and the university community.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Choice editing as a retailers' tool for sustainable consumption
|
[
"Sustainability",
"Consumption",
"Choice editing",
"Food retail",
"Nudge"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Food consumption is responsible for 30 per cent of the negative impacts associated with overall household consumption (EEA, 2012). To reduce environmental impacts of food, consumption policy has traditionally focused on the autonomous individual, whose choices in the market reflect individual needs and desires, but also product price and quality. However, the complexity of information required to make a judgment on product sustainability and price signals can leave even the most dedicated green consumers confused and disempowered (Sustainable Consumption Roundtable (SCR), 2006b; Owen et al., 2007). Choice editing for sustainability - eliminating the option of buying products with a poor environmental or social record - is one progressive strategy taken by retailers that does not rely on consumer behaviour change, but instead mainstreams sustainable products as default options. Large supermarket chains certainly have the power to influence what and how we consume, but their willingness to shape consumer choices in order to promote sustainable items or to remove the unsustainable ones may sometimes clash with their profit seeking motives. However, for decades, retailers (and governments) have used choice editing to promote mass consumption of energy intensive and resource depleting products as the foundation of human happiness, egalitarianism and democracy (Maniates, 2010). Lately, however, attention has shifted to harnessing the use of choice editing to promote more environmental and socially sustainable products (Lang et al., 2009; Maniates, 2010; Moisander et al., 2010; Williams et al., 2010).\n2. Three strategies for moulding consumer choices: For citizens, choice means democracy: the freedom to have ones voice heard in a fair and equal society. For consumers in the liberal, free-market capitalist system, choice means sovereignty (Schwartz, 2004), a way to express their identities and position themselves amongst others (Hurth, 2010; Strannegard and Dobers, 2010). Retailers offer the desired choice by delivering a wide range of retail formats and goods (Clarke et al., 2004), but they also shape, construct and bound consumer choice: physically, by the choice of products; materially, by the price of these products; and symbolically, by creating meaning and identity for the consumer. In terms of moulding consumer choices towards a sustainability agenda, three strategies available for retailers can be distinguished: choice provision, choice architecture and choice editing.\n3. Choice editing: drivers, enablers and barriers: 3.1 Drivers\n4. Choice editing of fish in the UK and Swedish food retail sector: In order to understand how choice editing can be used as a tool to mainstream sustainable food products in the retail sector, an investigation of current practices in European supermarkets was conducted using fish as a product category that has seen a recent trend in increasing levels of choice editing (Greenpeace, 2008). The retail sector is the key to promoting consumer demand for better-sourced fish, as 85 per cent of chilled and frozen fish is sold through supermarkets in the UK (MCS, 2007). One study found that 74 per cent of consumers agree that if fish like cod is endangered, it should not be available to buy in supermarkets (NCC, 2005).\n5. Discussion: This section explores choice editing from a broader perspective, considering the role of non-retailer actors in the process of shaping, and being shaped by, choice editing strategies.\n6. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that the creation of a business case for retailers to choice edit voluntarily ultimately still rests on the values and actions of individual agents in the marketplace. However, it has also become clear that food policy solely focused on the consumer as the driving force for change is not sufficient to tackle the environmental and social issues endemic to the global food provisioning system. This is not to undermine the fact that acts of green consumerism are important in shifting consumption systems to more sustainable levels, but a vast majority of consumers do not (or indeed cannot, for price and availability reasons) take sustainability issues into consideration. Focusing on the consumer alone ignores the wider limitations on the role and responsibility of business and the government to safeguard the \"safe operating space for humanity\" (Rockstrom et al., 2009).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how and why choice editing is being used as a tool to promote sustainable consumption, using the choice editing of fish as a case study.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study is explorative in nature and is based on a case study of choice editing of fish as a product category that has undergone fairly widespread choice editing. The case is built on primary empirical data from three Swedish and four British retailers collected through semi-structured interviews. These retailers are of different sizes, but together represent over 50 per cent of the food retail market in both Sweden and the UK taken by market share.\nFindings: The findings suggest that the main business case choice editing is the creation of a responsible brand image and is often based on pressure from wider societal norms. The case for choice editing is therefore ultimately reliant on consumer recognition of sustainability issues as valuable, and it is unlikely to be taken up when retailers see no added brand value in acting responsibly on a certain issue. Clearer product-based indicators and stronger governmental regulation of unsustainable products may enable further choice editing for sustainability by retailers. NGOs and the media also play a critical role.\nOriginality/value: To enable further choice editing for sustainability by retailers, there is a need for clearer product-based indicators and stronger governmental regulation of unsustainable products.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Low phenylalanine breads as an alternative for patients with phenylketonuria
|
[
"Diet",
"Amino acid",
"Food"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Phenylketonuria (PKU) is an inborn metabolism error that has the deficiency of the phenylalanine hydroxylase enzyme as one of its causes. The consequence of this deficiency is a persistent increase in plasma concentration of the phenylalanine amino acid (Phe) and a low concentration of the product of this amino acid-enzyme ratio: the amino acid tyrosine (Tyr). Phe is an essential amino acid and its ingestion is important for protein synthesis. Tyr is a precursor of several biological products, such as thyroxine, catecholamines and melanin (Ney et al., 2014), and therefore, their plasma levels should also be monitored. In order to confirm the disease, the blood Phe value should be higher than 120 umol/L (2 mg/dL) (Scriver and Kaufman, 2001), and treatment is generally implemented only with blood phe levels>6 mg/dl (Sinai et al., 1995).\nMaterial and methods: This is an experimental study that evaluates bread samples prepared and analyzed in the Dietetic laboratory (LDT) of the Medical School (FAMED), in the Bioactive Compounds Lab and in the Laboratory for Analysis of Physical Properties of Food (LAPFA) of the Institute of Food Sciences and Technology (ICTA) of Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). A completely randomized design was used for the physical and chemical analyses of the samples, whereas randomized block design was used for the sensorial analysis.\nResults and discussion: Formulations\nConclusions: The physical analysis showed that the samples had similar weight, height and size values similar, indicating that the use of different types of vegetables does not compromise the final result of the preparation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Patients with phenylketonuria (PKU) require a phenylalanine (Phe)-restricted diet due to its toxic effects on such subjects. Considering the low availability of specific foods for these patients, the purpose of this paper is to make breads with low Phe content while also conducting physicochemical and sensory analysis of the samples.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Five bread formulations with a common base were prepared, in which manioc - Manihot esculenta (T1); Baroa potato - Arracacia xanthorrhiza (T2); sweet potatoes - Ipomoea batatas (T3); potatoes - Solanum tuberosum (T4); and, finally, yacon potato - Smallanthus sonchifolius (T5) were added.\nFindings: The physical analysis showed that the samples had similar weight, height and size values, indicating that the use of different types of vegetables does not compromise the final result of the preparation. The chemical analysis showed that the loaves were low in protein and Phe and, therefore, are considered safe preparations for patients with PKU. In the sensory analysis, all the preparations presented satisfactory characteristics for consumption, specially the one with the addition of potato.\nResearch limitations/implications: The preparation of breads with low Phe content is a challenging task as it is necessary to exclude formulations with flours that present better technological performance. However, the results in this study showed that it is possible to get around the difficulties and obtain a viable product with easily purchased ingredients. It is known that sensory analysis with PKU patients as judges could have changed these results because their perception can differ from that of general population. The workgroup is continuing this study and we intend to take sensory analysis with PKU patients to future, as they have a pathology, the study needs special care and respectful ethical aspects.\nOriginality/value: PKU has a direct influence on the daily diet of the patient, interfering with life decisions that go form eating at their home to where and what to eat in environments out of their control. Therefore, creating specific preparations for such patients is a challenge that assists in adherence to dietary therapy.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Career management systems: what are China's state-owned hotels practising?
|
[
"Career development",
"Public ownership",
"Employee attitudes",
"Hotels",
"China"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Along with the boom in China's hotel industry, China's state-owned hotels (SOHs) have gone through several revolutionary changes. From their beginnings as political reception sites heavily dependent on the state in the past, SOHs have become business units that have to make profits for their own survival and development. Although the government has been trying to reduce or sell small unprofitable enterprises, SOHs are dominant the industry, making up more than 45.7 percent of all hotels in China (CNTA, 2007). Many have successfully developed their management practices and service styles by combining international management skills with Chinese cultural values (Cai et al., 2000). Through cooperation and competition with international hotel groups, China's SOHs are developing and maturing. A number of hotels are emerging as new brands in the world, such as the Shanghai-based Jinjiang Hotel Group, the Nanjing-based Jinling Hotel Groups, and the Beijing-based Jianguo Hotel Group. By continuously adopting advanced foreign management skills and successfully combining international information with local culture, SOHs and other domestic companies \"will probably become stronger in the medium-to-long-term\" (Pine, 2002, p. 72).The rapid increase in the number of hotels in China has lead to an increasing demand for employees. However, hotels are facing a series of human resources challenges, such as a lack of qualified staff in both operational and managerial levels, high staff turnover rates, and the unwillingness of university graduates to enter the industry (Gu et al., 2006; Qiu and Lam, 2004; Zhang and Wu, 2004). Recruiting and retaining talent in the hotel industry has become an increasingly challenging task for China's domestic hotels. Hotel employees are dissatisfied with their current jobs and see little room for professional development in the industry as China's hotels offer unstable prospects in terms of career development (Kong and Baum, 2006). To attract and retain the best talent, career management has become a critical issue for China's SOHs. Therefore, the current study aims to explore what career activities are practised in China's hotel industry, and how hotel employees perceive these practices.Based on the presentation of hotel development and research objectives, the remainder of this paper is arranged as follows. The next section provides a review of the literature on organizational career management and career management in the hospitality industry, followed by the research framework and research methodologies. The discussion of research methodology covers research design, participants selection, case study processes, focus groups, and in-depth interviews. The following session discusses the hotel and employee perspectives on career activities. The final section concludes the paper by offering practical and academic implications, and recommendations for future research.\nLiterature review: The following sections discuss the literature on organizational career management and career management in the hospitality industry.Organizational career management (OCM)\nResearch framework: This study aims to explore career applications in China's SOHs and to test whether current practices meet employee career needs. The research objectives are:1. to explore the current career management situation in China's state-owned hotels;2. to delve into hotel employees perceptions of career management;3. to identify the relationship between organizational career management and employee career perceptions; and4. to identify the implications for human resource management in China's hotels.Qualitative research methodologies were applied to elicit substantive information in a relatively short period of time (Berg, 2008).\nMethodology: This section presents an overview of the research design, and then describes how the case study, focus groups, and in-depth interviews were conducted.Research design\nFindings and discussions: The results of the qualitative research method showed that not all of the Western OCM was practised in China. The interviewees also generated several career activities applied in SOHs in China. For example, as \"formal mentoring\" has not been applied in China's hotel industry, the item of \"mentoring\" was changed to \"informal mentoring\". Instead of offering \"formal education\", most SOHs preferred to cover all or part of employees' tuition, thus the item \"financial support for formal education\" was used. Based on the findings of the case study, focus groups, and in-depth interviews, a total of 13 items were found commonly practised in China.The cluster of OCM categories in the current study is based on Gutteridge et al.'s(1993) study. By investigating 1,000 large US organizations, Gutteridge et al. generated 32 activities and classified them into six groups: employee self-assessment tools, organizational potential assessment, internal labor-market information exchanges, individual counseling or career discussions, job-matching systems and development programs. The Gutteridge et al. (1993) study provided perhaps the broadest list of career management practices (Baruch and Peiperl, 2000) and could serve as a foundation for later research. Based on the Gutteridge et al. study and the findings of the quantitative study, the 13 items were clustered into four dimensions of career management: assessment tools, career development information, professional training, and the promotion system (Table I).The following section presents the results of the case study and the perspectives of the senior managers and middle management. As the aim of the case study was the same as that of the focus groups, which was to determine how OCM was applied in the SOHs. The findings of the case study and focus groups were then combined to reflect information from the hotel's perspective.Career assessment tools\nImplications: Practical implications\nConclusions: The findings of this study indicate that OCM in China's SOHs is incomprehensive. Mentoring has been found to be strongly related to employee career development, but it is not commonly practised. Most young hotel employees, especially those who are well educated, aspire to obtain career knowledge and know more about their career development. However, China's SOHs provide limited mentoring which in turn affects employees' career development.A training plan went well in most SOHs and training was critical to all employees. Employees are eager to be educated, enriched, and empowered with further training. However, hotel operators mainly stress pre-job and on-the-job training, not on further formal trainings. Undertaking the same job year after year has been found to diminish young people's energy and enthusiasm.In summary, the career management practices deployed by hotel management partially catered to the career needs of employees, and more substantial practices should be developed to match their exact needs. It is essential for hotel operators to explore the need for OCM among employees and to better design career management practices. A consistent career mentoring program, promotion systems, and training activities will help SOHs in China to attract and retain qualified hotel staff.Limitations\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to explore the current situation of career management in China's state-owned hotels and to delve into employees' perceptions of such activities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - To obtain a comprehensive view of the career management situation, three qualitative research methods were applied in the study, namely, case study, focus groups, and in-depth interviews. The results were combined to provide a better insight into career management activities in China and employees' perceptions of these activities. Based on the data collected, career management practices in China's hotel industry are grouped into four dimensions: assessment tools, career development information, professional training, and promotion system.\nFindings: - The findings of the study reveal that not all Western career management activities are being practised in China's hotels. The results of the qualitative research methods also reveal several career management techniques with Chinese characteristics. Although career management plays an important role in human resources management, there is a gap between hotel career management and employees' career needs. To obtain the best result, it is necessary to find a match between the requirements of the hotel and the aspirations of the individual employee.\nPractical implications: - Based on the data collected, recommendations and directions on career management practices are established and given to state-owned hotels management. By developing the four dimensions of career management activities, the paper generates important references and suggestions for further study in the area of employees' career development.\nOriginality/value: - For both hotel operators and hotel employees, the paper is the first attempt to provide comprehensive information concerning China's hotel career management. The development of the four career management dimensions may serve as a basis for future study.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Dynamic vendor selection based on fuzzy AHP
|
[
"Cognition",
"Supply chain management",
"Vendors",
"Analytic hierarchy process",
"Dynamic model",
"Vendor selection",
"Fuzzy sets"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: In today's highly competitive and interrelated manufacturing environment, materials represent a substantial part of the value of products. In view of the high percentage of the material cost in total cost, the key objective of the purchasing department ought to be purchasing the right quality of a product in the right quantity from the right source at the right time. The right source can provide the right quality of material on time at a reasonable price (Heizer and Render, 2001).Supplier selection and evaluation are very important to the success of a manufacturing firm. This is because the cost and quality of goods and services sold are directly related to the cost and quality of goods and services purchased. Therefore, purchasing and supplier selection have an important role in the supply chain process (Hartley and Choi, 1996; Degraeve et al., 2000). Traditionally, vendors are selected from among many suppliers on their ability to meet the quality requirements, delivery schedule and the price offered. Vendor selection or evaluation is a common problem for acquiring the necessary materials to support the outputs of organisations. The problem is to find and to evaluate periodically the best or most suitable vendor(s) for the organisations based on various vendors' capabilities. This usually happens when the purchase is complex, high-dollar value and perhaps critical. A process of formal vendor evaluation and ranking is also necessary. The process for vendor selection is indeed a problem-solving process, which covers the work of problem definition, formulation of criteria, qualification and choice.The supplier selection process is a multi-objective decision, encompassing many tangible and intangible factors in a hierarchical manner. In the literature, there are many studies about the supplier selection process. Traditional methodologies of the supplier selection process in research literature include the cost-ratio method, the categorical method, weighted-point evaluations, mathematical programming models and statistical or probabilistic approaches (Yan et al., 2003; Oliveira and Lourenco, 2002). Dickson have identified 23 important criteria in the study of supplier decision-making (Dickson, 1966). Weber et al. (2000) has compiled many articles in this area, and has used a linear weighting model for supplier selection. Linear weighting models place a weight on each criterion and provide a total score for each supplier by summing up the supplier's performance on the criteria multiplied by these weights. Min (1994) used a multi-attribute utility approach in international supplier selection. Mandal and Deshmukh (1994) used an interpretive structural modeling for vendor selection and developed an analytical framework, which combines qualitative and quantitative factors.Motwani et al. (1999) have developed a model for the supplier selection process in developing countries. Youssef et al. (1996) have developed a simple model for supplier evaluation and selection in an advanced manufacturing technology environment. Mathematical programming models use the techniques of linear programming, mixed integer programming and goal programming to determine the vendor selection and order quantity decisions simultaneously. The purpose of mathematical programming models is to select several vendors in order to minimize or maximize an objective function subject to both vendor and buyer constraints. Chaudhry et al. (1993) consider the vendor selection problem under quality, delivery and capacity constraints as well as under the price-break regimes. Kahraman et al. (2003) used fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to select the best supplier firm providing the most satisfaction for the criteria determined in the white good sector. Feng et al. (2005) proposed a comprehensive evaluation method based on fuzzy decision theory and characteristics of supply chain management for optimal combination and selection among candidate suppliers and outsourced parts. Haq and Kannan (2006) demonstrated how fuzzy AHP model can help in solving supplier selection decisions in practice. Chan et al. (2008) proposed a fuzzy AHP approach for global supplier selection. Chamodrakas et al. (2009) uses fuzzy AHP to select supplier in electronic sector. Xue-zhen (2007) presented the first dynamic model for vendor selection where the author has considered a multi-period vendor selection model regarding fixed cost of establishing a vendor.One drawback of the above approaches is neglecting multi-period planning horizon for vendor selection, and many decision makers or experts select vendors based on their experience and intuition. These approaches are obviously subjective and their weaknesses are clear. To overcome these problems, we use fuzzy AHP to propose the decision model.\n2 Dynamic fuzzy AHP method: The AHP is a powerful and flexible decision making process to help people set priorities and make the best decision when both qualitative and quantitative aspects of a decision need to be considered (Saaty, 1980). By reducing complex decisions to a series of one-on-one comparisons, then synthesizing the results, many researchers have concluded that AHP is a useful, practical and systematic method for vendor rating (Bellman and Zadeh, 1970), and has been applied successfully. Within the AHP context, the decision maker cannot provide deterministic preferences but perception-based judgment intervals instead. This kind of uncertainty in preferences can be modeled using the fuzzy set theory (Zadeh, 1965). In the fuzzy set terminology (Barbarosoglu and Yazgac, 1997), the ratio supplied by the decision maker is a fuzzy number described by a membership function. Here, a membership function describes the degree with which elements in the judgment interval belong to the preference set. Fuzzy AHP consists of deriving the local priorities from these fuzzy preference ratios, which are subsequently aggregated to form the global priorities. The fuzzy AHP computes fuzzy priorities based on arithmetic operations for fuzzy triangular (or trapezoidal) numbers. To be able to use the fuzzy arithmetic operations, specific assumptions on the forms of membership functions are required. However, the most important criticism directed at these works has to be their failure to address the issue of consistency. There was no explicit articulation on what would constitute an inconsistent comparison matrix within the fuzzy AHP context and, equally important, on how inconsistent information should be handled. Lacking a mechanism to exclude inconsistent data, the fuzzy priorities so obtained were likely to be flawed (Zimmermann, 1991; Buckley et al., 2001).In this study, the framework of feasible region of relative weights was adopted. First, allowing the feasible region to include tolerance deviations of the fuzzy ratios, we define fuzzy consistency as the existence of relative weights within the region. Second, we devise a maximum minimum set ranking method to derive a crisp ranking from the global fuzzy weights (Noci and Toletti, 2000; Leung and Cao, 2000). The following steps of fuzzy AHP selecting vendors in multi-period:Step 1. Decompose the decision problem into a hierarchy with a goal at the top, criteria and sub-criteria at levels and sub-levels and decision alternatives at the bottom of the hierarchy in a series of periods. A dynamic hierarchy structure is as Figure 1.Step 2. Construct the fuzzy decision matrix based on Saaty's (1980) nine points scale, the decision maker uses the fuzzy 1~-9~ scale (Table I), the assessment of 1~ indicates equal importance, 3~ moderate importance, 5~ essential importance, 7~ very vital importance and 9~ indicates extreme vital importance. The values of 2~, 4~, 6~ and 8~ are allotted to indicate compromise values of importance. The decision matrix involves the assessments of each alternative in respect to the decision criteria in a series of periods. If the decision making problem consists of n criteria and m alternatives, the elements aijk signify the rating of the ith alternative in respect to the jth criteria in kth period. The decision matrix takes the form: Equation 1 Step 3. Set the priorities with pairwise comparison matrix. This step involves the comparison in pairs of the elements of the constructed hierarchy in each period. The aim is to set their relative priorities with respect to each of the elements at the next higher level. The elements a~ijk will satisfy the following conditions: a~ijk=(1/a~jik) and aiik=1 with i, j=1, 2,... n. In the comparison matrix, aijk can be interpreted as the degree of preference of ith criteria over jth criteria in kth period.Step 4. Calculates a consistency ratio in each period to reflect the consistency of decision maker's judgments during the evaluation phase. The consistency ratio in both the decision matrix and in pairwise comparison matrices could be calculated with the equation: Equation 2 The closer the inconsistency index is to zero, the greater the consistency. The consistency of the assessments is ensured. The relevant ratio should be lower than 0.10 to accept the AHP results as consistent. If this is not the case, the decision-maker should go back to Steps 2 and 3 and redo the assessments and comparisons.\n3 An illustrative example: This numerical example presents a mathematical model to select suppliers in a multi-period environment. The main objective here is the selection of best supplier for a firm in dynamic environment. The problem taken here has three level of hierarchy in kth period where (k=1, 2, 3). The analytic time periods are the past (k=1), present (k=2) and near future (k=3). Thus, the decision makers can estimate the relative weights ratios for each pair of alternatives under every attribute as well as the relative weights ratios for the attributes. Table II defines the criteria for vendor selection for which the alternatives fuzzy pairwise comparison matrix with respect to attributes in kth period (k=1, 2, 3) are shown in Table III.\n4 Discussion of result: As we can see in Figure 2, the priority of quality improvement is important for every supplier for all the period. We can also observe from the Table IV, the cost is important than the delivery in the third period as it was given more important in the first two period.Similarly from Figure 3, we know the trend of supplier's priority, supplier 1 is the most suitable supplier in all the three periods. But there is some difference in selecting all other supplier in three periods. This is also corroborated by Table V.\n5 Conclusions: In the trend of global supply chain management, company has to select a suitable supplier over a long period of time. Under the dynamic business environments, the attributes and weights may change in time axis and real sense it may not necessary crisp rather fuzzy in nature. Traditional multiple attribute decision making methods are hard to solve the long-term performance measurement problems in fuzzy environment.The proposed solution is a mathematical strength-enabling system that captures the uncertainties associated with human cognitive processes in order to select the vendor. The findings of this study provide meaningful and advanced knowledge to managers - DMs by demonstrating a simple, efficient method to enhance the ability to predict an appropriate vendor period wise. The study further provides important insights into how DMs can recognize the priorities of criteria's period wise that determine ultimate vendor selection. Not covered in this paper is an extension of the approach to select the suppliers in the supply chain when the DMs judgments are \"intuitionistic\" fuzzy in nature.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: - In the ever-changing world, vendor selection and evaluation are very important in supply chain management. Recently, there has been extensive research in the areas of vendor selection and evaluation under certainty/uncertainty without time axis, but there has been very little research in the selection of vendor with time axis. The purpose of this paper is to address this gap in the research.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Traditional approaches have been neglecting multi-period planning horizon for vendor selection, and many decision makers or experts select vendors based on their practice and intuition. To overcome these problems, a dynamic model supporting vendors with time axis has been developed which is not always crisp, rather it involves a high degree of fuzziness and uncertainty. The authors use fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to propose the decision model.\nFindings: - The research provides a mathematical system that captures the uncertainties associated with human cognitive processes in order to select the vendor. The findings of this study provide meaningful and advanced knowledge to decision makers by demonstrating a simple, efficient method to enhance the ability to predict an appropriate vendor period wise.\nOriginality/value: - This research provides detailed step-by-step procedures to choose the best vendor selection and evaluation under uncertainty with time axis in a supply chain. It will be of value to other researchers and the department members in any firm who are responsible for selecting the vendor.\n",
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Can workplaces foster an openness to diversity surreptitiously?
|
[
"Strategic vision",
"Workload",
"Perceived justice",
"Meaning in life",
"Openness to diversity"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Organizations have introduced many programs, policies and practices - such as diversity training - to attract, support and utilize diverse employees (see Carstens and De Kock, 2017). Unfortunately, these attempts are often unsuccessful. Members of the dominant culture often become defensive and may, ultimately, even sabotage these attempts (Dover et al., 2015). Furthermore, biases against disadvantaged communities tend to persist unabated, despite attempts to redress these misconceptions (cf. Petty et al., 2006). Consequently, diversity training programs, and many similar provisions, are not always effective: one meta-analysis of 700 organizations, over 30 years, showed that diversity training actually tends to diminish the percentage of African American women in management roles (Kalev et al., 2006).\nImportance of openness to diversity: Before reviewing these practices, we will first delineate the defining features of openness to diversity. Openness to diversity entails three key facets (Fuertes et al., 2000). Specifically, this openness to diversity can manifest in behaviors: individuals may participate in a diversity of cultural activities. Openness to diversity can also manifest in cognitions: for example, people may realize that such diverse experiences can facilitate personal growth. Finally, openness to diversity can manifest in emotions: people may feel content, rather than uneasy, while they interact with diverse communities. Typically, three variants of diversity are often distinguished: diversity in values, information and demographics (e.g. Hobman et al., 2004).\nDeterminants of openness to diversity: Because of these merits and benefits of openness to diversity, a variety of studies have explored the characteristics or conditions that foster this openness. Researchers have unearthed three main constellations of these determinants.\nBenefits of future clarity and the meaning maintenance model: The literature thus implies that managers could explore three approaches to promote an openness to diversity. Specifically, to foster this openness, management needs to incite the motivation of employees to develop their competence, to temper their aversion to uncertainty and to diminish their inclination to perceive themselves as superior. Arguably, to achieve these goals, managers should attempt to foster meaning in life and clarity of the future, defined as the capacity of individuals to imagine their future vividly (McElwee and Haugh, 2010).\nDeterminants of meaning in life: The meaning maintenance model can also be applied to characterize the workplace practices that could foster meaning in life and, ultimately, promote future clarity and openness to diversity. Specifically, to reinstate their sense of meaning, individuals tend to adopt the four assumptions that appear in the first column of Table I. Consequently, workplace practices that validate these assumptions should foster meaning and coherence.\nThe present study: Figure 1 outlines the theoretical framework that underpins this study. This figure does not include all possible antecedents to meaning in life or clarity of the future - but rather includes only workplace characteristic that reinforces each of the four assumptions. This framework generates three hypotheses:\nMethod: Participants\nResults: Table II presents the coefficients that emerged from the PROCESS models (Preacher and Hayes, 2008), designed to assess whether clarity of the future and meaning in life mediated the association between workplace practices and openness to diversity. To illustrate, the first cell details the coefficients that were uncovered when the criterion was openness to diverse values and the predictor was informational justice. This cell presents the direct effect, the indirect effect when clarity of the future was the mediator, the indirect effect when meaning in life was the mediator, the B coefficients that relates clarity of the future and meaning in life to openness to diverse values, respectively, and the B coefficients that relate informational justice to clarity of the future and meaning in life, respectively. In this instance, the direct effect was significant. The indirect was significant as well, but only when meaning in life, rather than clarity of the future, was the mediator. Specifically, informational justice was positively associated with meaning in life, and meaning in life was positively associated with diversity of values.\nDiscussion: As many workplace statistics imply, some managers, especially individuals who identify with the dominant culture, are reluctant to employ ethnic minorities, disabled individuals and women in specific, and often prized, jobs and roles (Emeka, 2009). Consequently, organizations do not enjoy the benefits of a diverse workforce, such as vital innovations and respect from ethnic or disadvantaged communities (Hofhuis et al., 2015). Attempts to redress this concern, and to foster an openness toward diversity, are notoriously challenging. For example, diversity training does not always increase diversity in management positions (Kalev et al., 2006) - perhaps because allusions to diversity often evoke defensive responses (Dover et al., 2015).\nLimitations, implications and conclusions: Future research should address the limitations of this study. First, researchers should administer more objective measures of openness to diversity, such as evaluations of job applications, submitted by members of various religions, ethnicities, genders and disciplines (e.g. see Steinpreis et al., 1999).\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: To enhance their innovation and reputation, many organizations introduce programs that are intended to attract, retain and support diverse communities. Yet, these programs are often unsuccessful, partly because explicit references to diversity tend to evoke defensive reactions in employees from the dominant culture. To circumvent this problem, the purpose of this paper is to explore the hypothesis that individuals tend to be more receptive to diversity whenever they experience meaning in life. Furthermore, four workplace characteristics - informational justice, a manageable workload, equality in status and a compelling vision of the future - should foster this meaning in life.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To assess these possibilities, 177 employees completed a survey that assessed workplace practices, meaning in life and openness to diversity.\nFindings: The results showed that informational justice, a manageable workload and a compelling vision were positively associated with openness to other cultures, constituencies and perspectives, and these relationships were partly or wholly mediated by meaning in life.\nOriginality/value: These findings imply that leaders might be able to foster an openness to diversity, but without explicit references to this diversity, circumventing the likelihood of defensive reactions. Specifically, a program that simultaneously encourages transparent communication, diminishes workload and clarifies the vision or aspirations of the future may represent an inexpensive but powerful means to foster an openness to diversity.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Evaluating outsourcing partners' capability: a case study from the pharmaceutical supply chain
|
[
"Outsourcing",
"Dynamic capability",
"Pharmaceutical industry",
"Supplier evaluation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Research and development (R&D) and manufacturing in the pharmaceutical industry are knowledge-intensive, complex and risky processes, and have been traditionally contained in-house (Gupta et al., 2007; PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2008; Chen and Hung, 2010). Pharmaceutical companies often need to build new R&D and production facilities designed for special molecules or drugs, which is costly and time consuming (Chambers et al., 2009). The pharmaceutical industry used to rely on a vertically integrated model, in which companies would do everything themselves, from R&D through manufacturing to commercialization. In this model, success hinges on the firm's internal abilities to identify promising new molecules, test them in large clinical trials, and promote them with an extensive marketing and sales presence (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2009). This model has been challenged by declining R&D productivity, increasing competition from brand generic medicines, continual price pressure from governments and healthcare institutions, and rising applications of biotechnology (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2009; Rossetti et al., 2011). Pharmaceutical companies have realized that relying only on internal resources for R&D and manufacturing has become ineffective for competition, and have started to collaborate with external organizations (outsourcees) to restructure their global value chains (Boulaksil and Fransoo, 2010; Liao et al., 2010; Nepal et al., 2011; PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2011). The use of contract research and manufacturing organizations (CRMOs) in emerging economies for drug discovery and development, clinical trials, drug manufacturing and distribution has provided pharmaceutical companies with a way to reduce cost, improve speed, quality and flexibility, and adjust their organizational boundaries in response to external economic pressures (Rothaermel et al., 2006; Gupta et al., 2007; Chen and Hung, 2010; Handley, 2012).\n2 Literature review: 2.1 Supplier evaluation\n3 Methodology: We employed an exploratory multiple case study approach in this research (Eisenhardt, 1989; Yin, 2009). This choice was motivated by the fact that supplier evaluation and outsourcing relationship management are not yet well documented in the pharmaceutical industry (Boulaksil and Fransoo, 2010).\n4 Case description: 4.1 The pharmaceutical company\n5 Case analysis: 5.1 CRMO evaluation\n6 Discussion and managerial implications: The pharmaceutical industry is experiencing a fast changing and challenging phase (De Vries and Huijsman, 2011; Nepal et al., 2011). The increased pace of globalization has necessitated many pharmaceutical companies to restructure their supply chains through outsourcing R&D, manufacturing, and distribution to a network of capability-based partners (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2011). Capitalisation of external expertise and specialist know-how enhances companies' propensity to develop and produce drugs with shorter time-to-market and lower costs. In essence, they are becoming network integrators and co-developing products with increased support and reliance from different CRMOs (Pawar et al., 2009). Further support for this viewpoint comes from Chen and Hung (2010), who argued that outsourcing in the pharmaceutical industry is increasingly becoming strategic at global level, and knowledge-intensive. Our study indicates that a pharmaceutical company will manage its CRMOs through building either an integrated relationship or a transactional relationship, depending on partners' DC.\n7 Conclusions: This study uses exploratory multiple case studies to investigate how a pharmaceutical company evaluates its CRMOs, and argues that a company outsources its R&D and manufacturing to a partner with high operational capability, but only develops integrated outsourcing relationships with those that possess high DC in terms of processes (project deliverables, communication, and accuracy of costs), positions (financial assets, number of scientists, spectrum of services, and geographical presence), and paths (past experiences). Such CRMOs cannot only deal with environmental uncertainties but also co-develop with the company. Pharmaceutical companies are sourcing for CRMOs' DC in order to develop sustainable competitive advantage.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: Many pharmaceutical companies outsource their research and development and manufacturing operations to value chain partners. Effective evaluation of outsourcees' capabilities and relationship management are often central for outsourcers to secure sustainable competitive advantage. This study aims to investigate how to evaluate outsourcees and manage outsourcing relationships in the pharmaceutical industry based on the theory of dynamic capability (DC).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The investigation used an exploratory multiple case study approach. The data collection, spanning a period of 12 months, entailed a multinational pharmaceutical company (PharmCo) with its headquarters in Europe, and four contract research and manufacturing organizations from China and India.\nFindings: The results show that PharmCo evaluates its outsourcing partners based on their dynamic capabilities, which include processes (project deliverables, communication, and accuracy of costs), positions (financial assets, number of scientists, spectrum of services, and geographical presence), and paths (past experiences). The findings indicate that a pharmaceutical company outsources to partners with high operational capabilities, whereas it builds fully integrated outsourcing relationships only with those that have high dynamic capabilities.\nPractical implications: Findings from this study provide guidelines for practitioners in manufacturing industries to efficiently and effectively evaluate and manage outsourcees to deal with the challenges and risks associated with strategic outsourcing.\nOriginality/value: The paper contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence on the role of DC in outsourcee evaluation and outsourcing relationship management in the pharmaceutical industry. Moreover, the paper illustrates how to conceptualize and measure the DC as a multi-dimensional construct. The analysis also indicates that partners' dynamic and operational capabilities play different roles in outsourcing relationship management.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Customer orientation and performance outcomes in supply chain management
|
[
"Customer orientation",
"Value chain",
"Modelling",
"Supply chain management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In today's international business dynamic, globally competitive environment supply chain management is a critical strategic initiative. Many researchers argue that supply chain management creates competitive values through the active involvement of supply chain entities and their supportive systems for enterprise interaction. Sustainable business successes are no longer measured by a single entity's performance outcomes but through the competitive advantage of the collaborative supply chain network (Spekman et al., 1994). Since the customer is the ultimate judge of supply chain performance, effective and timely responses to ever- changing customer tastes and preferences have become essential components for successful business performance. The head of McKinsey & Co. in Detroit has said, \"Customers have changed their minds about what defines quality - a shift that is making the uphill climb for US automakers even more steep\" (Nahm et al., 2004). Increasingly, firms are required to become more customer-oriented through their supply chains (Deshpande et al., 1993; Shapiro, 1988; Spekman et al., 1998).The challenge for many firms, however, is what to do with customer orientation beyond their immediate organizational boundaries. It is not enough to say, \"We have implemented customer orientation in our organization.\" The challenge is how to implement customer orientation within the complex network of the supply chain. Although market orientation and customer orientation is explored in the marketing literature, its application in the supply chain context needs further refinement and expansion. A few studies (Chae and Hill, 2000; Tu et al., 2004; Russel and Hoag, 2004) have addressed the needs of such an expanded approach. In this paper we consider customer orientation as a critical aspect of supply chain management and explore its implementation process. Specifically, we examine how customer orientation can be applied in the interactive supply chain system infrastructure.\nLiterature review: A supply chain is defined as \"the integration of key business processes from end users through original suppliers that provides products, services, and information that adds value for customers and other stakeholders\" (Lambert et al., 1998). Here, a supply chain includes all the value chain processes from suppliers to end customers. It is vital that each supply chain participant adds value from the perspective of the end customer in the supply chain. This assumes integration of both supply and demand side activities in the value chain. Increasingly, the integration of both supply and demand requires an understanding of the inherent differences. In this sense, Frohlich and Westbrook (2002) divided such integration into supply chain and demand integration. Trevile et al. (2004) defined demand integrations as \"integration that supports market mediation, with the primary role of demand integration being the transfer of demand information to facilitate greater responsiveness to changing customer needs.\" They argued that increased access to demand information throughout the supply chain permits rapid and efficient delivery, coordinated planning, and improved logistics communication. Heikkila (2002) pointed out the need to shift the emphasis from the supply side to the demand side of supply chain management. These studies implicate customer orientation as a foundational element in the entire supply chain.Conduit and Mavondo (2001) supported the importance of customer orientation and antecedents to customer orientation. Customer-orientation throughout the supply chain requires improvement in employee training, management support, internal communication, personnel management, and external communication involvement (Conduit and Mavondo, 2001). Chae and Hill (2000) found that the associations between cooperative organizational culture, planning formality and competitive/organizational benefits are related in a global business environment. Russel and Hoag (2004) argued the impact of organizational culture on the rate of IT systems adoption in supply chains. Appiah-Adu and Singh (1998) showed a link between customer orientation and performance, providing examples of small and medium-sized enterprises. Martin and Grbac (2003) claimed that supply chain management is very critical to the responsiveness to customer needs, and in supporting customer orientation in the supply chain. Grunert et al. (2005) developed a conceptual model of market orientation in value chains using four case studies, where their main emphasis was customer orientation in value chains. According to Sawhney and Piper (2002), firms with a high customer value focus achieve a higher level of business performance outcomes than those that show weaker customer value emphasis. Hajjat (2002) studied the construction of measurements and validation of customer orientation of organizations. The above studies separately address the nature of customer orientation, cultural factors, structural requirements, and their potential benefits. What is missing is the integration of customer orientation in terms of defining variables, and their interrelationships and outcome measures. This paper identifies and further investigates the details of customer orientation in the context of supply chains.\nCustomer orientation by partial efforts vs throughout in supply chain: In this section we first explain the difference between customer orientation through single firms and through supply chains. Figure 1 shows the supply chain, divided into supply side and demand side integration, and their relationships through individual firms and supply chains respectively.Various studies have discussed customer orientation in a single firm context (Deshpande et al., 1993; Heikkila, 2002; Nahm et al., 2004). Part (a) of Figure 1 shows how a dominant firm in the value chain impacts the scope and the nature of customer orientation. The practices are highly control-driven. For example, the dominant firm (e.g. OEM - original equipment manufacturer) directs cost cutting and significant value added processes as an important requirement for all the suppliers, assuming reasonable quality conformance. The relationship mostly affects immediate relationships between the tier 1 supplier and tier 2 suppliers, tier 1 suppliers and OEM, OEM and distributor. Customer orientation may not go beyond immediate relationships. Supplier involvement in customer orientation is not extensive. On the other hand, as part (b) of Figure 1 shows, customer orientation in supply chains focuses on immediate relationships (e.g., tier 1 supplier and tier 2 supplier, tier 1 supplier and OEM, OEM and distributor) while at the same time other supply chain entities are aware of their impact on meeting the requirements of end customers. Suppliers in this case are well connected with the manufacturer through easy, fast, and quality information sharing, and develop effective supply chain practices with the support of interactive system structures.Table I shows the differences between customer orientation by organization-specific (i.e. single and fragmented efforts) and supply chain-encompassing (i.e. coordinated and joint efforts).Each supply chain participant is well aware of the requirements of end customers and makes specific contributions to achieve customer value. Firms that utilize customer orientation in supply chains communicate their primary value components to the supply chain participants and collaborate with other partners in the supply chain. The range of final products is more extensive and comprehensive. Customer roles in each supply chain are proactive, in that their specific requirements are well-understood. An interactive infrastructure allows each supply chain entity to have closer, faster, and more flexible customer responsiveness. It is through implementing customer orientation in supply chains as a whole that provides highly customer-valued products and services.\nA research framework: In this section we present a research model and propositions. Figure 2 is our research model, which shows four constructs (customer-orientation, interactive system infrastructure, supply chain practices and supply chain performance outcomes).Customer orientation\nDiscussion: This article has provided a customer orientation framework for supply chains, and shows how customer orientation in this context can be accomplished. The theoretical and practical contributions of this article are summarized below:First, we highlighted the nature and scope for customer orientation from the value chain perspective. Customer orientation in supply chains considers multiple customer requirements (e.g. quality, delivery, and cost) throughout the corresponding value chains. Building an interactive system infrastructure is conducive to customer orientation. Customer orientation in the supply chain is facilitated by interactive system infrastructures such as the IT and partnership infrastructures. An effective enterprise network is characterized by interactive connectivity with suppliers. What customers expect is that the firms within the supply chain with which they interact can meet value creation challenges. Neither functionally specific efforts nor cross-functional collaboration can achieve the desirable level of customer orientation. The key success factors relate to a simultaneous integration of a broad domain of effort (i.e. know-what of network goals) at the required breadth and depth (i.e. know-how of network requirements). Since not all firms within a supply chain network possess the required level of core capabilities, increasingly the headquarters of the extended enterprise must strategically approach customer orientation. Firms can strategically outsource this information network structure to achieve the required competitive advantage rapidly, thus achieving the required supportive infrastructure for customer orientation.Second, an extended enterprise manages both the supply and demand chain. This research framework is helpful in understanding inter-relationships among customer orientation, interactive system infrastructure, supply chain practices, and supply chain performance outcomes. We have related customer management literature to the supply chain literature (Reiner, 2005; Zhu and Sarkis, 2004), and shown a practical roadmap of how to implement customer orientation in a network context. Traditionally, the supply side of value chain has received more attention than the demand side. Many firms relate better with their suppliers because of their close business relationships. However, customers must be served and not managed. Therefore, an extended enterprise requires clearly defined customer-driven network attitudes (i.e. customer-closeness, customer-flexible, and customer-accessible) and realistic incentives for continuous engagement of end customers. This also requires active feedforward and feedback links with customers, so that their voices are heard and their interests are reflected in network operations. A discussion of how to implement effective interaction between end customers and enterprise networks is the essence of demand management, but is beyond the scope of this paper.\nConclusion: In conclusion, supply chain management is an important aspect of change management. This requires continuous adaptation of network organization mindsets. This is a more critical success factor than any other type of value chain practice. Networks should not focus too narrowly on implementing practices, without first building shared organizational and value chain mental models and attitudinal practices. In brief, effective customer orientation requires investment in network culture development and other intangible partnership relationships as much as in tangible IT infrastructures.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Despite an extensive body of knowledge on the importance of customer orientation in the marketing and management literature, the impact of customer orientation and interactive system infrastructure throughout enterprise networks is not fully understood. The purpose of this paper is to present a model linking customer orientation, interactive system infrastructure, value chain practices, and network performance outcomes.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The prior literature on customer orientation and supply chains is reviewed and a framework is presented which shows the relationship between customer orientation and network performance outcomes, along with other variables.\nFindings: - The conclusion supports the importance of customer orientation in the context of the proposed value chain framework.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The framework introduced in this paper provides a review of customer orientation in the enterprise network and a basis for further empirical validation.\nPractical implications: - The research framework suggests that customer orientation practices may have a positive impact on network infrastructure design, practices, and performance outcomes. Implementation of customer orientation practices and outcomes within this research framework may allow management to meet customer requirements more effectively.\nOriginality/value: - This paper expands the concept of customer-orientation in the extended enterprise network context.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Behavioural response patterns: an investigation of the early stages of major incidents
|
[
"Decision making"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In the face of adversity and increasing number and frequency of natural and man-made disasters, countries nowadays try to make every possible effort to establish and maintain adequate levels of nationwide resilience. Enterprise resilience is considered to be a foundation of national resilience and can be achieved by improving organizational response capabilities to major incidents (Rogers et al., 2016; Sawalha, 2015).\n2. Theoretical foundation: 2.1 Overview to \"major incidents\"\n3. Summary: Figure 4 summarizes the various behavioural response patterns to major incidents discussed in this research.\n4. Discussion: Major incidents present \"half-way\" case between minor incidents and disasters (Moore, 2008). They are relatively sudden, highly disruptive and in most cases time limited (although the effects may be longer lasting). Effective response is therefore a matter of high concern to prevent major incidents to further escalate into larger scale disasters and also is the key to organizational and social resilience. The response phase focuses primarily on emergency relief, saving lives, providing first aid, minimizing damage, meeting the basic life requirements of those impacted (e.g. food, water and shelter) and providing mental and spiritual support and comfort care.\n5. Conclusions: A careful review of the existing literature revealed some major gaps related to behavioural response patterns to major incidents:\n6. Practical implications and future research: The traditional disaster management cycle model consists of four main phases: mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. According to Hofmann et al. (2015), the first two phases deal with risk reduction, whereas the latter two phases comprise activities undertaken to counteract a disaster in the immediate aftermath of its occurrence and to restore the pre-disaster state. Therefore, effective response underpins recovery to a great extent and the ability to return to normal.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the different patterns of organizational behavioural responses to major incidents and develop an original classification of these patterns.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An extensive literature review was made to investigate the different patterns of behavioural responses to major incidents and then to develop an original classification of these patterns. Several sources of information, such as case studies, technical reports, academic journal articles and organizational internal reports were used.\nFindings: Organizations respond differently to major incidents. This was clear from the different behavioural patterns investigated and identified. Behavioural patterns determine levels of resilience and ability of organizations to overcome and ultimately survive major incidents.\nPractical implications: To promote effective and organized behavioural response patterns to major incidents and improve consistency of responses across the organization, relevant authorities should demonstrate to all private and public enterprises the significance of effective behavioural responses, thus enabling them to better respond to various potential emergencies.\nOriginality/value: A number of models of human behaviour have been introduced in the literature to understand how people respond to emergency situations. They each take a different perspective on human behaviour but no single theory has emerged as the leading paradigm. This highlights the complexity of understanding human behaviour in such situations and the need for a better classification of behavioural patterns. To the author's knowledge, this is one of very few studies to investigate, identify and categorize behavioural response patterns to major incidents. This research is expected to be of a substantial value for those interested in improving organizational behaviour during major incidents, as well as those interested in improving organizational resilience.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Process reengineering by using the 4PL approach: A case study on transportation processing in the agricultural bulk logistics sector
|
[
"Transport",
"Business process reengineering",
"Simulation",
"Fourth party logistics provider (4PL)",
"German agricultural bulk logistics"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Under the pressure of the steadily increasing world population and the concurrent decrease of agriculturally productive land (Alston and Pardey, 2014), the field of agricultural logistics is becoming progressively important worldwide. At the same time, speculative business transactions that involve agricultural goods are increasing (Moon, 2011). In addition, fluctuating harvest volumes add to the volatile factors that influence the agricultural supply chain. Regulatory food safety requirements in Europe and Germany in particular prescribe the traceability of goods (Fischer et al., 2009). As also in the agricultural supply chain, transportation is subject to logistical limitations, such as costs, cargo capacity and time, a strategic supply chain management is of growing importance within the agricultural sector. This requires the implementation of new, innovative approaches for business processes (King et al., 2010). For this reason, the research effort described here aims to overcome actor-based barriers and to create the conditions necessary for changing the implementation process at an early stage. With the aid of the process reengineering method, changes in the implementation process are described and implications for the transportation process are revealed.\n2. Theoretical background: Transportation is a key process within the agricultural supply chain because of the physical link between contractor and client (Coyle et al., 2003). For this reason, transportation management is a segment of the supply chain. It provides the holistic planning as well as the control of the material flow. This notwithstanding, transportation is subject to a supply chain-induced pressure to increase efficiency (Mason et al., 2007). Collaborative transportation planning that integrates all involved actors is seen as an opportunity to minimise inefficiency (Mason et al., 2007). Therefore, all actors are involved and challenged to reduce their own inefficiencies in order to thereby increase the efficiency of the entire chain. A number of scientific paper describe the 4PL approach with the objective to implement the previously described improvement for the entire group of participants (Hingley et al., 2011). Win (2008, p. 677) describes the 4PL as follows:\n3. Methodology: With the challenge of increasing the supply chain efficiency, two methods are introduced. Both methods a case study approach with practical relevance and construction-oriented research in form of a simulation were applied (Wilde and Hess, 2007). Case study research is an approved method when addressing the questions of why and how. Furthermore, this research method is of practical relevance (Yin, 2012). In our case, the more specific questions are: why does the application of a 4PL constitute an added value for the agricultural supply chain? How can the implementation of the 4PL be realised? While the case study does not provide any prospects for possible future developments, a simulation is able to answer \"what if?\" questions. In this specific case, the consequences of the implementation of the 4PL in a supply chain are queried. By combining the two methods, this research endeavour brings a twofold added value: the case study of the supply chain can reveal weaknesses in efficiency and make current problems and processes transparent; the simulation enables the testing of scenarios without monetary investments. In this way, scientific findings and consequently practical measures may be derived. Because of the combination of the two methods and the resulting need for stakeholder participation, this research may be characterised as transdisciplinary research.\n4. A case study in the agricultural bulk goods logistics sector: The agricultural bulk goods logistics sector is part of the food industry and constitutes the fourth largest industry in Germany. The German Farmers' Association estimates that in this sector there are about 5,900 firms with approximately 555,000 employed people (German Farmers' Association, 2014). The agricultural bulk logistics combines agriculture, trade and food industries. In 2012, the overall volume of agricultural goods transported in Germany was 3.7 billion tonnes, 76 per cent of which (2.8 billion tonnes) was transported via road (Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, 2012). The bulk goods were predominantly transported in full truck loads. The main factors influencing the mode of transportation are volatile market conditions induced by unpredictable harvest volumes and trade activities especially in the stock markets. The relevant actors in the sector are traders who are distinguished by their roles in primary cooperatives, secondary cooperatives and local trade. Other relevant actors are farmers, carriers and processors. Each of these actors may play several roles that can be realised in parallel. These roles or functions include trading, transportation, receiving, processing and dispatching goods. This variety of functions has implications for the transportation handling which is currently managed with mobile phones on an ad hoc basis. Based upon the existing cooperative structures and the function of the secondary cooperatives at the wholesale trading level, the objective is to achieve a cooperative process for transportation in which all actors are involved and employ the 4PL approach. Moreover, the objective of the reengineering approach was the analysis of implications, such as the reduction of lead times for transportation, which is assumed to reduce transaction costs. Furthermore, the opportunities for an increased transparency in the transportation processes, more specifically in the freight capacities, the actors' resources for loading and unloading as well as the ICT employed, are examined. The \"process reengineering methodology for a 4PL simulation\" as introduced in Section 3 is applied to the analysis of the case study.\n5. Results of the simulations: The processes implemented in the current model are the starting point for the simulation with the selected process simulator software. Based on this, the current order volumes of 50,000 orders per year were simulated. This was followed by the process reengineering through implementation of the 4PL approach. In this way, the generated results are not only relevant for the entire simulated process but also for the actors involved as well as the implications of the 4PL approach. The simulated processes depend on: the mean of process time, waiting time and lay times associated with the sub-processes. With regards to the actors, the technical and organisational implications are described. In order to justify investments in the 4PL, the added value for the actors and the savings potential are examined. Accordingly, examples are provided in the following sections that are based upon the results summarised in Figure 3. Furthermore, we make a comparison of the target and the actual figures in Table II.\n6. Conclusions and outlook: 6.1. Conclusions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Sectors with high transport volumes face the challenge of reengineering existing processes. Furthermore, new models that support transportation processing are required. One possible model would be a fourth party logistics service provider (4PL) approach in order to increase the efficient use of resources. The purpose of this paper is to describe a method for reengineering a transportation handling process using the 4PL approach.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based upon a case study approach existing processes for transportation handling are modelled. Specifications of and definitions for the 4PL approach are compiled and analysed through a literature review. With the help of expert interviews essential functions are identified and the target model is validated.\nFindings: The results of the effort demonstrate that the application of a 4PL approach facilitates an improved transportation process. This may be due to the modification of the IT and communication technology (ICT) that have been applied. Based upon expanded planning horizons an improved planning of orders, a strengthening of the competencies of the involved actors were observed.\nPractical implications: Transportation handling in the agricultural sector is of increasing importance in light of the need to feed a growing global population under the condition of limited productive land for agriculture. This paper describes the alterations in the ICT infrastructure as well as the resulting organisational and technical implications, if a 4PL is used.\nOriginality/value: The 4PL approach is an issue that is increasingly discussed in scientific publications. Furthermore, this approach has experienced new opportunities for implementation due to recent developments in ICT.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Conceptualizing for managerial relevance in B2B research: a grounded theory approach
|
[
"Managers",
"Business-to-business marketing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Several researchers have argued that one way to increase managerial relevance in business research is to provide managers with appropriate concepts (Astley and Zammuto, 1992; Jaworski, 2011). In a more recent study on the use of marketing theory, Cornelissen and Lock (2005, p. 175) found that:\nConceptualizing: MacInnis (2011) argued that conceptualization involves \"seeing\" or \"understanding\" something abstract, in one's mind, and that conceptual thinking is the understanding of a situation or problem as an abstraction of experienced patterns or connections. McInnis claimed that this way of thinking is central to our understanding of our world. The concepts involved can be anything from images to real, metaphorical, mathematical or verbal representations of ideas regarding the abstracted patterns as we continually construct our symbolic universes via objectification with concepts, and take these universes for granted to varying degrees. According to Berger and Luckmann (1967), once these symbolic universes are legitimized, they act as \"machineries of universe-maintenance\" (p. 105). They work as a kind of hypothesis that will guide actions until the hypothesis is discarded, when the social interpretation starts to favor another scheme of concepts (Hollis, 1994).\nDiscover: The naming of unseen, intuitive or abstract phenomena can contribute to new understandings of the social world, or \"seeing\" it a new and abstract way, thereby transcending previous relations and properties. This transcendence within the conceptualization process provides an opportunity by which to discover new ways of perceiving old problems or perceive what actions within a business, thereby releasing a host of opportunities.\nSimplify: The immense complexity in relations and their properties must be reduced through conceptualization for the topic to be manageable. Such condensation is often essential to make conceptualizations relevant to managers, especially in a complex context such as a B2B market.\nEnable: Providing concepts for intuitive and inexplicable phenomena makes them manageable, and the conceptualization opens up many new possibilities. One of grounded theory's quality criteria is that the conceptualization should fit and be relevant to the context it emerged from (Glaser, 1992). Thus, conceptualization can provide managers with an understanding and insights which then form the basis from which to initiate proper action and embrace change. In this sense, concepts have the ability to enable managers to act even in the midst of chaotic events and processes in flux.\nGrab: Ideally, concepts should have an instant grab in that sense that they empower managers via their formulation and gives managers a vocabulary for unexpressed and/or intuitive understanding, or a new perspective of a phenomenon or process. In other words, concepts should provide an understanding of what is going on in the field in a way that gives the manger a feeling of power from which to act and embrace change.\nDiscussion: In this article, we have formulated important recommendations to B2B researchers to produce conceptualizations that have managerial relevance. The recommendations draw both on the grounded theory methodology and our experience of what constitutes conceptualizations that managers have found relevant.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to formulate recommendations for business-to-business (B2B) researchers, with the potential to increase the extent to which B2B research is relevant to managers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: These recommendations are derived from and inspired by the grounded theory methodology.\nFindings: In this article, we argue that conceptualizations which are potentially relevant to managers are those that discover new perspectives, simplify complexity, enable managers to take action and have an instant grab. To accomplish this as researchers, the authors emphasize fostering a beginner's mind, creating umbrella models, increasing the level of abstraction of concepts and finding the core process in data.\nOriginality/value: In this article, we translate the basic principles within the grounded theory methodology into more general recommendations that can be used by B2B researchers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Altice: creating a complex and constantly evolving empire
|
[
"Debt",
"International expansion",
"Altice",
"Cable",
"Mergers and acquisition"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Within Europe, arguably the most high-profile cable operator is Liberty Global. Although listed in the USA, the company operates solely across Europe, being the largest cable operator in both Germany and the UK[1]. Liberty Global is one of several companies associated with John Malone, a US cable executive who built TCI into America's largest cable company before selling it to AT&T - only to start all over again (Davis, 1998). Through a combination of wide-ranging merger and acquisition (M&A) activity, the creation of tracker stocks and the frequent reshuffling of assets between holding companies, Malone has created a far-reaching empire that covers Liberty Media, Liberty Global, Liberty Broadband, Liberty Expedia, Liberty Trip Advisor, Liberty Interactive and Starz.\n2. Data: A detailed longitudinal case study - see, for example, Yin (1994) - is undertaken in this paper. The data are drawn from a variety of sources. The starting point was the series of annual reports published by Altice commencing in 2011. These vary in length from 114 to 244 pages. As Altice was active in the telecommunications industry before it became a public company, its annual reports were complemented by those of its partners in various investments. They were, in turn, complemented by the press releases of the various companies, as well as the documentation surrounding the initial public offerings (IPOs) of Altice S.A. and Altice USA. These documents are considerably longer than the company's annual reports at 1,339 and 409 pages, respectively.\n3. An initial focus on francophone countries: Although Altice One was formed as a company in Luxembourg, its initial purchase was made in France. In March 2002, Altice One acquired EstVideo, a cable operator in Alsace (Numericable, 2009). This was followed in November 2003, at a cost of EUR82m, by Coditel Brabant which provided cable TV and internet access in Brussels and Luxembourg City (TeleGeography, 2003). In neither of these cases is it clear whether Altice One is acting alone or in partnership with other companies.\n4. Building a wider empire: At the end of 2008, Altice started to build an empire some distance away from France. Through a holding company that it controlled, Altice acquired \"Le Cable\" which provided cable services in Guadeloupe and Martinique, two French overseas territories (Altice S.A., 2014c).\n5. Altice bulks up in its home market: The previous two sections have charted the evolution of Altice from its foundation in 2002 until the end of 2012 - the structure of Altice at end-2012 is set out in Figure 2. This has arguably been a successful journey. Through a string of deals, Altice has grown to become the majority owner of a series of businesses located around the globe. While it has invested in far-flung markets like the Dominican Republic and Guadeloupe, arguably its most successful foreign foray has been Israel where it owns outright the HOT Group. Table I vividly highlights the pivotal role played by Israel - this market accounts for more than 80 per cent of Altice's revenues, almost 80 per cent of the company's gross profit and the majority of its cable and mobile customers.\n6. 2014 Sees the start of an eventful period of M&A activity: In February 2014, it emerged that Altice had approached Vivendi to explore the possibility of combining its French cable operations with SFR, Vivendi's French mobile business (Thomson, 2014a). Such a deal would be advantageous to Vivendi for a variety of reasons. Firstly, SFR - in a similar manner to Orange and Bouygues Telecom - had been affected by the entry of Free Mobile into the market and had seen its profits fall. Moreover, not only would the sale of SFR, which was rumoured to have valued itself at more than EUR15bn, help it to reduce its costs through using Numericable's cable infrastructure, but it would also hasten the refocus of Vivendi towards its media and entertainment businesses (Thomson, 2014a). The deal would, however, see Vivendi retain a large stake in the combined company, so it would not entirely be extracting itself from the mobile market in France.\n7. Dalliance in the USA: In May 2015, it emerged that Altice was in advanced talks to acquire Suddenlink Communications, the seventh-largest cable-TV operator in the USA (Massoudi and Bond, 2015), although details were sketchy. This changed once Altice announced that it was prepared to acquire Suddenlink from BC Partners and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board in a deal valuing the cable company at $9.1bn (Thomson et al., 2015). Altice would purchase a 70 per cent stake in the company, with BC Partners and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board retaining the remainder (Wood, 2015b).\n8. Overstretch and a partial retreat: True to form, it emerged in August 2017 that Altice was considering a bid for Charter Communications, the second-largest cable operator in the USA (Fontanella-Khan et al., 2017). Not only would Altice need to outbid Softbank, which had also expressed an interest in Charter, but also need to persuade the company's largest shareholder, Liberty Media, to sell it Liberty's 21 per cent stake. In addition, Altice would need to raise a very large amount of financing - when Charter's existing debt was taken into account, it was suggested that the bid would have an enterprise value of US$185bn (Fontanella-Khan et al., 2017).\n9. Is a more focused empire emerging?: Aside from the reduction in debt noted above, what will be the impact of the restructuring outlined above on Altice? If the restructuring is implemented as planned and all of the operations earmarked for disposal are sold, then the operational footprint of Altice will be reduced. As shown in Table II, at the end of 2017 Altice was present in 15 different countries, but over the course of 2018, this is likely to fall to 12. The overall financial performance of Altice between 2015 and 2017 (inclusive) is shown in Table III.\n10. Conclusions: This paper has charted the development of Altice, commencing with its origins as a regional cable operator in France, to become the provider of converged services in a number of markets. Altice's growth is characterised by the use of debt, holding companies and a seemingly constant willingness to engage in M&A activity. For many years, Altice did not control any businesses within France but instead was a minority shareholder in Numericable, a cable operator, with its most successful market being Israel. This changed when Altice obtained control of Numericable and bought SFR from Vivendi.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to shed light on the development of Altice, a French-based but multinational operator of cable and mobile networks.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A detailed longitudinal case study approach is adopted covering the period 2002 to 2018 (inclusive). Data are drawn from multiple sources, including the annual reports of Altice, its filings with the Securities & Exchange Commission, the prospectuses of Altice S.A. and Altice USA and the trade press.\nFindings: The paper demonstrates how, until recently, Altice's presence in France was relatively limited. This changed, however, with the acquisition of Numericable and SFR. These purchases, along with those of Suddenlink and Cablevision in the USA, were funded by a substantial increase in Altice's debt burden. To address the negative consequences of this burden, Altice has retrenched through selling or planning to sell some of its operations and spinning-off Altice USA to its existing shareholders.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper highlights the complexity of multinational telecommunication companies. The challenges of developing a longitudinal case study of a company that operates in multiple countries through cascading holding companies is also illustrated by the paper.\nPractical implications: There is a need for more data to be available in the public domain. This will, amongst other things, facilitate the analysis of companies like Altice that operate internationally and bundle products together to enhance their competitiveness.\nOriginality/value: This paper charts the growth of Altice, highlighting the role played by frequent merger and acquisition activity and debt in shaping its development and strategy.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
K Bistro: a restaurant chooses the future
|
[
"Organizational development",
"Survey",
"Retailing",
"Organizational analysis",
"Case study research",
"New business"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: K Bistro is a new restaurant that opened in the spring of 2012. The owner, Chef David Kay, has extensive culinary experience. Originally from Marion, Indiana, he has served as head chef for Marriott and Hilton hotels across the country. Chef Kay recognized that there was a need for an upscale eatery in his hometown, and his passion for combining French cooking techniques with traditional Midwest cuisine has allowed him to introduce a new style of food to the area. While Marion has several fast food restaurants, it is typical for families to drive to neighboring cities when they want a nice meal to celebrate a special occasion. Chef Kay hopes to change this trend by offering a more convenient option to the Marion community.\nInitial observations: Developing a strategic plan for a new business requires a different approach. There is no history of past successes or failures to draw from, and there are no established traditions that affect how the business operates. The strategy not only considers how the business should grow in the future but also examines tactics that will promote the restaurant and develop a clientele to create current opportunities.\nIntended tools: Customer survey\nCustomer survey: 1. I come to K Bistro [...]:\nEmployee survey: 1. Why do you think customers choose K Bistro over other restaurants in Marion?\nOffsite meeting: Core competencies\nData: \nEmployee survey: To develop the corporate culture for K Bistro, employees should understand the core values of the restaurant and reflect those values to customers. Employees were asked \"Do you know the mission of K Bistro?\" in the survey we conducted. Over half of the employees surveyed do not know the mission of K Bistro. The other employees that were familiar with the mission statement believed it involves \"providing exceptional service and great food to Grant County\". With the establishment of clear core values, it will be easier for employees to understand and uphold the mission.\nOffsite meeting: Agenda\nCore values/mission statement: Core competencies\nCorporate culture: Chef Kay desires the corporate culture to reflect the restaurant's beliefs and values to the employees and customers.\nData analysis: After collecting the results from our survey, examining our initial observations, and reviewing the information from our meetings with Chef Kay, we recognized that there is an interesting trend that is affecting K Bistro. The misperceptions about the restaurant are impacting the potential to reach new customers that can become part of a loyal customer base. Chef Kay shared that he has heard feedback from potential new customers that they heard K Bistro is \"a formal restaurant\". Additionally, K Bistro was recently voted \"Best Fine Dining Restaurant in Grant County\", which actually added to these misconceptions. Many customers wrote on their survey that they go to K Bistro \"hardly ever\", as it is seen as a dining option for special occasions only.\nStrategies: Primary areas of focus:\nImplementation of core values: Strategies\nPromotion of K Bistro: Strategies\nBranding Chef Kay: Strategies\nLong-term goals: Strategies\nImplementation timeframe: Implementation of core values (90 days)\nConclusion: K Bistro is able to benefit from the expertise of owner, Chef David Kay, to provide a gourmet dining experience that fills a niche in the Marion community. The high-quality food is paired with a welcoming environment that many customers enjoy. As a new restaurant, the current challenge is attracting customers who have misperceptions on what K Bistro offers. Developing a strategic plan will guide the business as it grows and addresses the issues that present current challenges.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to study K Bistro and its future in Marion, Indiana. K Bistro is a new restaurant that opened in the spring of 2012. The owner, Chef David Kay, has extensive culinary experience. Originally from Marion, Indiana, he has served as head chef for Marriott and Hilton hotels across the country.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Chef Kay recognized that there was a need for an upscale eatery in his hometown, and his passion for combining French cooking techniques with traditional Midwest cuisine has allowed him to introduce a new style of food to the area.\nFindings: While Marion has several fast food restaurants, it is typical for families to drive to neighboring cities when they want a nice meal to celebrate a special occasion. Chef Kay hopes to change this trend by offering a more convenient option to the Marion community.\nOriginality/value: This is an original case study.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Collaboration and communication: Building a research agenda and way of working towards community disaster resilience
|
[
"Resilience",
"Collaboration",
"Communication",
"Action research",
"Hierarchal and horizontal networks",
"Research-based planning"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Disaster resilience is a term people both love and hate, depending on the perspective from which it is approached. However, one feels about it, it remains a prominent notion in the policy landscape. This paper reports on a Participatory Action Research (PAR) workshop bringing together communication researchers and representatives from organisations who help communities in building resilience to disasters. Hosted by Macquarie University's (Australia) Centre for Climate Futures, the goal of the workshop was to collaboratively explore the challenges organisations perceive as blockages to building community disaster resilience; and, through practitioner-led activities, identify those challenges best addressed through deeper engagement with communication research. The paper commences with a description of the workshop objectives and the PAR methodology. This is followed by a definition of the key terms framing the workshop, including clarified distinctions between organisational and community resilience. The workshop report is then linked to a 2013 symposium, which generated a research agenda through which communications scholars could better engage with resilience practitioners (Burnside-Lawry et al., 2013). By building critical links between these activities we locate our workshop report in a wider conversation, showing the benefit of building bridges between communication researchers and community disaster resilience practitioners. The paper identifies and offers critical analysis of communication challenges faced by participating organisations in their community disaster resilience work, and shows how PAR can shift participant focus - from resolving inter/intra-organisational tensions to facilitating the public good. The paper concludes by presenting evidence-based recommendations which extend this research agenda, offering support to organisations and fostering a more reflexive and communicative approach throughout their efforts to build disaster resilient communities.\nThe workshop: objectives and PAR method: In order to address the goal of collaboratively exploring challenges perceived by organisations as blockages to building community disaster resilience, the following objectives were developed. The workshop sought to:\nDefinition of key terms: The distinction between organisational and community resilience is integral to this paper. For the purposes of this paper we distinguish between the resilience of organisations with an emphasis on \"hierarchy, organisational structure, command-and-control, risk and quality management\" (Rogers, 2015, p. 4) and community resilience \"as potential for individuals to collaborate (with key organisations) through locally relevant action\" (Rogers, 2015, p. 4), sometimes referred to as a \"shared responsibility\". The workshop did not seek to build community resilience out in the community by working with the general public directly, rather, the workshop: offered a safe space in which to review communication techniques that organisations use when building community resilience; question if existing techniques acted as communication blockages to realising the end goal of a community resilience building project; and explore potential solutions to engender a more successful communicative practice. Workshop participants were encouraged to focus on the potential of PAR as a dynamic means to discover ways to engage communities more effectively, not as a measurement of internal resilience for the participating organisations[4]. Sharing of stories, frustrations and experiences of blockages or limitations within organisations was reflected upon throughout the discussion, but did not drive it. This allowed a focus on the activities themselves as means for improving collaboration. PAR itself becomes a means to simultaneously dissolve organisational blockages whilst more directly involving local communities in multiple phases of disaster management: from preparation, prevention, response and recovery as a whole but also at the level of smaller scale project implementation and project evaluations.\nBuilding on the findings: Our efforts to begin filling this knowledge gap in communication and collaboration commenced at a symposium on communication and disaster resilience held at RMIT University, Australia, in November 2012. This generated a broad research agenda that aimed to focus the media, communication and social science contributions to ongoing research in such a way as to not only enhance community engagement, but also to improve the theory and practice of communication through grounded and practical community resilience projects. The research agenda that emerged identified six themes to help frame, enhance and develop community-driven projects (see Burnside-Lawry et al., 2013).\nAn evidence-base for future research needs: In reflecting on the PAR method there are valuable lessons to be learned. By commencing the day with an opportunity for participants to address their frustrations with the status quo the discussion quickly identified knowledge gaps within participating organisations. A key interest to emerge was an increased understanding amongst front-line engagement officers of how and why the general public become active, stay active and engage in sustainable collaborative practice; and how to render this information salient to managerial policy discussion at the upper levels of their respective organisations. The following questions gave focus to the common framework of research needs established by participants:\nConclusion: The one-day \"Communication, Collaboration and Resilience\" workshop explored the potential of communication scholarship to assist organisations enact more communicative and participatory community resilience interventions. In particular, the workshop sought to identify how communication research could foster more communication, collaborative and participatory approaches by key organisations as they seek to enhance community ownership of disaster-related decision-making, particularly when undertaking \"community resilience\" building activities.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide a case study of Participatory Action Research (PAR), reporting on a collaboration, communication and disaster resilience workshop in Sydney, Australia. The goal of the workshop was to explore the challenges that organisations perceive as blockages to building community disaster resilience; and, through collaborative practitioner-led activities, identify which of those challenges could be best addressed through a deeper engagement with communication research.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors link communication, collaboration and disaster resilience through the lens of PAR, detailing how communication and resilience experts can collaborate to improve disaster prevention, management and mitigation practice.\nFindings: The authors identify a number of theoretical considerations in understanding horizontal and vertical interfaces for improved communication. The authors also highlight how practical collaborative workshops can draw on communication researchers to facilitate collaborative resilience activities. PAR is shown to help move participant focus from resolving inter/intra-organisational tensions to facilitating public good, offering evidence-based recommendations which will foster a more reflexive and communicative approach to building disaster resilient communities.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper does not seek to apply community resilience to the general public, no community representatives were present at the workshop. This does not mean that the focus is on organisational resilience. Rather the authors apply PAR as a way to help organisations become more engaged with PAR, communication research and collaborative practice. PAR is a tool for organisations to use in building community resilience, but also a means to reflect on their practice. Whilst this should help organisations in building more resilient communities the take up of practice by participants outside of the workshop is a matter for future research.\nPractical implications: This method of collaborative resilience building could significantly improve the shared responsibility amongst key organisations, mobilising skills and building awareness of integrated resilience thinking in practice for stakeholders in disaster management activities.\nOriginality/value: This paper provides original evidence-based research, showing the linkages between communication theory, collaboration practice and the tools used by organisations tasked with building community resilience. This innovative synthesis of skills can aid in building PAR led disaster resilience across prevention, preparation and mitigation activities for all potential hazards, threats and/or risks, however, it will be particularly of interest to organisations engaged in community resilience building activities.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Interactivity in online pension planners enhances engagement with retirement planning - but not for everyone
|
[
"Interactivity",
"Gender differences",
"Heterogeneity",
"Service technology",
"Web-based pension communication",
"Pension planners"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: According to a recent UN report (2015), the proportion of persons aged 60 and over is expected to double between 2007 and 2050. This fact, combined with continued low interest rates puts pension systems around the world under pressure. Increasingly, the risks and responsibility for retirement planning are being shifted towards pension plan participants themselves (EIOPA 2013). However, the majority of people around the world are currently not actively engaged in their retirement planning (Aegon Retirement Readiness Survey, 2018). A recent study by a large American financial services provider finds that people spend less time planning for their individual retirement account investment than for choosing a restaurant or buying a flat screen TV or tablet (TIAA-CREF, 2014). If people do not appropriately search for information about their expected pension benefits and take action if needed, some of them may encounter significant pension gaps resulting in detrimental welfare effects in retirement.\nTheoretical background: Research on customer engagement has increased significantly over the past decade (Jaakkola and Alexander, 2014). A large body of research has emerged on antecedents and outcomes of customer engagement, such as value co-creation, involvement, experience, loyalty or profitability (Hollebeek et al., 2014, Jaakkola and Alexander, 2014, Van Doorn et al., 2010). Yet, most studies on customer engagement study high involvement contexts such as brands or brand communities (Brodie et al., 2013; Hollebeek et al., 2014). These settings are very different from retirement planning, which can be considered a low involvement setting (Rickwood and White, 2009). Although people see the relevance of retirement planning they still procrastinate and do not engage in it (Krijnen et al., 2015).\nHypotheses development: We first propose a hypothesis for engagement. We conceptualise engagement as behaviour (the number of clicked options within the planner) and behavioural intentions. These behaviours and behavioural intentions extend beyond transaction and examine several aspects of acquiring more information about retirement planning in general or a specific personal situation. Behaviours motivated by a search for information are at the starting point of the decision-making funnel, in line with the purpose of pension planners.\nResearch methodology: Sample and experimental procedure\nDiscussion: We investigated whether increasing levels of interactivity in online pension planners, that is, in a low involvement context, improves or hampers user attitudes, knowledge and engagement with retirement planning. We find that a high level of interactivity, compared to no interactivity, positively influences participants' intentions to check their personal pension situation in the upcoming three to six months. The pension planner encourages this type of behaviour as it acts as a reminder for participants to check their own pension situation. Yet, more abstract behavioural intentions that require a bit more effort, such as consulting outside parties, were not activated.\nManagerial contributions: Our study offers two core implications for increasing the effectiveness of pension planners. First, our study revealed heterogeneity among users of pension planners, that is, men and women respond differently to the level of interactivity in a pension planner. Whereas men in the highly interactive condition perceive the information presented in the pension planner to be more useful and easy to use than in the other two conditions, the tendency for women points towards a preference for low and medium levels of interactivity. Similarly, male participants in the highly interactive condition displayed significantly higher behavioural intentions than female participants in the same condition, but within the moderately interactive condition female participants indicated higher behavioural intentions, albeit only significant at the p < 0.10 significance level. These results suggest tailoring pension planners to match specific preferences of recipients by, for example, integrating less interactive features for women than for men in a pension planner.\nTheoretical contributions: Most extant engagement literature research on customer engagement predominantly focuses on high involvement, offline contexts, such as brands or brand communities. As Hollebeek et al. (2016) note, little is known regarding engagement through interactive interfaces or platforms and specific cross-context comparative research. By focussing on a technological interface for retirement planning, a low involvement context, we are broadening the scope of engagement literature and we add revealing insights on engagement-based interface platforms and interactivity. Our study is the first to test the effectiveness of interactivity in influencing the actual behaviour (i.e. the number of clicked options) in a technologically advanced tool. Interactivity was found to significantly increase the number of clicked options in comparison to no interactivity; however, there was no statistically significant difference in the number of clicks between the moderately and highly interactive conditions. In short, if the purpose is to attract users' attention, interactivity might constitute a promising solution.\nLimitations and future research: Our study focuses on interactivity within the scope of a pension planner, further research efforts are required to obtain additional insights into this topic. First, the basic information contained in the pension planner, i.e. income, occupational pension and state pension, was fictional and consequently might have not been able to elicit the desired motivation and involvement of the participants. An interesting extension of our study would, therefore, be using personal, self-relevant data to see whether the effects will be strengthened than when using fictional data.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: People around the world are not sufficiently capable or willing to engage in retirement planning. New technological tools have been proposed as a promising solution to foster involvement and consequently encourage retirement planning. This paper aims to test whether an interactive online pension planner can improve participants' behaviour, behavioural intentions, attitude, knowledge and perceived ease of use, usefulness and enjoyment.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In collaboration with a company specialised in technologically advanced pension planners, three different versions of an online pension planner were created. The control condition only allowed participants to check their pension situation and the composition of future retirement income. In the medium interactivity level, participants could choose to modify certain variables affecting their pension income, on top of the features from the control. The highly interactive planner additionally included an interactive budget tool and showed whether the accumulated pension income was sufficient to cover the desired spending. Data were collected with the help of an online panel (N = 285).\nFindings: This paper finds a positive effect of interactivity on behaviour within the planner, that is, the number of clicked options, as well as on participants' intention to check their personal pension situation in the upcoming three to six months. Moreover, this paper finds gender differences: male participants prefer a high level of interactivity, while women prefer a medium level.\nResearch limitations/implications: An interesting modification to the current research design would be to use personal, self-relevant data in the online pension planner. Moreover, conducting the study in a computer laboratory could increase concentration on the task, and hence involvement. Next to gender, there might be other factors that possibly influence the results. It would be interesting to investigate other measures of behaviour such as the time spent on the pension planner. Further research should also study the effects of other features that shape user's perception of interactivity, which include human-to-human interactivity.\nPractical implications: The results show that technological services, such as advanced online pension planners, can positively affect engagement with retirement planning. Thus, pension providers are encouraged to use interactive online pension planners. The results with respect to gender suggest tailoring pension planners to match specific preferences of recipients. New service technologies provide novel opportunities to cater to individual differences by, for example, integrating less interactive features for women than for men in a pension planner. Moreover, cognitive involvement should be stimulated by integrating relevant, interesting and valuable information.\nSocial implications: Lack of engagement with retirement planning is an important challenge to Western societies. People who do not sufficiently search for information about their expected pension benefits may encounter significant pension gaps resulting in detrimental welfare effects at retirement. This problem is enhanced by the fact that increasingly, the risks and responsibility for retirement planning are being shifted towards pension plan participants themselves. Thus, finding ways to increase engagement with retirement planning by making use of advances in service technologies brings benefits to society.\nOriginality/value: First, this paper contributes to the customer engagement literature by studying how new technological interfaces improve user experiences, knowledge and engagement within the low involvement context of retirement planning. Second, this paper advances service research by zooming in on customer heterogeneity in using the technology-based online pension planner and studying the moderating effect of involvement and gender more closely. Third, this paper contributes to the financial services literature by studying how new service technologies can help to increase attitudes, knowledge and engagement with retirement planning.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Builders and cleaners: A longitudinal study of strategic narratives
|
[
"Corporate strategy",
"Narratives",
"Senior management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Research based on leading actors in companies bear witness to how they view events in companies and their surroundings. These interpretations are not expressed in terms of tables and charts, or correlations between variables but in form of concrete stories, so-called narratives (Czarniawska-Joerges, 1988). In such a narrative, the actor has organised experienced data in respect to something that can appear logical. Mouritsen et al. (2001) are of the opinion that figures, amongst other things, are loosely related to each other and contribute to the story and to the sketches belonging to it. Accordingly, they believe the figures are part of the narrative where the figures helping to promote the story and avoiding it from getting lost. One example is the progress and stagnation problem in a great Swedish Shipyard (Gotaverken Arendal - GVA) studied, in spite of the company's record of long periods characterised as a permanently failing company (Meyer and Zucker, 1989).Through a narrative we can find a relationship between a leading actor's own actions and the results of a company based on a strong and wise leader. In another narrative, there is an in-woven relationship between changes in the immediate surrounding and deteriorated performance. Events that occur roughly, randomly and simultaneously, the so-called synchronicities (Jung, 1960), are designed as meaningful cause-effect chains. Starting from the assumption that narratives are partly bound by strategy and partly bound by person, the empirical focus has been directed towards identifying different narrative patterns. We have chosen to organise empirical data - the narratives - in two criss-crossing ways:1. time differences in the chain of events - phases; and2. different sides of the professional actors - the social and emotional logic interpreted in the narratives (Czarniawska, 1997).In this way, the field has been opened up for a theoretical discussion towards dialectical tension on the logic of the narratives through an in-depth empirical interpretation.The relationship between narratives and their strategic context is an area where research can make a tangible contribution. One supposition is that there exists myriad narratives in large organisations. Over time, we do not expect the same narrative either because the actors change. Is it possible, despite this, to discern some patterns that can contribute in understanding the function of the narratives in a long-term perspective? We have studied one organisation over a 25 year period during both good times and bad times, and have witnessed distinctly different narratives. The narratives differ both in time and between different groups during the same time period. It is some of this variation that we intend to describe and interpret in the following paper. The purpose is to develop a theory by differentiating different types of narratives and also for trying to understand the interplay between them as well as the dynamics over time.The following chapter further elucidates our theoretical suppositions vis-a-vis the context we are studying - a longitudinal cycle of crisis events. Thereafter we present a number of narratives that we have collected during our empirical study. In the following interpretation, we endeavour to deepen our understanding of the diversity and dynamics of the narratives. We conclude the essay with a discussion on our contribution in relation to narrative theory.\n2 Theory - narratives, strategy and myths: 2.1 Type of narratives in complex organisations\n3 Mode of procedure: Concerning the mode of procedure, our attempt starts from an interpretative ambition where the context from a longitudinal process of change has to be understood from changes on another level where the history not only is an event in the past (Pettigrew, 1990). The period studied concerned the once world-leading Swedish shipyard Gotaverken Ltd and the later newly built subsidiary GVA - a shipyard equipped with conveyor-belts in a highly mechanised process where very large ships and oil-platforms could be manufactured.Two important choices were made regarding the selection of our material. First, six narrators were selected - the leading actors. The rest of the material, collected from middle managers and their narratives, could be better understood if placed in another theoretical setting. The second criterion was selecting illustrating material from the six narratives. We have tried to take out short sentences from each narrative and checked these sentences towards the whole transcript so it becomes a fair representative of the whole story.Every in-depth interview lasted between two-and-a-half to three hours. The capture of data proceeded during the time of seven months. The interviews where characterized by letting the narratives talk for themselves but supported by an interview-guide with loose structured questions supplemented with important keywords. The method used gave the respondents large discretion in their narratives. The interviews were done 1990-1991. Thus, a rather long period had passed compared to the time period the narrators have chosen in their stories. We will comment on that later in the paper. The interviews were taped and transcribed in detail, word for word.Compared to Gabriel (2000) we have selected narratives concerning strategy. He collected narratives concerning use of computers in organisations. We have collected narratives from one firm covering a long period, while Gabriel collected narratives from five organisations during a shorter period of time. Gabriel analysed a great number of narratives and the result of his studies was a taxonomy that can be seen as fully covered, while we have selected two very distinct types of narratives. Gabriel in his analysis focused on emotions and morals, while we focused more on the relations between the narrator and the strategic activities during certain time periods.Stories emerging from in-depth interviews and confined to the framework of Gotaverken - later GVA, constituted our main material (Soderbom, 1995); comparisons of progress and stagnation in the past of these companies were important building blocks in the study. Over time, external annual reports also play an essential role with their clinically documented presentations (Polesie, 1991) alongside other narratives.Technological chains of events and economical chains of events are themes that, in turn, provide the base for three separate leading actor-themes within the empirical boundary. By actor-theme we mean, firstly, emotional behaviour on an individual level; secondly, the immediate social environment as a level with many complex constructions, and thirdly, the social-organisational context on a technological and technical level. In the longitudinal chain of events, the starting point was to search partly for time-phases and partly for the different aspects of the narratives of professional actors. We believe that narratives get their nutrition from the common organisational context's different strategic phases' character and myth periods. In the narratives, scenarios are mirrored and paint a picture of the company's business logic with its possibilities and opportunities - how good these are and how well one has succeeded with them. Our interpretation of the narratives thus contained the following dimensions: time period, leading actors, strategy and business logic as these dimensions were very significant in our material and also fitted our strategic frame of reference.Certain narratives constitute more overall narratives that we call meta-narratives that become relevant for actors within a company and its surrounding. A company's existence thus gets explained through simple stories, through coherent narratives and meta-narratives.To summarise, the empirical base of the study had as its point of departure:* the two theses, with the narrative characteristics then being arranged partly idea-wise, and partly as person-centred;* structure - the empirical base from the point of view of different time-phases and the different facets of the professional actors;* search for technological and economic chains of rhetoric in the given context; and* considered three different perspectives: emotional behaviour on an individual level, the immediate social environment and the organisational context.\n4 Empirical standpoint: 4.1 Narratives - exemplification\n5 Interpretations of the narratives: We have focused on two kinds of narratives; these who had a clear plot - builders - and those without - cleaners. We will first try to understand the characteristics of these two narratives and second understand the relation between the narratives.5.1 The narratives from the builders\n6 Concluding remarks: The purpose of this study was to develop a theory by differentiating different types of narratives and also trying to understand the interplay between them as well as dynamics over time. The organisation studied had undergone several deep crises. The pattern identified was in some periods building and investing, in other periods cleaning and saving. This pattern is also observed in public administration at the same time. Leijon et al. (1984), in their studies of local governments in Sweden, recognized the same pattern but not of the magnitude as found in the shipyard. Builders and cleaners are similar to the roles of spenders and watchmen (Wildavsky, 1975). However, Wildavsky's point was that these two roles shall be in balance, otherwise the budget process will be destructive. The implication is that it seems very hard to get a more balanced play between the different roles.The two basic types of narratives were builders with a clear plot, and cleaners without that clear plot. The concept meta-narrative helped us to understand the strategic changes over time. This meta-narrative was imbedded in the myth-periods involved. The meta-narrative identified in our study object was built on an idea of a going concern and its role in society was to produce large objects for long-term use. When markets for one kind of large objects were driven out of competition the enterprise had to look for other objects and for new markets. The heroes in our story were associated to large objects - in that meta-narrative builders are seen as the life-savers of the going concern - while the other kind of narrators has to work with the consequences and do the cleaning work waiting for new heroes to come.Many big organisations in 2000s seem to have learned the lesson of waiting too long and trying to secure enterprises before bankruptcy. We have to clean - reduce man-power amongst other things - in order to secure a sustainable enterprise. This points towards a new strategic cleaning narrative, and as a consequence, organisations will need more of Laurins and less of Svenssons. Laurin's role was to reorganise, and if we look at organisations as parts in networks, Olsson's capacity to control business empires could be interpreted as the complementary role. As a business entrepreneur Olsson was quite aware of the risks in business. Recently, the more classical builders in our story - Svensson and Bergstrand - are seldom the front figures in large organisations. Their ideas and spirit are still needed but are tamed into new structures. Ericsson is also needed but he is also tamed when entering into organisational networks. Asztely as the cautious financial watchman seems also to be needed but are still not in the forefront when strategic decisions are taken. When they are needed most, however, very few seem to listen. Tengroth, as the responsible HR-Manager, also seems a significant actor in organisations that are ambivalent related to its personnel - as a resource and as a cost - is also someone behind the front. This contextual pattern gives a more balanced structure when builders and cleaners operate at the same time and respond to each other.Compared to earlier research on strategy and narratives as mentioned in this paper, our empirical material is collected from the private sector. Doolin's (2003) case was from the public sector. His analysis of embedded discourses in the narratives is quite similar to our concept meta-narrative. However, the meta-narrative in his article is based on new public management and ours was based on the business concept of a going concern. Our frame of reference concerning strategic changes over a long period of time illustrates both ups and downs and highlights the relations between strategic narratives. Thus, we have shown another interplay between the meta-narrative, strategic actors and their narratives compared to earlier studies. Strategic work is not only adaption to new conditions in the environment, as in Doolin (2003) and Dunford and Jones (2000), but as in our study an internal play between bold venturing and thankless cleaning. Other strategic logics - other meta-narratives - we anticipate another dynamics between strategic actors narratives.We will also highlight that some personal life-stories are embedded in the strategic narratives - the builders - while others - the cleaners - contain very loose couplings between the strategies narrated and their personal life stories indicate that their role in the strategy process was not their life monument. Actors both not only have a main story to tell but they have also have stories to tell when they are forced to do so.Our paper is based on data from a big Swedish industrial organisation which in the 2000s only small fragments exist. However, the pattern described could be seen when expanding both time and space. Not only popular business press but also academic work admires builders of various organisational monuments. Kamprad is the builder of IKEA and controls the empire unlike Svensson and Bergstrand, who were employed. Still we also see examples of the pattern illustrated in Gotaverken when employed CEOs are building empires uncontrolled/untamed of other actors. However, as in Gotaverken, it ends with crisis. Thus, it could be interesting in further research to collect narratives and compare them with different organisational meta-narratives as indicated above. How are narratives told, both from actors who are telling their life story and actors who are forced to do their duty?\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this research paper is to contribute to strategy theory by differentiating different types of top management narratives and trying to understand the interplay between them as well as the dynamics over time.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study was designed from an interpretative narrative approach. Narratives were produced from deep interviews and organisational documents covering a period of more than 25 years.\nFindings: - Two kinds of narratives were detected - builders and cleaners. The builders' narratives illustrate how personal life-stories are embedded in the strategic development processes but the cleaners' narratives are organisational stories without personal life-stories and cover no actual development. The concept meta-narrative helped to understand strategic changes over time and was embedded in the myth-periods involved. The meta-narrative identified was built on an idea of a going concern and on the role to produce physical large objects for long-term use.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Owing to the longitudinal design of the study a cyclical pattern with related managerial narratives were produced. The dichotomy builders and cleaners could be developed studying other longitudinal business strategies and also by connections to meta-narratives derived from more general economic theories.\nPractical implications: - Builders and cleaners focus on either business or organisational/financial aspects but neither of both. Awareness of this, learning strategic management requires co-operation between different actors.\nOriginality/value: - The longitudinal design describes and analyzes a cyclical pattern of managerial patterns, while other studies based on narratives cover more limited organisational events in time and space.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Real fruit substitution: the case of at-risk American families
|
[
"Packaging",
"Heuristics",
"At-risk families",
"Fruit substitutes"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Popular movements, from Michelle Obama's Let's Move! Campaign to groups like the Campaign to End Obesity, stress greater consumption of fruits and vegetables. As a result, fruit-branded products have experienced growth in the American marketplace[1]. Fruit-branded is a term for brands linked to fruit through signals of fruit in the brand name and/or package (e.g. Berry Berry Kix, Fruit roll-ups). Many of these products contain images of fruit on their packaging, regardless of the actual product content or nutritional value. This is concerning as it relates to consumer purchasing and the role that brands and packaging play in influencing choice. In some cases, it might even be potentially misleading to consumers with limited nutritional knowledge (Clement et al., 2013).\nLiterature review: Nutritional needs and dietary habits of young children\nResearch questions: First, as a baseline we ask parents for their perceptions of the nutritional needs of their children:\nMethodology: Instrument and measures\nResults: Servings of fruit per day\nImplications from this study: When discussing our findings, implications logically begin with a focus on parental education. These findings highlight parents' misunderstanding regarding the amount of fruit required as part of a healthy diet and the belief that fruit-branded products are real fruit substitutes. This research adds to Baranowski et al.'s (2013) study examining innovative approaches to alter children's diets. Assisting parents in making well-informed decisions is one of these ways. Interventions focused on increasing fruit consumption should offer clarity regarding fruit-branded products as real fruit substitutes and should teach parents how to review product nutritional labels to determine the fruit content. Supplementing the existing parental education and information sources with a more complete toolbox of how to examine food labels and investigate health claims may aid parents when selecting fruit substitutes.\nLimitations and future research: The present study is not exempt from limitations. While the study is unable to attend to how parents' specific decisions are impacted by ingredients like sugar and vitamin content, the results strongly suggest that perceptions of fruit do indeed impact purchases across product categories. Future research can take a more holistic view of the many factors in the nutritional profile of products influencing behavior and could also examine more product categories.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Children's fruit intake is a part of healthy nutrition. Several children's food products \"look like\" fruit; hence potentially fruit substitutes. Packaging includes brand names, indicators, and health claims related to fruit. These packaging cues may potentially lead to misperceptions of the products. The purpose of this paper is to examine at-risk parents' substitutions of children's fruit-branded products for real fruit. At-risk parents are of particular interest as they are a vulnerable segment when it comes to nutrition.\nDesign/methodology/approach: At-risk families (n=149) completed a survey of their perceptions of children's nutritional needs, fruit product substitutions, and brand purchase behavior.\nFindings: At-risk parents report erroneous perceptions of children's nutritional fruit intake needs. The results suggest that parents believe fruit-branded products are equivalent to real fruit. Parents' knowledge and beliefs of fruit equivalency impact purchase decisions.\nResearch limitations/implications: Limitations include potential self-reporting and convenience sampling bias. The study did not attend to the complete product nutritional profile; only on fruit content. Future research should investigate other factors affecting food purchase decisions.\nPractical implications: Industry and policy implications include the balance between governmental regulation of food marketing, voluntary corporate responsibility, and the need for education.\nOriginality/value: This study provides insights into children's food product packaging on at-risk family perceptions of real fruit substitutes and purchase behaviors. With the market for these products increasing, there is limited research investigating the impact of these products on children's nutritional intake.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A Delphi-based approach for detecting key e-learning trends in postgraduate education: The Spanish case
|
[
"Higher education",
"Delphi",
"Spain",
"E-Learning",
"Trends"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The great changes in society, along with the development of technology, has meant that we are currently living a moment of profound change. Furthermore, the conception of education and training in firms has altered. An example of this is the recent UNESCO report titled \"Rethinking education: toward a global common good?\" (UNESCO, 2015). This highlights not only the importance of accessing education, but also the quality of training and the new educational needs in society. This global rethink in the report is especially relevant in the digital environment. It is also shown as a solution to the necessity of supporting lifelong learning - in Europe around 10.6 percent of those between 25 and 64 years old are parts of this (EUROSTAT, 2015). Due to students' new needs, the increase of competitiveness in the higher education sector and the new educational and technological approaches at this training level, institutions require e-learning to generate additional economic and educational values (Brower, 2003; Arbaugh, 2005; Daspit and D'Souza, 2012; Geddes, 2009; Yang, 2013). However, there is uncertainty concerning e-learning or the use of information and communications technologies (ICT) in learning and teaching (Czerniewicz and Brown, 2009) as well as the profitability of the self-paced e-learning industry as is conceived today (Adkins, 2016). This is because of the complexity of carrying out investments in a technological environment which is as diverse and changing as that of education, of the swift evolution of the phenomenon and of the agents involved having to adapt to this situation (Saltz et al., 2007). Nowadays, \"learning suppliers are aware of new products that are in higher demand than e-learning. The new products are game changers relative to knowledge transfer and learning transfer\" (Adkins, 2016, p. 43). As a result, new learning technology trends are overcoming traditional e-learning concept giving rise to a new phase of innovation, highly effective knowledge and learning transfer which also address the problem of cost that affects \"traditional\" e-learning. Consequently, there is a new scenario in the Learning Industry. It is therefore crucial to detect the key elements of e-learning which the institutions must have to concentrate on being competitive and offering services adapted to these new times. With a view to shedding light on this question, this research work's aim is to identify and analyze the main educational trends which will mark the future of e-learning postgraduate programs in the 2020 time horizon in Spain. Its purpose is to contribute to the design of a successful training offer consistent with the most current trends.\n2. Spain as a study space in the European area: Internet has become a great ally of training and employment and in Spain all the indicators show a clear tendency of supply and demand toward e-learning training. The origin of this trend is partly the consolidation of the leadership of Spain in the European Union in the penetration of smartphones, which are 81 percent of all cell phones (Fundacion Telefonica, 2015). This is 10 percent above the EU's European average, having grown 5 percent in the last year, according to the 15th edition of the annual report \"The Information Society in Spain\" (Fundacion Telefonica, 2015). Likewise, broadband penetration surpasses that of the EU in 2014. The EU's fixed broadband rose by an inter-annual rate of 4.4 percent and the cell phone broadband by 12.4 percent. But, according to the data of the Comision Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia (2015), both services grew more quickly in Spain - by 6.9 and 16.9 percent, respectively. On the other hand, in 2014, the percentage of lines with a speed equal to or more than 100 Mbps in Spain was 10.8 percent - 1.8 times more than that of the end of 2013. This rate was 8.7 percent in the EU.\n3. Main e-learning macrotrends: The Horizon NMC Global report (Johnson et al., 2012) for 2012-2017 established the main educational trends. The evolution experienced in the e-learning area since then has capacitated the detecting of aspects stemming from these trends in a multitude of e-learning mode programs: gamification, social media, mobile learning, virtual worlds, MOOCs, and learning analytics, among others. Nonetheless, questions come up about the diffusion and impact of each of them: which trends will remain in the immediate future and which are ephemeral?\n4. Methodology and field work: 4.1 Delphi method\n5. Results: The positioning of the different trends is presented based on the three main dimensions which affect institutions: the level of diffusion forecasted, and the costs associated with a potential implementation and its relation with the foreseen impact on learning.\n6. Conclusions: This work's main contribution is the identifying and analysis of the educational trends in e-learning postgraduate programs which will have the greatest influence in Spain in the coming years. To do so we have based ourselves on a three-dimensional analysis capable of measuring the cost of implementation and the impact in terms of each of the trends, combined with the degree of diffusion forecast. The methodological background of the study is a synthesis of qualitative and quantitative research techniques that has been conducted through a collaborative process involving a large panel of experts. As a result of this analysis, we find that the practices linked to mobile learning, gamification, open education and social media will be the most relevant. This is due to their high level of expected diffusion and the positive assessment which emerges from the educational cost/impact ratio.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present the results of national level Delphi study carried out in Spain aimed at providing inputs for higher education administrators and decision makers about key e-learning trends for supporting postgraduate courses.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The ranking of the e-learning trends is based on a three-dimensional analysis that combines the cost of implementation, the impact of each trend on learning outcomes and the diffusion forecast among postgraduate courses in the time horizon. The authors use the Delphi method for managing an expert panel.\nFindings: Mobile learning, gamification, social media and open education are found as some of the key e-learning trends that might have greater educational impacts in postgraduate programs in the next years. These results are expected to help educational institutions to plan future positioning strategies depending on their starting positions, resources and intentions to innovate.\nOriginality/value: Educational managers and planners need to identify priority issues and principal trends in higher education in order to raise their innovative offer and to maintain competitiveness. The results might help them. Moreover the indicator and the methodological approach is a novelty in the field.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
An analysis for service quality enhancement in electricity utility sector of India by SEM
|
[
"Service quality",
"Structural equation modelling",
"Indian consumers",
"Customer service quality",
"Electricity service quality"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Service is positioned at the center of economic activities in any society. As a matter of fact, no economy can function without the infrastructure that service organizations provide in the form of transportation, education, health care and utilities (Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons, 2000). In recent years, we have witnessed a major evolution among industrial nations, as they have evolved from being primarily manufacturing-based to primarily service based. Therefore, knowing how to manage a service organization effectively has become a priority. Due to the increasing needs for better direction and management of service organizations, operations management researchers and practitioners have started to apply operations management concepts and techniques that have been developed in manufacturing sectors to service industries (Heineke, 1995; Buler et al., 1996; Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons, 2000). Understanding the impact of service-encounter constructs such as physical good quality, service quality, and the services cape on behavioral intentions has preoccupied services researchers for more than two decades (Lovelock, 1983; Shostack, 1977). In addition to the vast amount of support found in service quality literature (e.g. Boulding et al., 1999; Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Zeithaml et al., 1996), the idea that customers prefer greater service quality is intuitive, particularly if price and other cost elements are held constant. Numerous models have been developed to measure customer perceptions of service quality. Most of these models utilized face-to-face interaction between customers and the employees of service providers to conceptualize a service quality measurement model.\n2. Empirical studies of service quality in electricity utility industry: Service quality can be judged by comparing expectations with performance. Service quality can also be defined according to both what and how a product or service is delivered. The SERVQUAL framework was developed in 1988. It is a method which can be used by service industries to evaluate their service quality. The five measures of service quality that SERVQUAL identifies are tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. Using a five-dimension scale composed of 21 service attributes, the SERVQUAL survey measures the gaps between customers' perceptions and their expectations. Improving service quality is a top priority for firms that aim to differentiate their services in today's highly competitive business environment. In order to ensure quality of service, it is important that both primary, as well as supporting delivery processes, are effective and efficient. The question of governance of a power sector is a challenge for researchers, policy makers and administrators to address. It is also an important factor for the socioeconomic development of a nation. Power sectors involve complex activities like generation, transmission, distribution and final delivery of services to end-users, i.e. consumers. Initially, when electricity was first used during the pre-independence period, private enterprise was the main player in the country's power sector. In recent years, the Indian power sector, an important segment of the national infrastructure, has been the subject of a comprehensive reform program. Two types of governance processes have functioned in two different time periods - pre-reform and post-reform. During the pre-reform period, the state was the dominant actor in the governance of the power sector; since the introduction of reforms, the market has dominated. Though reforms in the sector are under way, the questions of why there should be reform, whether or not to reform, and how to reform are still being debated. The policies that are to be framed and the institutions that are to be created to execute the set policies are still contested subjects. Ultimately though, however, the sector is governed, the most important factor for India's electricity service suppliers to address is poor service delivery. Poor service quality and poor PQ ultimately degrade the value of the Indian electricity service. Poor service quality causes the industry to suffer losses and creates consumer dissatisfaction.\n3. Hypotheses development: Mediation refers to a process or mechanism through which one variable (i.e. exogenous) causes variation in another variable (i.e. endogenous). Studies designed to test for moderation may provide stronger tests of mediation than the partial and whole covariance approaches typically used. It is useful to distinguish between moderation and mediation. Moderation carries with it no connotation of causality, unlike mediation which implies a causal order. Based on the arguments discussed above, the researcher formulated the following hypothesis.\n4. Construct measures and data collection: To determine customer satisfaction with the service quality of the electricity utility industry and their relationships with the overall service quality, a standard questionnaire was designed for all the customers of different categories, i.e. domestic, agricultural, industrial, commercial and others. The questionnaire consisted of 26 items which investigated the respondents' perceptions of the service quality of the electricity utility industry. In all, 200 questionnaires were circulated to different consumers in South India by internet, phone and personal contact. From them, 150 responses are obtained. This response rate is 75 percent, which is good for this type of survey. The respondents were advised to respond to each item of the questionnaire using a seven-point Likert-type scale (1=totally disagree, 2=partially disagree, 3=somewhat disagree, 4=no opinion, 5=somewhat agree, 6=partially agree and 7=totally agree). The collected data or responses regarding the electricity utility industry were subjected to various statistical analyses such as factor analysis using principal component method, followed by the use of varimax rotation via SPSS 17.0 Social Sciences (SPSS). After confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) the dimensions such as stability, security, responsiveness, reliability, empathy, tangibility and assurance were named according to the character of the responses.\n5. Procedure for data analysis: Exploratory factor analysis on useful responses has been conducted using principal component method followed by the use of varimax rotation via SPSS 17.0 Social Sciences (SPSS), a technique that includes descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and AMOS package for SEM, and Bayesian estimation and testing. In all, 22 items were loaded more than 0.6. These 22 items were categorized under seven dimensions constituting various variables for a proposed instrument for measuring the service quality of the electricity industry. The items that failed to get loaded more than 0.6 were not considered for further analysis. They refer to items 6, 8, 15 and 17 in the Appendix. The percentage of total variance explained was found to be 79 percent, which is an acceptable value for the principal component varimax rotated factor loading procedure. After determining seven constructs (stability, security, responsiveness, reliability, empathy, tangibility and assurance) SEM was carried out by using the AMOS package.\n6. Evaluation of model fit: According to the usual procedures, goodness-of-fit is assessed by checking the statistical and substantive validity of estimates, the convergence of the estimation procedure, the empirical identification of the model, the statistical significance of the parameters, and the goodness-of-fit to the covariance matrix. Since complex models are inevitably misspecified to a certain extent, the standard test of the hypothesis of perfect fit to the population covariance matrix is given less importance than measures of the degree of approximation between the model and the population covariance matrix. The root mean squared error of approximation (RMSEA) is selected as such a measure. Values equal to 0.05 or lower are generally considered to be acceptable. The sampling distribution for the RMSEA can be derived, which makes it possible to compute confidence intervals. These intervals allow researchers to test for close fit and not only for exact fit, as the kh2 does. If both extremes of the confidence interval are below 0.05, then the hypothesis of close fit is rejected in favor of the hypothesis of better-than-close fit. If both extremes of the confidence interval are above 0.05, then the hypothesis of close fit is rejected in favor of the hypothesis of bad fit. Several well-known goodness-of-fit indices (GFI) were used to evaluate model fit: the kh2, the comparative fit index (CFI), the unadjusted GFI, the normed fit index (NFI), the Tucker-Lewis index (TLI), the RMSEA and the standardized root mean square error residual. The CFI and GFI (Hair et al., 1998), NFI and RMSEA (Steiger, 1990) have been used to judge the model fit. CFI is a recommended index of overall fit. GFI measures the fitness of a model compared to another model (Hair et al., 1998). NFI measures the proportion by which a model is improved in terms of fit compared to the base model (Hair et al., 1998). RMSEA provides information in terms of discrepancy per degree of freedom for a model (Steiger, 1990). As suggested in the literature (Bollen, 1989), model fit should be assessed by employing several indices. The accepted thresholds for these indices are /2/df ratio should be less than three; the values of GFI, RFI, NFI, and CFI should be >0.90; and RMSEA is recommended to be up to 0.05, and is acceptable up to 0.08 for better quality (Hair et al., 1998).\n7. Model analysis: Electricity service quality refers to both PQ and service delivery. Customer satisfaction is the only measure of electricity service quality. So, item 16 in the Appendix (i.e. consumer satisfied with the electricity service provided) is the only variable taken for measuring.\n8. Discussion: Electricity utility industries face stiff competition in the marketplace especially since economic liberalization in India. It is vital to understand the requirements of customers so that policies can be formulated accordingly, in order to improve customer satisfaction and customer retention. The study has applied factor analysis to a survey questionnaire specifically designed to capture perceptions of customers in four Indian sectors, namely agriculture, industrial and commercial, public organizations and domestic users. Repeated factor analysis was done using the principal component method followed by varimax rotation using SPSS 17.0. Thereafter, fifteen items loaded more than 0.7 were selected for further analysis under seven constructs: reliability, tangibility, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, security and stability. The percentage of total variance explained was found to be 80 percent, which is an acceptable value for the principal component varimax rotated factor loading procedure. The internal consistency of the actual survey data was tested by computing Cronbach's a. The value of a for all dimensions was 0.813 which is well above the acceptable value of 0.70 for demonstrating the internal consistency of the established scale (Nunnally, 1978). The value of KMO, which is a measure of sampling adequacy, was found to be 0.81 indicating that the factor analysis test had proceeded correctly and that the sample used was adequate as the minimum acceptable value of KMO is 0.5 (Othman and Owen, 2001). Therefore, it can be concluded that the matrix did not suffer from multicollinearity or singularity. The result of Bartlett's test of sphericity showed that in this case it was highly significant (sig.=0.000). This indicated that the factor analysis processes was correct and suitable for testing multidimensionality (Othman and Owen, 2001). Therefore, the statistical test results demonstrated that the proposed items and all dimensions of instruments were sound enough for analysis. A model was formed and SEM was applied to test the model and hypothesis. The measurement model fit showed that the ratio kh2/df=0.643(<5), CFI=1.000>0.9, TFI=1.129>0.9, IFI=1.066>0.9, and RMSEA=0.000 (<0.07) met the generally recommended threshold levels. All fitness indices were close to one and the RMSEA value was 0.000. Previous researches have only explained the service quality of electricity model theoretically, but in this paper the empirical model was tested and the test result showed the satisfactoriness of the hypothesized model. Therefore, the hypothesized structural model for this study was validated and accepted. This study demonstrates how to investigate electricity utility service beyond description and definition, with the variables comprising the constructs being tested to see how well they define and measure the underlying constructs and how important the role they play is in capturing the overall causal relationships accounted for by the model. This study illustrates the causal relationships between the constructs, and explains the composition of each construct in terms of the roles played by the various variables in defining their underlying constructs. It can help policy makers understand how to allocate resources to affect the economy, society, available resources and customer satisfaction in the electricity industry aggregately.\n9. Conclusion, limitations and extensions: SEMs are complex methods of data analysis. By using this form of analysis, the hypothesis of electricity utility tested the constructs for service satisfaction. In this paper the model was formed for electricity service then it was tested and the validity and reliability of the model were also tested. This model shows that there is a direct and positive relationship between the seven dimensions of the model constructed for the study and electricity utility service. Now, this electricity model can be practically applied to form/modify new policies for electricity utility service providers in all parts of India.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a new model - namely service quality enhancement - in the electricity utility sector of south India and to test this model's fitness.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Effective customer satisfaction investigation is a very important precondition for a power supply enterprise to win in the market competition. The problems that need to be solved for the power supply enterprise are how to use advanced and practiced methods to evaluate electricity customer satisfaction, and how to use results of the evaluation to improve their service. Planning and operating modern electric power systems involves several interlinked and complex tasks. In this paper, structural equation modeling (SEM) is applied to the electricity utility service model to verify service quality satisfaction. To determine the scope of the electricity industry and its relationship with overall service quality, a questionnaire-based survey was conducted and a standard questionnaire was designed for all customers in different groups of stakeholders (i.e. domestic, industrial, agricultural, public organization). To investigate the respondents' perceptions regarding the service quality of the electricity utility industry, 200 questionnaires were sent, and from these 169 responses were collected, consisting of 53 responses from the domestic sector, 43 industrial, 30 agricultural, and the remaining 43 from public organization consumers. Then a model was constructed using SEM and tested by Amos 18 to verify the casual relationship between the measured dimensions and the electricity service quality.\nFindings: The results indicate that electricity service has a direct relationship with the dimensions of reliability, tangibility, empathy responsiveness, assurance, security and stability.\nOriginality/value: In this era electricity is the vital need, but due to regular interruptions in the electricity service, customer dissatisfaction is the measured issue. At the current time, the Indian electricity utility sector enjoys a monopolistic business. Therefore, there is hardly any effort to improve the service quality in this sector due to a lack of administrative pressure and reformation measures. Indian electricity consumers face many quality-related problems as far as the distribution of electricity is concerned. In order to assess service quality in electricity distribution, a survey has been conducted in this work to extract quality constructs from a customer's perspective. One of the contributions of this work is that on the basis of results obtained from factor analysis of the survey data, an instrument has been proposed for the first time in the Indian context, consisting of seven dimensions (reliability, tangibility, empathy, responsiveness, assurance, security and stability). This instrument would help to measure the service quality of the Indian electricity utility sectors, and it provides insights for managers and administrators to set a service standard to fill the service gap. SEM is a tool is used for confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis. It is used to test and validate standard instruments. Through confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis using SEM, the proposed service quality model has been tested and validated for practical acceptance in Indian electricity industry.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Characteristics of emergent innovation
|
[
"Innovation",
"Corporate strategy",
"Sustainable development",
"Workplace learning"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Regardless of the contemporary global economic environment, fresh ideas resulting in successful, protracted innovation is an essential element of corporate competitiveness (Kelley, 2001). Innovation provides the mechanism for a company to grow faster, better, and smarter than its competitors, and ultimately may allow it to influence the direction of its industry (Davila et al., 2006). In this era of financial exigency where the limits of corporate efficiency already may have been reached, companies realize that getting \"better\" is important, but getting \"different\" is a matter of organizational viability (May, 2007). The only reason investors should consider a position in any company is confidence in its ability to innovate (Schwartz, 2004). Historically, most modern corporate innovation finds willing and technically capable employees and then attempts to impose new and oftentimes foreign changes in values, organization, and methodologies on them.This paper explores the elements of emergent innovation, a new and intentionally low-risk innovation paradigm. It is an early exploratory conceptual study based on more than a decade of primary observation in the automotive, electronic, and energy industries, coupled with a wide review of the accumulated body of innovation-related literature. Emergent innovation is one of a myriad of innovation methodologies available to corporations. It assumes that, regardless of how small or seemingly insignificant, the heartbeat of innovation is already alive and at work somewhere in the organization. Emergent innovation is \"emergent\" because it is an intentional process to seek out, recognize, and promote \"underground\" innovation methodologies already successfully at work in the organization. Progress is often quick, results are usually sustainable, and emergent innovation may be broadly applied across the corporation. In contrast to massive corporate change expected from traditional innovation techniques, emergent innovation seeks to uncover and extend iterative \"small wins\" that may develop momentum, begetting more innovation success for the company. Emergent innovation uses that which is already successful in a company, albeit on a small scale, and leverages it to expand systemic innovation.To help overcome historical corporate constraints and promote emergent innovation, this paper suggests the necessity of trusted intermediaries to seek and initiate an ongoing conversation with existing invisible corporate innovators. The reason invisible innovators are underground is that the corporate environment has proven toxic to innovation. Corporate leadership must play a substantive role in recognizing and promoting the corporate-wide utilization of methodologies already familiar to the renegades quietly cobbling together innovative ideas using castoff or re-appropriated corporate materials, and at the same time make the internal environment more amenable to their efforts. The corporation must intentionally reframe the concepts of risk and failure, promote to all employees the importance of innovation and the methods acquired from invisible innovators and develop institutional learning systems to capture ideas for future discussion and development. Underground innovators have many motivations to \"surface,\" which may include direct support from corporate officers, recognition by peers, \"cover\" from innovation antibodies and other vagrancies of the corporation, and most important, a clearer and speedier pathway for implementation of their innovations. The fundamental goal of emergent innovation is to recognize and study internal innovation efforts that are working, and then appropriately scale them up across the corporation.\nDefining underground innovators: An \"underground innovator\" is any employee who quickly and quietly develops products, services, or processes informally and outside of regular corporate channels, without the knowledge or permission of appropriate company authorities (e.g. \"off-radar\"). Although their organic efforts are virtually invisible to senior officials, most employees in a company can easily list those who typically incubate their innovations underground (Gretz and Drozdeck, 1992; Davenport et al., 2003). At any given time, a large organization may have dozens of innovation projects in progress in this subsurface economy. Most often, the work of underground innovators is highly customer-centric, focusing on current practical customer needs, and quickly resulting in a product meeting customer desires but with a physical or performance standard lower than company requirements. Invisible innovators already have determined how to recast imposing corporate problems into small, tangible, quickly solvable opportunities. They use innovation to achieve continuous, rapid, \"small wins.\" Each of these small wins has a fragmentary character and is driven by opportunism and dynamically changing market situations (Weick, 1984). In some instances, underground innovators are working on projects to be used in one department even though they are stationed in an entirely different area of the organization or have none of the official credentials thought necessary to do the work. Their perspective is more important than IQ (Negroponte, 2003). The underground innovators may seem as if they are at war with the organization and may be obviously nonplussed about specific people or policies of the organization. Conversely, underground innovators are often very happy with their leadership and organization, but nonetheless choose to innovate outside the constraints of the existing corporate innovation system. They may seek the forgiveness or understanding of company officials, but renegades never ask permission. Underground innovators typically appropriate relatively small amounts of the corporation's resources in their efforts, including raw materials and production equipment, akin to \"moonlight requisitions\" found in various branches of the military. To remain invisible, underground innovators incur miniscule expense, making their efforts largely impervious to economic downturns. Underground innovators are able to make big leaps of thought, primarily because of their wide backgrounds, multidisciplinary minds, and broad spectra of experiences (Negroponte, 2003). These mavericks are often highly inclusive, discreetly seeking the advice and skills of experts within or outside of the company (Davenport et al., 2003), and they fully utilize innovation resources available in the public domain (von Hippel, 1988, 2006). Underground innovators are consistently adept at sidestepping traditional institutional rules, protocols, and orthodoxies, and may abbreviate or skip entire stages of a standard corporate innovation cycle. They possess a laser-like focus on the rapid, inexpensive, and satisfactory completion of needed products, services, or processes.\nWhy are underground innovators \"off-radar\"?: Invisible innovators are not actually invisible: they have been hiding their innovation efforts to avoid the glare of public scrutiny. Employees are covertly accomplishing innovation but hiding it from peers and superiors because they work in an environment toxic to innovation. Innovators are forced underground by a number of circumstances, many of which may be found in the categories below.Organizational priorities\nMotivations for underground innovators to surface: Why would underground innovators choose to expose themselves to the very pressures that drove them underground in the first place? Just as there are many circumstances that forced innovators underground, so too are there many reasons for them to emerge and \"go public\" with their innovation activities. In sum, they intentionally risk exposure because they anticipate being rewarded with a clearer pathway for implementation of their innovations. Specific reasons innovators choose to reveal their innovation activities include the following.Recognition\nTechniques to help innovation emerge: It is neither simple nor quick to seek out, recognize, and promote \"underground\" innovation methodologies already successfully at work in the organization. Careful planning and execution must occur at the highest levels of the corporation to tap into the power of this guerrilla war without killing it altogether. Company executives are often the only ones who can make the structural and other changes needed to make it easier for innovation to flourish (Horibe, 2001). First and foremost, senior officers must consistently and truthfully communicate to employees that innovation is critical to the viability and success of the corporation. In reports, speeches, videos, and other internal communications, executives must extol innovation as a critical weapon in the corporate arsenal as they battle competitors at home and overseas. Corporate leadership also must verbally align the necessity of innovation with the values, mission, vision, and strategy of the company (Kotter, 1996). Not every innovation has equal value (Davila et al., 2006), and it is important that leaders provide clear guidance on what types of innovation opportunities are useful to the organization (Cooper, 2001).Surfacing the activities and methods of underground innovators must be done quietly and gradually. The fundamental goal is to commence an informal, protracted conversation with each individual invisible innovator. He or she may be wary of talking, especially if castigated for innovating in the past. It will likely be necessary for a trusted intermediary person to mediate between leadership and the invisible innovator. This \"innovation ambassador\" must report directly to a senior officer of the company (Horibe, 2001), and must quietly advise underground innovators that corporate leadership has positively taken note of their innovation efforts (Davenport et al., 2003). The intermediary must link executive notice of the underground innovators actions with the positive verbal recognition leaders have consistently given innovation. Over time, and through ongoing conversations with numerous company underground innovators, the intermediary should be able to ascertain and record the methods that have worked for the underground innovator, what hindrances drove their efforts underground, and what would be required to informally spread successful methods to other areas of the corporation.With the innovator's direct permission, leadership should thank and reward the invisible innovator for his or her innovation efforts. While money as incentive may be appreciated, innovators also covet thanks and recognition. If invisible innovators do not retain \"ownership\" of their innovations and do not personally prosper from their efforts, it is unlikely that anyone else in the organization will see any reason to follow the same path (Davenport et al., 2003). The strongest signal and incentive executive leadership can give to employees to show that they support innovation is to provide the resources necessary to scale-up production of appropriate innovations, including such tangibles as recognition, funding, equipment, and personnel (Kuczmarski, 1995).Corporate officials are often shocked at the extent of underground innovation in their organization when first confronted by it. Their first inclination is to routinize innovation. They naturally desire to formally merge the efforts of underground innovators with a corporate New Ventures unit or existing Research and Development Department with the idea that the underground innovators will seed new ideas into the existing organizational structures. This logic is unsound because the predominant organizational structures will always win out, forcing innovators to flee underground once again. Making the process formal and efficient essentially kills it (Taylor and LaBarre, 2006). For innovation to be sustainable, training on workable techniques discovered from successful underground innovators should be provided to all employees who wish to receive it, and each of them should be encouraged to innovate products, services, and processes. At the same time, corporate executives must systematically eliminate those barriers within the organization that regularly force innovation efforts underground.Although innovation is unarguably critical to the ongoing viability and success of the corporation, it cannot be forcefully planned or intentionally accelerated. Instead, corporate executives should encourage and be pleased with a consistently growing number of \"small wins.\" Each of these small wins has a fragmentary character and is driven by opportunism and dynamically changing market situations (Weick, 1984). Regardless of its traditional antipathy to innovators, every corporation must search for, recognize, communicate with, support, reward, publicly thank, and emulate the actions of its quiet, \"positive deviants\" (Sternin and Choo, 2000).\nBenefits of emergent innovation: There are many benefits of emergent innovation that accrue to the corporation and its employees. Some of them are intangible, like increased morale, motivation, and focus. A few of the most tangible corporate benefits are:Corporate status discovery\nConclusion: Without question, innovation is the sine qua non for future viability and competitive success for all organizations (Cooper, 2001), and corporations must purposely shift their balance of effort from stewardship to entrepreneurial innovation (Hamel, 1999). The imposition of new and foreign innovation technologies on employees rarely achieves intended results. Every company has successful innovators who have been driven underground by accidental or intentional impedance in the corporation, and these individuals are critical invisible assets (Itami, 1987). Through one or more trusted intermediaries, the organization may be informed about the innovation methodologies of the underground innovators, as well as the impediments that forced their efforts \"off-radar\" in the first place. The techniques of the underground innovators may be positively spread throughout the corporation, and corporate leadership should systematically identify and eliminate existing impediments to innovation and patiently assemble all the components and necessary drivers critical for making innovation a ubiquitous capability (Davila et al., 2006). Local innovation success may be considered the prototype for larger, systemic change. This paper was an initial conceptual exploration of emergent innovation study based on more than a decade of primary observation in the automotive, electronic, and energy industries, and a wide review of innovation related literature. It suggests the positive value of further inquiry and statistically valid studies because the new paradigm of emergent innovation may be one of the few tenable options available to help corporations survive and thrive in the economically turbulent years ahead.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to examine a possible new construct of corporate innovation behavior. It proposes consideration of corporate innovation activities that occur outside of traditional innovation program constraints, and seeks to expand the historical definition of what constitutes useful innovation in an organization.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper is an early exploratory study and uses primary observation of numerous cases in the automotive, electronics, and energy industries, in addition to a wide review of the body of literature on innovation.\nFindings: - The paper provides significant evidence that unauthorized organic innovation may routinely occur within corporations, that this type of behavior may positively add to company revenues, and that similar innovation techniques may be effectively diffused on a broader scale within the organization.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Because of the chosen qualitative approach of this initial study, the research results lack generalisability. Preliminary findings merit additional study, and researchers are therefore encouraged to further refine and test the concepts.\nPractical implications: - The paper includes implications for the further development of emergent innovation processes within corporations, which may ultimately lead to enhanced profits. It suggests that emergent innovation may be significantly important to long-term corporate viability.\nOriginality/value: - The paper fulfils an identified need to examine the impact of organic innovation that develops and thrives outside traditional approved corporate innovation strategies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Financial development and poverty reduction in India: an empirical investigation
|
[
"India",
"Financial development",
"Auto regressive distributed lag (ARDL)",
"Poverty reduction"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: There has been a growing emphasis from empirical work on the relationship between financial development and economic growth since early nineteenth century. Financial development is considered to be a vital component in economic growth (Spears, 1992; King and Levine, 1993; Jalilian and Kirkpatrick, 2002; Abu-Bader and Abu-Qarn, 2008). It is found that a well-functioning financial market contributes in economic growth by promoting efficient credit allocation, mobilizing savings, risk management. However, this close relationship between finance and growth does not imply that every income class is getting benefitted by this economic growth. There are conflicting predictions about the relationship between financial development and poverty. Some studies argue that sound financial system reduces risk through diversified investment in financial intermediaries, lowers the transaction costs of these intermediaries through information generation and improves capital accumulation. Additionally it also eliminates credit limitations on the poor which increases their participation and productive assets; thus leads to poverty reduction (Stiglitz, 1998/2001; Jalilian and Kirkpatrick, 2002; Jeanneney and Kpodar, 2008; Odhiambo, 2009, 2010a, b). Other theories suggest that there are significant imperfections in the financial market resulting from asymmetric information and then the contribution which the financial sector makes to economic growth is impaired (Stiglitz, 2000). Because of credit market imperfections only rich people will get the benefits of growth in financial markets which will lead to the unequal distribution of income and wealth (Levine et al., 2000). To date, there has been no universal consensus on the causal relationship between financial development and poverty.\n2. Financial development and poverty reduction in India: Before 1990s, the role of the financial system in India was mainly restricted to the function of channeling resources from the surplus to deficit sectors. There have been many bottlenecks in the banking sector too such as lack of competition, low productivity and high intermediation cost. After the nationalization of commercial banks in 1969 and 1980, credit disbursement has increased significantly. However, the financial sector remained undeveloped till late 1980s. The phase of financial liberalization was undertaken in 1991, as a part of economic reforms with the objectives of introducing new instruments, more transparency, removal of structural bottlenecks, free pricing of financial assets and relaxation of quantitative restrictions. As a result interest rates were gradually liberalized; reserve and liquidity ratios were also reduced significantly.\n3. Literature review: Recently, there have been an increasing number of empirical analyses on the relationship between financial development and poverty reduction including several studies (Honohan, 2004; Jalilian and Kirkpatrick, 2005; Beck et al., 2007; Jeanneney and Kpodar, 2008; Inoue and Hamori, 2012). Banerjee and Newman (1993) and Galor and Zeira (1993) argued that imperfections in financial markets create hurdles to borrow funds for income-enhancing investments. As only the rich are able to overcome these hurdles, they effect the initial distribution of wealth.\n4. Methodology and model specification: 4.1. Data and variable identification\n5. Empirical result and discussion: Before we conduct tests for co-integration, we have to make sure that the variables under consideration are not integrated at an order higher than one. Thus, to test the integration properties of the series, we have used Ng-Perron unit root test. The results of the stationarity tests are presented in Table II. The results show that all the variables are non-stationary at levels. The next step is to difference the variables once in order to perform stationary tests on differenced variables. The results show that after differencing the variables once, all the variables were confirmed to be stationary. It is, therefore, worth concluding that all the variables used in this study are integrated of order one i.e. difference stationary I (1). In addition, it is also important to ascertain that the optimal lag order of the underlying Equations (1)-(4) is chosen appropriately so that the error terms of the equations are not serially correlated. Consequently, the lag order should be high enough so that the conditional ECM is not subject to over parameterization problems (Narayan, 2005; Pesaran et al., 2001). In this paper we have used AIC to select the optimal lag order and we have also carried out several misspecification tests including tests of autocorrelation, normality and heteroscedasticity to ensure that the classical regression assumptions were not violated. The results of these tests are presented in Table III.\n6. Conclusion: In this paper an attempt is made to test the long-run and causal relationship between financial development and poverty reduction in India for the period 1970-2012. The present study uses Ng-Perron test to check the stationarity properties of the variable, ARDL bound testing approach to co-integration is employed to test long-run co-integrating relationship. Toda and Yamamoto (1995) version of the Granger causality test is used to investigate the causality. The study uses two proxy variables of financial development, CREDIT/GDP; domestic credit to the private sector ( percent GDP); and monetization variable (M3/GDP), against per capita consumption, a proxy for poverty reduction.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between financial sector development and poverty reduction in India using annual data from 1970 to 2012. The paper attempts to answer the critical question: does financial sector development lead to poverty reduction?\nDesign/methodology/approach: Stationarity properties of the series are checked by using Ng-Perron unit root test. The paper uses the Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bound testing approach to co-integration to examine the existence of long-run relationship; error-correction mechanism for the short-run dynamics and Granger non-causality test to test the direction of causality.\nFindings: The co-integration test confirms a long-run relationship between financial development and poverty reduction for India. The ARDL test results suggest that financial development and economic growth reduces poverty in both long run and short run. The causality test confirms that there is a positive and unidirectional causality running from financial development to poverty reduction.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study implies that poverty in India can be reduced by financial inclusion and financial accessibility to the poor. For a fast growing economy with respect to financial sector development this may have far-reaching implication toward inclusive growth.\nOriginality/value: This paper is the first of its kind to empirically examine the causal relationship between financial sector development and poverty reduction in India using modern econometric techniques.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Gender difference and informal competition: evidence from India
|
[
"Gender",
"SMEs",
"Obstacle",
"World Bank Enterprise Survey",
"Informal competition"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The purpose of this study is threefold. First, it examines the attitude of male and female managers toward competition from the informal sector. That is, we document which of the two - male or female managers - consider the competition from informal sector as a bigger obstacle for their businesses. Second, we investigate whether geographical factors (GDP, crime rate and literacy rate) affect the attitude of male and female managers toward competition. Third, we investigate what actions male and female managers undertake to cope with competition from informal sector. In this paper, we focus on the attitude of managers of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in India - a developing economy - toward the informal sector. We do so because of two reasons. First, a large part of Indian economy is informal. According to the statistics provided by the ILO for 2016, close to 70 percent of the employment in the non-agricultural sector falls under the informal category in India. This statistic is more than 90 percent for the agricultural sector[1]. In addition to its large size, the Indian informal sector has also shown better performance and productivity. Sahoo and Raa (2009) report that informal sector is as efficient as the formal one. They also show that formal capital and informal capital are equally productive. In another related study, Bairagya (2010) find that the informal sector has a higher share in the GDP relative to formal sector in India. We argue that significant presence of informal firms have a profound impact on the attitudes of managers of formal firms. This impact should also be compounded by the fact that formal and informal firms directly compete with each other[2]. Second, just like the informal sector, formal SMEs constitute a big proportion of Indian economy. According to the annual report of the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, the contribution of SMEs to India's total GDP was 37.54 percent in 2012. It also reported that the annual growth rate of SMEs was 18.74 percent during that period. This performance could have been even more impressive, if the challenges posed by informal sector were absent. Due to the large size of the informal sector, the informal firms, in some sectors, are not a marginal reality, but a central element (Gurtoo and Williams, 2009).\n2. Hypothesis development and literature review: Anecdotal evidence suggests that a very small proportion of top positions are occupied by women in business organization. Bertrand and Hallock (2001), for instance, note that only 2.5 percent of the five highest paid executives in a large set of the US firms are women. Kunze and Miller (2017) report similar statistics for Nordic firms. They note that only 3 percent of CEOs at the 145 largest companies in the Nordic countries are female. One of the explanations cited for this phenomenon is that women respond less favorably to competition than men[3]. A less favorable response to competition does not allow female to go farther up in the hierarchy. Most of these findings pertain to unfavorable response of women to competition at the individual level. In this paper, we extend these findings by documenting how women respond to external competition faced by firms managed by them. More specifically, we investigate the following question: are SMEs with female top managers more likely to consider competition as a bigger obstacle for business than SMEs with male top managers[4]? In the discussion that follows, we highlight some explanations that suggest that women possess certain characteristics that may make them overreact to competition. As a result, they are more likely to consider competition as a bigger obstacle for their firms than their male counterparts. Our arguments are based on the following explanations:\n3. Data: The main source of data for this study is the Enterprise Survey conducted by the World Bank in India during the period between 2013 and 2014. The purpose of this survey is to understand the local investment climate. Following sub-sections will explain data in greater details.\n4. Methodology: 4.1 Descriptive and graphical analysis\n5. Additional tests: 5.1 Innovation and the relationship between gender and competition\n6. Conclusion: This paper uses the data from the Enterprise Survey to document that firms managed by females are more likely to consider informal competition as a bigger obstacle for their business than other firms in India. We argue that our results are driven by the fact that that men and women are raised differently. Men are encouraged to be assertive, whereas women are expected to show sympathy and be egalitarian. Because of such nurturing, women become more averse to competition. We also show that this relationship is more pronounced in provinces with weak institutional environment. We argue that weakness in institutional environment amplifies the competition from the informal sector. Therefore, female managers working in these provinces are more likely to consider informal competition as a bigger obstacle for their business. Finally, we show that firms managed by females respond to competition from informal firms by undertaking more innovations than firms managed by males. Our results have implications for policy makers in a way that we show a more proactive response of female managers to competition. We argue that governmental authorities should encourage enterprises with females in a leadership role. Our results also show that these enterprises are more proactive when the outside institutional framework is weak. Furthermore, the results of this paper provide partial explanation on why firms managed by female managers do better in terms of innovation than firms manages by male managers. To the extent that female managers have a differential response to competition, their response to competitive pressures is different than the response of other managers. As a recommendation for future research, we propose that a cross-country sample should be conducted to make our results more generalized.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to document how male and female managers respond to competition posed by informal firms.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The methodology uses the ordered logistic regression and the data provided by the World Bank's Enterprise Survey to test the arguments for firms headquartered in India.\nFindings: The findings show that firms managed by females are more likely to consider informal competition as a bigger obstacle for their operations than firms managed by males. It also shows that this relationship is more pronounced in provinces with weak institutional infrastructure. Lastly, the paper shows that firms managed by females respond to competition from the informal sector by undertaking more innovations than firms managed by males.\nOriginality/value: This research extends the literature on gender differences in response to competition by documenting how female managers respond to external competition in emerging markets.\n",
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An analytic network process approach for the election of green marketable products
|
[
"Green product",
"Multi-criteria decision making",
"Product quality",
"Life cycle costing",
"Analytic network process"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: During the past several decades, intensive competitiveness in the manufacturing industry has been highly influenced by the customers' awareness of quality issue. This competitiveness implies that manufacturers who are not continually improving the quality and specifications of their products run a high risk of becoming outdated. Nevertheless, this concentration on quality can only be assumed because successful business philosophies accept no tradeoffs between quality and cost. Traditionally, better quality automatically produces higher costs. An enhancement in quality generally arises for several reasons, such as using higher quality material, increasing operating costs, etc. However, in real terms, the business management budget is typically limited. Therefore, manufacturers who focus on improving product quality and ignore the incremental costs that exceed the purchasing ability of consumers cannot compete with other manufacturers or sustain their businesses. Thus, concentration on both quality and cost has become critical considerations for businesses. Nevertheless, since the end of 1980s, the low-cost strategies and quality differentiation strategies have not been sufficient for sustainable competition in the intense marketplace anymore (Reed, 2003). The emerging issue of green consciousness has become increasingly critical, which has imposed additional constraints, especially on new product launching.\n2. Literature review: This section explores relevant studies classified into three domains: a measurement of quality, cost and environment of product, simultaneous consideration on quality cost and environment and analytic network process (ANP)-based benchmarking and decision-making.\n3. Methodology: The aim of this study is to construct a multi-criteria decision method considering the quality, cost and environmental dimensions concurrently for the selection of new green launching products. Therefore, the methods relating to this sustainably constructed framework consist of the classified product quality dimensions, the LCC which accounts for financial and environmental aspects and the ANP method. In this section, the related methods are described and the constructed framework will be discussed in next section.\n4. Research framework: To respond to the current trend of customer requirements, the quality, cost and environmental issues are incorporated simultaneously into the research framework. The proposed framework requires the appropriate methods to consider the various perspectives. According to literature reviews and methodology identification, three methods consisting of the eight quality dimensions of Garvin, the LCC of Emblemsvag and Bras and the ANP are elaborately selected to overcome this comprehensive decision problem. These methods are the major components of the proposed framework, and the overall framework of this study can be separated into five main steps, as shown in Figure 2. The first stage addresses the product quality identification. The related key performance indicators (KPIs) are assigned to each quality dimension following the eight quality dimensions of Garvin. In this process, the firm needs to determine the relative indicators along with the measurement methods for each quality dimension. Each dimension can have more than one KPI, and the KPIs are specified by following the company's product standard and/or the nation's product standard. After the KPIs are identified completely, the firm needs to clearly specify the data acquisition in terms of responsible persons as well as retrieval processes. Subsequently, in the second stage, the cost and environmental perspectives are quantified using the Emblemsvag and Bras LCC approach. This consideration focuses on the costs and the environmental costs for the entire life cycle of each product, from the cradle to the grave. In this step, the firm must assess its own ability to collect and retrieve all the associated data because the scope of the Emblemsvag and Bras LCC is quite extensive; moreover, this method relates the data simulation and the data estimation. Therefore, using these processes, the company absolutely requires massive resources to address the comprehensive and complicated data. After all the necessary processes for collecting the quality, cost and environmental cost data are completely identified, the third step begins: the collection of all identified data following the plan, which was determined by the first and the second steps. In the fourth step, the ANP approach is applied and the dependency network of the problem is constructed. Normally, following this framework, the main clusters are grouped into three clusters, product quality, LCC and alternative products. However, this network can be delicately constructed by separating the clusters into more than three groups, depending on the exhaustive requirements of the decision maker. After the network is completely constructed, the comparison and decision processes are performed following the ANP approach. In the last step, an optimal green product is obtained from the final priorities of the limit supermatrix from the previous step.\n5. Application of research framework: This study was performed in a real company that manufactures roof tiles. The company plans to launch a new green product into the market as a substitute for outdated products and to stimulate the revenue of the company. However, the management requires that the new product selection approach must serve the current trend of customers' consideration of quality, cost and environmental issues. Therefore, the previously proposed framework is suitable for application to this issue. In this case, the company is developing three new green products that are in the research and development (R\n6. Discussion: Figure 3 shows the synthesised priorities of each product. Product A exhibits the highest weight value of 0.3277. Product B, product C and product D exhibit a normalized limiting value of 0.2266, 0.2038 and 0.2419, respectively. Although product A has the highest priority, it is an existing product of the focused company, which was brought in for comparison with the newly developed products. Therefore, from the synthesised priorities, the new product that should be selected for launching into the market is product D, which is the second highest priority. From Table V, it can be concluded that product D, which is a green product, exhibits the two highest quality results (Q3 and Q4) and four (C6, C7, C8 and C9) outstanding LCC elements. These four LCC elements directly relate with the environmentally friendly issues. The elements revolve around the processes of product take-back, product and material demanufacture as well as product disposal. Although product D has several of the highest results among the other products, these elements still depend on and influence the other elements. Moreover, most of the elements are not the first priority, except Q4. From Table XII, if we prioritise the quality and the LCC elements, and then match them with the real data from Table V, all related products can be classified to the best product in each element, as shown in Table XIII.\n7. Conclusion: Currently, green products are globally accepted for several reasons, such as customer requirement, regulations and laws as well as business competition. This issue can produce many positive outcomes for the customer, society, the environment and manufacturing companies. Although green products are environmentally friendly, they are not sustainable in a highly competitive market if businesses do not simultaneously consider two critical issues, product quality and the cost of the product. Typically, green products that focus on the environmental issues will not succeed in the marketplace if the incremental cost and purchasing ability of the customer are ignored. Moreover, for the same reasons, green products cannot succeed in the market if the quality is lower than customer expectations. Therefore, the simultaneous consideration of these three issues becomes a critical consideration for businesses. In this study, we propose two methodologies consisting of the eight quality dimensions of Garvin and the LCC. Garvin's quality is applied to consider the product quality, and the LCC is used to manage the cost and environmental issues. Nevertheless, these methods consider these issues separately and do not involve the dependency issue among these topics. Typically, green products are delivered with higher costs and/or a possible lower quality; therefore, whenever a manufacturer needs to decrease its costs, it will reduce its quality and environmentally friendly capability. The higher price issue may be unavoidable because of additional costs. Furthermore, the environmental benefits from the green product may be compensated by a reduction in the quality; therefore, whenever a manufacturer needs to decrease costs, it will negatively affect its quality and environmentally friendly capability. Moreover, customers who require green products do not compromise on the cost and quality of the products. Therefore, this tradeoff issue must be considered in the complex decision-making process. Elaborate consideration of the tradeoff issue must be performed during the selection process because a wrong decision may lead to decreasing the competitive capability and losing market share and profits for the company. To address this comprehensive decision, this study applies the ANP method because it has the potential to account for the interdependence issue. The ANP considers the environment, cost and quality issues along with an alternative at the same time.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: In this study, an optimal green product is selected from three newly developed ecological products and a non-environmentally friendly product. An analytic network process (ANP), used widely for multi-criteria decision making (MCDM), is applied to account for the tradeoff issues among the criteria (quality, cost and green issue) in the new green product selection processes. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper focuses on current social and consumer requirements. New product selection processes consider three major perspectives, i.e., quality, cost and environment, as criteria. The following two main methods are applied to respond to this multi-disciplinary issue: the eight quality dimensions proposed by Garvin are used to manage the quality issue, and a life cycle costing (LCC) method is applied for consideration of the cost and green issue. Therefore, the dependency issue among the criteria is considered, using a suitably selected method, the ANP method, and all the methods are applied to a real business, which produces roof tiles, for the delivery of a new optimal green product.\nFindings: An optimal environmentally friendly product does not overcome the existing toxic product of the focused company. The environmental performance is necessarily balanced by the quality and cost capabilities.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper focuses on the new product selection of roof tile products. The criteria or measuring indicators may be dissimilar, and cannot be applied to other products.\nPractical implications: The proposed approach can be applied to other manufacturing companies or services to allow decision makers to make better determinations for a comprehensive dependency problem. The managers can apply the proposed model to benchmark the considered products as well as to find the weaknesses of products.\nOriginality/value: This method considers the relationship among quality, cost and environment for newly developed green products. The method produces better results than former MCDM studies which did not account for the dependency issue among the criteria.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Use of failure mode effect analysis (FMEA) to improve medication management process
|
[
"Quality management",
"Continuous quality improvement",
"Quality improvement",
"FMEA",
"Risk reduction",
"Medication errors",
"Medication management process"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The use of medications is an integral part of medical care in hospitals (Lau et al., 2000). The prescribing of a medicine by the consultant sets in motion a complex series of interrelated supply chain and workflow processes aimed at providing the patient this medication as quickly, efficiently, accurately and cost-effectively as possible. A breakdown at any point in these processes may lead to delayed, omitted or incorrect medication therapy (Baker et al., 2010). Medication-related-problems frequently occur during transitions and lead to patient harm, increased use of healthcare resources and increased costs (Spinewine et al., 2013).\nMethodology: Design and study population\nTypes of medication errors identified during process mapping: Prescription errors: the errors which originated from written medication orders. It included the following:\nResults: During Phase 1 of study, the team identified the medication errors. Most were transcription errors (37 per cent) followed by administration errors (29 per cent) indicating the need to identify the causes and effects of their occurrence (Figure 2). From the FMEA matrix, 11 failure modes were identified in the medication management process (Table V). The major five failure modes were prioritised based on the calculated RPN which is as follows:\nLimitations: FMEA is a time consuming process and requires a multidisciplinary team which has good understanding of the process being analysed. FMEA only helps in identifying the possibilities of a process to fail, it does not eliminate them, additional efforts are required to develop action plans and implement them. Frank discussion and agreement among the team members is required not only for successfully conducing FMEA but also for implementing the corrective actions.\nConclusion and practical implication: There are a number of factors at each step of the patient care process that contribute to medication errors. Special focus should be given to the prescription and administration phases of patient care due to the large number of errors tracked back to these stages of treatment. Policies and procedures are in place; just adherence to them is required. Training and motivation is the need of the hour and should be promptly addressed.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: Medication management is a complex process, at high risk of error with life threatening consequences. The focus should be on devising strategies to avoid errors and make the process self-reliable by ensuring prevention of errors and/or error detection at subsequent stages. The purpose of this paper is to use failure mode effect analysis (FMEA), a systematic proactive tool, to identify the likelihood and the causes for the process to fail at various steps and prioritise them to devise risk reduction strategies to improve patient safety.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study was designed as an observational analytical study of medication management process in the inpatient area of a multi-speciality hospital in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. A team was made to study the complex process of medication management in the hospital. FMEA tool was used. Corrective actions were developed based on the prioritised failure modes which were implemented and monitored.\nFindings: The percentage distribution of medication errors as per the observation made by the team was found to be maximum of transcription errors (37 per cent) followed by administration errors (29 per cent) indicating the need to identify the causes and effects of their occurrence. In all, 11 failure modes were identified out of which major five were prioritised based on the risk priority number (RPN). The process was repeated after corrective actions were taken which resulted in about 40 per cent (average) and around 60 per cent reduction in the RPN of prioritised failure modes.\nResearch limitations/implications: FMEA is a time consuming process and requires a multidisciplinary team which has good understanding of the process being analysed. FMEA only helps in identifying the possibilities of a process to fail, it does not eliminate them, additional efforts are required to develop action plans and implement them. Frank discussion and agreement among the team members is required not only for successfully conducing FMEA but also for implementing the corrective actions.\nPractical implications: FMEA is an effective proactive risk-assessment tool and is a continuous process which can be continued in phases. The corrective actions taken resulted in reduction in RPN, subjected to further evaluation and usage by others depending on the facility type.\nOriginality/value: The application of the tool helped the hospital in identifying failures in medication management process, thereby prioritising and correcting them leading to improvement.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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School reputation and its relation to parents' satisfaction and loyalty
|
[
"Parent‐based school reputation",
"Satisfaction",
"Loyalty",
"Scale development",
"Norway",
"Customer satisfaction",
"Schools",
"Educational administration"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: There is a growing recognition among both academics and educational practitioners that a school's reputation is becoming increasingly important (Bond and King, 2003; Friedman et al., 2006; Friedman et al., 2007; Hausman and Goldring, 2000; Li and Hung, 2009). Schools are identified, in part, by their reputation, which requires managerial consideration. School reputation, as understood by a range of stakeholders, is critical because it positively influences stakeholders' attitudes towards the school. However, previous research on the reputations of educational institutions has largely focused on higher educational institutions, and has done so primarily as viewed from a student or third-party perspective (Brewer and Zhao, 2010; Helgesen and Nesset, 2007; Safon, 2009; Standifird, 2005; Vidaver-Cohen, 2007). At the primary school level, there are very few published empirical studies regarding schools' reputations. Additionally, very few studies address the views of specific groups of stakeholders, such as parents (for an exception, see Li and Hung, 2009), despite the fact that they will have a critical influence on schools' future supplies of pupils.Research within the fields of marketing, management, and corporate strategy clearly indicates that a corporation's reputation is an important factor influencing its success (Barney, 2002; Chun, 2005; Kay, 1993; Selnes, 1993). In particular, it has been found that the possession of a good reputation provides organisations with a competitive advantage, making them likely to attract more customers (Gardberg and Fombrun, 2002; Groenland, 2002). The concept of corporate reputation has been adapted to the field of educational management in the anticipation that if a school has a good reputation, it would have similar positive effects (Safon, 2009; Vidaver-Cohen, 2007). This paper is also borrowing the meaning and measurement of reputation from the corporate world and adapts the concept to the field of education. Incorporating school reputation within the nomological network in corporate reputation research will help enhance our understanding of school reputation and its antecedents and consequences. Antecedents of school reputation that are related to parents' behaviour could be examined. Parents' evaluation of school performance and what is known about a school suggests that parents' school satisfaction is a key antecedent of their perceived school reputation. The consequences of a school's reputation, as well as the antecedents, need to be examined empirically. One important consequence addressed here is parents' loyalty to a particular school. The intangibility of educational services makes them difficult to evaluate by parents. Schools, as well as other service providers, may be more likely to feel the effects of a loss of reputation than providers of goods. It can therefore be argued that the importance of school reputation is greater because parents cannot rely on physical evidence, but have to rely to a greater extent on anecdotal evidence (Zabala et al., 2005).In order to manage their reputations, schools need to be able to assess or measure them and analyse the connection between perceptions of reputation and important input and outcome variables. Conceptualising and measuring institutions' reputations has attracted considerable attention in the management and marketing literature (Fombrun, 1996; Fombrun and Rindova, 1996, 2000). However, because extremely little is known about the phenomenon of schools' reputations and their potential antecedents and consequences, this study attempts to assess the existence, direction and strength of these relationships using a measure of school reputation as perceived by parents. The main purposes of this research are, first, to create and apply a new measure of parent-based school reputation. Second, to propose a conceptual model that links school reputation to an important antecedent variable, parental satisfaction, and an important consequent variable, parents' loyalty. Finally, based on the model, the relationships connecting school reputation to parents' satisfaction and loyalty will be tested.The school reputation concept\nResearch methodology: Data collection and sample\nResults: Reliability and validity of measures\nConclusions: First, this study demonstrated that the parent-based school reputation measure consisted of four dimensions, namely, parent orientation, learning quality, safe environment, and good teachers. Further, the study examined the impact of parents' satisfaction on parent-based school reputation to determine the direction and strength of the relationship, hypothesising a positive relationship (H1). Parent satisfaction was positively and significantly related to all four dimensions, providing compelling support for H1. The strongest effect of satisfaction was on parents' views of learning quality (0.87), followed by a safe environment (0.84) and good teachers (0.84). The weakest effect was on parent orientation (0.64).The link between parent-based school reputation and parents' loyalty intentions was also examined, and a positive relationship was hypothesised (H2). Two of the school reputation dimensions were positively and significantly related to parents' loyalty intentions, providing partial support for H2. Parents viewing the school as having good teachers had the strongest effect on parents' loyalty intentions (0.43), followed by parent orientation (0.24). Learning quality and a safe environment did not affect parents' loyalty intentions. Good teachers and schools having a parent orientation appear to be related to the management of the school and thus may influence the likelihood of choosing the school in the future. Learning quality and a safe environment appear to be related to the present child at the school and therefore did not significantly affect future choices.The results showed that high levels of parent satisfaction positively impacted parent-based school reputation, supporting a causal clarification of the satisfaction-reputation relationship in an educational context. School reputation can be used as a valuable means of assessing the results of the school's multiple activities. School reputation may even be considered as a stable and reliable indicator of schools' ability to satisfy parent's expectations. In terms of consequent or outcome variables, signalling theory predicts that parent-based school-reputation has a positive impact on parents' loyalty. Even though this relationship appears to be obvious, the literature is not particularly consensual. For example, while Aydin and Ozer (2005) found a positive, but insignificant relationship, Sen and Bhattacharya (2001) found that reputation can, under certain conditions, decrease loyalty. In this study a direct and positive relationship between specific dimensions of school reputation and parents' loyalty is found, extending previous research by showing the differential effects that parent-based school reputation has on parental loyalty. Li and Hung (2009) found a similar relationship between school image and parents' loyalty. However, they treated image as a one-dimensional construct, whereas this study has identified a set of more detailed relationships through our multi-dimensional conceptualisation of the reputation construct.For managers of educational institutions, an important insight gained from this study is that parent-based school reputation can be easily assessed using an inexpensive measurement tool. Conventional astuteness holds that attending to school reputation makes good sense because relevant school activities are affected. Based on the results of this study, a more differential analysis seems appropriate. It is shown that parent-based school reputation not only has an impact on important variables indicative of parent behaviours (i.e. parents' loyalty), but also is impacted by parents' school satisfaction. These results may help schools to utilise their resources more successfully by focusing their efforts on strategically important antecedents such as parents' school satisfaction and consequences such as parents' loyalty.School managers who want to obtain or maintain a good school reputation should emphasise the importance of ensuring parent satisfaction in order to accomplish that goal. Parents who are satisfied with the school services provide more favourable ratings of the schools' reputation. In that way, satisfaction is casting a \"halo\" effect onto the reputation items. Parents derive their sense of a school's reputation from their contacts with its staff. This mean that schools should make sure that staff are empowered to act in the way parents want and that leads to satisfaction. Methods to ensure high levels of satisfaction include staff training and satisfaction monitoring.Another implication for school managers is that a good reputation has an effect on parents' loyalty, and increased loyalty is important with regard to retaining existing pupils and attracting new ones. A school's reputation acts as a gatekeeper to further elaborations by the parents (Li and Hung, 2009). A favourable reputation increases the likelihood that a school will be chosen by parents. However, with a poor reputation, the school may be better off expending effort on increasing parents' satisfaction with the services provided by the school and focusing on service improvement goals, as well as identifying sources of dissatisfaction for the parents. A carefully crafted and implemented program for increased parent satisfaction and school reputation appears to be an important tool for schools' success.The results of this research have some limitations. Future studies should include not only parents' satisfaction as antecedents, but also other potential antecedents such as trust (Walsh et al., 2009b), marketing tactics (Li and Hung, 2009) and performance quality (Helgesen and Nesset, 2007). Additional consequences, such as positive word of mouth and intentions, should be included in future studies. The present study offers some new ideas on the study of school reputation and its antecedents and consequences. However, it was performed in only one country, and the sample of schools selected was based on judgments, and not on probability sampling techniques. Given that limitation, generalisations should be restricted, and primarily limited to the Norwegian context. Parent-based school reputation is, however, a common attitude among parents.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This study aims to investigate the direction and strength of the relationships between school reputation, parent satisfaction and parent loyalty.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper reports the findings of a survey of 325 parents from three primary schools across Norway. Building on previous work examining corporate reputations, a new measure of school reputation, as viewed by parents, was developed. Structural equation models were used to validate the new reputation measure and to test the proposed relationships. Relationships linking school reputation to parent satisfaction and loyalty were tested.\nFindings: - Support for a four-dimensional scale for assessment of parent-based school reputation was found, using the following dimensions: parent orientation, learning quality, safe environment and good teachers. Parents' satisfaction significantly affected all reputation dimensions. Views of schools as having a parent orientation and good teachers affected parents' loyalty.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The study is limited to parents from three primary schools in a country-specific context and should therefore be validated with other schools and in other contexts.\nPractical implications: - Parent-based school reputation can be easily assessed through a frugal measurement instrument. School managers can address parent satisfaction in order to achieve a good school reputation. A carefully crafted and implemented program for increased parent satisfaction and school reputation would be an important tool for attracting future pupils.\nOriginality/value: - Although reputation is at the core of modern school management, relatively little research has been conducted that addresses the appropriate conceptualisation and measurement of school reputation. Additionally, there has been little work on potential relationships to antecedent and consequent factors. This study contributes to filling this gap in the research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Measuring the experience of off-price fashion shopping: scale development and validation
|
[
"Fashion retailing",
"Measurement",
"Scale development",
"Shopping",
"Off-price retail"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Off-price fashion retailers, like T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and Ross Stores, are expected to dominate the retail fashion sector over the next five years (Tuhy, 2015). As such, flagship brands, like J. Crew and Michael Kors, and department stores like Macy's and Nordstrom, have been left scrabbling to open their own off-price divisions. While employing discounts to clear inventory is not novel, what differentiates the \"off-price\" segment from other retail outlets is their opportunistic sourcing strategies, which allow them to offer end-of-season designer labels at highly discounted prices (The Economist, 2016). Surprisingly, selling excess designer labels, in what some describe as a piecemeal, disorganized manner, appeals to certain shoppers who enjoy the \"thrill of the hunt\" (Steinhauer and White, 1996). Yet, who are these fashion shoppers and how does their experience shape their behavior in this context?\nConceptual development: Conceptually, the sport shopper is unique from other shopper types in that they exhibit behaviors similar to that of athletes, experiencing fashion shopping as an achievement domain, in which their skills result not only in economic benefits but also a sense of pride, achievement and positive self-esteem (Williams and DeSteno, 2008). Unlike recreational shoppers (Prus and Dawson, 1991), they do not enjoy the social engagement that shopping brings, instead preferring to shop solo. In contrast to compulsive shoppers, they are not compelled to make purchases, rather, they are able to rationalize the experience of an unsuccessful shopping trip as training for future shopping expeditions (Faber and O'Guinn, 1992). While frugal shoppers undertake bargain hunting out of economic necessity (Bardhi and Arnould, 2005), the sport shopper is motivated to save the most on the desired product, rather than spend the least on something less desirable (O'Donnell et al., 2016). Sport shoppers do not seek hedonic value, frivolity or entertainment from their fashion shopping experience, instead approaching shopping in a highly focused, disciplined and task-driven way.\nDimensions of sport shopping behavior: Task-orientated goals\nScale development: As presented above, while earlier research has been undertaken to examine the concept of sport shopping-type experiences, no formal measurement has emerged. It is argued that such a tool will enable the quantification of sport shopper types and enable comparative studies across: gender; culture; sectors, such as travel and leisure services; categories, such as consumer electronics or sporting goods; and contexts, such as online shopping. To address this matter, and respond to calls for such a scale, the SSE scale is developed, following guidelines from Churchill's (1979) scale development process. The following section discusses the scale development process used to construct a valid, reliable and robust measure of the SSE.\nScale validation: Convergent and discriminant validity\nMethod: In order to determine the robustness of the SSE scale, a web-based survey facilitated the collection of a further 299 responses from Australian participants who were screened to ensure they had experience in shopping at off-price retail outlets. Participants received points from the market research company, which could be redeemed for gift cards. Participants were randomly presented with the 13 SSE items developed in Study 2, as well as a measure of customer satisfaction with the shopping experience (Mattila and Wirtz, 2001) and brand repurchase intentions (Eggert and Helm, 2003). All items were measured on a seven-point Likert-type scale, ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (7).\nData analysis: CFA\nMeasurement validation: CFA\nDiscussion and implications: As far back as the 1950s (see Stone, 1954) researchers have sought to identify, define and measure shopper archetypes. This current work conceptualizes and validates a new shopper type, the sport shopper, whose motivation for, experience of and outcomes from fashion shopping, set them apart from these previously reported shopper types. Through the lens of achievement goal theory, this paper argues such shoppers experience behavior similar to athletes in that they consider shopping an achievement domain, in which their skills result not only in economic benefits, but also pride, pleasure and positive self-esteem (O'Donnell et al., 2016). Despite strong theoretical underpinnings, to date no attempt has been made to develop a psychometric scale to effectively measure this new cohort of fashion shopper.\nLimitations and future directions: This study is not without its limitations and these are accordingly recognized below. The four studies described above were conducted across two continents, the USA and Australia, which possibly limits the generalizability of the scale. Research of fashion consumption in non-Westernized and emerging economies has more recently become an area of interest (Chan, 2011; Meng-Shan et al., 2015). While our SSE scale was developed from distinctly Western developed nations, further replication across different regions and countries may illustrate variances in dimensions of the SSE. For example, cultures with high \"uncertainty avoidance\" tendencies (Hofstede, 2007) may produce low scores on the SSE scale--that being, these consumers do not enjoy the \"thrill of the hunt or the level of uncertainty\" this type of shopping experience offers. Accordingly, a replication of the SSE scale across national cultures, specifically examining individualistic and collectivist societies, would overcome this constraint and may produce interesting results.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Off-price fashion retailers are expected to dominate the retail sector over the next five years. Surprisingly, selling excess designer labels, in what some describe as a disorganized manner, appeals to certain shoppers who enjoy the \"thrill of the hunt.\" Recent research conceptualized consumers, whose motivation for, and outcomes from, fashion shopping set them apart from previously reported shopper types. Referred to as \"Sport Shoppers,\" they view fashion shopping as an achievement domain. The purpose of this paper is to quantify such shoppers through the development of a valid psychometric scale.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Four studies, comprising depth interviews and online surveys, across two countries were employed to develop a three-dimensional scale of the sport shopping experience. Factor analyses and structural equation modeling were used to analyze and test a theoretically hypothesized model.\nFindings: Study 1 generated items aligned to the three theoretical dimensions of the sport shopping experience. Study 2 confirmed reliability and factor structure of the psychometric scale. Study 3 provides evidence of convergent and discriminant validity with previous shopper types. Finally, Study 4 demonstrates nomological validity through a theoretically hypothesized model of the sport shopping experience.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study to employ achievement goal theory in a consumer behavior context to delineate an emergent shopper type. The developed scale is the most comprehensive, multi-dimensional measure of the experience of this new consumer type. As such, it represents a valuable contribution to fashion retail and consumer behavior literature. The scale enables practitioners to quantify target markets and identify relationships to other factors, such as overall satisfaction and brand repurchase intentions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Perceptions of trust in the US construction industry
|
[
"Communications",
"USA",
"Construction management",
"Contracting parties",
"Effect of trust",
"Factors that affect trust"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Leadership and trust can significantly contribute to the success or failure of construction projects (Brewer and Strahorn, 2012). Hyvari (2006) found that a project manager's leadership ability accounted for approximately 76 percent of a project's success and 67 percent of a project's failure. Other studies showed that a project manager without leadership skills can increase the unexpected transaction costs by 25 percent if the manager were unable to effectively clarify misunderstandings (Levitt, 2007). A failure to address trust may lead to problems for the project manager (Brewer and Strahorn, 2012). Trust is imperative in building successful teams, adopting new technologies, reducing costs and improving the bottom line of construction projects (Girmscheid and Brockmann, 2010; Fong and Lung, 2007; Lui et al., 2006; O'Connor and Yang, 2004). A Construction Industry Institute (1993) study found that trust also has a direct link to reducing costs and saving time.\n2. Literature review: Several definitions of trust are found in the literature (Brewer and Strahorn, 2012). The most common elements of the various definitions of trust are positive expectations, confidence (Smyth and Edkins, 2007), vulnerability, risk, interdependence, subjective psychological state of mind and the changing nature of the definition according to context (situation) and/or discipline (Brewer and Strahorn, 2012; Lewicki et al., 2006). According to Ding and Ng (2007 in Ding et al., 2013) interpersonal trust is the willingness of one party to be vulnerable to the actions of the other party. In this context a party understands that there is a risk of negative outcomes rather than favorable outcomes. Doloi (2009) defines trust as factors that drive performance rather than enforcing it through legal and contractual arrangements. Yee et al. (2015) noted that propensity to trust was a trait form of trust. They defined propensity to trust as a tendency that a trustor is willing to trust others without prior information or history of exchange (Yee et al., 2015). According to Ding et al. (2013, p. 606) cognition-based trust determines \"whom trustor will trust in which respect and under what circumstances\" while affect-based trust can be defined as \"the emotional bonds between trustor and trustees.\" Smyth and Edkins (2007) noted two types of trust: self-interested and socially oriented. Self-interested trust can be defined as a willingness of one to trust without having evidence while socially oriented trust is a deeper trust which is created through obligations in a social network and is based on reputation, advocacy and supportive relationships (Smyth and Edkins, 2007).\n3. Methodology: In this research, two surveys were conducted: a preliminary survey and a final survey. A comprehensive list of 150 factors that can impact trust between the contracting parties or can require trust was developed based on the literature review. Factors that impact trust were further divided into two groups of sub-factors: antecedents of trust, and contextual conditions that affect trust. In order to prioritize these factors a preliminary survey was conducted at a local Career Fair attended by construction companies. The survey asked survey participants to use a five-point Likert scale to rate 12 categories of factors (see Table IV) in terms of their importance to building trust on construction projects. Additionally, the survey asked each survey respondent to rate the importance of trust in each phase of the construction process (pre-construction, design, procurement, construction and closeout). The results of this preliminary survey were analyzed using descriptive statistics.\n4. Results of the preliminary survey: prioritizing the trust factors: In total 39 construction professionals attending the Career Fair completed the preliminary survey. A majority of the survey respondents were male (37, 94 percent) while two (6 percent) were female. In total, 21 (54 percent) survey respondents were project managers, one (3 percent) was owner, seven (17 percent) were vice-presidents (VPs) and 10 (26 percent) identified themselves as \"other.\" In terms of years of work experience, 13 (34 percent) survey respondents had five to ten years of experience, 12 (30 percent) had less than five years of work experience, eight (21 percent) had more than 20 years of work experience and six (15 percent) had 11 to 20 years of work experience. Most of the survey respondents worked for general contractors (23, 60 percent), 10 (25 percent) worked for general contracting and construction management companies, four (9 percent) for construction management companies while two (6 percent) respondents listed the \"other\" company type. A majority of the respondents worked for the company that performed commercial construction work (27, 68 percent), while the remaining respondents worked for the company that performed heavy civil construction (5, 12 percent), commercial and industrial (3, 7 percent), industrial (1, 3 percent), or \"other\" type of construction (4, 9 percent). In total, 17 (43 percent) respondents worked for companies that had an annual volume greater than $500 M (million), 11 (28 percent) for companies that had an annual volume between $100 and $500 M, eight (20 percent) for the companies with an annual volume less than $50 M, while the remaining four (9 percent) respondents worked for the companies that had an annual volume between $50 and $100 M.\n5. Results of the final survey: 5.1. Survey respondents' demographic characteristics\n6. Conclusions: The main contribution of this research is in identifying the factors on construction projects that impact trust between contracting parties as well as factors on construction projects that require trust. Some of the identified factors were similar to those found in previous research. However, this research also discovered additional factors that impact trust and factors that require trust and that were not identified by previous research.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to obtain an understanding of the perception of trust between US construction contracting parties. The research objectives were to identify the factors on construction projects that impact such trust and to identify how trust affects factors on construction project.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A survey of construction professionals working for the Engineering News Record's Top 400 US contractors was conducted.\nFindings: The findings showed that paying on time, competency, reliability and effective collaboration were the most important factors that affected contextual conditions trustworthiness. Factors perceived to strengthen trust included face-to-face communication, electronic documents, and timely and adequate responses to requests for information. The presence of construction managers on construction projects, and corrective changes orders from neutral third parties were perceived to weaken trust. Trust was perceived to assist leadership, team building, communication and information sharing.\nOriginality/value: The main contribution of this study is the discovery of additional factors that impact trust and factors that require trust and that were not identified by previous researchers.\n",
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Improving health in the workplace: Effective diffusion of interventions
|
[
"Health promotion",
"Health marketing",
"Workplace health"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nHealth at work: An old adage informs us that prevention is better than cure. These are wise words indeed. And such sentiments obviously apply within a wide variety of contexts, with working environments being no exception.\nWorkplace health promotion and its stages: Within the current climate, the significance of workplace health promotion (WHP) is heightened. This marketing procedure can provide an effective way of engaging various stakeholder groups to collectively help improve health at work. However, diffusion across different firms is essential if any discernible impact on public health is to materialize.\nToward more effective targeting: Each step of the process presents a valuable learning opportunity for agencies delivering WHP. It permits awareness of:\nComment: The review is based on \"Strategies of active dissemination of WHP\" by Friedrich et al. (2015). The authors provide an interesting account of how health promotion is implemented in the workplace. The value of this article lies in their examination of different stages of the marketing activities used and identification of factors which potentially either aid or inhibit their effectiveness.\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: An old adage informs us that prevention is better than cure. These are wise words indeed. And such sentiments obviously apply within a wide variety of contexts, with working environments being no exception. Recent decades have witnessed growing importance attached to health in the workplace. Given the prevailing compensation culture in many societies, this development is not surprising. Firms naturally want to protect themselves as much as possible from the threat of health-related lawsuits. Complying with necessary regulations and safeguarding the welfare of employees should thus be high on the agenda. It clearly makes sense for organizations to adopt a proactive approach to these matters.\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"
}
] |
Towards effective poster presentations: an annotated bibliography
|
[
"Posters",
"Design",
"Presentations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This paper is curious to understand better why the visual device of poster presentation remains overlooked as an area of skilled communicative practice within the marketing discipline. A comparison between conference arrangements made for paper presentations and poster presentation reveals a sizeable, but variable \"gap\" in institutional commitment to the textual and the visual. Current structures seem to militate against poster executions being recognised as an appropriate medium for the dissemination of peer-reviewed marketing knowledge.As an occupational culture our current practice with regard to poster presentation reflects an underestimation of its transformative potential, not only as a research and pedagogical tool, but also an important area of professional academic practice. Indeed, in some cases the understanding of poster practice is very limited and dangerously attracted to the narrowly informed opinion of posters as indicative of a second-rate dissemination culture.This annotated bibliography aims to offer a useful starting point for enhancing this area of professional academic practice in marketing. It offers pathways into the literature of poster presentation through mapping-out the literature of the subject area and its various topics as discussed and debated in a wide-range of scientific areas.Although the author maintains that poster presentation is a neglected site of representational practice in the marketing academy, he argues that study of the topic in other disciplinary areas reveals that posters can work very effectively, not only as an information technology and dissemination medium, but also as pedagogical tools in advancing critical thinking skills. In an era hungry for creative ways of making teaching and learning more active and scholarship more productive, and making them all more contemporary and accountable, this seems like a worthwhile topic to consider.This document is evidence that work has already begun to improve the situation. It has been produced under the aegis of an exploratory research project funded by the Academy of Marketing and The Faculty of Management of The University of Stirling.\nThe annotated bibliography: What follows is an annotated bibliography of literature sources on the subject of poster presentation, developed from an extensive literature search of major journal databases, coupled with the cross examination of citations[1] reported therein.This annotated bibliography provides details of sources that have been consulted in an effort to evaluate issues and arguments that might better inform our understanding of poster presentation. The wide range of published sources that has been consulted provides informative views on a variety of topics, many derived from closely made observations of good communicative practice in the context of disseminating research findings to scientific audiences in wide range of disciplines.Inevitably this document cannot claim to provide a comprehensive coverage of the wealth of published materials available on the subject of poster presentation within the scientific disciplines. However, the author believes that it offers the novice and the experienced poster presenter a useful way into and out of the rich, but complex maze of cross-disciplinary literature on the subject. And to help in this respect the author has developed an easy-to-use guide to literature sources on specific poster presentation topics. It takes the form of a matrix that lists and characterises each citation by disciplinary origin and major themes discussed in the content (see Table I).Ten major themes have been derived from a content analysis of the study material collected within the ambit of the literature search. (The literature search located three broad categories of sources: journal articles and reports; text books; and web sites. All three have been classified in Tables I-III.) Each of the citation entries is then further elaborated in the form of a full reference and brief synopsis.\nDescriptors: What follows outlines the broad descriptive themes used to categorise the content of the articles cited in Table I. This should provide the reader with a guide to the content and emphasis of each article.Assessment\nAbstracts of journals: Akister, J., Bannon, A. and MullenderLock, H. (2000), \"Poster presentations in social work education assessment: a case study\", Innovations in Education and Training International, Vol. 37 No. 3, p. 229\nAbstracts of books: Adelheid, A., Nicol, M. and Pexman, P. (2003) Displaying Your Findings: A Practical Guide for Creating Figures, Posters and Presentations, American Psychological Association, Washington, DC\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The aim of this paper is to introduce the topic of poster presentation as legitimate area of academic study and practice within the marketing discipline.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper presents the output of one part of a research project that reviewed the state of knowledge and practice within poster presentation as a dissemination medium for research information. The results of the literature search are presented as an annotated bibliography.\nFindings: - The literature search reveals a sizeable body of material on the use of poster presentation as a dissemination media, indicative of a set of key themes that guide good practice in poster design, construction and presentation. It also includes material that has studied the use of poster design and presentation exercises as pedagogical devices.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The research on which the paper is based is limited by virtue of not offering a more complete survey of contemporary poster presentation practice across the sciences. It draws observations from the author's attendance at several marketing and management-related conferences where poster presenters have been interviewed and examples of poster presentation have been collected. However, in the sciences, especially the medical sciences, poster practice is well-established and in some cases moving towards digitisation.\nPractical implications: - The aesthetics of poster design remain unclear in the case of poster design for the dissemination of scientific information. However, a set of templates has been produced based on the close study of a database of over 600 poster designs and ten years' experience of using posters as teaching tools for research training. A methodology for poster design has also been developed known as \"The Block Architecture Method of Poster Design\". It uses the software Powerpoint and Photoshop to develop poster design electronically.\nOriginality/value: - The bibliography will help interested teachers and students explore the various issues surrounding poster design, construction and presentation. It will also help to understand some of the advantages of using poster-design exercises as creative and critical devices in a pedagogical context.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
An investigation on the impact of industrial symbiosis implementation on organizational performance using analytical hierarchical approach
|
[
"Decision making",
"Hierarchical modelling",
"Industrial symbiosis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: 1.1 Background and Motivation\n2. Background of industrial symbiosis: The field of industrial ecology marks its formal beginning with the publication of an article titled \"Strategies for manufacturing\" in which the authors suggested that it was in the best interest of industry to reorganize themselves such that the waste of one industry becomes the input for another (Frosch and Gallopoulos, 1989). In industrial ecosystems, the participating organizations exchange material and energy flows, analogous to natural ecosystems (Haberl, 2001). IS is a subset of industrial ecology which aims to achieve competitive advantages and benefits by compounding the operations of primarily different industries (Martin and Eklund, 2011). As per the definition, the key to IS is coordination and the synergistic opportunities offered by geographic proximity, thereby to achieve collective benefit rather than the sum of lone benefits that could be achieved by acting alone (Chertow, 2000). The early literature highlights the impact of eco-industrial parks (EIP) projects on the conceptual development of IS. EIP is an integrated community of business that coordinates with each other in the local community to share different resources (information, materials, energy, infrastructure and natural habitat), which results in economic gains, improvements in environmental quality and equitable enhancement of human resources for business and the local community (Yu et al., 2014). In IS, physical synergies can be measured by classifying them into two categories, namely, the by-product synergies and utility synergies. Product synergies involve the usage of by-products and products of one industry as the raw material or intermediate material of another industry in the production process (Van Berkel, 2006). Utility synergy involves the sharing of energy and waste of different industries by using shared recovery and mutual waste treatment plants (Martin and Eklund, 2011).\n3. Proposed outcomes and competitiveness of industrial symbiosis: The important outcomes and competitiveness attained through participating in IS are discussed in the following subsection.\n4. Research method: There are many MCDM techniques available, namely: analytic hierarchy process (AHP), analytical network process, VIKOR, TOPSIS and so on. However, for the attempted problem, the linear relationship needs to be established between practices, outputs and competitiveness. Also, among these techniques, AHP allows the dynamic participation of experts evaluating the relative importance of variables in issues with multiple criteria. Thus, AHP is identified as the suitable method. AHP computes rank and weight of the alternatives by accommodating both subjective and objective judgments of the respondents (Gothwal and Raj, 2018).\n5. Application of the proposed method for evaluating organizational competitiveness: The case information and the various steps in the application of proposed method are discussed in this subsection.\n6. Result and discussion: The computation of global priority score and organizational competitive advantage scores are discussed in this subsection.\n7. Scientific and practical implications: ISN is industries functioning together to reap maximum potential benefits. In this network, the waste of one industry is used a valuable raw material for the other. There are various advantages an industry can cultivate by developing an ISN. The synergetic possibilities between the industries can be in the form of by-products or utilities. There are various tangible outputs which can be achieved after the successful implementation of ISN. From this research, it was inferred that the most significant output of IS was organization collaboration. This is considered to be the most crucial output as the collaboration between industries improving the ISN as a whole.\n8. Conclusions: The questionable concern in IS is whether it gives meaningful savings compared to the traditional method which is not answered in the existing literature. The current study is conducted to address the above gap. For assessing the organizational competitiveness, a hierarchical model is developed. A research methodology utilizes the steps of AHP, interrelationship was established and synthesized for computing organizational competitive advantages. The expert team was formulated by including members from Indian manufacturing organizations. By converting the relationship score to linguistics, a linkage matrix is developed. Following through literature review and in consultation with the experts, 14 outcomes of IS are identified. The expected competitiveness of IS is organizational green image, financial performance, business performance, environmental compliance and collective learning. The results of the analysis indicate that/OC, inter-firm exchange, higher material utilization, sustainable consumption and improved environmental performance are the significant outcomes of IS.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Industrial symbiosis (IS) is basically a synergistic association between two or more industries or businesses wherein the waste or by-product of one industry becomes the raw material or immediate material of another industry. IS is believed to bring in significant benefits to the organizations. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate the competitiveness attained through IS.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Analytic hierarchy process was adopted to analyze the various organizational competitiveness of IS implementation. The conceptual model was developed to understand the interrelationship between 14 outcomes and 5 organizational competitiveness which are identified from the literature review. The attainment of these five organizational competitiveness was evaluated by computing the global priority score of the outcomes.\nFindings: The global priority score suggests that the organizational collaboration (0.19) is the important output. Further, collective learning and growth (44 percent) have been identified as the important competitiveness attained through the implementation of IS.\nPractical implications: The relationship matrix developed can be used by the practicing managers/researchers to understand the various interactions. Thus, systematic decision making and guidance for future implementation studies will be ensured.\nOriginality/value: In the past, few authors discussed the conceptualization of IS; however, the impact of IS on the organizational performance was not extensively studied. Therefore, a conceptual model was proposed to analyze the attainment of various competitiveness through the participation of industrial symbiosis network. Further, based on the computed scores, the relationship matrix developed between outcomes and organizational competitiveness is one of the significant contributions of this work.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Collegiality in business schools: Development of a collegiality measure and evaluations of its implications
|
[
"Faculty",
"University",
"Academia",
"Business schools",
"Collegiality",
"Department"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: \"The school maintains a collegiate environment in which students, faculty, administrator, professional staff, and practitioners interact and collaborate in support of learning, scholarship, and community engagement\" AACSB International (2013, p. 5).\nCollegiality in business schools: However, even though the AACSB is mandating that accredited business schools exhibit a collegial environment there remains a general lack of consensus on what collegiality actually is in a business school and how it can be measured. For example, deans might conclude that faculty members are good colleagues if they do not cause problems and or question the administration, and approximately one-third of a sample of marketing department heads consider this aspect of collegiality explicitly during tenure decisions (Shepherd et al., 2009). Peers, however, will likely have different criteria for judging collegiality. For example, a good colleague might be described by their peers as someone who collaborates and positively contributes to activities that benefit students, the department, and other faculty members.\nPurpose: The present study is an exploratory effort to provide both a conceptual understanding of what business school academics think that collegiality is and a potentially useful instrument to assess it. In addition, this study examines the effects of collegiality on an academic's job satisfaction. It is important to examine job satisfaction because satisfaction is related to critical outcomes such as faculty performance and expected turnover (see e.g. Bentley et al., 2013). Turnover can be devastating to business schools because of the huge efforts made to recruit effective and productive faculty (Ambrose et al., 2005), while universities are moving into initiatives that were previously the domains of business (Etzkowitz et al., 2007). The changing nature of business schools indicates that it is important to understand how academics can be expected to perform and react in a rapidly changing environment. This paper begins to address these questions and others by developing and testing a scale for marketing and management departments in business schools.\nMeasuring collegiality: scale development: The scale development process generally consists of: defining the domain of the construct; item generation; and psychometric assessment of the scale's reliability and validity (see e.g. Eastman et al., 1999). The domain of the collegiality construct for university faculty is adapted from item pools generated by Shah (2011) and Seigel and Miner-Rubino (2009) and consists of values and behaviors that are associated with a cooperative and helpful academic environment. The present study adapts prior work to develop a scale for university business school academics working in departments.\nCollegiality, institutional variables, and work satisfaction: A Pearson correlation analysis was conducted to assess if there were any important relationships between a respondent's score on the proposed FCS and institutional variables. The overall collegiality score is negatively related to budget decreases (r=0.631, p<0.01). There is also a positive and significant correlation between the overall collegiality score and work satisfaction (r=0.572, p<0.01). Next, we investigated whether the three factors from the collegiality scales were related to aspects of the institution and satisfaction (see Table IV). The first factor (mutual support and trust) and the second factor (equity and politics) are positively correlated with the perceived fairness of performance evaluations (p<0.001 for both factors) and perceptions of the fairness of workload distribution (p<0.001 for both factors). There is no evidence for correlations between the third factor (shirking behavior) and the institutional variables we measured. Finally, all three factors are positively correlated with work satisfaction.\nDiscussion: Collegiality is a fundamentally important, but previously undefined construct for business school academics and administrators. AACSB International's (2013) recent stance on collegiality makes maintaining a collegial learning environment essential for business schools to be considered for accreditation. The FCS developed in the present study offers business school academics a glimpse into the dimensions that academics perceive to be indicators of a good colleague - one that provides support and is trustworthy; does not engage in politics and positioning to advantage their own situation; and contributes to the well-being of the students, the department and the university. These three dimensions map well with Cipriano and Buller's (2012a) framework of collegial behavior within a university and Shah's (2011) TCS for secondary school teachers.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: While collegiality is often discussed and touted as a critical aspect of academia, there is little research that empirically examines collegiality in university business schools. One cause of the paucity of research is the lack of a reliable scale to measure collegiality (Sabharwal, 2011). The purpose of this paper is to develop a scale that measures collegiality at the departmental level for university faculty, and then uses it to understand the implications of collegiality within an academic department within a business school.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The present study uses a scale development process consisting of: defining the domain of the construct; item generation; and psychometric assessment of the scale's reliability and validity. Items were adapted for a university business school context from Shah (2011) and Seigel and Miner-Rubino (2009). The scale was administrated using a convenience non-random sample design drawn from active marketing and entrepreneurship academics who subscribe to the American Marketing Association's ELMAR and the Academy of Management's ENTRE list-serves.\nFindings: The faculty collegiality scale (FCS) was found to exhibit sound psychometric properties in this study. The study found that assessments of department-level collegiality are associated with budgets, performance evaluation processes, and workload allocations. In addition, factors from the FCS mediate the relationships between institutional variables and work satisfaction, which indicate that collegiality is an important determinant of work satisfaction in a contemporary university environment.\nOriginality/value: The FCS developed in the present study offers business school academics and administrators a glimpse into the dimensions of what the marketing and entrepreneurship academics perceive makes a good colleague - one that provides professional and social support and is trustworthy; does not engage in politics, positioning, or rent-seeking to advantage their own situation; and that contributes to the well-being of the students, the department, the discipline and the university. In addition, the present study found that the FCS was related to budgets, performance evaluation processes, and faculty workloads.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Impact not intent
|
[
"Harassment",
"Bullying",
"Conversation",
"Distribution centres",
"Personnel administration"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Dramatic incidents of bullying and harassment are reported in the newspapers. We breathe a sigh of relief that in the organisations we work with there are no incidents of new starters being stripped naked and knocked around as an initiation ritual. The trouble is we have less confidence that something similar may not happen in the future. Further we normally do not have any indication of what the chances are of something like this happening.\nThe project in outline: The company we worked in is a distribution centre employing about 900 staff. It is part of a large logistics group. The operation is open 24 hours per day, seven days a week - except Christmas day.There was a policy called Harassment and Bullying, which had been written three years before. The policy had not been fully implemented and had not been reviewed in that time. Senior managers were a bit uneasy about what might be going on but there was no evidence of any serious problems when the project was first discussed.As well as improving the culture of the company we also wanted to assess the level of harassment and bullying that was going on. An assumption behind this project is that the figures for the amount of harassment usually reported in a company are based on those incidents that result in a formal investigation. Incidents of harassment dealt with informally may not be recorded. We wanted to get below the tip of the iceberg.Further, employees may put up with harassment, as one person said to us during this project \" because that's what goes on here\". The effect on performance and attendance may be quite significant if harassment and bullying are common but just accepted and not reported.The project included:* A rewrite of the policy and the design and development of training programmes to implement it. We used the definitions from the ACAS web site to define harassment and bullying (see Appendix 1). Although there is a difference, for practising managers it is not too important. Their task is to manage harassment and bullying. Their actions are much the same in each case, and they need confidence to do it.* The new policy was to be communicated through briefing and notice boards to all staff.* Managers were trained. As part of the project we wanted to help managers to identify the difference between good humoured banter and harassment. We also wanted to help managers who had become cautious about talking to staff about low performance because they were almost invariably accused of \"harassment\".* Some managers were selected for counselling training to deal with serious cases and cases where managers were themselves accused of harassment.* Some warehouse staff were selected for training as \"supporters\" to advise and support those who felt they were being harassed or bullied and wanted to speak in confidence about what to do.* Managers and supporters attended the same training programme at the same times.As it happens a very serious incident of bullying emerged as the project was developing. This was the only serious incident of harassment in the previous 24 months. No minor cases of harassment had been reported during that time.\nHarassment - how it starts and develops: To help put some structure on minor incidents of harassment, course members were introduced during the programme to a five-stage scale of how harassment develops. This is summarised below.Harassment has a way of growing. Some choose to ignore it in the hope it will go away. Often unfortunately ignoring it leads to it growing worse and happening more frequently. If we stand back for a moment we can see a series of steps that illustrates how harassment can develop.Stage one - bad light\nHow the information for this article was gathered: As part of the design, those attending courses had a choice of two projects. The projects were intended to help them implement their learning in the reality of the work place. A total of 22 people attending courses chose the project that has lead to this paper. The project work was completed within four weeks after the main training and before the follow-up.The course members who chose this project were given a brief about the objective, the method of gathering information and how it would be reported. In essence course members looked out for evidence of harassment during two to three periods of time, usually of one to two hours each period over ten days while doing their normal work. They categorised their observations using the five-stage model above.The results are presented in Table I.\nDiscussion: Not surprisingly, most of the incidents reported are in the lowest stages of harassment development and over half of them were observed as banter or good humour.Perhaps the most significant figure on the table is the 28, bottom of column four. What this means is that about one quarter of all incidents were judged by managers to be unwelcome. Of these incidents, 21 were in the two lowest stages of harassment development and seven were in the higher stages. These seven are of the level that may create a reportable incident.Extending these observations of seven incidents to a 364-day working year of 24 hours per day, we could predict nearly 400 incidents of low level aggression and over 65 incidents of high level aggression in that time. (Details of the calculations are in Appendix 2.) Any of these could give rise to a complaint. Given these figures, what is surprising is that so few complaints arise. It is a measure of how people put up with harassment of a serious nature and accept it as part of working life.The new supporters will record their meetings using the same scale. As time progresses, therefore, further evidence for comparison will emerge.These figures suggest that the skills of the supporters will be in demand. It will be interesting to see if that proves to be the case. A review in a year's time is recommended. The figures do not suggest any other procedures need to be put in place at this stage.An area of concern for management from these figures is the impact of harassment on productivity. Where banter is good humoured it could be said to be motivating and I agree. Where the impact is unwelcome then we can expect increased sick absence and lower levels of motivation and productivity. Changes in the culture of the organisation would need a strategic decision. If this predicted level of harassment turns out to be confirmed by returns from Supporters in a year's time, then there would be a case for an alteration in the culture of the business.\nConclusion: These results show that one of the aims of the project has been met. Course members have learned to differentiate banter from harassment. They were able to distinguish the impact in 84 per cent of their observations. They have learned that it is the impact that matters, not the intent. This is a major message of the course.Another aim of the project has also been achieved. We have been able to estimate the amount of minor incidents of harassment and show that less serious incidents are occurring and they seem to be accepted as part of the culture. At the same time we were able to make a count of the number of more serious incidents that may potentially spark a complaint.The scale of five stages of harassment work well enough for these purposes.\nFollow-up: We have been able to discuss the project with a senior manager four months after these development activities. What had happened? Had the predictions come true?The serious incident of harassment and bullying had been settled, without going to Tribunal.The policy document had not at that point been briefed to staff. New notice boards are being put up and the policy will be put on the notice boards and briefed at that time.There had been no reported incidents of harassment or bullying. That is much the same as before the development activity.More intriguingly, neither the supporters nor the counselling managers had been called on even once to perform their role. Does this mean that people being harassed did not know of the supporters' services? This was thought unlikely, as they were well known at the time of the development last year. Were the managers dealing informally and more confidently with harassment and bullying and stopping it at a low level before it could build up? Possibly, although there was no direct evidence. Had the serious incident had such an effect on the management that they are aware of the potential for disruption that they are now pay more attention to the problem? Again there is no direct evidence. The senior manager we talked to thought it was a combination of everything that had gone on last year.A question that hangs in the air is \"How do we keep the skills of supporters and counselling managers fresh when they do not have anything to do?\"\nAnd finally: This project shows that it is possible to make an impact on how managers view harassment and bullying. By being able to recognise it they will have more confidence in tackling it. Instead of being worried about harassment they can see it as part of their management job. If they are able to handle it informally they will improve attendance and productivity. They will save some individuals from a daily torment. They may even be able to help those who perpetrate harassment to work without the need to bully others.A lot is written about dignity and respect at work. The first step is to know just what is going on. This project tackled that issue.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: - This case study aims to describe a consultancy project where managers in a distribution centre of a major logistics company were developed to give them confidence to implement a new harassment and bullying policy.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Included within the design was an action research project using a five-stage scale defining the development of harassment and bullying. The new policy, the background to it and the development scale were introduced using group training methods.\nFindings: - The study finds that during the follow-up discussions and reports after the action research, managers reported that they could distinguish \"good humoured banter\" from harassment. They also distinguished more serious examples of harassment and bullying. In a four-week period there were 21 incidents in the two lowest stages of harassment development and seven were in the higher stages. These even are of the level that may create a reportable incident. Follow-up three months after the programme is also described.\nOriginality/value: - This paper will be of value to directors, strategic managers and human resource professionals who want to discover a way to enable managers to handle harassment and bullying issues with more confidence.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
"A True Account"
|
[
"Creative accounting",
"Management accounting"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nWriting up: More than 30 creative souls enrolled at APIRA 2007 in Auckland to exercise their talents in writing workshops. These workshops followed on the success of similar activities at APIRA 2004 in Singapore. There was more creative arts talent lurking in the crowd of accounting conference delegates than many people would have reckoned! The Auckland writers tried their hand at various set tasks, ranging from short poems about work (the limericks and haiku were terrific) to character studies in prose that dealt with conflict situations. The delegates' keen interest in attempting new forms seemed to reflect the diverse content of the conference itself.Since the papers offered at the conference represented such a variety of topics and stances, I felt the appropriate way to honour them here would be to bring many of those voices together in a kind of APIRA Chorus. The way I decided to do it was through a variation on a form of poetry known as the cento, from the Latin for patchwork. This type of writing is an entertaining but also demanding way of drawing a poem into being from the threads of many different pieces. It gives one the right to pilfer from other writers, but the catch is that the various sources should provide no more than one line each (I cheated; there is a little doubling in my attempt), and as coordinating writer, for want of a better term, I should acknowledge all of the contributors. Considering that some of the papers at APIRA 2007 looked to have a team of authors, this results in an acknowledgement list that goes around the world twice - or, at least, from your place to Auckland - and is certainly longer than the resulting poem.That poem, titled \"A True Account\", features the work of nearly 50 delegates; in a style they probably never anticipated. You will find their names and those of the papers from which their words were culled in a series of footnotes, and I hope they like the fruit of their \"collaborative\"; effort. If they do not, I hope that they do not recognise their own words here! No-one can guarantee that quotations of their own work will always be taken in the initial context, and combining many different words in a completely new way as I have done obviously risks willful distortion of the authors' original intentions. The new meaning is not their own, but what is it? That is finally going to be up to you to determine as reader, but I think I see a few different strands emerging; about representing truth, about feminism, and (dare I say it) about accountability.The conference was an event of vitality for me. Apart from presenting my own paper, I got to read other papers and creative material from the workshops themselves, and to hear arguments that prompted a lot of thought. Together with numerous conversations, they triggered a host of little poems of my own about the trip to NZ and back. I look forward to offering the same chance for writing workshops at APIRA 2010. In the meantime, please send me your own creative writing for consideration in the Literature & Insights section!\nA True Account: by Steve Evans & 50 Delegates of APIRA 2007\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the varied concerns of delegates at an international accounting conference.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The methodology takes the form of a prose article and accompanying fictional poem.\nFindings: - Accounting conferences gather many different voices and points of view, but with a degree of commonality in themes.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The paper encourages the use of creative expression to represent areas of research and enquiry.\nOriginality/value: - A review of some of the proceedings of a major conference is structured in a novel manner, combining the use of the cento (a composite, \"found\" poem) with prose.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Forecasting inflation in G-7 countries: an application of artificial neural network
|
[
"Economics",
"Forecasting",
"Inflation",
"Artificial neural network",
"G-7 countries",
"Hyperbolic tangent function",
"Neural network",
"Mean square error",
"Backpropagation learning"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Economic forecasting is an arduous task for researchers, academics and practitioners. In time series forecasting different approaches based on univariate and multivariate modelling like Autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), vector autoregressive (VAR), Exponential Smoothening etc. are applied to develop models that are based on past and present information for predicting the future (Hyndman and Athanasopoulos, 2012). But these models are not reliable for non-linear and noisy data. In this situation, artificial neural network (ANN) models can be pragmatic because they are precise and can capture any type of movement in data with a high degree of accuracy. Neural networks (NN) can handle the noisy and chaotic components of the data easily (Kaastra and Boyd, 1996). NN models can be applied directly to various trend patterns and seasonality (Zhang and Qi, 2005). It is widely being used as a promising approach for pattern recognition, prediction and control due to its outstanding features and can be utilized for detecting the functional relationship in a set of data easily even if the data is highly complex (Jha, 2007). In the recent past, NN modelling for time series forecasting has been applied by both practitioners and academics across various disciplines (Aiken, 1999; Huang et al., 2004; Zou et al., 2007; Li et al., 2010).\n2. Related literature: Aiken (1999) has considered ANN to correlate the actual value and the predicted value of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in the USA and concluded that ANN showed a high degree of accuracy for forecasting the rate of inflation. Binner et al. (2002) measured the non-linear approach (ANN) with the linear approach against ARIMA and VAR models and found that ANN outperformed than traditional statistical models in forecasting inflation. Haider and Hanif (2009) assimilated ANN model with the conventional univariate model ARIMA to forecast the monthly inflation of Pakistan using the data from 1993 to 2007. The 12 months out of sample forecasts proved that root mean squared error (RMSE) of ANN-based forecasts was lesser than that of ARIMA models. Choudhary and Haider (2012) have assessed the forecasting power of the ANN models for monthly inflation rates of the 28 organisations of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and they found that ANN was superior than the ARIMA model. Nazif Catik and Karacuka (2012) have drawn a comparison of ANN with the alternative univariate time series models for inflation-forecasting using seasonally adjusted Turkish CPI. The study observed the superiority of the non-linear model over the linear models because the linear models fail to track the non-linearity of the inflation data.\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Artificial neural network\n4. Data set: In the present study, monthly data on CPI of G-7 countries (the USA, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada) from January 1996 to February 2013 prepared by US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Division of International Labour Comparison, which is available at the official website of BLS (www.bls.gov/fls/intl_consumer_prices.xls). The CPI represents changes in prices of all goods and services purchased for consumption by urban households and it measures inflation as experienced by consumers in their day-to-day living expenses. The data set has 206 observations each of CPI of the USA, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada. There is no agreement how to divide the data for training, testing and validation. In the literature, most of the researchers have suggested to divide the data as 60:20:10, 70:20:10 or 80:10:10 (Zou et al., 2007). So, we have divided 80 per cent data for training, 10 per cent for testing and 10 per cent for validation purpose because it considers maximum data points for training the ANN model.\n5. Interpretation and results: In practice, designing of the NN is more an art not the mathematics (Zhang et al., 1998). So, we have applied a trial-and-error approach and tried several combinations of one hidden layer, one output layer and one to ten neurons in the input layer and the hidden layer, respectively. Out of the various combinations of models, we have finally selected best nine models on the basis of minimum SSE, RMSE and MAE.\n6. Conclusions and implications: Present work evaluated the accuracy of different NN models for forecasting inflation. We have proposed NN models on the basis of two measures SSE and RMSE to forecast the inflation of G-7 countries. The forecasts on the basis of the proposed models have been computed and compared with the actual data and it was found that selected models were good fit to capture all sorts of movements in the data. Out of sample forecasts for the period of 12 months on the basis of the best models have also been calculated and these suggested models will be benchmark for the policy-makers and researchers to forecast inflation for the coming months.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The paper aims to evaluate different artificial neural network models and to suggest a suitable model for forecasting inflation in G-7 countries.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study applies different combinations of neural networks with hyperbolic tangent function using backpropagation learning with the steepest gradient descent technique to monthly data on Consumer Price Index (a measure of inflation) of the USA, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada.\nFindings: Predictions of inflation based on the Consumer Price Index for all the seven countries divulged that it is expected that the rate of inflation will decline marginally in the near future.\nPractical implications: The results proposed in this study will be a benchmark for policy-makers, economists and practitioners to forecast inflation and design policies accordingly.\nOriginality/value: The paper's findings provide strong evidence for policy-makers that while constructing models for forecasting inflation, the suggested models can be used to track the future rates of inflation and, further, they can apply that model in framing policies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Pre-school practitioners, child poverty and social justice
|
[
"Social policy",
"Poverty",
"Social inclusion",
"Social welfare",
"Social exclusion",
"Children (age groups)"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Social justice is about the allocation of resources such as economic, cultural and social capital. Several ideas exist about social justice, welfare policies and how inequalities can be tackled to help families and children in poverty gain access to such resources. Fundamental to shaping the UK Coalition government's approach to social justice and welfare generally has been a \"state discourse\" pervaded by neo-liberal ideological assumptions. These ideas advocate the avoidance of fiscal deficit, redirection of public spending from income subsidies to service provision, privatisation of state enterprises and deregulation (or reregulation) to promote market entry. There is a desire to re-structure and subordinate welfare provision to market forces as the neo-liberal privileging of market solutions to social problems is accompanied by a desire to reform the welfare state itself. As will now be highlighted, these ideas have framed the Coalition's response to help children and their families in poverty. Their recent Child Poverty Strategy therefore implies a reduction in the intervention of the state to address issues of inequality and poverty. Rather the state's role is to be a regulator remotely overseeing attempts to support families and to improve access to welfare services.\nThe UK Child Poverty Strategy: By the start of the new millennium there was - \"at least notionally\" - political consensus that child poverty in the UK was a significant social problem about which something could and should be done (Levitas, 2012, p. 452). It was estimated in 2008, materially \"child poverty costs the country at least PS25 billion a year\". A \"moral case for eradicating child poverty rests on the immense human cost of allowing children to grow up suffering physical and psychological deprivations and unable to participate fully in society\" (Hirsch, 2008). In 1999 the previous New Labour government pledged to eradicate child poverty by 2020 and neo-liberal alongside more traditional redistributive social democratic ideas were both influential to its \"third way\" approach. The subsequent Child Poverty Act 2010 included targets to reduce child poverty by 2020. Then from May 2010 the new Conservative-led Coalition government initially \"extended the same way of thinking\" by reasserting its commitment to these targets (Levitas, 2012, p. 457). It launched reviews on Child Poverty (Field, 2010) and Early Intervention (Allen, 2011) by former Labour Ministers. The UK's first national Child Poverty Strategy followed in 2011 - A New Approach to Child Poverty: Tackling the Causes of Disadvantage and Transforming Families Lives (DWP and DfE, 2011).\nChild poverty and Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC): Across developed countries the global influence of neoliberalism and the associated \"new politics of parenting\" mentioned above means ECEC (in England this is provided for zero to five-year-old children) and parenting interventions are now routinely imposed as solutions to longstanding social problems, ensuring mothers in particular are implicated and targeted for regulation (OECD, 2012; Faircloth et al., 2013). So within the UK Child Poverty Strategy, alongside several other measures and services, ECEC settings and practitioners are called \"key\" to ensuring \"strong parenting\", \"positive home learning environments\" and \"support for children's early years\". The Coalition government accepts ECEC can free up parents (particularly mothers) to find work. The strategy also indicates the importance of good quality ECEC provision as a means of tackling child poverty through \"narrowing the gaps between poorer and richer children in the early years\" (DWP and DfE, 2011, p. 43). The strategy confirms the continued provision of the previous Labour government's free education places for three and four-year old children and the extension of free education places to \"the most disadvantaged\" two year olds in England. The strategy also advocates \"targeted help to the most disadvantaged families\" via early intervention (DWP and DfE, 2011, p. 63). A large body of evidence demonstrates how poverty negatively permeates every facet of children's lives materially, educationally, socially and psychologically (Coghlan et al., 2009; Hansen et al., 2010; Harvard University, 2012; Marmot Review, 2011; Ridge, 2011, p. 73). Evidence also suggests good quality provision can help improve the learning and cognitive development of pre-school children in poverty - although some suggest any benefits are short lived (Dickerson and Popli, 2012). As such, Coalition politicians have been keen to talk up the contribution pre-school can make to addressing child poverty and promoting social justice. Former Coalition Minister Sarah Teather (2012) indicated ECEC \"is essential to unlock social mobility from the very earliest ages [...] that is why this Coalition Government is committed to strengthening and supporting provision in the early years\". More recently Elizabeth Truss (2013) claimed \"early learning for two-year-olds helps to give children the best start in life whatever their background\".\nResearch methodology: The remainder of this paper aims to bring to light how 30 ECEC practitioners across England have engaged with policy discussions and adopted expectations concerning their place in addressing child poverty. To this end, a phenomenological qualitative research approach was used to gather data across three locations in England. There is a central focus upon what this means pre-school practitioners do in regard to addressing child poverty. The research has been conducted within a broad critical realist framework which assumes social structures (such as dominant discursive formations and power structures) and agency of practitioners are \"distinct strata of reality as the bearers of quite different properties and powers\" (Archer, 2003, p. 2, 2012). Social contexts enabled and constrained in regard to practitioners' engagement in addressing child poverty. But practitioners were assumed to be active as their \"internal conversations\" mediated between their agency and social structures to shape their actions and thinking. The research was undertaken between late 2011 and 2012. With regard to data collection methods, purposeful sampling was used to recruit 30 pre-school practitioners. Initially ten interviews were completed in the northeast of England (Durham/Tees Valley). A British Academy Small Grant was then secured and the project was extended allowing interviews to be completed with practitioners working with children and families in poverty in two more affluent areas in the south of England (ten interviews in Northamptonshire and ten interviews in Worcestershire/Herefordshire).\nFindings: Perceptions on child poverty, geography and inequality\nMorality and engagement with parents in poverty: Building relationships with parents is considered essential to the involvement of pre-school practitioners to tackling child poverty via supporting strong parenting, positive home learning environments and children's early years. But it was considered a significant and challenging task by many practitioners across all three locations. Explaining why entails consideration of the morality pervading the perspectives of child poverty just discussed. As indicated, many of the interviewees shared the Coalition's discursive formation of child poverty and therefore played down explanations of it as part of any wider economic trend. But in constructing child poverty they did highlight a significant moral realm attached to class relations and the struggle for status and social worth in the working class communities in which they worked and in most cases lived. Roberts (2011, p. 107) notes how economic changes over recent decades mean within such communities disadvantaged groups are \"not yet\" an underclass but have nevertheless \"been socially and culturally separated from the more or less continuously employed working class\", such as members of the sample. In particular, the Coalition's construction and attribution of cause, blame and responsibility for child poverty chimed with normative expectations mentioned by many sample members who were working class, low paid but had worked for a long time in the pre-school sector. These normative expectations were about \"good\" behaviours and practices - including \"good\" parenting practices - and an underpinning hierarchical model of respectability was evident in many practitioners' comments. As such, respectability became a signifier in regard to how many practitioners classified parents.\n\"ECEC\", \"performativity\" and poverty sensitivity: As indicated earlier, provision of early education and care (ECEC) is a key policy lever directed at tackling child poverty through impacting upon young children's cognitive and non-cognitive skills which are important to later school performance (DWP and DfE, 2011, p. 42). In delivering ECEC to meet this aim interviewees' accounts revealed how \"policy technology\" was important - that is the \"deployment of forms of organisation and procedures, and disciplines or bodies of knowledge\" which are used to organise \"human forces and capabilities into functioning systems\" (Ball, 2008, p. 41). Particularly, the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) significantly impacts on pre-school services structurally, procedurally and culturally - for example, in regard to the way interviewees worked and their interactions with children in poverty. Following a review of the EYFS in 2012, Coalition politicians have emphasised its importance in ensuring pre-school children's \"readiness for school\" via \"revised early learning goals\". The EYFS has four key themes which are meant to underpin its delivery via a play-based approach - \"a unique child\" plus \"positive relationships\" plus \"enabling environments\" are meant to result in good quality \"learning and development\". These are listed in the non-statutory guidance (\"Development Matters\") which supports practitioners in implementing the statutory requirements of the EYFS. But, in working with \"unique children\" to address attainment gaps between those in poverty and others, good quality and effective ECEC within early years settings will be poverty sensitive. That is, where appropriate poverty, inequality and social disadvantage will need to be considered in terms of the decisions made and approaches taken by practitioners when providing \"ECEC\" directly to each \"unique child\".\nBudgets, quality and poverty proofing: The core purpose of Sure Start Children's Centres (SSCCs) in England is to improve outcomes for young children and their families, with a particular focus on those in greatest need. They were originally introduced by the previous New Labour government and are identified in the Coalition's Child Poverty Strategy as central to the role which ECEC has in helping to tackle child poverty. The Coalition claimed in the strategy it would preserve funding for SSCCs via the Early Intervention Grant passed on to local authorities. But as part of the austerity measure introduced since the Coalition was formed in May 2010, central government funding to local authorities has been dramatically reduced and there are concerns that early intervention money is being redirected to protect other services across authorities. In this context survey research by Daycare Trust has noted children's centres closures and reduced services, staffing and opening times, etc. (Daycare Trust, 2013, online). This creeping influence of spending cuts on budgets and the quality of the work of SSCCs with poor families was evident in interviewees' accounts:\nConclusion: Neoliberalism and an associated \"new politics of parenting\" discursively positions parents as a reason for, and remedy to, child poverty. As indicated, globally this has influenced the diffusion of an approach to child poverty which sees ECEC services move from optional extra to key policy lever. Consequently, in actively pursuing the neoliberal privileging of market solutions to social problems in the promotion of social justice, several nation states including the UK have identified ECEC as a key policy lever to remediating child poverty. The take up of this globally significant policy has been scrutinised locally via the perspectives of the 30 ECEC practitioners in three geographical areas of England. While this study is qualitative and statistical generalisation is not possible, \"moderatum generalisation\" is possible. This means the wider significance of the findings can be explored but in a way which is both moderate - i.e. not making sweeping claims which are said to hold good over time - and moderately held - i.e. they are aesthetic views, hypothetically held and open to change (Payne and Williams, 2005). The findings raise concerns about the contribution ECEC practitioners can make in England to address child poverty. Research identifies how \"what works\" in this regard will include strong relations with parents (particularly mothers) and quality ECEC provision which is poverty sensitive (Coghlan et al., 2009).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Several ideas exist about social justice and how inequalities can be tackled to help families and children in poverty. The Coalition government released the UK's first Child Poverty Strategy in 2011. Pervaded by neoliberal ideology, the strategy mentions \"empowering\" pre-school services and practitioners within the childcare market \"to do more for the most disadvantaged\" (Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Department for Education (DfE) 2011, p. 35). The purpose of this paper is to bring to light how Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) practitioners across England have engaged with policy discussions and adopted expectations concerning their place in addressing child poverty.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a phenomenological qualitative research design the paper draws upon 30 interviews with pre-school practitioners in three geographic areas of England. All interviewees worked with families and children in poverty and were senior ECEC practitioners within their pre-school settings.\nFindings: Many interviewees shared the Coalition's construction of child poverty as a problem of \"troubled\" parenting. These views pervaded their interaction with parents and intersected with the regulatory influence of \"policy technologies\" to influence their practice within a context of austerity cuts. This limited practitioners' poverty sensitivity and their promotion of social justice. Therefore this paper concludes by critiquing the contribution which ECEC practitioners can make to addressing child poverty.\nPractical implications: The findings suggest there may be a need for poverty proofing toolkits in the pre-school sector.\nOriginality/value: This paper provides a rare insight into how pre-school practitioners have engaged with, adopted and adapted assumptions about their role within policy discussion over child poverty and the promotion of social justice.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Organizational logic to prioritize between the elements of triple bottom line
|
[
"Environmental",
"Triple bottom line"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The triple bottom line (TBL) is a play on words, arguing that companies should not only focus on the financial bottom line (final result in the annual report), but also on the environmental and social bottom lines (Elkington, 1997). The concept has gained traction over the years and is now an integral part of both corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainable development (Carter and Rogers, 2008; Winter and Knemeyer, 2013). Over the years, both sustainability and CSR have been the subject of criticism. The former is sometimes associated with \"greenwashing\" (Crane, 2000), and the latter has been criticized as a \"vague term\" (Votaw, 1972). The ability to improve profits by focusing on the TBL is hotly debated, but two interesting arguments should be considered. Tate and Bals (2016) argue that social values are often an afterthought \"shoehorned\" into a firm designed to make economic profits, and Karjalainen and Moxham (2013) argue similarly that fair trade often fails, as the supply chain was not designed with this in mind.\nFraming TBL approach: The lineage of the TBL could be discussed in considerable depth, but only a short-historical overview will be presented here. Economics is of course older than TBL, but in 1776, Smith developed the economic theory of modern production as a means to improve efficiency. In more recent times, Wernerfelt (1984) made an impact with the resourse-based view of the firm, which also led to the development of sustained competitive advantage as a concept (Barney, 1991).\nMethodology: This study was based on in-depth interviews with executives from a selection of private and public hospitals across Spain. Data were collected from the directors of communication in private hospitals and the executive responsible for CSR in public hospitals. The initial contact person in the private hospital was the CEO, who placed the researchers in contact with the directors of communication. In the public hospital, there are many medical departments which usually elect a doctor whose responsibility is to be the executive in charge of CSR. Only one, the elected people, was a non-medical profile, in fact a researcher\nEmpirical findings: Table III provides an overview of the principal empirical findings in the present study of private and public hospitals.\nImplications: There are common denominators and differentiators between private and public hospitals regarding the organizational logic for prioritizing the TBL elements. The organizational logic comes down to three main reasons, as shown in Figure 2.\nConclusions and suggestions for the future: This study reports on and reveals the organizational logic for prioritizing between TBL elements in both private and public sectors of Spanish hospitals. This is a relatively new area of research, but notable exceptions do exist. For example, Tate and Bals (2016) investigate social businesses in Haiti, using a natural and a social-resource-based view as a complement to the classic, economic and resource-based view (Wernerfelt, 1984). Taking another viewpoint as the departure point for how competitiveness should be developed, it is possible to both vocalize and develop the necessary capabilities (Sansone et al., 2017). These are two examples of research focusing on prioritization logic in relation to TBL, but more research is needed so as to obtain richer data on the contexts already researched, as well as to understand prioritization logic in other contexts.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess both private and public organizations in order to compare the similarities and differences between the organizational priority logic of TBL elements. The research objective is, therefore, to describe the organizational logic, so as to prioritize between economic, social and environmental elements of the triple bottom line (TBL). The approach is also to describe the common denominators and differentiators between private and public organizations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on judgmental sampling and in-depth interviews of executives at private and public hospitals in Spain. Data were collected from the directors of communication of private hospitals, and from the executive in charge of corporate social responsibility of public hospitals.\nFindings: The organizational logic for prioritizing the elements of TBL differs between private and public hospitals. The economic element of TBL is crucial to survival for private hospitals. Compliance with the legal requirements and certifications of the environmental element is the major concern for public hospitals. Private and public hospitals would both pay considerably greater attention to the social element of TBL, if there were no judicial and economic restrictions.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study differs from previous ones in terms of exploring the interfaces and relationships between TBL elements, which focus on the organizational logic to prioritize between the elements of TBL. There are both common denominators and differentiators between private and public hospitals, when it comes to the priority logic of TBL elements.\nPractical implications: The priority logic of determining the most important TBL element it is mainly about satisfying organizational needs and societal demands. Determining the second most important TBL element is mostly about organizational preferences and what it wants to achieve. Determining the least important TBL element it is about the organizational mindset for and with respect to the future.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to determining the appropriate organizational priority logic of the TBL elements, as well as common denominators and differentiators between private and public organizations. It also contributes to explaining the organizational reasoning as to why one TBL element may be prioritized over another, an issue which has not been addressed in existing theory and previous studies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
One person's trash is another person's treasure: Profiling consumer-to-consumer e-commerce in Facebook
|
[
"Social media",
"Customer value",
"Facebook",
"Retailing",
"C2C e-commerce"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) electronic commerce (e-commerce) (i.e. consumers electronically transacting (buying and selling) directly with each other) is exerting pressure on conventional retailing. Digitization enables the development of effective platforms through which consumers can enjoy convenient and efficient access to a vast array of products that are used but can still offer competitive quality/price ratios. During the past decade, a number of companies have established a strong consumer preference by offering attractive venues for exchanging used goods. eBay, Etsy, Craigslist and Amazon all have functions that enable C2C e-commerce. These platforms base their profit formulas on small fees that are charged in return of secure and convenient payments or to be able to post items for sale of auction (Statista, 2018). Consequently, C2C e-commerce is gradually shaping the structure, content, and boundaries of retailing: in a recent study (Yrjola et al., 2017), it was concluded that depending on the product category roughly 5-10 percent of consumers start their search and evaluation process by considering what various C2C e-commerce platforms have to offer instead of buying new goods from retail outlets. This makes C2C e-commerce relevant phenomenon for traditional retailers. In Europe, approximately 20-35 percent of consumers in 2016 used internet to sell goods (Eurostat, 2016). In comparison, in the USA, around 65 percent of respondents in 2017 had used specific online marketplaces, such as eBay, during the past three months, to sell used goods. In both continents, there has been a steady growth in the penetration rate of C2C e-commerce. Consequently, C2C e-commerce can no longer be considered as a marginal activity driven by a group of lead users: the line between what is new and what is used is gradually becoming fuzzier and more blurred (Yrjola et al., 2017, p. 312). Also, Hagberg et al. (2016) have addressed the blurring boundaries as a key characteristic of contemporary retail digitization and transformation.\nTheoretical framework: Two complementary theoretical perspectives are employed to address the study purpose (Figure 1). First, prior literature on C2C e-commerce is reviewed, after which customer value is briefly discussed as a conceptual lens through which C2C e-commerce is viewed. Together, they help to build the conceptual framework for the study.\nMethodology: Data collection\nResults: The confirmatory factor analysis suggested a good model fit with a four-factor solution consisting of economic, functional, emotional, and symbolic dimensions (kh2=125.67, df=71, p-value=0.000, kh2/df=1.77 (<3), RMSEA=0.045, GFI=0.99, SRMR=0.050). Standardized loadings of all items on their factors were greater than 0.69 (see Table AI), and the Cronbach's as for all four factors ranged from 0.77 to 0.88, indicating good consistency. Hence, the four dimensions of customer value were confirmed to be a valid starting point for the second stage of the analysis (i.e. clustering).\nDiscussion: Exploring phenomena from the consumer point of view often uncovers critically important insights for companies' raison d'etre. In the context of C2C e-commerce, understanding the consumer perspective sheds more light on what consumers eventually perceive to be meaningful in contemporary consumption and retailing. To further elaborate on the potential and role of social C2C e-commerce, what follows is a discussion of three main implications of the results.\nConclusion: Given the increasing role of C2C e-commerce in general and social media in particular (see Statista, 2017, 2018), the aim of this study was to identify and explore distinct consumer profiles of social media-based C2C e-commerce. Empirical focus was placed on what kind of value consumers perceived when buying used goods in Facebook groups. As a result, four distinct consumer profiles, i.e. enthusiasts, bargain hunters, salvagers and apathetics, were built that differed not in terms of traditional demographics, but in the way consumers perceived value in using social media-based C2C e-commerce.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) electronic commerce (e-commerce) is shaping contemporary retailing. Despite the fact that a large amount of C2C e-commerce is conducted in social media-based platforms (e.g. Facebook), it has remained an unexplored area of research, though social media as a commercial platform can result in differing customer value and, thus, has potential for consumer experiences that lie beyond the reach of traditional C2C e-commerce actors. Consequently, the purpose of this paper is to identify and explore distinct consumer profiles of C2C e-commerce in social media.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Confirmatory factor analysis and cluster analysis are employed to analyze the data from a quantitative survey focusing on C2C e-commerce.\nFindings: Four distinct consumer profiles are introduced and discussed: enthusiasts, bargain hunters, salvagers and apathetics. These profiles capture what kind of value consumers perceive in exchanging used goods with other consumers in Facebook.\nResearch limitations/implications: The data were collected from one country. Cultural differences in how C2C e-commerce and the role of Facebook are perceived might influence the generalizability of the results. The data set was cross-sectional and based on self-reported data.\nPractical implications: First, the study indicates that the social media can offer a unique platform for C2C e-commerce that may result in unique and differentiated consumption experiences. Second, firms should carefully analyze how their existing segments match the consumer profiles presented in this study (enthusiasts, bargain hunters, salvagers, apathetics) to assess future value creation potential and challenges. Third, traditional retailers should evaluate the possibility of acting as a platform for C2C commerce or other types of C2C interaction in order to offer their customers benefits that are characteristic for C2C e-commerce.\nOriginality/value: This study is among the first attempts to profile C2C e-commerce consumers in social media setting. Interestingly, the profiles differ not in terms of traditional consumer demographics, but on the basis of what kind of value they perceive. Altogether, they grant interesting empirical access to explore the potential and implications of social media-based C2C e-commerce.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Cross-channel spillover effect of price promotion in fashion
|
[
"Price promotion",
"Spillover effect",
"Cross-channel",
"Brand trust",
"Fashion"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: As the complexity of consumer shopping behaviour increases, virtually every company has adopted a new type of shopping experience across the entire purchasing process. Retailers have begun to build integrated distribution channel systems that respond to these changes in consumer shopping patterns; multi-channel is gradually becoming \"the new normal\" (Wertz, 2018). This integrated environment of distribution channels has been called \"omni-channel\", which empowers consumers to buy what they want, wherever and whenever they want, by organically connecting online and offline channels (Bell et al., 2014; Rai et al., 2019). According to a recent survey of online and offline sales data from about 5,000 retailers in 80 countries, omnichannel customers accounted for 27% of total sales, but they comprised only 7% of all customers (Criteo, 2018). This shows that omnichannel consumers generate more sales value than those who only buy through one channel. Retailers who adapt to this change rapidly can combine offline and online channels to increase brand awareness and revenue by strategically enabling each channel to serve customers at every purchase stage.To effectively establish channel integration strategies that adapt to the changing retail environment, the most important question is how to connect channels and compel consumers to perceive these connected channels. Since the various connections between channels positively affect customer loyalty (Frasquet and Miquel, 2017), and the dimensions of channel integration quality have a positive effect on customer engagement (Lee et al., 2019), companies need to build appropriate integration strategies to improve operational effectiveness and efficiency. Marketing strategies, such as sales promotions (e.g. advertising and price discounts), are an effective way for companies to sell their products and create competitive brands (Fam et al., 2019). In particular, since price promotions are a useful means of increasing sales in the short term through temporary price discounts (Breugelmans and Campo, 2016), many companies are trying to create synergies between channels by leveraging price promotion integration.Price promotion strategies are crucial for fashion companies because fashion products are characterised by obsolescence that changes in value over time (Easey, 2009). Additionally, consumers purchase fashion products through both online and offline channels, allowing them to evaluate price, size, material, and colour (Ko et al., 2017). While many fashion companies are striving to provide consistent channel-to-channel services through an omnichannel strategy, online and offline price promotion policies may differ from the ideal policy. A recent survey of more than 1,000 global retailers (39% fashion retailers) found that fashion retailers were struggling with omnichannels (McLean, 2018). Therefore, it is necessary to confirm and suggest the effect of integrated price promotion for fashion products. In particular, it is necessary to identify whether the effect of a consistent price promotion across channels will lead to positive outcomes for a company and to observe how its effect will vary from channel to channel. However, few previous studies have focussed on the omnichannel with regard to fashion and price.Relevant studies have shown that promotions in one channel have a positive effect on that channel (Breugelmans and Campo, 2016; David and Adida, 2015) and on cross-channels (Dinner et al., 2014; Gong et al., 2015). If the same price promotion is implemented across two channels, a positive cross-channel synergy may occur due to the spillover effect. Research on spillover effects on channels revealed that spillover effects occur between channels, such as channel choice and channel usage intention (Gensler et al., 2012; Polo and Sese, 2016). However, due to the inherent characteristics of each channel, consumers expect different benefits from each one (Polo and Sese, 2016). For this reason, the degree of the spillover effect is expected to vary according to the channel in which the price promotion information originates. Therefore, the cross-channel promotion effect is expected to be asymmetrical. For consumers to select and purchase products and maintain brand relationships, trust is fundamental. Brand trust, as perceived by consumers, is formed through brand experiences; consumers with high brand trust believe the brand will satisfy their desire to purchase ( Chen et al., 2016; Hung et al., 2019). Researchers have found that trust can develop in interconnected business relationships (Frasquet et al., 2017; Hahn and Kim, 2009). In an integrated channel environment, brand trust can be developed between channels because the online and offline channels operated by a company are interrelated. For this reason, brand trust is expected to moderate the effect of price promotions on the cross-channel.In short, the purpose of this study was as follows. First, this study sought to investigate how channel-integrated price promotion affects purchase intention and to examine the varying spillover effect channel by channel. Second, it attempted to understand how the spillover effect of price promotion on purchase intention across channels is affected by brand trust.\nTheoretical background: Integrated channel environment and price promotion\nResearch design and methods: The purpose of this study was to investigate the discrepancy between online and offline purchase intentions, depending on which channel a price promotion is first perceived, and the moderating role of brand trust. Using Experimental Vignette Methodology (EVM), an experiment was conducted to analyse this in more depth. EVM is an experimental research methodology to study what choices or actions a research subject makes after presenting a scenario (Vignette) that describes a specific situation when direct experimentation is difficult (Aguinis and Bradley, 2014). There are four types of vignettes depending on contact channels (on/off) and levels of brand trust (high/low). There was also a comparison of the purchase intention before and after a price promotion is exposed to verify its effect.Photos and scenarios, as experienced in actual stores, were presented to increase external validity. The stimuli of the online and offline stores used in this study were reconstructed by referring to store pictures of currently existing brands to give respondents a feeling of reality. Further, a discount rate of 30% was selected through a pretest. In this study, the respondents were divided into high and low groups according to the level of brand trust. In the high brand trust group, respondents were asked to fill in their preferred brand names. Since previous studies have revealed that brand trust is an important factor in increasing brand preference (Chinomona, 2013; Mary, 2016), it is assumed that brand trust is high for preferred brands. The low brand trust group was given a description, including the concept, target consumers, and sales records, of a hypothetical brand that they were unfamiliar with. The brand was assumed to be newly launched, so they had not yet formed any brand trust. Purchase intentions were then measured based only on brand information before the price promotion was applied.First, the respondents were randomly assigned to one of four groups (Appendix): Oncontact/Hightrust, Offcontact/Hightrust, Oncontact/Lowtrust, and Offcontact/Lowtrust. They were asked to imagine buying fashion goods and were presented with the brands they wanted to purchase. Next, the respondents were exposed to a price promotion for their preferred brand in the form of scenarios and photographic stimuli. Depending on the survey group, the respondents were given price discounts on either online or offline channels. Subsequently, respondents were asked to share their purchase intentions, brand trust, and demographic variables. Two questions were asked about both online purchase intention and offline purchase intention, each before and after price promotion, referring to the same item. Additionally, respondents were asked four questions on brand trust that were adapted from Frasquet et al. (2017). The items were summarised in Table 1 and measured on a seven-point Likert-type scale (from 1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree).The survey involved women in their 20 and 30s living in metropolitan areas in South Korea. As respondents approached a more generalised population, the external validity of the EVM study increased (Aguinis and Bradley, 2014). Therefore, this study was conducted on consumers who had purchased both online and offline stores in the past year. The number of samples was selected using the G*power program, and a total of 174 questionnaires were used (Faul and Buchner, 2007). This study surveyed female consumers because women tend to buy fashion products more than men, have high fashion involvement and use various channels for shopping (Cho and Workman, 2011; Goldsmith and Flynn, 2005; O'Cass, 2004). There were 43 respondents in the Oncontact/Hightrust group, 43 in the Offcontact/Hightrust group, 43 in the Oncontact/Lowtrust group, and 45 in the Offcontact/Lowtrust group. The collected data were analysed through factor analysis, reliability analysis, chi-square analysis, paired t-test, two-sample t-tests, and a two-way ANOVA using SPSS 23.0. There were no significant differences among the groups in terms of age, marital status, educational background, or monthly household income. Among all the respondents, 86 (49.4%) were in their 20s and 88 (50.6%) in their 30s. There were 118 (67.8%) unmarried and 56 (32.4%) married respondents.Prior to verifying the effect of price promotion, this study confirmed that there was no difference in the demographic characteristics (age, education, occupation, average monthly household income, and average monthly fashion product purchase costs), and respondent characteristics (Internet shopping experience, price sensitivity), of the respondents in each question group. The chi-square test showed that there was no significant difference between the groups. Therefore, the effect of price promotion was investigated in all question groups.\nResults: Contact- and cross-channel purchase intentions due to price promotion\nDiscussion and conclusions: The omnichannel concept has emerged as the channel strategy for providing consistent services by integrating various distribution channels. It has become widespread as more firms are focussing on maximising synergy through organic connections between channels. Promotion integration allows one channel to advertise and promote other channels, while also allowing consumers to use different channels in increasing the awareness for other channels. In particular, since price promotion is an effective way to ensure immediate product purchase through direct stimuli, this study focussed on price promotion integration and investigated the changes in purchase intention between channels. The purpose of this study was to investigate the spillover effect of online and offline channels according to price promotion and verify the moderating effect of brand trust on DPI-Cross.Results\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether consumers differ in their online or offline purchase intention, depending on which channel with price promotion information they are first exposed to, and to analyse the moderating role of brand trust.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Overall, 174 responses were obtained via an online survey using two contact channels (online/offline) by two levels of brand trust (high/low) between-subject designs.\nFindings: Spillover effects were found across channels when a consistent price promotion is executed in both online and offline channels, purchase intentions for cross-channel and contact channel increase simultaneously. Although there was a similar effect in the discrepancy of purchase intentions towards the cross-channel according to contact channels, it varied depending on brand trust. When brand trust is high, having contact with offline price-discount information has a large online spillover effect. When brand trust is low, the spillover effect from online to offline is large.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study expands the multi-channel research by proving the spillover effects between channels and confirming the difference according to brand trust.\nPractical implications: Increasing promotion information for online contact is effective in driving offline visits for new brands, and the effective use of promotion information at offline stores can have a positive impact on online channels for well-known brands.\nOriginality/value: This study explores the cross-channel spillover effect of price promotion and proves that these effects depend on brand trust.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The effects of service recovery and relational selling behavior on trust, satisfaction, and loyalty
|
[
"Relationship marketing",
"Banking industry",
"Customer loyalty",
"Service recovery",
"Relational selling behaviour"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Taiwan's banking sector used to be predominantly state-owned. However, after the financial reform policy from the late 1980s to early 1990s, the banking sector shifted from a market dominated by a few state-owned banks to many private banks (Borst and Li, 2016). At the end of 2017, the number of all branches of domestic banks and foreign banks in Taiwan is 3,455 (Financial Supervisory Commission, ROC, 2017); a significantly increased competitiveness has emerged. A crucial part of this competition is the maintenance of customer satisfaction, which is widely recognized in the services sectors as the main performance indicator and the key to success for business (Belas and Gabcova, 2016; Susanto et al., 2016; Ali and Raza, 2017). Also, trust plays an important role in retaining customer relationship and facilitating business development (Guenzi and Georges, 2010; Pelaez et al., 2015; Skvarciany and Jureviciene, 2017). Therefore, bank managers should expend considerable effort to win this \"banking battle.\"\n2. Literature review and hypothesis development: 2.1 Service recovery\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Measures and constructs\n4. Results: The results derived from the statistical testing of the research model by using SEM are presented in Figure 2.\n5. Discussion and managerial implications: 5.1 Discussion\n6. Limitations and directions for future research: This study was conducted among customers from 12 major banks in Taiwan, which covered only one industry and a sample from single country. Future research within a much broader sampling frame, e.g., different socioeconomic, demographic and cultural factors, would be preferred for better generalizability. Also, future research in other sectors to explore generalizability of the results is recommended; the replication of this study in analogous service industries would help to support the findings. In addition, this study used a narrow conceptualization and measurement of service recovery and relational selling behavior, and therefore, it is ideal to consider adopting a more comprehensive and wider range concept in future research. Furthermore, this study focused on the effects of service recovery and relational selling behavior toward trust, satisfaction and loyalty. Thus, several possible constructs were not taken into consideration in the model, such as service quality, perceived value and corporate image. Researchers may consider incorporating moderating or mediating variables in the model for further examination.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between service recovery and relational selling behavior on trust and satisfaction in the banking industry. Specifically, the mediating role of trust and satisfaction on the relationship between service recovery, relational selling behavior and loyalty is empirically examined.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Hypotheses are developed based on the literature review. The conceptual model is tested using SEM on survey data collected from 560 customers of 12 banks in Taiwan, including local banks and foreign banks.\nFindings: The model test results indicate that the influences of service recovery and relational selling behavior on trust and satisfaction are both significant. In addition, the influences of trust and satisfaction on loyalty are significant.\nPractical implications: For bank managers, it is crucial to have well programs to identify service failures and handle recoveries efficiently and effectively. Furthermore, bank managers should place a high value on increasing salesperson's customer-oriented behaviors to discern potential problems that customer concerns and provide suitable solutions that customer needs. By creating these better customer experiences, greater trust, satisfaction and loyalty can be yielded.\nOriginality/value: This study aims to provide a superior understanding of the relationship between service recovery, relational selling behavior, trust, satisfaction and loyalty in the banking industry. The research findings can contribute to forming targeted strategies and gaining competitive advantages for bank managers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Niche firms and marketing strategy: An exploratory study of internationally oriented niche firms
|
[
"Niche marketing",
"Marketing strategy",
"Product differentiation",
"Small enterprises",
"Product positioning",
"International business"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Within marketing strategy, niche marketing can be viewed as a superior approach for small or specialised firms. Niche marketing is often understood as focused marketing towards a limited market consisting of a few customers and competitors, where the concepts of firm specialisation, product differentiation, customer focus and relationship marketing are frequently applied (Dalgic and Leeuw, 1994). Niche marketing has further been reported to have been applied successfully by several firms throughout the world (Dalgic and Leeuw, 1994) and is recommended as a viable strategic option for firms (Dalgic, 1998; Linneman and Stanton, 1991; Phillips and Peterson, 2001).Marketing strategy in general is supposedly the result of a firm's segmentation, targeting and positioning choices (STP process) at the level of the Strategic Business Unit (Webster, 2005). This view is supported by traditional textbooks (for example, Kotler, 2003), where this process is enforced as the core of marketing strategy. In other words, central aspects of marketing strategy involve the tasks of identifying and choosing who the desired customers are and how to get these customers to purchase the firm's offerings.However, a niche firm often has limited resources in terms of financial capabilities, human resources and market information systems. Such resources are useful in order to find a profitable position and to stay competitive in the marketplace. Thus, this STP process may be too demanding to follow in its entirety. For an internationally oriented niche firm, the increased uncertainty through international exposure (McAuley, 1993) further adds to the challenging task of handling the STP process.There is some evidence in the literature suggesting that niche-marketing strategy is a popular alternative (Dalgic and Leeuw, 1994). Further, this strategy seems to be beneficial for some firms, since such markets have been claimed to be more profitable (Linneman and Stanton, 1991) and the increasing diversity in consumer tastes and habits and the changing needs of business and organisational markets seem to favour smaller, nimbler firms that can better tailor their offerings to the fragmented market (Dalgic, 1998; Dalgic and Leeuw, 1994). What seems to be lacking in the literature is knowledge about how niche marketing strategy is applied and which elements niche marketing strategy consists of. Managers in niche firms who are looking for published research to find answers to their challenges of optimising their marketing strategy will thus largely search in vain.In an attempt to fill this gap in the literature, our objective in this paper is to identify how internationally oriented niche firms define and choose their markets and customers, and how they position their products. A better understanding of the reasoning underlying the choices made in niche marketing will provide managers of niche firms with guidelines for crafting their marketing strategies more effectively. Cases from the seafood exporting industry have been selected for this research. These selected firms are regarded as niche firms by the seafood exporting industry in general, and are heavily internationally oriented with around 90 per cent of their revenues coming from exports. Thus, managers in the selected case firms are well positioned to address the research questions at hand.In the following, conceptual aspects regarding niche marketing and marketing strategy are identified and discussed with reference to the existing literature. Next, the methodology for the research at hand is presented, followed by its findings. The paper then continues with a discussion and conclusion of this research, followed by pinpointing some of its limitations and providing recommendations for future research.\nConceptual aspects: Definition of niche marketing\nMethodology: Design and setting\nFindings and discussion: In the following section the results of the research is presented and discussed. The managers' views regarding central components of their marketing strategies, in terms of choice of markets and customers, competitors, competitive advantage, differentiation and value propositions are provided in Table II.Choice of customers and markets\nConclusion and implications: The objective of this research was to explore how internationally oriented niche firms define and choose their markets and customers and how they position their products. The findings from this research indicate some interesting results.With one exception, the findings show that the firms do not segment their markets in order to choose certain customers. The one firm that does segment, segments because the domestic market has become too small and more customers are needed. Currently, the most important customer relationships of this firm are the result of initiatives from customers, where customers found the supplier, and not vice versa. In fact, the firm explored the opportunities in a different geographic market at the time when these customers expressed their interest in the firm's products. At the same time, the firm's production capacity dictates further search for new customers, and now the firm performs segmentation activities in the textbook sense. The other firms' markets are either defined by tradition, chance (customers expressing their need for products that are not currently available in the marketplace, and the customers therefore find them rather than the other way around, which represents the traditional, textbook approach), or by their production philosophy (produce natural products by natural methods). All case firms focus on industrial customers in terms of importers, retail chains, restaurants or the food service sector. Also, competition appears in general to be limited in the markets in which these case firms operate. Moreover, the firms do not actively position their products, although they consider product quality to be critical. Only one firm actively relies on high-product quality for positioning purposes.In sum, the findings from this research of niche firms indicate that there is little or no traditional segmenting, little or no targeting of customers, and there is little or no traditional positioning of the products. Rather, these firms largely depend on resource-based advantages, high-quality products (which could be based on tradition, chance or production philosophy) and long-term personal relationships and commitment in crafting their niche marketing strategies. Thus, the findings from this research do not support the STP-process as it is proposed in marketing management textbooks.These results have some theoretical implications. The general STP-process as outlined in marketing management textbooks seems to be inadequate to describe how these internationally oriented niche firms' craft their marketing strategies. The reason for why the STP-process does not sufficiently capture the ways marketing strategies are developed is not answered by our research, but it is reasonable to expect that this may be a result of limited resources and capabilities in the niche firms. The question then is whether this necessitates a change or modification of theory or of the recommended practice to follow for international niche firms.In favour of the STP-process one can argue that it has been long-standing, it is simple to grasp and often works well for normative purposes. Nevertheless, the STP-model does not provide useful assistance to (small) niche firms. Accordingly, this paper contributes theoretically by suggesting that the range of the STP-theory (i.e. the boundaries of generalisability) (Dubin, 1978; Whetton, 1989), fails to apply to firms with limited resources and limited capability sets (Gale, 1994).The findings from our research have further implications for practical marketing management. First, it seems to be of utmost importance to base the strategic concept on a customer-valued competitive advantage and apply differentiation in terms of both intangible and actual use criteria. Included here is the understanding that the ability to adapt quickly and the possibility to maintain some flexibility could prove to be of great value. The general requirement of being knowledgeable about the relevant market and products naturally also applies for niche firms.Second, this study suggest that it is often attractive to enter rapidly growing markets, and to minimise risk, if possible, to target more than only one product-market.Third, the findings of this study indicate that long-term and strong personal relationships is one of the most important factors for niche firm success. This necessitates a strong customer commitment in all aspects when crafting a successful marketing strategy for internationally oriented niche firms.Finally, the findings suggest that there is some room for following one's own personal convictions and ideas for crafting a marketing strategy, even though these may not necessarily be in line with the structured marketing strategy process displayed in textbooks. In this research we saw how a long-term commitment to \"poison-free\" organic food influenced the product offerings from some firms. Given the strong growth in these organic niche markets, \"first-mover firms\", such as the researched cases, may benefit competitively in the long-run.\nLimitations and future research: The purpose of this research was to develop in-depth knowledge related to niche marketing strategies, and conducting personal interviews of key informants was considered the most appropriate method for gathering appropriate data (Churchill, 1992; Miles and Huberman, 1994). A consequence of this methodology is that the results are not fit for generalising to a larger population, but are well-suited to extend the emergent theory (Diamantopoulos and Cadogan, 1996; Eisenhardt, 1989).Future studies could elaborate on the findings from this current study, attempting to identify at which firm resource levels the STP-process is applicable for developing marketing strategies and at which levels the STP-process is inadequate.Another opportunity for future studies is to explore or test possible differences amongst other niches, industries or contexts. This could gain additional insight into how niche firms develop their marketing strategies.We also need improved theoretical models for generating more knowledge about niche firms and their efforts in crafting marketing strategies. We expect that niche strategies for the case firms are in accordance with relationship marketing theory. Can theories from this field be applied directly for niche firms, or is there a need for special adaptations? Examples may be found within the trust and commitment literature (e.g. Anderson and Weitz, 1992; Fullerton, 2005; Morgan and Hunt, 1994).Further, small firms are in a weak position when developing or bargaining for entry into distribution channels. Our case firms, however, did not perceive this as a problem, and they even praised the cooperation with suppliers of distribution services. Nevertheless, our case firms did hand over control of distribution to others while concentrating on production. Does this represent a viable alternative for niche firms?Finally, our case firms were strongly oriented towards international markets. In spite of limited resources, several of these firms displayed both willingness and determination to achieve rapid internationalisation. An interesting future research path could be to contrast and compare concepts, such as \"Born Globals\" (e.g. Knights and Cavusgil, 2005), with the process of developing marketing strategies for internationally oriented niche firms.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to explore how internationally oriented niche firms define and choose their markets and customers and how they position their products, and thereby add to the limited research knowledge regarding niche marketing.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper presents exploratory research based on structured in-depth interviews of key informants in five firms.\nFindings: - Niche firms do not seem to follow the STP-process. The selection of customers and markets is the result of tradition, chance or the firm's production philosophy, and the firms make few attempts to position their products. The firms rely on resource-based advantages, high-quality products and personal relationships when competing in the market.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The selected methodology makes these results alone unfit for generalising to a larger population. Improved theoretical models are needed for generating more knowledge about niche firms and their efforts in crafting marketing strategies, possibly by extending relationship marketing theory.\nPractical implications: - A niche firm's marketing strategy should be based on a customer-valued competitive advantage and differentiation should be applied in terms of both intangible and actual use criteria. Niche firms should strive for long-term, personal relationships and customer commitment. Also, there seems to be some room for following one's own personal convictions and ideas when crafting a marketing strategy, even though this approach certainly is not in line with the structured marketing strategy process suggested in textbooks.\nOriginality/value: - This study offers exploratory findings on how export-oriented niche firms define and choose their markets and customers, and how they position their products. The standard STP-process as proposed in general textbooks is not appropriate for international niche firms.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Global social media, local context: A case study of Chinese-language tweets about the 2012 presidential election in Taiwan
|
[
"Social network",
"Twitter",
"Social media",
"Big data",
"Chinese tweets",
"Taiwan presidential election"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The emergence of real-time social media has blurred the distinctions between the global and the local. People from every corner of the globe can participate in any discussion of any event, in any country, and at any time. When faced with a major event or issue, online communities become connected through the social media, and the information flow can extend beyond the confinement of traditional geopolitical boundaries.\nGlobal social media in local contexts: Social media include various media platforms and can be categorized into at least four different types: social network sites (SNSs), user-generated contents, trading and marketing sites and play and game sites (van Dijck, 2013). Among these, Twitter is a SNS, which is capable of connecting users from all over the globe to form a gigantic network, allowing users to interact and information to flow beyond geographical boundaries (van Dijck, 2013). In this study, we chose to analyze Twitter because it is used by users from all Chinese-speaking communities (Taiwanese, Chinese Mainlanders and Chinese diaspora). The \"global\" reach of Twitter social media network has thus allowed us to study and compare the modes of communication in response to the same event in different Chinese communities.\nMethods: A major aspect of Twitter data is that there is a 140-character limit for each post (tweet), and thus users must highlight their points in a few words. Users can reply to a tweet or engage in a conversation (@replies). Twitter also allows reposting (retweet) both by manual \"RT\" tagging or by a \"retweet button\" (Bruns, 2012). By calculating the amount and percentage of retweets in the overall collection of tweets, one can identify the most influential or popular content relating to a specific event as the posts with the most retweet (Boyd et al., 2010). However, in our case studies, we utilized RT tag to distinguish retweets from other @replies, and thus, we could not identify retweets by the \"retweet button.\"\nResults and discussion: Based on the method of data sorting, we will examine the global data patterns from the following perspectives: first, overall time series and language use of tweets; second, daily distribution of tweets and tweeting users in different stages of the election campaigns; third, communication patterns in different language tweets; and fourth, identification of power users in different language communities by social network analysis.\nConclusions and further research: One goal of this study was to demonstrate the feasibility of using written language as a filter method to distinguish users from different cultural and political borders in big-data analysis of the global social media. On the other hand, this study also aimed to identify the different patterns of communication in different language communities. In the global social media, such as Twitter, the pattern of communication is still deeply influenced by local contexts. As judged by our case study, the proximity of users to the event was a particularly important factor.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Social media connect individuals in different geographical location and allow people of different political and cultural backgrounds to discuss and participate in events that occur in distant corners of the globe. But, this does not suggest that social media promote homogeneous globalization. Rather, the local and its interactions with the global or regional views remain a powerful force in the realm of social media. The purpose of this paper is to take on the local/global factors in the social media service Twitter and analyzed the keyword-captured Chinese language tweets relating to the 2012 presidential election in Taiwan.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Language code usage was used to sort out the community origins of Chinese language tweets relating to the election, given that distinct types and codes of Chinese characters are used within each political border. Community-specific patterns of communication were identified by cross-correlating language styles, tweeting frequency and participating users. Social network analysis was used to further characterize the local factors in the global social media.\nFindings: The authors found that the language styles and character types can be used to identify the regions to which the users belong. The authors were able to identify community-specific patterns of communication and reconstruct a social network that exhibits local characteristics.\nOriginality/value: The results demonstrate that language code can be used to identify the community origin of Chinese tweets. This will enable fine-grain content-based analysis of the Chinese language social media.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
WEB 2.0 implications on knowledge management
|
[
"Internet",
"Knowledge management",
"Worldwide web"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: WEB 2.0 is a hot topic. Articles are written, search engines are sending new alerts and adding new types of information (i.e. blogs) and a new spirit is out in the Internet. People, dealing with KM for nearly ten years, find the WEB 2.0 phenomenon fascinating. Did the WEB 2.0 experts crack the code, which the KM community is struggling with, for so many years? How is it that so many people are sharing knowledge so actively, many of them, on a day-to-day basis? What is in it, the WEB 2.0 and how does it affect the organizational Knowledge Management arena? What can be learned and replicated in for KM? Can it benefit from the WEB 2.0 implications? Is the WEB 2.0 a revolution or just a buzz that will pass soon, leaving us with our sharing hope?This paper explores the WEB 2.0 issue and its implications on KM. It is built from three main sections:1. WEB 2.0 review.2. Enterprise 2.0 - The WEB 2.0 reflection in organizations.3. KM 2.0 - How could or should knowledge management be enhanced in light of the WEB 2.0?\nWEB 2.0 review: The phenomenon WEB 2.0 is a result of the following combinations:*The internet maturity and development over the last decade.*One billion people around the globe now have access to the internet; mobile devices outnumber desktop computers by a factor of two (Musser and O'Reilly, 2006).*The software sectors attempt to build a new positive apprehension, after the dot com bubble burst, at fall 2001 (O'Reilly, 2005).The term itself, as is well known, was phrased by Tim O'Reilly and Media Live International. It was used by producers of technology tradeshows and conferences, first at fall 2004, as a name for a series of conferences held by them. The market yielding to this new wave, adopted the name and ideas, and almost unnoticed WEB 2.0 became the biggest hope of the dot com.Despite its popularity, not all internet applications are 2.0; most of them are not. But slowly, step-by-step, more WEB 2.0 principles are combined as components of internet solutions, setting the de-facto Internet standards of work.So what is WEB 2.0?\nEnterprise 2.0: WEB 2.0 in organizations: The term Enterprise 2.0 symbolizes implementation of the WEB 2.0 infrastructure and/or tools by organizations. Just as ten years ago the term Intranet was phrased, based on Internet, symbolizing the usage of Internet technology inside the organization.Wikipedia, and part of the analysts, i.e. Spanbauer (in Spanbauer, 2006) focus the Enterprise 2.0 phenomena in knowledge management. Enterprise 2.0 has several aspects, not all of which are connected with knowledge management. WEB 2.0 used by organizations has to be analyzed via two dimensions:1. Technology adoption type:*Adoption of the WEB 2.0 software infrastructure: Development in light modules, using SOA, writing code using AJAX, the perpetual Beta, etc.*Adoption of the WEB 2.0 software applications: WIKI's, TWIKI's (integration of WIKI's), Blogs, Tagging (including Folksonomy) and more. Some analysts regard Enterprise use of Instant Messaging and Search Engines as part of Enterprise 2.0. I doubt it.2. User orientation:*Adoption for use by and for organization members.*Adoption for use by organizations facing customers, partners and suppliers. For example, the CEO can write a Blog, explaining considerationsEnterprise 2.0 segments can be summarized by the quadric in Figure 1.Drawing the line between segments is not always easy, when listening to what analysts say, as most of them do not distinguish between different aspects. This article focuses on application usage inside the organization; hence on knowledge management.Enterprise 2.0. The facts are clear. There are many organizations that already implement WEB 2.0 applications and tools. In many organizations the applications and tools are entered through specific business units, entering through the back door (Spanbauer, 2006; Hinchcliffe, 2007a). Perhaps, the most outstanding organizations implementing Enterprise 2.0 are IBM and Motorola (Scarff, 2006). Motorola, for example, holds 2,000 WIKI sites and 2,700 Blogs. But these organizations are not alone. Leading organizations such as Northwestern Mutual, Procter & Gamble, Ziba, Ford Motors co, Nike, Milestone Group, GM, Pepsi and XM Radio, all implement WEB 2.0 (Spanbauer, 2006; Hinchcliffe, 2007a; Scarff, 2006, Hoover, 2007). Hinchcliffe is an expert on Enterprise 2.0, and holds a Blog in which he shares his thoughts about it. In the beginning of April 2007 he wrote a piece on how analysts regard the phenomena:Gartner, for its part, had its own take on things last year with their widely covered hype cycle report on Web 2.0, indicating the things like collective intelligence (ostensibly the core principle of Web 2.0) would be a long term, transformational business strategy that they felt at the time would take at least five to ten years for broad industry uptake. The numbers McKinsey provides from actual business leaders seems to indicate that broad, active interest in collective intelligence is rapidly forming in the offices of many company's CIOs, CTOs, and other executives. McKinsey cites that fully 48 percent of the nearly 3,000 leading executives surveyed are actively investing in collective intelligence approaches (Hinchcliffe, 2007b).\"Forrester Research says 106 of 119 CIOs from companies with more than 500 employees that it surveyed are using at least one of these Web 2.0 technologies: blogs, wikis, podcasts, RSS, social networking and content tagging\" (Framington, 2007). Hoover also has studied WEB 2.0 usage, and he speaks about 50 percent of organizations but agrees that numbers may be higher (Hoover, 2007). Some regard WEB 2.0 in organizations as a hype. McLean interviewed several managers on the subject: \"I've read quite a bit about Web 2.0, but am frankly very skeptical of the hype growing up around it,\" says Charles King, principal analyst with Pund-IT Inc. of Hayward, California, an on-line IT and business analysis web site. \"Using the Web as a collaborative development and distribution platform isn't too farfetched to me, but the rhetoric around how companies intend to capitalize and make a buck on such a nebulous business model is too reminiscent of the good old days of the internet boom for my comfort1. I don't think there's any reason to be caught up in the hype or to rush ahead in adopting the technologies,\" he says. \"There's little evidence, so far anyway, that Web 2.0 technologies will provide big benefits for companies in general\" (McLean, 2007).CIO's interviewed are worried as to security issues. It may be that, considering the above statements, they are concerned about loosing control.The bottom line is that analysts do not agree how much Enterprise 2.0 is hype or phenomena. Even in organizations that state that they use WEB 2.0 applications and tools, it is not really understood what the actual adoption level is. One may assume that the level is not very high. Young employees use these applications more than elders (Carswell, 2007); it is adopted more in the field than in headquarters; Organizations add it to the set of tools, but most usage is not \"production\", rather it is a playground or a specific use by pioneers. According to Hinchcliffe, as from 2007 there is a change in trends: \"It's clear that the conventional wisdom is beginning to shift from the wait-and-see of 2006 to the beginning of the adoption cycle in earnest this year\" (Hinchcliffe, 2007b). Yet we should remember that assimilation of both tools and concepts takes time.Assimilation of tools will be much faster and easier than assimilation of concept. Therefore both the negativists, Gartner and King speaking of hype, and the optimists, speaking about penetration and usage of WEB 2.0 tools in organizations, are right. Assimilation of concept will be driven by several factors:*Habit of use. The more used, on the level of tools, the easier it is to accept, on the level of concept.*Internet trends - success of WEB 2.0.*Knowledge management trends in organizations, which for years are gradually but steadily assimilating the sharing concepts.\nKnowledge management 2.0: managing the knowledge in light of WEB 2.0 existence: Knowledge managers, examining the WEB 2.0 phenomena, are somewhat confused: For almost a decade now the field is struggling in organizations wishing to manage their knowledge. Too many passive employees are encountered, whether managers or employees, all understanding the importance of knowledge management, yet not having time or attentiveness to join in. Could it be that now, when work time is taking over vacant hours, and people can be connected by mail or cellular almost 24 hours a day, they will find the time and start sharing? Maybe the sharing is precisely because it is something else and not in a working content. This can teach that people do know and can share; yet, if so, no gain exists for KM from WEB 2.0 at all. But if only partially there is something in the WEB 2.0 tools and concept that can be copied into the organization, as giving a solution to one of the knowledge management gaps, it surely has to be analyzed and understood, so it can be adopted. If so, it can ease the non-trivial process of knowledge management assimilation in organizations.Knowledge management will be hereby compared to WEB 2.0 in four aspects:1. Conceptual.2. Principles.3. Functional abilities of tools and applications.4. Organizational culture.Conceptual\nSummary: Something is changing. WEB 2.0 is bringing a new wave that should be adopted in knowledge management. A lot can be learned, whether in the distribution of control, in adoption by using the younger or even by adopting tools as is. In the first stage, it will be appropriate to adopt use of tools: WIKI has a good chance to succeed (as already viewed in some organizations) and Blogs could be also used, also carefully, in small chunks, Blogs can succeed where the organization finds an expert, with prestige among others, willing to write, having what to write continuously and knowing how to write. But as Snowden has stated, social computing evolves from the variety of technology together with people and environment. WEB 2.0 tools should be used, enriching the knowledge management tools for the following reasons:*Because they have their special emphasis (even though not innovative, as analyzed in Table II).*Because people will be expecting to find them and use them in the organizations.*Because they hear and smell new and successful, and if this is not the only reason to be using them, it cannot harm knowledge management, vice versa.Yet, organizations have to be careful. Success will not be triggered by adopting tools. Adopting principles is a more complex task. In most cases, the knowledge management world is not mature enough for loosing control and moving to altruism without any organizational central guidance. In most organizations (at least the 50 or more that I can state that I have experienced working with on knowledge management efforts), it is too soon to let free, and enable people to share where and only when they wish. That is how knowledge management started, a decade ago, and it surely was not enough. It has to be kept in mind that organizations do not have the mass of people as the WEB does, which is a critical factor of its success. In the Internet, it is enough that a minority will share and we will be flooded, feeling as if the whole world is sharing. Folksonomy can succeed in a world where so many people tag, that there will be enough similar tagging to what is wanted by each person, no matter how he or she thinks. The organizational world is much smaller and therefore the rules are different. The world has already experienced this difference at the beginning of this decade, while trying to copy internet forums to organizational internal discussion groups, which yielded much smaller success. As organizations do not have the mass, the LONG TAIL principle cannot take place in most organizations. Where it does, it surely can and should be adopted.Something is out there. Something is changing. It is suggested to adopt it smartly; with open eyes - not ignoring it (Semple), not too enthusiastic (Snowden). On the applications level it is recommended to enlarge the existing toolbox adding in WIKI's and Blogs. On the conceptual level, more slowly. Knowledge managers have to continue being clever. If knowledge management is not mature enough to give out control, they have to promise themselves, that like the parent who learns to let his child free when he can cross the road alone, they also will be wise and brave enough to let free, when their organizations will be ready for it. If they do so, everyone will benefit, inside the organization and out in the KM field.The paper was written in April 2007, and reflects knowledge as to that period.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding of the WEB 2.0 phenomenon and its implications on knowledge management; thus, in order to learn whether using WEB 2.0 concepts and tools can yield better assimilation of knowledge management in organizations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A range of recently published articles regarding WEB 2.0, Enterprise 2.0 and KM 2.0 are examined and critiqued (2005-2007). These are analyzed and compared to knowledge management principles and attributes as known and learned from works defining the sharing of knowledge in organizations (1995-2005). The sources are divided into three basic elements: The Internet (WEB 2.0), the organizational implementation (Enterprise 2.0) and the organizational implementation of knowledge sharing (KM2.0).\nFindings: - WEB 2.0 is very close in its principles and attributes to knowledge management. WEB 2.0 should affect knowledge management in organizations; yet, it cannot be copied, as differences between the two will not enable organizations to benefit from such. In the first stage, tools can be adopted, and in further stages, deeper aspects such as active users' participation will be followed.\nPractical implications: - Organizations are encouraged to start using WIKI's and in some cases also blogs. Knowledge Managers should examine if younger employees can serve as knowledge catalysts. WEB 2.0 concepts should be tested as to organization's maturity, to decide if they can be adopted as part of the organizational knowledge sharing.\nOriginality/value: - This paper analyzes an important issue whether better assimilation of knowledge management can exist triggered by the WEB 2.0 phenomenon. It is unique in its broad analysis of the three related terms - WEB 2.0, Enterprise 2.0 and KM2.0.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Adding value, reducing research waste, the role of the NHS research and development management community
|
[
"User involvement",
"Management",
"Quality",
"Communication",
"Patient perspectives",
"Research methods"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Creating and enhancing value within the research and development process through the reduction of waste has been a recurrent theme in health research in recent years. The need to reduce waste in medical research was identified in 2009 by Iain Chalmers and Paul Glasziou, who estimated that 85 per cent health research was avoidably wasted (Chalmers and Glasziou, 2009). A series of papers on increasing value and reducing waste followed in January 2014 (Chalmers et al., 2014; Ioannidis et al., 2014; Al-Shahi Salman et al., 2014; Chan et al., 2014; Glasziou et al., 2014), and further papers were published in 2016 (Moher et al., 2016; Glasziou and Chalmers, 2016).\nMethodology: The perspective of the R&D management community in the research process meant it was important to confirm their understanding of the main categories of waste as identified in the literature. A workshop held in May 2016 (Minogue et al., 2016) supported this course of action and an electronic survey was designed and issued in September 2016, through the NHS R&D Forum database, to all R&D managers, governance leads and other related staff. Circulation also included a small number of patients and carers who were members of the NHS R&D Forum Service User and Carer Working Group (SUCWG). The purpose of the survey was to discover the main categories of research waste identified by the NHS research management and governance community and their potential role in reducing that waste. Questions asked whether respondents agreed or disagreed with the categories of research waste identified in the literature, which categories they thought were most important to address, which would add the most value if addressed, which categories of waste they thought they would be able to influence and what barriers they may encounter. The project did not fulfil the Health Research Authorities definition of research (www.hra-decisiontools.org.uk/research/) and therefore did not require ethical approval.\nFindings - R&D management community: Of the 79 respondents to the survey, the highest number was engaged in R&D management or in research delivery and support roles. Seven were directors of research, 18 held a management role, 17 were concerned with facilitating research delivery, six were in governance roles, 18 were research support, three were funding managers and there was one regulator and two patients, seven did not specify a role (see Figure 2).\nThe R&D management community perspective on reducing research waste: Following the initial survey, 30 respondents expressed interest in taking part in further work to understand more about the causes of research waste, what needed to improve, and how the R&D management community could influence change, and were asked to complete a further round of questions for each category of waste they had identified as important and of the highest value to address. Supplementary questions asked them to identify the areas of waste they experienced in their role and what needed to change. A group of ten attended a workshop to sense check the data and explore its meaning in greater depth. This group also chose to explore the category \"misconduct and fraud\" which had been consistently selected as an unimportant and low value area of research waste in the earlier data collection phase.\nAdding value: This survey indicates that this sample of NHS R&D directors, managers, governance leads and those in support roles, see the implementation of research, prioritisation of research, research taking place to time and target, regulation and management of research, and design, conduct and analysis of research as the most important and valuable areas of research waste to address. This reflects concerns expressed by Glasziou (2014) decrying the waste caused by poorly designed research, ineffective systems and communication of research. Misconduct and fraud does not form a high priority. In terms of their influence on tackling research waste, the R&D management community feel they can strongly influence or influence the following areas:\nConclusions: Research and development has a key role to play in health service strategy particularly when services are undergoing a period of change such as that required to deliver the NHS Five Year Forward View (NHS England et al., 2014). Research priorities should align much more closely to service change to enable researchers to provide evidence of the best use of resources, particularly where resources are under pressure (Leger and Walsworth-Bell, 1999). This can contribute to the avoidance of waste more generally, not simply in research. As Brazil et al. (2005) point out, researchers cannot assume their recommendations will be adopted by stakeholders without a more collaborative approach by them with clinicians, decision makers and policy makers. To align with strategic health service priorities, research may need to go beyond traditional methodologies such as Randomised Control Trials and embrace pragmatic trials and other study designs. Research design and methodology should be driven by the context, type of intervention and value to clinical practice. Improving the applicability of design, i.e. making more trials pragmatic, particularly where they are directly related to choices about care, service delivery and policy, may lead to less wasted research (Treweek and Zwarenstein, 2009; Ford and Norrie, 2016).\nRecommendations: The R&D management community and other stakeholders to examine the actions that have been identified in the course of this project.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Research suggests that 85 per cent of health research is avoidably wasted. The research and development management community has an important role in the research process and can contribute to improving the quality and value of research. Al-Shahi Salman et al. (2014) identified ways in which the community can contribute towards the reduction of research waste by increasing the efficiency of recruitment and retention of research participants, data management and data sharing in studies, and promoting the integration of research into practice. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A project undertaken between May 2016 and May 2017 explored the perspective, and contribution, towards reducing research waste amongst the research and development management community. The study identified those categories of research waste the community felt were the most important and of the most value to address. It also examined spheres of influence and barriers to addressing research waste.\nFindings: The most important and highest value categories of research waste to address were: implementation of research in practice, prioritisation of research, and design, conduct and analysis of research. The research and development management community's level of influence in those areas was low. The categories where the community felt they had most influence, with the exception of design, conduct and analysis of research, were generally those they thought were less important and valuable, i.e. research taking place to time and target, public and patient involvement, and administration.\nOriginality/value: Waste in research is a significant area of waste in health care expenditure. This study has provided a better understanding of research waste for the research management community. The research and development management community can take a leadership role in formulating an action plan and identifying measures of success in reducing waste in research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The great reanimation
|
[
"Capitalism",
"Trade unions",
"Income inequality",
"Labor",
"Socialism",
"Strikes",
"Corporation",
"COVID-19"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: It was automation that caused lace makers, cotton spinners and leather breech sewers to start the world's first trade unions and it may well be automation in part that leads to the great reanimation of labor organizing that appears to be on the horizon. Today, however, there are many other sources of tension between capital and labor - changes in the global manufacturing footprint as well as ferment in the technology sector; the so-called gig economy of drivers, coders and word processors; the vast army of poorly unionized low wage service workers and, seemingly out of the blue, the devastating economic consequences of COVID-19. Increasingly, voices across the political spectrum are suggesting that the confluence of these and other forces will create a disruptive resurgence of labor organizing unlike anything we have seen since the beginning of the 20th century. How companies in different industries respond to this phenomenon may be the key narrative of the 2020s.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to highlight the ways in which long running secular trends and the COVID-19 pandemic have combined to re-energize labor movements and pushed political thinking to the left.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A review of emerging trends in public opinion and labor action to identify some critical tipping points.\nFindings: There is a critical shift unfolding in which government intervention to stem income inequality is becoming politically acceptable.\nOriginality/value: To the best of the author's knowledge, there have been few, if any comparable discussions of the relationship between the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the political will to stem income inequality and the implications for corporate behavior.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Risk appetite of real estate and property security markets: an empirical study of Hong Kong
|
[
"Risk management",
"Real estate",
"Property",
"Securities",
"Hong Kong"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: It is now generally accepted that the efficient market theory and the standard asset pricing model are not enough to account for the real price of risky assets, which contain uncertainty. More specifically, if the market is fully efficient and the investors are all unemotional and fully informed, then it is hard to explain the dramatic fluctuation occurred in the financial tsunami of 1997 Asian Financial Crisis and 2007 US Sub-prime Mortgage Crisis by fundamental economic factors, and even more difficult to explain the contagion or spillover phenomenon in different countries and markets (Gai and Vause, 2006; Kim, 2007). As Eichengreen and Mody (1998) contend that shifts in the market's attitude towards risk might be able to explain a crisis in one country may trigger a crisis elsewhere.Indeed, investors' sentiment is believed to be a key factor driving broad trends in property prices and clause the co-movement of property prices in different and even un-correlative markets. The terms risk aversion, risk appetite and risk premium are frequently used to refer to sentiment in asset markets. However, these concepts are conceptually distinct. Risk aversion measures the subjective attitude and underlying preferences of investors with regard to uncertainty. It is usually assumed to be constant or expected to change infrequently over time. In contrast, risk appetite is likely to varying over time in terms of investors responding to the changing levels of uncertainty in macroeconomic environments. Risk premium, which can be defined as the extra yield gained for holding a risky asset (Kanli, 2008), is the additional sum payable or return to compensate investors for adopting a particular risk. Generally speaking, risk premium is calculated by taking into account the price and the quantity of the risk inherent in underlying assets. In other words, the increase of risk premium in financial crises could be illustrated by the rising price of risk. The risk premium in asset prices is influenced by both risk aversion and the riskiness of the asset (see Gai and Vause (2006) and Hermosillo (2008) for more details). In prosperous circumstances, investors hold optimistic market sentiment. Therefore, there will be more investments under-going and the expected returns will be lower. On the contrary, in adverse circumstances, investors will require higher excess expected returns to hold each unit of risk which seems to be more likely taken place (Gai and Vause, 2006). In addition, as Pericoli and Sbracia (2006) note that, an increase in either risk or risk aversion will cause asset prices to decline and risk premiums to increase, in other words, the financial market falls down.Risk appetite is the investors' tolerance for financial risk and frequently used throughout the risk management community among others. It depends on investors' willingness to bear uncertainty and on the overall level of uncertainty about the fundamental factors which drive asset prices. In the financial market, some investors prefer safe assets, for example, Ten-year treasures, bills or other kinds of bonds in fixed income markets, while others are willing to buy higher-return assets like stocks, foreign exchange, or derivatives. When the investor gambles on the financial market, he/she shows his/her preference and willingness to bear risks, which is the so-called risk appetite. The level of the investors' risk appetite depends on many factors, for example, the uncertainty of the underlying assets and how investors dislike bearing that uncertainty. The degree of uncertainty is related to the feature of underlying assets and macro economic factors at work (e.g. interest rate level, production index, and price index and inflation rate, etc.).Risk appetite analysis could help portfolio managers and individual investors to understand the general investors' attitude to risk in the whole market as well as the potential market movement within different market sentiments. To quantify risk appetite not only gives the information about how market sentiment changes, but also the level of it. Market sentiment acts as an important role when forecasting the future financial market. There have been discussions over different methods in risk appetite modeling (e.g. Bandopadhyaya and Jones, 2005; Gai and Vause, 2006; Kim, 2007; Gonzalez-Hermosillo, 2008; Kanli, 2008). Some applications are sensible to apply in financial stock markets. Previous studies were able to measure the risk appetite in the stock market, in an attempt to explain the contagion phenomenon during the adverse economic circumstances. Their approaches depend primarily on the information of the underlying options of the respective stocks in the markets. However, such options data are not available in the stock markets of emerging economies, nor is in the context of the real estate markets particularly. This makes evaluations impossible. As a result, no understanding has been provided. Risk appetite clearly is an important issue in the real estate field for investors, academics and governments. Hence, our study attempts to investigate risk appetite in Hong Kong real estate and property security markets within the recent episode of global financial crisis. It is this risk appetite issue that this study provides added knowledge. Specifically, the paper provides an extension/addition to knowledge twofold. First, this study provides a new approach to measuring the investor's risk appetite without underlying options. Second, it is the first study to explore the risk appetite indicator in the real estate market, which could shed new light on the market price movement from the perspective of investors' market sentiment. Hence, this paper is adding value to the topic, making contributions to the existing literature.The structure of this paper is laid out as follows: section 1 provides the background for the study. Section 2 presents a review of previous studies on risk appetite. The models used in this study are described in Section 3. Section 4 presents the data and the empirical results of our improvement model in the Hong Kong properties and property security market. The last section concludes the paper.\n2. Literature review: In the context of this study, three related bodies of empirical literature are reviewed. The first group of research involves examining the relationship between market sentiment and price movement.Given the important role of market sentiment in explaining the price movement, several studies have discussed the measurement of market sentiment in order to explain the abnormal occurrence in the financial market with sentiment. For instance, De Long et al. (1990) note that many investors do not follow economists' advice to purchase their market portfolio. And they divide investors into two types: rational arbitrageurs and irrational traders who are subject to sentiment. Furthermore, they argue that irrational traders affect market price much more than the rational arbitrageurs. Keep in all the above in mind, Kumar and Persaud (2002) develop a new measurement of risk aversion based on changes in excess returns of assets. They argue that investor risk appetite plays an important role in explaining developments in global financial markets including financial crisis. It assumes that no arbitrage opportunities exist. Hence, same level risky assets should share same excess returns. Meanwhile, risk appetite increases when excess returns of very risky assets increase by more than less-risky assets. The correlations between change excess returns on risky assets and the level of risk in a number of assets should be normally followed by risk appetite. Time-lags are expected especially during financial crisis. There are some difficulties with this approach to measure risk appetite. First, this measure only tracks the changes of risk aversion, rather than the level of changes. Second, the portfolio asset is measured as a unity. A rank correlation could be detected even if no change happens to risk appetite of this portfolio. As Kumar and Persaud (2002) point out that the degree of correlation between changes in excess returns and the level of risk across a number of assets should indicate any change in the willingness to bear risk.A comparison of the risk-neutral and subjective probability density functions is first used by Tarashev et al. (2003). The shortcoming of this measure technique is quite obvious that the information of the risk free rate is not regarded as important as that of risk-neutral and subjective probability density functions. Hayes et al. (2003) suggest that movements in the ratio of risk-neutral probability to investors' subjective probability might reflect investors' concerns about liquidity- risk free interest rate. However, this approach puts much attention on the liquidity factors that do not always affect risk appetite. Bollerslev et al. (2004) use a model-free computation for the implied volatility by option prices and high-frequency historical data for subjective volatility. Beak et al. (2005) examines the determinants of the market-assessed sovereign risk premium, measured by the Brady bond stripped yield spread. Hermosillo (2008) uses a structural vector auto-regression to analyze the dynamics of bond spreads among a sample of mature and developing countries during periods of financial stress in the last decade. He identifies idiosyncratic factors and introduces global market risk factors as fundamental driving forces. Similar to that approach, Gai and Vause (2006) discuss a new measurement technique by comparing the variance ratio of risk-neutral density and subjective density. In their studies, an indicator of risk appetite is established with regard to risk-free interest rate to reflect the money liquidity. More recently, Kanli (2008) analyzes the impact of global risk appetite on the risk premium in Turkey. He finds that the risk premium volatility responds only to a worsening in the risk appetite for the Turkish economy. The empirical results provide supporting evidence for the role of current account dynamics in the estimated asymmetry.Within real estate research, in contrast, only a little literature focuses on market sentiment. For example, Clayton (1996) studies the real estate investment risk and its implications for real estate valuation. He shows that the risk premium on un-securitized commercial real estate varies over time and is strongly related to general economic conditions. The author also suggests that changing expected returns might reflect rational revisions of real estate investment risk, or alternatively investor psychology or sentiment.To our best knowledge, however, no such studies have been conducted for the property market. The reason is that the \"model-free\" risk neutral density is used to measures risk appetite, and it is derived from the comparison between traditional Black-Sholes option pricing modeling and option prices observed in the real market. Unfortunately, we could not find any options whose underlying assets are properties. Hence, traditional models for risk appetite are not competent in the property market. Besides, no existing study explores the role of the investors' attitude towards risk in explaining risk embedded in the property markets.In order to fill this gap, we contribute to the previous literature with a new approach to measure the investor's risk appetite in markets without underlying options. Our new approach is built on the previous risk appetite modeling (see Kim, 1992; Gai and Vause, 2006, among others) and could be applied to some markets if no options underlying that certain asset exist in the world. Specifically, we propose a measure based on the MCMC simulation, and it could be a reasonable alternative approach to obtain the risk neutral density without options.\n3. Methodology and the models: The general measurements of risk appetite indicator in the previous studies on risk appetite involve the historical density by the generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) model and the risk neutral density by the options prices. Nevertheless, such options are absent in some markets, for instance the property market in Hong Kong. In this paper, we employ the Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation to find the risk neutral density instead of the underlying options prices. It is a significant improvement of the risk appetite measurement approach in application.3.1 Previous studies\n4 Empirical studies: 4.1 Data description\n5. Conclusions: Risk appetite indicator can serve as a compass for the investors' preference to risk and the level of which they would like to take. It can catch the market sentiment as to whether the prospect of investors is optimistic or pessimistic. A low index value indicates a strong appetite for risk and vice versa. When the market crashes, the risk appetite would show a dip and fluctuate much more sharply than before.This paper focuses on the risk appetite in the Hong Kong real estate market and property security market with a new methodology in measuring risk appetite. Such methodology could also be applied to other countries or markets in absence of options information. This model proves to be sensible in empirical studies of CCL and HSPI with the case of Hong Kong. Risk appetite for CCL index had markedly declined after September, 2008, which coincides with the US Sub-prime Mortgage Crisis. On the contrary, the risk preference in the property security market was not affected as much. Although the property security index price dropped sharply after May 2008, the HSPI stabilized towards the end of 2008. This phenomenon can be reasonably explained that the type of investor is \"risk-loving\" in property security market while the type of investor is \"risk neutral\" in the real estate market in terms of the risk appetite movement. It has also been proved by the correlations analysis between these two markets and their risk appetite indicators.This research study is meaningful but it does have its limitations. First, the investor's risk appetite is measured indirectly in terms of price of risk. Secondly, we only focus on two different property markets in a solely region, whether the contagion phenomenon exit in different countries should be addressed in the further research. Nevertheless, this study is first of its kind to the best of our knowledge. It develops a new method to quantify the risk appetite in property markets without the information of options transactions. Indeed, our model is not only a good alternative to the one proposed by Gai and Vause (2006) and Yu and Tam (2007), but is also proved to be a reasonable methodology for risk analysis for the property market, and could be further applied to more widely transaction markets.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the risk appetite in Hong Kong real estate and property security markets in the recent episode of global financial crisis.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An advanced methodology developed from the previous risk appetite measurement and Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulation is used. Traditional research on risk appetite had never been applied to the real estate market before because no options underlying properties exist. However, this paper makes a contribution that in the absence of options, risk appetite indicators are derived for the real estate and property security markets.\nFindings: - The empirical results show that the risk appetite for the real estate market started to fall markedly in the third quarter of 2008, matching the very period of the Sub-prime Mortgage Crisis in the USA. By contrast, those for the property security index were stabilizing in that period. This implies that investors' risk attitude to the real estate market differs from that to the property security market. Furthermore, the correlations between the index prices and the corresponding risk appetite in each market suggest that investors are \"risk neutral\" in the real estate market, while they are \"risk lovers\" in the property security market.\nOriginality/value: - This paper, to the authors' best knowledge, is the first study to explore the risk appetite indicator in the real estate market, which could enable us to shed new light on the market price movement from the perspective of investors' market sentiment.\n",
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"Women doing their own thing": media representations of female entrepreneurship
|
[
"Women",
"Entrepreneurialism",
"Gender",
"Entrepreneurship",
"Media representations",
"Women\n\t\t\t\t\t'\n\t\t\t\ts magazines",
"Women\n\t\t\t\t\t'\n\t\t\t\ts work"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This paper discusses the impact-gendered media representations of entrepreneurs may have on the reality of female entrepreneurship which remains characterised by underrepresentation and inequality. Women-owned businesses account for just 17 per cent of UK businesses and are typically concentrated in crowded and low value services sectors, operating on a part-time basis and located within the home (Marlow and McAdam, 2013; Marlow, 2002; Cliff, 1998). This reality of female entrepreneurship is intricately linked to media representations of women entrepreneurs. Media representations shape what people believe women business owners typically do and how they experience it in two important ways. First, they influence whether women perceive entrepreneurship as desirable and attainable and if so, what type of entrepreneurship they pursue. The impact of media representations on entrepreneurial aspirations is so convincingly evidenced (e.g. Levie, 2010; Radu and Redien-Collot, 2008; Hindle and Klyver, 2007) that UK governments looking to increase female business ownership have identified the use of female role models, such as Martha Lane Fox, as a key policy mechanism (Women's Enterprise Task Force, 2009; Small Business Service, 2003). Second, perceptions of women entrepreneurs determine how those who may influence the success of women business owners - financiers, clients, suppliers, business collaborators - interact with them (Carter et al., 2007). Media representations of female entrepreneurs thus not only mirror existing gender inequalities in entrepreneurial activity, but also provide the interpretive framework for reproducing these gender inequalities. To understand and address both the underrepresentation and the distinctive experiences of women entrepreneurs it is, therefore, important to relate media representations of women entrepreneurs to the reality of female entrepreneurship.\n2. Empirical and conceptual background: Media representations of entrepreneurs have a powerful influence on entrepreneurial aspirations (e.g. Levie, 2010; Radu and Redien-Collot, 2008; Hindle and Klyver, 2007). Recognising this influence, a growing body of literature discusses how media representations of female entrepreneurs \"shape perceptions of society and the business world about the characteristics of a typical female entrepreneur as well as about their business acumen\" (Achtenhagen and Welter, 2007, p. 205; cf. Smith and Anderson, 2007; Bruni et al., 2004a; Langowitz and Morgan, 2003; Pietilainen, 2001). These studies demonstrate that media representations operate on two levels. First, they influence whether women perceive business ownership as a desirable and attainable form of economic activity - and if so, what type of business ownership they aspire to. They thus shape the strength and direction of women's entrepreneurial aspirations (see Radu and Redien-Collot, 2008 for such media influences on entrepreneurial aspirations in general). Second, media representations influence expectations and perceptions of women entrepreneurs held by financiers, clients, suppliers, business partners and other individuals whose actions and decisions directly impact a woman's business success (Bruni et al., 2004a, b). In business media, newspapers and research articles female entrepreneurship tends to be discussed as a deviation from \"normal\", male entrepreneurship (Ahl, 2004, 2007). It is depicted as less purposeful, professional and successful (Achtenhagen and Welter, 2007; Bruni et al., 2004b) and as driven by women's personal concerns - with the latter generally perceived as less valuable to society than business motivations (Bruni et al., 2004a). Such representations make it difficult for women to establish themselves as serious business partners and are thus clearly detrimental to women's pursuit of entrepreneurial achievement.\n3. Data and analysis: Women's magazines are created by their editors, advertisers and features writers and targeted at a particular female demographic. The analysis presented in this paper centres on a UK-based women's monthly magazine, eve. At the time of study, eve was one of the leading women's monthly magazines with an average reader age of 37 and readers' average household income of PS46,237 (\n4. Female entrepreneurs at work in WDTOT: Published in a women's glossy magazine, WDTOT certainly sought to entertain its readers. However, in telling these stories, WDTOT presented a distinct picture of female entrepreneurs at work and one that is presented in a specific way. This section analyses how WDTOT presented entrepreneurship and which particular nature of female entrepreneurship it promoted. As a first orientation, Table II gives an overview of the article titles, the types of businesses featured, the protagonists' former occupation and marital status.\n5. Discussion: Obviously, eve is neither an academic publication nor an outlet for serious investigative journalism, but a lifestyle magazine. That eve presented work as a lifestyle issue is therefore logical rather than surprising. However, and as discussed in Section 2, media representations in features such as eve's WDTOT have the potential to influence women's personal and professional life choices. Given this influence, representations of female entrepreneurship such as WDTOT's are likely to have a problematic impact on the reality of female entrepreneurship.\n6. Conclusion: The empirical aim of this paper was to analyse the representation of female entrepreneurship in a women's magazine, eve, and to critically relate these representations to current evidence on women's entrepreneurial activity and work. Although not included in previous analyses of media representations of entrepreneurship, women's magazines shape women's perceptions of the personal and professional choices available to them and, by presenting certain options as appropriate, desirable and attainable, have the potential to influence women's real-life practices. Media representations in women's magazines thus affect what women understand female entrepreneurship to be and what kind of entrepreneurship they might aspire to. Our analysis showed that eve's WDTOT presented and promoted female entrepreneurship as centred on activities and skills traditionally regarded as female and undertaken in domestic work locations. This image of \"WDTOT\" was presented as liberation from the career rat-race and as leading to a highly desirable, emotionally satisfying work-life style. However, comparisons with women's current experiences in work and entrepreneurship show that if, adopted by readers, such forms of entrepreneurial activity could be expected to entrench and increase existing gender inequalities in entrepreneurship.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the impact gendered media representations of entrepreneurs may have on the reality of female entrepreneurship. It analyses the representation of women entrepreneurs in a women\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper reviews research on media representations of women entrepreneurs, gender inequalities in entrepreneurial activity and work before presenting an in-depth qualitative analysis of a magazine series reporting on female entrepreneurs.\nFindings: The authors' analysis reveals how the woman\nOriginality/value: The paper demonstrates the benefits of understanding entrepreneurial activity as work and includes analytical perspectives from the sociology of work in the analysis of media representations of entrepreneurship.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Descriptive menus and branding in hospital foodservice: a pilot study
|
[
"Hospitals",
"Food service",
"Consumer behaviour",
"Procurement"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Food consumption and production has recently been marked by a renaissance in consumer preference for quality, regionally dominated local ingredients and a greater appreciation of the provenance of menu constituents. Consumers are increasingly anxious to know where products have come from and how they are produced, satisfying the current \"nostalgia\" climate, which reminds of a time when \"real\", \"healthy\", \"authentic\", \"traceable\" and \"wholesome\" were associated with food (Dimara and Skuras, 2005). This is nowhere more evident than in hospital, where the meal often has a poor image and even before entering the establishment, patients generally anticipate poor quality and low acceptance. The phrase \"institutional stereotyping\" has been used to describe this phenomenon (Cardello et al., 1996). Patients feel that they have minimal control and information when eating catered provision; moreover the default assumption is that it is not of the highest quality (Hedges, 2003). Notwithstanding, it has been suggested that by the use of menu descriptors, the perception of a food's desirability can be enhanced (Shoemaker et al., 2005). While \"fresh\" is the most desired food attribute and features heavily on new marketing claims, there is a diverse list of descriptors that are equally attractive to consumers, such as local, artisan, house-made, seasonal, natural and organic, all designed to indicate enhanced food characteristics (Sloan, 2007). Labelling can be a powerful quality signal. Consumer judgments may be manipulated by the terminology used and if the association is favourable, the resulting \"halo effect\" will influence both pre and post consumption evaluation and possibly that of the foodservice operation as well (Wansink et al., 2001). However, caution needs to be exercised with this strategy, as using an unmerited descriptive label or \"weasel words\" could be counter-productive and leave the consumer with a negative attitude.Branding\nMethods: Data were collected from a National Health Service (NHS) hospital, which is an 842 acute bed site, serving approximately 800 meals at each main mealtime. A four-week cycle of lunch and dinner menus is used and the food budget is PS2.20 per patient per day (as of September 2007) for food and beverage costs. A typical breakfast consists of fruit juice, a selection of cereal, bread, spread and a choice of fresh fruit or yoghurt. At lunchtime and suppertime the patient has the choice of a starter (soup or juice), a hot or cold main course, two choices of vegetables and a choice of a hot or cold dessert. Aside from a branded cereal at breakfast time, the menus contain no branding and demonstrate minimal ingredient description. An example can be found in Figure 1.A case study approach was taken to enable issues to be fully explored; in essence to take a \"focused slice\" of the whole field. The research was conducted in both medical and surgical wards, using a representative sample of gender and age range (n=42). These wards were identified with the help of medical staff as the most suitable, in that these patients were more likely to have the same length of stay, their medical condition would not interfere with food consumption, and they were all capable of independent judgement and highly critical, as evidenced by past surveys conducted by the foodservice manager. Situational effects on consumer behaviour are well documented, mood, social and physical surroundings all impact on decision making (Solomon et al., 1999), but as far as practicable the sample group were considered homogenous.Questionnaire distribution and collection\nResults: The gender and age ranges of patients participating in this study are given in Table I, where it can be seen that the age profile was skewed towards the older age-ranges, reflecting the nature of medical and surgical wards.There were no significant differences (p>0.05) demonstrated between responses of either age group or gender or where people shopped, demonstrating a homogenous hospital population. Table II identifies issues ranked in importance mapped against gender.Respondents strongly agreed that hospitals provide a healthy meal and certainly wanted to know (72 per cent) the provenance of ingredients used. There was a mixed response to wanting to know more about the dishes on the menu, with 40 per cent of respondents either unsure or disagreeing. Menu description was welcomed, although with a caveat that it should accurately reflect the dish presented:Description on the menu does not fit reality (Patient).I don't understand what a B.L.T. sandwich is or macedione of vegetables (Patient).There was firm agreement (93 per cent) regarding the importance of ingredients and that patients prefer foods (93 per cent) that they are familiar with; however, only 40 per cent were interested in branded food being used, and 81 per cent disagreed that branded foods are of a higher quality or are professionally produced (57 per cent). The general consensus was that an unfamiliar dish would not be selected just on branding alone. Certainly, these hospital patients were not in favour of increasing branded products on the menu and in importance, branding languished towards the ranking bottom, which belied some of the qualitative comments:I would love a cup of Nescafe and Heinz tomato soup (Patient).When considering the theoretical menu in part 2, the most popular starter (62 per cent) and main course (45 per cent) were the descriptive choices, while the normal hospital menu chocolate pudding was the most popular (43 per cent) dessert. Few respondents (28 per cent) selected the branded alternatives, although these were more popular than the normal menu for both starter and main course.Results gained through qualitative patient interviews indicate that branded foods feature regularly in the respondents' lives and that the majority of them are regular users of branded food products, using them on a daily or weekly basis. However, it was pointed out by participants that retail shopping is slightly different to \"eating out\". The foodservice staff also recognised that some patients came to hospital expecting a \"hotel like service\", and \"hotel like foods\":... the patients want a restaurant service from non-restaurant funding (Facilities Manager).Notwithstanding, the catering manager felt that using branded foods was quite a good idea:... patients would feel safe and secure, know what they were getting - rather like a comfort blanket, hopefully this would improve satisfaction (Catering Manager).He also intimated that a small proportion of ingredients used were branded, such as Uncle Ben's, Kellogg's, Birds Eye and Lea & Perrin's; however, this information was not evident from the patient menu. The positioning is not deliberate but an interesting point was raised in relation to quality with some branded foods negatively viewed in the aftermath of the recall of products containing Sudan 1 dye, such as Branston Pickle; this has reflected badly on the perception of branded products. He continued to say that healthcare catering services are now being encouraged to develop sustainable food procurement policies which include sourcing fruit and vegetables locally and using organic or \"fairly traded\" goods. Therefore the purchase of branded ingredients is not a consideration or priority within the new NHS purchasing regime.From the results it is clear that attitudes towards branded foods are mixed. However, menu description is met with patient enthusiasm, except for chocolate, as identified by the popular choice of the theoretical menu.\nDiscussion and implications: Consumers scan menus looking for benefits that will satisfy at any given time or with any given ingredient. Therefore not all types of descriptors will be appropriate for all foods. Geographical labels that can claim to reproduce flavours associated with a region can be successful (Wansink et al., 2001) and in the new market of concern for the environment, origin could also be important. Within the restaurant market menu description, such as \"served with vegetables\", is no longer sufficient unless pre-fixed with \"seasonal\"; greater emphasis is being given to transparency of information (Mintel, 2007).Shoppers are divided over the importance of local sourcing, but concern is mainly found amongst the over 65 years age group (Food Standards Agency, 2007a). This was reflected in the hospital sample, where \"locally caught fish pie\" proved popular. Commercial menus are becoming more descriptive (most notably those which include source maps or provenance description) (Mintel, 2007). Rhetoric such as this conveys a sense of passion for food over direct profits as well as adding a point of differentiation and implying a premium standard to the ingredients.Procurement within institutional settings has received attention due to guidelines from the EU where organic food purchase has been promoted specifically in public bodies (EU Commission, 2004). Objectives within the UK have been set for hospital sustainable food procurement, within which increasing the provision of organic meals and snacks together with opening up opportunities for local providers to compete for business have been identified (NHS Estates, 2008). Certainly, judging from this research, patients could be persuaded to select dishes that included local ingredients, whatever that definition might be.Affective labels can also be used; alluding to emotions can trigger happy memories. However, \"legendary chocolate sponge' in this instance did not appear to tempt. Sensory description can be applied to encourage the visualisation of food quality; an attribute that patients feel is important (Hartwell et al., 2007b) which was demonstrated by the use of the adjective \"hearty\". Alternatively, branding can create a distinct identity for a product and gives the consumer a perceived set of comfort signals based on previous experience, advertising or information. Product quality can be augmented in such a way that the buyer or user perceives relevant, unique and sustainable added value that matches their needs most closely (De Chernatony and McDonald, 2003). The common attributes that are linked with branded food are quality, freshness, taste and value. Brand involvement is a psychological response reflecting a feeling of emotional proximity and commitment, a \"felt\" relationship with the brand is identified as it ties in with the values which are important to the consumer (Franzen, 1999). Successful brands engage customers at a deeper level, touching a universal emotion (Kotler et al., 2005). Branding can also make communication more efficient and feasible (Aaker, 2004). Consumers have an attachment to certain brands due to the equity that the brand purveys. A brand that encompasses a high quality product supported by positively perceived attributes enforces recognition. Consumers can relate and become accustomed to the organisations product, values and overall brand identity. This identity is the key to a powerful branded product. Thus branding provides the consumer with a quality guarantee, a guarantee developed by the consumer from past experience and exposure that they themselves impose on the product. Even so, it appears that, if there is a choice, other factors amongst this sample group, such as perceived ingredient provenance takes precedence over branding. This somewhat negative attitude towards branded foods is also reflected in the UK Quarterly Public Tracker of Consumer Attitudes survey 2007 (Food Standards Agency, 2007b).Hoffman (1997) has a more simplistic view of brands and consumer brand loyalty, arguing that consumers do not like to take risks and that familiar brands represent a relatively risk-free transaction; even so, this could also be said of traditional dish description. The meal experience as described in Hartwell et al. (2007b) has emotional benefits but needs to acquire some reference to aid structure and sense in a confusing flow of unfamiliar sensations, thoughts and emotion. This meaning will partly be derived from the patient's culturally formed expectations and help to find reference points in the alien rules and rituals of hospital culture. Although simplified, this illustrates a patient's main driver when ordering food from the hospital menu. Providing patients with the choice of familiar foods that they enjoy in their home environment is selection risk free and could help counterbalance their own negative stereotypical views of institutional food. Logically, therefore, this could include branded products.The potential impact of the proposed work could be significant with regard to hospital foodservice strategy, particularly as greater emphasis has been given to the role of food in clinical outcomes. Any initiative such as improved dish description or use of familiar branded products that alleviates patient concern and concurrently leads to greater acceptance must be one that is regarded with favour. In addition, sometimes branded products can be subsidised, and therefore of financial benefit. More research will need to be conducted on the type of branded products that would be acceptable to patients.\nConclusion: Food and nutritional care in hospitals has been the focus of recent debate. Meals are often the highlight of a patient's day, and yet malnutrition in hospitalised patients and its consequential economic costs are significant problems in many developed nations. In the UK, more recently, action has been taken to address these issues, focusing on clinical practice, the intrinsic qualities of the food served and delivery systems. A full review of the literature on menu description has been undertaken and no research to date has been conducted to identify patient perception of menu rhetoric design and the potential effect on food preference. This research will bring new information about the benefits of dish descriptive style and hints towards a procurement policy for enhancing patient satisfaction. The potential value of this research, therefore, to inform hospital foodservice practice and strategy is identifiable.Limitations\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to evaluate consumer's perceptions towards descriptive menus and branding in hospital foodservice. This research is unique in its focus; earlier work has tended to concentrate on palatability and the variety of the menu rather than on dish description.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data were collected by means of a questionnaire in both medical and surgical wards (n=42). In addition, qualitative comments were sought from patients and foodservice management to enhance and add weight to results and conclusions drawn.\nFindings: - Menu description was welcomed with patients preferring familiar foods. The general consensus was that an unfamiliar dish would not be selected on brand name alone.\nPractical implications: - The potential impact of the proposed work could be significant with regard to hospital foodservice strategy particularly as greater emphasis has been given to the role of food in clinical outcomes. Any initiative such as improved dish description or use of familiar branded products that alleviates patient concern and concurrently leads to greater acceptance and consumption must be one that is regarded with favour.\nOriginality/value: - A full review of the literature on menu description has been undertaken and no research to date has been conducted to identify patient's perceptions of menu rhetoric design and the effect on food acceptance. This research will bring new information based on empirical evidence about the benefits of dish descriptive style and hints towards a procurement policy for enhancing patient satisfaction. The potential value of this research, therefore, to inform hospital foodservice practice and strategy is identifiable.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
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